Stories about monastic life

Looking for a Buddhist story about monastic life? Here are 110 complete stories. They come from Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Brahm's stories keep his own telling from his talks; Ajahn Chah's are retold in our own words from his free-distribution books. Each page has a short reflection and a link to the source.

• 'Trespassers will be converted' — To keep wanderers out of the quiet Jhana Grove retreat centre, the society knew 'Trespassers will…
• Unoffered food at the Saraburi temple — Staying at a village temple, Ajahn Chah and his monks quietly eat only plain rice rather than food…
• “What day of the week is it?” — As a forest monk he lived without calendars or clocks and sometimes didn't know the month or year.…
• What fun does a monk have? None — Father's old joke: What fun does a monk have? None. Brahm still laughs — and insists monks…
• 'What prison were you in?' — When Ajahn Brahm's predecessor Ajahn Jagaro disrobed and applied for jobs in the United States,…
• Worried he'd have to be abbot — When the 2004 tsunami hits, Ajahn Brahm is in Penang. His number-two monk back home hears that…
• Wow, this is good, ain't it, Brahm? — The coarse Australian who single-handedly built Bodhinyana's concrete water tanks asks 'Brahm' if…
• You know when the Gurkha visited — your head falls off — Former Gurkha monk: you always know when a Gurkha visited in the night — you wake, shake your…
• 'You ordained to forget' — Visiting Ajahn Juin, a famous old Thai monk at the top-hat-shaped mountain monastery Phu Tok,…
• “You're old enough to know better” — Walking in robes through Doncaster early one morning with Ajahn Sumedho, about 20 years his…