Stories about choice
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about choice from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 'Number one!'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On the monks' Saturday-morning alms round in Perth, a young Australian gave Ajahn Brahm the one-finger sign. He chose not to be offended: maybe the man was really saying the…
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the last time I went on arms round, this uh young Aussie guy saw us and gave me the one finger sign. Now, they gave you know, you know, you know the one finger sign. I'm not going to demonstrate it here, otherwise you may think that I'm doing this on purpose rather than just a demonstration for um educational purposes. So, they gave me the one finger sign. So there you had a choice again to be offended or to laugh or to even see if you can perceive it in a positive way. So I looked upon that and saying what he was really saying but he just got the finger the wrong wrong way round that we were number one Buddhism is the best. So that's where you have the choice and I exercise that choice not to get offended and interpret it. I mean, it's very unlikely that that was actually the truth, but it could have been.
- The wet-road skid — crash or swerveStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Wet road; car ahead stops for a pedestrian; Brahm skids and must choose rear-end crash or swerve through the crossing — swerves, barely misses the pedestrian, remembers how close…
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started skidding. And I remember this moment. I had a choice, a choice of just crashing into the back of the car. I don't know what damage it did to myself. I had enough sort of control to swerve around the car but not stop and just go through the pedestrian crossing without any control, to maybe crashing into the pedestrian. On those moments, you know what I did? I swerved around the car and took my chances. I just missed the pedestrian, thank goodness