Stories about memory
9 Buddhist wisdom stories about memory from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 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,…
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Cambridge Botanical Gardens. It was only about 5 minutes walk from where we had our retreat center. And do you know, I don't remember my girlfriend's name. I remember the place where we had our retreat in Baitman Street in Cambridge. My memory of those times was so powerful. Still is. If you really enjoy something, it becomes easy to remember. So just down the road from Baitman Street in Cambridge, we had the botanical gardens and I went in there the first day and just when you went through the entrance [snorts] on the right hand side there was this clump of bamboo and I couldn't believe it. That was the most beautiful clump of bamboo that I've ever seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating. And I kind of thought that isn't that what happens? Bamboo is such a beautiful plant. It's in most of the Chinese water colors you see in museums throughout the world. They always have a clump of bamboo there. If you look at the bamboo stems, they're slender and they have the little joints, the color changes and then the next stem and it gets thinner and thinner and as it does, it bends under its own weight as it curves through space and then you have its branches and leaves which are also very slender. And I'd always say from that time, please excuse me, I'm a monk. Sensuous, soft and slender, coming to a point. And I looked at that first clump of bamboo and it was incredibly beautiful. That I remember very easily. So much so that I just stared at it for about 10 or 15 minutes. When you see something which shocks you, which is really beautiful, you do end up just staring. But I had enough introspection to realize in those days, I think it was 1970, many students took drugs. I never did, but I thought if somebody sees me, [snorts] they call the police, have me arrested or tested or something and disturb my solitude. In those days I had hair and I tell people the hairstyle which I had was such a big curly hair on the outside. Very different than what I've got now. And that went all around the top of my head and where it finished that's where the beard started. Very thick beard. It was very useful to endure the cold. And when people asked what was it, it was like the donut look. You could see my face in the middle and around the outside was all hair. That kind of describes it. And so if someone had seen me and semi staring, you know, entranced by a clump of bamboo, they would have thought the wrong things. So what I did, I just there was a bench close by and just sat on that bench and stared at the clump of bamboo for as long as I could
- 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,…
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i've told this before i don't mind saying this it's not quite psychic powers but it's pushing the envelope a little bit i'm not allowed to say about my experiences my own previous lives but what i do do to give you the the idea i was doing this once years ago and what came into my my consciousness was a smell and you know i asked what's my earliest memory and i got this smell in my nose it wasn't in the hall where i was sitting and i recognized it immediately it was the smell of my baby's pram when i was maybe three or four weeks old and with that smell just came all the memory you could actually eyes were closed i was back in my baby's plan with all my little toys and the one i liked the best was porky the pig that's what my mother used to call it you know even though i'm not supposed to have a brain to remember that i remember that and it was a little pig it had some like beans inside plastic and she used to walk it you know and make it rattle and i love that little pig porky the pig my favorite toy is a little and he could you can actually look around you know feel just the um uh the blankets or the sheets and the black and whites of the the pram you could see everything and you could actually like you can move just no will what's over there what's over here and this is all just in a re-imagination not really re-experiencing of an old memory you're back in your when you're three or four weeks old i know exactly how long but maybe around that time and that was how it works and no doubt at all that that's you very clear being able to move around if you want to ask a question know what was my name who was that you can get the answer straight away just think and the answer comes and that's what it's like re-experiencing and of course you know i told that story to a few people just to check it out and one interesting thing which i got from that because i was never you know did any medicine i was physics and maths and i was told afterwards that in the first weeks of life the dominant sense in a baby is smell now their hearing is not developed even side is not developed at all and you recognize your surroundings and you recognize your mother in particular by her smell not by her sight so just because i'm a cheeky monk i tell young mothers when you've got a young kid please do not change your perfume you'll confuse the hell out of your kid
- Roy Hudd remembered Dan Leno's houseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: English comedian Roy Hudd, lost in a new one-way system after a London show, turns down a street he has never seen in this life and recalls living there before — as music-hall…
