Stories about courage
20 Buddhist wisdom stories about courage from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Chah's eyes stop on the four-year monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Magha Puja at Wat Pah Pong, before thousands of lay people and some 150 monks, Ajahn Chah's gaze runs down the line of monks, passes the four-year monk Brahmavamso — then…
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Imagine this, this was in February after my - I had only been a monk for four years, and this was the second biggest festival in the whole Buddhist calendar in Thailand. The full moon of February. It was called Magha Puja. Second only to Vesak in its size. So together with all the other disciples of my teacher Ajahn Chah, we went to his monastery, Wat Pah Pong, where there must have been five or six thousand people, lay people, and all the monks were there as well. And in the evening after the chanting, it was time for the talk, for the sermon, and I was looking forward to hearing Ajahn Chah teach something inspiring. But sometimes he didn't give the talk. Sometimes he would ask his second monk or his third monk to give the talk. Sometimes he would ask for any monk to give the talk, and that was scary. And what he'd do, he looked down this line of monks, this line of maybe 100, 150 monks, and if his eyes stopped at you, you were in trouble. Big trouble. So I remember this very clearly, his eyes went down the line, past all these very senior monks who could give really good talks, and he came to me, and went past. Phew. I was so relieved he was going to choose someone below me, someone who could speak Thai, because the talk had to be in Thai. But then his eyes stopped and went up the line again - he was a sadist - and stopped at me. "Brahmavamso, get up and give the talk!" I'd only been four years as a monk and I had to give the talk on this huge occasion in front of about six or seven thousand Thais. As I tell the story, it was 6000. Now it has gone up to 7000. This is just what happens when you give talks. And with all these senior monks and in front of my teacher, how would you feel? You were trained it didn't matter. You just went up there and gave a talk in Thai. It didn't matter how it came out, because the whole purpose of that was teaching you how to overcome your fear.
- Ānanda Maṅgala left the TrappistsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ānanda Maṅgala — Gandhi youth leader, friend of Nehru — tries Trappist life, then becomes a Buddhist monk; Trappist superiors summon theologians to talk him out of it.
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Ananda mongala he was a great man cuz he had a great sort of uh CV he started off his life as like the head of the Gandhi youth movement and so he was very friendly with all of the the Gandhi family and with Nero and all these other people and uh then he decided to take a spiritual life and become a trapist monk and I to become a Trappist monk he didn't like that decided to become a Buddhist monk I remember him always telling the story when he told his Superior his abot in the trais monastery they wanted to become a Buddhist they were very very upset and so they took all theologians he was a prominent person in South Asia
- He laid the top bricks himselfStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building a hall: bricklayer refuses the shaking scaffold at the top; Brahm crawls the unsupported edge and lays the corner bricks himself.
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scaffold we had to build up and of course the monks did all that scaffold work and when he got to the very top there the brick L refused to go up because you know it was shaking this way and that way and this way and that way but we managed to coax him to go up there and and you could have seen some of the last bricks especially on the big Corners the top I laid those bricks myself because no one else would go up there
- I've been waiting for you for hours — get outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Five years a monk, walking without lifts, Ajahn Brahm asks Ajahn Suwat for a cave toward Sakon Nakhon and is warned of a ghost that drove monks mad. A villager leaves him at a…
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So, I had my great chance when I was only just 5 years as a monk, and had the opportunity to go walking through Thailand with everything I owned on my back, sleeping out, going to any sort of village for alms round in the morning, getting enough to eat, maybe just some rice, but nothing. But, I was well fed. And I stayed in a monastery. It was a Wat Tham Seua Khao. And so, at that time, Ajahn Suwat was the abbot of that monastery. It was quite a well-known monastery. I went there for the the full moon day. And afterwards, I was time to go. I had a resolution I would walk. I wouldn't take any lifts to go anywhere. And I asked the head monk, "Is there any nice caves on my journey halfway between where I was and going to the town of Sakon Nakhon?" He said, "Yes, there is a cave, but be careful. Because he said there was a ghost in that cave. And some monks have gone mad staying in that cave too long." And now this was a senior monk told me this. And so I had no doubt he was telling the truth. So I said, "Yes. I'm going to meet a ghost the next night told to me by a very senior Thai monk, Ajahn Suwat Thamsatika." So I managed to find that cave. And it was a spooky cave. The one of the villagers took me to the cave. There was a beautiful spring outside, lovely water. And inside the cave, there was an old bench which you could lay down on. There was a very, very, very old Buddha statue there. And the villager told me that deeper in the cave, there was a skeleton, a human skeleton. And then it was getting dark, so the villager didn't explain much more. He went back to his his house and left me there in the spooky cave with a skeleton and a reputation of a ghost who drove monks mad in the dark all night. And I was very excited. Okay, come on, ghosts. So I meditated there and meditated and meditate and meditate. No ghost came. That's really disappointing. I was expecting the ghost. It never came. So maybe about 10:00 or something at night, I'd been walking all day. I lay down. It's in the dark, pitch black. And as soon as I lay down, something ran towards me. It was a ghost. Came to see me. You know what I replied? I said, "I've been waiting for you for hours, and now you decide to come. Get out." And I said to the ghost, I chased it away. I think ghosts should be more respectful to monks. And be more polite. Been waiting for you, and now you come and I just want to go to sleep. Get out of here. That's true story. So that was the end of that ghost.
