All stories, A–Z
1,224 Buddhist wisdom stories, analogies and jokes — page 12 of 13. Browse by theme or life situation, or describe your situation to get a match.
T
- “This must be your dad” — At a wedding blessing Ajahn Brahm assumes the older man beside the young man is his father — and…
- “This robe, or naked” — A Norwegian manager ordains in Perth to his family's dismay. When his father falls ill his mother…
- Three months without looking at a girl — One of Ajahn Chah's own stories: as a lusty 18- or 19-year-old novice in a town monastery, he…
- Three smiling bodies in the morgue — A coroner explains three smiling corpses to a policeman: one died of a heart attack with his…
- Three thousand Singapore executives heard the gaps — In a Singapore hall of about 3,000 busy executives who said they could not meditate, he asked them…
- Three-day village parties with petrol generators — As a young monk in rural Thailand he learns old parties ran for three days: when people tired they…
- Tickets sold faster than Lady Gaga's — In Medan, Indonesia, about 3–4,000 cheap tickets for Ajahn Brahm's talk sold out in ~30 minutes…
- Tiger's Nest climb — then a hot bath — Bhutan: climbs Tiger's Nest in thin air panting; hotel has a bath — usually too much indulgence…
- Time your anger — try to beat your record — A teacher tells someone who always gets angry: next time, put a clock in front of you and see how…
- Tolstoy's screaming patient falls quiet — Ajahn Brahm recalls a Tolstoy story read as a student: a wealthy man in constant pain screams day…
- Too comfortable to waste on sleep — Once Ajahn Brahm lay in bed unable to sleep — probably too much tea — worrying he wouldn't get to…
- Toothache in the night — In his first year at a Thai monastery, with an empty medicine cabinet and no telephone, Ajahn…
- Top of medicine by being silent — A woman tells Ajahn Brahm she came top every year in medicine at Melbourne University with…
- Toss a coin to find out what you want — Advice for a hard decision: toss a coin — heads I marry her, tails I don't. If it comes up heads…
- Total listening — the counsellor threw away her learning — Wealthy client exhausted usual therapies; counsellor at a Buddhist conference describes going…
- Train so you can shoot over their heads — Ajahn Chah's disciple faces conscription; Chah says train hard on the firing range so you are a…
- Training dolphins, training husbands — From a psychology magazine: a PhD student studying how marine parks train dolphins — throw a fish…
- Treat the part that is not schizophrenia — Singapore schizophrenia-unit professor (Catholic): he doesn't treat schizophrenia — he treats the…
- Trees give shade to the one cutting them down — A forest sign in Sri Lanka: trees are so kind they even give shade to the person cutting them down…
- 'Trespassers will be converted' — To keep wanderers out of the quiet Jhana Grove retreat centre, the society knew 'Trespassers will…
- Twelve blessed strings for Sri Lanka — During a one-day match at the WACA, with Australia hammering Sri Lanka, young helpers come to…
- Twenty minutes to cry in a Bangkok temple — A Western visitor interested in Buddhism sees a young woman crying her eyes out on a bench in a…
- Twenty-six sheep — ten die — how many survive? — Math riddle: 26 sheep in a field, 10 die — how many survive? Not 16 — twenty sick sheep.
