Stories about ordination
6 Buddhist wisdom stories about ordination from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Gave away the furniture to a young coupleStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Before ordination he gives a young recently-married couple his expensive furniture for free — they look at each other thinking him mad; he is off to become a monk and does not…
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Nothing. It's yours." I remember them looking at each other. I said, "This this lad's crazy. He's mad cuz no one gives you expensive stuff like that." And then I said, "Look, I'm off to become a monk. I don't need a table. I don't need money. It's yours. Please take it now. Have a good start in your life. They were just a young couple, recently married, didn't have any kids yet, just starting off in life. And I had the opportunity, the means to give them this beautiful piece of furniture. They said, "All it cost me was nothing, but I got so much out of that. The joy of helping a couple of people I didn't know
- Giving away the motorbike before ordinationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Before Thailand he realises monks cannot keep a motorbike (robes balloon on one ride); he does not need the money — he wants to give the bike away.
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motorbike and I was going to become a monk and I knew enough about Buddhism that monks can't ride motorbikes there's a good reason for that that only once in my life as a monk have I ridden on the back of a motorbike once and never again cuz when you're on a motorbike with these robes the air gets inside it balloons up and you have to hang on because everything is trying to blow you off it doesn't work with these robes so never again but I had a motorbike when I was a lay person a nice Mo nice bike I thought what am I going to do with this I can't take it to Thailand you can't ride a motorbike as a monk and I don't need the money cuz monks don't have money so I want to give it away
- Jeremy Horner — overnight monk, Pali Text auntieStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Backpacker Jeremy Horner visits a NE Thailand monastery where Brahm is staying, asks to spend one night, and next morning shaves his own head and begs to ordain — 12 hours after…
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from Singapore he went North into Thailand and in Bangkok he met a couple of English people who were working in the refugee camp of ubor in Northeast Thailand so why didn't it come up here not many people come up here so they he went up to there with these doctors and when he was in this this place there was no other westerners about around except in this Monastery there's a few Western monks in this Monastery I was one of those Western Monks at that time so he said no I'll just go for a look so he went for a look and he would like to enough he asked the Abbott can I spend the night so he got permission to spend the night he wasn't a Buddhist you know he was just a student a Backpacker he spent the night there in the morning he shaved his own head and begged to be a monk isn't incredible experience just no preparation at all and 12 hours after he first came into a Buddhist mon the first Buddhist he ever saw you know he wanted to become a monk and now he's been a monk for about 30 years now and interestingly sort of it comes from a very interesting family because I remember his lay name Jeremy horer and they said Horner CU I knew that name it was the head of the Pary Tech Society Pary is a Buddhist language and there's this professor over in camb was translating all these Buddhist books and I said are you any relation of hers he said no I've never heard of her when he went home he checked out with his father and it was his father's sister his auntie and they never said anything about her cuz she was like a black sheep of the family
- King Rama IV opened the royal gateStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Peace Corps American arrives too early at Wat Bowon in Bangkok to ordain; a Thai man with keys shows him the locked royal ordination hall and explains every mural, then sends…
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This young man, he got over to Thailand to do Peace Corps work. So two years over in Thailand, doing Peace Corps work. And then, before he went back to the United States and just... get a job, get married, and all of that sort of stuff, he decided to try to be a monk. A Buddhist monk just for a short time. But he didn't know what to do. How do you become a monk? In Thailand. And so, he was staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Bangkok, and he asked the concierge. The concierge knows other places to send Americans, but not, sort of, monasteries. But he did hear that there was one monastery in the centre of Bangkok, Wat Bowon, which sometimes had Western monks. So he said: Go there, go to this place Wat Bowon, in the centre of Bangkok, and go there early in the morning, take some food and wait for the monks to come out and put some food into one of the monks' bowls and just ask them.' He knew a little bit of Thai, not that much. Ask them he wants to become a monk. So that's what he did. The advice wasn't very clear or precise. So he went there really early in the morning. About 4 o'clock, 4:30 or something. And the monastery was all locked up. It was closed, no one was around. So he was walking up and down outside this monastery Wat Bowon, not knowing what to do. And this Thai man came up to him and asked him: 'Who are you? How can I help?' Because Thais are, certainly in those days, were very polite and very helpful. So he said he was American, he wanted to become a monk, and the Thai man said: 'You're really early, you've come a couple of hours too early.' But the Thai man said: 'Never mind. I've got the keys, I can let you inside.' So he took this Westerner inside the monastery. He opened the doors, it was a metal door in front of the Uposatha hall, the boat. You're Thai, it's