Stories about mindfulness
27 Buddhist wisdom stories about mindfulness from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- First walk up Kingsbury DriveStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Bodhinyana, Brahm sends the car ahead and walks Kingsbury Drive alone for the first time after years living at the top — so slowly, turning to valley and hillside, that…
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I'm going to walk up the hill today alone." So, I send the car with a driver up ahead. I'm going to walk. And that kind of really shocked me. What I didn't get much exercise, I must admit, because I did walk so slowly. And every now and again, I turn to the left to see the valley, turn to the right and see the hillside. And my goodness, often I had to ask myself, "Where am I?" I could not recognize my location. And I've been living up that uh the top of that hill for about 5 or 6 years by that time. The first time I actually walked up that hill. It looked totally different
- He trained the muscles beside his spineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Bodhinyana monk with degenerative spine pain was told not to sit cross-legged. Using mindfulness he learned to feel, stretch and strengthen the muscles either side of the spine…
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his spine was degenerated and was very weak. So what he did was, to compensate the weakness in his spine by learning how to develop the muscles either side of his spine. Starting off just by touching his back, with his fingers, the muscles on either side of the spine to become aware of them There is so much of our body we are not aware of at all. Because we don't need to be. And by keeping on stroking those muscles either side of the spine soon he became aware of the very existence of those muscles. In neurology you are making those connections in the brain. So you can feel those muscles. And then next thing with a bit of trial and error once he was aware of those muscles even without touching them he could learn how to stretch them trial and error the awareness could see how they stretch and how they contract. Once he could do that, next stage he could exercise those muscles just like you exercise your arms or exercise your legs through running. By working those muscles he exercised them and of course every time they exercise they got stronger and stronger and stronger until they became so strong much stronger than my equivalent muscles because I don't need them I've got a good back His muscles became so strong they compensated for the weakness in his spine and now he can meditate without any problem
- I know you, MāraAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Buddhist scriptures: Māra the mischief-maker is overcome not by fighting but by recognition — 'I know you, Māra' — whereupon he droops his shoulders, lowers his head and leaves.…
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I know you Mara that's all just understanding and as soon as the monk the N the lay person or in this case the Buddha said that I know you Mara this guy marao he knows me and would droop his shoulders lower his head
- 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…
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i saw the burglars going in and i noted burglar going in berkeley going in burglar going in i saw jewelry going out and i noted jewelry going out jewelry going out jewelry going out i saw them backing a van into your house and i saw safe going out safe going out i was very mindful i was noting all the time madam it's not just about noting sometimes there's a response necessary so i'm restrained to make the mind really peaceful to safeguard your belongings and what do you really owe peace stillness joy don't let anybody burgle that
- “If you're going to sweep, give it everything you've got”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A busy Sydney man flies to remote north-east Thailand just to ask Ajahn Chah his life questions, but after hours waiting among 200 people he gives up. With an hour to kill, he…
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He lived in Sydney. He came to see me in Perth and no one else knows his story except him because it's a personal story which changed his life. He told it to me, I share with other people. When the great Ajanchar in Thailand started to become famous, this guy in Sydney heard this and he wanted to ask a real wise person these important questions he had in life. And so he traveled all the way from Sydney to Thailand not to go to any hotel or resort just to see Ajancha, ask the questions and come back home again. A very busy man, big family. So he finally found the way to the northeast of Thailand, which is quite remote, and find where this monk lived, find in the monastery where his hut was. And he succeeded. He saw this great monk surrounded by about 200 people, all wanting to ask their questions. And he waited and waited and waited and he wasn't getting anywhere closer. If ever that happens to me, please Buddhist society, buy a machine, take your number. And so I say, calling number 64, please come up to ask your question. Have you been to those places where they give you numbers and they have to wait until your number comes up? I did that about two months ago. I went to get my visa to go to Indonesia and I was waiting. I got a ticket and I was waiting there for 1 hour and then I had to go for lunch. So never got my ticket. uh answered. Anyway, I actually gave it to somebody else cuz I was ahead of them. I