Stories about inclusion
7 Buddhist wisdom stories about inclusion from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- From the park dance to the gorillasStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Young woman with Asperger's leaves school early, drugs and homelessness; a dance teacher spots her stretching in a park and pays her; with dance money she sits with zoo gorillas…
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Asberers which is a form of autism. Had a terrible time at school, left very early. Um hated it. Um difficult parents. So she left home very early, was on drugs for 5 years, drugs and alcohol to cope and um homeless. And anyway, she was apparently lovely mover. And one day she was just just sort of stretching and just pre-dancing in the park and she was noticed by um a lady who was actually a dance teacher. She had a school and she said could you you know could could you please come and join us? You're so good and we'll pay you. So she sort of agreed to that. And um so from the money that she earned from the dancing, she used to go to the zoo and sit with the gorillas and just stay there and she just sort of for two hours at a time and the staff actually noticed this after quite a while and they came up to her and they offered her a job. They said please come and you know please because you love the you know we love you with the gorillas
- Make-up before the cathedral sermonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The Dean of St George's Cathedral, Perth, invites Ajahn Brahm to give the Sunday eucharist sermon — the first time, the Dean says, a non-Christian has given the Sunday sermon in…
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He invited me to give the sermon on a Sunday um eukarist I think it was called and he should know what he was talking about. He was a boss in that cathedral. He said it was the first time that a non-Christian had ever given the Sunday sermon in a cathedral in the world in 2,000 years. I thought, "Wow, that's really neat." Because of that, I got on TV beforehand and I remember just channel seven or nine, I forget which one it was. And when I went there to do an interview beforehand, you know what happened? They said, "You have to do makeup first of all." [laughter] And I said, "Was anybody ever refused?" And they said, "Some I think null Gallagher from uh some pop group." Oasis. Oasis. Okay. Yeah, he's the only one who refused makeup and I didn't really want to be put in the same category. So, they did quick makeup and the worst part of that I remember was Ajan Bardi was accompanying me that weekend and he was laughing his head off making sides of the [laughter] really mean to me and I forgave him. It was good fun. But anyway, just as a result of that, we did this this big um talk over in St. George's Cathedral and that was I really remember that for a long time because the place was packed and it was standing room only in the aisles everywhere and that the point was no one knew who was a Christian, who was a Buddhist and no one really cared
- Muslim woman on the Buddhist retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the Redemptorist retreat centre in North Perth a woman in hijab joins his retreat; she removes it inside per her rules, finds nothing wrong, thanks him — embrace across…
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lady came to one of the retreats which I was giving before we had our own retreat center. This was over in North Perth in the Redemptous Monastery Retreat Center. And she came in a hijab. And I said, "You're a Muslim." "Yeah, look at me. Of course I am." She said, "I'm come on your retreat." "Okay, I won't tell." See, I don't have to be serious like that. So she came into the retreat, took off the hijab and because inside you didn't need to wear it according to the rules and she said, "I can't see anything wrong with this. It was a wonderful retreat
- The bikies' funeralStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A young bikie hits a lamp post and dies; his Buddhist mother asks Ajahn Brahm to support her, and he ends up conducting the funeral in Fremantle. The bikies come in leathers and…
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I remember going to a funeral service. I mentioned this because I was at a funeral service over in Freo um last Wednesday and it was for a bikey funeral. You know, it was real bikes. One of their members had hit a lamp post and died. And the m their mother was a Buddhist and invited me to come to the funeral to, you know, support her. In the end, I ended up doing the funeral service. One of the best funerals I've ever done cuz no bikes. They came in all their leathers and chains and whatever else they had on. and all their their girlfriends again came as if they were going to a dance or a nightclub, not a funeral. They're all dressed up. That was their culture. But I looked a bit weird as well to them cuz I was dressed in brown. And I ended up doing the funeral service. But there was so I always remember it because after the funeral service was concluded, they all came up to me, nice service, sir. Thank you for that, sir. They were just so polite. It totally changed my idea of a, you know, bikey just I was on their side that day
- The father who carried his son through the raceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a video someone sent him: an American father always takes his autistic son with him on Ironman-type runs — 30 km through rain and up mountains, the son on his back — and the…
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there was this one American guy. He had a son who was autistic, and this man would go on these - the Iron Man runs and stuff – he’d always take his son with him. He was running like 30 kilometres through the rain or up mountains and stuff; his son would be on his back. He'd carry him everywhere. And you could see the look on the son's face. Just the joy of when he finished the race, it was inspiring! That son was just so close to his dad. His dad was doing things and you could see just the joy on that son's face. He was autistic. Brilliant.
- The paper lotus on the shrineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Thai village a young woman, brain-damaged from birth, cannot speak but grunts, and her friends understand every grunt; she joins in dances and lives a full life. One day,…
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There was one lady in the village, lovely lady. Uh but she had some sort of um uh injury when she was born and she was uh mentally impaired, brain damage. But even though she was brain damaged, she couldn't speak any Thai, certainly not any English, a village girl, but she would always grunt. And her grunts, she growing up with her sisters the same age, all her friends knew exactly what grunt meant which. That's a special language she had with her friends. And she was almost at ease with her friends. She would go out to dances and stuff with her friends, have a wonderful life. She wasn't sort of sectioned aside in some institution for people who couldn't speak or were brain damaged. So other parts about her were wonderful. She had a beautiful life and I was very impressed with how people included her in rather than excluding them. So she didn't really worry about the things she couldn't do in other areas. She was brilliant and I love remembering her because she was responsible for one of the greatest acts of kindness and generosity I've seen because I was like, you know, monks, we do work. We don't just sit around all day doing nothing. That's what I should be doing. But anyway, we were I was just sweeping the hall in this monastery in Thailand. That was my job. I was just behind a cupboard when I heard somebody try and sneak into our our main hall and I just peeked around. It was this girl. It wasn't a thief. You I knew her because I've been in that monitor for years. And she was sneaking into the hall. She couldn't speak. She was, you know, brain damaged, but she was in there by herself. And I wonder what the heck she was up to. She never saw me. She went up to the shrine. She put something on the shrine and then as soon as she put it on the shrine, she did her little Buddhist boughs and then she ran away as fast as she could so she wouldn't be seen. But she was seen. I saw everything. And I thanked her for what I saw. I went up to the shrine. She made a paper folded into like a lotus and offered it in front of the Buddha statue. No one could no one could ever call it a work of art, but it certainly was a work of kindness. It's the best she possibly could do. He didn't need to be a mind readader to know how she was thinking. She wanted to give it to the shrine to the Buddha. And she thought if she come when other people were there, they'd have thrown it away. It's not beautiful enough for the Buddha, but it's the best she could possibly do. When I saw that, to me it was beautiful. Not because of what it looked like, but where it came from and how hard it was for her to do that. And so afterwards I told all the monks, you know, I wasn't a senior monk there, but I said to them, look, that little paper flower which was handmade on the shrine, if anybody tries to throw that away, I'm not a violent monk, but I will sort of really sort of fight against you because I know where that came from and how beautiful that was to have a person who felt they were rejected. They managed to find a way in and give a gift. The best they could possibly do.
- They drew a circle that shut me outAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Poem/analogy: heretic shut out by a circle; love and wisdom draw a bigger circle that includes them in — visual for mettā expanding the in-group.
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drew a circle which shut me out. Rebel heretic. Someone to flout. But love and wisdom had the wit to win. We drew a bigger circle which included them in. And I thought that was a very beautiful little analogy, a visual that sometimes people will draw a circle and which will enclose you and just shut you out from other things. But you can always build a bigger circle. A bigger circle. A bigger circle which can include so many other people