Stories about failure
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about failure from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “That was the worst tape I've ever heard”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Angie, later president of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, finds a 23-year-old cassette of one of Ajahn Brahm's early talks in the monastery library, plays it to see how he…
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I remember that we had, I don't mind mentioning her, she's the current president of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, Angie. You know, she's a very strong disciple of mine. She came to stay at a monastery down at Serpentine some years ago, and she was just pottering around in the library, and she managed to get one of these old talks of mine on the cassette tapes. And I think it was about 20 years ago, 23 years ago. And she thought, this is really interesting, I want to see how much this monk has changed over 23, 24 years. And she played the tape and she came up afterwards, she said, Ajahn Brahm, that was the worst tape I've ever heard. That was terrible talk. And I laughed and said, yeah of course, that's just when you're learning.
- The bodhisattva at the bottom of the classStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a schoolteacher, Ajahn Brahm hands out report cards; a 12- or 13-year-old reads “30th of 30” and slumps — how will he show his dad? Ajahn Brahm stands by him and says he…
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so he gave the exams and the end of the year this gave out the report cards in my class there's this poor kid when I gave him the report card he read it 30th bottom of a class in a class of 30 and I could see I I saw his face cuz I knew you know who came bottom people who came top they say yeah yeah we came top this poor kid know his jaw dropped his shoulders hunched he look so sad he was really suffering imagine you have to take that report card back to your parents how do you do son bottom dad that's suffering for us you know a young kid he must be about 12 or 13 and so even then I was very compassionate teacher I was kind you can't just ignore a person who's suffering like that so I went up to him and sort of stood by him and he said you came bottom of the class yes sir how am I going to show this to my dad I said look you actually deserve a medal for this I taught him a little bit of Buddhism in Buddhism we got something called a bodic SATA now a bodic SATA is someone who sacrifices everything for other people it's out of great compassion and B saford sacrifice sometimes a whole life for the benefit of others and I think that's what you are you've taken this terrible position in the bottom of the class so none of your friends will have to actually to take this position you've done this so selflessly all the other conceited arrogant people they just want to become top but you've taken the humble position and taken that suffering on yourself so no one else has to enjoy what's coming to you from your mom and dad this evening they said you're such a kind and wonderful person in Buddhism we'd actually praise you for doing things like that and he looked at me as if I was crazy but it stopped him getting sad and upset certainly laughed afterwards
- The cremation pyre exploded — and Ajahn Liem went to bedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Liem, long Ajahn Chah's acting abbot, builds the crematorium for his teacher's royal funeral — a structure that still stands as a stupa. With the King of Thailand present…
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and when aena died he was in charge of all the funeral services and the king of Thailand attended this this was a big show so this monk built actually the funeral the crematorium for him which actually doubled as a as a stoer a monument which is still there now and he put all this time and money into building this place where his Great Master would be cremated and I was there at the time you know I went there ad cha was there my predecessor and AD made all these monks and the King was there and when they lit sort of the P inside this box the Box exploded Flames came out from everywhere it was a disaster and there were with hoses trying to hose the thing down and people were running around it was just a complete mess and what the mount responsible this agan Le what did he do instead of worrying about anything he took one look and then went to bed had to sleep I thought wow now that's a real monk I wish I could do that when everything goes wrong oh never mind just go and have a nice rest can you do that no you worry and worry and run around what can I do how can I fix this and he said ah just never mind he did his best doesn't matter his master won't get crated that day can always do it tomorrow
- The young doctor who wanted to quitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A first-year intern loses his first patient, a young mother, and must tell her husband that his wife is dead and his kids have no mother. Shattered, he comes to Ajahn Brahm…
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The doctor, he’s not here this evening, he lost his first patient first year as a doctor, as an intern, came to see me, wanted to resign, “I don’t want to be a doctor anymore.” Why? He said, “Cos I had to tell, I had to tell this girl’s widow, this young man, the one he loved the most in his life, is dead. And your kids have got no mother.” And you could see just the pain in this poor young man’s face. He’d just come back from the hospital, I don’t know whether it’s Royal Perth or Charlies Gairdner’s, just having told, you know, this poor guy, you know that he lost his wife, kids have no mom, and that just hurt him so much. Can you imagine having to do that? He said, “I can’t do this anymore, I have to just give in. I can’t be a doctor. Cos that’s going to happen again and I just can’t face having to be the one to tell somebody the incredibly painful news.” That’s when I told him and said, “You’ve misunderstood what being a doctor is all about. If you think that being a doctor is curing all your patients, you are going to fail so many times in your life. You’re going to go through this so many times. The reason is because you haven’t understood what the role of a doctor is. The role of a doctor is not to cure, is to care. To care for your patients, not to cure them.” You know what I mean, if curing is the number one thing you're supposed to do, some of the interventions which happen in hospitals today – cure at all costs, forget about caring for the patients. If it hurts, it’s going to prolong their life unnecessarily, that’s curing. Caring is a totally different agenda. If it’s caring, a lot of times, I have to care for this person, it’s time to let them go. No more interventions. The quality of their moment is more important than keeping them alive. And I said, “If your job as a doctor is to care for people, you will never have to fail. You can always care for people, you can’t always cure them. Therefore you can always be a successful doctor. You will lose many of your patients. They will die. But you will be able to go to their widow, to their family and say – they were cared for. They were cared for to the max, and the family, yeah they will be sad. They’ll realise everything was done and your loved one died, being loved and cared for.