Stories about homelessness
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about homelessness from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- The gentleman who helped the homeless man in HampsteadStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thai forest monks newly arrived in a grey, drizzly London winter are staying in an old house in Hampstead. One homesick monk, looking out of the window early one morning, sees a…
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I remember, the monks, when I first went to England, told me this old story. They said that once... When they first went to England, they were staying in this old house in Hampstead. And these were forest monks, monks who lived in big jungle monasteries where you could walk and it was nature, there were animals, some animals you didn't like, like mosquitoes. But you know, there was a sense of freedom and it was bright and it was warm, and it was lovely. And now they were transported to England in the wintertime when it was gray, when it was raining. And it never even rained property. It's called drizzle, it's not really raining not being dry, it's halfway in between, can't do anything sort of fully. And just everything was gray and dull in that place. I'm not going to tell the old gray joke I have told that too many times. But everything is gray and boring and dull and depressing. And one of the monks was looking through the window one morning, feeling very sort of homesick for the jungles and brightness of Thailand. And he saw just in the early morning drizzle, cold. He saw a homeless man, who was hunched in a doorway, trying to escape the worst of the cold and the rain. And I used to know those people; these are people who would overcome the cold of the night by taking the cheapest form of alcohol which was known as methylated spirits, woods spirits in the United States, ruins your health, it kills your liver. But I know many people like that, the meths drinkers, and they stank. And he saw that morning, this English gentleman, you know, traditional; probably you don't have this anymore, bowler hat, furled umbrella, nice suit and overcoat going to work in the city. The sort of person you used to see on the movies a long time ago, apparently don't exist anymore. But well dressed, well groomed on his way to work. And he saw this gentleman in this very clean clothes, stop at that doorway, and just bend over to that homeless man who'd been out all night. He couldn't hear what was said. But he saw next, this man in this beautiful suit, put his arm around that homeless man, that stinky, dirty man, and gently pick him up and take him to a cafe to get some breakfast. And he said at that moment, the greyness and the coldness and the dullness of London just vanished. It was beautiful. He saw an act which uplifted him; an act of kindness and care, because that man would have the smell on his clothes as he went to work. He'd probably be late., but he said, doesn't matter what my boss says, there was a person who needed some kindness, needed some food, needed a friend, doesn't matter if I'm late, doesn't matter if I kept the smell on my clothes, it can be washed off later. It was worth doing an act of kindness.
- The homeless man put his sandwich in the bowlStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During a Perth conference a young monk skipped the free lunch to walk St Georges Terrace with his bowl; a homeless man stopped him and insisted on giving his sandwich. The monk…
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There was like a homeless man and he had a sandwich which he I don't know where he got his sandwich from. And he saw the monk and he stopped the monk and said, "Please stop and accept my sandwich." And the monk sort of opened his bowl lid and took a sandwich. Cuz when we go on alms round, we never ask for anything. We don't say, "Give me this, give me that." If somebody wishes to put some food into your bowl, they will do. And that's what he ate for his lunch that day. Not much. Where it came from was so wonderful and beautiful. We always feel that if somebody does a wonderful, kind, generous, sometimes you may say stupid act, that homeless man needed the food. No. The homeless man needed the opportunity to be kind. And that was even more he can get another sandwich somewhere. The opportunity to be kind and generous and do something from the heart. To actually to give instead of worrying about getting. Was something which was inspiring to that homeless man and something which that monk would never forget