Stories about meaning of life
7 Buddhist wisdom stories about meaning of life from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- How the donkey caught the carrotAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A stubborn donkey is driven by a carrot dangling on a string from a stick tied to its own back — always two feet ahead however fast it runs: that's your life. But a donkey that…
Read full story
It's a story, one of my favourite stories of the donkey and the carrot. Those of you who know the story because you've been on the retreats, it's also in the book of "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond." You know that donkeys are very stubborn animals, that's why they say in English - as stubborn as a donkey. You hit them with a stick, they won't move. So the only way you get donkeys to move, is you tie the stick to their back, so the front of the stick is about 2 feet, in front of the donkey's head, at the end of the stick you put a string, on the end of the string, a carrot. So there's this donkey, seeing this carrot 2 foot in front of it , craving is what drives the donkey, not fear of punishment. So there the donkey moves forward to try and get the carrot but because this carrot is on the end of the stick, and the stick is tied to the donkey, it doesn't matter how fast the donkey moves forward, the carrot goes at the same speed so it's always 2 foot in front of the donkey's head. But it's stupid enough to think, well, if I run a bit faster I might catch that carrot. You understand the simile - that's called your life [laughter] chasing a carrot. Do you ever get it? Now it's always 2 foot in front, you almost get it, sometimes, just perfection you know, happiness, even deep meditation, it's almost there, and you just go a bit further, and it goes further away from you. But many donkeys have actually heard my talks on YouTube. [laughter] And they now know how to catch the carrot! How to find meaning in life. You know how you do that? The donkey's already been running really fast, and the donkey hears the word, "stop", stop chasing that carrot, "stop" so the donkey stops. You know what happens when you stop? The carrot moves further away than its ever been before. If you've got patience and trust and faith, you've heard Ajahn Brahm, you actually believe he may be on to something, so you stop. And as soon as it's 4 foot away from you, twice as far as it's ever been you get a little bit of doubt, is this going to happen, is it true? But then something amazing happens, the carrot starts coming towards you. And soon it's in its normal position, 2 foot in front of your mouth, but now it's coming at great speed [laughter] towards you, you don't have to do anything, you just sit there, And just at the right moment, you remember the most important phrase, "The door of my mouth is now open to you, carrot" [laughter] And the carrot gets into your own mouth!
- Looking through the other end of the telescopeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a seminar in the old observatory next to Parliament House in Perth, a Catholic woman honestly admits that every look through a telescope at the vast universe challenges her…
Read full story
And I do remember going to the old observatory next to Parliament House, years ago, there was a seminar and that’s where, there was a Catholic girl, I really respected her honesty, because she said with science, every time she looks through a telescope and sees incredible universe, it challenges her Catholicism, the theology which she’s supposed to believe in. They asked me what did I think of that. And I said, as a scientist, (because I did science in Cambridge), as a scientist, I always imagine looking through the other end of the telescope, not the narrow end to the fat end, but looking at the fat end to the narrow end, looking in that end and looking in to see who’s watching, that challenges my science. So what science is, is looking through this end of the telescope out there. What religion is, what it should be, what spirituality is, what Buddhism should be, looking from the other end of the telescope, looking who the hell is watching all of this, and understanding that.
- Sheep circling a bush foreverStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk who grew up on a farm near Mundijong once found the sheep walking in a circle around a thick clump of bushes, each following the one in front, unable to see that the…
Read full story
When it comes to sheep, I always remember the little story told me by one of our monks, Vasavado [?] He grew up on a farm just outside of Mundijong, really was local boy. And he said, once, you know, he went out to check out on the sheep in the farm. And he saw the sheep, he didn’t know how they started, but they had formed a circle around a thick lump of bushes. So they could not see the other side of the bush, but they’d formed a circle and they were walking round and round and round, as sheep always do, following the one in front, and they didn’t realise that they were going round and round and round in a circle which had no end. And if he hadn’t chanced on this and pulled one of the sheep out of line, they’d still be walking around that circle [chuckles] years later.
