Stories about meditation
135 Buddhist wisdom stories about meditation from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 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 terrible retreat — he only got the first jhānaJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A retreatant complains his retreat is terrible because he can only reach the first jhāna, not the second. Ajahn Brahm: one jhāna is more than good enough — a complaining mind…
- Aircraft of the future — pilot and dogAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Airline magazine gag: future cockpit has only a pilot and a dog. Pilot's job is to feed the dog; dog's job is to bite the pilot if he touches the controls. Same with the mind —…
- Ajahn Chah sits in the centre of the feverStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Malaria was an occupational hazard for jungle monks, and Ajahn Chah suffered it for years. During one intense attack, instead of lying in bed worrying, he sat up and meditated…
- Ajahn Chah stopped breathing — medic takes blood samplesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After Ajahn Chah's stroke, a royal medic freaks when Chah stops breathing for hours. Monks say he's meditating. Compromise: frequent blood samples stay well oxygenated while he…
- An hour to killStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a retreat in Thailand, a Kuala Lumpur woman — later a star meditator — gets nowhere for eight or nine days and is frustrated. After the closing blessings, everyone else packs…
- Bangkok air-con room — no sloth and torporStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After sleep-deprived NE Thai forest conditions, a stay in Bangkok with decent food, sleep, no mosquitoes and an air-conditioned meditation room means no sloth and torpor at all —…
- Bangkok walking meditation — my name from miles awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On walking meditation in Bangkok years ago, Brahm hears his ordination name Brahmavamso as if from miles away. Paying attention, he finds another monk shouting it into his ear —…
- Between Cambridge exams he meditated instead of revisingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During six-day Cambridge natural-sciences finals (3 hours morning and afternoon), after astrophysics of the galaxy he skipped lunch, meditated, let go of worrying about the past…
- Brian Josephson found it in meditationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Physicist Brian Josephson (quantum tunnelling / supercomputers) won a Nobel; as Ajahn Brahm tells it, the breakthrough came not from more thinking but from meditating.
- Buddha Air — no seats, just cushionsJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Fantasy airline: no seats, sit on cushions, meditate instead of entertainment — twice the passengers, no aisles needed.
- 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…
- Cambridge Botanical Gardens — first bamboo clumpStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Student days near Baitman Street, Cambridge: first day in the Botanical Gardens he finds a bamboo clump so beautiful he stares 10–15 minutes, invents 'sensuous, soft and slender,…
- “Can meditation teach you to fly over walls?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first prison visit, at the old Canning Vale jail, over a hundred of about 110 prisoners crowd in to learn meditation; inspired, Ajahn Brahm gives his best. Ten minutes in,…
- Celebrate the ending of the stuck songStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After years without music in a NE Thai forest, a Bangkok visa trip lets a pop song stick in his head for days. Fighting it made it worse; emphasising the finale until the…
- Club Med versus Club MeditationAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone shows him a Club Med holiday schedule packed with yoga, scuba, activities and a nightclub — exhausting. He contrasts it with 'Club Meditation' at Serpentine, where the…
- Coffee with a control freakAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone invites you for coffee then dictates Gloria Jeans not Dome, latte not cappuccino, Anzac biscuit not muffin, back seats not front, politics not Buddhism, exactly 90…
- Cough straight awayAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: if you feel like coughing while meditating, cough straight away. Suppress it, and when the cough finally comes it's like a volcano going off and disturbs everybody. So…
- Dewdrop on the green hills nimittaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In early nimitta scenery — rolling green hills, trees, a valley river — Ajahn Brahm notices a dewdrop sparkling on a leaf-tip in the sunshine and intuitively zooms attention onto…
- Enlightenment by teatimeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At his first Vesak, with the Cambridge University Buddhist group, 18-year-old Brahm hears how the Buddha vowed under the Bodhi tree not to move even if his blood dried up and his…
- Fat bottoms polish the temple floorsJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Joke about why temple floors in Asia and at Serpentine's Dhamma hall shine: centuries of people fidgeting on the floor — every fat bottom is a polish pad.
