Stories about culture
7 Buddhist wisdom stories about culture from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Chah's one word of EnglishStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Back from a few weeks in London, Ajahn Chah, who spoke no English, is asked in Thai whether he learned any English words. Yes, one: “cup of tea” — because all day in London…
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actually he did learn one word of English when he went to London for a few weeks when he came back we asked him in TI did you learn any English know any English words when you staying in L he said yeah I learned one word what was that cup of tea That's the only word could go pan lond he he that all the day cup of tea you want a cup of tea have a cup of tea
- Be quiet — children learning sadness at funeralsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At funeral services Ajahn Brahm has watched lively children run, play and laugh until adults snap 'be quiet, shut up'; the children's faces show confusion, then they become quiet…
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I've just noticed sometimes that when little children come into the service they're just full of energy and full of life they run around they play they joke and they laugh and I've seen the adults say be quiet shut up and I've seen those little children just their face show confusion and then be quiet and be sad because they're taught that that's what you have to do when you go to a funeral ceremony I've seen for so many years now how we condition our children to be sad when somebody dies and it's not natural it's imposed upon us
- Food for the dogs — the first Westerner on alms roundStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a remote Thai village where no one had seen a Westerner, villagers stare so hard while offering food that it falls outside his bowl and the dogs eat it.
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I remember one occasion going on alms round in the morning, and I was the first white man they'd seen in the village, and so they were putting food in the bowl, and it's a big bowl and but they were looking at me and all the food was falling outside, the dogs were eating it all, thank you very much, because I was the first Westerner they saw.
- In Thai law the bus driver was guiltyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Outside the Thai monastery a drunk villager on a bicycle, no lights, wrong side of the road, is killed by a bus that had lights and was sober. The bus driver flees — under Thai…
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there was this one villager was driving home from another Village after the party drunk on a bicycle on the wrong side of the road with no lights on it was totally drunk driving on the the highway wrong side of the road no lights on and he got creamed by a bus killed the bus had his lights on the bus you know was on the correct side of the road the bus driver didn't have any uh alcohol or drugs in him but the bus driver had to run away and flee cuz in Ty Law the bus driver would be guilty because in now when I heard that that's unfair there's a guy the bicycle is fault he's on the wrong side of the road he was drunk no lights on how can you blame the bus driver just explain to me that that's the Western way of looking at it always looking at the individual's responsibility but in tie law they were saying no the bus driver the bigger vehicle has a responsibility to look after the smaller vehicles they have more onus on them to be on the lookout and so in tyw if that buzz driver had been caught he had to run away and escaped till the heat went down he would have been put in jail for that
- In Vietnam Adam would have eaten the snakeJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Archbishop Roger Herft's joke: if Eden had been in China or Vietnam there would have been no Fall — Adam would have eaten the snake, not the apple (snakes are on the menu).
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if the Garden of Eden where this happened to Adam and Eve it's only a metaphor didn't really happen but if that was Garden of Eden hadn't been in Europe or Middle East if that had been in say China or Vietnam there would never be any problem CU if the Garden of Eden had been in Vietnam Adam would have eaten the snake not the Apple You' been to these oldfashioned Vietnamese restaurants snakes on the menu they would have eaten the Apple
- Jamaica drive-in needed a concrete screenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visitor to a Jamaican drive-in wonders why the screen is thick concrete; locals shoot along with cops-and-robbers / Westerns — cloth screens kept getting shot up, so the owner…
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Drivin movies now that they used to have I'm not sure if there's still any Drivin movies here in Perth but big screens and you go in the car and you just watch the movie however he was very um surprised to see the screen this huge screen it wasn't like a cloth screen like they have in you know Australia or United States it was a concrete scen scen really thick and it's a huge and he couldn't help asking why have they got a concrete screen you know to show a a movie for people in cars it must have cost a fortune and his host said yeah it did cost a fortune they explained why they had to build this concrete screen cuz Jamaica is a very violent ter a violent country an up country sometimes there's a lot of violence and everyone has guns and apparently this town was noted for its violence and most of the people in the town the sort of movies they like were cops and robers and and Western where there's lots of gunfights but what actually happened that when there was a gunfight on the screen that people in the cars would get their guns out and join in and if they didn't like the sheriff they shoot the sheriff if they didn't like the cop they shoot the cop a true story and the owner of this driving movie theater had gone through so many cloth screens and got all shot up by the audience that in the end he decides to bite the bullet and actually put a concrete screen up there
- The villages without griefStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Living nine years at a Thai cremation-ground monastery, Ajahn Brahm saw villagers bring their dead without grieving, which contradicted everything he had learned about loss.
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the monastery I was staying most of the time was a cremation ground. So all the villagers in the local area used that place for the funerals. So we'd do the funeral, we'd see all the villagers, they'd come, bring their dead, we'd do all the chanting and the services, we'd see them that afternoon, that evening, the next day. And there was something very strange, there was no grief, they just didn't cry, not just cry, they weren't even sad when somebody died. This was not suppressing their grief because you saw them every day, they just, wasn't there, it was a culture in which grief was absent and that really shocked me, and I was there nine years so this was no just, short visit, and I thought that was impossible because my learning had said that when you lose someone you love you have to have grief. The truth of the matter, there was no grief there.