have my ticket. That's very nice. If you have these tickets, don't screw up. Give them to somebody else. It was really nice. Anyway, what was I going on about asking questions? Yeah, he was surrounded by all these people. So, this guy's waiting a couple of hours, two and a half hours, getting no closer. So, he he gave up, came all that way just for seeing the monk, and he realized there's no way he could see him. And so he was walking to his uh taxi to take him back to the airport to go back to Bangkok to fly back to Sydney and he realized he had another hour to kill and he saw the other monks were sweeping doing some cleaning in the temple. Now remember, if you volunteer to do some cleaning in any temple, even this one, it's amazing the karmic, the good karma you get, just washing up the dishes on a Friday evening, sweeping, tidying up the chairs. You wouldn't believe the amazing good karma you get by helping out the temple. So what he did, he saw them sweeping. He picked up a boom. He started sweeping too. He was sweeping, sweeping only for five or 10 minutes and he said he felt a hand on his shoulder. And when you feel know someone behind you putting the hand on your shoulder, you turn around abruptly and that hand was connected to an arm and that arm was connected to Ajancha. Wow. Now, those of you who have lived with these monks, you know that they do have powers. They know what's going on. He realized this guy had come a long way and had to go home soon. So, he was actually got up from his seat. Even though the other people waiting to talk to him, went up and wanted to give this guy a teaching and the teaching was this a oneliner which changed this guy's whole life. He said after this oneliner he went back his business really flourished his family life was great his meditation really soared everything in life just got so much better from this one line teaching said if you're going to sweep give it everything you've got that's all and then he went away
- One Heinz baked bean after the retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a long retreat, breakfast is baked beans from a tin. Ajahn Brahm puts a single bean on the spoon — taste sensation so amazing he asks who the celebrity chef was. Cooks:…
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after the retreat was finished I had my breakfast the first breakfast and during that breakfast I just was a baked bean baked beans were given for breakfast they had baked beans this morning and when I bought I just put one baked bead just one a single one on a spoon and put it in my mouth I'm not exaggerating that was amazing it was a taste sensation I didn't know who would cook that baked bean was it one of these celebrity chefs who just made it just the most delicious single baked bean I've ever eaten in my life and I asked the cooks in my Monastery hook up there oh just out of the tin a tin of baked beans Mr Heinz or something but because my mindfulness had increased enormously that bait being tested so amazing
- One leaf on a swept pathAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah's image: when you've swept a path and one leaf falls on it, it stands out, because it isn't tangled up with all the other leaves — you can really see it, get to know…
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Ajanch used to tell that story. I remember he said if you swept the path and a leaf falls on it why does it stand out? It's because it's not entangled. it's not sort of um confused with all the other leaves which have fallen down there. But if one leaf falls on there, you can really see it and get to know it and understand it.
- 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…
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with that physical pain of the food poisoning I just gave that food poisoning kindness; "Thank you for coming to visit me" even though I was in agony with cramps in my cave down at Serpentine. And it took only 20 minutes for that food poisoning to disappear
- 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
- Stop the train as it leaves the stationAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: a train going 110 km/h with all its weight can't stop for an obstruction — it takes half a kilometre, which is why there are crashes at level crossings. Catching lust or…
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What mindfulness does is like trying to stop a train. When a train has left the station, it's going 110 kilometers an hour down the track with so much weight behind it. If the train driver tries to stops and put on the breaks because there's an obstruction on the road or on the rails in front of it, sometimes you just can't do that. It's going too fast and the momentum is too strong. A train going that fast takes maybe half a kilometer to come to a halt which is why that sometimes there are these terrible crashes when a car crosses the railway line. The driver sees it but it's going too fast to stop. This is what happens when we try to catch our lust or whatever, our anger, when it's a bit too late. It's gone too fast, the momentum is too strong, we can't stop it straight away. Many of you know that when you're in the power of lust, you can't stop just straightaway. You just can't say no I'm going to stop now. It's like a train just trying to pull on the breaks and stop immediately, it just cannot be done. But the best time to stop the train is when it's first moving out of the station. It's maybe going at one kilometer an hour and then you can put on the break, it's easy to stop it.