called the Royal Gate. I'll tell you why afterwards, if you don't already know. And then went into the main hall, turned on the electric lights, he had the key, opened the main hall, the holy of holies there, and he described all the paintings, all the murals on this 200-year-old hall. And who painted them, why they were painted, and the story which those murals told. And if you know that Thai art in those days, every one of those murals told a story, it's like a cartoon, but cartoons in the West they would start from the left and they go to the right, then the next level... These go around all sorts of different... trajectories. If you know the story, you can actually tell what they are, but even sometimes I know those stories, but I can't actually figure out how they all connect together. But the two hours went past so quickly. He was so fascinated by all this history of the temple that this Thai man knew. Then the Thai man said: 'It's about time now, to... the monks will be coming out any minute, so go out the gate again, turn right, and then wait for this old monk – he's the one you should speak to.' That's what this Westerner did. This American. I know this American. It's a true story. Happened in my lifetime, in Thailand. And soon that monk came out and he put some food in the bowl, asked him he wanted to become a monk, and this American was told to wait and was taken to start the training, being a monk. And after a few days, the American said: 'Look, the monk you've given me to teach me all the chanting, and the rules and stuff, I can't understand him, his English is no good. And the other monk said 'This is the best English speaker we've got in the whole monastery'. And that is where this American said: 'What about that temple attendant who I met on the first day?' 'What temple attendant?' 'The guy who opened the door for me.' 'You can't go through that door. That gate is the Royal Gate. The only people allowed through that gate at Wat Bowon are members of the royal family.' You know how much they hold their tradition. And you can't turn the electricity on there. And, and... not even the Abbot knows all the stories behind those paintings. They took him straight to the Abbot. That was Somdet Nyanasamvara. He became the Head Monk of Thailand. But at that time, he was the Abbot of the temple. The Abbot was listening to all of this and stopped him. And said: 'Wait' and called in the secretary, 'This needs to be recorded.' And this is pretty much a true story. I did tell this story in the Thai Embassy in Singapore, once. And the Ambassador there, interrupted me. Eventually afterwards he said 'Yes, I've seen that story written down, it's true, it actually happened.' But anyway, the Abbot wrote it all down. Or the secretary, rather. But the end of the story. Of course, they asked the question: 'What did that man look like? That temple attendant we don't know, exists. The one who opened doors which only royal family can open.' No one's got the key, no temple attendant's got the key to the main hall. Only a couple of monks have that key. Not even the old Abbot knew all the stories behind the paintings. He said: 'What did he look like?' You know what happens when you have to try and describe a person, especially if you're from a different country; 'I don't know, he just... was Thai.' 'He was wearing traditional Thai clothes,' he said. That was one interesting thing. Not modern clothes. Traditional Thai clothes. 'But what did he look like?' And this American couldn't think exactly what this guy looked like. So he was scratching his head, literally, because that's what Westerners do, Thais don't do that. Scratching his head. And he stopped. He was looking at a portrait in the Abbot's office. 'It's him!' 'That's the one.' 'That's the one I met'. That was a portrait of one of the sponsors of that temple when it was first built. His Majesty King Rama V who died about 150 years prior to that incident. That went down in the books. A heavenly being coming down to help a young man become a monk
- New monks ask mum and dad for forgivenessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Bodhinyana ordinations the candidates bow three times to their parents and ask forgiveness for everything they did and failed to do growing up. Mothers — and often fathers —…
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when the candidates usually get their mothers and fathers along as well they actually bow down to their mum and their dad give them three bells they never done that when they were their children at home working they bow down to their mum and dad and they say mum dad whatever i've done over the time you've been my parents since the earliest age i ask your forgiveness things which i didn't do which i should have done i'm trying my best please forgive me and you always see especially the mother but often the father as well you'll see tears coming out of their eyes because it's sincere it's honest they realize they always love their children but the fact that their children have the guts and the sincerity to say sorry it's beautiful and in all the years which i've been amok
- The nightmare was that I was a laymanStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his first nights as a novice the nightmare that wakes him is that he is a layman again. Seeing his folded brown robes beside the mat, he sighs with joy, sleeps deeply — and…
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when I first became a monk, how long ago, 37 years ago, I had nightmares. This is true. I'd wake up in a sweat, in my nightmare, this is no exaggeration, this is how much I really, really wanted to be a monk. My nightmare was I was a lay person. I thought I wasn't a monk after all. And I'd open my eyes and I'd see my robes next to the bed. Ah, I'm a monk! I really am a monk! [laughter] And I'd just go to sleep in this very peaceful deep sleep. And that was about for a week. That's how much I really loved being a monk and I never looked back. So that was my nightmare. I was terrified that I wasn't a monk