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Story · Ajahn Brahm

From prison to 'Reservoir Dogs'

As told by Ajahn Brahm in What to do when everything falls apart | by Ajahn Brahm | 18-05-2012

2 min read

Content note: unverified details (recalled from an article)

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

about this young kid, six years of age is when he ran away from home in Los Angeles I think he had one of these very abusive families, beating him, not really looking after him. So he left home and lived on the streets from the age of about six years of age. It's incredibly he survived but you know the only way to get by was petty crime and you get sort of arrested every now and again and from petty crime to bigger crime he became a career criminal and what changed his life. He’s in his late 40s or 50s was when he was shortly to be released from another spell in jail. He had a case officer who was trying to find him a job. How can he get a job? You know, once you've been in prison most of your life, who would employ you but she was very resourceful, she found just the right job with his life experience qualifications cos she knew a friend of a friend who was making a movie about gangsters and they wanted someone who really knew how true criminals spoke and acted. He was about to be released so she got him a job as a consultant in this gangster movie that he was highly qualified for that. But once the director saw him, he was so authentic, he gave him a part in the movie and he became one of the stars. The movie was called Reservoir Dogs it was a breakthrough movie of Quentin Tarantino. And this guy, he wrote this article, he was only six months out of jail he made this movie and he was sitting in a mansion in Malibu somewhere with more money he had ever had in his whole life. Because this movie was a success and he married that case officer he couldn't believe just how life changes so quickly, six months ago he's in prison with no money and prospects now he had more money than he could deal with and he was free and married and happy.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 28:27 (to 30:54)

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

At six he fled an abusive home; decades later, six months out of prison, he was acting in a hit film and married to his case officer. Not every life turns that dramatically, and the details are recalled from an article. But when you're deep in a hard time, remember that it passes, and life can turn on a dime.

In brief (our summary)

A boy who fled an abusive Los Angeles home at six becomes a career criminal. Near release in his late 40s or 50s, his case officer gets him a job advising on a gangster film; the director casts him, the film is Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs', and six months out of jail he is rich, free and married to that case officer.

Teaching point

Life turns on a dime in directions you never expect — “this too will pass.”

When this story may help

  • prison or criminal record
  • hopeless situation
  • starting over
  • unemployment

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in What to do when everything falls apart | by Ajahn Brahm | 18-05-2012 · 2012-05-21 · ▶ watch from 28:27 to 30:54 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

3 other tellings of this story

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

  • The emperor's ring: “This too will pass”

    In brief: A young emperor feasts in good times and sulks in bad, so neither works; his ministers give him a ring engraved “this too will pass.”…

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    it's a powerful story, about an emperor, a young man who took over the kingdom when he wasn't really mature enough to know how to lead. And so whenever things were going well in his kingdom he'd always have celebrations and parties. And because he was spending too much resources and too much time celebrating, and not actually doing the running of the kingdom, the good times never lasted all that long. And when the terrible times, the bad times, bad economy, unrest, social disorder, whenever there was trouble in his kingdom he'd get so upset and depressed he'd stay in his room and sulk and cry, which meant he wasn't working during the difficult times. And the ministers they realised that their leader, their king, their emperor, wasn't really working properly, and that's the reason why there were too many bad times and not enough prosperous times. You can't just tell these people what to do. Even these ministers in the Howard Government, they can't tell John Howard what to do. They've got to be sneaky, they've got to be wise, and so what these ministers did, instead of telling their emperor what to do, they just went to a goldsmith, asked for him to make a ring, the only difference between that ring and ordinary rings was what was engraved on the outside, which was the words "this too will pass". And they gave that ring with the engraved words "this too will pass" to the emperor, told him to wear it on all occasions, that's all, and the emperor did. Whenever there were bad times he would look upon the ring, "this too will pass", he knew by nature he didn't have to force those negative emotions and those bad times out of his kingdom, he knew they would pass naturally. And because he knew the bad times would pass, it gave him what's called hope, and when there's hope we can work, where it's hopeless we think the grief is going to last forever, the broken heart was always going to be there, you'll never find another partner ever in life. Or you'll never find that money again on the stock market, or whatever it is your chance to win the cup is gone forever. When you think it's forever that just makes life hopeless and you don't work. You don't make kamma anymore. But when actually you have hope, there's always something you can do. It gives you that motivation to work even in difficult times of your life. And actually the reason I'm saying this was because the photograph someone sent me was actually from the graduation ceremony of Virginia Tech university, recently, and I think you all know what happened at Virginia Tech in April, I was in London at that time. I think it was 39 young men and women were shot down by that murderer? You know, while they were on campus. And at the graduation ceremony one of the graduates, you know the funny hats they wear, they're called mortarboards, with the flat top, on the top of his mortarboard he'd actually painted the words "this too will pass", in memoriam of the pain that had happened in that university in the biggest serial killer murder in United States history. That's why he said "I don't know whether this guy's read your book or what", by he's obviously got the message. And it is a powerful message because it gives you hope, it allows you to let these things pass away. So "this too will pass". The other part of that story, which is very valuable to consider, is that that emperor wore that ring not just in difficult times but also in the happy times as well. Because it's in the prosperous, happy, good times that we should always remember, "this too will pass". Because he knew that the happy prosperous times were also fragile, he had a few celebrations but not many, because he knew he had to work hard to make sure those prosperous happy good times lasted as long as they possibly can. And they did. He became a very successful and well-loved emperor because the bad times were very short and the happy long times were longer than anybody could ever remember.

