Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The Singapore spirits helped the Ang Mo

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Dreams And Other Things | Ajahn Brahm | 13 Mar 2009

5 min read

Content note: gambling; paranormal claim

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

he was an English man he was in the British army he was just not fighter he was like a dental technician or something so you know pretty sort of easy job but he was posted off to Singapore when the British was still in Singapore and there met this nice girl and married her so he had a Singapore wife and they they moved down to Liv in Perth where they've been living for many years and he told me that once when he was visiting Singapore know with his wife's family and his wife was chatting nagnag nagnag and he got really bored you know talking about all this stuff you know what it's like know meeting you know your other partners uh your partner's family so well they were all sort of U walking and shouting and eating he was getting very bored and his brothers-in-law saw that and said look we're going to the racetrack this afternoon we'd like to come along and he never likes gambling or going to the RAC trck but there was much better than facing his wife's family so he said okay I'll go so they took him to the racetrack but this is Singapore no Chinese no Chinese Buddhists before you go to the RAC track you have to visit the lucky Temple so they went to a lucky Temple you know in the back streets of Singapore somewhere and as soon as I walked in it was a mess you know it was just ash everywhere papers and stuff so and this is an important part of this um process if you're going to be lucky you got to do some good karma first of all please remember that so if ever you go to the racetrack or the casino come to D Loa Center and do some sweeping or some weeding first of all otherwise you got no chance so he he went to the temple and they saw it a mess so they spent about half an hour or an hour cleaning the place up and once they clean the place up then you know know what those we call them jtic Buddhists you know in our tradition getting a few justics and no one actually knows why they do this they just do that cuz their grandmother did it and I don't know what it is it doesn't make any difference how much you shake these things but anyway they did the shake of the joysticks and they put it in the um in the uh the whatever it is the jostick holder and then they went over cuz we don't do this sort of stuff in the forest tradition is very simple and very rational we don't have all this Superstition stuff but nevertheless I know that um you know I don't know why this is where this came from and all these Lottery outlets in Perth you have these big fat Buddhas and you're supposed to rub tummy for luck don't what you do that for and sometimes I'm getting a bit fat now and sometimes people come up and they want to rub my belly no way anyway actually I did open a lot ofy store I'm just really going off the C because sometimes as a monk people friends say you know they're opening up a new business or going into a new house and sometimes it's part of the tradition you know come and invite a monk to actually um to bless a place so some time ago they said my friend that they're opening up a new shop in some shopping center better not tell you which one it is and so said okay yeah they never told me it was a lottery shop and we not supposed to get involved in these sorts of things as much you know we're supposed to tell people not to gamble and it's the Buddha actually said gambling is like um is an addiction it's the wrong thing to do but nevertheless I got caught that way and I was there just I should have asked what shop I was going to uh be blessing when one day people ask me to bless a pub or sometimes even worse if I don't ask but anyway I went into the place it was too late now so I did a bit a blessing but actually they a few weeks later they got a jackpot there so these blessings are really good but anyhow where was I oh was back in this Singapore Singapore so they cleaned up the temple and they did lots of good car and they went to the racetrack it's amazing you know the result they all lost but never this I had a bit of fun but that night that night this English man no a Singapore girl he had a dream and again one of these very clear dreams which you remember and so he woke up and the dream guess what it was he dreamt of a of a horse race you know seeing it his dream and he dreamt the horse which won the name of that horse this is true story he remembered that name when he woke up and just for interest look in the morning paper the straight times in the horse racing it was running that day exactly that name so the first thing he did you know being fair he rang up all his brothers-in-law and said hey that Temple which we blessed or we cleaned up the other day there must be some sort of heavenly being or some Spirit guarding the place cuz they told me the name of the the horse which is going to win today and it's in look this is the name it's in the Strait's times they're racing today let's all go to the race track we get our money back which we lost yesterday and make a bit more sounds reasonable but his brothers-in-law said listen so you're what we call an Ang Mo people are laughing here no that means like red that means like a Westerner like a foreigner in Singapore he said that was a Singapore Temple any Spirit there they would not tell one of you guys certainly not an English guy they would tell us we don't had any dreams so you just you you you're just imagining it they said so because they thought that a Singaporean like a Chinese Spirit would never never tell an English person they never went to the track he went alone and that horse won and he put a lot of money on it cuz he was convinced he Dre it and that horse ran and he made a lot of money what he lost yesterday was insignificant to what he what he won and the worst thing was that when he went home and he told his brothers hey that horse I told you about it won that day made a lot of money oh his brothers-in-law they were ropable they were so upset and angry

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 11:13 (to 17:51)

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

A visiting Englishman helped clean a temple, dreamt of a winning horse, and won big, while his Singaporean in-laws fumed that their spirits had favoured the foreigner. Ajahn Brahm tells it with a grin. A busy mind rarely has room to notice anything new. Give it some space, and it grows more perceptive.

