Stories about community
14 Buddhist wisdom stories about community from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Five fingers arguing who is most importantAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Fable: five fingers argue supremacy — mirror of egos asking who matters most in the Buddhist society.
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five fingers. Once upon a time there were five fingers and they were arguing which finger is the most important. You know that human beings like to do this, who's the most important? Who's the most important person in our Buddhist society? Is it the head monk, the head nun? Is it the committee? Who's the most important person in this Buddhist society
- Harrow Brook neighbours filled the sitting roomStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mother injured; blood trail into the apartment; before the ambulance, Harrow Brook neighbours pack the sitting room asking how to help — a village in a high-rise.
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trail of blood going into my mother's apartment and before we'd know washed her before the ambulance came I don't know how many people from that Harmon Brock were inside my brother my mother sitting room asking what has happened is anything we can do to help I saw there was a village here and people actually cared for each other
- He likes solitude — monastery code for a troublemakerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a senior monk he got transfer letters from other monasteries with coded praise: 'likes solitude' meant he can't get on with anybody; 'very good worker' meant he can't…
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we used to sort of um get these letters every now and again from other monasteries saying we've got this monk and they say well you know he's um he likes solitude which was code for he can't get on with anybody or he's a very good worker which meant he can't meditate for his life or that He's very reflective and contemplative, which means he's always looking at other people's faults and telling them. So, we always had these code words. So, usually if they would say they want to send a monk over from another monastery, we'd always actually ring up not the abbot, but ring up one of the other monks to find out what the heck they were sending to make sure that it wasn't going to be someone who's going to be a troublemaker
- “I forgive. No payback.”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Curtin University human-rights course, Dennis Eggington (later head of the Aboriginal Legal Service) tells Ajahn Brahm of a funeral at Karrakatta: two promising Noongar boys…
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I gave a talk maybe a year or two ago in Curtin University, as part of the human rights course, Human Rights and Religion. And one of the students at that human rights course was Dennis Eggington. He's now the head of the aboriginal legal, what's it called? Aboriginal legal support group, whatever. Sorry? Aboriginal Legal Service. Yeah. Often see them in the paper. And during my talk he said, 'It's amazing what you've just been talking about', because he had an experience a couple of weeks before. A couple of drunk drivers had rammed in to a car containing two Aboriginal boys and killed them. And these two Aboriginal boys were really good students, were not getting in to any sort of trouble at all. Were doing really well at school, very promising, really good guys. The cream of the crop. And they'd been killed by these stupid drunk drivers. The problem was, the drunk drivers were also Aboriginal. And at the funeral service, because it was all Noongars, everybody had to be there. The two drivers were in custody but the father and other relations of those two drivers had to attend the funeral ceremony. Together with the relations of the two boys who had died. Noongar custom meant there had to be payback. And payback means if you can't give payback to the people who killed your children, to the closest relations. So the whole crematorium, it was in Karrakatta, I think he said, was so tense. Because no one knew when payback would happen. In the middle of the service the father of one of the boys who had died got up and before, there was police there, and before the police could stop him went for the father of one of the murderers. One of the boys who had killed his son. Went for him, hugged him and said, 'I forgive. No payback.' He'd broken the custom. But everybody was so impressed. Even though he was quite young, at that time they made him an elder. The person who was wise, who gained the respect of the whole community. It's amazing just what the power of forgiveness can do. It can change a whole custom.
- It was only a coughStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm coughs; within days the rumour spreads that he is dying of some terrible disease and people ask whether it is terminal. It was only a cough.
