The teacher who woke in a drowned boy's body

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• The girl who had been a python

  In brief: A photo given to him (he thinks) by a Burmese monk, with the story written on the back: a young girl in Yangon claimed she had been a…

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  It was a snake photo, because the story was, it was given me, I think, by a Burmese monk, and it was an amazing story, that it was written in Burmese on the back but there was a girl in Yangon. When she was young, she claimed in a previous life to have been a python, a snake, in a previous life, which is a weird thing to start with, but then she also said that she was obviously a very special python, because she lived on the shoulder of an old Buddha statue in a cave in upcountry Burma, and with two other pythons, and they were treated with great dignity by the villagers because, you know, they lived actually on a Buddha statue, and in Burma you may know it's a very strong Buddhist country and sometimes people say that's just myth, but their parents were intrigued enough to ask, you know, where that village was, really up country, and to make a visit there, a long trek for several days, and when actually got to this village, it matched. There were still two pythons left, and every moon day, they were taken ceremoniously, handled by the village elders, and taken out to be bathed, and then afterwards brought back to the statue where they lived, and someone had a photo of the three when they were still alive, now there was only two.

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• Charlie's mark on the heel

  In brief: A healthy Thai woman's first baby, Charlie, is stillborn after turning in the womb days before birth. Ajahn Brahm conducts the funeral;…

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  the story of a Thai couple who come here - just making sure they're not here, they may be embarrassed if I tell you this; but no, they're not here. When this lady - years ago now - when she got pregnant (this was a normal pregnancy), and just five days before birth she had an ultrasound. And when the birth happened - stillborn. A tragedy. Because they had everything expected for a baby, and they were just so excited, the first kid they were gonna have. And apparently, the doctors found out it actually turned in the womb and it cut off the blood supply in the umbilical cord. And she didn't know that, five days before - ultrasound - everything was going perfectly, and stillborn. So I did the funeral for them, just up the road here. And I always remember that funeral, because the baby was fully formed. They gave it a name, Charlie. I better not say too much. Charlie was his name, and they dressed it up, and they had the family photograph. And I was in the family photograph, and Charlie was as well. I was almost like honoured to be included in that family photograph, at the birth of Charlie who died at birth. But then, what I didn't see them doing - I know it's common in Thailand to do this, but what I didn't see - they took a pen, a biro pen, when no one was watching, and on the heel of Charlie, they drew a line. With a ballpoint pen. Just a line. And then of course, the baby was cremated. She was a healthy woman. So, few months later, she became pregnant again. When she became pregnant again, this time the doctors really gave her a VIP treatment, because they didn't want a tragedy to happen again. She's a healthy woman, she gave birth - this time - to a girl. And that girl has a birthmark on its heel, a line - exactly where they'd written the line on there. And they all knew Charlie came back. Didn't quite make it the first time, but had another go. Next time, got through. And they told me that story. And of course, you probably would be interested, how did the new kid turn out. First of all, it was a girl, and it was called Annie. And I was watching it - used to be like many kids, they play here, running around there, the kids are offering food to the monks or the nuns, and the kid is running around all over the place. But this Annie would always run with the boys and would beat up the girls. It was really a tomboy, little Annie. And of course, you understand why. She was a boy before. But anyway. That was a wonderful story, that when people have these emotional problems - just give a bigger picture. The kid didn't get there the first time, well have another go. And - a lot of times I’ve seen this - they don't make it the first time, they get an upgrade. [laughter] Become a girl. Is that an upgrade? [chuckles] But anyway. That was the story of Charlie and Annie.