- First five-minute meditation, 1969Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In 1969 — about fifty-five years before this talk — Ajahn Brahm sits for his first meditation, only five minutes. Even that tiny taste of peace and relaxation catches him; he…
- Garfield appeared in the nimittaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In deep cave meditation a pure yellow nimitta arises — then he notices its form is Garfield the cat from a comic he had seen earlier. He bursts out laughing and the sit ends. He…
- George's lungs clearedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A heavy smoker, George, is shown X-rays with cancer throughout both lungs; his Armadale doctor offers treatment that might add a couple of months. After talking with his wife he…
- 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.
- Half an hour in a locked fire exitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Arriving in Singapore after an overnight flight and straight into teaching, then playing himself in a Buddhist play's matinee, Ajahn Brahm is exhausted with another performance…
- Hay Street Mall — two hours outside Time ZoneStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago Ajahn Brahm sat two hours on the cold pavement of Hay Street Mall right in front of a noisy Time Zone arcade, no cushion, testing whether he could do what he taught:…
- He forgot to pre-program coming outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Eastern-states monk leads a 9-day retreat; after first sit he never opens his eyes — yogis go to bed, chant, eat around him. He sits eight days without toilet/food/drink; emerges…
- Her chronic arthritis was goneStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman overseas emailed that she had been on strong painkillers for chronic arthritis; after his talks and meditation technique the arthritis was totally gone and she was off…
- Her mother stopped shoutingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A young woman in Bangkok whose whole family came to his talks never did herself — until she noticed her mother had stopped shouting at her so much. She came to the Phuket retreat…
- Hi Brahm — I still meditate every dayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ex-prisoner Nick (former drug dealer) finds Brahm in an airport, puts a hand on his shoulder, grins: still meditates every day.
- 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…
- How to hold a glass of water stillAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Demonstration simile: however hard you try to hold a glass of water still, it trembles, and more willpower makes it shake more. The easy way is to put it down. At first the water…
- 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 don't think I deserve so much happiness”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Australian nun ordained in the UK visits Perth and comes right to the edge of the jhānas — immense bliss and power. Ajahn Brahm keeps teaching and encouraging her, at his…
- I noted jewelry going out, going out, going outJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Joke about a meditator whose house is burgled: he was very mindful — noted burglar going in, jewelry going out, safe going out — but never responded. Mindfulness needs a response…
- “I wish I could do that”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm hates braving the noisy shopping centre to buy flight tickets. Once the monk accompanying him simply sits down, closes his eyes and meditates — and the travel agent…
- Joke: four monks with a vow of silenceJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Four monks take a vow of silence. One sneezes. The first says, 'Bless you.' The second says, 'You've just broken your vow of silence.' The third says, 'Ha ha, so have you.' The…
- Joke: round the meditation menuJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A beginner on retreat can't do breath meditation, so he teaches them anapanasati; that's too hard, so metta; then loving kindness; then insight; then vipassana; then letting go;…
- Joke: the tortoises escapedJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After one of his retreats, a student goes back to his job at Perth Zoo so peaceful he can barely walk or talk. The head keeper puts him in charge of the tortoise enclosure. At…
- Judy and Richard Gere in DharamsalaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Judy, a BSWA member, goes to Dharamsala hoping to interview the Dalai Lama. Meditating one morning she glances at who sat next to her: Richard Gere. Single, she cannot stop…
- Looking for matches by candlelightAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: a man has rice, water and wood but hunts for matches — by the light of a candle already burning in his hand. If he knew what fire was, dinner would be ready.
