Stories about food
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about food from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Maha Bua said carry on eatingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting one of Thailand's strictest monks (captioned Ajahn Mahaboor — Maha Bua), where no one may eat after the teacher stops, skinny young Brahm at the end of the line put down…
Read full story
that was this month called ajahn mahaboor he was really strict and he had this ruled in the monastery that only have one meal a day and uh you couldn't start eating before he started eating and when he finished everybody else had to finish that's why all those monks only one meal a day they always ate very fast because sometimes when my boy stopped eating then everybody had to remember on this occasion i just gone there for the first time and i was at the end of the line there i was eating my lunch they told me to be fast and when i he finished everyone had to finish me too i put down my spoon and he looked at me and he said carry on eating honestly i was really thin in those days no skin on bones because the food which i had in ajahn charles monastery was very very lack of nutrition very simple food and so i was skin and bones he saw that and he said carry on eating and that touched my heart wasn't i needed to eat more it was this is kindness so i carried on eating and that was the sort of thing which how you don't break a monk you're kind to them
- 'Become a monk and I'll cook for you'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the early years in Perth, before Sister Vayama came, Thai women married to Australians brought delicious food to the two monks. Some husbands complained, 'My wife never cooks…
Read full story
We had complaints in the first years when I was a monk because sometimes we had these Thai ladies married to Australians, and they'd come and bring food to the two monks who were there. This was before Sister Vayama came. And sometimes the Australian men, the husbands, would complain. They'd say, "My wife never cooks anything like that for me! This is unfair!" And the Thai women would say, "You should become a monk. Then I'll cook for you."
- Crunchy frog and the bladder on the riceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Early Thai forest austerity: Monty Python 'crunchy frog' becomes real — sticky rice and spoon-sized boiled frogs, then a whole toad on rice. Biology class pays off: he avoids the…
Read full story
we did have like frog suit once now I remember just as a kid I used to watch Monty Python for those of you that want watch Monti P one of the sketches was crunchy frog where somebody went into a movie theater selling chocolate cover crunchy frog and they sort of ate this and they said this is gross you left the bones in it he said that's why it's crunchy and I thought that's gross that's why it was funny and a few years later I was eating crunchy frog you know without the chocolate and this was all we had one day a bowl of sticky rice and a pot like a big sauce pan and you looked inside there was no salt no nothing like garlic or anything it's like boiled water and floating it was about 20 like spoon size frogs and that was our lunch so only one me a day a spit of rice and put the frog on your spoon in your mouth crunch boiled crunchy frog and there's other gross things even more gross than that was a time it wasn't actually um crunchy frog it was like boiled frog one each a big one like a toad on rice and there you was your rice and there's towed on top of it it it wasn't towed in the hole that I used to like towed in the hole that's an English dis sausages this was a real toad and the problem was and this is true story I was there that's all we had that day no fruit no vegetables no salt no condiments no chili or anything just one frog and a piece of rice and that was it for the whole day so you had to eat it so you know I was fortunate I'd like to tell the story to kids because some kids do not pay attention in school you must pay attention in school especially in biology I did pay attention and this is where I got the payback cuz when you eat the meat off the legs of the Frog you I was a vegetarian before okay and I had to there's no vegetables it's rice and frog so you take the meat off the legs first of all you can actually eat that that's not so bad but that's not enough to keep you going for the day so you have to start picking at its insides I knew what organ was what the guy sitting next to me did not he pressed the bladder it had urine in and that frog peeded all over his rice it doesn't matter how hungry you are you can't eat after that
- Nine years dreaming of fish and chipsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After nine years of NE Thai monastery food (frogs, snails, buffalo afterbirth), Brahm finally gets hot fish and chips after a funeral — vinegar, salt, paper. Nine-year dream:…
Read full story