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this fellow called Roy Hudd You can get him on the internet R o y second name H U D D He was a TV personality when I was growing up in the U.K. He was always on the TV, comedian a very funny guy but his story was that he has been doing that show in London somewhere at a time when the local government installed a new one way system to try and get the traffic to move a bit more clearly or smoothly and because some usual roots were blocked he got lost he was driving around, he got lost he didn't know the way to get home getting more and more lost, he turned a corner and that's when it happened The hairs on the back of his head stood up now that never happens to a monk because we don't have hairs But anyway, he still felt this is weird, this is strange and it was just so weird, so strange he had never been down this street before in this life! But he remembered it from his previous life And it all flooded back to him And he went to the house where he lived for many many years before now in those houses and those places in London they have the little blue circular disks which shows who lived there before and very interestingly, the last time I was in London close to Russels Square there is a big disk in there In this house lived the mistress of Charles II the mistress, that wasn't very nice but she was famous enough they put it on there So be very careful what you do because sometimes you know if you are... Anyway back to this there was a big blue sign outside the house because in his past life, he was also a celebrity and his past life was as; probably the most famous music hall entertainer of his generation in the times when people would go not to pubs or clubs it was like the music hall where lots of bear, entertainers his name was Dan Leno L E N O and that was a plaque which he said he recognized that was his house before and he knocked on the door and his people opened the door "you are Roy Hudd, we know you we see you on the Telly What are you doing here?" At which he told them He lived here before You haven't lived here before we have been living in this house for 30, 40 years But I was here before you! And because he was well known, recognized they let him into the house he took them all around the house showing what it was like before He remembered, very clear memory even where he did his rehearsing in one of those rooms in front of the mirror So that was a memory from a very well-known personality And now he has written books about Dan Leno supposed to be historical books where he has information which you cannot get from any other source except if you have been there before
- 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.…
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she went to university to do a medical degree and she never went to any tutorials. She never went to any lectures. She read the books and she could read them so so well that she had so much free time. She never went to university lectures or tutorials supervisions and she always got like almost perfect scores in every exam. She had the great ability to be able to read something and remember it perfectly. All of you kids who have to go to school and you have to have all this homework, you have to read this and read that and remember so much. Isn't that a bit of a pain? Do you enjoy doing that studying and homework? How many kids here enjoy doing homework? There's a few kids here. But this lady, she would just read with a quiet mind. She was a great meditator because she read with a quiet great mindfulness, great peace. Whatever she read, it went straight in. She didn't try to remember it. It was recorded. It's just like people who have memories of traumas in life. When you remember the things which you can't forget, why is it that they are almost indelibly ingrained into your mind? The reason is because at that time often it's because of danger or fear but other times it's other things which are happening. You're perfectly still. There's no static coming in. There's no noise and you can remember so easily. And there's a few times in my life you can remember so easily what was said, when it was said, how it was said. And I remember just how you could use uh experiences like that to do well at school without any effort. You didn't have to try to remember things. You just sat and read. You can remember the whole lot easily
- 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…
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the only thing one which I can tell you because I'm not allowed to S say too much about psychic powers and stuff the only ones which I can tell you is when I first did this and got the smell in my nose and this is not imagination anymore you're smelling it as if it's right here in front of you it's a real real smell my eyes closed and I recognized it straight away it was the smell of my baby's PR and immediately I was back in my pram a re experience even though I was sitting meditation I think this first happened over in when I left highand coming to Perth you're back in your baby's pram and with that experience you could no your eyes were closed you could see everything clearly as if you were had your eyes open and there I could see my baby's PR and all the old toys which I used to have in it and I could play around in there was a vision from the past as I say in the book when you have this experiences one of their Hallmarks is this absolute certainty that was you in the same way this absolute certainty it's you right here looking at me or hearing this talk the same degree of certainty weird but true
