Stories about boundaries
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about boundaries from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Can I ask a meditation question — in the toilet?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a long Jockey Club auditorium talk and an hour of book-signing he finally reaches the gents; a man washing his hands turns: Ajahn Brahm, can I ask you a question on…
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by the time I got to the toilet you know as knows this was the jockey club auditorium in the one of the universities over again it was one of these big toilets you know the mail toilets and as soon as I got in it is the sense yes I can actually go to the toilet now and as soon as I walked in the door this guy was just washing his hands and he turned to me so Oh a giant problem can I ask you a question on meditation within the toilet there's a good good anecdote for people anyway just I survived somehow other
- Christmas cards to the adversariesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Huge clay trucks with trailers thunder down the steep, narrow road past Bodhinyana; Ajahn Brahm sees one tip over and realises anyone in front would be killed, so the monastery…
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many years ago, this is part of the history of Bodhinyana Monastery, we had a huge problem with clay trucks past our monastery. It was noisy but that wasn't the main problem as I keep on mentioning. It was the danger of those huge trucks with trailers down that steep, narrow road. And once, I saw one of those trailers tip over. They lost control. And I saw that and that was very scary. Because I knew if any one of you would come to visit our monastery or a monk was visiting the monastery or going or if I was coming or going, if we'd been in front of that truck, we'd have no chance, we'd be dead. So because of that I thought, we have to actually fight this, this is wrong. But I was very impressed with the secretary at the time, it was actually Ajahn Sujato. Because during all this time, in court cases and legal wranglings, because it had to get to that. During this whole time, it came to Christmas, and our secretary wrote Christmas cards, Happy Christmas, may you have a wonderful new year to all our adversaries. That really shook them and undermined what they thought of us. If you're having a legal case with someone and you send someone a Christmas card they think, 'My goodness what's going on here?' We even got told off, I think because we're only supposed to legally contact our adversaries through our lawyers. We should have sent the Christmas card to our lawyer who would have given it to their lawyer who would have then given it to the adversary. [laughs] Crazy system. We just sent it straight to them. So that, even actually your adversaries, you're actually giving some loving kindness because we realised it wasn't our, it was a common problem, it was our problem so we have to work together somehow or another. Even during a legal battle, no ill will.
- Meditating mum — knife and gas threatsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Armadale Tuesday-night mum of a four- and six-year-old sits anyway. Kids climb, demand water, pull hair; then escalate: Johnny has a kitchen knife, Julianne turned on the gas.…
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I am going to meditate no matter what and of course what happened as soon as she sat down I think she had about four-year-old and a six-year-old kid they started climbing all over her mommy mommy mommy I need to go we Mommy Mommy Mommy I need glass of water but she said no I deserve my peace so she did not react or move and then they started pulling her hair again she just took it and did not react at all so then the two kids decided to get serious one of them said Mommy Mommy Johnny has got a knife out of the kitchen drawer Mommy Mommy Julianne has turned on the gas but I really admire that W she said I don't care you can kill yourself if you like blow up the house I'm meditatin
- Sit and meditate — or get outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An ex-monk supporting the BSWA, meditating at a Thai cremation-ground monastery, feels a tug on his outstretched leg and then a foul-smelling presence entering his hut. He puts…
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There's one of the ex-monks who's still alive and still supports uh our Buddhist society. He told me once that he was in one monastery which was a cremation ground over in Thailand. And it's supposed to have been notorious for ghosts. And he was meditating there one day. And you know what it's like when you meditate, sometimes you get tired. So, he had his legs stretched out, leaning against the wall. And he felt somebody pull his leg. I don't mean a joke, it actually tugged it. And he thought, "Oh, this must be like a good spirit trying to make him be more diligent." But, that was only the start of this being coming into his hut. Cuz the being was starting to come in. And he would notice it coming in cuz it had a very bad smell. And he soon realized it was one of the ghosts. And it would always um tease him. Or just try and irritate him. But, the way he overcame that, and this is why I tell the story, anyone of you have any problems with ghosts, the way he overcame that was one day he put another cushion next to him. When the ghost came in, he said, "You can come in, but you sit down and meditate like me, or get out of here." He scolded the ghost. And because he scolded the ghost, that was the last time the ghost came in.