Stories about desire
12 Buddhist wisdom stories about desire from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A hundred cakes and nowhere to sleepStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For a Serpentine monastery fundraiser, about a hundred home-baked cakes fill the tiny Magnolia Street kitchen. Ajahn Brahm's bedroom is next door; all night he smells fresh cake…
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Actually, you know, the worst suffering I ever had when I first came here just to that was this house in Magnolia Street, North Perth where we first lived. Cuz one day they were doing they were doing this fundraiser for our the monastery down at Serpentine. They decided to have a cake stall. So one Friday night it's only a small house in a really small house in North Perth. And everybody brought these cakes, you know, home baked cakes and they put them you know, in the kitchen. Maybe about 100 cakes there. You know what a freshly baked baked cake uh smells like? And everybody went home after the Friday evening. And I went into the room right next to the kitchen. That was my bedroom where I slept. You couldn't sleep. You had all this aroma freshly baked cakes in your room and you couldn't eat any of them and it's really unfair. And all you could smell all night is like the smell of freshly baked cakes. That was the most tortured evening I ever had. You can smell them. You can't eat them.
- Banned from being presidentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm asks a busy businesswoman to become president of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia; she says she has no time. So, 'out of compassion' so she won't feel…
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And I said some years ago we were trying to get you know the president of our Buddhist society and there was one person which I thought would make a very good pres president. She's not here this evening. It's Rachel in Aral group and she admits it is totally true. Now I approached her and said, "How about being the president of our committee if I bought a Society of West Australia next year?" And she, you know, she was running her own business and she said, "Look, I'm really busy. You know, my business is growing. I've got to give all my attention to the business. I just can't find the time." So she said, "No, it's very easy to get your own way as a Buddhist monk cuz I know psychology. I teach psychologists. You know, I know more than they do." So, even though this was a good business lady and she was supposed to be smart, but well, she is very smart. I say this cuz this is being recorded. I got to be very careful what I say when these talks are recorded. So, I said, "Look, now I'm I'm really compassionate." I said, "Look, I know you you probably go home and worry and feel guilty about this now that you've refused this offer of mine cuz I've helped you before and now I've asked you to help me and you can't do it. So to make sure you don't feel guilty about refusing this offer, I'm telling you here right now, I ban you from being president next year. Don't even think about it because if you do, I won't allow it. I'll ban you. I'll use everything in my power to stop you." She went home and she thought, "What do you mean banning me? He can't ban me. Who do you think? Who does he think he is? He can't stop me. I can do whatever I want." And so she nominated for being president. And she was president for 2 years and she admitted I got her. I checked her.
- Free beer — and the beer-garden roof fell inStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Nyanaponika as a young man in Germany: beer-garden brewery catches fire; friends run in for free beer; the house collapses and many are killed — a formative shock that kept him…
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he was at a beer-garden. The beer-garden was set around a house somewhere in the beautiful countryside of Germany and they would make the beer there, they'd sell it, and they had all the places on the outside, little benches and tables, where you go with your friends and have some beer and a really good time. They still have those beer gardens in Germany today, but maybe not as rustic as in his day. And he was with some friends having a few beers, having a good laugh, a nice time with his mates, and then the house in which the beer was made and sold caught fire - there was a fire in the cellar. Oh no - it was actually higher up I remember him telling me, and the owners of the beer garden house ran out, and a lot of his friends - young men and young women ran into the house for free beer, and when they ran into the house for the free beer, the top storey of the house collapsed and killed all of his friends
- May you get whatever you want as soon as you want itStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Middle-Eastern friend: second-worst curse is fleas of a thousand camels in your armpits; worst is getting whatever you want immediately.