In brief (our summary)

An English ex-army dental technician with a Singaporean wife visits the in-laws, gets bored, and is taken to the races. They clean a messy temple for luck first; that night he dreams the winning horse. The brothers-in-law refuse to believe a Chinese temple spirit would tell an Ang Mo, so he goes alone, wins big, and they rage at their own spirits for favouring the visitor. Nested digression: blessing a lottery shop that later hits a jackpot; fat-Buddha belly-rubbing.

Teaching point

Told as a 'true' dream story — and a joke about whose spirits look after whom.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Dreams And Other Things | Ajahn Brahm | 13 Mar 2009 · 2009-03-22 · ▶ watch from 11:13 to 17:51 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Liv in Perth' = live in Perth; 'jtic'/'joysticks' = joss sticks; 'Ang Mo' kept as spoken.

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

  • Five Angels in the fifth race

    In brief: A Perth man dreams that five angels each give him five pots of gold. At breakfast his wife has made five pieces of toast and five boiled…

    Read full story

    the fifth of May reminded me of one of those amazing stories about this gentleman here in Perth quite many years ago now. And this is the last question here. So I don't mind just going off with a Oh no, there's another one afterwards. Anyway, I've already started the story. that he had a dream in the middle of the night. Actually, not the middle of the night, it was early in the morning here in Perth. And his dream is he dreamt of these five angels, these five like davas angels. And they each had five big pots of gold. And they queued up and they gave him 25 pots of gold. That was his dream. And then as soon as he received his last pot of gold, he woke up. He looked around the bedroom. It was morning time. He couldn't see any angels in his bedroom. But worse, he didn't mind not seeing angels, but he really missed the pots of gold. And so, just a dream. When he went down to breakfast, he found that morning his wife had made him five pieces of toast and five boiled eggs, which was weird. What's with the number five? He looked at the newspaper. 5th of May and just you know wondering what was going on he decided to look at the horse racing pages here in Perth there is a horse racing course it's named after a big one in in England called Ascot A S C O T five letters. So he looked at the fifth race that afternoon and he looked down the fifth horse in the fifth race. He just couldn't believe his his eyes. The horse was called Five Angels. The horse five angels was running on the 5th of May in Ascot and he just dreamt of five angels giving him this huge fortune in gold. If you do have these experiences, you only have them once in your life. So he decided to to take the afternoon off work. He went to the bank to keep the lucky number five. $5,000 out of the bank. A lot of money. $5,000. He went to the racetrack. He chose the fifth book maker in line. He said $5,000 to win horse number five. Race number five, five angels. He knew the lucky number five couldn't go wrong. And the lucky number five didn't go wrong. His horse came in fifth.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The nun who hit the jackpot

    In brief: Driving a famous Buddhist nun to Heathrow after a retreat, her driver puts spare coins in a pub fruit machine and, saying the nun has…

    Read full story

    there was a famous Buddhist nun uh who uh was teaching a Meditation Retreat in England and after she finished teaching the retreat she went down to um to hro airport and on the way they stopped for something to eat it was was a lunchtime so they stopped in one of these restaurants which was next to a pub if ever you been to London or not to London sorry to England a lot of the places where you can get something to eat on a journey they got a pub next door so you have to go in the front of the pub to get into the restaurant so they they went through the front of the pub to get into the restaurant and had their meal I know the person who told me this story because she's from Sydney and she validated this was a real story it happened when they the driver came out of the pub she had a few English coins spare so she decided to put them in one of these slot machines the Poke machines just to get rid of the coins because you know the few little coins you can't change at the uh the currency exchange it's too small you know you change about6 and you have to pay10 commissions so you end up sort of losing on the deal but anyhow she put a few coins in the slot and she had one in the slot when the Buddhist nun came out from her meal and she said to the Buddhist nun you have got much better Karma than I have you pull the handle and in one moment of lack of mindfulness just on the spur of the moment sometimes you're thinking of something else people ask you out of compassion you just do it and that's what she did the Buddhist nun pulled the handle and the wheels went round and round and round and then first one stopped jackpot second one stopped jackpot third one stopped jackpot ding ding ding ding ding ding ding and all this money started pouring out of the machine and we monks and nuns were not even allowed to touch the stuff and she couldn't afford it was falling all over her she'd won the jackpot now you may think that's now lucky but it's not lucky cuz what happened next was all the patrons in the bar went silent this Buddhist nun in a strange Rob had won the jackpot and the next thing which happened was a b man took a little bell and rang it and announced to the nun that it was the tradition it was the rule which could not be broken that whoever won the jackpot had to buy a free round of drinks for everybody in the bar and it was the first time in 2,500 years that the buddist none had to buy a whiskey a beer gin and tonics for all the people in that's what happens

