Stories about blessings
3 Buddhist wisdom stories about blessings from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Blessings are cheering for your teamAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: when supporters shout 'Come on, the Dockers! Come on, the Eagles!', the team does better. That's what his chanting and blessings are — shouting for you: 'Come on, you can…
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when you shout for your football team. ‘Come on, the Dockers, come on, the West Coast Eagles, come on!’. When you actually shout for your team and you've got lots of supporters, of course, the team do much better. You're encouraging them. So that's what I do to you. When I do the chanting and the blessings, I just shout for you, ‘come on, you can do it, yeah, come on, yes yes yes!’. That's what I did for that guy in the ICU, ‘come on, you can come out of coma, come on, yeah, you can, yes, you did it
- The lottery shop he blessedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Asked to bless a friend-of-a-friend's new small business, a busy Ajahn Brahm gives it his full blessing without asking what it is. A year or two later the West Australian reports…
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this was of this blessing once a Friend of mine here. He said the friend of a friend one of the people who came here very often And he's moved out of Perth now. He said one of his friends was opening up a small business Can I come and bless the business for him and of course you know just a blessing is just just giving you extra energy? You know making you feel good Just like you know the your honor the grounds of the football stadium or the cricket pitch and you cheer on your team Just my father cheered me on when I was playing soccer that meant a lot to me that made lifted up my spirit So I decided to go and chant for this business But you know I do get very busy sometimes and sometimes I forget to ask what type of business is it and this was a lottery store I Won't say which which shopping center this was in but I went there just opening out first time and I Really gave it a big full blessing ajahn brahm superpower And it was only about a year later two years later. I read in the West Australian Saturday edition clue to get the Saturday paper here to find out what's going on and There was a big article about this the most successful lottery outlet in Australia And I realized oh my goodness the one that I blessed I better not bless anymore
- Twelve blessed strings for Sri LankaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During a one-day match at the WACA, with Australia hammering Sri Lanka, young helpers come to Ajahn Brahm: the Sri Lankan captain wants holy string from a good monk. He blesses…
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This was the um the time I got into trouble. I had to I had hid this for many years. I should have just admitted it straight away. And that was with the with the um cricket. Many of the Sri Lankans know this story. I haven't told this to the the last uh uh there's a Sri Lankan New Year over in 70th anniversary was it Was it? Or independence or whatever. Anyway, in front of the the former um governor of Western Australia, Quentin Bryce. And she reminded me of this. But fortunately she's she's retired now, so I can't get into any more trouble about this because it was the um sometime people ask, "What are you doing going to the Sri Lankan Independence Day when you're a Brit? You know, that's like you know, that they kicked your ancestors out of the country. So what are you coming to celebrate?" I said, "Because I support Sri Lanka and their cricket team." Because what happened? There was a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the old West Australian cricket ground, the WACA. And only one day match. And at lunch interval the Australians, they were just hammering the Sri Lankans. They were winning by such a big amount. So some of the boys who actually come here, they were helping out at the stadium. They came here and said, "Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Brahm, we've been asked by the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team to get some holy string from a good monk and we think you're a good monk. Can you do this blessing string?" And so now I shouldn't have done this. I mean, it's a ridiculous thing to do, but I I blessed 12 pieces of string. Cuz you know, one for the 12th man in the cricket. I knew cricket. So 12 pieces of string I blessed and I sent them to the ground. You know what happened? Sri Lanka lost. But because they asked for it too late. [laughter] But that was not the really important match because that that was a warm-up game for the World Cup cricket. And as every Sri Lankan knows the Sri Lankans had never won much before. But this they had the final Sri Lanka this World Cup cricket final, Sri Lanka versus Australia. And you know how much Australians love their cricket. And Sri Lanka won. Against all predictions, Sri Lanka beat Australia and won the World Cup cricket. And that was Any Sri Lankan remembers that. Remember the occasion. It was uh the captain. I remember his name, Arjuna Ranatunga. Cuz I saw people show me in the the Western Australian newspaper, the big picture of the captain holding up the World Cup and the whole Sri Lanka, they just celebrated. I don't know for how long. And of course Australia was just so upset. They just missed out. But as he was holding up the cup, you know what I saw? On his hand my string. It was my string which was on all of the cricketers' hands there except the Australians. That was why they won the World Cup. Cuz an Australian monk and it took years before I admitted that. Otherwise I got kicked out of the country.