All stories, A–Z

T

• The monk who stopped the bus by thinking — A forest monk visiting Ubon rides a bus for the first time and wonders how an engine works; as…
• The monk who thanked his accusers for jail — A senior Thai monk, next in line to become Sangharaja, is framed by a jealous rival with spliced…
• The monk who trained his back muscles with mindfulness — A monk with a congenital spinal weakness and severe pain is told by doctors nothing can be done…
• The monk with the divine ear sat in Ajahn Chah's chair — A monk Ajahn Brahm knew in Thailand claimed he could hear people talking about 12 kilometres away;…
• The monkey who knocked on the monk's door — An old monk living alone in a bamboo-and-thatch hut deep in the jungle hears a knock one night. At…
• The monkey who wouldn't let go of the banana — Hunters hollow out a coconut, cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand, tie it to a tree and…
• The moon in a still lake — Simile (on a full-moon retreat night): if there are waves or ripples on a lake you can't see a…
• The mosquitoes were my teachers — As a young monk in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm could not include mosquitoes in his loving-kindness…
• The most beautiful bamboo looked sick after the ride — After a UK meditation retreat he bikes through stressful traffic to revisit his favourite bamboo…
• The most beautiful sound in the world — A Sydney trekker lost in the Himalayas shelters at an ancient monastery and at midnight hears the…
• The most beautiful thing in the toilet bowl — On one retreat Ajahn Brahm's mind is so still and full of energy that everything looks beautiful.…
• The mother who never drops her baby — Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds…
• The mouldy hay outside the fence — A stingy farmer wants to get rid of last year's mouldy hay. His cows won't touch it in the…
• The mugged tax minister — A gunman orders a man to hand over all his money. “Look, I'm the Minister of Taxation.” — “Oh,…
• The mushy peas that exploded — Every year Ajahn Brahm spends 15 days alone in his cave, not talking, just meditating. On the…
• The Muslim family at the airport — On a teaching tour of Indonesia, Muslims attend his talks and a veiled family rushes to the…
• The Muslim woman who said 'oh…' — A young woman in hijab asks him to sign her book; she watches him on YouTube. As soon as he signs,…
• The nail that didn't hurt until someone said so — On alms round in Thailand Ajahn Brahm steps on a nail that goes a couple of inches into his foot.…
• The naughtiest novice — Ajahn Chah, laughing, tells Ajahn Brahm about his naughtiest novice: an old monk slept so deeply…
• The naughty hour from three to four — As a young monk in a silent forest paradise (one car a week) he fights thoughts — including old…
• The newborn sat in full lotus — A Perth parent told him that after breastfeeding in hospital their newborn took its mouth away,…
• The newspaper hiding the most beautiful view — Walking a remote coast road in north-west Scotland on a perfect summer day — moors and mountains,…
• The NHS invitation — bad for my health — After an HR conference in London (business class, hotel, family visit paid), the UK National…
• The night they stayed in bed during the Blitz — During the London Blitz a couple who had been up night after night with the bombs, and had lost so…
• The nightmare was that I was a layman — In his first nights as a novice the nightmare that wakes him is that he is a layman again. Seeing…
• The ninth wedding — Visiting Seattle, Ajahn Sumedho meets an old school friend who invites him to her wedding — her…
• The noisy airport prayer room — Delighted to find a meditation and prayer room at Perth Airport, Ajahn Brahm sits down to meditate…
• The noisy breather on the Sydney retreat — On a nine-day retreat in Sydney one man breathes so loudly that a meditator complains. Ajahn Brahm…
• The Norwich priest who bit off a saint's finger — A Norwich priest visiting a highly guarded saint's corpse in Europe bites off a finger, hides it…
• The note-swapping game — Two monks each write what they think of the other and swap papers; neither guessed correctly how…
• The novice who stopped — A novice of 12 or 13 at Ajahn Chah's monastery, tired during a very long sermon, kept thinking:…
• The number-two monk who had to become abbot — Ajahn Brahm planned to stay number two behind Ajahn Jagaro — 'the car at the front of the convoy…
• The nun and the last pokie coin — After a UK retreat a famous Buddhist nun must eat before midday; the only place is next to a pub…