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I just coughed I think a couple of weeks ago and the word got around that I was dying I had some terrible disease and they started asking me is that brah going to live or is it terminal it was only a cough for goodness sake so I've got to be very careful but my mom is okay
- Lakshmi's knitted socks on Friday nightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Before a Friday talk Lakshmi gave him hand-knitted socks he rarely wears; he put them on anyway, and during the talk she delighted that he was wearing her socks — kindness making…
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she gave me a pair of socks. I never wear socks. Very, very, very, very, very rarely, but she gave me some socks. She knitted them herself. So, I put them on for the Friday night talk. And during the Friday night talk, you know, it's just I'm getting old. You have to move every now and again. And I was moving and I just put a foot out with a sock on. And I remember you actually you said he's wearing my socks. He's wearing my socks
- One phone call to the vice-chancellorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Many years ago a Sri Lankan nursing student at Curtin University lost her husband: working two jobs to pay the bills, he fell asleep driving home early one morning and was…
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There was a Sri Lankan woman and she would come here, not that often because she was very busy looking after two children. And her husband was actually working two jobs to get enough money, because the wife was actually doing a training in nursing at Curtin university. And unfortunately that one night, double job, not enough sleep, he crashed the car and killed himself. It was a tragedy, you know, just trying to work too hard. And the wife, the two kids, no way she could pay the tuition fees at Curtin. So, I got on the phone to the vice chancellor, Jeannette Hackett. She became a good friend. I confessed this that on one occasion, she was just retiring "Ajahn Brahm, I just loved my association with you" she said. She said "I'm going to give you a hug." You're not supposed to do that to a Buddhist monk but she was too fast for me. (laughter) It's only once. But anyway, I called her up I said "Look, this is real tragedy." She said "What is it?" And because they know you, you can actually get straight through
- Seven days without food ended the monks' quarrelStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Kosambi (he places near modern Allahabad) monks argued endlessly; lay people stopped offering food for seven days until the starving monks settled the dispute. He maps it to…
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there's a big Monastery they're having an argument they couldn't settle it so all the lay people decided okay we're not going to feed the monks seven days later the argument was settled the poor monks were so hungry and starving okay we're not going to argue anymore
- The ants who buried the sugar cubeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A visitor at the Serpentine monastery puts a hard sugar cube on top of an ants' nest to test them. Instead of breaking it up, the ants excavate beneath it day by day until it…
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Years and years ago, at our monastery in Serpentine, there were many ants' nests, there was this one visitor, he decided to give the ants an intelligence test. Cause you know, the ants' nest, he put a sugar cube on top of the ants' nest. The ants love the sugar. It's like one of these hard cubes, I wonder what they would do with this. Would they break it up to take it into the small holes, to take it into the centre of their nest? What would they do? And he really couldn't believe their intelligence their engineering prowess. What the ants did, they excavated under the sugar cube. So day by day, the sugar cube got lower and lower and lower and lower. When the top got below the surface, they put the earth on top again. Now it's exactly the same way, I think the Vietcong buried the American tanks, during the Vietnam war, they actually drew them underground. That was just a community of ants, who've never seen a sugar cube before, ever.
- The bomb threat that saved the interfaith serviceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For years Ajahn Brahm chants at the rather dull Commonwealth Day interfaith service in St George's Cathedral, Perth. One year the Dean, John Shepherd, is called away mid-service…
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every year every year I used to go to I still do I've been doing this for about 25 years now to this this in George's Cathedral they have a Commonwealth interfaith Commonwealth day interfaith service as I've been going there for many many years and now I do my little bit of chanting someone else does their chanting and you know it was pretty boring but one day one year forget know how many years ago one year we were doing the same old boring stuff you know chanting and same old stuff every year and just a few people the people had to be there because know there their daughter was singing in the choir or you know they were told to go there by their teachers cuz of school groups here and this one year right in the middle of the chanting so the Dean John Sheppard is a good friend he's been to give talks here before he was called away and I realized that something was going on because this was not in the program and he came back again and he interrupted us all and got on the microphone and said we've just been told by the police there's been a bomb threat some sort of know crazy fundamentalist and said it's wrong it it's evil that you have people who aren't Christians in this Cathedral and a piece of taken this bomb threat seriously so we all have to evacuate that was the best service I've ever been because the reason was now the whole plans were thrown into chaos which meant that are now we were being human again and so we went to some hall had some tea you know that's when we started talking to each other because we had nothing else to do said all these people you know because it was an emergency I'm scheduled talking to each other getting really friendly and when we came back to finish the service very quickly because no was only just a scare so I'm looting a ticket ringing up the police there's no bomb in there at all it was a life it was a friendship there was the moving together was interfaith then that was at one time was really interfaith and I mentioned to John Sheppard said he should arrange us every year it was a very vessel as we ever had
- The foster-care leader who had been a foster childStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Curtin medal ceremony, one recipient had been put into foster care as a child and suffered. After raising her own family she fostered others, then devoted her life to fixing…
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And this year, one of the recipients was, uh, a woman that if I remember correctly, she, you know, was put into, uh, an orphanage, foster care when she was very young. And she had a terrible time, as many people do. And so, she survived. And then when she survived, uh, she had a family. And when her children grew up, she thought, "What can I do, you know, to actually to to help?" So, she started with fostering other kids. And then from there, she was so good at it, so energized, she gave all of her time, her life to making sure that the foster care system in Western Australia was not going to follow the mistakes which she had endured as a foster kid when she was young. And so, I think she's now head of foster care WA. The person's running the organization. The person who's spending so much of her life making sure that kids who don't have a home, kids who don't have a family, have one. Now, she had been there, she had suffered, she knows what it's like. But she also knew what the solutions were. And when I sort of heard that, I thought, "Wow, these are great people. People who actually doing something, but you don't know about it.
