Stories about kindness
74 Buddhist wisdom stories about kindness 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…
- 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…
- A thank-you letter to the Health MinisterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk enjoys his stay in Fremantle Hospital because the nurses are so kind; at Ajahn Brahm's suggestion he writes to thank the Minister of Health, and gets back a personal…
- Ajahn Ganha pats the king cobraStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Ganha ('ajan gun how'), the forest monk, meets a king cobra — the local 'one-step snake'. He raises his hand and pats it on the head, thanking it in Lao for coming to…
- Ajahn Ganha patted the mayor's tummyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Serpentine mayor Clem Kentish, neighbour and council head, came in a tight suit to vet the monks for building approval. Before Ajahn Brahm could stop him, Ajahn Ganha walked up…
- Ajahn Maha Bua said carry on eatingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting one of Thailand's strictest monks (captioned Ajahn Mahaboor — Maha Bua), where no one may eat after the teacher stops, skinny young Brahm at the end of the line put down…
- Ajahn Sajato flew to the wrong airportStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Sajato flew to the wrong Indonesian city for a conference; as a moneyless monk with no phone he was stuck until someone recognised him and got him on another flight to the…
- Cards from the primary schoolStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Arriving early at Karnet prison farm, Ajahn Brahm is dragged by a prisoner, Nick, to a board covered in cards — and Nick is crying. A primary-school principal, wanting to warn…
- Cassius Clay's autographStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 11, Ajahn Brahm heard that Cassius Clay — later Muhammad Ali — was training at the White City in London, near his home. He and a mate waited outside; when some huge men…
- Coffee for “the Dog”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A prisoner who hates the cruel officer he must serve coffee — the man who deliberately made another inmate miss his wife's rare visit — accepts Ajahn Brahm's challenge to serve…
- Coffee for the new bossStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A listener's former colleague is promoted and becomes a harsh, scolding boss. Advised by Ajahn Brahm to look at the boss's beautiful side, the woman goes up to her and simply…
- Dad's 'Saturday injections'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 10 or 11, Ajahn Brahm makes the primary-school football team, but his father must work Saturday mornings. After kick-off he turns and sees his father cheering on the…
- Drawn out of catatonia by kindness (a dream)Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk Ajahn Brahm dreams vividly of being tortured and retreating into a deep catatonic place for years, until a carer's kind words make him trust the world again and…
- Eye shade for a stranger at ChangiStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Changi Airport a Western woman could not sleep on a busy bench after an overnight flight. Ajahn Brahm, carrying eye shades for retreats, gave her one and walked away — her…
- Eye shades for a stranger at ChangiStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Between flights at Changi he gives airline eye shades to an exhausted Western woman he does not know; her smile stays with him.
- Fifty strokes of the catStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A new postulant confesses to secretly making an afternoon sandwich and, refusing Ajahn Brahm's gentle advice, insists on a penance or he'll do it again. Fresh from reading 'The…
- Free buffet lunch on the Norway ferryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Hitchhiking student on a cheap Norway–UK ferry; a couple say he reminds them of their son and buy him a huge buffet lunch — first and only such feast.
- From Perth Airport uncertainty to a Rolls-Royce in ArmadaleStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A visiting monk arrived at Perth Airport without saying which day, started walking, and within ~50 metres got a lift to Serpentine. The same monk later rode to the Armadale group…
- He only meant to give her liftsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After divorce a man rehoming his pedigree dog met an elderly woman who needed rides to doctor and dentist; he happily took time off work for years. One day she asked him into her…
- He pats the monastery carStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Other monks can't start the car; he pats it, says kind words, pulls the starter — it works. Treat the tired car like a being that came through hot weather to the temple.
- He punched the art teacher for smiling — then called him a friendStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Armadale-group artist who taught at Claremont smiled at a difficult colleague; the man punched him and flattened him. Years later the same man greeted him as an old friend and…
- 'He was a leader in his field'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: People told Ajahn Brahm about a co-worker who never criticised or said anything bad about anyone. Annoyed, they decided to test him: what did he think about Adolf Hitler? He…
- I don't hit sleepy meditators — I send them to bedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An audience mention of a Japanese Soto (captioned Hai/Dogen) monastery that hits sleepy monks prompts him to disagree: prisoners who saw such a documentary said they'd kill…
- I refused my girlfriend's meat curryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a strict vegetarian layman his girlfriend cooks what she thinks he wants — a meat curry; he refuses; later sees how unkind the refusal was after all her trouble.
