Stories about judgement
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about judgement from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Anger's trial with no defenceAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile from his own anger at a fellow monk: listing everything he didn't do, Ajahn Brahm sees he is justifying his anger like a court case where only the prosecutor may speak, no…
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And so an other way of managing anger is to have what we call a fair trial. A lot of times you get angry at somebody, it is like a trial where you only have a prosecutor and no defense. Say these, you know, say it is your boss. They've got no right to speak like that to me. And you try and justify it. That are boss speak like that, they are just really cruel, don't they know how much I've worked hard for this. You always try and get more evidence to justify why you should be angry to that person. How about having a defence attorney in that trial? In other word, oh that poor boss, he must be very tied, he had a very busy day today. Maybe he had an argument with his wife this morning, maybe he's got a migraine. See if you can deliberately when you're about to getting angry at your husband say. Try to find some mitigating factors. He must be crazy. He's mad. He must be going through the male equivalent of menopause. Whatever it is? Try and find some mitigating evidence, so you can not just judge just him one-sidedly.
- IQ and thongsJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Vietnamese-Australian comedian's joke: as a schoolboy he asked his dad what IQ meant. 100 is average, 120 intelligent, 140 university; 80 you'll struggle; 'and if you've only…
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this was by that Vietnamese comic over in Melbourne who was said when he was at school, he heard about IQ. So, he went home and asked his dad, "What does IQ mean?" And his dad said, "If you've got an IQ of, say, 100, you're kind of average. 120, you're intelligent. 140, you can go to university. If you've only got an IQ of 80, you'll struggle. And if you've only got an IQ of 60, you're so stupid you can't even tie up your own shoelaces." And that's when the kid said, "Is that why most Australians wear thongs?"
- The 'bikie' who came to the retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A huge man with scraggly hair, tattooed all over, turns up at a Jhana Grove retreat. Stereotyping him as a bikie-gang leader, Ajahn Brahm tells him, “Sir, you've got the wrong…
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this guy turned up to one of my Retreats at jro the opposite side of the road to bodana Monastery but this guy was really big really scraggly hair and was covered with tattoos all over his body and as soon as I looked at him my mistake was judging him stereotyping him he looked like the leader of a biky gang not the sort of people who would come for Meditation Retreat so straight away I said sir you've got the wrong place the prison farm is up the road in that direction totally stereotype I was totally wrong he said no I've joined up for the retreat okay fair enough I said well okay all sorts but you know this guy on the outside he really looked just rough the sort of person you'd be afraid to meet in North Bridge on a a Saturday night you know just by yourself really was really mean looking guy but he got the best meditation on that Retreat when he came to the interviews to tell me what he was doing it's incredible the Bliss and the joy and the Deep meditations was getting and he realized this guy had opened himself up and inside was incredible beauty and I was really admiring just his mind in his meditation excellent
- The boy who failed grade one three timesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A north-east Thai boy fails grade one three years running, so he is sent to the village monastery, where even the patient abbot can't teach him to chant 'Namo Tassa'. Sent on to…
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There was one of my favourite monks in Thailand long time ago. I only heard about him when I was a young monk. I never actually met him. But the reason why I was impressed by him was his story how he became a monk, and how he became fully enlightened. Because he was a young kid when he went to grade one in school in the northeast of Thailand, it was only basic education. Only four years of school. This was over 40 50 years ago. Only four years at school and then you are out in the fields ploughing and doing stuff with your father and mother. It was subsistence economy. So when he went to grade one at school after finishing the year, his teacher said "I'm sorry, I can't pass you. You can't go on to grade two. You have to repeat grade one." I don't know how anyone could fail grade one at school. Maybe plasticine, you can't do. Otherwise how can you fail grade one? But this kid was so stupid, he failed grade one and had to repeat it when all his friends went on to grade two. And after another year in grade one, his teacher said "Look, I'm sorry. Just for the best one in the world. You have to repeat it for third year." And after