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two worst curses in the Arab world. And the worst curse you can second worst curse you can give to somebody was to wish somebody "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits." [laughter] The fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits. That's pretty gross. But worse than that was "May you get whatever you want as soon as you want it
- Nine years dreaming of fish and chipsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After nine years of NE Thai monastery food (frogs, snails, buffalo afterbirth), Brahm finally gets hot fish and chips after a funeral — vinegar, salt, paper. Nine-year dream:…
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I will tell fish and chips story now. This is my own experience okay? But I was in Thailand for 9 years. And the food there was absolutely disgusting. And I I You know, I told many stories about the food there. I mean, you know, you know, your dog wouldn't want to eat it. I'll tell you that because this was in the northeast of Thailand. Anything which slithered you had in your bowl. Literally. Now, what would it What were the sort of things? Not just like boiled frog, snails, lizards, uh grasshoppers, uh ants' eggs, um water buffalo afterbirth. That's what we ate. Disgusting stuff. So, you can you can im- You can im- You can imagine just, you know, just when I came to Australia, I can get fish and chips. You know. And I'd dream of fish and chips. Even I was a vegetarian but when I was dreaming of these things. But, I dreamt of it something and at last, after about a year or two here in Australia, I was doing a funeral service for somebody. And the timing was that I couldn't get back to monastery for the meal. So, Ajahn Jagaro, the other monk was an abbot at the time, so he said, "Okay, just get yourself something on the way back." This was my chance. I could get hot fish and chips, you know, in paper. The whole works was in the vinegar and salt, the whole works. Not like sometimes sometimes you get them in the monastery, but you put the chips and the fish in your bowl and then you have to put curry on top of it or the custard comes out. It's not not the same and it's all cold anyway cuz you have to give all these blessings. That's the worst part. If ever you come to the monastery and sort of, you know, see how the monks actually eat. You know, we go down there and the food is actually hot when it goes in your bowl. By the time you've given all these blessings and all this rigmarole, you're looking at it and it's all cold. This was the real thing, real fish and chips, nice and hot. And it was so disappointing. You know, for 9 years I dreamt of this moment. And this was it. What a waste of time
- Tea-plantation monastery — 3 to 4 pm sexy timeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After five years, young Brahm finds an abandoned mountain monastery in a tea plantation — ideal utopia; meditation gets worse; 'unmonkish' thoughts flood. He schedules 3–4 pm for…
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after five years as a monk i was allowed to go out the monastery to travel around stay by myself visit some other teachers board my experience and i go to this wonderful monastery perfect monastery i was english monk you know how i like my tea this was in the middle of a tea plantation in north of thailand everywhere i looked there were two bushes i had as much tea fresh tea as i wanted beautiful cave and the monastery was up in the mountains it was the right temperature not too hot there's no westerners so like it cooled just the right temperature and even better than that no other monks were in this abandoned monastery because it was too peaceful for them to me that was brilliant nice i can really do some nice meditation here and i didn't need to give any talks the lay people would come just they wanted to feed me that's all nothing else it was like idyllic utopia so i had all the time to meditate you know what happened my meditation got worse and worse and worse more and more crazy these thoughts were coming into my mind first of all there's no ordinary thoughts restless planning whatever and then you started getting what i keep calling unmonkished thoughts and i was only our day when i was 23. so this is 28 28 29. you know still had it long gone now but i thought that was old girl i wonder if she's still available let's stop it and always well you know that i'm still young enough i still got a good degree i can go and teach meditation as a living you know i'd do this and do that stop it because i really wanted to be a monk but every time i tried to watch my breath bring my mind back onto the breath my mind would go off again bring it back to the breath it would go off again and it got worse and worse and worse until i thought i was going mad crazy i just could not stop these unmonkeys thoughts coming up so what i did there's no one to speak to that monastery i was by myself they had a buddha statue i bowed to the buddha statue and asked for help and the inspiration which came up was do a deal you know i was trained in the west okay deals no mr trump the deal was this i would watch my breath for most of the day but i'd set aside one hour every afternoon from 3 p.m to 4 p.m for any thought goes sexy thoughts weird thoughts romance thoughts that was my sexy time as a monk okay i'm being honest with you up front but that's three to four p.m every afternoon if you mind what's the thing about that that's the time the rest of the time you behave i thought that was compromise you know what happened the mind was as crazy as ever i just couldn't stop those thoughts you know you were aware i was mindful my goodness i was mindful but they kept coming back in again i could not stop them and so it came to three o'clock exhausted i went against the wall like no many people do put my feet out okay now any sexy thought you want weird fantasizing deviant whatever okay and this is no exaggeration the next one hour i watched every breath without missing one so easy and that really threw me what is happening there that was data raw data as a scientist how come when i was fighting my mind all these thoughts would keep coming in and as soon as i let go my mind watched every breath without missing one easy relaxed and that taught me a lot mindfulness is not good enough you need a bit of wisdom and kindness
- The day after England lost to PolandStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a 22-year-old teacher, Ajahn Brahm watches England fail to qualify for the World Cup after Poland's late goal. Next day all 900 pupils and the staff are so depressed there are…
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One of the experiences I had as a kid, no not as a kid, I was a school teacher, twenty two, just before I went off to Thailand to become a monk, and this is very apt right now because this was World Cup in 1972, 73? Must have been 72. 74? It was World Cup, I don't know. Anyway, around that time. I will never forget this, it was a qualifying match, England versus Poland. Remember I was English. We were watching it on the TV. England only needed to draw to go through to the finals. And it was a close match, they were winning 1 - 0 and at the last moment, Poland scored. And England got knocked out. There was a match, it was a good match, exciting and I enjoyed it. Next day I went to school, all the kids, there were nine hundred kids in that school, and all the staff were all looking down at the floor. You know kids are usually, you know teenagers are usually sometimes naughty in class, this day there was no discipline problems at all because they just couldn't bear to be naughty, they were just so depressed. And I thought it's a bloomin' football match, what are you getting depressed about, it's only soccer, why are you going to spoil a whole day about that?
