Stories about growth
3 Buddhist wisdom stories about growth from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Set the exam so most pass and no one gets 100%Analogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a school teacher for one year he was taught to set tests so most students get at least 50% but no one gets 100% — too easy wastes time, too hard dispirits. He maps human life…
Read full story
I was a school teacher for one year. And when I was setting examinations and tests I was taught if you're going to set a test you want to sort of make sure that most people get at least sort of 50 percent but no one gets 100 percent. If everyone gets 100% that's a waste of time. That's not a good examination. It's just too easy. You know if too many people fail then you actually, you're getting them dispirited. You know it's too hard. You're trying to set that standard so most people pass but a few people fail a couple of questions. So actually they learn just, you know, their weak points so they can get stronger for the next examination. And that's exactly the same with life. You know, you have been examined many times and if life was too easy, if you never had any trouble or trauma, it would be a total waste of time. You wouldn't learn anything. You have a great time but there will be no, no oomph, no essence, no learning. Nothing which really is there for you to grow with. There'll be no spirituality. It's one of the reasons why in traditional Buddhist dogma you can't get enlightened up in heaven. You don't have enough to test you. It's just too fine, too nice. The same if you have too much difficulty. It's just too much pain. There's just too many sort of wrong answers and you just fail too many times. But in this human realm that you most the time you succeed, but a few times you fail. It's just the right level for learn
- The boy who stretched his seedlingsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Brahm's first meditation teachers recalls planting seeds with his father at five or six. After three days with nothing showing he complains; his father explains the…
Read full story
there's a story of one of my first meditation teachers in Thailand he told me I usually tell this on the meditation Retreats not usually on a Friday night he told me when I was starting out my meditation career that when he was a young boy in Thailand that his father gave him some seeds to grow in the garden he was only about five six years of age and this was the first time he grew anything so this little five or six put his little seeds with the help of his father underneath the ground underneath the soil and he would water them every day after 3 or 4 days he saw no result said where are my plants where my flowers is three days now can't see anything his father had to tell him that when you have seeds when the water gets to them they germinate they split the seed a little green shoe comes out it's probably under the ground right now pushing its way to the surface just wait for a little while and you'll see a shoot be patient and he took his father's advice and fortunately at the end of two days a tiny green shoot was appearing above the Earth so so he decided to water those flowers two times a day he was getting excited and those flowers grew grew grew until about 2 in high and that's when he lost his patience he decided to stretch them to make them grow faster and he killed every one of them but he learned a wonderful lesson you can't stretch nature nature takes its time to grow
- The tight bud before it blossomsAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: First year in Perth someone tells him: watch a flower bud — petals press tight inside the protective sheath until catharsis, then it blooms gorgeous. Unpleasant pressure precedes…
Read full story
flower, somebody told me the first year I came here to to Perth. So many years ago, 36, 37 years ago now. They said, "Have you ever seen a flower just before it bursts into you know, the blossom, whatever it's called, bursts into flower? It's like a little bud. And if you can watch that bud, it gets you know, in the sheath. It gets so tight. As within that sheath which is supposed to be protecting it, all the little petals, the beautiful fragrant petals inside are growing and growing and growing. And the pressure is building up. In that sense, it must be very unpleasant for that time. But then there comes the point of catharsis and of change and the flower blooms. And it's gorgeous