Stories about nuns
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about nuns from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Chanting brought the Dhammasara price downStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Looking at a noisy 38-acre option for the nuns, they notice a 583-acre property of solitude nearby. Against the fear they cannot afford it, they look anyway. An hour before the…
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You know, about Dhammasara, the container on Sunday, that place. Again, Bianca, she's not here this evening, with her partner Ron, going down Kitchigano, there was that 38-acre property. And just went down there, and he was No, come on. You know, you can't treat nuns like that. It's a small little place, really noisy. But on the way there, there was another property, 583 acres of solitude. And I said, "Let's have a look." I said, "No, no way. We can't afford that. 30 acres is way above our" "No, let's have a look. It doesn't cost anything to look." And of course, you know, eventually we bought it. That's Dhammasara. We don't know how that happened. I went in there with another monk an hour before. We really did some chanting. We really laid it on thick. Powerful super chanting to try to get the price down. And it worked. We got it. Now, don't you try that if you're trying to buy a house or a property. Don't invite the monks first of all, please.
- He sang The Sound of Silence for $10,000Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A sponsor offered a $10,000 cheque for the nuns' monastery if Ajahn Brahm would sing. Monks don't sing — and he can't — so he chose Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence,…
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This will be for your nuns monastery if you sing a song." Now, we don't sing songs as monks. It's against our rules. But there's also a reason for that cuz our singing is terrible. But then I thought very quickly and I said, "Okay, I will sing a song for you if you let me choose a song and I'll just uh sing it just ac cappella. There's no band behind me." And many of you, I think, know this song. you're my age, you're getting on a bit. And so I said, the song I'm going to sing is from this famous US group called the Beach Boys. Was it Beach Boy? No, it wasn't Beach Boys. Sorry. It was Simon and Garuncle. The Sound of Silence. That's not a song. It is. It's called The Sound of Silence. and I just shut up and sat there and eventually she gave in and gave the $10,000 to the nuns honestly. That's the only ever song I've sung in in public
- No visitors — except Ajahn BrahmStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Tibetan nun dying in Shenton Park hospice asked him to come, but the nurse barred visitors until small print under 'absolutely no visitors' read 'except Ajahn Brahm'. She…
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there was a notice on it. The notice said, “ABSOLUTELY NO VISITORS” and the nurse looked at me, “See!" "Huh!” [laughs] There was a notice up there, "absolutely no visitors," but I looked closely, you know what it said on the bottom? ‘Except Ajahn Brahm’ [laughter] And a Buddhist should not do this but I couldn’t resist, “SEE!!!” [laughter]. She deserved it, but really, I should have been more compassionate and kind. And she just went off in a huff. [laughs] And that was one of my memorable moments, getting my own back. But then of course I went in the door, when I went in the door, the first thing I said, when she welcomed me, I said, “Why did you put that notice on there? Why did you say, absolutely no visitors except for me?” And she told me and this is important for you, she said, “When I have all these visitors, they see me, riddled with cancer, only got a day and a half, two days to go, and look at me” (and she did look like skin and bones, gaunt, not the person you knew six months ago). She said, “everybody who comes in to see me gets so depressed and they get so upset seeing me like this, one or two days from death. When they get so depressed and they start crying, that makes me feel bad. I’m bad enough as it is! I don’t need everybody else’s emotional baggage put on me!” She said, “Ajahn Brahm, you’re the only monk, only person who comes into this room who doesn’t get upset and instead tells me jokes. So, another joke please
- Sister Jittindria mistaken for Ajahn BrahmStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of the first nuns, Sister Jittindria, is driven off after Saturday lunch for a tour of Perth. A Thai woman shouts that Ajahn Brahm is sitting next to a girl — until he…
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This actually happened here some years ago. You know, we had one of our first nuns here, I think it was actually Sister Jittindria And she was visiting for a while and just after the morning lunch on a Saturday one of the ladies decided to take her for a little tour around the sites of Perth for the first time, so she was in the car sitting next to another lady, that's two of them in the front seats of the car, and they drove off from the community hall just around the corner here. and as soon as they drove off I think it was a Thai lady who started shouting out "Hey, look, there's Ajahn Brahm, sitting next to a girl. Where are they going?" [audience laughing] And it was actually a very close call, because it was very lucky at that time when she was pointing to this brown figure with the bald head sitting in the passenger seat of the car next to a young girl, I happened to come out. [audience laughing] And she said "Ajahn Brahm's not over there, Ajahn Brahm is over here." And because the recognised that couldn't be me because I was standing right next to her, I said "I'm here", she realised it was a nun in the car, it wasn't me. But if I hadn't come out there, she would have gone around saying "This Ajahn Brahm, you know what he gets up to when ..." [audience laughing] That's why have the different colour robes these days