- The man paid to irritate everyoneStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From an early book on spirituality: in Gurdjieff's community in France one man was a pain in the neck to everyone, and members kept asking for him to be let go. After Gurdjieff…
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I do remember one of the early books I read on spirituality was of this teacher called G he was a Russian guy was you know a bit of a guru maybe in the late 50s I think maybe earlier than that and he ran this ashram this spiritual community in France of all places and apparently that when he died they got all his papers together and in his community there was one guy who was really really a pain in the neck to everybody you know a fellow that no one else could really sort of get on with at all and they often ask you know can you let this gu guy go he's causing a lot of problems for everybody it's just so irritating and they found out that everybody else in that Community had to pay no rent or sort of some contribution to the food that was the only guy who was actually paid by GF to be there he was an employee of the place he was paid to be there and irritate people
- The monk nominated president of the progress associationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The monk at the Albany temple, who makes an effort to connect with locals, joined the Elleker Progress Association and attended its meetings (never touching the beer). At the AGM…
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the Albany temple Ajanmud's place and when I went down there he told me a wonderful story that was um he's really tried very hard and takes a lot of effort to connect with the local community. He's in the suburb of Elica. Uh that's uh to the uh the west of Albany. And so I told him just you know check in with the locals. So whenever there is a community meeting he usually goes there. Of course they have beers and stuff but you know he's very good Mike. He never has that. But anyway, he was at one of these meetings and they announced it's the AGM of the Elica Progress Association. So they said, "Well, you have to leave." He said, "No, no, I'm a member." He was actually a registered member there. The Anagara joined him up. So he said, "Oh, no. I'm I'm here." And so they said on the AGM that they have to elect the committee for next year and the president said he's been the president of the ELCA progress association for as many years as he is allowed. He has to get a new president this year. So the the ex-president said I hereby nominate venerable Mudu. He was nominated to be the president of the Elica Progress Association. That's how you know he was he was very friendly with everybody and they really respected him. And then he said, "Okay, I'll accept the nomination on one condition and that is that as soon as I'm president, you'll allow me to ban beer in the Elica Progress Association Hall." And everyone went quiet. There was silence, he said. And then almost like unanimously they all shouted boom and so they took away his nomination. So he got away with not having to do any work.
- The trail of blood into Mum's council flatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Staying at his mother's London council tower block (a supposed 'hotbed of crime'), Ajahn Brahm is about to walk to a talk when the lift opens on an elderly neighbour covered in…
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I remember when I went to visit her and stayed in that tower block for a short while I was going to give a talk in the Sri Lankan Vihara is Chiswick one day and it was not that far from where my mother lived so I wanted to walk. I enjoyed those walks in the streets of London especially in my robes. Because I was always a radical I wanted to surprise and stagger and confront people with my sartorial elegance of brown robes. But I also enjoyed having fun because people would look at me and sometimes not knowing exactly what you were dressed in these robes, these are like what people used to called bed blankets sometimes they are cross the other side of the road but I'll always take pleasure in wishing them Good Morning with a smile to an Englishman when someone actually wishes you 'Good Morning' you have to say Good Morning back. It is psychological torture for them. Being a sadist I enjoyed that. But anyhow on this particular occasion when I in the elevator when I got to the bottom as the door was open I was the only one in the elevator and as the door was opened I was confronted by an old lady who was covered with blood. It was like scene out of a movie I didn't know what had happened to her whether she has been attacked, mugged or whatever but she actually told me that she had fallen down by the flight of steps. She must have been about sixty five or seventy because she could still stand so immediately I forgot about giving a talk at any sort of Vihara it's more important I am kind and compassion; I like to practice Buddhism rather than teach it. So I forgot about the talk and I took this old lady upstairs to my mother's apartment where we bathed her wounds called the ambulance, she did have a broken leg but because of the shock she couldn't feel the pain at the time, so we bathed her, comforted her, called the ambulance but the wonderful thing which happened was that because it was an accident and because I took her into my mother's apartment very quickly, my mother left the door opened and there was a trail of blood which was leading into my mother's apartment and I was so pleased in a matter of five minutes I don't know how many people had come into my mother's apartment to find out what was going on and whether she was alright. And when they found out the reason why one of the tenants in these apartment blocks had an accident, fallen over and was wounded, it was wonderful to see the community coming together and helping one and another I was bathing the wounds because my mother doesn't like blood someone else was going to her house to actually to turn her oven off because she had something in the oven cooking and somebody was going to ring her daughter somewhere else and everybody was working together so well I thought, this is not a hot bed of crime this is a community where people cared about each other.