Stories about insight
7 Buddhist wisdom stories about insight from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Brian Josephson found it in meditationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Physicist Brian Josephson (quantum tunnelling / supercomputers) won a Nobel; as Ajahn Brahm tells it, the breakthrough came not from more thinking but from meditating.
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briyan Josephson won a Nobel Prize in physics for understanding the essential thing which supercomputers now rely upon similar thing to a a transistor but working at close to absolute zero temperatures Innovative incredibly remunerative supercomputers and he got a Nobel Prize as well in physics he discovered that not through thinking about it through meditating
- I realized I didn't have to winStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Olympic-prospect distance runner loses his first race; asked why, he says he realised he didn't have to win — compulsion to win had made every race painful.
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This fellow is likely to do so well that he will probably be in the Olympic Games and maybe win a medal for the country." But then what happened, this guy, he lost a race. It's the first time he ever lost a race. And then the friend asked him, "How come you lost this long-distance race?" And the friend said, "Because I realized I didn't have to win
- Mango orchard planted by the BuddhaAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: First-year monk puzzled — no mango trees at Wat Pah Pong. Ajahn Chah: the monastery is a mango orchard planted by the Buddha himself, trees full of ripe sweet mangoes. Brahm…
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Wat Pah Pong was a mango orchard." I remember this simile the first year when I became a monk and stayed with him. I didn't see any mango trees in Wat Pah Pong in those days. I said, "What is wrong? There's no mango trees in Ajahn Chah's monastery." And he said, "This is a metaphor. There are so many mango trees in Ajahn Chah's monastery and they've all been planted by the Buddha himself. This is getting weird. Cuz the Buddha actually never visited Thailand. And would the Buddha actually go to this this forest in the northeast of Thailand and not other places? So anyway, he carried on. It was planted by the Buddha. And now all of those mango trees which the Buddha planted and now full of ripe sweet mangoes. And I got interested because I don't know about you, but I love the mangoes in the northeast of Thailand. They were really tasty. And there was something which you could eat when the only alternative was to eat things like frogs. Honestly. That was often part of the meal for the day. One meal of the day, frogs and sticky rice. But in the mango season, you had these beautiful delicious mangoes. So anyway, when I heard there were mangoes in Wat Pah Pong planted by the Buddha according to Ajahn Chah's statement, I thought I'd like to try some of those. And then they were delicious. But then I realized what Ajahn Chah actually was saying. What he was saying was the mangoes, they represent the wisdom of the Buddha
- Mrs. Calm and Mr. Insight climb the hillStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mrs. Samatha (calm) climbs a hill for its peace; her husband Mr. Vipassana (insight) climbs it for the view. At the top she finds the view too, and he finds the peace — on the…
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Once upon a time, Mrs. Samata that means calm and her husband Mr. Insight, Mr. Whipasa decided to go on a walk up a hill. Mrs. Samita, Mrs. calm went up to the top of the hill cuz it was so peaceful on top of that hill and Mr. Weipasa her husband Mr. Insight he went up there because he had a beautiful view on top of the hill now they both went up there for different reasons but when Mr. Sam got up the top of the hill Mr or Mrs. Yeah, you'll know what I mean. They had a sex change halfway up the hill. Probably they went Mrs. Sam go the right way. Mrs. Sam, Mrs. Peace got to the top of the hill. Oh, she enjoyed the peace. It was so calm on top of the hill away from the town and the city and the roads. But it was not only calm up there, she saw the view as well. And when Mason, Mr. Insight, when he got to the top of the hill, oh, he enjoyed the view cuz that's what he went up there for. But you also experience a beautiful peace because on the top of the hill the peace and the view always coexist.
- Omega equals one — from a T-shirtStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Science talk of Omega equals one (nothing excess; coming from nothing and going back) — Brahm notes how such insights arrive in unexpected places, including a T-shirt.
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Omega equals one." In science they always have these numbers and figures, and symbols for stuff so that is the case. There is nothing here, no universal life energy, but that is just a device of division. Then coming from nothing and going back to nothing, wow, I think that is really cool. One of the reasons why it's amazing just the insights and understandings which you get in the most unexpected places. This one I got from a T-shirt
- The celebratory pork curry that ended his enlightenmentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After four years as a monk Ajahn Brahm had a great satori and thought he was enlightened. That morning, instead of the usual rotten fish curry, there was rare pork curry from…
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When I had my great Satori experience Four years as a monk and everything became really clear I really thought I was Enlightened You can read the whole story, it's very self deprecating until the food came that morning usually we have rotten fish curry for that morning there was another pot of curry It was actually... sorry if you are vegetarian there was no vegetarian food around in Thailand those days and the other food was like a pork curry from town we never have that that is really rare and straight away I thought the heavenly beings are also celebrating my Enlightenment I thought wow this is great because that's such a rare event and I was number two monk and the head monk a local boy actually from that local village he should have liked the rotten fish curry he grew up on it that was a local dish and he never took any rotten fish curry He took -- incredible big ladles no one could eat that much of the pork curry He sloshed it into his bowl. I wasn't concerned about that because there was plenty left you know of the pork curry but what he did next was absolutely unforgivable he took what was left of the pork curry and he poured it into the rotten fish curry; stirred it up and said it's all the same, it's all the same What a hypocrite, if it was all the same why didn't he pour it in and mix it up before he took his and he spoiled my celebratory meal for being .. Arahant doesn't worry about food. That was ... oh no... I am not fully enlightened after all but I really felt like it for a long time had all the.... no sloth and torpor, incredible energy absolutely imperturbable that was great Shame it didn't last that long So that is what these satoris are And the only way you can find out if it is the real thing if it really persist over years So just one great insight not enough
- The wall that disappearedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young theoretical physicist, Ajahn Brahm sits at a Zen monastery in the north of England, in a converted cowshed, told to meditate with eyes open. Calm and without inner…
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I usually bring up this experience I had when I was a lay person. when I was meditating wherever I could find a place to meditate and this was in a Zen monastery in the north of England and in this Zen monastery I didn't know what I was supposed to do they just you know in the little hall which is a converted cow shed that we sat down and we had to meditate with our eyes open it one of the first times I'd meditated with my eyes wide open I didn't know what I was supposed to do but I just meditated. But because I'd done some meditation before and I knew how to be in the present moment and stop this inner speech, as I was just with my eyes open, just being very peaceful, very calm, a strange thing happened. One of those weird experiences which show you there's more to this world than you'd thought. And at this time I was a theoretical physicist when I just looked at this wall just a whitewashed wall. Then suddenly without warning the wall disappeared. It vanished. It just wasn't there anymore. Which was so weird. One minute there was a wall solid and now there was nothing there. And of course instead of getting scared or think I was going crazy I used know what we do in Buddhism called insight. What's happening? And it soon became very clear to me that this is just the nature of the physical senses especially the sense of seeing sight. If you watch something, put your full attention on watching and what you observe doesn't move or change. It disappears. The sense of sight turns off.