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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Teach year threes and fours Buddhism

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhist Values | Ajahn Brahm | 08-01-2010

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

year uh three or year fours who came to our they came to our um Temple when it was stood in North per many years ago and the teacher brought these kids to me I got loaded with them can you please teach our kids Buddhism something and of course it's always very difficult you know when you know you learn Buddhism sort of in place like Thailand you know all about for noble truths and dependent origination and all these very complicated subjects but how can you teach year three or year four year old

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 7:07 (to 7:40)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Asked to teach Buddhism to eight-year-olds, Ajahn Brahm dropped the complicated philosophy and asked: what's being bad? The kids answered easily: hurting, lying, stealing, and Daddy getting drunk. Soon they'd worked out the five precepts themselves. Children's fresh minds see clearly. Trust their wisdom and teach simply.

In brief (our summary)

At the old North Perth temple a teacher dumps year-three/four kids on him: please teach Buddhism — Four Noble Truths won't do; he must find kid-level virtue talk.

Teaching point

Dependent origination doesn't land in year four — kindness does.

When this story may help

  • teaching kids
  • public outreach

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhist Values | Ajahn Brahm | 08-01-2010 · 2010-04-08 · ▶ watch from 7:07 to 7:40 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'North per'/'got loaded' = North Perth / landed with.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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