• The nun who hit the jackpot — Driving a famous Buddhist nun to Heathrow after a retreat, her driver puts spare coins in a pub…
• The nun, the mouse, the cat and the cow — A nun living contentedly in a cave finds a mouse has chewed her robe. To keep mice away she asks a…
• The odd-job man — The Dhammaloka subcommittee hire an odd-job man and give him ten jobs. He completes only jobs…
• The one-shoe thief — For weeks, people at the Friday-night talks kept losing shoes — but only ever one of a pair. Was…
• The only child killed on Albany Highway — One of the hardest funerals Ajahn Brahm ever gave: a young woman from mainland China, an only…
• The only lie in 40 years of marriage — Don, a retired Royal Navy man and Buddhist Society member, was in Royal Perth Hospital awaiting…
• The only one who knew the answer — A boy tells his dad he was the only one in class who knew the right answer today. Surprised —…
• The only ones running for shelter — A New Zealander, a late member of the society — reportedly the first New Zealander to escape from…
• The ornamental hermit found in the pub — Someone showed Ajahn Brahm a book of oddities: in England, wealthy estate owners once made it…
• The orphan chicken that says quack — After years of the chicken-or-duck story, people sent him evidence: an orphaned chicken raised by…
• The PA system that wasn't plugged in — Teaching a retreat at Jhana Grove for Singaporean business people and engineers, the PA system…
• The paper lotus on the shrine — In a Thai village a young woman, brain-damaged from birth, cannot speak but grunts, and her…
• The paralysed man who forgave his surgeon — As reported in a Singapore newspaper article someone sent him: during spinal surgery a surgeon…
• The parrot ordered whiskey — Passenger and parrot on a cut-price airline; attendant asks for drinks; parrot demands whiskey;…
• The parrot that kept vigil — A gardener coming to Bodhinyana each day noticed, early one morning at the corner of Kingsbury…
• The past is un-effable — He coins a word-play: instead of 'ineffable' (too deep for words), the past is 'un-effable' — you…
• The patient monk's police escort — Asked what a patient monk does on a four-hour, 220 km drive from Bangkok airport to a retreat,…
• The patient who took off her oxygen mask — A doctor tells Ajahn Brahm about a patient with severe anxiety who was on an oxygen mask after…
• The penalty for perjury is less than for the truth — A man on trial for murder in New York, facing the electric chair, is caught lying under oath. The…
• The penguin funeral (“Freeze a jolly good fellow”) — Penguins grieve a dead friend, bury him in the ice and sing at the ceremony: “Freeze a jolly good…
• The perfect Zen garden — A young Japanese gardening monk makes the most admired garden in Japan. An old meditation monk…
• The pest man who fell off the roof — A pest exterminator keeps pitching his services; later falls from a roof cleaning gutters, hits…
• The PhD who was shown how to sweep — A PhD graduate can only find work sweeping floors in a supermarket and complains to the boss that…
• The pickaxe mum whose son won Iron Chef — An early Bodhinyana disciple helped smash rock for the ablution-block plumbing with a pickaxe,…
• The Pinjarra girl who fed the tiger snake — Elder in a Pinjarra home recalls: a little girl takes a saucer of milk under the stumped house…
• The pipe ad that made beauty follow him — Old TV pipe-tobacco ad: man lights up outside a greengrocer and beautiful women stream out of…
• The Playboy at the traffic lights — On a 40-degree day in the old Kombi with the windows down, young men in the next car on Leach…
• The poem by Adolf Hitler — In Opening the Door of Your Heart he included a beautiful poem about a son's unconditional love…
• The politician who talked the walk — On a free afternoon in Singapore, Ajahn Brahm takes his followers to a charity walk raising funds…
• The polka-dot bow tie — A Kalgoorlie builder dying of cancer comes to the monastery for counselling about death, dressed…
• The Pope, the Archbishop and the putt — The Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury settle church unity with 18 holes of golf. On the last…
• The postulant who tried too hard to be perfect — A former monastery postulant tells Ajahn Brahm in Melbourne that he was so afraid of breaking a…
• The pound note that blew into the fire — In his poor London childhood, a gust blows his father's one-pound note off the shelf into the coal…
• The prankster ghost and the three leaves — Two young English friends share a house in Perth; one dies young of cancer, promising to come back…
