Story · Ajahn Brahm
Super Monk and the DreamWorks email
Content note: named Spielberg/DreamWorks
The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)
someone showed me a copy of one of the tiny newspapers and even though I couldn't understand Thai that well I still as I do these days I like reading the comics so I saw a comic there and the comic was of a character called super monk nice 36 37 years ago so super monk was like a Superman or one of these superheroes and Superman could levitate of course being a super monk could fly through the air but also had these great powers to stop trains crashing and stop aircrafts or plunging into the ground he could save all these people from the bad guys but unlike modern times when Superman or these other superheroes they usually either killed the bad guy send him into prison forever in Superman comic he were given the five Buddhist precepts and they'd become very good people afterwards even they rejoin the Sangha become monks there's a much nicer ending and not violence because sometimes even these these superheroes they used too much violence instead of using violence using wisdom and compassion to solve the problems of the world and what a wonderful idea that was and so anyway I mentioned that I see the newspapers you know in the magazines they got all these superheroes I used to read about in the comics as a kid Batman and Green Lantern and the flash and all these other people they always Batman there was made movies of these people now and so the one movie which I thought they should have after the Buddhist Film Fest what a real Buddhist movie would be super Munk now you know I throw these ideas out and sometimes you think I'm just no hour wasting time but when you go to these meetings every now and again you meet someone interesting and at the end of my talk somebody stood up and they put their hand off the question said my ex our husband works for Steven Spielberg it DreamWorks I'm gonna email him tonight this suggestion so if you see in a one or two years time in the movies super Munk done by DreamWorks with the consultant as Adam Braun you know where the cave I thought what a wonderful thing because all these superheroes they end up punishing the bad guys
▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:27 (to 4:04)
A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)
Young Ajahn Brahm loved a Thai comic about Super Monk, who flew in and gave villains the five precepts instead of punishing them, until they ordained. Most heroes win by force; punishing rarely ends the problem. Imagine meeting wrongdoers with wisdom and kindness. It's a story worth telling more often.
In brief (our summary)
As a new monk in Thailand Ajahn Brahm reads a comic of 'Super Monk' who flies and saves people — but instead of killing villains, gives them the five precepts so they become good and even ordain. Years later, floating the idea of a Super Monk movie after a Buddhist film festival, a woman in the audience says her ex-husband works for Spielberg at DreamWorks and will email him that night. He jokes that if the film appears, he will be the consultant from his cave. Kept separate from the later Czech 'Super Monk' cartoon.
Teaching point
Wisdom and compassion can replace punishment even in a superhero story.
When this story may help
- needing a gentler model of justice
- talking to children about good and bad
Themes
Source & credit
Told by Ajahn Brahm in "F" Is For Forgiveness | Ajahn Brahm | 13-05-2011 · 2011-05-14 · ▶ watch from 1:27 to 4:04 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'super Munk'/'Adam Braun' as captioned (Super Monk; Ajahn Brahm).
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