Stories about compassion
61 Buddhist wisdom stories about compassion from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A Buddhist footy team would always loseJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: He once imagined a Buddhist footy team vs Christians/Jews/Muslims — but Buddhist principles would mean giving the ball away out of compassion and deliberately missing goals so as…
- A dog called ChemoStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A doctor friend in Melbourne has a big Labrador she named 'Chemo'. She was training it to visit hospital wards, because stroking a gentle animal helps very sick people recover —…
- A dustbin with a hole in the bottomAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah's simile: when people dump on you, think of yourself as a dustbin and let them put their rubbish in — but be a dustbin with a hole in the bottom. Accept it all, keep…
- Ajahn Jagaro keeps eatingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A distraught Thai woman bursts into the monks' meal crying that her friend has shot herself; Ajahn Jagaro calmly keeps eating for a minute or two until she quietens, then puts…
- Ajahn Maha Bua said carry on eatingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting one of Thailand's strictest monks (captioned Ajahn Mahaboor — Maha Bua), where no one may eat after the teacher stops, skinny young Brahm at the end of the line put down…
- Alms offering on Pat Pong RoadStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Western monks visiting Bangkok are taken to Pat Pong, the red-light district, where sex workers clean their premises, dress appropriately, invite the monks for an alms offering,…
- Ask the dogStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm advises people whose vet says to put a pet down to ask the animal what it wants. Judy, in the audience, did this: her dog had cancer and the vet wanted to put it…
- Come have some sake — the old man on the trainStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Martial-arts student on a crowded Japanese train is about to fight a drunk who shoved a pregnant woman; an old man offers the drunk sake, speaks kindly of his late wife — the…
- Cursed in the marketStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: With an afternoon off, a husband in Asia goes to the market for eggs for his wife, with a basket, the money and a 'mud map'. A young man comes nose to nose and abuses him — the…
- Floating houses on the Bangladesh DeltaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Rather than relocating people from the flood-prone Bangladesh Delta — their home and livelihood — a relief organisation Brahm read about built floating houses that rise with the…
- He almost bought lunch for the lady who looked like MumStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Stuck out of the monastery before noon, he queues at a food court behind a little old pensioner who looks like his late mother. He wants his attendant to buy her meal from…
- How dare you take away my grief?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a talk on freedom from pain, a mother of a Claremont serial-killer victim eyeballs Brahm: how dare you try to take away my grief — sincerity that shocked him.
- Jumper leads on the prison road at dawnStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Driving the monastery road between the prison and the dam at dawn, the monks find an elderly couple stuck all night with a flat battery. Jumper leads start their car; the couple…
- Missed lunch for the woman at the airportStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At lunchtime a call: a woman in crisis had stabbed her mother-in-law (hospitalised), fled to the airport, and would see only Ajahn Brahm. He skipped the meal window and went…
- Mother Teresa held the man from the gutterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Journalist with Mother Teresa watches her pick up a stinking, oozing cancer patient from a Calcutta gutter and carry him to her sanctuary — asked how she stands the smell.
- My soul is darkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago at Port Hedland detention centre, Brahm sits with a ~22-year-old Cambodian refugee held 3–4 years. Limited English; the boy says 'My soul is dark. I have no hope.'…
- No alcohol from sunrise to sunset — for vassaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thai alcoholic vows during rains retreat: no drink sunrise to sunset; hangs at the temple all day; tops up before dawn and after sunset — the best he can do, and it is hard.