- The two chicken farmers: eggs or dung?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One chicken farmer fills his basket with chicken dung, leaves the eggs to rot and stinks out his house; the other brings home the eggs for an omelette and the market and leaves…
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The two chicken farmers story. My famous, favourite story and the reason why I keep repeating this is because people need to know this, so they don't suffer so much. Two chickens farmers, the first chicken farmer went into the shed early in the morning to collect the produce from the night before. Took in the basket and filled the basket full of chicken shit and he left the eggs in the shed to rot and he brought the shit back into the house, stunk the whole house out, he was a very dumb chicken farmer. There's a meaning to this story so stay with me. Second chicken farmer went into the shed with a basket and he put eggs in the basket and he left shit in the shed because it would become valuable fertilizer later on. But you don't bring it into the house with you, you bring the eggs back into the house so he could make an omelette for his family and sell the rest of the eggs in the market for cash. That's a smart chicken farmer, that's what you're supposed to do. And the moral of that story, and this was told by Ajahn Chah, he said when you collect the produce of your past and bring it into your present, what do you bring with you? When you collect what's done today or this week, what do you bring home with you? Are you shit collectors or egg collectors
- 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…
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that i was on some of these retreats some of the meditation they do is really deep so she had some deep meditation so i asked her afterwards why didn't you try and find out your earliest memory and she came to me afterwards and said yeah it worked she had a very deep meditation as she was coming out what's my earliest memory and she saw herself being suckled breastfed you know by her mum but then she looked up at her mum and it wasn't her mother it was somebody else she could recognize that even though it was many years afterwards i remember her coming up to me in the retreat really concerned is there something my mother hasn't told me was i adopted what's going on because i'm certain that person i saw is not my mother and so i said well it's a couple of days left of the retreat just calm down and when the retreat's over go and see your mum and just have like nice calm conversation and then ask her are you really my mum was i adopted and that's what she did she asked the mother was i adopted what are you talking about i'm your mother why are you asking that and so she told her mother what had happened her mother said can you describe that lady to me he was breastfeeding you and of course in meditation i have a very clear memory of what happened and she gave the description of that person who was breastfeeding her when she was a little baby and the mother was quite stunned that was your wetness you came from expensive family and not expensive a very rich family so we decided to get you in a wet nurse to feed you rather than me and you described her perfectly
- There are a thousand Ajahn ChahsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Ajahn Chah's funeral the Western monks argued about what he had really taught — pure mind or nothingness. Ajahn Jagaro settled it: there are a thousand Ajahn Chahs, because…
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anecdotal and this is praising my predecessor Ajahn Jagaro At Ajahn Chah's funeral service You know they hang out for a couple of days That's a very nice anecdote because as you would expect.. I was with Ajahn Chah for about 8, 9 years And we were all having a discussion what did Ajahn Chah teach Did he teach pure mind or did he teach nothingness What did he teach? And there was a big argument between all the monks What did Ajahn Chah actually teach Then Ajahn Jagaro really wisely he said there are thousand Ajahn Chahs because every disciple remembered something from Ajahn Chah which he thought was important and interesting and other stuff we just didn't even get to our perception So he said there are as many disciples of Ajahn Chah that's how many different teachings there are which is so wise So what did Ajahn Chah say? I got Ajahn Brahm's version of Ajahn Chah and hundreds of other versions of Ajahn Chah of what he said Because we all know what we could understand or what we could see, and that's what we remembered things which were beyond us we just didn't even remember That's why when you quote other people it is great with the Buddha because at least we got it in black and white
- You're the girl whose name I keep forgettingJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When strangers ask 'Do you remember me?' after talks to hundreds or thousands, a joke-book escape: 'Oh yes — you're the girl whose name I keep forgetting.'
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somebody comes up, do you remember me? And I say, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're the the girl whose name I keep forgetting." That gets you out of a bind anyway. You're the person whose name I keep forgetting. Who are you? Keep forgetting your name