- Letting the rip carry him outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A New Zealand monk, tramping with a friend on a hot day, reaches a secluded, pristine beach in (he thinks) the South Island; they strip off and swim — and he is caught in a…
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This monk, he was from New Zealand and he was trekking over in New Zealand with one of his friends— they call it 'tramping' over there. It was a hot day, just like the weather today—it's been really hot today— and he was walking all day, and he managed to get to this pristine beach somewhere in the South Island I think it was. It was one of the most magnificent beaches: secluded, no one was there; they had it to themselves. It was the sort of beach that you built a resort on if it was in close proximity to civilisation, but this was totally wild. It was only him and his mate there and they were very hot, and so they thought let's go for a swim! A very natural decision. So they stripped off—they didn't have any bathers; there's no one around— and off he went into the water and did some swimming. And that's when he realised that he'd made a big mistake because there was a big rip there—this very, very strong current. Later on—he survived, obviously to tell the story—he told me later that many people had perished on that particular beach; he didn't realise that it was so dangerous. How he survived was a very brilliant strategy, and I think this was because he'd been a Buddhist before— he was a Buddhist monk, obviously— but the teachings of Buddhism actually saved his life there because as he was being taken out by the strong currents, straightaway, he realised that it was such a strong rip current that fighting it was useless, so he totally relaxed, he let go, he didn't try to do anything. He let that current take him a long way from the beach, knowing that eventually that current will stop, it will change, it is impermenant; eventually, the force will wither away, and eventually it did, and that's where he started swimming, that's where he put forth all his effort. When he could make a difference, that's when he applied himself. And he managed to swim back to the shore exhausted, but he survived. And he told me if he'd fought that current, he'd still have been taken the same distance away from the shore, but when he got to that distance, he would've been exhausted, he would not have been able to swim back—he would've died. Knowing when to let go and when to put forth effort saved his life, but more importantly, having the courage to let go, the courage to let go when you know you can't do anything, but you're really scared of what might happen. He did let go and that saved his life.
- 'Never mind, we'll get another one'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When Ajahn Brahm was at university, another student in his lab blew up an expensive piece of equipment — a big bang and smoke. Ajahn Brahm expected him to be in serious trouble,…
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I remember being in a lab and one of the other students in the lab. There was a big bang. He blew up one of the piece of equipment, expensive piece of equipment. And I forget exactly what it was, but when bang and all the smoke came out and I thought that he could really get in trouble for that, wasting expensive equipment, but all the the lab technicians and the other professors, they said, "No, no, no, never mind. We get another one.
- 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.
- Ordain the nuns and we'll kick you outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After bhikkhunī ordination, old Thai-forest friends threaten expulsion; say the nuns aren't real and all is forgiven — he faces the choice between easy belonging and the nuns.
