Stories about analogy
10 Buddhist wisdom stories about analogy from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Aircraft of the future — pilot and dogAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Airline magazine gag: future cockpit has only a pilot and a dog. Pilot's job is to feed the dog; dog's job is to bite the pilot if he touches the controls. Same with the mind —…
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aircraft of the future where in the cockpit they'd only have two beings in the cockpit, the pilot and the dog. That's all that be allowed in the cockpit. The job of the pilot, the only job he'd have would be to train or be sorry, the only job the pilot had would be to feed the dog and keep the dog happy. The only job of the dog would be to bite the pilot if he touches anything
- Chicken-shit currency — Ajahn Chah's predictionAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Chah predicts future currency will be pellets of chicken shit — bosses earn the most shit, IMF becomes International Manure Fund, governments promise more shit — value is what we…
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prediction. He used to say that in the future people will run out of paper to make bank notes and they will run out of metal to make coins. And so in the future they will use something very very common for their currency. They will use little pellets of chicken shit. And you'll go to work and the end of the work you'll be given a big bag of chicken shit depending on how hard you work. And your bosses will earn the most shit. And you would go to the bank to deposit and and see how much chicken shit you've got in the bank. And the IMF will be the International Manure Fund
- Crocodiles sleep with their mouths openAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: NE Thailand folk: lazy crocodiles sleep mouths open; flies walk in by themselves — no hunting needed.
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crocodiles over in northeast of Thailand would actually eat, how they would catch enough fish. They're very, very lazy, those crocodiles. And they didn't need to do very much. able to sleep out in the sunshine of the day with their mouths open. And once they were sleeping with their mouths open, of course, the flies went in all by themselves. They didn't need to hunt for flies. The flies just came
- Don't walk the ant path twiceAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: barefoot on Thai jungle paths you learn which trails the ants own — leave those past-biting paths alone and take another way (the present).
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barefoot through the jungle paths in Thailand because I didn't have any sandals and sometimes you would see where the ants left you would never walk on the paths where the ants were cuz they would bite you and they would sting and it was very painful you'd always find other paths where there were no ants
- Fall in the same hole three timesAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: walk down a street, fall in a muddy hole twice with shame, third time walk around it — heedfulness learning curve (from cancer-care wisdom).
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fall in a hole and it's, you know, it's just really muddy hole, dirty. It takes a really lot of effort to get out of that hole. So the next time they make a resolution, I've got to be more heedful. And they walk down that street and they still fall in that hole and they say, "Oh, I'm a terrible person." The third person, the third time, they go down that same street and now they really are heedful. So they walk around the hall
- Five fingers arguing who is most importantAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Fable: five fingers argue supremacy — mirror of egos asking who matters most in the Buddhist society.
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five fingers. Once upon a time there were five fingers and they were arguing which finger is the most important. You know that human beings like to do this, who's the most important? Who's the most important person in our Buddhist society? Is it the head monk, the head nun? Is it the committee? Who's the most important person in this Buddhist society
- Happytitis — very contagiousAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy/joke: not hepatitis — happytitis; stay long enough and you catch it.
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Not hepatitis, that's bad disease. This is happytitis. Very contagious. If you stay here long enough, you'll start [laughter] Okay, come on, laugh at it. You can catch it if you like
- Keep the cage door openAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: lock a bird and when the door finally opens it never returns; leave the door open and comfort inside — it flies and comes back. Power vs freedom in relationships.
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bird in a cage if I were a bird in a cage sooner or later if you keep locking the door and they can't get out sooner or later there's probability eventually that door be left open and that bird will fly away never to come back again alas it's got its freedom that's what happens when you keep a bird in a cage instead if you keep a bird in the cage door is left open bliss a nice cage nice food very comfortable and if the bird does fly away it always come back again
- King Canute ordering the tideAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: Canute stands on the beach and orders the tide out — nature does not obey kings.
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King Canute who stood apparently somewhere in England and because he thought it was a kingly emperor with divine rights he stood on the beach and tried to order the time to actually to go out when it was coming in and obviously he made a fool of himself because you cannot control nature
- The tight bud before it blossomsAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: First year in Perth someone tells him: watch a flower bud — petals press tight inside the protective sheath until catharsis, then it blooms gorgeous. Unpleasant pressure precedes…
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flower, somebody told me the first year I came here to to Perth. So many years ago, 36, 37 years ago now. They said, "Have you ever seen a flower just before it bursts into you know, the blossom, whatever it's called, bursts into flower? It's like a little bud. And if you can watch that bud, it gets you know, in the sheath. It gets so tight. As within that sheath which is supposed to be protecting it, all the little petals, the beautiful fragrant petals inside are growing and growing and growing. And the pressure is building up. In that sense, it must be very unpleasant for that time. But then there comes the point of catharsis and of change and the flower blooms. And it's gorgeous