Stories about change
6 Buddhist wisdom stories about change from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- From prison to 'Reservoir Dogs'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A boy who fled an abusive Los Angeles home at six becomes a career criminal. Near release in his late 40s or 50s, his case officer gets him a job advising on a gangster film; the…
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about this young kid, six years of age is when he ran away from home in Los Angeles I think he had one of these very abusive families, beating him, not really looking after him. So he left home and lived on the streets from the age of about six years of age. It's incredibly he survived but you know the only way to get by was petty crime and you get sort of arrested every now and again and from petty crime to bigger crime he became a career criminal and what changed his life. He’s in his late 40s or 50s was when he was shortly to be released from another spell in jail. He had a case officer who was trying to find him a job. How can he get a job? You know, once you've been in prison most of your life, who would employ you but she was very resourceful, she found just the right job with his life experience qualifications cos she knew a friend of a friend who was making a movie about gangsters and they wanted someone who really knew how true criminals spoke and acted. He was about to be released so she got him a job as a consultant in this gangster movie that he was highly qualified for that. But once the director saw him, he was so authentic, he gave him a part in the movie and he became one of the stars. The movie was called Reservoir Dogs it was a breakthrough movie of Quentin Tarantino. And this guy, he wrote this article, he was only six months out of jail he made this movie and he was sitting in a mansion in Malibu somewhere with more money he had ever had in his whole life. Because this movie was a success and he married that case officer he couldn't believe just how life changes so quickly, six months ago he's in prison with no money and prospects now he had more money than he could deal with and he was free and married and happy.
- Her mother stopped shoutingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A young woman in Bangkok whose whole family came to his talks never did herself — until she noticed her mother had stopped shouting at her so much. She came to the Phuket retreat…
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Just even Bangkok recently, sort of one of the girl, she told me, yeah, she knew me for a long time, but she hardly ever came to the talks. All her family did. And she came to my retreat in Phuket and started coming to all my talks because she saw the result on her mother. Her mother sort of stopped shouting at her so much. And that much was enough to say, "Hey, there's something going on here." So she wanted to try out and see if she could find out why her mother was a much nicer mother after she'd been meditating for such a long time.
- One toe in the poolAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: a four- or five-year-old who has only just learned to walk is taken to a pool for the first time. Mummy lets it dip one toe and take it out, then a foot, then a leg,…
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just like the story of the kid being taken, maybe four or five year old kid taken to the swimming pool to learn how to swim for the first time. Imagine what it must feel like be a child. You've just learned to walk, you know, be able to stand up and run without falling over. And now you have to to somehow understand and cope with this stuff which is not solid water, the whole pool of it. It's okay jumping in a puddle and making everybody wet but just a whole pool. So how do you get a kid to do that? So the mommy just lets it put one toe in first of all. Take it out. That feels okay. A whole foot. Take it out. Let's say it's only a foot. A leg. then dip it in and then take it out again. Mommy's still holding it. And then eventually you let the kid go into the pool. And once the kid's in the pool splashing about enjoying itself, it's very hard to get the kid out of the pool again. It's too much fun.
- The man who wouldn't drop his hempStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Two men go to an abandoned region to scavenge. Both bundle up hemp. Finding hemp cloth, one throws his hemp away and takes the cloth; the other says his bundle is good enough.…
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There's one of the old Buddhist stories—this is a story from the Digha Nikaya—where two men went out to an abandoned region where people have migrated, to see if they'd left anything of value which they could bring home for which they could make some money. As they went out to that abandoned village, one person found some old hemp, and told his friend so they made a big bundle of hemp to carry back to the village—it was worth something. And on the way, one of them noticed that there was some cloth made of hemp. He said, "This is what the hemps is for: to make cloth," so he threw away his bundle of hemp and took up the cloth. The other guy said, "No, this is already packed up. This is good enough for me." He didn't want to change. And then, later on, they found some cotton cloth. He said, "Cotton cloth is more important than my hemp cloth, so I'm going to throw out my hemp cloth and take the cotton cloth." The other guy said, "No, this hemp is good enough for me." And then they found some silk. One guy through away the cotton cloth and got some silk. The other guy—still with the pieces of hemp on his head—said, "No, this will do for me." One person was always willing to change for something better. And then after they found some silk, they found some silver. So he threw away his silk and took some silver. And eventually they found some gold, so he threw away the silver to take the gold. And when they arrived back home, one had a whole pack of gold, the other one had some hemp. And the beautiful way the Buddha told this story, he said, "The one who brought the hemp back brought no happiness to his family and got scolded by them. And the one who brought the gold back was welcomed with a lot of smiles by his family.
- The monk who ordained seven timesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the Buddha's time a man becomes a monk but misses his wife, so he disrobes; as soon as he gets home he wonders why he came back, and ordains again. Homesick, he disrobes again…
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It's all about one monk many years ago, in the time of the Buddha, and he became a monk, but as soon as he became a monk, he missed his wife. So, longing for his wife, being a bit homesick, he disrobed. And as soon as he got home, he said what did I come back for this? (LAUGHTER) Then he ordained again. As soon as he got ordained, he got homesick again— so he did that six or seven times. The very last time, he got fed up with his wife, so he went back to the monastery. They were about to say, "Not you again, make up your mind," but on the way to the monastery he became enlightened so they accepted him, and that was the last time. He became a monk for the seventh time.
- The number-two monk who had to become abbotStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm planned to stay number two behind Ajahn Jagaro — 'the car at the front of the convoy gets all the bugs on the windscreen' — until the head monk fell in love and left,…
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I never wanted to be an abbot. I never wanted to be a boss monk. I had it all worked out when I was a young because there was another monk here, Ajahn Jagaro before and I was number two. It was perfect. I always say it's a car in front of the convoy that gets all the bugs on the windscreen. The one going behind is free of the bugs. So I always had the idea of being number two, tailgating another person. Who wants to be a leader anyway? Anyone who's a leader is just a dummy. Anyone who wants to be prime minister? That's why if you want to be a prime minister or a president, you must want your head examined. It's much better being number two or number three or four, whatever, because that way you don't have to be out front taking all the flak and making all the hard decisions and stuff. But anyway, it didn't work out that way. Because I was number two, tailgating, and then the head monk fell in love and left. I ended up being, basically that's what happened. So it ended up me having to take over.