- The fifth child wished to need no more wishesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Five children play the wishing game. First wants a Big Mac; second a McDonald's restaurant; third a billion euros; fourth three wishes forever. The fifth wins: 'I wish I was so…
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five children playing the wishing game it's a great story a wishing game goes like this every child has to think of a wish and the child who comes up with the best wish wins the wishing game so the first child a young boy was thinking and said yep if I had a wish I would wish for a Big Mac with double fries an ice cream afterwards and a coke cuz my mother never allows me she's a Buddhist she comes to the temple vegetarian she never allows me to go and have a Big Mac so that was his wish fair enough and asked the second girl what was your wish and the girl was thinkinking and she'd heard what the boy said had a bit more time bit smarter than the boy and said if I had a wish I would wish for a McDonald's restaurant when I've got a restaurant I can have many burgers whenever I want and fries and everything else cuz I own the joint so that would be my wish for McDonald's restaurant and obviously a much better wish so the third child a boy had again longer to think and he thought he was a very smart guy he said if I had a wish let's put away in this just restaurants let's go big time if I had a wish I would wish for $1 billion us I think it's going up again now was it which is worth more actually which is is euros worth more now okay 1 billion euros cuz with 1 billion EUR I can buy my own McDonald's restaurant that' be first of all there be plenty of money left the next thing I would buy said the boy was my own video game store cuz I love playing video games I can get whatever video game I want but thirdly my mother is always stopping me playing video games saying I should do my homework so the third thing I will buy is my own school cuz when I own a school I can always give myself top marks I employ the teachers and at the end of you know my school career I spent all time playing video games and no homework cuz I own the school when I graduate from the own my own school I sell the school and buy my own University you got lots of universities in the United States where you know they can give you degrees for anything so I buy my own University and at the end of two or 3 years give myself a first class honors degree or whatever and I can spend all my time doing video games and he said with $1 billion when I grow up I still have billion euros sorry I'll still have many many millions left to do whatever else I want whenever I wanted cuz $1 billion you just cannot spend in a whole lifetime and so the third child was a child with a $1 billion wish beat that saying $2 billion or 3 billion is it's not beating at all it's the same it means like as much money as you can ever spend so the fourth child the girl had to think very deeply how can I do better than the billion Euro wish she was really clever said I can beat that she said if I had a wish I would wish for three wishes that's a wish for my first wish I'd have the madonald restaurant my second wish I'd have the billion billion EUR and for my third wish I'll have three more wishes that way I can go on forever be that so the fourth child was a child with the Infinity of wishes can you do better than that the fifth child won the wishing game very clearly he managed to think of a wish which was clearly Superior than having an Infinity of wishes granted whenever you wanted a wish it was granted for you that fifth child said if I had a wish I wish I was so content I never needed any more wishes ever again
- The hundred-baht wish listStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A grateful Thai supporter who knows the rules offers the young monk a 'mendicant allowance' of 100 baht for anything he personally wants. His mind goes blank, so he asks for a…
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Cos that happened to me many years ago, maybe over thirty years ago in Thailand, I had helped a man with some problems, and he was very grateful, he knew the rules, cos he was a Thai, been around the forest tradition a long time, so he came up to me and asked me, "Is there anything I can get for you? Just for you, not for the temple, one hundred baht." That's thirty-seven years ago, and these days, it's only worth about two or three dollars, but that to me was a lot of money. So you know, my mind went blank, as it often does, maybe I meditate too much, I don't know. But anyway, I couldn't think. And he was getting very impatient, and he had his work to go to. I came up with an idea, I said to him, "Why don't you come tomorrow morning? Tonight I'll think about what I want, and I'll write it down and give it to you tomorrow." He said, "Good idea - I'll be here about the same time tomorrow." So that night, after the evening meeting, chanting and meditation, I went back to my room, I lit a candle, cos there's no electricity - and I got out a old piece of paper and a pen, so I started thinking, "what do I want?" Straight away the pencil broke, so I said, actually - I need, not pencils, pencils are hopeless, I need like a pen. just a simple, biro pen or something. And as for the piece of paper, it's just a scrap piece of paper, I need a little exercise book - you know, nothing fancy, just a little exercise book, and also you know the candle is very, very difficult to write, it's bad for your eyes, just you