Stories about fearlessness
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about fearlessness from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- The day I peed on a snakeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After meditating all night in a Thai forest monastery, the tired young monk goes into the bush at first light and squats to urinate on what he thinks is a stick — until the stick…
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I've been meditating all night in this monastery over in Thailand and in the early morning just of course you went out to go to toilet. But in those jungles just like going out to the ordinary toilet you just go out to the forest, squat down as you've seen Asian's squat down and then you just urinate in the bush. So this is the first light of day so I wasn't seeing very clearly my mindfulness wasn't strong so when I squatted down and started urinating I really did think I was urinating on a stick. (Ajahn is laughing) And then that stick started to move You know what it's like you're a bit tired, look you don't get scared, you think oh! that's a snake. It's like you're really stupid. But of course, afterwards I was a bit afraid because I thought my goodness because when you squat down you're not standing, you're squatting remember, and that was a very venomous snake and as I tell people these days the most sensitive part of a male's body was only a few inches away from the venomous snake. You girls won't appreciate this but you men sometimes that make you squirm. Uh no, but of course it did not bite me. And to this day I always think I know now why it didn't bite me. Because this was in a Buddhist monastery, in a Buddhist country, Thailand. And I'm really sure to this day that that snake never bit me as I peed on it because it thought it was being blessed with holy water
- The three-metre dugite in the shade of his hutStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On retreat at Serpentine, Ajahn Brahm hears kangaroos fleeing as a huge, highly venomous dugite approaches while he washes his bowl. He says hello and carries on; it lies in the…
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that big dugite, he was, I think, 2.7 meters long because it was a hot day, and he just wanted to shade under the side of the hut I was living in, the kuti, and because I built that I knew the dimensions so I know 2.7 meters long, and as soon as he came, the kangaroos alerted me, they were running out of the way, afraid of this huge little, no, huge little, a huge snake, and he came, and he looked at me, and he was, I was in striking distance, he just looked at me, and I looked at him, and wished him well and just carried on washing my bowl, and then the next thing I knew, I turned around, and he was pointing in the other direction, he realised he was okay with me, I was okay with him, and he just wanted some shade, that's all, on a hot day.
- The wobbly VIP chairs and the fist under his noseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For the opening of the Nollamara centre the Governor of WA, Sir Gordon Reid, accepts the invitation. Ajahn Brahm orders the best marquee and chairs from a top Cottesloe hire…
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When we first came to this suburb, when we first opened this centre here, it was about twenty years ago now, forget exactly when, maybe twenty three years ago, this hall wasn’t built yet, we had the community hall next door. And we just moved into this new centre, so we had an opening ceremony. And we thought – never know your luck – we invited the then Governor of Western Australia, Sir Gordon Reid. The Reid Highway is named after him. And just to our delight, he accepted. We never thought the Governor would accept to come to a small place like this. But he accepted and he came. We were so thrilled. And even though we were struggling for support, nevertheless, it was going to be a big day. So our treasurer at that time told me: “Look, we wanna make a really good show of it.” My job, my little piece of the action there was to order the marquee and the chairs, the marquee outside and the chairs for our people and our guests. And so, because I was told by the treasurer, it didn’t matter how much it cost, we wanted the very best. I range around for the top hire companies in Perth, I got one in Cottesloe, which hired out the marquees. for Peppermint Grove and Dalkeith And I said: “Look, we going to get the Governor, we really wanted to put a show. Buddhist have come to town, we wanna show we’re here. We don’t want to have a small thing, we want to impress people. So can I have a really nice marquee, and some really good chairs? We’ve got the Governor of the state coming.” And so the lady who took the call said: “Yes,yes, yes, it would cost you..” I said: “It doesn’t matter, the treasurer said, we wanna put on a good show.” Okay, the deal was made. And a Friday afternoon, coz we were going to have the ceremony on a Sunday, so we had to set up on a Friday, before people stop working. The Friday afternoon when the truck came with the marquee and the chairs I was a kind monk, I was helping someone else with their jobs. So I never actually saw them unload. But when I checked, the