Stories about freedom
18 Buddhist wisdom stories about freedom from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Giving up beer at 18Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young Buddhist student who loved beer, Ajahn Brahm was told by his teacher that he shouldn't drink. He tried giving it up and felt a great sense of power — he had a choice…
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that's what I did, when I was a young man, I was a Buddhist and my teacher kept on telling me: ‘You shouldn't drink alcohol’. I liked my beer, I didn't like the other stuff, but beer, I used to love beer. And he said: ‘No, you can't take that anymore, you're a Buddhist, you meditate. ‘Do I really have to?’ He said: ‘yes, you do’, so I said: ‘okay I'll give it a try.’ And as soon as I tried it, just giving up beer, I felt this great sense of power inside of me. It was like I had the choice and I was exercising the choice. I could take it or leave it, I was proving to myself I could leave it. And I could go into a party and still enjoy myself and have… Actually, I found out it was more fun when I was sober. Okay, I was only 18-19 at the time. The best time at a party, when you find a nice girl, you’re in the corner, messing around… when I used to have beer and alcohol, I didn't remember that part. [laughter] And that was the best part. And when I was sober, I had much more fun. And so little things like that, ordinary things, meant you started to enjoy yourself more. Which meant, what's the point of going back to alcohol? And I was a student at the time it cost so much money, I had so much more money to use for other things.
- Guards with machine guns — to keep the world outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting a very wealthy man in Kuala Lumpur, Ajahn Brahm passes machine-gun guards at the gate. 'Are you in a prison?' — 'That's to keep the world out, not to keep me in.'…
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one of those wealthy people went to went to visit him over in qualo and when I went into his house first of all he had to go past the guards on his gate and they had machine guns and I wondering said are you in a prison no he said that's to keep the world out not to keep me in he paid those guards and when I went and saw him at a magnificent house this is quite a few years ago all the uh all the things you could never want except for Freedom that's how I saw it
- Hands behind their backsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his one year as a schoolteacher in Devon, walking down a narrow lane at lunchtime, he meets two sixth-formers whose hands go behind their backs — the dead giveaway of a hidden…
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for one year I was a school teacher. I remember just having a big conflict inside of myself. Should I sort of discipline those children in this school for doing things which I would have done only two or three years earlier? I remember these kids coming down, it was a nice day and I went for a walk down this lane in this uh summer time and lay off and then I saw it was lunchtime in the county of Devon. It was a beautiful day. I went down a lane and I saw a couple of the sixth formers when I was grade 12 or probably this uh the equivalent of the first year at university in Australia coming down the road. And as soon as they saw me, a teacher, their hands went behind their back. I know what that was was cuz that's what I used to do. That's when you're smoking and you're trying to hide a cigarette. A dead giveaway. And it was a narrow lane, they couldn't miss me and they couldn't turn around, so they were very, very embarrassed. And I I told them, "Look, that's not the way to hide a cigarette." But there's no way I would discipline those kids, even though it was against the school rules, because I felt being a hypocrite. I was rebelling against those rules. So why should I sort of impose those rules on others?
- I realized I didn't have to winStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Olympic-prospect distance runner loses his first race; asked why, he says he realised he didn't have to win — compulsion to win had made every race painful.
