Stories about innovation
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about innovation from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A retreat at DisneyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm taught a 'Kindfulness' meditation retreat in the Disney hotel in Hong Kong. The first night they meditated in the Sleeping Beauty Room — everyone nodded off — so they…
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After leaving Korea I went to Hong Kong to do a meditation retreat. You know where we held the Meditation Retreat in Hong Kong last week-end? In Disney World! I taught a meditation retreat in Disney World, Hong Kong. That's the sort of crazy stuff which I love. So the first night we had the meditation, because it's a Disney World Hotel; they brand, so the first night we had the meditation in the Sleeping Beauty Room! (laughter from the audience) which is not a good place to meditate everyone was falling asleep and nodding. (Ajahn laughs) Sloth and torpor. So we moved to the Snow White Room that was much better. Snow White room was a much better place to meditate because Snow White .. purity, virtue and goodness, kindness. But all the interviews ... when we have a retreat we give personal interviews about their meditation. They chose the interview room to be ... because I was sitting there all the time people coming in to ask their questions when they go out someone else would come in. That was in the Prince Charming Room! (audience laughing) So I sat so many hours in the Prince Charming Room, I thought that was very sweet, and appropriate!
- Ajahn Singtong came before the chickenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Young Ajahn Singtong overslept at Ajahn Maha Bua's strict monastery, where missing the morning meeting meant no alms round and no food. He caught a forest chicken, tied a rope…
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This is a great story of Ajan Singong because somebody asked me just the last day of the retreat, can you tell a couple of stories about this Thai forest monk called Ajan Singong? He died some years ago. But he was a young monk with a very fierce monk called Ajan Mahaba. Ajan Mahab was a well-known meditator but very very strict. probably the strictest of the monks in the time when I was a young monk. And so he had a very strict rule in his monastery. If any monk missed the morning meeting, if they didn't come for the chanting and meditation in the morning, that meant they could not go on the arms round. If they didn't go on the arms round, they couldn't eat that day. They had to fast. So anyway, this aan Singong, he got up late. He slept in and he thought, "Oh my goodness, the meeting has already started in the morning. That means I will not be able to join the meeting. I will not be able to go on arms round. That means I will have to fast today. Ah, what should I do?" The important thing with religions like Buddhism, we call it a religion, is it's always innovative. Use your insight. There's always another possibility somehow or other. So what he did now, he was a a local lad. Now in those days, you know, the forest is all around you. This was when was this 1970 something. The forest was all around you. So he went into the forest and in the morning he managed to find a forest chicken and he grabbed it. Now some of the things you see over there was really amazing. There was one of these I never saw this but the other monks I grew up with they saw this. It's real. There was know when monks were sitting a cobra, a king cobra came in to the hall and it was actually not trying to attack anybody. It was just basically didn't know where it was going and started moving and this monk grabbed it. That's what he used to do when he was a lay person as a snake catcher. He grabbed it. It's amazing to see that. But anyway, that's not recommended. Please don't practice these things at home. But this uh uh at this particular time the uh where was I going with this one? Ainto. Yes. He managed to capture a chicken. Chicken is much safer to capture than a than a snake. Captured a chicken. He had a rope and he tied the rope around the chicken's neck and pulled the chicken to the hall. You wonder why is he doing that? The punch line is coming in a moment as he was as dragging the chicken. The chicken was making a lot of noise as chickens would do, as you would do if you've been dragged to the hall early in the morning. Poor chicken. And as soon as they got to the hall then a singong let the chicken go but everybody heard that noise and then after the the meeting was finished they were about to go in arms round a mar boy said you came late you can't go in arms round and this monk said no no no no he said mar gone guy which is a tie word it's an it's an idiom said no I came before the chicken Like what we saying is before cockcrow which means you got up very early. It was meant he got up so early as he came before the chicken crows. Okay, you managed to get it somehow or other. And all the monks laughed and even Ajam laughed. Okay, you can come on Armstrong.
