Stories about non-self
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about non-self from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Monk at Centrelink: prove you existStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Applying for a Commonwealth seniors card, Ajahn Brahm is asked to prove who he is. Forty-three years of trying to find out who he is, he says — 'not metaphysically', they reply.…
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i thought it's about time i applied for a commonwealth seniors cut to get some more respect we already get meals on wheels every day people bring down the for us so i went in there to the center link and they said okay can you prove who you are and i thought you know for 43 years i've been trying to find out who i it's a am difficult question so i said no no no not metaphysically have you got your passport you know that's i think that's a certain number of points and i said okay let's see your your your bank accounts or your bank card i've got that have you got marriage license no have you got your your ownership of your house no your rental agreement no your driving license no we are so difficult to prove we exist that's why we believe in oneself we're just not here
- The ants who buried the sugar cubeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A visitor at the Serpentine monastery puts a hard sugar cube on top of an ants' nest to test them. Instead of breaking it up, the ants excavate beneath it day by day until it…
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Years and years ago, at our monastery in Serpentine, there were many ants' nests, there was this one visitor, he decided to give the ants an intelligence test. Cause you know, the ants' nest, he put a sugar cube on top of the ants' nest. The ants love the sugar. It's like one of these hard cubes, I wonder what they would do with this. Would they break it up to take it into the small holes, to take it into the centre of their nest? What would they do? And he really couldn't believe their intelligence their engineering prowess. What the ants did, they excavated under the sugar cube. So day by day, the sugar cube got lower and lower and lower and lower. When the top got below the surface, they put the earth on top again. Now it's exactly the same way, I think the Vietcong buried the American tanks, during the Vietnam war, they actually drew them underground. That was just a community of ants, who've never seen a sugar cube before, ever.