After she died, George missed her

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• The worm in the pile of dung

  In brief: A good monk reborn in heaven searches every realm for his misbehaving friend and finds him reborn as a worm in dung; he offers to take him…

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  Once there were two monks, two Buddhist monks. And I say this because I'm a monk myself, not all monks behave well. There are many scallywag monks. Unfortunately, those are the ones people like to read about in the newspapers. The good monks very rarely get in the newspapers. It's not newsworthy to say "Ajahn Brahm meditated for the last three months." But if Ajahn Brahm did something stupid like went to the casino or whatever, then of course -- or got drunk because somebody gave us a cake steeped in alcohol -- then you might sort of put it in the newspaper. But... one of the monks, of these two monks misbehaved. The other one was a good monk. So when they died one of the monks got reborn in a beautiful heaven realm, while the other naughty monk got reborn as a worm in a pile of shit. And as monks, we have a lot of friendship and community and fellowship. Like even here we try and look after each other. And so after a few, who knows, days up in heaven this ex-monk who was born as a heavenly being started to think "Where is my friend? My old mate? I haven't seen him for a couple of days." So when you get reborn in a heaven realm, according to Buddhism, you have all these powers and so he used some of his powers to search his heaven realm for his friend. He couldn't find him anywhere there. So he went up a couple levels of heaven trying to find him there. He wasn't there either. Lower heavenly realms, couldn't find him there. He said, ah -- according to Buddhism the rebirth as a human being is one of the best rebirths because it's not too much happiness, not too much suffering, a great place to become enlightened -- he said "Ah, my friend, he's been reborn as a human being again. I bet that's what's happened, why I can't find him in heaven." So he searched around the human realm. No trace there either. "My goodness," he thought, "he didn't do some really bad karma and got reborn as a dog or a cat...?" So he looked in the realm of the dogs and the cats. I know some people here think being reborn as a dog is a wonderful rebirth because you don't have to go to work on a Monday morning, but that's not the case. If you think that being reborn as a dog is a good idea, please remember what they do to a dog after one or two weeks when it's born. They take it to the vet and you know what they do to it there. So if you want that... [laughs] Anyway, he couldn't find his friend as a dog or a cat, so he looked at all the other animals. Still couldn't find his friend. He wouldn't give up. He started looking in the lower realms of the creepy crawlies, and there, to his shock and surprise, he saw his best friend was born as a worm in a pile of shit. Now, what would you do if that was your friend? You go and help them out. So he went up to that pile of stinky poo and actually called out and said "Hey worm, worm! Do you remember me? We were monks in a past life. We were the best of friends. Now, you've made some bad karma, but don't worry I can get you out of this. Come with me up to heaven." And the worm in the pile of dung said "First of all I'd like to ask some questions. Number one, is there any shit up in heaven? Of course there's no shit in heaven! It's pure and fragrant and lovely stuff there. He said "If there's no shit I'm not going." "Why not?" He said, "Well look, it's fragrant. It smells so beautiful. It's so warm and cozy inside and it's also my food." Imagine -- there's lots of sort of Asian people here -- imagine you got reborn sort of in a big pile of noodles. [laughter] Or if there's any westerners here like reborn in a big hamburger so you can eat it all your day. I don't know what else you like. But he said "No I'm not going to go." Because this was his home, this was his food, this is where he belonged; he liked it. And so that heavenly being tried to pull the worm out. And remember worms which live in piles of dung are smeared with slimy shit and so it's very hard to take them out, especially when they don't want to go. So the worm would wriggle and writhe, and every time this heavenly being took it out a little bit, it would escape and go right in the middle of the dung again. Now this heavenly being, imagine like you were sort-of a high being, you had to put your hand in this most stinky, smelliest stuff. His friendship was so strong he would not give up. Because he thought "If I could just take my friend the worm up to heaven so he could just see for himself, of course he would give up his shit and come up to heavens, it's so much nicer." But of course because the worm never wanted to go, it wriggled and writhed, and escaped every time and eventually the heavenly being had to give up and leave the worm to his pile of shit.

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• Which of the five horses are you?

  In brief: Five horses: the first obeys a word; the second needs only the shadow of the whip; the third a light tap; the fourth one hard whack; the…

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  Once there was five horses and the first horse, a rider would get on its back and just tell it where to go and the horse would comply. The second horse, the rider would have to get out the whip. But there's a shadow fell on the horse and horse. No, I better follow the orders otherwise, you know, I get in trouble. So that's the second horse. He has to only follows orders. is only wise when a shadow of suffering falls on them. The third horse, the owner or the rider has to just tap it slightly, not hurt it, but just tap it, you know, with the whip. And then the horse knows what to do. The fourth horse is so stupid that the owner has to whack it. Ow! But only once. And then the horse realizes a mistake and will never do that again. And the last horse, the fifth horse, whack, whack, whack, whack, ow, ow, ow, ow, and still does the same thing again. So, which horse are you? It's how amazing how many people identify with the fifth horse. Every time you get into trouble, you still don't learn.

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• 'It's nice to cry'

  In brief: A woman who comes to the Buddhist Society told Ajahn Brahm about her mother, who went every week to Chinese tear-jerkers in which boy…

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  There is a lady who comes here, she's not here this evening, thank goodness [audience laughter], but she once told me that her mother would always love going to see these weepy movies, these Chinese movies and she described them to me. Apparently the Chinese movies, there's enough people here from Malaysia, Singapore here, Hong Kong that you know what I'm talking about -- boy meets girl, but boy never gets girl! Either the family or the Imperial Army or some other tragedy gets in the way [audience laughing] and in the end, boy and girl, are killed or separated. And they know that's going to happen! Every movie is the same. It's always a sad ending. So her mother would come back from the weekly trip to the movies, with red eyes, she'd been crying all the way through, all the way home, and she asked, "What the heck you do that for?" "Ah, 'cause it's nice to cry. It's so sad and so enjoyable to feel sad.

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• There are a thousand Ajahn Chahs

  In brief: At Ajahn Chah's funeral the Western monks argued about what he had really taught — pure mind or nothingness. Ajahn Jagaro settled it:…

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  anecdotal and this is praising my predecessor Ajahn Jagaro At Ajahn Chah's funeral service You know they hang out for a couple of days That's a very nice anecdote because as you would expect.. I was with Ajahn Chah for about 8, 9 years And we were all having a discussion what did Ajahn Chah teach Did he teach pure mind or did he teach nothingness What did he teach? And there was a big argument between all the monks What did Ajahn Chah actually teach Then Ajahn Jagaro really wisely he said there are thousand Ajahn Chahs because every disciple remembered something from Ajahn Chah which he thought was important and interesting and other stuff we just didn't even get to our perception So he said there are as many disciples of Ajahn Chah that's how many different teachings there are which is so wise So what did Ajahn Chah say? I got Ajahn Brahm's version of Ajahn Chah and hundreds of other versions of Ajahn Chah of what he said Because we all know what we could understand or what we could see, and that's what we remembered things which were beyond us we just didn't even remember That's why when you quote other people it is great with the Buddha because at least we got it in black and white

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