- Floating houses on the Bangladesh DeltaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Rather than relocating people from the flood-prone Bangladesh Delta — their home and livelihood — a relief organisation Brahm read about built floating houses that rise with the…
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And I remember reading, again, there are some very wise relief relief organizations in the Bangladesh Delta which often gets flooded. Actually it was supposed to be a cyclone or so in the newspapers. Was it yesterday? I hope it didn't sort of cause too much damage in Bangladesh in Dhaka. It was supposed to be, I read in the newspapers on the aircraft, nothing much else to do there. And so this was going in that direction. But a great organization was reading, "No, we will not move the people on the Delta. This is their home. They've grown up there. This is their livelihood." So instead they built floating houses for them. So when the storms came, the houses would just float up. When the storms subsided, they would float down again. Brilliant idea. Instead of mooring things to the ground, they're using wisdom leads to innovation.
- How the ice-cream cone was inventedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the 1908 (he hedges the year) St Louis World's Fair, an ice-cream stall sat next to a waffle stall. After a couple of weeks the vendors became friends, combined their…
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but I told them a little story which from a long time ago I in the 1908 or somewhere around then World's Fair was held in St Louis United States and like any World's Fair there were selling all types of food and it just happened by fortuitous chance that the ice cream store was situated right next door to the store selling waffles and you might think what has waffles to do with ice cream or what has ice cream to do with waffles but because they were next to each other for a couple of weeks they talked to each other they became friends and they be decided to try and combine their products and that is where we got the ice cream cone from the St Louis World's Fair the fortuitous coming together of waffles and ice cream so who knows the coming together of Buddhism and computers who knows where that might lead and that is why it is great to actually to think outside the box look outside the box
- Professor Blair and the zero-sum universeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a UWA event with physicist David Blair he asks where the universe's mass-energy came from if it cannot be created. From silence he suggests total negative energy equals total…
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I was doing a presentation with with uh David Blair you know he's still the professor of physics at uwa still a good friend and I remember this little um interchange we had you know at an event there and when I said you know about where does the universe come from you know because there's a basic law of science I'm sure everybody knows this one that you cannot create mass energy you cannot destroy it energy Mass it just changes from one to the other but energy cannot be created nor destroyed I'm sure you've heard that so the question comes where did this energy called you know the universe come from where did the planets the dark energy everything where did it all come from because it cannot be created cannot be destroyed was a beginning of this universe a just a time when the laws of physics just didn't hold or is the laws of physics which is basically logic reason was it always there so in that uh little part of the discussion just you know just thinking from Silence I said well look I know from the physics which I remember there is a physical quantity called negative energy now to explain that to you that is like if you remember your high school physics science what they called potential energy that if something is in a gravitational field this clock to take this free from the Earth's gravitational field it takes up a lot of energy that's why they have to have these huge Rockets basically putting an explosion you know up the astronauts bump I think that was uh who said that one of the great astronauts he said that's like going off into outer space you know fortunately got lots of metal between you and the explosion but that's basically what it is a big bomb under your ass T to propel you up into space and please excuse me for using the language which you use so anyway that's what it's like that's the energy you need just to free this from a gravitational field so being in a gravitational field is a form of negative energy that's one and there's many others so just thinking outside the box you know because you know how to be silent so what would it be like Professor Blair if the total amount the sum total of negative energy negative mass energy in this universe equaled the amount of positive mass energy in this universe that's a a valid concept so if all the the planet solar systems everything and the energy Fields all came together they totally balance so mass energy vanishes you cannot create mass energy we don't need to because the sum total is zero so go back that's where it came from if you add everything together it's zero sum universe is a zero sum game and when I said that he looked at me and I still remember the expression on his face actually bro I never realized you are so up toate Omega equals 1 I don't know what omega mean but it was a ratio to negative and positive energy said wow where did you get that from Easy from silence and that's in the world the wisdom born of Silence
