Stories about disappointment
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about disappointment from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Chah's broken heartStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah told Ajahn Brahm that as a young man he had a girlfriend in the village; they loved each other and wanted to marry, but a mother decided it was not a good match and…
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he did have a girlfriend in the village and no, they loved each other. They wanted to marry and, you know, live together. But then what happened was they decided or the mother of one of them said, "No, no, this is not a good match." And they chose a better partner for this girl. So Ajan was brokenhearted. I don't know if I told you that story before. I remember him telling me that. And so that was one of the reasons why he decided to become a monk because life sometimes just doesn't go the way you expect it to.
- 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?