Stories about inspiration
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about inspiration from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A free cup of coffee found BodhinyanaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Looking for monastery land and finding nothing suitable, Ajahn Jagaro wants coffee. They stop again at the Byford real-estate agent Charles Orlando, who gives them a free cup. A…
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Just Bodhinyana Monastery. Just going there was actually this is I'm a bit of a hypocrite here, cuz this was just on on a cup of coffee, because we're looking at places to buy land. Where's Dennis? Is he gone? Where's Ben? Oh, he was he was there at the time. Looking for some land to buy get a monastery, and we couldn't find anything. Everything was just too expensive, or impossible, or were not appropriate. And then on the way back, looking down south, he's over there. Hi, Dennis. Yeah, he knows this story. Coming back, we just uh my fellow monk at the time, Ajahn Jagaro, he said, "I feel like a cup of coffee." Anyone in business, please remember this. Because previously, the real estate agent in Byford, he stopped there, and he gave him a free cup of coffee. So, we decided just to to stop for a free cup of coffee. Cuz the guy, Charles, I remember his name, Charles Orlando. And he gave us a free cup of coffee. Again, second time. We were you know, we were just basically not looking anymore, fed up for the day. And there was a guy in the back said, "Oh, I remember I remember in the back of Serpentine somewhere, there's a big property, but the owner couldn't sell it. No one wanted it." And of course, that is now Bodhinyana Monastery.
- Almost no equity on Magnolia StreetStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Jagaro looked at the fledgling BSWA's books at 4 Magnolia Street, North Perth, the house was worth about $50,000 and they owed nearly $49,000 — almost…
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Look at this place. If you didn't know where we started from, 35 years ago, 36 years, or about roughly about that, a tiny little house in North Perth, number 4 Magnolia Street, if any of you want to check it out. Should have a little sign in here. This is the start of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. With Ajahn Jagaro and I, I remember going in there and just looking at, there was no security, no um trying to sort of find out, you know, the the membership list and everything. It's everything was out in the open. So, I looked and said, "Oh, you know, what's our what's our bank account balance?" And how much do we owe for the house? And I remember being so surprised and shocked that the house was worth $50,000. And we owed 49,000 and a bit to the bank. And I said, "No equity at all, basically." [laughter] And that's where we started.
- Goosebumps in a 1,600-year-old caveStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Near Anuradhapura, Ajahn Brahm sits in a cave whose donor inscription is ~1,600 years old — goosebumps at how many Sangha members have meditated on that same spot.
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I looked on the top of the cave. There was an inscription of the person who who donated that cave and it was about 1,600 years ago. And as soon as I saw that, I was sitting in the cave and so many other SA members have been meditating meditating in that cave for over 1,600 years. That's a long time. And as soon as I sat down, oh, goosebumps all over and how many amazing beings had sat right where I've been sitting
- Ten pounds for the Sikkim orphanageStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a student who dozed through talks by professors and monks, Ajahn Brahm never forgets one by an old English woman, a Tibetan Buddhist nun running an orphanage for poor children…
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But I remember one of the talks which I heard which I would never forget, it didn't say very much about Buddhism at all. Not as I'd expected it, it didn't say about Four Noble Truths or seven enlightenment factors and all these other stuff which you can read in books anyway. It was just this old English woman, who was a Tibetan nun who was running an orphanage with very poor kids in Sikkim. And the way that she described her compassion was really inspiring. I realised from that time that Buddhism isn't a theory, Buddhism is actually what you do, how you behave, just your kindness, your virtue, your peace, your forgiveness, that's what Buddhism is. It's not what you find in the books. What you find in the interaction between two very kind and caring people. I didn't realise at that time but she taught Buddhism more eloquently than any professor or any monk at that time which I knew. So that's why, the day after, I was so inspired, I went to my bank and took 10 pounds out of my account. Now this was in 1969, I was a very poor student, that was 2 weeks food money for me. So I went hungry. I make up for it these days. But you know, [laughter], I was really hungry, I wasn't starving but I didn't have as much as I would normally have, and it hurt. And because it hurt, I got so much happiness out of that, so much joy, I put 10 pounds for this little orphanage for poor kids. That was meaning, that was purpose, that was something which made life have a resonance, and something very solid which I could respect. It was a pointer to how I could find deeper meaning in my life.
- The foster-care leader who had been a foster childStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Curtin medal ceremony, one recipient had been put into foster care as a child and suffered. After raising her own family she fostered others, then devoted her life to fixing…
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And this year, one of the recipients was, uh, a woman that if I remember correctly, she, you know, was put into, uh, an orphanage, foster care when she was very young. And she had a terrible time, as many people do. And so, she survived. And then when she survived, uh, she had a family. And when her children grew up, she thought, "What can I do, you know, to actually to to help?" So, she started with fostering other kids. And then from there, she was so good at it, so energized, she gave all of her time, her life to making sure that the foster care system in Western Australia was not going to follow the mistakes which she had endured as a foster kid when she was young. And so, I think she's now head of foster care WA. The person's running the organization. The person who's spending so much of her life making sure that kids who don't have a home, kids who don't have a family, have one. Now, she had been there, she had suffered, she knows what it's like. But she also knew what the solutions were. And when I sort of heard that, I thought, "Wow, these are great people. People who actually doing something, but you don't know about it.