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This fellow is likely to do so well that he will probably be in the Olympic Games and maybe win a medal for the country." But then what happened, this guy, he lost a race. It's the first time he ever lost a race. And then the friend asked him, "How come you lost this long-distance race?" And the friend said, "Because I realized I didn't have to win
- Imprisoned in a six-star hotelStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a conference tour in Japan, his hosts put Ajahn Brahm in what he later hears was a six-star hotel room. He's afraid to touch the taps of the big bath and jacuzzi, can't watch…
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I remember going this one time and I was giving some talks in Japan and going to I'm not sure if it's possible because I couldn't speak Japanese, but this hotel, it looked like it was a six-star hotel. It was crazy. We was just, you know, going to give a series of talks and conferences and stuff when I got inside of there in this hotel and I don't know if you know the Japanese culture said, "Please, we want you to be in here because we want to know where you are." It was a bit of a conference and so had to make sure I was in the right place. And then just I was inside this and I thought this is like a prison for me. I'm a monk. I'm not used to hotels. They had this big bath and a jacuzzi or something. I never been in one of those before. I own too scared to turn on any tap cuz any button or something. If I turned it on, I don't know what would happen. And of course, being a monk, you can't turn on the TV. That's against our rules. And the beds not like beds we have in in Serpentine where monastery where I live. And let many of you been inside my place where I live. And it's just it's not a bed. It's just a mat on the floor about that that thick. That's happy for me. I don't if you put me on big bed, it's very hard to fall asleep. And a small bed is very very easy and comfortable for me. And so what am I doing with this big beds? They're buttons on them. I don't know what to do with those buttons. I must admit though, when I went inside the toilet in this fancy hotel, I well, I couldn't resist pressing the buttons and see what happened. It was crazy. They don't have toilet paper. They just press a button and something squirts out in the right place. And sometimes it's in the wrong place, but never mind. [laughter] you get it hot and cold and all sorts of stuff. It was good fun. But then after a while I said, can't I just have a simple place to stay and it was one thing which I noticed that it was obviously that somebody paid a lot of money for me to spend a night in this hotel. It was part of a conference tour and and I was thought I don't want to be in here. I just want to be a nice little cave know where I stay in serpentine or under just over here just a nice little room. You don't need all this special stuff. And you know after a few minutes I didn't want to be in there. I want to get something else more simple. It's just too elaborate for me. They had many sort of TVs in there. Obviously didn't know which one to turn on. I didn't turn any on. And after a while I realized that I was suffering. You know what was probably I think I heard later on it was a sixstar room in the hotel. Six star. Have you ever been in a six-star hotel room? It really sucks. It's terrible. If you're a [laughter] monk, why on earth? And I realized that what is suffering is not if it's a six-star hotel or if it's just out in the bush somewhere. Any place you don't want to be is called suffering. Any place, even a six-star hotel, any place you like to be, you can feel something nice, beautiful, or simple, or whatever it is. If you want to be here, then you're free. you're happy. If you don't want to be here, you are in a prison.
- Keep the cage door openAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: lock a bird and when the door finally opens it never returns; leave the door open and comfort inside — it flies and comes back. Power vs freedom in relationships.
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bird in a cage if I were a bird in a cage sooner or later if you keep locking the door and they can't get out sooner or later there's probability eventually that door be left open and that bird will fly away never to come back again alas it's got its freedom that's what happens when you keep a bird in a cage instead if you keep a bird in the cage door is left open bliss a nice cage nice food very comfortable and if the bird does fly away it always come back again
- One toe in the poolAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: a four- or five-year-old who has only just learned to walk is taken to a pool for the first time. Mummy lets it dip one toe and take it out, then a foot, then a leg,…
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just like the story of the kid being taken, maybe four or five year old kid taken to the swimming pool to learn how to swim for the first time. Imagine what it must feel like be a child. You've just learned to walk, you know, be able to stand up and run without falling over. And now you have to to somehow understand and cope with this stuff which is not solid water, the whole pool of it. It's okay jumping in a puddle and making everybody wet but just a whole pool. So how do you get a kid to do that? So the mommy just lets it put one toe in first of all. Take it out. That feels okay. A whole foot. Take it out. Let's say it's only a foot. A leg. then dip it in and then take it out again. Mommy's still holding it. And then eventually you let the kid go into the pool. And once the kid's in the pool splashing about enjoying itself, it's very hard to get the kid out of the pool again. It's too much fun.
