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• “In the building trade we call it a feature”

  In brief: After Ajahn Brahm tells the two-bad-bricks story at the Cancer Support Association, a builder reassures him professionals make the same…

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  Once when I was teaching in Cancer Support Association over in Cottesloe, they're still over there. Teaching...teaching that story because sometimes going through chemotherapy and radiation therapy can really cause a lot of depression. So I told that and yeah you got cancer but there's many other things happening in your life. Look at all the parts of the body which haven't got cancer. There's two bad bricks there, two bad tumours, what about the other parts which are beautiful, which are healthy? Look at that, it actually takes away a lot of fear. And anyway I told that, one of these builders came up afterwards and he said Ajahn Brahm please don't be upset you made two mistakes when you're laying bricks, professional builders do the same, he said. But then he said I'll tell you a secret, and I've told his secret to millions of people...internationally. He said...don't tell me your secrets, they'll be on YouTube next day...[LAUGHTER]. He said, in the building industry where we make a mistake like that we call it a feature. We call it a feature and we charge our clients an extra few thousand dollars for it.

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• Seeing his monastery through a visitor's eyes

  In brief: When Ajahn Jagaro disrobes, Ajahn Brahm is left running Bodhinyana: building and abbot's work all week, teaching in Perth all weekend. He…

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  That was one of the reasons why another little anecdote, the former abbot of Bodhinyana monastery, Ajahn Jagaro, he was a great monk. When he disrobed, and I was left looking after the monastery, again, I would work very hard cause I had all my ideas I'd like to do for that monastery, I worked very hard. So from Monday to Friday, I'd work like a dog for that monastery, building and looking after the place and being abbot at the same time. Many of those buildings there, I did, built myself, made the bricks, Dennis knows that, he's seen me down there, he's our President, and then on the weekend, I'd come here, Friday, give the talk, Saturday, Sunday, just counsel people, talk with people, do ceremonies, so go back late Sunday evening, Monday morning, back to work again. It was 7 days a week and because of that sort-of I could never enjoy that monastery. So much so, I thought, when people came, you know you come sort-of to visit the monastery to bring danna, you're all relaxed. Because you relaxes it's your day off and you come to the monastery to feed the monks or to feed the nuns and have a peaceful time maybe go to the meditation hall, do a bit of meditation, have a walk around, to relax and I got jealous of you. And so you come to that monastery and you're relaxed and I've got all these jobs to do. I've got to talk to you, I've got to fix things up, And I realised that there's something wrong with my life. My life was always getting things done and doing things. So I remember just seeing that having enough space just to look back and seeing the mistakes that I was making in my life. I made this resolution, every Monday morning when I, Sunday, Saturday, Sunday just working here, Monday morning, I'd go back to that monastery and that'll be a doing nothing morning. And I'd walk around that monastery, not looking for the things which needed to be fixed up, not looking for the letters which needed to be written, not looking for the telephone calls which I had to make, no, this was not my work time. So I wanted to see that monastery with the same eyes that a visitor on holiday could see that monastery. That was a hard thing to do, but you learnt how to do that. Cause when you go there, you can't see all the things which need to be done. It's not your monastery. So I did that and found, wow, that's how I can be free. Not with the fault finding mind, but the opposite, a mind of compassion, which can accept things as they are and see the value in things as they are. To realise, not everything every moment needs to be fixed up. It does not need to be changed, you don't need to make it better you don't need, to sort of, push it forward, leave it as it is, for goodness sake! And at first it was a tough thing to do, to leave things as they are, because you think, that's being lazy. Our society, it creates depression and anxiety because we don't allow people to be lazy. I want to create a Lazy People Society. So lazy people's rights, so you have right to be lazy, at least one day of a week or one morning of a week. So you can actually sit and actually do nothing and have permission to do nothing. If you really want to I'll give you a certificate. Ajahn Brahm hereby gives you permission to do nothing one morning a week. You can show it to your partner, I've got permission, so [laughter]. Cause if we don't do that, you're not enjoying anything in life. I could not enjoy the place which I lived, cause it was also a work place for me. I couldn't even enjoy my body, because I always had to wash it, take it to toilet, do something with it. I could never enjoy my life, cause it was always something to improve. You're missing out on the meaning of life, when you're so active in doing things, making things better. So I left it alone, you know what I found on those Monday mornings? That monastery was beautiful, why did I keep wanting to change it?

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• The floor the monks finished overnight

  In brief: Building Jhana Grove for an Easter 2008 opening by its patron, former Premier Geoff Gallop, Ajahn Brahm is assured it will be ready well…