three years of repeating grade one at school, that teacher the headmaster again "Sorry we can't pass this kid. He's that stupid." And anyone who can't pass grade one after three tries, it's a waste of time, sort of getting him to help plough the fields. He doesn't know one end of a water buffalo from another end. And so the only place they could send him and this was in Thailand in those times if you're that stupid, you can't pass grade one after three years, was to send him into the monastery and make him a novice monk. Now not all novice monks start their life out like that. [laughter] And the reason they sent him to the monastery, village monastery, because that was just a catcher that was a social safety net. And at least the head monk in these monasteries they are always incredibly kind and so patient. Much more patient now than any sort of teacher in a school. So, this head monk in this monastery took this young kid under his wing and tried as much as he could to train him. Now we have to do some sort of chanting, you know, as a Buddhist monk. He tried to teach him how to chant simple things like the Namo Tassa. And so you get the first word Namo. Yeah, what's the second word? Tassa? Oh, yeah, Tassa. What's the first word again? He was just so dumb. He could not even do Namo Tassa. And after a couple of years in the monastery in the village, even the abbot just could not teach him. So the last resort, the final resting place for such hopeless little kids were the forest monasteries, where I come from. [laughter] They said send him to one of these forest monasteries. That's where you don't have to do the chanting, and you just meditate all day. And this fellow, his mind was so simple. They just asked him, just notice and watch your breath go in and out. And he could do it no problem at all. Because he, you know, he didn't think that much, not like you guys. And so this person who everyone thought was stupid, he got into the deep meditations really quickly, and very quickly became fully enlightened, an arahat. So you say, who's a stupid one? Not this guy, his mind was so peaceful, they're so pure and kind. Interestingly, I remember the story. They said, well, you know, as a monk, he has to do some chanting. And he could chant very well after that experience. Because what he actually did. So he said, with a powerful mind like that he could remember his past lives, remember the past life when he was a monk before and when he actually did learn the chanting. And he would actually connect with that past life whenever he had to do the chanting. So you know he's actually sent his memory back. And that's where he could chant in this life.
- The Buddhist soldiers from the British ArmyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the UK a group of Buddhists from the British Army come to see Ajahn Brahm. He had assumed Buddhist soldiers would be dentists or accountants, but some are frontline soldiers…
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there was a group of Buddhist military who came to see me in UK a few years ago. Just like in all parts of life, even in the British army, there were many Buddhists. I thought those Buddhists would be in the ancillary services such as the dentists, or the accountants, but some of these Buddhists were frontline soldiers who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is that a good thing for a Buddhist to be doing? I'm not going to judge but that's where they were and that's what they were doing. And so I had to change many of my attitudes, and I'm willing to change those attitudes to face these people in front of me who were obviously very sincere—they weren't bad people. I could sense straightaway that they had a very strong, inner morality in them. And how can that be? It was a contradiction in all I had ever told about Buddhism. And so one of the things I told them is never allow your knowledge to stand in the way of truth. I remember that they were shocked by that. They said, "Yeah!" Because my knowledge was telling me that what these guys were doing is wrong. But the truth in front of my eyes that these were beautiful people. Which is the one you're supposed to follow? If you follow your knowledge, you'll make so many mistakes— you'll be judgmental, critical, harsh, and you'll never be able to connect, appreciate and respect people. The truth of the matter is something different. That was a wonderful experience. I still don't know understand. I still haven't really processed that totally
- The man who walked straight past the judgeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a German book a German-born monk translated aloud: a seven- or eight-year-old boy has a near-death experience, walking through a forest to a shed where a man checks a book —…