marquee which they had was absolutely filthy. And all this red dust, they must have had it on some agriculture show. And I was very upset coz I asked for something good. But, you know, instead of complaining, “Rather light a candle than complain about darkness”, we got a hose out, we hosed it down. We had a couple of days for it to dry. And then I saw the chairs, and they were also really dusty. So I had lots of helpers, we got wet clothes, we started cleaning the dust off the chairs. That could be done. But then I saw the ten VIP chairs. And this is no exaggeration: of those ten chairs, not one of those chairs had legs the same length… They all wobbled, a lot. And that was just too much. You can wipe down the chairs, you can hose down the tent, but you can’t fix those wobbly chairs. So I ran to the phone, in the room over here, and I managed to catch the Manager the lady I talked to, as she was closing the office late on Friday afternoon. And I said: “Look, this is what you’ve delivered. Don’t you remember I asked for the best? We’ve got the Governor of Western Australia and his wife coming. We can’t have them falling over, because the chairs have got legs with not equal sizes.” The lady was very apologetic. She said: “Look, there must be some sort of mistake. I’ll get them changed immediately.” Thank you. But what happened was this. The men had already knocked off for the weekend. They were down at the pub, starting their evening drinking when the manager came in and said: “The Buddhists need some new chairs. Get back to work!” So you can imagine how they felt. But this time I was waiting for them just in front of the building here. And as that truck turned the corner, it came half way down Nanson Way, you know what I’m talking about just from Constance Street to this, what is about – about 200 metres, halfway, a man jumped out of the truck. it must have been going about 20-30 km/h. He jumped up and came running towards us, with his fist clenched “Where is the bloke in charge?? I want the bloke in charge!!” So I went up to him and said: “I’m the bloke in charge.” And his eyes were red, just like the monster’s in the Jakata Tales of Buddhist. And you could smell just on his breath how much beer was he been drinking. And I sniffed it in. That’s the most beer I’ve ever imbibed in 34 years as a monk, (laughter) coming from his breath. And his fist was right in front of my nose, like this. And everybody stopped what they were doing, they stopped all the work and they just looked. Not one of them came to help me. (laughter) Thanks a lot! But they didn’t need to. It’s amazing, when you are a meditator, when you know what to do, it’s so easy not to be violent. All I did was just make my mind really peaceful, not at all afraid or scared, and I just looked him in the eye peacefully, kindly. That was one of the most amazing experiences in my life as a monk. He had his first this far from my nose, breathing all this alcohol into me, red eyes. But he could go no further. Because I wasn’t reacting in the normal way, his brain basically fused. It did, he did not know what to do next. And it’s one of those moments when you had him, you had him completely in your control and power. He couldn’t go backwards, he couldn’t go forwards. It’s a wonderful experience, holding a person like that -just because you were peaceful and you were kind. And he was completely confused. Now, in that three or four minutes when I held him there - it wasn’t just a couple of seconds, it was quite a long time – the truck had parked, and one of the other, probably the boss of the gang, came out, walked towards us and put his hand on this guy’s shoulder and said: “Come on, let’s unload the chairs.” And I said: “Yes, I’ll help you.” And we unloaded those chairs together.
- “What if they kill you?” — the monk bound for a rough countryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk tells the Buddha he wants to take the Dhamma to a faraway country. The Buddha warns that its people are coarse and violent: what if they abuse you? “At least they'd feed…
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There was a monk who went up to the Buddha in that old time and he said, "I want to go to this country a long way away, you know, to spread the dharma, to to build up some Buddhism and to help people in this far away country, just like I was coming to Australia." And the Buddhist said to this monk, "Oh, that particular country, you know, it's very rough. People are very coarse and very violent in that country." And I'm not saying Australia is like that, but people laughed when I made that comparison in Thailand. And the Buddha said, "What would happen, you know, if you went to that country and people talk badly about you and they cursed you?" And he thought, "Well, you know, at least they would feed me." And then the Buddha said, "What if they don't feed you?" He said, "Well, at least they don't hit me, but what if they hit you?" Well, it's only a, you know, a a fist. It's not as if they stab me with daggers. What if there's dagger with daggers and swords? Well, at least they don't kill me. But what if they kill you? Well, it just means I go to heaven quicker. And the Buddha said, "Now that's a real monk. You can go.