- Still in the POW campStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Two Australian veterans who were captured at the fall of Singapore and held in prisoner-of-war camps meet at a reunion. One asks the other whether he has forgiven the Japanese…
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this was the story of those two Australian soldiers meeting together in a reunion, they'd both been in the Second World War, they'd both been in Singapore, the fall of Singapore, and both been put in P.O.W. camps. Well, one met the other, and said, "Have you forgiven the Japanese yet for what they did to us and our friends?" "No! Never! How can you forgive that??" said one of the soldiers. "What about you?" His friend said, "I forgave years ago. But you, my friend, are still in the P.O.W. camp." I love that story, simply because until you forgive -- until he forgave what those guards, those soldiers, did to him and his friends, in the camps in Changi on the Death Railway in Thailand on the Burmese border. Until they forgave, they were still being tortured. They're still in the camps. They can never be happy. His friend had let go and therefore he was free.
- Teased on the Charles Street busStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the early Perth days people mock his robes: 'women's clothes', 'Hare Krishna', 'get a proper job'. On a bus down Charles Street some young men tease him, so he gives as good…
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And I remember going on a bus once and just uh down Charles Street. Uh and then somebody started teasing me. And so I said I'd go and give as good as I got. I said, "You know, you got long hair. You're like a girl. You should shave all off like me." And as soon as I started fighting back, the other guys they got really embarrassed. And the reason was because I was not going to get embarrassed. I was not going to be controlled. I was going to sort of have some fun.
- The comfortable prisonAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: someone born in a modern prison does well at prison school, works hard, gets a bigger cell with nice things and holidays in other wings, marries another prisoner and has…
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sometimes it's like a person is born in this little place and you know, they're fed well, they're treated well. They go to school and they do well at school. They work hard and they save some money and they get a nice little place where they can stay and they can mess around inside where they're living. They can't go too far because a place where they were born and living is called prison, a jail. You have in prison, it's uh it's a modern prison. So, it's there both genders. So, this little prisoner meets another prisoner of a different gender or maybe the same gender and they get married and they have other little baby prisoners and they do very well. If they work hard and behave, they get a nice cell, a big cell with many things in there, and they can get lots of nice food, and they can just go on holidays to other parts of the prison if they wish. And they think that prison is very nice, but they don't call it a prison. They call it planet Earth. You're confined here and you don't know anything else. So you think that that's as good as it gets cuz you don't know anything more.
- The first beer tasted awfulStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 14 in London, rebellious and egged on by mates, he sneaks his first glass of beer (the drinking age was 18) — and can't believe how disgusting it tastes, like something…
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one of my experiences as a young man is being like 14 years of age, being rebellious, you know, being with my mates, a bit of peer pressure, but also being rebellious, going to take my first glass of beer. The drinking age was 18. I was only 14. Sneak in there. I can take a glass of beer thinking how clever I am, how rebellious. And taking my first glass of beer I couldn't believe just how disgusting that tasted. I did see in the newspapers there was a uh suggestion of actually Perth drinking recycled waste water. You mean from your toilets. And that's what I thought beer was, somehow recycled from the lavatory. Cuz that's that's what it tastes like. Even actually people do call it piss in Australia. So that must have been that must have been recycled from somewhere. But it tasted awful. But because my culture, this was in London, said that beer is fun, beer is good, beer is what you're supposed to enjoy and you spend a lot of money and many evenings drinking the stuff, it only took me about three or four months to start to like the taste. And once I became a monk and I looked back on that experience, I thought why did I like that? Because I had to. I completely reconditioned myself to go against my natural instincts of disliking the taste of beer to actually thinking it was delicious. And being a monk when you stand back and you watch these things, how much more of what I think I like is actually been conditioned into me cuz I have to like it. Cuz my society says I must like it.