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ordination of bikinis of nuns and facing all of my friends who said we're going to kick you out of our group we're going to expel you and these were my friends I've grown up with this is my heritage but you can say if you say that that bikini ordination was wrong and those ladies which you now go and visit at Santi Monastery ironya over in damasara or Venable New Order sorry Venable IO I am over in patachara if you say that those aren't real nuns then All Is Forgiven
- Sadat just got in a plane to JerusalemStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After the Six Day War, what inspires him is President Sadat skipping endless cabinet politics — he simply boards a plane to Jerusalem/Tel Aviv so Israel's leader has to meet him…
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after The Six Day War they called it a Six Day War it didn't last for six days did it but I don't know how many years but but I remember just one thing which did inspire me in that conflict was the it was the president of Egypt at the time a president Sadat yeah he decided and I love the way he did this instead of having a cabinet meeting instead of you know trying to sort of win over everybody he was a president so he just got in a plane and hardly anyone else knew what he was up to and he flew to Jerusalem
- Sit and meditate — or get outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An ex-monk supporting the BSWA, meditating at a Thai cremation-ground monastery, feels a tug on his outstretched leg and then a foul-smelling presence entering his hut. He puts…
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There's one of the ex-monks who's still alive and still supports uh our Buddhist society. He told me once that he was in one monastery which was a cremation ground over in Thailand. And it's supposed to have been notorious for ghosts. And he was meditating there one day. And you know what it's like when you meditate, sometimes you get tired. So, he had his legs stretched out, leaning against the wall. And he felt somebody pull his leg. I don't mean a joke, it actually tugged it. And he thought, "Oh, this must be like a good spirit trying to make him be more diligent." But, that was only the start of this being coming into his hut. Cuz the being was starting to come in. And he would notice it coming in cuz it had a very bad smell. And he soon realized it was one of the ghosts. And it would always um tease him. Or just try and irritate him. But, the way he overcame that, and this is why I tell the story, anyone of you have any problems with ghosts, the way he overcame that was one day he put another cushion next to him. When the ghost came in, he said, "You can come in, but you sit down and meditate like me, or get out of here." He scolded the ghost. And because he scolded the ghost, that was the last time the ghost came in.
- Teaching 650 schoolchildren to meditateStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young maths teacher, Ajahn Brahm uses a week of school assemblies to teach 650 high-school children to watch the breath; they all do it and spontaneously applaud after five…
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But, I had to take the school assembly, there were 650 children, high school, and I decided to take the school assembly for one week, and teach 650 children how to meditate. The first lesson was just meditation on the breath, and those 650 children, when I said "sit up straight," all the children sat up straight. When I said "close your eyes," they all closed their eyes. When I said "let go of the past and future, watch the present moment and watch your breath," 650 children just were watching their breath. After 5 minutes they spontaneously clapped. The teachers afterwards asked me, "What would you have done if one child hadn't cooperated," and I broke out into a sweat. Because all it needed is one child to start giggling or laughing and it would've broken the spell
- The boy who regretted rememberingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a talk on reincarnation at the London Buddhist Vihara, an 18- or 19-year-old comes up and tells Ajahn Brahm he is one of the cases in Ian Stevenson's book on children who…
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And I remember once giving a talk at the uh the London Buddhist Vihara, a Sri Lankan temple in London. It's very close to where my mother lived. And giving a talk on reincarnation, and a boy came out to me afterwards. And he was one of those cases in that book. He said, you know, "I'm one of those 20." And had a lovely conversation with him. When he was about this time about 18 or 19 when I saw him. And he told me personally, he said, "That was the worst thing I ever did in my life, tell someone about my past memories." Because he said once it was publicized, and he was only a young boy at time, he got hell at school. As you know what happens, you know, in school if there's anything about you which is weird or strange, you know, the other boys in the school tend to tease you about it. And he got a terrible teasing from his friends at school once they found out, once it became well known that he was one of these people who could remember his past lives. And when I actually heard his pain in having admitted that and told that coming out remembering his past life, it became very clear to me that this boy never got anything out of telling people that he was reborn except a lot of suffering. And that meant a lot to me in the sense that people don't invent these memories to to gain anything. In fact, when you tell people those memories, you lose a lot. There's nothing to gain out of that, but everything to lose. And so the very fact that he had to suffer with coming out about his memories meant something to me. It meant that it gave his memories that little bit more legitimacy legitimacy cuz it was hard and difficult for him to uh let people know what had happened to him. But there he was, it's wonderful to meet a person who uh was courageous enough or you may say stupid enough to tell people about their previous lives.