- Maha Bua sat in the cool centre of the feverStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting Ajahn Maha Bua (late king's teacher), Brahm hears his talk about malaria under Ajahn Man: instead of fleeing the fever he went into it in meditation until he found a…
- Meditate in the restroomAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the US toilets are called restrooms. When tired or stressed, find an empty cubicle and meditate. If the boss asks why you were twenty minutes, say you were constipated —…
- Meditating mum — knife and gas threatsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Armadale Tuesday-night mum of a four- and six-year-old sits anyway. Kids climb, demand water, pull hair; then escalate: Johnny has a kitchen knife, Julianne turned on the gas.…
- Meditating through Cambridge finalsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During six days of Natural Sciences finals in 1972 — three hours each morning and afternoon — Ajahn Brahm skips lunch to meditate in his room. He lets go of the morning paper and…
- Meditating through the feverStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Three or four weeks into an undiagnosed fever (later found to be scrub typhus) in a basic Ubon hospital ward, with no energy and nothing working, the young monk feels low and…
- Meditating through the floodStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Indonesian monk Ajahn Brahm knew and questioned tells him that as a layman wanting to be a rishi he went deep into the Javanese jungle to meditate. A star came into his mind…
- Meeting the monk who could read mindsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a very young monk Ajahn Brahm is afraid to meet a reputed mind-reader in case his thoughts are exposed. When he finally goes, he feels so completely accepted and loved —…
- Men don't cry in AustraliaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Aussie retreatant cries in meditation; last cry was at 11–12 when his father said men don't cry in Australia.
- 'Miss, can we have quiet time now?'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A deputy principal who learned meditation with Ajahn Brahm teaches her Year 6 class 'quiet time' every morning, from five minutes at the start of the year to fifteen or twenty by…
- Mrs. Calm and Mr. Insight climb the hillStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mrs. Samatha (calm) climbs a hill for its peace; her husband Mr. Vipassana (insight) climbs it for the view. At the top she finds the view too, and he finds the peace — on the…
- 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…
- Old monks don't lieStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A wandering old monk spends the rains retreat in a hut a poor farmer builds for him. Leaving, he says a great treasure lies close by: at sunrise stand at your threshold facing…
- Old treasurer — migraine into the dark roomStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An old BSWA treasurer, not yet Buddhist, learned in the army to beat migraine attacks by sitting 15 minutes in a quiet dark place and going so deep he could not feel his body —…
- On top of the pyramid at TikalAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 18, in 1969, before university, Ajahn Brahm got bored of the USA and travelled into the jungles of Central America — buses, fishing boats, a river between British Honduras and…
- Parachute the monks into SyriaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone told Ajahn Brahm about an episode of the ABC's Q&A on violence in the Middle East. Asked for a solution, a panellist — the editor of The Spectator — cited a study (at…
- Penang lady scared by her first jhānaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Penang lady (not even a Buddhist) falls into deep jhāna without knowing what it is and is so scared/obsessed she tours psychologists and psychiatrists who have no clue.…
- Porky the Pig in the pramStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After deep meditation he asks for his earliest memory and gets the smell of his baby pram at about three or four weeks old, then re-experiences the pram, black-and-white view,…
- Psychic battle with Hindu saintsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In early meditation Ajahn Brahm's mind put on a movie: a psychic battle with Hindu saints flying and levitating and zapping each other. He enjoyed it — and of course, because it…
- Ray-Bans on the meditation demonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Early in his practice a blood-dripping, skull-necklaced demon appears in Ajahn Brahm's deep meditation; knowing the mind creates it, he gives it sunglasses, blacked-out fangs, a…
- 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…
- Safety Bay — combining metta with the breathStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Catholic nuns' retreat centre in Safety Bay, senior monks say you can't combine techniques — so rebellious Brahm combines loving-kindness with breath meditation and finds it…
- She called the police on the Zen stickStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Hong Kong / mainland China Zen retreat: the master hits a sleepy middle-aged woman with the waking stick; she pulls out a phone, calls the police — hitting people is an offence…