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A long time ago, there was a book coming around our monastery down in Serpentine. I don't know if it's still there. It was in German, it'd be great if it was translated into English. I don't know if it's been done. But one of our German monks, a German-born monk, he read it out to me in translation. It was a story of a young boy in Germany who had an out-of-the-body experience, just floating out of your body, near-death experience, he was only about seven or eight years of age. And the reason I remembered it was because of what this little boy learned from that out-of-the-body experience. He was walking through a forest, in Germany, forests are really important to people, so they live in the forest, their culture is born out of the forest. So that he was walking through a forest, having temporarily died, and he came to like a barn, like a shed, and it's typical the way that some people perceive that time when you left your body at the near-death or death, that he came to this guy who asked what his name was, and the guy looked in some book, they always say it's a book, these days if young people die, they find he just logs into a computer and checks your name, looked into a book, his name wasn't there, so he said, no you're not supposed to be dead, you'd better go back. But he said that before you go back, you can actually see how this all works. And so the next person who came to see if he really deserved to die or not was a farmer. And when the farmer came up, you know the guy, what's your name, oh yeah, your time's up, time you're dead, but said the guy who was with the book, and he said, have you ever killed anything, any animals? he said, oh no, no, no, maybe one or two, but no more than that. And the guy looked at this little kid and said, you see, even though he's dead, he still lies through his teeth, he was a farmer, he killed many animals. But as they were just talking to this farmer to see what he thought, where he is gonna go.. there was another man walked right past the shed, right past, and went up to what the little kid thought was heaven. And the kid said to the guy, aren't you going to stop him and ask him what he's been doing? And that's when this judge told this little kid, throughout that man's whole life, he hasn't judged anybody, therefore, we're not going to judge him.
- The noisy breather on the Sydney retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a nine-day retreat in Sydney one man breathes so loudly that a meditator complains. Ajahn Brahm explains he has a terminal tumour blocking both nostrils and has come as a last…
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At meditation retreats I always remember this one man when I was teaching a Meditation Retreat in Sydney many years ago and a 9-day retreat. You know that people are supposed to be quiet when they are meditating but this man (Ajahn breathing noisily) He was breathing so heavily through every meditation sitting so much so that someone came up to me to complain Can you please tell this person to keep quiet. I am trying to meditate. He had a tumor in his nasal passages blocking both nostrils. It was terminal; the doctor had given up surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy So the doctors have abandoned him and he came to the meditation retreat as a last resort So when I told all the meditators that, they felt very embarrassed and guilty that they were complaining about somebody who got only few weeks to live. He told me that; on the last day of the retreat (Ajahn making the sound) breathing loudly again but not thinking being silent; he had a 'pop' He said he could breath again. That's what he said 'a pop' as his nasal passage cleared but only for about 5 or 10 minutes then it closed again. That was an amazing thing which happened I thought that meditation was working but he left it a bit too late. I never thought he would survive. Few years later teaching meditation in Sydney, this guy came up to me 'do you remember me?' I said 'of course I don't remember, who are you? ' As a monk I am honest He was that man. He cared with his meditation and his nose had cleared and now he was going around teaching people how to be peaceful, how to be silent. because his cancer had got into regression even though he should have been dead years ago.
- The woman who fell asleep in the meditation hallStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During Friday meditation a woman lies down, points her feet at the Buddha, falls asleep and snores — breaking every rule of etiquette — and neighbours wake her. Ajahn Brahm…
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I remember some years ago, somebody was just over there and they fell asleep during my talk and started snoring, really snoring loudly, and somebody woke them up. And I told them off afterwards, you shouldn't wake them up like that. We found out afterwards they were having horrendous domestic violence. And they came here, and they felt safe in this room. They felt so safe, they hadn't slept don't know how many days you can imagine with domestic violence, even if it's not happening to you right now the memory of that makes you so tense. You can't get a good night's sleep and they came here they felt so safe. It was the first time they've slept in I don't know how long. And I said, "let them sleep". If anyone snores here during one of my talks well done, let them sleep. You don't know where they've come from. At least they realize this feels a peaceful place and they're protected. They don't feel fear. That's actually why they slept.