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The channelled spirit at the roulette table

    In brief: A man channels a powerful being who gives him lots of advice; what he really wants is cash. “Go to the casino… the roulette table… put $10…

    Read full story

    Here comes another joke about this person, and he channeled this powerful being and this powerful being gave all this advice, and the guy said, 'Well, look, it's nice having advice, but what I really want is some cash.' Okay, said this powerful being 'go to the casino.' So he went to the casino, and a powerful being said, 'go to the roulette table.' So he went to the roulette table. And this being said; he could hear it in his ears; channeling it. He said 'put $10 on number 19.' And the wheel went around, and the ball sat on number 19. 'Put all your winnings on number 22' said the being, He could hear it in his ears. Put all the winnings on number 22. And the ball went in number 22. 'Put all the winnings, he said, on number 16.' And he put all the winnings on number 16. the ball went round, and it fell in number 17. And he heard the being say "shit!" (laughter from audience) So even powerful beings make mistakes sometimes.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The tsunami ghost who gave a phone number

    In brief: Three days after the 2004 tsunami, a Thai woman in Krabi dreams of a battered English girl from Phi Phi who names the Bangkok temple where…

    Read full story

    True Story 3 days after the tsunami hit Thailand there was a Thai girl who lived in the town of gby had a dream in the middle of the night and the dream was of this English girl coming up to her but this English girl her hair blonde hair was all tangled and tousled and her face she must have been quite a young girl 19 20 or whatever was all bruised and gashed and her body was all broken with huge gases and blood in it IM made see that this bloody bruised corpse coming to in your dream but because it's in a dream you know you're too sleepy for actually to be too afraid and the ghost kept saying help me help me help me and the ghost said I was on peee Island when the wave hit I'm dead and at this moment she said Tai soldiers are lifting up my body and they're placing me in a temple a Buddhist temple in Bangkok and she said the name of that Temple and my mother who lives in London is desperately trying to call me on my mobile phone but my phone is at the bottom of the ocean please help me can you do two things for me said the ghost first I want a Buddhist funeral I'm not a Buddhist but I want a Buddhist clation can you arrange that for me this is my name this is the temple where my body is right now and number two can you please ask my mother not to come until the cation is over I don't want her to see me like this please can you do this for me and here is my mother's telephone number and she gave this long list of digits after which this TIG girl woke up middle of the night she was married to an English man maybe that's why this Ghost came to see her so she woke up her husband and told her the dream which she had perfect recall of and the husband was surprised because the telephone number was a legitimate London phone number so he said call it she said no call him so they rang the number middle of the night in Thailand late afternoon early evening in London a woman picked up that phone it's true story woman picked up that phone after a short conversation it was the mother of a girl who was missing on people Island it was that ghost mother the name description was perfect so the mother was thankful at least now she knew for sure what she expected deep in her Hearts if you are a mother sometimes you can feel whether your child is alive or dead when they go missing so she gave permission for them to do the funeral service and to let her know when it was completed so she could come and collect her daughter's ashes the next morning they went to puket found the temple found the body got permission through the ceremony and cremated the corpse it said that to the body looked exactly as it did in the dream and having done the creation the mother from London came on an aircraft from Heath Road they met at puket airport handed over the ashes cried and then the mother went home and the tig girl went home with her husband to graby and a couple of nights later they had another dream and in this dream the girl came to the this English girl came to this tire girl again in a dream but this time her hair was Immaculate as if she'd been to Elizabeth ardens or something I don't know are they still in business Elizabeth ardens been a long time since I went 20 hairdresser I do my own but I the best hairdresser in town just beautiful hair and her face no bruises no Cuts as if she had like makeover and her dress white and shiny Immaculate and she said in a dream look what's happened to me look what you've done for me I'm a Heavenly being an angel thank you so much for arranging that ceremony for me and thank you so much for letting my mother know I've come here one more time to say thank you to you thank you so much to express my gratitude said this angel in the dream here is another set of numbers which she also remembered when she woke up but they never tried to dial those numbers cuz if you all suspect that was not a phone number that was a lottery number which won and they made quite a substantial amount of money and that is a true story the mor of that story is if ever you see a ghost don't run away yet ask it for some numbers first and then run like hell we going to do dream don't get afraid come on let's have some numbers please but remember because you heard that story in DCA Buddhist center 10% of your winnings should should go to the temple

    Open story page·Watch this telling

All stories·Find a story for your situation