- Stupid feetStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Ajahn Chah's monastery the monks went barefoot through the jungle, and the Western monks were always stubbing toes and piercing their soles on roots, their feet covered in…
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as a monk with ajanta we didn't wear shoes or sandals a lot of the time and so walking through the jungles we were always stubbing our toes or piercing our souls of our feet with the the roots and other stuff in the forest we always had our our feet bandaged with so many Band-Aids saw this he said why on Earth are westerners always cutting themselves on the forest floor because they didn't wear any shoes and he said it's because you westerners have got stupid feet I never realized you could apply the word stupid to a foot but it was actually absolutely accurate always up in our head thinking about the meaning of life while we're training on thorns and stuff and and piercing our feet and making them bleed it was stupid feet
- The 17-year-old bricklayer who didn't look busyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building a Sydney mansion, the wealthy client wants the apprentice bricklayer removed — he doesn't look busy. The builder has him watch: the youth lays bricks faster, in perfect…
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he was building some big mansion in Sydney and you know it was a very good contract because the owner was some very wealthy person and said look I don't care what the price is I want the best plumbers the best electricians the best Carpenters the best Brick Layers I don't mind paying extra because this is my house my Mansion I want it to be absolutely top quality and then one day when the uh the client this wealthy man just came to check on his Mansion he noticed this maybe 70 or 18 year old kid doing the brick work and he went straight to the building and complained he said look I wanted cross people people know what they're doing not some Apprentice this young guy get him off my building and that's when in the build said come and have a look at this young guy and this young guy didn't look like he was doing much work but when you counted the bricks he was laying those bricks much faster than any of the Old Brick Layers he had his incredibly beautiful Rhythm one brick at a time and every brick was perfect it was just flowing effortlessly and when the owner saw that or the client saw said wonderful great I never realized that because he didn't look busy he thought he was being lazy but when it was effortless one bit at a time it flowed so wonderfully he was an excellent brickl even though he's only 17 or 18 years of AG AG it's just like when you are in the moment
- 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…
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One of the first times I realized this in my practice of meditation was the very first meditation retreat which I gave which I uh participated in. I was still a student only 19 years of age and a few of us hired a boarding house about two or three boarding houses in Cambridge. It's amazing when you've got good meditation. It was in Baitman Street in Cambridge. That's maybe 39 years ago. Haven't thought of that name for such a long time. It's amazing when you meditate your memory gets incredibly strong. You remember details a long time ago clearly in those boarding houses of Bman Street. We meditated for 9 days. But before I went on that boarding house retreat, I did it with some trepidation cuz I like my food. And I knew as a fact already the cooks in England were somewhere in the bottom of the league of European cuisine. Apparently cooking in UK has improved since those years. But the English were not known for their cooking. Now, at the bottom of the pile of cooks were those who worked in boarding houses for poor students who couldn't afford to complain. And I knew from experience that these cooks would usually every evening cook a three course meal. Stod, stodge, and stodge. Doesn't matter what vegetable it was, it was boiled so long it tasted the same. And if you know England in those years, you would know what I'm talking about. So I thought I'm going to have a terrible time in this retreat with food. It's just going to be really awful. But I was surprised during that period of retreat. Every evening the food was delicious. It was very tasty. At the time I thought I just must be lucky. My good karmas meant we've got the best boarding house cook in the whole of England. Now I know much better. The food was just ordinary food. But because I was practicing meditation, because I was becoming still, my mind was increasing in energy. So much so that the small amount of taste which was left in there, I could pick up. And now I know for a fact that whenever you go on a retreat, the food always tastes better than normal. Doesn't matter who the cook is, cuz it's not the food or the cook, it's your mind.