know, reading or writing by candle light. What I wanted is one of these little oil lamps, little lamps you know, you see maybe on the boats, over here in Australia, just a little oil lamp, and a bit of kerosene, and talking about lights, my flash light was really terrible, and I needed a new flash light, and some batteries - and I put all of those things down. I suddenly realised one hundred baht, was not enough. And you know, it was so difficult to actually take any of those things off the list now, Cos now I thought about it, I don't know how I survived without them. I mean how can you survive, you know, and actually I needed some new sandals, you know, if I'm going to be walking through those forests, I needed some more new sandals, and actually talking about pieces of paper, I really needed to write to my family, I needed these aerograms. And soon, a thousand bahts was not enough. And every one of those items I put on the list, now was so important to me, I just could not scratch any one off. And that's when I had the insight, I realised what's this thing was doing to me. At that point, I screwed up that piece of paper, and I threw it in the waste bin, this little spittoon we had. And the following day, when that man came, I scolded him, "Don't you ever do that to me ever again. I was such a happy monk, before you gave me one hundred dollars. Or a hundred baht, now I had all these desires."
- The mouldy hay outside the fenceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A stingy farmer wants to get rid of last year's mouldy hay. His cows won't touch it in the paddock, and when he mixes it with good hay they nose the bad hay aside. Then he…
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the farmer with moldy hay. A long time ago, this Aussie farmer had a whole lot of hay, which was from last year, which was moldy. And of course, trying to save costs, he wanted to give it to his cows before he would give them the new hey. But the cows they knew that was moldy old hay. So, would they eat any of it? No, they refuse to eat it. So, plan number two - let's mix it up with the good hay, the new hay, the moldy hay, and the new hay, mix it all up together and the cows won't know what's what and they'll eat it all. That way he gets rid of the old hay. And the cows were much smarter than the farmer, they just with a nose pushed the old hay to one side, pushed the new hay to the other side, and ate the new hay. It is just like the kangaroos in Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine. Because when we go on retreat, we take food, the food that is given to us, we got all this food, the monks give us far too much, and a lot of time we put the excess food out for the kangaroos. Now people might say oh, that's bad for the kangaroos. Ask the kangaroos! They don't think it's bad, they love it. As I remember the first time I did that. You care for the animals, so you give them some healthy food, some carrots and lettuce and some apples and stuff. But I couldn't believe the first time I did that, had this really healthy food there for the kangaroos, they, with their nose, they pushed aside the carrot, they pushed aside the lettuce, you know what they went for? The pizza! They did! They left all the healthy food, they loved pizza. And I think this is the only kangaroos in the whole of Australia who get pizza. The kangaroos in a Buddhist monastery It is their good karma to be reborn in a Buddhist monastery. They get pizza, no other kangaroos get that. And they like it, they love it, so good on them. And some of those kangaroos that they know the monks now. Because the monks are just so kind, you know, and so sort of gentle. I remember that happened to me once - you put your bowl just outside the door, you just go inside to get something, and before you know it, the kangaroo has got his nose in your bowl. That's your one meal of the day. And he's getting the first choice - going to bowl, looking what he wants. It is nice to be with animals, but anyway. So the cows pushed aside the hay that didn´t want and ate the hay they did want. So, he was still left with all this moldy hay and didn't know what to do next. Until he got a brainwave, an insight; he should have done this to start with. If ever you go into the countryside, and you see cows in a field or sheep in a field, have you ever noticed there's always a fence around to keep the cows away from the road. But the cows or the sheep love putting their head through the fences. And eating the grass just on the other side of the fence. You always see that well eaten, well grazed. So, what he did? Very simple solution: he put all the moldy hay, not in the paddock, but outside of the paddock. Away from the fence, but just far enough, if they really stretch, they could just get it. And the moldy hay was gone in a day. Anything which is forbidden, anything which you don't know, anything, which is just on the other side of your fence.... is very delicious. I know that people did once say that hunger is the best sauce. No, that's not the best sauce. Being forbidden is the best sauce
- The nun, the mouse, the cat and the cowStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A nun living contentedly in a cave finds a mouse has chewed her robe. To keep mice away she asks a supporter for a cat; the cat needs milk, so she asks for a cow; the cow needs…