- '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 never went to lectures and scored near-perfectStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Sri Lankan woman in Melbourne did a medical degree without tutorials or lectures — reading with a quiet meditative mind she remembered perfectly and scored near-perfect exams.…
- She sat all night in the stupaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a Hong Kong and Indonesian retreat, a woman begins sitting on the stupa floor in the evening and is still there in the morning. Others put a blanket around her; she does not…
- She thought she'd had a stroke — it was dehydrationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A member of the three-month rains retreat in Joondalup grows very sick and is taken to hospital thinking she has had a stroke. The cause is dehydration: she had been cutting back…
- She waved the gold medal at the monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Sydney 2000 a Thai monk in the Olympic village taught meditation to an Eastern European finalist who could not sleep from stress. Later mother, father and daughter walked…
- Sit and meditate — or get outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An ex-monk supporting the BSWA, meditating at a Thai cremation-ground monastery, feels a tug on his outstretched leg and then a foul-smelling presence entering his hut. He puts…
- Sit still under the mango treeAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah's simile, taught in a monastery that was a mango orchard: the only way to get the mangoes is to sit perfectly still under the tree and hold out your hand, and a mango…
- Sixty mosquitoes on one armStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Evening group sittings in the Thai jungle start at 6 p.m., exactly when mosquitoes come for dinner — and bald, bare-shouldered Western monks are a new cuisine, protected because…
- Sudhamma's flood jhāna and the laser eyesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Thai princess friend (married to a man from Brahm's school) told him about Indonesian monk Sudhamma at Wat Pho: after 7–8 days in deep jhāna in the Javan jungle a flood…
- Tarantula tickly feet — spider monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Forest hut: looks forward to tarantulas falling on him; tickly feet running over him for a month with no TV. Kids say a bite would make him spider-monk, not Spiderman.
- Tea-plantation monastery — 3 to 4 pm sexy timeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After five years, young Brahm finds an abandoned mountain monastery in a tea plantation — ideal utopia; meditation gets worse; 'unmonkish' thoughts flood. He schedules 3–4 pm for…
- Teaching 650 schoolchildren to meditateStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young maths teacher, Ajahn Brahm uses a week of school assemblies to teach 650 high-school children to watch the breath; they all do it and spontaneously applaud after five…
- “That monk, he's on the gear”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Buddha-statue installation in an English open prison, Ajahn Brahm is beaming as he circles the statue; one watching prisoner tells another that the monk must be on drugs.
- 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…
- The bat-cave papayaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk Ajahn Brahm spent about six months meditating in a cave full of bats; to this day he loves the smell of bat droppings because it reminds him of those wonderful…
- The best boarding-house cook in EnglandStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 19, dreading the 'stodge, stodge and stodge' of a Cambridge boarding house, Ajahn Brahm goes on his first nine-day retreat — and every evening the food is delicious. He…
- 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…
- The boy who stretched his seedlingsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Brahm's first meditation teachers recalls planting seeds with his father at five or six. After three days with nothing showing he complains; his father explains the…
- The cold stone benchAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A simile he made up: on life's journey you come to a rough, cold, lumpy stone bench, the only place to stop. It's uncomfortable at first, but the longer you sit the warmer it…
- The cold that vanished mid-talkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first visit to Canberra, his hosts take Ajahn Brahm everywhere all day in the cold, getting lost, with no rest. By evening he has a terrible cold, and at a big public talk…
- The Colombia coach brought her World Cup teamStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The head coach of Colombia's women's soccer team, in Perth for the Women's World Cup, came to a Friday talk after listening on YouTube and brought her team for a boost; the next…
- The comfortable prisonAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: someone born in a modern prison does well at prison school, works hard, gets a bigger cell with nice things and holidays in other wings, marries another prisoner and has…
- The emperor in five garmentsAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile he says he usually keeps for retreats: a powerful emperor is completely covered by boots, trousers, a jacket, gloves and a helmet, so you can't tell whether it is male or…