- The Buddhist fly went round three timesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Teaching on camera about leaving blowflies alone, one lands on his nose and circles the mouth three times — a circumambulation, like around a Bodhi tree or stupa (and once even…
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This fly landed on my nose. It didn't go up my nose. It went around. And I got the understanding that this part of your mouth on the the edges is much more sensitive than underneath or on top. So once it got past this part, I was okay. But then it got it started to approach the corner again. Oh my goodness, am I going to make this? And it went round. So I was very mindful of it cuz I couldn't ignore it. And then it went round again. I wonder what it was up to. Why does it want to go around twice? It's already experienced that, explored that. And then it went around a third time. And that's when I understood that was a Buddhist fly. It was in a Buddhist center. Of course, it was a Buddhist fly. And if ever you come to any of our ceremonies, we always do what we call a circumambulation. If you have a bodhi tree out there on ways we went around three times. You see that often a stuper a bodhi tree or anything you always walk around three times. Even once I remember when Ajancha was alive even I saw I think they must have got into trouble with this. One of the helicopters from the army base close by. They came over the temple. They went around once, round twice, around three times before flying off. That's how you pay respect and waste a lot of fuel. So, I'm glad the aircraft don't do that. I think that's why sometimes aircraft crash. Maybe they're doing circumambulations. I don't know. But I don't want to try it. I say that because I'm flying out tomorrow morning. Please. No. Singapore. No, no circumambulations as you fly over Thailand or whatever. Otherwise, I'm dead. But anyway, that's how the fly would circumambulate around my mouth
- The ex-Marine monk who caught his fits earlyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk friend, shot in the head as a US Marine in Vietnam, has epileptic fits from the brain injury. Over a couple of years of mindfulness he learns to sense the build-up earlier…
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one of my friends who was a monk many years ago. He was in the US Marines in the Vietnam War He had because he was shot in the back of the head And had some brain damage Otherwise is a wonderful monk very kind, but he had epileptic fits because of the injury being shortened though in a head how he dealt with his epileptics have hits similar way to overcome the panic attacks Because he was aware Mindful he could actually catch those fits Earlier and earlier and earlier he could see the signs. He could be aware to see how it works because The fits never just came out of the blue they had the introduction of the little bits getting more tense more tense he could actually feel it coming It took for a couple of years before he could catch it early enough He could take another path Relax used to go to his room darken the room just lay down and just relaxed as much as he could and then after a while no more epileptic fits
- The guard who fell asleepStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Teaching meditation in a high-security prison at Canning Vale, Ajahn Brahm must have a prison officer in the room. The officer closes his eyes to meditate too — and starts…
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the only time when it was really bad when somebody was snoring was when I was teaching meditation in uh in the prison once, in a high-security prison. And because it was a high-security It's the one one in Canning Vale, I think it's called Acacia now. Is it Acacia? Or whatever. Anyway, they keep on changing the names. But anyway, that when I was teaching in there, because it was high-security prison, you had to have a prison officer with you at all times. So, he had to come in my meditation group. So, as I was teaching meditation, even the prison officer, you know, he was just Well, he's hearing it, so he decided to close his eyes and start meditating as well. And of course, he was the one who started snoring. And it's a very good job I opened my eyes to check because as he was snoring, one of the prison officers, his hand was maybe about 1 in from the keys. [laughter] And I said, "Oh, well, let's look at the prisoner." And he did the Oh. [laughter] So, that's where I the prison officer up. So, there are times when you shouldn't snore.
- The jewelled goblet: his last drinkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At an Emmanuel College scholars' dinner in Cambridge, after much port and claret, the students must drain a jewel-encrusted silver heirloom goblet brim-full of claret and give a…
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on one occasion the scholars dinner having drunk so much alcohol already we had to do a toast with this goblet silver goblet encrusted with jewels a cottage heirloom that was Emmanuel College in Cambridge and we had to fill with claret if I can remember properly to the brim we had to drain it drink the whole lot and then say a toast in Latin this was supposed to be an intelligent university I decide this this didn't make any sense to me and the following morning I don't know how I got back to my room but I woke up in the morning with a part of vomit on my pillow right next to me I didn't realize that that could have killed me people choked on that and died and I felt terrible for the next 24 hours everyone was saying what wonderful evening that was that was the last time I took any alcohol in my life
- The monk who trained his back muscles with mindfulnessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk with a congenital spinal weakness and severe pain is told by doctors nothing can be done and he shouldn't meditate. Following a book, he rubs the unfelt muscles beside his…
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Just like, I won't say who this monk is. He had terrible pain in his spine and that was because he had some congenital deformation in his spine. Doctors at that time... He had a CT scan and said nothing you can do about it. But the doctor said I'd advise not meditating because that makes it worse. Well, I'm a monk! That's what I do! But fortunately he found this excellent book and of how... A long time ago, how to use some mindfulness to cure the problem. Because his spine was too weak and it was causing some problems. But, said this little book, there are muscles on either side of your spine which most people aren't aware of at all because you don't need to be. Much of your body you don't need to be aware of it, so you're not. So the book says start off, take your hand and rub those muscles on either side of the spine as an exercise every day for an hour or something every day. Because when you're actually touching them you can actually feel the sensation of your... And now my thumb touching one of those muscles and that creates a connection in your mind. A neuro connection. The more you do that the more you can be aware of those muscles, the more sensitive they become. Until you can actually feel those muscles without needing to touch them, just as I can feel my nose without needing to touch it. I can feel my hand without needing to touch it. It becomes sensitive. Then once you can actually be mindful of those muscles, trial and error, try and move them. After a while you'll learn how to move those muscles at will. Because now he was mindful of them you can do something with them. Now exercise them: stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them. So he did that and then after stretching relaxing them for a few months those muscles became so strong, much stronger than other people's muscles, that they perfectly compensate for the weakness in his spine. Now he can sit meditation, no pain anymore.