- The free afternoon after schoolStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 13 or 14, with an afternoon off school and all his homework done at lunchtime, the boy walks out of the school gates with nothing to do, nowhere to go and no appointments —…
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You know one of the first times I felt free, going back to my experience in childhood I had this afternoon off school and at lunch time, I did all my homework. So as I walked out those school gates, and actually had nothing to do, and nowhere to go, I had no appointments, no business which I needed to complete. I remember that afternoon even now I was then about 13 or 14 at the time it was my first experience of freedom. I could do whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted with no constraints at all no force, no compulsion, totally free. It's a beautiful feeling. Can you ever feel like that? You don't have to achieve anything you don't have to fulfill any duties, complete any projects you can just be. That told me what freedom was.
- The mango tree with no mangoesAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A king sees two mango trees — one laden, one bare — and almost curses the bare one. Returning for fruit he finds soldiers have stripped and ruined the laden tree; the bare tree…
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one of the kings in his Buddhist story he went went this is in the time of the Buddha he went with his soldiers to train and as he was coming back to his Palace after doing the training he saw two mango trees one of those mango trees had so many ripe mangoes on them the other tree had no mangoes at all and he thought what's the point of being a mango tree if you don't have any mangoes so he almost cursed that mango tree with no mangoes and the tree with lots of mangoes he thought that when I finished and got back to the palace and got changed I'll come out and enjoy some of these R mangoes that's what he did so he changed and got on his horse and came out to taste some of those right mangoes and only then he saw that his soldiers who's helping train they never bothered to get changed they stripped that mango tree which had the mangoes of every fruit which was on there and as they were stripping every mango they broke so many branches and stripped off so many leaves that mango tree which was once full of succulent mangoes was actually destroyed he looked at the mango tree which had no mangoes and that's the still had all its branches and leaves intact and he thought I'm going to renounce being a king if you have power and wealth there's other people who want it isn't it more happy to be someone who has enough to live but not too much so other people will never want to break into your house they never want to steal anything that's just like Monastery you know right now where I live the door of my coutti is open I never locked it this after oh it's actually this morning when I left bodana to come here my cave those doors are open too there's nothing in there just space there emptiness who can steal emptiness we can't st
- The Taiwanese school quieter than a cemeteryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting a large traditional school in Taiwan, Ajahn Brahm thinks it must be a holiday because there is no sound — even cemeteries are louder. There are about 1,600 pupils.…
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Even I visited one Taiwanese school. You know, it was the the ancient tradition. And when I went there to this big school in Taiwan, I thought it was a holiday or they had some sort of day off school. Cuz when I went in there, there wasn't a sound to be heard. Even cemeteries are louder than that school. And I found there was about 1,600 pupils there. You can never go into a school in Australia that's quiet. They're always noisy. They're always alive.
- The tycoon's mansion that felt like a prisonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting a Kuala Lumpur tycoon's mansion to give a blessing, Ajahn Brahm passes machine-gun guards, huge walls and CCTV everywhere, and realises the very wealthy live in private…
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I just remember just going to give him in a blessing and his mansion It was over in Kuala Lumpur somewhere I won't say which guy this is I went to his mansion and there were guards with machine guns the guy You know he was a private person just a tycoon Guards at his gate huge Huge walls see CCTV ninety-three two seats CCC saw something TVs and guards everywhere And I thought this is like going in a prison And it was like a prison He reminded me of a prison, so these guys are very very wealthy actually lived in their own private prisons And they couldn't go anywhere by themselves Always had to have somebody take them around Bodyguards everywhere and so what type of life is that?
