Stories about humanity
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about humanity from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- The live eel in the birthday boxStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Growing up in Acton, West London, when jellied eels and mash were a craze, eight-year-old Peter (Ajahn Brahm) spent his pocket money on a live eel, put it in a shoe box, wrapped…
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But but anyway, so you know what naughty Satan A Brah did as a kid, 8-year-old? I just went got some pocket money and I bought an eel. A live one cuz live one I could buy a live one. They didn't ask me what I wanted it for. So, I already had the little shoe box and some wrapping paper, and I put this heel in a shoe box, and I wrapped it up really carefully, as best as an 8-year-old kid could do. Just make sure it's really nicely folded. A nice little tape. And even have the bow to tie it up with a nice bow and a little gift card in a happy birthday to mommy on your birthday with love from your son Peter. That's my name. XXX. And when I haded it to my mother as a surprise. Oh, she was just her heart was almost just exploding with with pride. That's my little kid. And he did it all by himself. And the amazing thing was I actually could pull it off, you know, that without sort of laughing and giving the game away, what was inside. And I remember my mother was almost cry with pride and joy. And if you get a nice present from a a young little kid, 8-year-old, and said, "A I wonder what's inside." when she opened it up and I was looking at her. Ah, what's inside? Oh, surprise, mommy. She was surprised cuz this little eel. As soon as she opened the box, the eel came up right and she screamed so loud. That was where I understood what like an exit strategy was. I'd already planned out where I was going to run and hide for 2 hours.
- Two hours on Ajahn Chah instead of a car factoryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thaksin, then Prime Minister of Thailand, told Ajahn Brahm that a head of the Ford Motor Company came to see him about building a big factory in Thailand as a hub for Southeast…
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Interesting story about Tuxin by the way. You know this, he told me this. He's a prime minister of Thailand years ago that there was this big American industrialist called John Ford. You know, he was ahead of Ford Motor Company for a while. And so he went to see um the Thai prime minister who was a prime minister at the time because they were going to get a contract to build this big uh factory or whatever it was to actually to manufacture Ford vehicles in Thailand and to spread them around. that made that like the hub to spread those to Southeast Asia. And so that was a really big development. So they don't go through the uh small purple and the government went straight to the prime minister. So the two of them met John Ford and the prime minister of Thailand. Do you know what they talked about? John Ford said to the prime minister, "Do you do you know anything about this monk Ajancha? and and the B said, "Yeah, I've got quite a few of his books in my library." And so apparently they spent two hours talking about Dhamma [laughter] and Ajan and nothing about factories being built in Thailand.