- 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…
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I see these uh mothers with their baby in their arms. And they've got the sort of the trolley in their other arm or something. And they navigate through these shopping centers and there's lots of people bumping this way and bumping that way. They never drop their kid. Never ever. And the kid knows it so much. The kid is fast asleep. Totally trusts his mother not to drop him. But you, you know, you so watch your breath and you drop it after 5 minutes. And worse, you don't know where you've left it. But imagine that. The mother is Is a mother who's gone in the shopping center with the kid and gone back home afterwards. Say, "I I thought I had the baby with me. Where did I leave the baby? I had it somewhere." Cuz why is it the mother never drops a baby? Why is it the mother never leaves it and forgets where they've left it? Cuz the mother cares for the baby. That's all. She's not tense. She's just got this beautiful constant care. Which means the baby is always safe, never gets dropped, never gets left anywhere. See, that care is the important ingredient of mindfulness. That's what maintains it. If you care for the stages of meditation, so you care for this present moment. Don't need to control it. Don't need to force it. Don't need to hold the baby so hard you strangle the poor thing. No, you just hold it gently and you care for it and then you'll never drop it.
- 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…
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I did my 15-day retreat in my cave every year it's my holidays my vacation and of course no not giving any talks not talking not doing anything just meditating all day and every day for 15 days in a row not saying anything you get really deep meditation and of course after you get that you get really powerful mindfulness so the first day out lunchtime I always remember the first the first piece of food I put into my mouth was a spoonful of mushy peas and it was it exploded honestly it just wow that was such incredible flavor and taste I never ever tasted mushy peas like that all it was was that my mindfulness was so incredibly strong you could have tasted anything it tasted a carrot and that carrotness would be so intense just an ordinary carrot
- The newspaper hiding the most beautiful viewStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Walking a remote coast road in north-west Scotland on a perfect summer day — moors and mountains, cliffs, glistening green islands, reeling sea birds — the student Ajahn Brahm…
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As a student, again I was a Buddhist and I gravitated during the vacation periods to quiet places of the world. mostly to the Scotland to the North of Scotland to the moors where you could just wonder around without seeing anybody for a few days. On this one occasion I was on the Northwest coast of Scotland It was one of these beautiful summer days very often it is cold, wet and rainy but every so often in the summer time you get this perfect days and in the Northwest coast of Scotland in the summer time is paradise. you couldn't really conjure up a more beautiful scenery just so quiet, remote and unspoiled. just walking along the coast road with moors and mountains to one side beautiful cliffs, little islands dotted in the ocean as far as you could see bright green and glistening in the sun shine and all the sea birds were just reeling what I call euphoria at the time and seeing all this beautiful scenery and having all the time in the world to enjoy it because I had no place to really go plenty of time to walk just to my destination no mobile phones, no duties just walking, enjoying every moment of a beautiful part of our world. And of course I was totally silent. Until I saw a car parked up ahead of me on the road side. There was a car park there and I assumed, because I was stupid I assumed that someone who have been driving along that road and had also noticed the incredible beauty of this day in the summer time in this place and also just stopped to enjoy the scenery but when I got close I found the person wasn't looking at the scenery was reading a newspaper. This big newspaper was right in front covering up the beautiful seascape, mountains, grass, sunshine and all he could see was the news I thought what a wonderful metaphor that is of life Because what we read with our minds is all the words and the descriptions what do they have in newspapers? I know they have the cartoons that's what I always read first when I get a newspaper I really recommend the cartoons first of all. They also have; they have the wars, they have the fraud of this government or that government. they have terrorist attacks; they have all those other nasty news about life And that's what you see in the newspaper and I thought 'what a shame this is ' just on the other side of that newscript it only may be one or two millimeters you had the beauty of the world on such a gorgeous day! And at the time being quite a cheeky person; I haven't stopped being cheeky I thought of getting a pair of scissors out of my backpack I only need to cut a small hole in this newspaper so you can see what's on the other side I was very thin in those days I was an underfed poor student and this guy was a big heavy Scotsman I didn't fancy my chances if he got aggressive with me. so I just passed him by to read his newspaper, while I enjoyed the day