- The executive who slept for three daysStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a retreat in Sydney many years ago, an executive arrived at 11:30 at night after tying up loose ends at work. Told in her first interview that most people are tired and that…
- The fall from the ladderStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building the ablution block at Serpentine, he falls a long way when a fully extended ladder loses its footing and he gets caught in it. No bones broken, but his hands are too…
- The ladder taken awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Pre-Vietnam-War Laos monastery: abbot marches exhausted monks all day to huge old trees with cushion-sized platforms and no railings; they climb the bamboo ladder; he takes the…
- The leaf moves only because of the windAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile (from Ajahn Chah, as he tells it): Ajahn Chah would hold up his hand and wave it — not at flies — saying this is a leaf on a tree. It moves only because of the wind; when…
- The letter that wouldn't comeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Tired one morning, Ajahn Brahm struggles at the computer over a very difficult letter about a published book — every draft seems wrong. So he stops, goes to meditate, takes a…
- The man in the latex mask whose psoriasis clearedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a North Perth / Redemptorist retreat centre near Northbridge a man arrived in a latex face mask — severe whole-body psoriasis; the mask stopped him scratching his face.…
- The matchbox on the headStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A malnourished young monk in steamy north-east Thailand — sticky rice with a boiled frog, under four and a half hours' sleep, up at 3 a.m. — is always sleepy in meditation.…
- The meditator taken to hospital as deadStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A member of the Perth community meditates so deeply at home that his wife finds no signs of life; paramedics and hospital doctors find a flat ECG and EEG and shocks do nothing —…
- The meditator twisted into a knotStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a retreat someone interrupts his meditation: a woman is twisted into an extreme, contorted posture. Afterwards he asks if she's all right; she had no idea and felt great. Then…
- The monk they crematedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From the suttas: villagers find a monk meditating in the forest so still he doesn't seem to breathe. Thinking him dead, and not wanting animals to eat him, they build a funeral…
- The moon in a still lakeAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile (on a full-moon retreat night): if there are waves or ripples on a lake you can't see a perfect image of the moon and stars; when not one ripple crosses it, you get a…
- The most beautiful bamboo looked sick after the rideStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a UK meditation retreat he bikes through stressful traffic to revisit his favourite bamboo clump — days earlier the most beautiful in the world; now dry, desiccated, out of…
- The most beautiful thing in the toilet bowlStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On one retreat Ajahn Brahm's mind is so still and full of energy that everything looks beautiful. After going to the toilet he glances into the bowl and is overwhelmed: not one…
- The mother who never drops her babyAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds with a trolley in the other hand and never drop them, and the baby sleeps in total…
- The mushy peas that explodedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Every year Ajahn Brahm spends 15 days alone in his cave, not talking, just meditating. On the first day out, the first spoonful of food at lunch — ordinary mushy peas — explodes…
- The naughty hour from three to fourStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk in a silent forest paradise (one car a week) he fights thoughts — including old girlfriends — until exhausted. At the Buddha shrine he makes a deal: 3–4pm is…
- 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…
- The novice who stoppedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A novice of 12 or 13 at Ajahn Chah's monastery, tired during a very long sermon, kept thinking: 'When is Ajahn Chah going to stop?' Then he turned it around: 'When am I going to…
- The preceptor's snake in the lapStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm's preceptor, later acting Sangharaja of Thailand, came out of deep meditation in a Koh Samui coconut grove to find a snake coiled in his lap. He felt no fear, watched…
- The professor's overflowing cupStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Japan's greatest philosopher, whom no one will debate, decides to debate the most famous meditation monk. Serving tea, the monk keeps pouring past the full cup, into the saucer,…
- The Red Cross nurse knew meditation lowers blood pressureStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago he takes a young monk to donate blood on Wellington Street; the nurse already knows meditation lowers blood pressure — inspiring when meditation was little known.