- Jumper leads on the prison road at dawnStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Driving the monastery road between the prison and the dam at dawn, the monks find an elderly couple stuck all night with a flat battery. Jumper leads start their car; the couple…
- Kissing it betterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Growing up poor in Acton, west London, young Ajahn Brahm plays street football with migrant friends and keeps grazing his knees. He runs to his mother, who kneels and kisses the…
- Lakshmi's knitted socks on Friday nightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Before a Friday talk Lakshmi gave him hand-knitted socks he rarely wears; he put them on anyway, and during the talk she delighted that he was wearing her socks — kindness making…
- Let her come and bowStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone in Sydney who watched a video of Ajahn Brahm's Sri Lanka trip says what impressed him most wasn't the many talks but the moment an old woman wanted to bow and his minders…
- Milk for the vegan catStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago, while vegetarian, Ajahn Brahm stays in a house whose owners are trying to make their cat vegan, feeding it soy milk. When they aren't looking, he slips the cat some…
- Mr Howard — the jolly maths teacherStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: School maths head Mr Howard never scolds; laughs with students; praises them when they catch his board mistakes — Brahm credits him for love of maths and positive thinking.
- Mummy, you're nicer after meditationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A tired Armadale Tuesday-night mother almost skips class until her six-year-old insists she go — because she is a much nicer mummy when she comes home from meditation.
- Nandivisāla the oxStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A poor farmer, cheated year after year by the village merchant, sits depressed under a tree when his ox, Nandivisāla, nuzzles him with a plan: bet the merchant $10,000 that he…
- Nick's kindness cracked the 'dog'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Prisoner Nick at Karnet serves a hated senior officer who ignores him. Brahm challenges him to put love into tea and biscuits for months. Breakthrough: special coffee gets a…
- One phone call to the vice-chancellorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Many years ago a Sri Lankan nursing student at Curtin University lost her husband: working two jobs to pay the bills, he fell asleep driving home early one morning and was…
- Penance: a carrot for the rabbitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A postulant who broke a minor precept is very upset with himself and asks for a penance. Ajahn Brahm tells him to take a carrot from the kitchen to the hungry wild rabbit…
- Perth Airport: 'That's my favorite book'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Landing at Perth Airport around 11 pm after Taiwan, the immigration officer asks if he has written any books. When he names Opening the Door of Your Heart she lights up — it is…
- Plant more flowersAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile for 'repressed' emotions: your garden has weeds and flowers. Weeding isn't repression. But better than pulling the weeds, plant more flowers and water them; soon the…
- Prisoners smiled back at the circumambulationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Thai-community prison-temple opening ceremony, during circumambulation he catches two prisoners' eyes with a big smile — they smile back.
- “Put your hand under here”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A young builder from a poor family, renovating an old Perth house on stumps, hears a voice — with no one around — telling him to put his hand under the stumps just there. He…
- Relaxing into food poisoningStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: About fifteen months earlier, several monks at Bodhinyana get food poisoning, Ajahn Brahm included. He skips a meal for the only time in years and is literally rolling on the…
- 'She gave me the money and sent me'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man keeps asking his wife if he can go on a weekend meditation retreat; each time there's too much to do — shopping, cleaning, kids' sport, her mother visiting, the shed.…
- She signed a blank cheque so the refugee could see her dying motherStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the Buddhist centre hall a Laotian refugee gets a telegram — mother dying in Oregon — no money to fly. The woman arranging flowers stops, opens her chequebook and signs a…
- Super Monk and the death rayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An art student who watches his videos (from Czechoslovakia, he thinks) makes a cartoon of 'Super Monk' based on his stories. The villain has built a death ray to destroy the…
- “That's a beautiful baby” on the TubeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a depressing London Underground ride where nobody looks at anyone, Ajahn Brahm tells a young mother her baby is beautiful — a fib, he admits, since he doesn't like babies —…
- The anger-eating demonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monster sits on the emperor's throne and grows bigger with every angry word from the guards; the returning emperor welcomes it, the court follows with kindness, and the demon…
- The ants left a circle of kindness around the monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous Thai forest monk, waiting to give a village talk, sat by an ant mound; red ants bit him until he fled, then he forced himself back and switched to metta — may all ants…
- The bomb next door in the BlitzStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During the London Blitz a bomb falls right next to the terraced house where Ajahn Brahm's mother and grandmother are. The neighbours, only five or six metres away, are killed…
- The caller who threatened the monksStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman phones the monastery cursing and threatening to come with a rifle; Ajahn Brahm answers only with kindness, she says he alone understands her, calms down and tells him…
- The camel's one more roundStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man who told Ajahn Brahm the story after hearing the Nandivisāla tale arrived late at a primary-school fete in a park, longing for a camel ride. The organiser refused: the…