- The nun who hit the jackpotStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Driving a famous Buddhist nun to Heathrow after a retreat, her driver puts spare coins in a pub fruit machine and, saying the nun has better kamma, asks her to pull the handle.…
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there was a famous Buddhist nun uh who uh was teaching a Meditation Retreat in England and after she finished teaching the retreat she went down to um to hro airport and on the way they stopped for something to eat it was was a lunchtime so they stopped in one of these restaurants which was next to a pub if ever you been to London or not to London sorry to England a lot of the places where you can get something to eat on a journey they got a pub next door so you have to go in the front of the pub to get into the restaurant so they they went through the front of the pub to get into the restaurant and had their meal I know the person who told me this story because she's from Sydney and she validated this was a real story it happened when they the driver came out of the pub she had a few English coins spare so she decided to put them in one of these slot machines the Poke machines just to get rid of the coins because you know the few little coins you can't change at the uh the currency exchange it's too small you know you change about6 and you have to pay10 commissions so you end up sort of losing on the deal but anyhow she put a few coins in the slot and she had one in the slot when the Buddhist nun came out from her meal and she said to the Buddhist nun you have got much better Karma than I have you pull the handle and in one moment of lack of mindfulness just on the spur of the moment sometimes you're thinking of something else people ask you out of compassion you just do it and that's what she did the Buddhist nun pulled the handle and the wheels went round and round and round and then first one stopped jackpot second one stopped jackpot third one stopped jackpot ding ding ding ding ding ding ding and all this money started pouring out of the machine and we monks and nuns were not even allowed to touch the stuff and she couldn't afford it was falling all over her she'd won the jackpot now you may think that's now lucky but it's not lucky cuz what happened next was all the patrons in the bar went silent this Buddhist nun in a strange Rob had won the jackpot and the next thing which happened was a b man took a little bell and rang it and announced to the nun that it was the tradition it was the rule which could not be broken that whoever won the jackpot had to buy a free round of drinks for everybody in the bar and it was the first time in 2,500 years that the buddist none had to buy a whiskey a beer gin and tonics for all the people in that's what happens
- The PA system that wasn't plugged inStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Teaching a retreat at Jhana Grove for Singaporean business people and engineers, the PA system won't work and the caretaker is overseas. Nobody can fix it, so he gives the talk…
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like the other day when I was teaching a retreat over at n uh Paul Singapore is on they'll never live this one down you can bring it in here there was teaching a retreat over John and Grove about a week two weeks ago and the the PA system didn't work and Dania was overseas she was you know the caretaker over there they couldn't get the PA system to work and these were really big business people and and Engineers from Singapore and you know so I just gave a talk unplugged and then afterwards I went what's wrong with her I said look it's in the cabinet we haven't got the key for the cabinet and I said look down there it's not plugged in it's just a simple thing turning it on
- The texture of a bean after a month's retreatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Just after a month self-retreat at Bodhinyana he eats a bean slowly and notices texture he had never attended to — soft yet structured — stillness opening ordinary senses.
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just crunching it with my teeth very slowly and the texture of it. You ever notice a texture of a bean
- “They're all Buddhists” — the expensive clinicStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A very wealthy Kuala Lumpur businessman tells Ajahn Brahm he paid a fortune for therapy at a famous US clinic, even meeting the founder of the mindfulness movement — and came…
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This incredibly wealthy businessman, you know, he came up to me and he said he'd just been to the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland where all the film stars and pop stars, you know, go. It cost fortune to go to that clinic for therapy. Had depression, anxiety, I forget what it was, some addiction. And he went to this place cost him an absolute fortune. He had actually because he had money he had a personal in interview with John Kabbertson the guy who founded the mindfulness movement. And when he came back he said ajan bra all these guys here they're all Buddhists every one of them. And he said they teach the same thing as you do only not as clear. And he said I'm crazy. I spent all this money going to United States and I can hear better from you. He said, "Yeah, I teach these guys. You go to the source and it's really cheap when you come here.