I will tell fish and chips story now. This is my own experience okay? But I was in Thailand for 9 years. And the food there was absolutely disgusting. And I I You know, I told many stories about the food there. I mean, you know, you know, your dog wouldn't want to eat it. I'll tell you that because this was in the northeast of Thailand. Anything which slithered you had in your bowl. Literally. Now, what would it What were the sort of things? Not just like boiled frog, snails, lizards, uh grasshoppers, uh ants' eggs, um water buffalo afterbirth. That's what we ate. Disgusting stuff. So, you can you can im- You can im- You can imagine just, you know, just when I came to Australia, I can get fish and chips. You know. And I'd dream of fish and chips. Even I was a vegetarian but when I was dreaming of these things. But, I dreamt of it something and at last, after about a year or two here in Australia, I was doing a funeral service for somebody. And the timing was that I couldn't get back to monastery for the meal. So, Ajahn Jagaro, the other monk was an abbot at the time, so he said, "Okay, just get yourself something on the way back." This was my chance. I could get hot fish and chips, you know, in paper. The whole works was in the vinegar and salt, the whole works. Not like sometimes sometimes you get them in the monastery, but you put the chips and the fish in your bowl and then you have to put curry on top of it or the custard comes out. It's not not the same and it's all cold anyway cuz you have to give all these blessings. That's the worst part. If ever you come to the monastery and sort of, you know, see how the monks actually eat. You know, we go down there and the food is actually hot when it goes in your bowl. By the time you've given all these blessings and all this rigmarole, you're looking at it and it's all cold. This was the real thing, real fish and chips, nice and hot. And it was so disappointing. You know, for 9 years I dreamt of this moment. And this was it. What a waste of time
- One Heinz baked bean after the retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a long retreat, breakfast is baked beans from a tin. Ajahn Brahm puts a single bean on the spoon — taste sensation so amazing he asks who the celebrity chef was. Cooks:…
Read full story
after the retreat was finished I had my breakfast the first breakfast and during that breakfast I just was a baked bean baked beans were given for breakfast they had baked beans this morning and when I bought I just put one baked bead just one a single one on a spoon and put it in my mouth I'm not exaggerating that was amazing it was a taste sensation I didn't know who would cook that baked bean was it one of these celebrity chefs who just made it just the most delicious single baked bean I've ever eaten in my life and I asked the cooks in my Monastery hook up there oh just out of the tin a tin of baked beans Mr Heinz or something but because my mindfulness had increased enormously that bait being tested so amazing
- The celebratory pork curry that ended his enlightenmentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After four years as a monk Ajahn Brahm had a great satori and thought he was enlightened. That morning, instead of the usual rotten fish curry, there was rare pork curry from…
Read full story
When I had my great Satori experience Four years as a monk and everything became really clear I really thought I was Enlightened You can read the whole story, it's very self deprecating until the food came that morning usually we have rotten fish curry for that morning there was another pot of curry It was actually... sorry if you are vegetarian there was no vegetarian food around in Thailand those days and the other food was like a pork curry from town we never have that that is really rare and straight away I thought the heavenly beings are also celebrating my Enlightenment I thought wow this is great because that's such a rare event and I was number two monk and the head monk a local boy actually from that local village he should have liked the rotten fish curry he grew up on it that was a local dish and he never took any rotten fish curry He took -- incredible big ladles no one could eat that much of the pork curry He sloshed it into his bowl. I wasn't concerned about that because there was plenty left you know of the pork curry but what he did next was absolutely unforgivable he took what was left of the pork curry and he poured it into the rotten fish curry; stirred it up and said it's all the same, it's all the same What a hypocrite, if it was all the same why didn't he pour it in and mix it up before he took his and he spoiled my celebratory meal for being .. Arahant doesn't worry about food. That was ... oh no... I am not fully enlightened after all but I really felt like it for a long time had all the.... no sloth and torpor, incredible energy absolutely imperturbable that was great Shame it didn't last that long So that is what these satoris are And the only way you can find out if it is the real thing if it really persist over years So just one great insight not enough
- The sludge that started to taste niceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Told that monks should eat plain food, he recalls that in his first year as a monk, as a practice, he stirred everything in his one daily meal — sweets and all — into a single…
Read full story
My first year as a monk, for a practice, I put all the food together which was disgusting anyway, and I got the spoon and mixed it all up. I only had one meal a day. It was a sludge, it was a slop and if you saw it, you'd actually pour it out straight away. It wasn't even fit for pigs, let alone for monks. But the trouble was it was an interesting experiment which I did. Every food no matter what it was, the sweets, everything in one bowl and stirred it up so it was absolutely consistent. After a while, it actually started to taste nice.
- The texture of a bean after a month's retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Just after a month self-retreat at Bodhinyana he eats a bean slowly and notices texture he had never attended to — soft yet structured — stillness opening ordinary senses.
Read full story
just crunching it with my teeth very slowly and the texture of it. You ever notice a texture of a bean