• The preceptor's snake in the lap — Ajahn Brahm's preceptor, later acting Sangharaja of Thailand, came out of deep meditation in a Koh…
• The premier who opened the jail — Visiting Canning Vale prison, Ajahn Brahm saw the plaque at the entrance: the prison had been…
• The priest who checked heaven and hell by train — A wealthy philosophy professor asks a priest whether virtuous non-Christians (Buddha, Socrates,…
• The priest who recognised Buddhist monks — Early Australia: asks a Catholic priest if 'monk/nun' is alright; priest says yes — not for robes…
• The principal who heard the three questions — Invited to an education seminar 'for the free breakfast', he's greeted by a woman: 'Do you…
• The prisoner who fed the cat — A depressed prisoner insists he is only a bad person. Ajahn Brahm has him list bad deeds on the…
• The professor and the old sailor: “Have you learned to swim?” — Sailing from Sydney to San Francisco, a professor quizzes an old sailor three nights running on…
• The professor examined on his own textbook — A visiting US professor of psychiatry coming to lecture at Sydney University must first pass an…
• The professor who ate the menu — A philosophy professor waits two months for a table at an exclusive restaurant, is handed a…
• The professor's overflowing cup — Japan's greatest philosopher, whom no one will debate, decides to debate the most famous…
• The promotion won with three questions — A Penang disciple working in customer relations at a big firm puts the emperor's three questions…
• The psychiatric team's flat battery — Several years ago a woman arrived one evening at Bodhinyana still wearing a hospital wristband…
• The punk and the old man — On a New York train a punk with multi-coloured spikes, razor-blade earrings and piercings snaps at…
• The rabbit who jumped into the pot — Traditional Buddhist children's tale of the rabbit in the moon: otter, jackal/hyena and rabbit…
• The ranger's spot check hit a fire drill — After a bushfire-era Fire and Emergency Service certificate (Mitchell Roberts presenting), a shire…
• The razor wheel in hell (Borobudur) — Shown a Borobudur carving, Ajahn Brahm tells of a man who pushed over his mother and, out of…
• The really dirty monk — Covered in concrete, Ajahn Brahm is asked by a well-dressed visitor where the abbot is; he sends…
• The Red Cross nurse knew meditation lowers blood pressure — Years ago he takes a young monk to donate blood on Wellington Street; the nurse already knows…
• The retreat cook on work release — Without a cook for a nine-day retreat at Jhana Grove, Ajahn Brahm finds Carl, a brilliant cook who…
• The retreat that ended a romance — As a Cambridge student with a lovely girlfriend (not a Buddhist), Ajahn Brahm asks her permission…
• The Rhodes scholar given permission to die — A fit Tennessee wrestler and Rhodes scholar, a fellow monk in Thailand, fell desperately ill and…
• The river and its banks — Q&A simile for what carries karma between lives: crossing the Swan River each Friday it looks the…
• The Rottweilers weren't chained — Visiting a house, he's told not to worry about the two Rottweilers — they're chained up — so he…
• The runaway car at Byford — Years ago, while Ajahn Brahm and a driver queue in the Byford post office, someone asks whose car…
• The runners who stopped — Many people have told Ajahn Brahm about a Paralympic final in which one competitor stumbled just…
• The runny nose before live TV — In Korea, at −15°C with snow everywhere, Ajahn Brahm wakes with a cold and a dripping nose — and…
• The samurai who asked about heaven and hell — A samurai who has asked everyone whether heaven and hell exist finally demands a straight answer…
• The sandflies weren't in the brochure — Invited to teach in New Zealand, Ajahn Brahm gets a brochure of Alpine mountains and placid lakes…
• The schoolboy who stopped skipping the bus fare — Poor schoolboy skips bus fares for pocket money until about 13–14; conscience says someone must…
• The secret security pen — “We like you, that's your best security device” — At a dangerous men's prison (Canning Vale, as he corrects himself) Ajahn Brahm is given a 'secret'…
• The senior monk who pretended to be angry — A nun in the Thai monastery grows skin-and-bones thin, insisting fasting helps her meditation; the…
• The shire ranger's mother at the foot of the bed — English shire ranger living alone in northern WA wakes mid-night; turns on the light; his sick…
• The sign outside the temple — A woman in Malaysia, a model with her own TV show, had hoped three months earlier that Ajahn Brahm…