- Time your anger — try to beat your recordAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A teacher tells someone who always gets angry: next time, put a clock in front of you and see how long you can stay angry — try to beat your record. Destigmatising the anger and…
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see how long you can be angry for see if you can beat your record and straight away what it was actually doing it was actually destigmatizing anger and straight away such a stupid thing to do put a clock out there and see how long you can be angry for it can't be angry very long
- Walking up the hill instead of drivingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After nine years of only driving up to Bodhinyana, Ajahn Brahm gets out at the foot of the hill and walks; the familiar hillside becomes unrecognisably detailed and colourful,…
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I noticed the experience of walking up the hill to Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine. Now, many of you have been down there, hopefully some of you will come down on Sunday for our Katina Ceremony. We bought that 25 years ago, 26, I think now, and for about nine years, I'd gone up, and down, the road to the monastery, always in a car, in some sort of vehicle. It was like one of those days we had a couple of days ago, just warm spring morning. I remember just coming back from some sort of appointment, and feeling just so positive, so energized, and having plenty of time, I told the driver, "Drop me off at the foot of the hill, I'm going to walk up today." Not for exercise so much, just for enjoying the morning, I had plenty of time. So, I started walking from the southwest highway, up Kingsbury Drive, to the gate of Bodhinyana Monastery. As I started walking I got very surprised. Actually, it was a shock. As I looked around me, I could not recognize where I was. That hillside looked totally different from what I remembered seeing looking through the window of a car. It was totally different. I was seeing things which I never knew were there. What I saw had more detail, had more depth of colour. It was just basically more beautiful. Of course that surprised me, and not being in any rush, not being in a hurry, I just stood still. And as I stood still, the whole hillside changed again. It was like evolving. As a monk you're not on any sort of psychotropic substances, you don't take alcohol, although, during our rains retreat, somebody offered the monks some chocolate cake, and, fortunately, before we ate it, one of the monks looked at the little writing on the cover, saying it had alcohol in it! Fortunately, we stopped in time, because sometimes you're not sure when you get some chocolate cake sometimes they put the alcohol in there just for the taste and then they cook it and all the alcohol goes, it doesn't matter. But we didn't know whether it was put in before or afterwards, and so we decided not to take it. We gave it to one of our visitors who was very happy to be a guinea pig [laughter], Like a food taster. And when he came back the next week he said "That was a lot of alcohol." [laughter] It hadn't evaporated, it was a very good job we were very careful. Otherwise, we may have gone to our monastery just after lunch in a rains retreat and seeing all the monks singing and dancing and goodness knows what else. [laughter] Which would not have done very much for our reputation, so you've got to be very careful. So we don't take such things. We are sort of sober, mindful, alert. So here I was having an experience, like sometimes you have in life, when things become really weird and they start changing in front of your eyes. But what had happened was, what I was seeing, it had more detail, more information. That hillside, you started to see little flowers, started to see rocks, and just the shape of the rocks and the lichen on the rocks. And, just look at the tree barks, and the whole tree bark was just amazing, beautiful. What was also strange was that the colours, the colours of everything you saw, started to grow more intense, more rich, more deep and more beautiful. The whole thing was exquisite. Of course, when a monk has experiences like that, we don't just enjoy, we sort-of contemplate afterwards what the heck was going on. And I decided to analyze it through science, and it became quite clear to me that, when you see things, sight is a chemical reaction on the back of your eye, on the retina. What happens with most people is that when they see something, they move on to another image almost immediately. So, the image on the back of your eye doesn't have time to properly form, and the colors don't come out. They're just maybe 10 percent of what's there, and the detail is all smeared, because the image does not have time. When I walked, I was going slower. The images on the back of my eye, the light had more time, so you could see a much more full picture with more detail, and the colours were deeper because they had more time to manifest. It was just a simple physiology of sight which was occurring. And, of course, when I stood absolutely still, only then did my eyes have all the time they needed to form a full picture. And for the colours, which were out there all the time, to be fully represented in the image on the back of my eye. And for my mind to have time to explore it fully, to appreciate it, and to taste it 100 percent.