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• The smell of his baby pram

  In brief: Asking in deep meditation 'what's my earliest memory?', Ajahn Brahm (soon after leaving Thailand for Perth, he thinks) suddenly smells —…

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  the only thing one which I can tell you because I'm not allowed to S say too much about psychic powers and stuff the only ones which I can tell you is when I first did this and got the smell in my nose and this is not imagination anymore you're smelling it as if it's right here in front of you it's a real real smell my eyes closed and I recognized it straight away it was the smell of my baby's PR and immediately I was back in my pram a re experience even though I was sitting meditation I think this first happened over in when I left highand coming to Perth you're back in your baby's pram and with that experience you could no your eyes were closed you could see everything clearly as if you were had your eyes open and there I could see my baby's PR and all the old toys which I used to have in it and I could play around in there was a vision from the past as I say in the book when you have this experiences one of their Hallmarks is this absolute certainty that was you in the same way this absolute certainty it's you right here looking at me or hearing this talk the same degree of certainty weird but true

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• The monastery monkey reborn as a boy

  In brief: A Thai Buddhist buys an abused monkey at a market and gives it to a forest monastery in Thailand. It becomes almost one of the monks — it…

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  If you want a nice story about that, this is one of the little anecdotes you pick up in your life as a monk. In one of our monasteries in Thailand many years ago, a uh Thai Buddhist went to the market and saw there was a monkey up for sale. And this poor monkey was in a small cage, had been abused. And this man took pity and compassion on this monkey and bought it and wanted to release it in a place where it would be well looked after to give this monkey some freedom. So instead of actually taking it to a nature reserve where it wouldn't be able to look after itself, it took it to one of the monasteries. You know, the monks are nice and kind. So gave it to the head monk, let it out of the cage. And the head monk, you know, fed it, looked after it. And it had a bit more freedom, it could run around in the the forest monastery and swing through the trees. But because it was so associated with human beings, it was like half monkey, half human. Now whenever the monks would have their tea time in the afternoon, the monkey would also always also come and look very cute. It would also hold a cup of tea just like all the other monks and sit there while all the other monks were drinking their tea. It was actually basically one of the monks. And after all, there's only a couple of letters uh difference between a monk and a monkey. So there it was enjoying life in the monastery. But you know, it was very protective and you know, the sometimes the monks loved that little monkey and you know, it would just feed it and had good fun with it. But the monkey was very protective and one of the things it would do would be to chase any cars which came outside if they were making too much noise cuz it it liked being in a peaceful place. It realized this was a forest monastery and the monks wanted to be quiet. So unfortunately, one day it chased the a truck and fell under the wheels and got killed. And that was the end of that monkey in that life. But the head monk, who's I won't say who it is, but he's actually been here, he sat in this seat here and given talks some years ago. He had a very good meditator and he told everybody what happened. Cuz he had been meditating, he could see what happened, you know, in his meditation. Soon as that monkey died, the stream of consciousness, what some people call the soul, but in Buddhism we call it a stream of consciousness. There is a slight difference. So you don't need to worry too much about that as far as this explanation is concerned. This uh stream of consciousness of the monkey went out of the monkey's body, went into the village where one of the ladies was pregnant. And he saw it actually entering this woman's womb. And he told the monks what had happened, which is how I can tell you. And so because he told the monks that this woman who was pregnant, they saw this this monkey as he entered the womb was going to take rebirth as a human being. Why that would happen is because that monkey was associating so much with human beings. Basically, it thought it was a human being. It thought that's where it belonged. That's why it's attracted into a human life. Many times, if you have animals, pets, dogs, cats, kittens, whatever, because, you know, you're with them all the time. How many of you have got cats and dogs which actually eat human food? They would refuse to eat Whiskas. They want sort of chicken or whatever you eat. And you give it to them, don't you? And they're so associated with you that they very often they get reborn as a human being. That's what they really think they are. So, he got reborn as a as a human being, a little boy. And when I first heard of that, the baby hadn't been born yet. And all the monks were waiting to see cuz this was a local village. So, you know, you go and ask around over there. These were your local people. So, they would actually they knew exactly what was happening and they would actually see this woman. And they told me that as soon as that baby was born, they noticed an interesting thing. That baby was exceptionally hairy for a baby boy. It was a monkey before and it still had a tiny bit of that monkey character. And of course, you know, probably was a little monkey when it grew up. And it was actually true cuz I knew that came from a monkey before.

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