Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Two hours on Ajahn Chah instead of a car factory

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Having Positive Attitudes towards Everybody | Ajahn Brahm | 12 March 2021

1 min read

Content note: named public figures (political); unverified claim

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Interesting story about Tuxin by the way. You know this, he told me this. He's a prime minister of Thailand years ago that there was this big American industrialist called John Ford. You know, he was ahead of Ford Motor Company for a while. And so he went to see um the Thai prime minister who was a prime minister at the time because they were going to get a contract to build this big uh factory or whatever it was to actually to manufacture Ford vehicles in Thailand and to spread them around. that made that like the hub to spread those to Southeast Asia. And so that was a really big development. So they don't go through the uh small purple and the government went straight to the prime minister. So the two of them met John Ford and the prime minister of Thailand. Do you know what they talked about? John Ford said to the prime minister, "Do you do you know anything about this monk Ajancha? and and the B said, "Yeah, I've got quite a few of his books in my library." And so apparently they spent two hours talking about Dhamma [laughter] and Ajan and nothing about factories being built in Thailand.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 8:05 (to 9:30)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Thailand's prime minister and a car company chief met to discuss a big factory, and spent two hours talking about Ajahn Chah instead. Under the titles, people are human beings with deeper interests. Whether someone runs a country or cleans the toilets, there's always something in them to respect.

In brief (our summary)

Thaksin, then Prime Minister of Thailand, told Ajahn Brahm that a head of the Ford Motor Company came to see him about building a big factory in Thailand as a hub for Southeast Asia. The first thing Ford asked was, 'Do you know anything about this monk Ajahn Chah?' Thaksin had several of his books — and they spent two hours talking about Dhamma and Ajahn Chah, and nothing about the factory.

Teaching point

Under titles and power, people are human beings with deeper interests worth respecting.

When this story may help

  • dealing with powerful people
  • work

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Having Positive Attitudes towards Everybody | Ajahn Brahm | 12 March 2021 · 2021-03-12 · ▶ watch from 8:05 to 9:30 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'Tuxin'/'taxing' = Thaksin; 'Ajancha'/'Ajan' = Ajahn Chah; 'small purple' probably = small people (as captioned).

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

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