- The Tibetan monk who never got to speakStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A former caretaker became a Buddhist because of a talk in a Melbourne public library that never happened. As a Tibetan monk was about to speak, a fundamentalist Christian stood…
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one of our ex-caretakers here a long time ago said he became a Buddhist because an experience he had listening to a talk in Melbourne many many years ago there was a Tibetan Buddhist monk was to give a talk in the public library and so he went along just for interest not really a Buddhist yet and well this Tibetan monk just before he got up to give the talk one of these fundamental Christian people stood up and started to harangue the monk say he was evil a messenger from the devil and Jesus Jesus was the only way and Buddhist being quite gentle said okay you said your stuff Nana please sit down and be quiet we want to listen to the Monk but that just made the Christian fundamentalist even more speaking louder and more aggressively and it took 45-50 minutes to get this guy to leave the auditorium and that's all the time they had for the talk so everyone had to go home and they might never said anything but this young man said that was the most inspiring thing he'd ever seen simply because when this monk was being criticized and put down and scolded and said was evil and part of the devil's crew or whatever the monk was just sitting there peacefully and calm even though he's being scolded he realized that's not what he was
- Two hours on Bunbury beachStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: With a free afternoon before teaching at Bunbury prison, Ajahn Brahm meditates for two hours, eyes closed, on a deserted stretch of beach. He opens his eyes to find a 17-year-old…
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there was one time when I did go to sit quietly on a beach and that was a time when I sat on Bumbbury Beach. I had a free afternoon before going to the prison to teach. And when I was sitting on that beach, it was an abandoned part of the beach. There's no one there at all. Just me and the waves. And I sat there. It's peaceful. So I sat there for two hours, eyes closed, going nice and deeply inside. And when I opened my eyes, what I saw shocked me. It was only two hours. I opened my eyes and I saw on my left was a 17-year-old young woman in a bikini, a blonde, young, pretty. She was just sitting right next to me on one side. On the other side, there was a brunette also in a bikini. 17year-old sitting on this side. Honestly, you can't make these situations up. And I thought, what happened? And how did I know it was 17year-old? Because they told me that they had just finished the last exam at school, the year 12s. And that's usually 17 year olds take those. The last exams, the school was just opposite side of the road. But when I went and sat there, they was just still doing their exams. So, it was nice and quiet. And then afterwards, they came out in their bthers. The guys were there as well. And they were just enjoying last exam is over. Let's go to the beach and just enjoy ourselves. And they saw this monk sitting there perfectly, perfectly still. I wasn't doing anything. Just sitting quietly by myself. But that inspired them. That's why this young lady on one side and young lady on the other side and they just waiting. They said they'd be waiting for about half an hour or so for me to come out of meditation so they could ask their questions. And they were really impressed that I could actually sit there quietly with these two young uh I better not say was it No. Okay, I won't say that. What does that word spell? Yeah, bimbo. Oh my goodness, I'm going to get in trouble. See the next. But anyway, that's that's all they wanted. Just ask a few questions. So, I answered them and went away as soon as I could. I knew that because if anyone had a camera, honestly, how can you explain that? There's a there's a monk with these two beautiful young ladies in bikini on either side by the beach. I've never done that again. If I want to meditate for two hours, go somewhere else quieter.
- “Whatever those monks are on, I want some”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A past president of the Buddhist Society, Rachel Green, first came only to learn meditation for panic attacks and anxiety. Seeing the Armadale group's monks always peaceful and…
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There's - one of our past presidents, she is not here this evening, so she was here about two or three weeks ago, that's Rachel Green. She won't mind me telling her name, because she wrote a little book about, her spiritual story. And the part which I like, well, I got to be honest, it was about me. And it's actually really about how she became a Buddhist. She was suffering from panic disorders and anxiety attacks. Like many of you know, if you actually come and do some meditation, it really helps overcome anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Meditation is a beautiful method of overcoming that. And many people know that, many people actually are sent by their GPs to places like this to learn meditation, so they can overcome their anxiety disorders and panic attacks - and it works very well. But anyway, she came along, just to learn some meditation to overcome her anxiety disorders, and then she saw these monks, and this is the Armadale group, always seem to be peaceful and happy. She wrote in her book, that when she first saw these guys, she thought they're just acting. Just a face you put on in public, and behind the scenes, you know you're just like anybody else - you know, grumpy, arrogant, selfish. So actually, she decided to try and visit our monasteries, and "check us out", to see whether this was real, or whether we're just faking it. And of course, now I really try hard to make everybody open, so you can come and see as many times, see us y'know, when we're off-guard, not in public, and hopefully, I think you'll probably see that as you see us now, is actually as we are at all times. When she saw that, she realized, "I don't know what those monks are on, but whatever they're on, I want some of it."