Stories about learning
8 Buddhist wisdom stories about learning from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Alex the African grey parrotStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Psychologists adapting methods for children with learning disabilities teach African grey parrot Alex not party tricks but intelligent vocabulary — Brahm first saw the video…
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Alex the parrot, A L E X, and parrot is an African grey parrot who was a subject of an experiment, and a kind experiment. Some uh psychologist who had uh knowledge of a way of teaching those with intellectual disabili- disabilities, learning disabilities, how to talk. You know, sometimes kids, it's not they're naughty, but just they have some blockages about learning how to speak the local language. And of course, some of these psychologists have worked out very good techniques in order to teach kids how to speak. Not maybe the normal lessons which other kids have in school, but specialized for them. So, these couple of psychologists over in the United States, they uh tried to teach a parrot how to talk. I don't mean like pieces of eight or uh naughty language. I mean, how to have enough of a vocabulary to be able to use these words intelligently
- Buddhism and bananasAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: How do you peel a banana correctly? Go to the experts — not monks, monkeys. A monkey never peels a banana at the stalk; it peels from the flower end, which is much easier (try it…
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If you remember this similarly that when you eat a banana, you have to peel it first. How do you peel bananas? Do you peel bananas correctly or wrongly? How do you know how to peel a banana? You go to the experts. Who are the experts with bananas? Do you say monks? Monkeys. They're the experts. And if you ever see a monkey peel a banana, they never peel it at the stalk. The banana's got two ends. the stalk end and the other end is where the little flower was. It's much easier to peel it at the flower end. And that's how monkeys peel it. So next time you have a banana, just do an experiment. Peel it at two bananas, one at one end, one at the other end, and see just how monkeys were so wise. And as I said, I use that simile. If you want to learn something like meditation, who are the experts with meditation? Monks and nuns. Yes. So if you want to get the best teachings, go to the experts.
- Fall in the same hole three timesAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: walk down a street, fall in a muddy hole twice with shame, third time walk around it — heedfulness learning curve (from cancer-care wisdom).
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fall in a hole and it's, you know, it's just really muddy hole, dirty. It takes a really lot of effort to get out of that hole. So the next time they make a resolution, I've got to be more heedful. And they walk down that street and they still fall in that hole and they say, "Oh, I'm a terrible person." The third person, the third time, they go down that same street and now they really are heedful. So they walk around the hall
- Half of what we teach you is wrongStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A doctor driving Ajahn Brahm to a retreat recalls the welcome speech at his Sydney medical school: the head of the school told the new students that 50% of what they would be…
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he was the head of warp in Salford Hospital in Sydney head of the Medical School and I heard this from one of the the doctors who's taking me driving me to a retreat who said there are the beginning of his years as a as in medical school the head of the department giving the welcome speech to everybody who was gonna spend the next four years in war pins half-wit Hospital Medical School who said 50% of what we're going to teach you in the next four years is wrong this was the professor saying what we're gonna teach him next for you is 50% of it is wrong the problem is he said we're not quite sure which 50% it is
- 'Never mind, we'll get another one'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When Ajahn Brahm was at university, another student in his lab blew up an expensive piece of equipment — a big bang and smoke. Ajahn Brahm expected him to be in serious trouble,…
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I remember being in a lab and one of the other students in the lab. There was a big bang. He blew up one of the piece of equipment, expensive piece of equipment. And I forget exactly what it was, but when bang and all the smoke came out and I thought that he could really get in trouble for that, wasting expensive equipment, but all the the lab technicians and the other professors, they said, "No, no, no, never mind. We get another one.
- Seven out of tenAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a maths teacher he set exams aiming for an average of seven out of ten: scores of three or four discourage children, and nines and tens hide the weaknesses he needs to address…
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It was a simile.. when I had to set my first exam paper as a teacher I was a school teacher for one year. I often say that anyone who teaches at a high school after one year, any one would think about being a monk or a nun (laughter) I actually did it. Teenagers are really hard ... But any way... So I was teaching and I had to set the first examination It is not easy to set an examination What are you supposed to do? So I went to one of the senior teachers and he said look try and set the level of difficulty so the average score becomes 70 percent He said if everybody gets top marks so we get 100 percent or 95 or 90 percent it's waste of time, it is not a real test it is too easy. If everybody gets 30, 40, 50 percent that means they get discouraged, they lose motivation and they give up They think 'I can't do that subject' so he told me "please set the level to be about 70 percent" Because that would encourage people. If they get about 70 percent right that's the average, they'll be encouraged yes they can do that subject. And the 30 percent where they make mistakes He said, that's where you, their teacher can see their weak points. So in the next lessons you can address those areas where they haven't understood what you have been teaching. The mistakes.. And I took that to be a wonderful metaphor for life. If any of you get 100 percent in life you are learning nothing. It's not a test, you don't grow. If you get 40, 50 percent in life or less that's where you get depressed and view yourself hopeless and lose all your self-esteem. If you get about 70 percent in life that is the best. You are encouraged. Yes you are having happiness, you are having some success, you feel good about yourself you can do some things. but you are making 30 percent mistakes. Brilliant! Because that's where you learn. So if you got a partner, they're 100 percent they are a waste of time, dump them. (laughter) If they're 50 percent, Oh that's hopeless that's too difficult if you've got a partner that's 70 percent nice and loving and 30 percent they nag you and criticize you That is the very very best! That is the right level. Because that's where you can learn to grow together
- “That was the worst tape I've ever heard”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Angie, later president of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, finds a 23-year-old cassette of one of Ajahn Brahm's early talks in the monastery library, plays it to see how he…
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I remember that we had, I don't mind mentioning her, she's the current president of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, Angie. You know, she's a very strong disciple of mine. She came to stay at a monastery down at Serpentine some years ago, and she was just pottering around in the library, and she managed to get one of these old talks of mine on the cassette tapes. And I think it was about 20 years ago, 23 years ago. And she thought, this is really interesting, I want to see how much this monk has changed over 23, 24 years. And she played the tape and she came up afterwards, she said, Ajahn Brahm, that was the worst tape I've ever heard. That was terrible talk. And I laughed and said, yeah of course, that's just when you're learning.
- Which of the five horses are you?Analogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Five horses: the first obeys a word; the second needs only the shadow of the whip; the third a light tap; the fourth one hard whack; the fifth is whacked again and again and…
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Once there was five horses and the first horse, a rider would get on its back and just tell it where to go and the horse would comply. The second horse, the rider would have to get out the whip. But there's a shadow fell on the horse and horse. No, I better follow the orders otherwise, you know, I get in trouble. So that's the second horse. He has to only follows orders. is only wise when a shadow of suffering falls on them. The third horse, the owner or the rider has to just tap it slightly, not hurt it, but just tap it, you know, with the whip. And then the horse knows what to do. The fourth horse is so stupid that the owner has to whack it. Ow! But only once. And then the horse realizes a mistake and will never do that again. And the last horse, the fifth horse, whack, whack, whack, whack, ow, ow, ow, ow, and still does the same thing again. So, which horse are you? It's how amazing how many people identify with the fifth horse. Every time you get into trouble, you still don't learn.