Stories about beginnings
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about beginnings from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A hundred cakes and nowhere to sleepStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For a Serpentine monastery fundraiser, about a hundred home-baked cakes fill the tiny Magnolia Street kitchen. Ajahn Brahm's bedroom is next door; all night he smells fresh cake…
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Actually, you know, the worst suffering I ever had when I first came here just to that was this house in Magnolia Street, North Perth where we first lived. Cuz one day they were doing they were doing this fundraiser for our the monastery down at Serpentine. They decided to have a cake stall. So one Friday night it's only a small house in a really small house in North Perth. And everybody brought these cakes, you know, home baked cakes and they put them you know, in the kitchen. Maybe about 100 cakes there. You know what a freshly baked baked cake uh smells like? And everybody went home after the Friday evening. And I went into the room right next to the kitchen. That was my bedroom where I slept. You couldn't sleep. You had all this aroma freshly baked cakes in your room and you couldn't eat any of them and it's really unfair. And all you could smell all night is like the smell of freshly baked cakes. That was the most tortured evening I ever had. You can smell them. You can't eat them.
- Almost no equity on Magnolia StreetStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Jagaro looked at the fledgling BSWA's books at 4 Magnolia Street, North Perth, the house was worth about $50,000 and they owed nearly $49,000 — almost…
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Look at this place. If you didn't know where we started from, 35 years ago, 36 years, or about roughly about that, a tiny little house in North Perth, number 4 Magnolia Street, if any of you want to check it out. Should have a little sign in here. This is the start of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. With Ajahn Jagaro and I, I remember going in there and just looking at, there was no security, no um trying to sort of find out, you know, the the membership list and everything. It's everything was out in the open. So, I looked and said, "Oh, you know, what's our what's our bank account balance?" And how much do we owe for the house? And I remember being so surprised and shocked that the house was worth $50,000. And we owed 49,000 and a bit to the bank. And I said, "No equity at all, basically." [laughter] And that's where we started.
- First night at Bodhinyana, under a treeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first night at the Serpentine land that became Bodhinyana, Ajahn Brahm's bed was an old door — but he couldn't find it. The batteries in his torch gave out, and after…
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I literally spent the first night at that place under a tree on the ground I did have a a bed to sleep on which was just an old door but I couldn't find it the batteries in my torch gave out I was wandering around an hour and after hour not finding where I was supposed to be sleeping there was a blanket there and a pillow so I just found the nearest tree and slept underneath it at night that was my first time at a monastery at Bodin Monastery in Serpentine it was really cold but he could sleep it was okay it was a bit of fun really
- Fridge full, no one cameStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the first year or two at Magnolia Street, food in the fridge could not be eaten unless presented that day. Sometimes nobody came; they watched the clock to noon with a full…
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When we first came here to we lived in a little house in Magnolia Street there with Ajahn Chah the two of us and we have a rule that you know, we can't sort of eat food ourselves. It has to be presented to us in the morning time. It's presented the night before the day before that set. We can't eat it. Has to be presented to us that particular day. And it did happen many times. We get up in the morning and no one came. We looked inside the fridge. The fridge was full of food. We were counting down to noon. After we can't eat after noon. 11:00 still no one had come. And you can look inside the fridge and all this food was there. 11:30 still no one had come. 11:55 12:00 no food that day. We used to survive. It's only just fasting for a day. It's no big deal. But that was only in the first few the year or two of being a monk over here.