- No visitors — except Ajahn BrahmStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Tibetan nun dying in Shenton Park hospice asked him to come, but the nurse barred visitors until small print under 'absolutely no visitors' read 'except Ajahn Brahm'. She…
- Oxfam charged for the corrugated ironStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a new monk Ajahn Brahm read about Oxfam's earthquake relief in Guatemala: instead of giving corrugated iron free, they charged about 5% of cost. Critics called it wrong for an…
- Paṭācārā, who lost everythingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Paṭācārā, from a good family, runs away with her low-born lover. Pregnant, she tries to return to her parents to give birth but delivers on the way; the second time too. Her…
- Please — no jokes after the hysterectomyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The society's former secretary, after a painful hysterectomy, asked Ajahn Brahm to visit but begged him not to tell jokes because laughing hurt. He tried and failed; the laughs…
- Raged at in the Sydney airport loungeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the Sydney airport lounge a woman asks if he is a monk from Thailand, then explodes: he took $10,000 from her husband and messed up his mind. He is innocent — he suspects a…
- Ronnie Kray's promiseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of the most notorious prisoners he visited in England was Ronnie Kray, the mentally disturbed one of East London's Kray twins. As Ajahn Brahm left, Kray thanked him and said…
- Sanctuary — the temple cat on the monk's lapStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Kitten brought into the meditation hall chooses an adopter; later another cat, seeing its owner arrive to collect it, jumps onto Brahm's lap as if claiming sanctuary.
- She asked the dog if it wanted to dieStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A committee member's dog has cancer; the vet wants to euthanize. She asks for a few minutes, looks the dog in the eyes and asks if it wants to die — sensing no — and refuses. The…
- Suicide is stuffing up one exam questionStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Parents who used to come to Friday talks lost a child to suicide just before the TEE exams. Ajahn Brahm frames a life like an exam of many papers and questions: stuffing up one…
- Super Monk and the DreamWorks emailStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a new monk in Thailand Ajahn Brahm reads a comic of 'Super Monk' who flies and saves people — but instead of killing villains, gives them the five precepts so they become good…
- 'Take her, take that little kid'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman volunteered for a year with an aid organisation in a drought-stricken African country. Each morning she had to go outside the camp and choose perhaps 20 of the hundred…
- Ten pounds for the Sikkim orphanageStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a student who dozed through talks by professors and monks, Ajahn Brahm never forgets one by an old English woman, a Tibetan Buddhist nun running an orphanage for poor children…
- That's not the dress I bought for herStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mother in a locked dementia ward; brother first notices she is wearing someone else's dress — clothes get swapped on the ward — then catches himself and softens.
- The bodhisattva at the bottom of the classStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a schoolteacher, Ajahn Brahm hands out report cards; a 12- or 13-year-old reads “30th of 30” and slumps — how will he show his dad? Ajahn Brahm stands by him and says he…
- The boy who spat on the classroom floorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A school friend teaches at a tough comprehensive in Wandsworth around the time of the Brixton riots. A boy spits on the floor in front of him and, told to clean it up, swears at…
- The burglar who came back for compassionStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An abbot finds a knife-wielding burglar at the donation box, hands him the key, notices how thin he is and offers him leftover food — 'don't rush, there's plenty of time' — and…
- The cat that went to heavenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a little book over 100 years old by a Western lady living in Japan (as he recalls): a destitute painter is commissioned to paint the Buddha's parinibbāna with the animals…
- The conservative parents who became friendsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Brahm's first Perth funerals is for a young British Buddhist of 23 or 24 who dies of cancer at Bethesda hospice. His very formal, conservative Christian parents fly…
- The cow that criedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a meditation talk at Karnet Prison Farm, a prisoner — a murderer, born in Northern Ireland — asks to see Ajahn Brahm. His prison job is slaughtering animals; they always…
- The Dalai Lama accepted the poor woman's skirtStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Early story: dirt-poor woman offers the Dalai Lama an egg-stained/skirt gift; he accepts because she needed to give — wisdom of receiving so others can give.
