What drug is he giving you?

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• “You're a much better mum when you come home”

  In brief: A tired mother tells her children she will skip the meditation group; her daughter insists she go, because she is a much better mum…

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  Many times when I've been teaching meditation, especially down at Armadale, I don't know why this happens always in Armadale group. In Armadale group, sometimes after the meditation, talking to people afterwards, and very often people say, "You know, this evening, I never wanted to come." "It's Tuesday evening, I've been at work, and I'm tired, and I told my kids I'm not going this evening, and my daughter said, 'Mommy, you must go to meditation.' I said, 'I don't feel like it darling, I'm tired.' 'Mommy, you must go to meditation!' 'No, not this evening.' 'Mommy, go to meditation!!' 'Why darling?' 'Because you're a much nicer mommy when you come back.'

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• The social worker's solutions that popped up

  In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office…

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  A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.

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• The letter that wouldn't come

  In brief: Tired one morning, Ajahn Brahm struggles at the computer over a very difficult letter about a published book — every draft seems wrong. So…

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  that I had to write a very difficult letter (this is about a book which was published). And this morning I was a little bit tired, and so, when I was trying to write that letter - have you ever had that experience, you're on the computer, you’re trying to write a letter, it just doesn't come out. You're writing, ‘that doesn't seem good, that doesn't seem good, that doesn't seem good’. You're wasting so much time. And again, just as I taught many of you, if you're in the office, at work, you've got some report to write, some letter to write, some really sensitive letter to write, and it doesn't come out, then stop. And go meditate. That's exactly what I did. Went off to meditate, took a shower, went back to the computer and a beautiful letter came out

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• Meditate in the restroom

  In brief: In the US toilets are called restrooms. When tired or stressed, find an empty cubicle and meditate. If the boss asks why you were twenty…

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  in United States they call it restroom. What a wonderful name it is. So, if you are tired, if you are stressed, where should you go? The restroom. And so when you enter the restroom, you find a nice empty cubicle, you sit there and meditate in the restroom. And if your boss comes and says afterwards, you've been in there for 20 minutes. Said, well, I was constipated. Oh, well, very okay. And you're not breaking your precept, you're telling the truth. It wasn't your bowels were constipated, it was your brain constipated.

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