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In this particular story, it was a story of a Buddhist nun. A Buddhist nun, who was living in a cave, just happy, meditating, peaceful, just being content with the simplicity of her life. But one day when she came back from her morning alms round, because the monks and the nuns, we traditionally go out in the morning, with our bowls, to collect almsfoods, from our disciples, and that's what we feed on. It's a very simple way of living. And when she came back from her alms round, she found that one of her robes, which she left in her cave had been chewed by a mouse. And so, then she had to get out some spare cloth, needle and thread, and sew up her robe. I remember doing that, many many times in Thailand, sometimes you had to be very careful, sometimes very poor. I remember one monk, he hung his robe on the line, he just went to the toilet, and a cow chewed it. [laughter] Now, this is the only robe we got, we can't go to the robe shop and get a new one. So we just get some rags, or whatever, to sew it up. But after spending all this time sewing up her robe, she thought, "Why don't I get a cat?" The cat, you know maybe won't kill the mouse, but at least it'll chase it around, chase it out. The mouse will be able to smell the cat and it'll disappear. So the next time she was on alms round, she told one of the villagers there, her supporter, "Look, I really need a cat. You know, to make sure there's no mice, so I can keep my robe safe." So, they managed to find a little cat, and just left it with her. So she had a cat, so no more problem with the mice. But then the cat needed some milk. And she only got a little bit of food on alms round. So she had to ask one of her disciples, "Look, when I go on alms round in the morning, can you give a bit of milk? For the cat, not for me." So the disciples, and they're very supportive, so they started giving her some milk. But you know, sometimes it's hard to always be asking for things. So she thought, "Look, instead of having, asking for milk everyday, why don't I ask him for a cow? Because then I can actually make my own milk and I won't have to bother everybody." So she ask another of her disciples, "You got lots of cows, can you spare me one, so I can get some milk for my cat. So the mouse won't eat my robes." So they're very kind, Yeah, you're all very kind to the monks and nuns here. So they managed to give the little nun, a cow, a very nice cow. But of course. the cow have to eat as well. And so, they were always asking the people in the town, "Can you bring some grass?" And so they'll come every morning, to bring grass for the cow. And she thought - such a hassle getting grass for the cow everyday, and then she asked, "Is there a small little piece of your farm - little field - can I just let my cow graze in your field?" And they said, "Okay, fine - we're Buddhists, we're very generous." So they gave her a little field so she could graze her cow. But you know what cows are like, sometimes they go in other people's field. So she realized, that, you know, to be able to make sure that she didn't allow her cow to go and graze in other people's field, she needed a little boy to look after the cow. So, you know there are such things like temple boys, those people who have been to Sri Lanka and Thailand. The young people, they can actually stay and look after the monks or the nuns, or the cows - in this case, and you know, they can go to school as well. So, that, one of the supporters said, "Yeah, I've got this son. It'll be very good, because they can associate with the nun, and maybe learn some Buddhism, and get very good character." So they sent this little boy to her, so she had a boy to look after the cow. But then, just like for monks, monks can't have, like women staying in their caves so she need some place for the boy to stay. So she asked the villagers, if they wouldn't mind sort of, building a little hut just outside the cave you know, for the boy. And then one day, one day, someone came up to her and said, "Um, I'd like to ask you a few questions on meditation." She said, "No, I'm sorry, I can't make it right now, because I've got to look after the builders who are building the hut for the boy, who looks after the cow, who looks after the cat, who keeps the mice away from eating my robes." And, then she realised where she had gone wrong. Just a simple thing, just like trying to keep the mouse from eating her robes, and led to her having a cat, a cow, a field, a boy and trying to find a place for the boy to stay, And she realized, just how complicated things get. So what did she do? She sent the boy home, she sold the cow or gave it back, she sold the field, She even gave the cat away. And from then on, whenever her robes, the mouse returned, and she was very happy with her little mouse. And everytime the robes were bitten, and chewed, she would just put a little patch on it. Because that gave her much more time than having to look after all these other things.
- The pipe ad that made beauty follow himStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Old TV pipe-tobacco ad: man lights up outside a greengrocer and beautiful women stream out of shop, bank, newsagent to follow him — selling addiction as glamour.
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this guy lit the pipe and then first of all this beautiful young blonde just left the the shop I think it was maybe just a green grosser shop selling fruit and veg and she followed him. Another one came out of the bank, another one came out of the news agent until after about four or five, no maybe about only one or two minutes had this whole um line of the most beautiful, attractive women