Three-day village parties with petrol generators

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• The forest monk chased by the tiger

  In brief: Ajahn Dhammindu (caption: Mark Edge and Drew) tells of a wandering Thai forest monk who insists on camping on a tiger trail despite the…

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  many years ago there was a well I was told a story by this Mark Edge and Drew and long time ago before he died he said there was a monk who was wandering from place to place in Thailand and uh just know for Solitude for Freedom meditating and he came to one Village late in the afternoon and told the head man of the village that I just arrived you have to tell the head man so the villagers know to get some food for you the following morning for your arms around otherwise you don't eat I said I just arrived I want to meditate in the forest the jungle close by just to let you know I'll be here when arms around in the morning and that's when the head man told him well you better stay here in the village with us he said no I'm a forest monk now stay in the village there was a tiger in the vicinity in the last few days it's eaten two or three water buffaloes and even one of our kids you know it is a really dangerous this is the jungles 40 years ago very dangerous tiger but this Mark said I am not afraid of tigers show me where the tiger comes from he said I can't do that it'll kill you I said no I am a monk I have no fear really said the head man okay follow me and about a kilometer outside of the village you could see where the Tiger Trail cut through the jungle and the Mark said right here I am going to put my mosquito net and here I'm going to stay tonight I'm going to face down the tiger real Brave Monk would you be able to do that knowing there is a not a man-eating Tiger but a monkey eating tiger right there is gonna come tonight are you willing to face the the Tiger in the middle of the night so this Mark was really a tough Monk and so the head man helped him set up and then the head man went back to make sure before he got dark he didn't want to face a tiger let the monk face the Tiger and that night the Monk was meditating so peacefully so so calm in the jungle once all the shakadas stopped their their racket the jungle at night time is just so peaceful and he was meditating peacefully peacefully peacefully breathing in peace breathing out let go and that's when he started to hear that's the best I got for for sound effects not very good but we're riding on the cheap and I bought a society these days so many stuff we can't afford anything so he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him and those four steps were there four steps of an animal so there wasn't any more breathing in peace beating out I let go he reverted to the old Thai way of meditating they used to do breathing in board breathing out oh using the name of the Buddha with the in-breath and the out breath as a protectionist to remind you to be peaceful but and the first steps got louder as the animal approached and his chanting became and as it got really close and it's got even closer he opened his eyes he couldn't resist it and he saw this massive tiger says white fangs not teeth glistening in the Moonlight is big eyes it's huge Jaws could rip anything apart even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have no chance Superman a loser in front of this tiger this was a huge monster of a tiger and as I remembered his eyes again he changed his meditation object and the next thing he knows you know sometimes we just don't know how this happened these things happen he found himself running towards the village and his his meditation was not very very um quiet now instead of doing tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger has this this animal chased him to the Village

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• The Singaporean monk, the snake book, and the witch doctor

  In brief: Singaporean monk in NE Thailand asks for the snake book — to identify the snake that just bit him. Fang marks swell; village has thrown…

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  Singaporean monk who came to stay in Northeast Thailand. And one day apparently he came into our library in what? banana chart and just said, "Oh, can I please have a look at the snake book? It has all the different species of snake in that part of Thailand and also describes how venomous they are." And as he was given a snake book, the librarian was just not really paying too much attention. And a Singaporean monk was looking through the books and then oh my goodness. That's the one which just bit me. That's what a single point was looking at the book of snakes to try and identify the one which had just bitten him to see whether it's dangerous or not. And it was really dangerous. So the other monk looked to the poor uh Singaporean monk's leg, saw the bite marks, the two fang marks and so already starting to swell. And that's one time if you're a monk, you're allowed to run. You're supposed to run. You know, if any one of you got bitten by a snake and I was me, I would have to run. Even though that might kill me, nevertheless, you know, just to save another person's life. That's so important. So, this monk just ran into the village to get a doctor. Now, these snakes exist in Thailand, so you have to keep some antivenenom. But this village had no antivenenom. They thrown it away years ago. Cuz when this monk came back with one of the villagers on a little motorbike, he didn't come back with a doctor. Well, it was a kind of a doctor. What you usually call like a witch doctor. a poor villager who didn't have any injections. He had this special medicine, a herbal medicine which was supposed to be really really powerful. And the herbal med herbal medicine man started doing some chanting. And he put this medicine in his mouth, started chewing it, mixing it with saliva, and then spitting it on this poor Singaporean man's wound, which was getting really big by now. And this Singaporean, imagine that was you. How would you feel? This Singaporean who was highly educated looked to the other monks and said, "Can I please have a proper doctor?" But then looking at this Singaporean, now this Singaporean and this witch doctor doing chanting and spitting over the wound, you could see apparently what the other monks told me. the the two fang marks started to get smaller and smaller and smaller and the inflammation got less and less and less until the inflammation totally vanished. The two fang marks disappeared and that Singaporean mark was totally healed

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• Bangkok walking meditation — my name from miles away

  In brief: On walking meditation in Bangkok years ago, Brahm hears his ordination name Brahmavamso as if from miles away. Paying attention, he finds…

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  walking meditation uh this was in Bangkok many years ago that I heard this sound like it was a long distance away like miles away and it was it was my name no I don't promise another the name I'm known as now but the real name is Brahma wongsa and I heard this sound like from a really long distance brahmawang so Obama Wong so and I thought this was really weird because it felt so distant for me but then I just paid attention to it instead of my feet walking and I found out it was another mug was shouting in my ear hole

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• Feeding the mosquitoes

  In brief: Bitten all night in an Indonesian hotel room, Ajahn Brahm reframes the mosquitoes as recipients of his dana: laypeople feed him every day,…

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  there was a room and there was so many mosquitoes were in the room so I was being bitten all night another night without much sleep so what did I do so this is Indonesia's Asia what do you expect there are mosquitoes around it's Asia so I accepted the mosquitoes and I was kind to them because I thought to myself well you know I don't work for my food I don't cook my food and buy it in a supermarket people come and feed me every day so this is my chance of feeding the mosquitoes it was what we called in Buddhism dhana generosity so now I know you know you have to work very hard working hard gaining the food from the supermarket cooking it for me presenting to me sometimes you come all the way to Monastery to feed me so I thought now this is payback time so mosquitoes come on because I thought look they're going to eat me anyway so I might as well give come on take service so you had the choice that you often have in life you can't change the world but you can't change the situation but you can change the way you look at it and as soon as you change the way you look at it there's something much more positive like an act of kindness an act of generosity these poor mosquitoes because have you ever had thought about what a mosquito must feel like you know they're really hungry and they sort of come and land on a human being it's really dangerous imagine you go to a restaurant and you don't know if you're going to come out alive that's what a mosquito does every time so it's also I imagine those mosquitoes you know when they had with that all the time in the world they could relax and drink as much as they wanted most of these mosquitoes because they're so afraid of being swatted they must probably have really bad digestion they're so anxious to get it out of the way quickly and run away as far as they can but so now I gave this beautiful kindness and time please have as much as you like and I got plenty left in there and my bread is pretty good it's like holy blood so it's like giving them a blessing as well

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