- 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…
Read full story
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 great physicist standing alone at dinnerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When Roger Penrose visits Perth, Ajahn Brahm and the Society's president join a dinner with NASA scientists and physics professors. Everyone chats happily — even the monk — while…
Read full story
one of the people which we met here, with Dennis, our president, Roger Penrose came into town some years ago and he's Mr. Black Hole. He's the guy who discovered black holes. So Roger Penrose, one of the greatest physicists of our age, probably up there with Stephen Hawkins. And he came and Dennis our president, so we went to have dinner with him. And, cause I'm well connected with the physicists over here. It's actually, it's really amazing, this dinner, all the other people there, they were sort of from, they were NASA, they were professor of Physics from all over the place, and I was only, sort of, the Buddhist monk [laughter] or anyone from religion which actually shows just how Buddhism and even just elite Physics, we can actually melt together. But you even look at this person who was so brilliant in his field but you couldn't have a conversation with him. And do you remember this Dennis? We were all just talking with each other, even I was just chatting about all sorts of stuff with these people from NASA and he was actually standing by himself, no one was talking with him. I was wondering that he is brilliant in front of the lecture theatre, apparently, he's brilliant, you know, on a piece of paper but he hasn't got his life together.
- The lottery winners who couldn't find their kidsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A UK couple win about £40 million and buy a huge dream mansion — then sell it a year later, because the house is so big they can never find their children. They realise something…
Read full story
somebody sent me an email about this couple in the UK who won the lottery. They got instant money, about 40 million GBP. So they bought this huge mansion, one year later they sold that mansion. The reason they sold that mansion was they couldn't find their kids. It was just too big. So there they were in this dream mansion, just what sometimes, you'd drool over, you see maybe in the TV or you see in the magazines or you may go past if you go driving down Peppermint Grove. You'd think - wow wouldn't it be amazing living in a huge place like that with manicured gardens, swimming pools, and with people to serve you whatever you needed. But then, you think about what happens to a person in there. And this was someone who'd been there and done that, because the house had so many rooms, they could never find their kids. Almost had to send a search party out to see which room they were in. And because of that, they realised that something was terribly, terribly missing in their life. Family, relationships, a bit of love.
- Volunteering with the kids who taught him to be huggedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Cambridge, when a Christian friend starts volunteering at the local mental hospital, Ajahn Brahm feels he'd better go too. The Christians drop out; he keeps going for two…
Read full story
Again, just when I was at university, I was the only Buddhist, I knew at that college. So it was very lonely. So, you had your friends and you have great philosophical arguments. There's one guy who was a very close friend, he was Christian. So we had these great discussions. It wasn't sort of antagonistic, but it was animated. And when I heard he was going to the local mental hospital to do voluntary work, I thought I'd better go along as well. I'm a Buddhist, I'm supposed to be compassionate, even though you are very busy and all this other stuff you're supposed to do at university, I went. And I enjoyed it so much that I kept going for 2 years, those Christians, they just actually dropped out. And I went for 2 years, sometimes, "what are you trying to prove?" they asked me. And I think about it, actually it went way beyond doing service, I wasn't there to do service, I was actually getting joy out of this. It gave my week meaning, just to go and hang out with Down's Syndrome kids, and that's really all I was doing. I wasn't an expert, I wasn't trying to do anything much with them, except just be with them. And to this day, I credit that with teaching me what I call like "emotional language". So if I'm a good teacher, 4 years, not just the way you speak, anyone can say words, it's just where they come from. These were kids who can't speak, in the same way, at least these kids, were institutionalised, couldn't speak the same way as I speak to you if you come to ask me a question or we just talk about whatever. They didn't have the vocabulary or the way to articulate their thoughts. But they communicated through their emotions, through their hugs, through their facial language. And my goodness, they were just so clever. I remember many times, just going there and they, they sized me up straight away, if I was in a bad mood, they'd know - what's wrong. They'd give me hug. It was the first time as a man I'd allowed another man to hug me. I was a heterosexual. I was afraid of, sort of homosexuality. That's just the way I was conditioned and they had to allow, as a male, a young male in 1969 or 70, allow another male to hug you. That was tough, you're English, stiff upper lip and all that. But it was so wonderful for me to learn just how to be loved. I got so much from those kids. I really thank them so much. So I thought I was giving when I first went there. No, I got heaps and heaps, I got enormous gratitude, what I learnt when I gave that's where you start to understand what meaning is.