- The forest monk chased by the tigerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Dhammindu (caption: Mark Edge and Drew) tells of a wandering Thai forest monk who insists on camping on a tiger trail despite the headman's warning. Meditating peacefully…
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many years ago there was a well I was told a story by this Mark Edge and Drew and long time ago before he died he said there was a monk who was wandering from place to place in Thailand and uh just know for Solitude for Freedom meditating and he came to one Village late in the afternoon and told the head man of the village that I just arrived you have to tell the head man so the villagers know to get some food for you the following morning for your arms around otherwise you don't eat I said I just arrived I want to meditate in the forest the jungle close by just to let you know I'll be here when arms around in the morning and that's when the head man told him well you better stay here in the village with us he said no I'm a forest monk now stay in the village there was a tiger in the vicinity in the last few days it's eaten two or three water buffaloes and even one of our kids you know it is a really dangerous this is the jungles 40 years ago very dangerous tiger but this Mark said I am not afraid of tigers show me where the tiger comes from he said I can't do that it'll kill you I said no I am a monk I have no fear really said the head man okay follow me and about a kilometer outside of the village you could see where the Tiger Trail cut through the jungle and the Mark said right here I am going to put my mosquito net and here I'm going to stay tonight I'm going to face down the tiger real Brave Monk would you be able to do that knowing there is a not a man-eating Tiger but a monkey eating tiger right there is gonna come tonight are you willing to face the the Tiger in the middle of the night so this Mark was really a tough Monk and so the head man helped him set up and then the head man went back to make sure before he got dark he didn't want to face a tiger let the monk face the Tiger and that night the Monk was meditating so peacefully so so calm in the jungle once all the shakadas stopped their their racket the jungle at night time is just so peaceful and he was meditating peacefully peacefully peacefully breathing in peace breathing out let go and that's when he started to hear that's the best I got for for sound effects not very good but we're riding on the cheap and I bought a society these days so many stuff we can't afford anything so he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him and those four steps were there four steps of an animal so there wasn't any more breathing in peace beating out I let go he reverted to the old Thai way of meditating they used to do breathing in board breathing out oh using the name of the Buddha with the in-breath and the out breath as a protectionist to remind you to be peaceful but and the first steps got louder as the animal approached and his chanting became and as it got really close and it's got even closer he opened his eyes he couldn't resist it and he saw this massive tiger says white fangs not teeth glistening in the Moonlight is big eyes it's huge Jaws could rip anything apart even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have no chance Superman a loser in front of this tiger this was a huge monster of a tiger and as I remembered his eyes again he changed his meditation object and the next thing he knows you know sometimes we just don't know how this happened these things happen he found himself running towards the village and his his meditation was not very very um quiet now instead of doing tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger has this this animal chased him to the Village
- The haematologist who made room for kindnessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The year after Ajahn Brahm received a Curtin University medal, he attended the award for Professor 'Joofi' (as captioned), head of haematology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.…
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I remember just oh one of my heroes in Perth. It's weird having all these different types of heroes. One of them I you know some years ago I got this medal from John Curtain University you know for starting off a really good community here and supporting women. but also that the next year I went to this um medal award for professor Joofi. He was the head of hematology at the time in Charlie Gardner's Hospital. And when I went there when I went there for his awards ceremony cuz I won the the award the year before I was so inspired by him. He was a top doctor had immense sort of uh academic qualifications but you know he noticed something which was wrong in a hospital system and that was that everybody got the best chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery. You know what was missing? The kindness and care. I don't know the last time you've been in the hospital, but do actually people spend time talking with you, caring for you? You may be really sick in the bed and holding your hand. Sometimes people afraid to hold the hand. They might get sued or catch something. Oh, for goodness sake. That kindness is one of the best parts of therapies. And anyway, this top doctor, he was the one who decided to put aside his scientific credentials and invite uh he got a few rooms in that hospital and he invited uh invited raiki therapy, homeopath homeopathy, uh acupuncture, anything which he said was weird, which hadn't been scientific. ifically totally 100% proven. You could get there for free, you know, after you'd come out of the hospital and had some radiation therapy or whatever. Even things like reflexology, you know, foot massage. I remember talking to him. And he said the reason he was doing that, you know, at the time there's no real scientific evidence that it was going to help, but just he knew if you went into a hospital and you were just almost like unfortunately people don't have the time to do anything better. Treated a bit like a robot, just a client, not a person. But then in this place afterwards, you could be treated like a person. Somebody was being kind to you, just gave you a foot massage. And that kindness is so important. And that kindness was having a huge effect on the recovery rate of those people. People were caring for them, not just giving them a sort of radiation therapy and then moving on to the next person. They had time for you. And that was really important. It took away their fear. The results were that people got much better results. The healing rates improved and he made that sort of little sacrifice of risking his reputation by doing something which wasn't proven. What happened in the end? So he got a prize for that.