- Walking off with everything he owned on his backStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After five years as a monk in Thailand (around 1979) Ajahn Brahm leaves his monastery to wander on foot. Nothing can be stored, so he must carry everything; in the tropical heat…
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One of my most memorable experiences in my training as a monk after 5 years being a monk in these monasteries in Thailand you are expected, encouraged to actually leave the monastery, just go wondering on foot. Its a great opportunity to visit other teachers' You have been in a one monastery and to see how the other teachers teach To get a wider experience or may be go and find some solitude in the jungles or the mountains That was after five years--what would that be 1979 or something; somewhere around then. I left the monastery; and the rule was you couldn't store anything there. You can give it away but once you gave it away nothing would be kept for you. So everything which was yours you had to carry with you. And of course if you are walking especially through the hot tropics carrying lots and lots of stuff is just really really unpleasant. It was reminding you how much a burden your possessions were. So after a couple of days, you gave this away and you gave that away and you are down to the absolute minimum you needed Once you got down to that minimum, my goodness it was so light. You can imagine the experience. Just put yourself in that experience that everything you own you are carrying on your back and it's light. And you can dance, there is hardly any burden there at all. Because as a monk we knew that, there are monasteries everywhere any place you go you can get a bed for the night. If you don't get a bed for the night you can sleep under a tree. Its the tropics, it is easy to do. You can go anywhere, you get something to eat, not delicious food but enough to keep you going through the day, there is waters in the well. There was this total sense of freedom freedom from possessions. And that was just like being in heaven. You didn't have any worries at all. You had cloths to wear, you had this little mosquito net umbrella which you could park anywhere to sleep at night. And the best thing about it; you had no appointments. Your future was blank. I could go anywhere I wanted. Every cross road, you can go left, go right, turn around, go forward, stay still No one was asking you to go anywhere, to do anything or be anything. That was one of my wonderful experiences of being free from attachments at all.
- “Why don't you come and stay with us?” — the monk in Casuarina PrisonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk teaching at a high-security prison describes monastery life (4 am rising, one meal, hard work, no TV, sleeping on the floor); horrified, a prisoner invites him to come and…
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And this particular story is an anecdote when one of our monks, when I was too busy doing all these other things, we used to go teaching in prisons, but another monk started teaching in prison. When he started teaching in prison, this was in Casuarina Prison, at one of the top-security jails. After a while the prisoners there said "Can you stay back a bit longer, we want to sort of talk to you, just find out about you." So he stayed back a little bit longer, they gave him a cup of tea and some chocolate now if you give a monk a cup of tea and chocolate, they're gonna stay forever, so he stayed behind for a bit of tea and chocolate. They started asking him questions about life in a Buddhist monastery in the West. What do you guys do? Have you ever wondered what we do in our monastery? So he said, "Okay, the day in the life of a monk, we get up at four o'clock in the morning." And just at that the prisoners were aghast. "Four o'clock in the morning! Even in prison, you don't have to get up at that time." And the monk he did actually make a qualification, he said, "Actually it's voluntary, it's optional, getting up at four o'clock in the morning," which is true, it's optional, you can always get up earlier, if you want to, that's the option. "And then what do you do?," and he told them, "We meditate." They said, "Can't you just watch the end of the late night movie?" He said, "No, we don't have TVs." "You don't have TVs in the monastery, we have TVs in our cells in prison, that's terrible. So what you do then, you have your breakfast?" We do have a breakfast at the monastery, we usually have just one cup of cereal in it and that's about it, or you know someone, you know has his noodles, but it's only one cup, that's all. They said, "Wow, you know in Casuarina Jail we can have bacon, we have pancakes, we can have cereal, you have everything there, whatever you want." And they said, "Why don't you do that in the monastery?" "No, no, we only have a bit of cereal and that's it." "And then what do you do in the morning?" "And then we work hard at Bodhinyana Monastery." We do these amazing chores, you know building, and even I do that, and if you go down to the retreat centre, we're doing this ramp and I was spending two days cutting the bricks, it was a huge angle grinder, really heavy work, getting myself all dusty. I like some joining in when there's any concrete work. Tell the story once with doing concrete