- Two bad bricks in the wall — Building the broke new monastery at Serpentine, the ex-physicist monk lays his first brick wall…
- Two cakes: karma as ingredients — Simile (from Opening the Door of Your Heart): one person bakes a cake with mouldy old flour, cheap…
- Two child killings, two societies — Ajahn Brahm recalls an article comparing two similar tragedies. In England, a toddler (Jamie…
- Two crooked bricks at the Chinese university — Invited to the Chinese University in Sha Tin (captioned Chartin), Hong Kong, because of student…
- Two fingers to push up a smile — As a student, his meditation teacher tells him to smile at himself in the toilet mirror every…
- Two hours on Ajahn Chah instead of a car factory — Thaksin, then Prime Minister of Thailand, told Ajahn Brahm that a head of the Ford Motor Company…
- Two hours on Bunbury beach — With a free afternoon before teaching at Bunbury prison, Ajahn Brahm meditates for two hours, eyes…
- Two hours signing books in Jakarta — After a talk of four or five thousand in Jakarta, a huge line wants books signed and photos — two…
- Two monks argue about the fish tank — Waiting for lunch: one monk says fish tanks are prisons; the other says tanks protect fish from…
- Two monks tell each other who they are — After a three-month rains retreat together, Ajahn Brahm and another Western monk sit down and tell…
- Two shopping bags — past and future — Carry two heavy shopping bags: left = PAST, right = FUTURE (hopes, fears, anxiety). Feel the lean;…
- Two sisters and one orange — Two sisters argue over the last orange — whose turn it is — and finally compromise by cutting it…
U
- Under a gynaecologist, and no pyjamas — On his last hospital stay, at Rockingham, Ajahn Brahm is admitted under a family-friend doctor who…
- 'Urinal for dogs' — When Ajahn Brahm was a young monk, the town of Ubon had too few public toilets, and tuk-tuk…
V
- Volunteering with the kids who taught him to be hugged — At Cambridge, when a Christian friend starts volunteering at the local mental hospital, Ajahn…
- Vomiting through the book signing — On an Indonesia tour Ajahn Brahm's stomach turns during a talk and the book-signing queue. He…
- Vultures of metaphysics — Ajahn Chah on overly intellectual people: they're like vultures — they fly very high in…
W
- Wait at the crossroads for the bus — Simile from Opening the Door of Your Heart: a decision is like arriving at a crossroads. You don't…
- Walking home from the airport without asking — With no money, Ajahn Brahm finds people offer him a cup of tea at the airport. One of his monks…
- Walking into the DMZ — During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior…
- Walking off with everything he owned on his back — After five years as a monk in Thailand (around 1979) Ajahn Brahm leaves his monastery to wander on…
- Walking up the hill instead of driving — After nine years of only driving up to Bodhinyana, Ajahn Brahm gets out at the foot of the hill…
- Watch out for falling rocks — A dying Comanche chief sends Geronimo and Fallen Rocks to hunt buffalo for 30 days; Geronimo…
- Waving from the stretch limo — A Buddhist family's first child, born with complications, dies after a few months despite the…
- “We love you, Dad” — Two daughters sit holding their comatose father's hands in a Perth hospital. After his last breath…
- 'We'll never forget you' — The day after giving a talk at Mercedes College, a girls' school next to the Catholic cathedral in…
- “We've never heard a talk in Sanskrit before” — A group visiting from Thailand asks for a talk in Thai, so Ajahn Brahm, fluent after years there,…
- Weeping at the grave of his wife's first husband — A man sobs at a grave in Karrakatta, “Why did you die?” Asked if it is his father or son, he says…
- 'Welcome to Australia, mate. Have a beer.' — A Vietnamese boat person, just in sight of the Australian shore, was greeted by two West…
- What boys and girls really want — At a big youth conference in Kuala Lumpur, Ajahn Brahm splits the teenagers by sex. He asks the…
- “What day of the week is it?” — As a forest monk he lived without calendars or clocks and sometimes didn't know the month or year.…
- What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday? — What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday? 'Aye matey' (I'm eighty).
- What do people drink in England? Grey tea — Winter England gag: sky, buildings, coats all grey — punchline grey tea; stiff upper lip is just…
- “What do you guys get out of this?” — the free talk — A caller keeps asking how much she must pay to attend Ajahn Brahm's talk; told repeatedly it is…
- What drug is he giving you? — A high-flying Sydney executive has to beg and grovel to her boss for time off for a nine-day…
- What fun does a monk have? None — Father's old joke: What fun does a monk have? None. Brahm still laughs — and insists monks…
- “What if a tree did not fall when we were underneath it?” — Walking home from Rabbit's house through a storm, little Piglet freezes as trees crash around…
- What if it doesn't come back? — At the opening of a new campus of the Cancer Support/Wellness Association in Cottesloe, Ajahn…