- The retreat that ended a romanceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a Cambridge student with a lovely girlfriend (not a Buddhist), Ajahn Brahm asks her permission to go on a meditation retreat; she says go. On one meditation it goes so deep it…
- 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 slingshot and the gongStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sitting with Ajahn Chah, with no clock and his legs aching after what must have been over an hour, the young Ajahn Brahm fantasises about practising with a slingshot in the…
- The smell of his baby pramStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Asking in deep meditation 'what's my earliest memory?', Ajahn Brahm (soon after leaving Thailand for Perth, he thinks) suddenly smells — really smells — his baby pram. He is back…
- The social worker's solutions that popped upStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office with big unsolved problems. She has…
- The Spitfire engine in the old bombStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk's mate in England fits a Spitfire aircraft engine into an old car. On the motorway he overtakes sports cars and even police; when they try to pull him over he puts his…
- The tangled brain cleared before the second operationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Malaysian man in Penang had a rare disease he described as things in the brain physically tangled; after one painful operation it seemed cured, then recurred on CT. Terrified…
- The tiger that was a mouseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Meditating alone at night deep in the Thai jungle, Ajahn Brahm hears rustling. As a Cambridge-trained scientist he assesses it: a small animal. As it comes closer: a medium-sized…
- The wall that disappearedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young theoretical physicist, Ajahn Brahm sits at a Zen monastery in the north of England, in a converted cowshed, told to meditate with eyes open. Calm and without inner…
- The whitewashed wall that vanishedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Young seeker ~21–22 at a north-England Zen monastery: sit in a line, open eyes on a whitewashed wall, Zen stick for sleepers. Watching without change, the wall vanishes from…
- The woman who wasn't her motherStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After deep meditation on retreat, a woman tries recalling her earliest memory and sees herself being breastfed — by someone who isn't her mother. Alarmed, she asks Ajahn Brahm…
- There are zombies in your retreat centreStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Jhana Grove a visiting child tells him there are zombies — retreatants doing very slow walking meditation.
- Three thousand Singapore executives heard the gapsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Singapore hall of about 3,000 busy executives who said they could not meditate, he asked them to notice the gaps between his words — and in those spaces nothing was…
- Too comfortable to waste on sleepStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Once Ajahn Brahm lay in bed unable to sleep — probably too much tea — worrying he wouldn't get to sleep in time. Then he thought: I spend so much time cross-legged talking to…
- Toothache in the nightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his first year at a Thai monastery, with an empty medicine cabinet and no telephone, Ajahn Brahm has a terrible toothache. He can't watch his breath; walking meditation turns…
- Top of medicine by being silentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman tells Ajahn Brahm she came top every year in medicine at Melbourne University with first-class honours because she knew how to meditate: she kept her mind silent in…
- 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…
- 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…
- What drug is he giving you?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A high-flying Sydney executive has to beg and grovel to her boss for time off for a nine-day retreat at Jhana Grove. Afterwards she emails Ajahn Brahm: as soon as she got back,…
- “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…
- “When did you have your accident?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A retreatant reports that as she grew still her back became very hot, not painfully. Ajahn Brahm asks when she had her accident; astonished, she confirms a car accident injuring…
- “Why?” — Ajahn Chah's answer: nothingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After an inspiring talk by Ajahn Chah, the young monk skips attending him at the sauna and sits two blissful hours in meditation behind the hall. Coming out, he walks to serve…
- “You're a much better mum when you come home”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A tired mother tells her children she will skip the meditation group; her daughter insists she go, because she is a much better mum afterwards.
- You've demoted meJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A sweet village woman finishes a Colombo meditation course and is certified a stream-winner (sotāpanna). She is furious — last year they said she was a non-returner. Course…
- 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…
- “Your meditation can't be that good”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the Serpentine doctor's surgery a monk sees an advert for another meditation group and suggests the doctor's people come to theirs instead. The reply: your meditation group…