work, when you do concrete work, even as a monk, you get it all splashed all over you. So you know just boys being boys, I'm still a boy you know, still just maybe a bit old to be a boy, but I still like getting myself all dirty. So I got all this concrete on top of me, as I was walking back to my hut to have a shower, I passed a Sri Lankan woman and she was in this really expensive sari, she was visiting the monastery. She came up to me and I'll never forget this, she said, "Uh... I've come to see the abbot Ajahn Brahm." I thought very quickly and I said, "Madam, if you go to the hall over there he'll probably be there in about fifteen minutes." That was enough time for me to go to my room, get a shower and get changed into some clean robes. So I went up to the hall, and there she was waiting, and I said, "Oh! I'm Ajahn Brahm," you know she never recognized me. That's how dirty I was. I gave her a nice talk, you know about the monastery and about Buddhism, what we're doing here and she was really impressed, so just before she left she said, "You know you've got a really good monastery, are you're a really good monk, but if you don't mind me saying this, I saw this really dirty monk when I came here and I think you should do something about that." I said, "I'll talk to him later, Ma'am". Which I did. So that's actually how hard we work, and when the prisoners heard this, again they were really surprised, 'cause yeah, in prison you have to do jobs, but they take it real easy in those jails in Australia. They said, "They'll never get us to work that hard." They said "And then you have your lunch?" Yeah, we have our lunch, many of you have been to our monastery, we eat it out of a bowl, everything goes in one bowl. Sometimes it's true you do get curry on spaghetti. No sorry, I got that wrong, you got custard on spaghetti. That's right, you ever had custard on spaghetti? Why do you say "yuck" for, you've never eaten it, but actually you're right, it is gross. Sometimes you have custard on spaghetti. I've had ice cream on curry, chocolate ice cream, yeah, that's also yucky. 'Cause you know, you put it in your bowl, and for me because I'm the senior monk I put it in the bowl myself and I give it to somebody to take up, 'cause that's their duty. By the time, they're not really careful, they just shake it all over the place, you know I put it in the right position when I start, by the time it gets up there it's all over the place, but that's life. And they were saying that even in prison, even when you go to solitary, you get a tray the custard is here, the spaghetti is over there, it's separate compartments. "Don't you have compartments in your bowl?" Have a look at our bowls, we don't have separate compartments, it goes all over the place. They said, "That's disgusting!" "So what you do in the afternoons?" He said, "We meditate." "Can't you sort of play some music, or sort of play a game of footie or something." "No, we're not allowed to play footie, we just meditate all afternoon." They said, "Don't you get bored?" "No, that's what we're supposed to do." "So I suppose you hangout for dinner?" "Dinner? We don't have dinner in our monasteries, we just eat in the morning time, there's no dinner." They said, "Well, even in prison they give you something to eat in the evening and you have snacks throughout the day, whatever you want. So what do you do in the evening then? You know, can you play cards play monopoly or something, pass the time?" He said "No, we can't do that." "Don't tell us" they said, You meditate, don't you?" "Yeah, of course we do." "Oh God, that must be terrible. Then what time do you go to bed?" And the monk said, "Bed? Bed?... we don't have beds, I sleep on the floor." They were absolutely disgusted. Even in prison they put you in that little cot with the mattress on top, not in our monastery, I sleep on the floor. Anyway, the prisoners were actually really surprised. They were really surprised, but not only surprised, they felt sorry for this monk who had been visiting them, and this is true story, one of them was so upset that this man who they got to like was living in such a hard situation, one of them blurted out, "That's terrible in your monastery, why don't you come in here and stay with us instead?" And they had a point, it is actually much more comfortable in any prison in Western Australia than in Bodhinyana Monastery, or even in Dhammasara Nun's Monastery. So why is it that people are trying to get out of jail, and they're trying to break into our monastery, to stay there, waiting lists. That got me thinking, what's the difference between our monastery and the prison? Prison is actually more comfortable, the monastery is much harsher. What's the difference? The only difference is in a monastery people want to be there. In a prison, doesn't matter how comfortable it is, people don't want to be there, that's the only difference.
- You're just helping me sharpen my knifeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Englishwoman argues with elderly Ajahn Chah for hours; others say leave him alone — Chah says no, she is helping him sharpen his knife: hard questions are welcome.
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you just helping me sharpen my knife and that's actually how he would uh regard when you ask difficult questions always it was accepted