- “What if they kill you?” — the monk bound for a rough country — A monk tells the Buddha he wants to take the Dhamma to a faraway country. The Buddha warns that…
- What is two plus two? — Three candidates for preselection in a safe Australian seat are asked the same question: what is 2…
- 'What prison were you in?' — When Ajahn Brahm's predecessor Ajahn Jagaro disrobed and applied for jobs in the United States,…
- “What type of chairman are you?” — At a Buddhist Society committee meeting an old chair collapses under a committee member; Ajahn…
- “What's done is finished” — A Thai abbot sends the builders home for the three-month rains retreat, leaving his new hall…
- “What's the Buddhist idea of God?” — At the same chaplains' conference, a well-known Jesuit (Frank Brennan, Ajahn Brahm thinks) asks…
- “Whatever those monks are on, I want some” — A past president of the Buddhist Society, Rachel Green, first came only to learn meditation for…
- 'Whatever you're doing, come and do it again' — Years ago a senior prison officer at the Canning Vale jail phones Ajahn Brahm insisting he come…
- When am I going? — At Wat Pah Pong, Ajahn Chah tells the young monk Ajahn Jagaro he is being sent to another…
- “When did you have your accident?” — A retreatant reports that as she grew still her back became very hot, not painfully. Ajahn Brahm…
- When we had no hospital, people were so healthy — One of Ajahn Chah's chief disciples (interviewed in a BBC documentary; Brahm briefly confuses him…
- Where everybody thinks the same, no one thinks at all — At Dalhousie University he joked their Latin motto should be replaced with: where everybody thinks…
- Where's the bog then? — Ajahn Brahm's Cambridge neighbour, a Yorkshireman from Leeds (he says 'from Ukraine' then…
- Which of the five horses are you? — Five horses: the first obeys a word; the second needs only the shadow of the whip; the third a…
- Whisper when close, shout when distant — A monk in Indonesia offers a simile: lovers whisper 'I love you'; when upset people shout 'you…
- White knuckles on the first bicycle — Young Ajahn Brahm's father saves up for his first bicycle; he keeps falling off until he notices…
- Who learned the most after Cyclone Nargis — Groups in Singapore took privileged, highly educated teenagers to southern Myanmar to help…
- Who left the hammer out? — Newly abbot and very strict, Ajahn Brahm finds a donated hammer rusting in the grass at…
- Who sits next to God? — A man who went to church every Sunday, gave donations and kept the Ten Commandments dies and goes…
- Who's the beggar? — In India a rich man comes out of a temple and a beggar asks him for a donation. 'Go and get a…
- Why ants don't get COVID — Why don't ants get COVID? Because they've got antibodies.
- Why did I get shot? — A man drafted into the Thai army, wounded in a border skirmish, comes to Ajahn Chah asking what…
- Why did the chewing gum cross the road? — Riddle he promised to try out: why did the piece of chewing gum cross the road? Because it was…
- “Why did you call me a …?” — the surgeon's outburst — A wealthy London woman with an expensive Harley Street surgeon dies for a few minutes on the…
- “Why don't you come and stay with us?” — the monk in Casuarina Prison — A monk teaching at a high-security prison describes monastery life (4 am rising, one meal, hard…
- Why he felt no grief: his father's death and the great concert — Ajahn Brahm's father, whom he loved very much, died when he was 16, and he couldn't understand why…
- Why shoes stay outside Buddhist temples — Someone asked why people don't wear shoes in Buddhist temples. His answer: so if he tells a bad…
- Why some are born intelligent — From a sutta: a man asks the Buddha what karma makes people wealthy, then what makes them…
- Why the bride wears white — Wedding joke he tells at ceremonies: why does the bride wear white and the groom black? White is…
- Why the German worked harder in Australia — A society member who migrated from West Germany before reunification is told by Australian…
- Why you never see elephants in trees — A joke a man told him: why don't you see elephants hiding in trees? Because they're too good at…
- “Why?” — Ajahn Chah's answer: nothing — After an inspiring talk by Ajahn Chah, the young monk skips attending him at the sauna and sits…
- Working backwards from the solution — Some ten years earlier Ajahn Brahm attended a high-powered think tank in the Whitsunday Islands,…
- Worried he'd have to be abbot — When the 2004 tsunami hits, Ajahn Brahm is in Penang. His number-two monk back home hears that…
- Wow, this is good, ain't it, Brahm? — The coarse Australian who single-handedly built Bodhinyana's concrete water tanks asks 'Brahm' if…
- Wrap yourself a gift of peace — For a birthday or anniversary, wrap an empty box carefully, put inside a paper that says 'peace —…
- Wrong cemetery, and a hearse with three heavy passengers — A former Sydney funeral director tells how hearses sometimes go to the wrong cemetery, and how on…
- Wrong Mrs Kaur — take her back — In Ven. Nibbūto's Sikh village, where men are Singh and women Kaur, an old lady is certified dead…
Y
- Yeah, that's right — both monks and neither — Two monks argue whether rebirth matters; each separately gets 'yeah, that's right' from the abbot;…