Stories about ease
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about ease from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- How Opening the Door of Your Heart was writtenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman who'd been through a terrible divorce urges him to publish his stories; he's too busy, so she offers to write them — and her first drafts are so bad (on purpose, he…
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He was the owner of this draft of my first book 'Opening the Door of your Heart’ which I wrote. And I love telling the story of how that happened. It just shows you how emotional wisdom becomes so powerful rather than just thinking and ideas. And the story of that book is: I have been teaching many years, and had all these stories which I tell, that some of these stories are very powerful. And one of these ladies, who had a very terrible divorce, and she said: ‘You really do need to publish those stories to give them a wider, a broader reach, not just only actually in the Armadale group - but the whole of Perth, the East Coast and other countries of the world. You have to do this Ajahn Brahm, it's unfair that you keep this great wisdom just for a few people’. You know my reply? ‘I’m too busy’. Which was true, I had lots of stuff to do, I can't do that. But then this lady, she was so smart, she totally outwitted me. I admit defeat, because she said: ‘I’ll write them’. And when she wrote the first three or four draft stories, they were terrible. They were so bad - which I think she did on purpose. [Laughs] So I thought I’d better write these myself. And it wasn't as hard as I thought. Because what I was doing - I was having one of these quiet retreats by myself for two weeks - and so I decided just to have one hour every afternoon, just to write down some of these stories. Just one hour, 15 days. When I finished that 15-day retreat, I had over half of the stories written down by hand, and I have the manuscript - it really belongs to Hugh, because he bought it at an auction for raising money for the nuns’ monastery at that time. But I look at that and this is… it's beautiful, that handwriting is almost without error. And it’s just done on paper with a pen. It's not, sort of, on the computer - and you wouldn't believe it, sometimes I look at it - did I do that? And those are the first 50, first almost 60% of the book. It was so easy, when your mind is relaxed and peaceful and kind. You just flow and you let all the words come out, just without interfering with them. And I took a break and, in another few days, finished the whole book. All written out by hand. And having the manuscript, just the first draft of the manuscript… not a first draft and a second or a third draft, just one draft. Somebody typed it out for me on the computer, they had a computer and could use it… You know I can't use a computer that much, I try, but I’m not that good. But nevertheless, even though I’m just not that good with computers - (this is one of our IT guys - how good am I at computers? ‘You're all right?’ Ah, it’s because he's nice. [Laughter] I'm not that good. But anyway, nevertheless, even though you're no good at a computer - I can still give the keynote address at the world computer conference in Daejeon South Korea in 2019. [Laughs] Stupid things in this world. [laughter] This was a world computer conference in south Korea. And I remember this, one of the guys I was talking to, he was the European Union Head of Cyber Security. And one of these ministers, I think from Sydney - we were chatting too. And all these other – and this was really, sort of, high power computer experts. Other than me. [laughter] Honest, I’m being honest. But you can go there, you can still perform. Simply because you just know how to get that emotional twist on what you're talking about and what you're teaching. Just like writing a book. So easy, when you know how to be peaceful and get the emotional quality. You just let it happen. Who knows? Good, bad, who knows. But of course, the end of that story was - fellow Ron Storey - actually his ashes are just behind here, just in the garden. But he just typed it out for me going to Melbourne. He gave me the little CD, remember those old CDs or computer discs I think they were called; gave it to me just an hour or two before I got on the plane. Cause I thought ‘I’m going to Melbourne, there's lots of publishing houses in Melbourne.’ How do you actually get a book published anyway? I never had a book published before, so I thought: ‘Well, somebody in Melbourne I find’. And this is absolutely true story, no exaggeration. Off the plane, straight to Melbourne University to give my first talk - and after the talk was finished, this woman came up to me and said: ‘Oh, it was a wonderful talk, Ajahn Brahm. I work in the publishing industry. If ever you have something you want published, please let me see it’. I said: ‘Here you go’. [laughter] She couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it, it was just so easy. Not like, you know, that - uhm - what's her name, ‘Harry Potter’ author. What's her name again? Oh - J.K. Rowling - but apparently, she had to put her book for quite a few publishers before she got that published. Me, I just published straight away.
- Loose robes at the yacht clubStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a talk on Buddhism to Perth executives at a yacht/boat club, a woman who grew up in a Catholic convent tells Ajahn Brahm that his constantly falling-off loose robes are a…
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I went to give a talk over in quarry I think it's one of the boat clubs there though or yacht clubs and a little restaurant nearness is one of these talks I love going to talks to places I've never been before and it's one of the interesting things about being among you get all over the place and this was a group of executives you know executives in Perth who met her once a month in this know your club had dinner and wine and all sorts of other stuff that never gave me anything good job because I can't eat it or drink it but it was after the talk I gave Ono and Buddhism and sort of attitudes we have I was a member of this executive came up after with me and said yeah I was listening to what you said it's very interesting and important but what I really noticed is your robes and just how loose they went how they keep falling off and he said she said I take that as a symbol of Buddhism because she said she was brought up in a Catholic convent where the nuns there were just so tight nothing ever fell off and he said it was just so strict and so tight there was no freedom there there's no relaxation no ease if something went wrong like something fell off you can't do that that's wrong but she saw me in this very loose robe with things falling off that's Buddhism and I easy comfortable and if things fall off we learn from that we accept that we just put it up again finish what's the problem but if you feel guilty I'll be the monk for 36 years and I still can't keep my robe on when I give a talk you hopeless hopeless hopeless