Stories about blame
9 Buddhist wisdom stories about blame from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “But there were so many other robberies I got away with”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After the class an old prisoner earnestly tells Ajahn Brahm he's in jail for a robbery he didn't do — he was set up. Fired with a sense of justice, Ajahn Brahm is mentally…
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fellow who was in prison for something he didn't do. Imagine being put in jail for a crime you don't commit. And this poor gentleman he was over at Karnet prison farm and I used to go and see him. And he he came up to me one evening and he said, you know when I was visiting there. And he said: look Ajahn Brahm, I respect you. And you know I’m trying to change my life, trying to be a good person, keeping my precepts. So I won't lie to you. He said: I won't lie. I know other prisoners will all say they're innocent, they didn't do it. But I didn't do that crime. I didn't do that robbery. I’ve been put in jail for something I never did. And I’ve got a social conscience you know. You can't just let that happen to a poor person put in jail for a few years for a crime he didn't commit. And I also know that you know your ability to get a lawyer or just to call for help is so limited inside prison. So I thought I know people maybe I can take that cause up. Maybe I can sort of fight for his release from jail for a crime he never committed. But as I was thinking like that the this this scallywag of a prisoner he looked at me and he broke into this you know almost like a few teeth missing smile. And he said he said: But Ajahn Brahm, it's true I honestly I never did that crime. I never did that robbery. But he said since I listened to you
- “Donald, duck!”Joke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An assassin pulls a gun on Donald Trump; the Secret Service shout “Donald, duck!” — and the gunman can't pull the trigger, he's too busy laughing.
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there was an assassination attempt somebody tried to kill him and they pulled out a gun and the Secret Service when they saw the gun they shouted out Donald Duck and the government couldn't pull him couldn't couldn't pull the trigger he was too busy laughing
- 'I sent you two boats and a helicopter'Joke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a flood in southern Malaysia, a monk devoted to Kwan Yin, the goddess of mercy, climbs onto his roof. A rescue boat comes: 'No, Kwan Yin will save me.' As the water rises he…
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There was this flood. Apparently, this was in southern Malaysia a long time ago. And there was this this Buddhist monk who was a devotey of the goddess of mercy, Quanin. And as the floods came, he had to climb up onto his roof. And as he climbed up onto his roof, the floodwaters rose and rose and the venerable, the seafood, that's what they call the monks in in uh in Malaysia in in China, seafue, the seafue was on top of the roof. When the rescue boat came past and the rescue boat crew said, "Jump in, jump in. We've come to save you." He said, "No, I don't need to be saved. I'm a devotey of the goddess of mercy. She will save me. She's never let me down. I have faith. They said, "Look, jump in now. The flood waters arise." He said, "No, leave me alone. Go and save somebody else who doesn't believe in quanin. I am going to be safe." So, okay. Have you met people like that before? Anyway, the flood waters rose and so the fellow was on top of the roof. You know those curly bits on the end of the roof? He was clinging on to one of those. And the boat came past again and said, "Sefu, seafue, we really admire your faith. It's wonderful, but now please jump in the boat." He said, "No, I have faith in the goddess of mercy. She will save me." So they couldn't force him to jump in. So they went away to save somebody else. The floodwaters rose and now he was holding on to his TV aerial. That was the last thing to hold on to. He was holding on to that as a flood waters were sweep sweeping past him. It was too strong for the boat. So they said helicopter and the helicopter dropped the the ladder down and they shouted out she grabbed onto the rope and he shouted out no need I have faith inwin she will save me how was the special effects with they need some feedback every now and She will save me. Hold on to the rope. No. They couldn't force him. So the the helicopter went to save someone else. You know what happened? He drowned. He died. And when he went to heaven, don't worry whether it's a heaven or not. It fits into the story. When he went to heaven, when he went to heaven, oh, he was in a filthy mood. He was really upset and angry. And the first person wanted to say, "I want to see that Kwan Yin." And he went out, he found her up there. And when he went up, he said, "You really let me down. You embarrassed me. I'm You make me ashamed that all those years I've been believing in you. When I really needed you, you let me down. I'm brown." And like most heavenly beings, she looked down upon this devotey and says, "Sefu in a very soft, kind voice, Seu, I didn't let you down. Didn't I send you two boats and one helicopter?
- Itch on your head, scratching your bottomAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah's one-liner on blame, applied to the newly built monastery wall a backhoe pushed over: blaming someone is like having an itch on your head and scratching your bottom.…
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he said if you blame somebody who's responsible for pushing that wall over body nana monastery who's responsible for making that big mistake who is responsible for not doing it in time who's responsible for not sending emails correctly who's responsible he said that is like having an itch on your head and you scratch your bum think about it if you've got an itch down here and you scratch your head does the itch go away of course not but you get two itches for the price of one
- She failed her exams — and blamed the monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A first-year Malaysian student asks Ajahn Brahm to chant for her exams. Later her friends tell him she's going round the university saying he's a hopeless monk — because she…
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Malaysian girl, though she came to me to do some chanting, she was doing her uh, I forget, first, second, third year university exams or whatever it was. And she said: “Can you do some chanting? Got my exams next week.” So I chanted chanted chanted really give everything I’ve got for exams, and afterwards, She never came back. I never saw her again. But some of her friends came and told me, said she's going around turning all of her friends: “Ajahn Brahm is a bad monk. Ajahn Brahm is no good
- Thank you, burglarStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When burglars steal generators, chainsaws and expensive equipment from the Bodhinyana workshop, Ajahn Brahm thanks them: the gear was old, and insurance bought new — they came…
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Recently we had a break-in at Bodhinyana monastery. They pinched some chainsaws. Straightaway, I said they can pinch the chainsaws, they can steal that, but they're not going to steal our peace and compassion. We're not going to worry about that. In fact it turned out to be really good because those chainsaws were quite old and the insurance allowed us to get much better ones. [laughter] So if ever that thief is around, come up here and we'll say thankyou.