- The monk who grabbed the king cobraStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Other monks Ajahn Brahm grew up with saw a king cobra wander into the hall; a monk who had been a snake-catcher as a layman simply grabbed it. Ajahn Brahm did not see it himself.
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There was know when monks were sitting a cobra, a king cobra came in to the hall and it was actually not trying to attack anybody. It was just basically didn't know where it was going and started moving and this monk grabbed it. That's what he used to do when he was a lay person as a snake catcher. He grabbed it. It's amazing to see that.
- The only ones running for shelterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A New Zealander, a late member of the society — reportedly the first New Zealander to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Europe — reached London in uniform. The first time he…
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one of our members who was here you know during that time most of these people are dead now you know he a New Zealander you know he escaped from a prison of war camp in Europe apparently the first New Zealander to actually escape he came back over to UK he was in London the first time he heard an air raid siren and you know he was in uniform he was a soldier and as soon as he heard the air raid Simon, he ran for an underground station when he realized that him and his soldier mate were the only two running into the station. and everyone were going around their business as normal. And he felt so embarrassed that the two soldiers were the only ones showing any fear and everyone else and people at the bus stop reading their newspaper, people just walking, chatting to each other, women were doing their shopping and he thought, "Wow, these people are not afraid." And they were so impressed with that attitude.
- 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.
- The walking stick that always missedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: First year at Magnolia Street: a man in a psychotic episode waves a walking stick violently at Brahm but always misses on purpose; half an hour of calm talk ends in trust.
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Magnolia Street, he came and he had a psychotic episode. And he had a walking stick cuz he was still, you know, he couldn't walk properly. And he started, uh, waving quite violently that stick at me. But he always missed me. It's just like he got the stick and trying to whack me on the head, but he would always miss. And it was obvious for me that it was on purpose. He wouldn't hit me. I just sat there talking to him, calming him down for about half an hour. And at the end of that little confrontation, you know, he trusted me. He trusted me so
- Walking into the DMZStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior monks are to lead a fast three-hour meditation walk into the demilitarised zone;…
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the last time I saw this monk that was in the demilitarized zone. I mentioned that story a couple of years ago. I went to Korea, South Korea and was having a peace movement at the time. That was a time when you may remember it over a year and a half ago when Donald Trump and Kim Jong- fell in love. That's what it said on the newspapers. Anyway, [laughter] so anyway, so they wanted to move on that and just have this the big peace conference up there. So I went there to join in and I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to do. But then they had these big senior monks. I was one of the senior monks. They wanted us to go on this walk, meditation walk inside the deulatory zone. Wow. The senior monk. No, he couldn't go because he was busy. Ajan Ganha, he was sick. So that left your own aan. Yay. Would you have allowed me to do that? It was a three-hour walk really fast. No rest b leading oh 6,000 uh jogj yeah yeah jog jj buddhists over into the de DMC demilitarized zone walking yeah so off I went just doing that had a wonderful time could you do that would you be anxious no I wasn't anxious at all but I must admit I did mention at the time There was a lot of shooting in there. There was I can't lie to you. I was shot a few times. Actually, many times click. Click. Photographed and videoed and stuff.
- “What if they kill you?” — the monk bound for a rough countryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk tells the Buddha he wants to take the Dhamma to a faraway country. The Buddha warns that its people are coarse and violent: what if they abuse you? “At least they'd feed…
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There was a monk who went up to the Buddha in that old time and he said, "I want to go to this country a long way away, you know, to spread the dharma, to to build up some Buddhism and to help people in this far away country, just like I was coming to Australia." And the Buddhist said to this monk, "Oh, that particular country, you know, it's very rough. People are very coarse and very violent in that country." And I'm not saying Australia is like that, but people laughed when I made that comparison in Thailand. And the Buddha said, "What would happen, you know, if you went to that country and people talk badly about you and they cursed you?" And he thought, "Well, you know, at least they would feed me." And then the Buddha said, "What if they don't feed you?" He said, "Well, at least they don't hit me, but what if they hit you?" Well, it's only a, you know, a a fist. It's not as if they stab me with daggers. What if there's dagger with daggers and swords? Well, at least they don't kill me. But what if they kill you? Well, it just means I go to heaven quicker. And the Buddha said, "Now that's a real monk. You can go.