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  • The ICU patient everyone had given up on

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm is called to chant for a woman in ICU at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital with severe flu — septic, bloated, the nurses giving…

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    there was this one lady I went to see once at the ICU at Charlie gardeners she was in the ICU she moon I was one of these cases with a flu and no really really bad cases septic all over bloated no honor lasts and a few breaths can you please come in and do some science that isn't charging for this lady and couple weeks ago she looked toward intents and purposes a goner you know the nurses said no I'm not much chance for this lady but you know a bit of chanting a bit of presence of a good mug a bit of spiritual uplift you know would give her a good death couple weeks later got a phone call from her husband can you come round to the house and she was perfectly well total recovery

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  • The noisy breather on the Sydney retreat

    In brief: On a nine-day retreat in Sydney one man breathes so loudly that a meditator complains. Ajahn Brahm explains he has a terminal tumour…

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    At meditation retreats I always remember this one man when I was teaching a Meditation Retreat in Sydney many years ago and a 9-day retreat. You know that people are supposed to be quiet when they are meditating but this man (Ajahn breathing noisily) He was breathing so heavily through every meditation sitting so much so that someone came up to me to complain Can you please tell this person to keep quiet. I am trying to meditate. He had a tumor in his nasal passages blocking both nostrils. It was terminal; the doctor had given up surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy So the doctors have abandoned him and he came to the meditation retreat as a last resort So when I told all the meditators that, they felt very embarrassed and guilty that they were complaining about somebody who got only few weeks to live. He told me that; on the last day of the retreat (Ajahn making the sound) breathing loudly again but not thinking being silent; he had a 'pop' He said he could breath again. That's what he said 'a pop' as his nasal passage cleared but only for about 5 or 10 minutes then it closed again. That was an amazing thing which happened I thought that meditation was working but he left it a bit too late. I never thought he would survive. Few years later teaching meditation in Sydney, this guy came up to me 'do you remember me?' I said 'of course I don't remember, who are you? ' As a monk I am honest He was that man. He cared with his meditation and his nose had cleared and now he was going around teaching people how to be peaceful, how to be silent. because his cancer had got into regression even though he should have been dead years ago.

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  • Who learned the most after Cyclone Nargis

    In brief: Groups in Singapore took privileged, highly educated teenagers to southern Myanmar to help villages destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. The…

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    They took a whole bunch of kids, elite, I think you probably call elite, rich parents, very comfortable, highly educated uh to it was I think southern Myanmar after the the Naris um cyclone destroyed so many villages in southern Myanmar. And because I go to Singapore, I've got some groups over there. Some of the kids were telling me that they learned more in those two or three weeks than in their whole school life. Being able just to be with children who they couldn't really understand their language and the Singaporean English or Chinese which they were talking totally incomprehensible but they could still bond. They could feel one another. and connect with one another and work together and have something which who benefited the most from that interaction. Was it the kids who had no place to go to school, no place to go to sleep, their houses destroyed, infrastructure disappeared by cyclone Naris? Was Naris, wasn't it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. by that devastation. Who learned the most? It was the kids from Singapore. They learned so much about the big world and how they could help.

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