- The mangy dog who tried to run awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A dog with mange suffers terrible itching and blames the village, so runs off to the forest — still itchy. It tries the pond, the shade, the sun, the shelter of a rock;…
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There's one of Ajahn Chah's favourite stories and this actually comes from an old story in the Buddhist commentary. Once there was a dog and the dog had mange. And the dog's skin was so itchy, no matter if it scratched it, the mange, the skin disease got worse. That's why sometimes in poor countries you see dogs with no hair. So this mangy dog was just having such a lot of suffering and so he decided to run away from the village and live in the forest. So he went in the forest but still had the suffering there. So he went actually under water in the pond but still his back itched. So then he went under the shade of a tree, then out in the sun, then under a rock. Wherever that dog went it was always suffering until it realised it wasn't the village's fault, it wasn't the other dogs. It wasn't the forest or the shade or the sun or the rock's fault. It was actually carrying around the mange inside of itself.
- The one-shoe thiefStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For weeks, people at the Friday-night talks kept losing shoes — but only ever one of a pair. Was it a one-legged thief? Then the owner of the dog next door looked in its kennel…
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But there was the time here when people were losing shoes but it was really weird, it was only one, one shoe of the pair. And this was happening for weeks, it's a true story, we wondered what was going on? Was it a one-legged man? We're looking at all the people with one leg coming in here stealing shoes… [laughter] And then we found out the answer, it was actually the dog next door. [laughter] You were in here, the dog was coming in, he had some fetish for shoes, because the owner looked in its kennel and the kennel was half full of shoes from you people. [laughter] Look, the dog had just snuck up, taken a shoe back every Friday night and after only a couple of months of that, had a kennel full of shoes.
- Who left the hammer out?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Newly abbot and very strict, Ajahn Brahm finds a donated hammer rusting in the grass at Bodhinyana. He gathers the monks and scolds them fiercely about wasting donors' gifts,…
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One of my famous mistakes was, oh this is so embarrassing, but there was this one case many years ago in our monastery down at Serpentine. I was the abbot, I'd only just taken over from the previous monk Ajahn Jagaro, so and I was trying to do the best thing, and try to make sure our monks were really trained. And for those of you who don't know the way that the monastery is supported. You know, we don't have any cash as monks but people offer the things which we need, whether it's robes, whether it's glass of water, or glasses for my eyes, or whether it's the tools to build the monastery, whether it's the bricks to build that monastery, whatever. And because everything which we have as a monk is donated, even this robe I wear, was donated, don’t buy it yourself. I was taught to really respect everything which you are given. Even my robe, you know, I tore it on the aircraft a couple of weeks ago, so you don't just throw it away, just put a patch on it. Even my bag has got heaps of patches on it. Even though you get a new one, no no, patch it, because this comes from the generosity of all our supporters. We really want to make these things last as long as possible out of respect. So you can imagine what I felt when I was walking through Serpentine monastery and I saw a hammer lying in the grass, which was going rusty. Now obviously someone had left that hammer out there for quite a while, because you know, it had the orange rust on it. And I thought that's not acceptable, because someone, someone had saved some money up and brought a hammer to give it to the monks, to help build our monastery so you can come there and we can live there. So I was going to give a talk that evening and so I got all the monks together and instead of giving a talk on the subject I thought I was talk on, I talked on “looking after these things”. Now, all of the stuff which you are given monks comes from hard-working laypeople, and not everyone is rich, these ordinary people, some people are actually just on pensions and they still come and help and you must respect those people and their generosity. And you've not allowed to leave thing out in the garden to get rusty as if they're worth nothing. Yeah you never bought it but you got to respect these things. I was really tough on the monks, you know, not like I am now really laid it in. Actually the monks were all sitting dead straight. You know what it's like when you tell somebody off. Sitting dead straight and the colour was drained from their faces because I really hammering it with the hammer. And I didn't mean to say that, sorry, and when I finished the talk, you know, okay I gave them a hard time, but it wasn't that hard and I really thought that one of the monks, you know, the monk responsible put their hand up and say it was them. And no one would admit it, and that was the most disappointing thing of all. Okay leaving the hammer, that was a bad thing but not actually confessing and acknowledging and owning up, now that actually really hurt me. And actually I left that hall feeling very miserable and I thought that what type of monks am i living with? or maybe did I sort of shout at them too much that they wouldn't admit it? it was, actually only when I got out the hall, I actually understood why no monk admitted that they left the hammer there because I suddenly remembered who had actually left the hammer out there. It was me. I'd left it out there a few days ago. I meant it to come and collect it and put it away but I've totally forgot about it. Now fortunately, it was only when I scolded everybody else that I remembered who it was. And I had to go back in the hall, I said sit down again I've got something to say. It was me who left the hammer there. It’s very embarrassing but very good fun because it showed that even the monk said I make mistakes as well, I do stupid things. Now did I feel embarrassed? Really embarrassed about that? No, I thought wow this is another story I could use on a Friday night.