Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Holy water by the bucket — then she sold it

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Ghosts | Ajahn Brahm | 10 March 2023

1 min read

Content note: named private people

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

some years ago, there was a Thai lady who married to a Chinese man. Many of you may remember her. Her name, I don't mind saying this, Poonsup Wong. Her husband was called George. And Poonsup, she was a Thai lady, but always she was always very sick. So much so that, you know, once she asked me, "Can you make me some holy water?" You know, this nam mon which, you know, sometimes you sprinkle people with. I said, "Yeah, sure." She said, "No, not a little bit. Can you make me by the bucket?" You know, like 11-liter buckets, plastic buckets. So, once a week, I'd make her a whole bucket of holy water, cuz I thought she was very sick. I'm a very kind monk. [laughter] So, that's what you want, that's what I'll give you. And that for weeks she was having this holy water by the bucket load. And then I found out what she was up to. Cuz I got a telephone call at Bodhinyana Monastery from a Chinese gentleman. He said, "I want to purchase some of your holy water." I said, "We don't purchase it. We give it away for free. This is like monks. We're not business people." He said, "No, no, no. You sell it." I don't. "It's very good." I said, "I don't sell it." And then uh something started to click in my mind. "What are you talking about?" He said, "I get mine from Mrs. Poonsup Wong. I want to cut out the middle white man or middle woman and get it direct from source, cheap." And I found out what she was up to. The bucket of holy water, 11 liters, she was taking it home and just dividing it up and then just it selling it a odd. She had a nice little order there. So as soon as I told her that was the end of that game.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 7:55 (to 10:06)

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

A sickly supporter asked Ajahn Brahm for eleven litres of holy water every week, until a stranger rang to buy it cheap, direct from the source. She'd been reselling it. He ended the arrangement, and laughs about it still. Generosity is lovely, but it needn't be naive. You can be kind and still notice.

In brief (our summary)

Thai member Poonsup Wong, always sick, asks Ajahn Brahm for holy water by the 11-litre bucket each week. A Chinese man later rings wanting to buy it 'direct from source, cheap' — she has been dividing the free water and selling it. He stops the arrangement.

Teaching point

Told as warm-up mischief before the will-and-ghost story of the same couple.

When this story may help

  • being taken advantage of
  • monastery administration

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Ghosts | Ajahn Brahm | 10 March 2023 · 2023-03-10 · ▶ watch from 7:55 to 10:06 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'middle white man' as spoken; 'nam mon' holy water.

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

  • Thai lady grabbed the tea towel

    In brief: After lunch at Bodhinyana Brahm goes into the kitchen to help wipe dishes; a Thai lady gives him a terrible look — 'Ajahn Brahm, you're…

    Read full story

    I went in there to pick up a a tea towel to help wipe the dishes. You know what happened? [laughter] [snorts] This Thai lady gave me this terrible look. "But Ajahn Brahm, you're not supposed to be in here." And grabbed the tea towel, pulled it [laughter] out from my grasp

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The mosquitoes were my teachers

    In brief: As a young monk in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm could not include mosquitoes in his loving-kindness chant; when he finally let one bite him out…

    Read full story

    Being in Northeast Thailand, we'd always call the mosquitoes "Ajahn mosquito"... [laughter] ...because I learned so much from those damn mosquitoes. [laughs] That's what I thought at the time, those mosquitoes. Because even when we just do loving kindness. For those of you who are Buddhists, you know that we spread love and kindness to all people, all beings, all genders, no matter what you are or who you are. May all beings be happy and well. However, as a young man being a monk in Thailand, I just could not do that. It's impossible. I did the best I can. I used to chant, "May all beings be happy and well, except mosquitoes." [laughter] Ajahn: "May all beings be free from suffering, but not those mosquitoes. They don't deserve, what they've done to me." [laughs] I'm sure that if ever you spread loving kindness, you've also got exceptions. [laughs] But it didn't work well when I had exceptions, so I learned how to learn from those mosquitoes to be kind to them. Sometimes, I was so kind to those mosquitoes I let them bite me. They would land on my hand. I said, "Come on, mosquito, you can bite me. The door of my heart is open to you. It's only a little bit of blood. I know that you need this to have your dinner. And I like my dinner as well, especially as a monk. I know this is your dinner, so have something to eat. Do you know what those mosquitoes did? Sometimes difficult people and difficult beings are like this. They take advantage of you. They put their nose into the skin, and it's irritating. So you just endure that. It's only a few seconds. But these mosquitoes, that was just an exploratory drill. They took their nose out, walked a few steps, and tried somewhere else. [laughter] Ajahn: They were fussy. You have three or four bites just from one mosquito! They were taking advantage of my kindness. [chuckles] That's just the nature of mosquitoes. It doesn't matter. I have plenty of blood, and I learned a lot from that.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • Cough once, get eight bottles of medicine

    In brief: Once in Australia Ajahn Brahm coughs at the start of a talk. By the end there are eight or nine bottles in front of him — Ayurvedic,…

    Read full story

    this happened once when I was in Australia I coughed in public the beginning of a talk by the end of the talk there was about eight or nine bottles of medicine in front of me and people said you must take this this is Ayurvedic it's very good this is homeopathic it's much better this is horrible you have to take this I took this this is no usual medicine you've got to take that had so many medicines and now being compassionate and watching people to you know to make merit I said yeah I'll take that I'll take that so I had to take every of those bottles of medicine and that really made me sick

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The politician who talked the walk

    In brief: On a free afternoon in Singapore, Ajahn Brahm takes his followers to a charity walk raising funds for a fellow monk's indebted Buddhist…

    Read full story

    that reminded me that i was in singapore many years ago and i did have a free afternoon i can't actually remember what they're like but had a free afternoon and i did hear that one of you know the fellow monks he was the the head of the buddhist library in singapore and they were in a lot of debt because they wanted to get a good center but you know it's very expensive and they were having to pay off that so i heard they were having a charity walk in the afternoon so all the people who were following me over in singapore i said if you feel this afternoon let's go and help somebody else let's do some some nice kindness and raise some funds for one of my mates so we all went over there and of course the head mark over there was very very surprised and very happy that i turned up and that's because i was well known over there i was also asked to give a little speech but before i gave the speech it was a politician gave a speech first they invited a politician to also to speak at this event and he said you know best of luck i really support this it's a good temple and all the best and then i asked him when i gave my talk i said are you actually going on the walk he said no no it's too important i just i'm just giving the speech i'm going to another event and so i told him he said you're one of the politicians who talks the walk but you don't walk your talk and he took it well

    Open story page·Watch this telling

All stories·Find a story for your situation