- Safety Bay — combining metta with the breathStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Catholic nuns' retreat centre in Safety Bay, senior monks say you can't combine techniques — so rebellious Brahm combines loving-kindness with breath meditation and finds it…
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Safety Bay. And that was when we used to hire this Catholic retreat center. It was run by Catholic nuns. They're very nice to us. And honestly, I didn't mind just whoever was running the retreat center, as long as they kept reasonably quiet, which these couple of nuns did. But while I was doing this retreat, and teaching it as well, in order to allow yourself to innovate, and to actually to experiment, to try other ways of teaching. One of the things which I did was uh combine two of the most powerful popular meditation techniques. And I remember asking monks who are much senior to me, "Can you do that?" And maybe I I hope that some of them said no, cuz that is a sure way of making me try it. I'm rebellious. You say you can't do it, of course you can do it. And I combined loving-kindness meditation together with breath
- The monk who built a women's prisonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous Thai monk, already housed, spent surplus donations on schools and hospitals — and, after visiting Bangkok's inhumane women's prison, on designing and building a humane…
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There's only one person I know who was actually a monk, a very famous monk in Thailand. He got lots of donations. Instead of losing them to build his monastery, yeah, he had a monastery, had enough rooms there. So any extra donations, he used to build schools or hospitals in Thailand. One amazing thing I was told he did, that with the donations he received, you know, he wanted to help society, so he built a women's prison in Bangkok. Now that is aid. And I thought, "What are you doing?" I can understand collecting money to build a hospital or a school or an orphanage, but a prison? And when actually I investigated it, what happened, he'd visited someone in a women's prison in Bangkok. Saw how inhumane it was. Just how harsh conditions there were for women who'd broken some law and been sentenced to jail. He thought, "There's no way I'm going to convince the government to increase or improve the facilities. So, I'm going to improve the facilities myself." Collecting some money to design and build a humane hospital a humane prison for women in Thailand. Knowing that they will get sentenced. If they're going to get sentenced, I need to give them a good jail, a humane jail. Where they can have decent facilities. And maybe a little bit of compassion to the prisoners will mean that they realize they are cared for somewhere along the line. There is some monk somewhere in Thailand who's responsible to have had them having a clean toilet and a bed to sleep on. And I thought, "What innovative aid that was?" Someone thinking outside the box. When I heard that, I thought, "Wow, what a great way." So, maybe we can have a little fundraiser to raise funds for a women's prison here in Perth. Maybe later later on we can do things like that.
- Working backwards from the solutionStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Some ten years earlier Ajahn Brahm attended a high-powered think tank in the Whitsunday Islands, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Anna Bligh, the…
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One of those conferences I went to several years ago was very high power conference and at the time I think I don't know exactly the year because I live in the present moment but I know it was when Kevin Rudd was the prime minister cuz he was at this conference together with Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan and uh the premier of Victoria at the the the time and also Anna Bllye from Queensland. All these very highprofile also had a representative from the Iranian uh revolutionary guards. How they got him into this country, I don't know, but very highprofile people on this think tank in the Wit Sunday Islands. And the presentation I always remember was on climate change but they looked upon it a totally different way. This is actually the thinking outside the box type of stuff with the hope not just the anxiety with a terrible situation. what they said. The uh moderator of this one panel started saying, "Well, this is the scenario. Just imagine this. A huge chunk of the uh Greenland uh Greenland glacia fell off, created a tsunami, and just wiped out half of New York port." And so they had to um solve this problem and they did reducing greenhouse gases to zero. So they did it. Okay. So this is where you start. You start from the end. Now I want all you experts to think backwards. How did we get there? How did we reduce everything to zero? And that was actually that thinking backwards thing and I thought what a wonderful this was just over 10 years ago. I knew know that you know why I I got that timeline correct because when it came to my little problem my little problem was how can we give full ordination to bikunis? That was just over 10 years ago. You know what I did? I said, well, I I talked with Ajin Bumali. Okay, suppose let's imagine that we've got full auto ordination for Pikunis. We solved the problem. How do we get there? Let's work backwards from the solution. And of course, that's what we did.