Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The zookeeper who freed the orangutans

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Building Resilience | Ajahn Brahm | 8 November 2019

2 min read

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

And I don't mind sharing this about this gentleman uh who won the award this year and he was a person with yeah if I remember it correctly please excuse me if I get some details wrong. Uh he had learning difficulties at school but he pushed through. Now with help with encouragement he got to university to curtain university where he was studied I think animal sciences or whatever applied science and eventually he managed to with a lot of extra work tuition and help eventually to get his degree number one it says that this is agrees with my experience when I was a school teacher there's no one who can't do things. Now, if you want to get your degree in this or get an a a um qualification in something else, if you keep on going, you don't give up, there's many people out there will help you and look after you and care for you and just encourage you. The human capacity in my experience is huge. Basically anyone can do almost anything within reason just as they believe in themselves or sometimes that belief is given by other people. People inspire you. Your mentors if you get a really good mentor an inspirational teacher they take you so far in life. But anyway, eventually he got the job over in uh in Perth Zoo and he was apparently he looks he looked after the the the primates and the orangutan enclosure. And this gentleman, the first name was Leaf something. But anyway, just a person with intellect with learning difficulties looking after orangutans and then seeing what the problem really was. That apparently many of these small baby orangutans were taken to shopping centers cuz they were so cute and cuddly for promotions to sell products or something. And this is what human beings do. But apparently he knew he'd been looking after the orangutans for a long time that that really hurt the mother child bond. And he just know he just used everything he got to to stop that exploitation of baby orangutans. Next, to make sure the cages or the compounds were a little bit less like prisons and more like places where they could relax and enjoy and have some uh similarities to the wild jungles where they came from. But even that wasn't enough. So then he started to return them to the jungles of Bornea and to start a big fund of oh no what was it called something orangutan fund just now worldwide and just millions of dollars in the fund because he was he was producing providing he was actually doing something for some animals who are just really close to homo sapiens, the people sitting right in front of me now. He connected with them and basically freed thousands of them throughout the whole world.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 28:52 (to 32:41)

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

A boy who struggled at school grew up to care for orangutans at Perth Zoo, stopped their use in promotions, and helped return thousands to the wild. Ajahn Brahm goes to hear stories like that every year. The news is full of greed and gloom. Look for the good people are doing; it protects your mental health.

In brief (our summary)

At the annual John Curtin Medal presentation, Ajahn Brahm (a past recipient) hears about that year's winner: a man with learning difficulties at school who, with help and encouragement, got a Curtin University degree and a job looking after the orangutans at Perth Zoo. Seeing that taking baby orangutans to shopping-centre promotions harmed the mother–child bond, he stopped it; he made the enclosures less like prisons; then he began returning orangutans to the jungles of Borneo and founded a worldwide orangutan fund worth millions, freeing thousands.

Teaching point

Look at the good people are doing, not only the problems; with encouragement anyone can do remarkable things.

When this story may help

  • learning difficulties
  • despair about the world
  • career doubts

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Building Resilience | Ajahn Brahm | 8 November 2019 · 2019-11-08 · ▶ watch from 28:52 to 32:41 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'Bornea' = Borneo; 'curtain university' = Curtin University.

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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