Stories about conscience
3 Buddhist wisdom stories about conscience from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Steal where no one sees youStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous ancient Indian teacher must marry his daughter to his best disciple and also needs money for the couple. To 'cut two carrots with one knife', he tells his students to…
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in Ancient India many hundreds of years ago the education system was such that you went with a one teacher and the teacher had many many disciples and he taught you everything Le like what they call a polymath and once you graduated from your teacher then you could actually set yourself up as a teacher so in Ancient India many many centuries ago there was a very famous teacher who only receive a limited amount of disciples and he taught them many many things not just things like um medicine and calculation astronomy and all these other Arts which were there at the time but he also obviously taught them to be good people now what happened when they were just all about close to graduation he wanted to give them a test but it wasn't just a test to see how much they learned over those years he also had another problem and that problem was his daughter who was of marriageable age and it was a custom in those days to have arranged marriages and being a teacher he was supposed to marry off his daughter to his best disciple so he brought all of the guys together and said you know my daughter she's very pretty I know you all like her you know you all love to marry her and I got to choose which one should marry and it's also to give her find out which of you has learned the most over all the years you've been with me so I decided to give you a test to find out who's the smartest and the most obedient but also I have another problem you know when people get married they need to find themselves a house or at least a little Hut you know they got to get their sort of their basic necessities of life together he said I've got to find some money for the two of you and I'm so poor so in order to in the old days I would say kill two birds with one stone but being a Buddhist now I don't use that I say cut two carrots with one knife you know you got to use Buddhist terminology these days it's a terrible kill two birds with one stone that's a terrible so cut two carrots with the same knife there a much better one so in order to to cut two carrots with the same knife he said this is the test I'm going to give you I need some money I also got to find out who's a smartest so I want each one of you to go into the local villages at nighttime to steal take whatever you can find and bring it back and what we all steal will give to the winner of this competition and the one who steals the most will win my daughter you know everyone was really shocked the guy was asking him to steal this was terrible he said no this is what I want you to do but one important Point make sure no one sees you still and so all make sure no one sees you still so all the boys went in the middle of the night creeping through the villages waiting till the people went to sleep or they went out and they crept into the houses and they stole this and they stole that and they brought it back to their teacher and their teacher would keep a meticulous record of what they stol and from where and at the end of the the period of one week the teacher brought all the students together and said you've all stolen lots and lots of stuff there's enough here to keep the happy couple You Know Rich for a long time you're going to be very comfortable you've all stolen a lot and they always waiting to see which one has stol the most and the teacher said you've all stolen a lot except for one of you and this one little student was very ashamed and embarrassed he said why didn't you steal anything and he said because I followed your instructions teacher but my instructions were to steal he said yes I tried you also told us if anyone is watching don't steal he said I went into the houses at night I waited till no one was there and I went in there and I saw these valuable items I went to pick it up and I realized someone was looking me I was seeing me steal that's why I couldn't follow your instructions and of course the teacher said at last I've got one wise disciple after all I've taught you about self-responsibility it's true that other people won't see you but you see you and he said that's the only student that's followed my instructions after all these years only one of you is wise enough so you can marry my daughter and as for all this stuff you stolen I'm rich enough I don't need it take it back to where it came from and don't worry because I told all the villagers to expect you this was a setup a scab to find out how many of you knew what it meant not to steal if someone is watching
- The schoolboy who stopped skipping the bus fareStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Poor schoolboy skips bus fares for pocket money until about 13–14; conscience says someone must pay the driver's salary and the petrol — he stops cheating.
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when I was a a young uh school boy now my parents were very poor so I didn't have much money and I had to go on a bus every morning to school and a bus coming back again and I thought that if the buzz conductor never asked for your fair I didn't need to pay it and that was an extra source of income for me and but there came a time when I was about 13 or 14 I felt very bad about that you know something inside of me said that was wrong and it was like this intuitive feeling of what was right and wrong no one was telling me all my friends were doing the same but then I thought no that know somebody's got to pay this bus driver's uh salary someone's got to pay for the petrol
- The soldier who refused at My LaiStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A documentary on an anniversary of the My Lai massacre traces the American soldiers ordered to kill every man, woman and child in the village. Though pardoned, they live with…
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There was a nice anecdote about that. This is a good one. Just about last year sometime there was it must have been the 25th anniversary of the ... must be about 40th or 50th anniversary or 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. I remember that ... 40th or something, anniversary of this terrible event in the Vietnam War, because you know, I was growing up at this time, I was protesting against that war as a student. I remember that group of American soldiers were ordered to go into this village of My Lai to kill every man, woman and child. No one was an exception... And that is just evil, that's wrong. And they went into this village to kill and this documentary was tracing the soldiers who had participated in that event. And all those people even though they were given pardons by the American government. The very fact that's what they did caused huge psychological and social problems. You've gone in and killed, like, just a mother. You've shot a kid, five or six year old. Even though you were ordered to do that, That leaves huge scars and you pay for that. You can't have a relationship, you can't sort of have good health. You can't have happiness. But there was one soldier, there's always one or two who stand out. It was a black African soldier who refused. He refused the order to go in and kill. Now what he thought was women and children, they've got nothing to do with the war. He refused the order. He knew what would happen. He was put in military jail for 3 or 4 years for refusing to obey an order. Military jails in the United States, and that's 60, 70s were far worse than civilian jails. I think many of you know what civilian jails are like in United States. It's totally different than sort of jails here in Perth today. That was a very tough place, a very painful place to be for 3 or 4 years. And he knew what he was doing, by refusing the order he knew this was the consequence. But he had to do it and he endured those three or four years. But of all the people, he was the only person who had a life, who was happy and at peace with himself. When the interviewer asked him; so I was told, 'How come you did that? How come you refuse an order while all your fellows, your friends, your comrades went in there and killed? And you knew what was going to happen to you? Why did you do that?' He said, 'simply because I knew it was wrong. I just had to follow what my heart told me. And I did that; I had to.