- The cat that went to heavenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a little book over 100 years old by a Western lady living in Japan (as he recalls): a destitute painter is commissioned to paint the Buddha's parinibbāna with the animals…
- The Elvis impersonator with the walking stickStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the old North Perth temple a man who had fallen off a roof and suffered brain damage starts dressing as Elvis, comes violent with a walking stick (always missing), and Ajahn…
- The gentleman who helped the homeless man in HampsteadStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thai forest monks newly arrived in a grey, drizzly London winter are staying in an old house in Hampstead. One homesick monk, looking out of the window early one morning, sees a…
- The haematologist who made room for kindnessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The year after Ajahn Brahm received a Curtin University medal, he attended the award for Professor 'Joofi' (as captioned), head of haematology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.…
- The homeless man put his sandwich in the bowlStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During a Perth conference a young monk skipped the free lunch to walk St Georges Terrace with his bowl; a homeless man stopped him and insisted on giving his sandwich. The monk…
- The log that was a crocodileStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Sri Lankan man fed the fish in a lagoon with a slice of bread every morning on his way to work, and when a crocodile appeared he fed it a slice too, every day. One morning the…
- 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,…
- The prisoner who fed the catStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A depressed prisoner insists he is only a bad person. Ajahn Brahm has him list bad deeds on the left of a sheet and good deeds on the right. At first the right side is empty…
- The Rottweilers weren't chainedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting a house, he's told not to worry about the two Rottweilers — they're chained up — so he walks right past them. Only afterwards does the owner nearly have a heart attack:…
- The runners who stoppedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Many people have told Ajahn Brahm about a Paralympic final in which one competitor stumbled just before the line — and instead of racing on, all the others stopped, picked the…
- The runny nose before live TVStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Korea, at −15°C with snow everywhere, Ajahn Brahm wakes with a cold and a dripping nose — and has half an hour before a live interview on South Korean TV, where a running nose…
- The secret security pen — “We like you, that's your best security device”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a dangerous men's prison (Canning Vale, as he corrects himself) Ajahn Brahm is given a 'secret' alarm pen to point at the ceiling sensors if attacked — but monks' robes have…
- The snake and the monk eyeball each otherStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During chanting at a new jungle monastery in Thailand, a snake climbs up a monk's back; its head pops up over his shoulder. Monk and snake eyeball each other, both surprised. The…
- The thank-you letter to the plumbing shopStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Bodhinyana's first toilet block, Ajahn Brahm can't afford a plumber, so a salesman called Fred at Galvins in Osborne Park shows him how to glue and lay the pipes. The…
- The three-metre dugite in the shade of his hutStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On retreat at Serpentine, Ajahn Brahm hears kangaroos fleeing as a huge, highly venomous dugite approaches while he washes his bowl. He says hello and carries on; it lies in the…
- The trail of blood into Mum's council flatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Staying at his mother's London council tower block (a supposed 'hotbed of crime'), Ajahn Brahm is about to walk to a talk when the lift opens on an elderly neighbour covered in…
- The Triads offered to sort out any troubleStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a Friday talk a Chinese man says he is with the Perth Triads; Brahm is scared — then the man says the boss sent him because Brahm looks after the Chinese community: if you…
- The wild horse that kissed the coffinStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Gerald in Hong Kong sent a photo-story: a man tamed a wild horse with only kindness and patience — no hitting or starving — until the horse would greet him with a mouth-kiss.…
- The wobbly VIP chairs and the fist under his noseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For the opening of the Nollamara centre the Governor of WA, Sir Gordon Reid, accepts the invitation. Ajahn Brahm orders the best marquee and chairs from a top Cottesloe hire…
- Trees give shade to the one cutting them downAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A forest sign in Sri Lanka: trees are so kind they even give shade to the person cutting them down — kindness that protects even those who harm you.
- Vomiting through the book signingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On an Indonesia tour Ajahn Brahm's stomach turns during a talk and the book-signing queue. He finishes signing, runs to his room and vomits, then calms his sore tummy with the…
- Walking home from the airport without askingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: With no money, Ajahn Brahm finds people offer him a cup of tea at the airport. One of his monks tests it: returning to Perth from overseas, he tells no one his flight and just…
- 'Welcome to Australia, mate. Have a beer.'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Vietnamese boat person, just in sight of the Australian shore, was greeted by two West Australian fishermen: 'Welcome to Australia, mate. Have a beer.' He always remembered it.…
- 'Whatever you're doing, come and do it again'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago a senior prison officer at the Canning Vale jail phones Ajahn Brahm insisting he come back to teach himself, not send other monks. Why? In his whole career, he says, he…
- You've got such beautiful blue eyes — like my baby HollyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sydney clothing entrepreneur Julie flies at short notice to London to sign a contract. Directors say the managing director is in a filthy mood and she has wasted her journey. She…