Stories about ethics
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about ethics from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “It's about time you took the pansil”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young man who has been visiting a temple for some time, he's taken aside by a monk: it's about time he 'took the pansil'. Not knowing what that was, he hears the five…
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one of the priests took me aside he'd been coming here long enough it's about time you took the pencil this was accurate this has happened it was an Atty temple but I use this when I can words I said then it will sir what is the pencil you know not kidding and everything I'm a vegetarian not sort of stealing even if the conductors have vouched for my fare I always give it to him so you need my fare here it is not committing adultery who won girlfriend was expensive enough not lying it never felt right to tell a lie to anybody and not take an alcohol I said I've been giving up alcohol a long time already and now you know I was may say I was conceited but it was a good anecdote I said venerable so I don't need to take the 5p sense I've been keeping them for the last couple of years without knowing that there were precepts
- 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
- The Buddhist soldiers from the British ArmyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the UK a group of Buddhists from the British Army come to see Ajahn Brahm. He had assumed Buddhist soldiers would be dentists or accountants, but some are frontline soldiers…
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there was a group of Buddhist military who came to see me in UK a few years ago. Just like in all parts of life, even in the British army, there were many Buddhists. I thought those Buddhists would be in the ancillary services such as the dentists, or the accountants, but some of these Buddhists were frontline soldiers who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is that a good thing for a Buddhist to be doing? I'm not going to judge but that's where they were and that's what they were doing. And so I had to change many of my attitudes, and I'm willing to change those attitudes to face these people in front of me who were obviously very sincere—they weren't bad people. I could sense straightaway that they had a very strong, inner morality in them. And how can that be? It was a contradiction in all I had ever told about Buddhism. And so one of the things I told them is never allow your knowledge to stand in the way of truth. I remember that they were shocked by that. They said, "Yeah!" Because my knowledge was telling me that what these guys were doing is wrong. But the truth in front of my eyes that these were beautiful people. Which is the one you're supposed to follow? If you follow your knowledge, you'll make so many mistakes— you'll be judgmental, critical, harsh, and you'll never be able to connect, appreciate and respect people. The truth of the matter is something different. That was a wonderful experience. I still don't know understand. I still haven't really processed that totally
- The intern's pager and the one-or-two-second listenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A distraught intern told Ajahn Brahm he had resuscitated a cardiac-arrest patient a few seconds too late, leaving permanent brain damage and a vegetative body. Next time, Brahm…
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his little pager beeped it's one of his patients was having a cardiac arrest he ran as fast as he could into the ward into the room next to the bedside and resuscitated him but not quick enough so there was permanent brain damage on this patient maybe 30 seconds later since earlier and he could have actually got him back to a proper life but his actions had confined this man into this terrible space an in-between world of life and death where his body could survive for many many more years but he would never be never be able to speak never be able to uh talk to people or listen to people he was like in a vegetative state but otherwise perfectly okay and he felt so guilty that his actions had confined this man into a state between life and death with no real quality of life but in that prison of his body for probably many more years and so he came and asked me of all people what should I do next time that happens I'm a monk I'm not a doctor but I know it a lot because I know how to listen and feel what I told him next time that happens it will happen again get there as soon as you can resuscitate spend one or two seconds that's all listen feel get your mind still anyone can do that for a few seconds find it difficult if I just say and it's really important just making my own peaceful stop thinking and listen feel and what you feel if you feel yeah resuscitate go for it if you feel too late leave it alone follow that and I find that that would always be very very very helpful for you
- The only lie in 40 years of marriageStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Don, a retired Royal Navy man and Buddhist Society member, was in Royal Perth Hospital awaiting heart bypass surgery. The night before, his wife phoned Ajahn Brahm, distressed:…
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one of the members here his name was Don he was English he used to be in the the Royal Navy and he came to Perth in the boat and liked it so much that once he retired he came to uh to live here and he had a heart attack he was put in roal Perth Hospital put in the the F stream for having bypass surgery and I went to see him in the hospital give him a bit of a boo and just the night before his surgery his wife called me she was very very disturbed and she said I've been married to him for about 40 years now and this afternoon I lied to him for the first time and I feel terrible and so asked what happened why did you lie she said in that W there were three other beds and in his next bed all people about to have heart bypasses was Jack and you know being in the war together him two or 3 days nothing else to do you know he became quite friendly to Jack and Jack was had that heart bypass that morning and I went to see my husband in the evening and he was to have his bypass the next day and so my husband asked how's Jack how did his H how did his bypass go and I lied to him I said fine he's over in the ICU recovering it was a success when what really happened I saw Jack's wife crying her eyes out he died the bypassing didn't work and I didn't want to tell my husband that that his friend had died from the same operation my husband's going to have tomorrow I think that might have killed him and actually that because he was quite elderly he was on the edge of life and death for about two or three days he only just pulled through and to this day I I say to his wife you probably did the right thing if you'd have told the truth it might have just pushed him over the edge it might have killed him so I said in that particular case it was the right thing to do to lie so I say once every 40 years you can lie
- The schoolboy who stopped skipping the bus fareStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Poor schoolboy skips bus fares for pocket money until about 13–14; conscience says someone must pay the driver's salary and the petrol — he stops cheating.
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when I was a a young uh school boy now my parents were very poor so I didn't have much money and I had to go on a bus every morning to school and a bus coming back again and I thought that if the buzz conductor never asked for your fair I didn't need to pay it and that was an extra source of income for me and but there came a time when I was about 13 or 14 I felt very bad about that you know something inside of me said that was wrong and it was like this intuitive feeling of what was right and wrong no one was telling me all my friends were doing the same but then I thought no that know somebody's got to pay this bus driver's uh salary someone's got to pay for the petrol
- 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.
- Two monks argue about the fish tankStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Waiting for lunch: one monk says fish tanks are prisons; the other says tanks protect fish from hooks and alien-abduction fishing — same tank, opposite morals.
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two monks who were in somebody's house waiting for lunch and they were sitting in the room and they had a fish tank I know you may have a fish tank in your house and one of them Mark said that is crol what did the fish do to have to be put inside his prison in somebody's house you know it's bad to keep fish in a tank in your house just for your own amusement the fish should be free to swim in the lakes and the rivers to go where they wanted to it is bad to imprison fish in a tank in your house so be honest how many of you have got fish tanks in your house very good because the other monks said you don't understand he said it's good to put fish in a tank in your house why he said because imagine that you were a fish if you were swimming in the lakes and the rivers you know that people would be fishing for you trying to kill you and eat you and I often thought what it must be like being a fish in the rivers you swimming around riding your own business you see this nice juicy little worm and you wonder has it got a hook in it or is it a real worm because you've seen many of your friends know they see a worm they take it and suddenly they''re yanked out of your existence never to be seen again it's like being abducted by aliens