- The gay leader at Mercy HospitalStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a talk at what was then Mercy / St Anne's Hospital by the river, a man in his sixties or early seventies, a leader in the gay community, tells Ajahn Brahm that religion has…
- The gentleman who helped the homeless man in HampsteadStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thai forest monks newly arrived in a grey, drizzly London winter are staying in an old house in Hampstead. One homesick monk, looking out of the window early one morning, sees a…
- The ghost who wanted the remoteStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Perth family told Ajahn Brahm that while they watched TV the channel kept changing by itself; each time they changed it back, it changed again. They concluded a ghost in the…
- The leper's smile was bigger than anyone's in PerthStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a Ganges tour, walking back to the tourist bus through a leper colony, Ajahn Brahm is approached for money. Explaining he is a monk who cannot carry money fails; he hugs the…
- The man sentenced for having a coldStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm recalls Samuel Butler's satire Erewhon, read as a student: a society where what we call crime is treated as sickness needing therapy, while illness is punished as…
- The monk who built a women's prisonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous Thai monk, already housed, spent surplus donations on schools and hospitals — and, after visiting Bangkok's inhumane women's prison, on designing and building a humane…
- The monk who gave a kidney to the evangelicalStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Sri Lankan monk who regularly gave blood was asked to donate a kidney to a perfect match — an evangelical Christian converting Buddhists. He said of course: religious…
- The monkey who knocked on the monk's doorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An old monk living alone in a bamboo-and-thatch hut deep in the jungle hears a knock one night. At the door is a monkey from the forest holding her dead baby, as if asking him to…
- The only lie in 40 years of marriageStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Don, a retired Royal Navy man and Buddhist Society member, was in Royal Perth Hospital awaiting heart bypass surgery. The night before, his wife phoned Ajahn Brahm, distressed:…
- The priest who checked heaven and hell by trainStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A wealthy philosophy professor asks a priest whether virtuous non-Christians (Buddha, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Voltaire, Gandhi) must go to hell. The priest stalls a week,…
- The principal who heard the three questionsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Invited to an education seminar 'for the free breakfast', he's greeted by a woman: 'Do you remember me?' He doesn't. A year earlier at a Gosnells school he told Tolstoy's three…
- The professor and the old sailor: “Have you learned to swim?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sailing from Sydney to San Francisco, a professor quizzes an old sailor three nights running on marine science, astronomy and meteorology; the sailor knows none of them, and each…
- The razor wheel in hell (Borobudur)Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Shown a Borobudur carving, Ajahn Brahm tells of a man who pushed over his mother and, out of guilt, is reborn in hell, where a razor wheel cutting another man's head passes to…
- The senior monk who pretended to be angryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A nun in the Thai monastery grows skin-and-bones thin, insisting fasting helps her meditation; the monks can't get through. A very kind senior monk visiting from England shouts…
- The suicidal spider — eight webs smashedAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mindful spider builds a perfect first web; broom smashes it. Second, third… eight houses destroyed. Exhausted, nearly dead, she asks what's the point — banks foreclose, owners…
- 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…
- The woman who fell asleep in the meditation hallStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During Friday meditation a woman lies down, points her feet at the Buddha, falls asleep and snores — breaking every rule of etiquette — and neighbours wake her. Ajahn Brahm…
- The young doctor who wanted to quitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A first-year intern loses his first patient, a young mother, and must tell her husband that his wife is dead and his kids have no mother. Shattered, he comes to Ajahn Brahm…
- They had all watched a hangingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Answering a teacher in Q&A: over a hundred years ago, when hangings in England were public, someone (a psychologist, he says) went through Bristol jail and questioned 60 or 70…
- Train so you can shoot over their headsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah's disciple faces conscription; Chah says train hard on the firing range so you are a good enough shot to always shoot over their heads and never kill — a bad shot…
- Treat the part that is not schizophreniaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Singapore schizophrenia-unit professor (Catholic): he doesn't treat schizophrenia — he treats the part of the patient that is not schizophrenic; results better than classical…
- Volunteering with the kids who taught him to be huggedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Cambridge, when a Christian friend starts volunteering at the local mental hospital, Ajahn Brahm feels he'd better go too. The Christians drop out; he keeps going for two…
- Who learned the most after Cyclone NargisStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Groups in Singapore took privileged, highly educated teenagers to southern Myanmar to help villages destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. The students told Ajahn Brahm they learned more…
- “You're so lucky” — counselling a rape survivorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Malaysia, as a last resort after counsellors, doctors and psychiatrists had failed, Ajahn Brahm is asked to see a woman, and deliberately learns nothing beforehand. She tells…