Stories about monastic training
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about monastic training from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 'I thought you couldn't talk'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: When he first came to Perth, Ajahn Brahm was the second monk; Ajahn Jagaro gave all the talks while he sat silently beside him for months. When Jagaro went to Thailand for a few…
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When I first came to Perth, I was number two monk, and that's just like these monks. They sit quietly, Their job is not to speak, the senior monk does all the talking, So Ajahn Jagaro would give all the talks and answer all the questions. I was just his attendant. Then after about nine months, he went to Thailand. so I was the head monk, so I had to speak. And as soon as I started speaking, this young girl, she was about 14, came up to me afterwards and said "That's amazing! You can speak! [audience laughing] I thought you were brain damaged
- 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…
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there was this one Monastery in the nor in Laos just before the Vietnam War and the Communists took over the Abbot of that Monastery is a very very famous he would take his disciples on a walk all day through the jungles to Tire them out sweaty tired exhausted and they would get to a part of the forest in Laos where they had these huge trees hundreds of years old and the monks had made little platforms high up on those trees just the size of these cushions which the monks sit on with no railings on the outside just a flat piece of board with a bamboo ladder going up and the app at the teacher would send amongst climbing up these ladders to this High platforms to meditate and he would take the ladder away and so he'll be back in the morning so they're exhausted facing a drop which will kill anybody the monks had to meditate all night and that was not safe at all but many monks said they got into an amazing peaceful wonderful meditations at least the ones who survived to tell the tale said that