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  Notice the floor in the meditation room, it hasn't got a carpet because we thought there's some people want to meditate and they have allergies. So, it's just a bamboo floor. It's very beautiful, but on bamboo floor. You know what happens again, Ajahn Brahm being the builder. I'm not really the builder, but it's my project, so I had to make sure everything was done properly. And it's a huge project, I asked the person in charge of doing the building, "Are you sure it's going to be ready by Easter 2008 or nine or 12? What was it, about 12/13 years ago? 2008. Are you sure it's going to be ready?" He said, "Yes! No trouble at all! Well ahead of schedule." And I should know by now. I'm really stupid. I trust people too much. Because it wasn't. It was a real rush. Especially the last day. We're going to have the opening ceremony, it was on the Easter retreat. And we're going to have it on Friday, the Good Friday. And we invited even the the former Premier, Geoff Gallop. He was gonna, he still is the what do you call it? The patron of Jhana Grove Retreat Centre. And he was gonna come and open it for us. And as soon as the opening was finished, we're gonna have our retreat, the 8/9 day retreat, and we had all this ceremony all arranged. And you know what happened? You know what happened? It wasn't finished. Thursday evening. Half the floor had not been laid. It was just concrete. Half the floor was finished. Half the floor was bare concrete. We tried to get floor makers in to come and finish it off for us. Would they work on Thursday evening, before the long weekend? No way. So what happened? Duh duh duh, in come the monks like the seventh cavalry to save the day again. And it was brilliant. It's beautiful. Ajahn Brahmali and Ajahn Santutthi, they were the main collaborators. They worked till 4am. All night. 4am. And that's a beautiful job they did. If you sit on that, when every time I see that, I feel so much joy and happiness. Just finishing off like that. They had a lot of fun. A lot of joy, not sleeping, working hard. Had an hour or two to sleep before we started the ceremony in the morning, big ceremony all day. Have a look at it. It's gorgeous. That is how we work. Do we get paid? Imagine if we did get paid. There'll be it's Easter. So that's double time. Overnight, that's double time again. So, night time work, oh, they could have made a fortune. If we were paid. But we don't do that. Do it for the fun of it, the joy of it because you don't have fault finding. You have the opposite. Joy finding, beauty finding. And that's one of the reasons why we don't get paid, we get exploited. Please exploit us some more. We don't think like other people. So instead, we just see the joy of doing these things and the wonder of doing these things, which means the fault fighting is not there. So we don't get upset and don't argue. And if you notice carefully, there is a mistake in that floor. Have any of you seen it? It's in the corner, which is closest to the entrance door. Doesn't quite match. But that's beautiful. It doesn't have to match and be perfect.

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• The perfect Zen garden

  In brief: A young Japanese gardening monk makes the most admired garden in Japan. An old meditation monk climbs in early one morning and hides to…

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  Because one of the stories which I read many years ago and I think I retold it in one of my first books about the Japanese garden and the Zen master. Zen masters are usually really cool because they're totally um just uh almost off the planet in the way they do things. Totally un you can't understand them at first but they tell a very good message. And this Japanese master uh actually the young Japanese uh monk was a gardener and he made these amazing gardens and his garden was one of the most famous in the whole of Japan. People would come from all over to admire just the balance of his garden. You just took one look at it and it was wow really sort of was an amazing work of art. So this old old monk, an old meditation monk came early one morning, but the garden was closed. It was only supposed to be opened in the afternoon. [clears throat] But anyway, the old monk, he climbed over the the railings and hid behind the bushes. He wanted to find out the secret of the most perfect garden in the whole of Japan. And he waited. And then the gardening monk came out and he sat and meditated to prepare his mind just to get the clarity and the peace and the artistic balance in his own mind before he worked on the garden. And then he took these two big wicker baskets. In the middle of the garden was this very beautiful plum tree. And he went with those two baskets and picked up one by one every leaf or twig which had fallen the night before from the wind. And before putting them in the baskets, he would look at the little twig to see whether it had artistic merit. If it was the right shape or the right curvature, then he would put it in the good basket. If it was rubbish, he would put it in the rubbish basket. And the same with the leaves. Every leaf he picked up and examined it. And if he could make use of it, the right color, the right shape, he put it in the the good basket and the others in the rotten basket. It took him hours to clean up the garden of all the the leaves and twigs which had fallen the night before. A couple of hours. And then he stopped. He put the rubbish leaves on the compost and then he took tea. And after he took tea, he meditated for the most important part of the ceremony of the making the beautiful garden. He took the basket of beautiful leaves and flowers and not little twigs and he placed them one one by one in the garden in exactly the right place in exactly the correct orientation so that they balanced and the interconnectivity of the leaves and the twigs and the colors. Sometimes you'd have to pause and correct. He looked at it and he'd move a twig slightly. Yes, that's it. I don't know if you ever seen great artists at work, but sometimes great artists at work, we think they're just being being just [snorts] uh too too picky, but really great artists, they can see the big canvas of the garden and know exactly where things need to be just slightly changed. And after another couple of hours, he was finished and he admired his work. Most beautiful garden in the whole of Japan, he thought. And he was about to open the gate to let the visitors in. But then the old monk came out from behind the bush. And he said to the young gardening monk said, "I've been watching you all morning." and he said, "Your attention to detail is just so impressive. I've seen you just picking up all the bad leaves and the good leaves, separating them out and putting the good leaves." Look at that. That's amazing, George. Your artistic um taste and talent is incredible. He said, "Your garden," said the old monk, "is perfect." And at that word, almost. You could see the color drain from that gardening monk's face. So his lips start to quiver and he fell to his knees and he said to the old meditation monk, "Oh master, master, you've been sent by the Buddha himself to come and teach me how to make my garden even more perfect. Please instruct me. Please let your compassion flow. Please tell me your great wisdom. How can my garden be even more perfect?" And the old monks, by the way, never trust an old monk. He asked, he asked the old monk. And the old monk said, "Do you really want me to show you?" "Yes, please don't hold back your your great skill and wisdom." So the old monk stroed right into the middle of the garden, put his hands, he was old but still very strong around the plum tree and shook the hell out of it. Twigs, leaves fell all over the place, making a big mess of the garden. A whole morning's work destroyed. And that monk was so upset and angry. But imagine how he felt when the monk looked at his work with the the garden a big mess and then said, "Now that is perfect."

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