Stories about peace
17 Buddhist wisdom stories about peace from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Churchill's bedside BuddhaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Australian monk visiting England is taken to Churchill's stately home when a castle is closed. In the entrance hall hangs a painting by Churchill of a Buddha statue; the…
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you know that um Winston Churchill the prime minister of UK during the second world war had a Buddha statue next to his bed every night of that war not a a um a crucifix but a Buddha statue we found that out once when one of our monks was visiting um England and the host wanted to take him to a castle he was Australian you know people have to see castles but the castle was closed so what else can we oh the stately home of the wartime prime minister prime minister Churchill we take you there and that was open and just apparently as you went into the entrance to that stately home where Winston Churchill lived as soon as you went in there there was a big painting because Winston church was also an artist he painted this a Buddha statue a bur star and so the monk asked the Creator you know what's this he painted a Buddha statue why and the Creator said oh this was a a painting of The Statue which was by his bedside every day during the second world war you know he broke or he lost it somewhere but he still has a painting why because imagine this if you imagine like your stress imagine being the leader of a country during that terrible terrible War just how much stress and how much pain one decision thousands of people die that's huge and he had that statue next to him because it gave him peace it gave him encouragement kindness even look at that and it would help him with his famous depression so that a fact he had a Buddha statue there
- First five-minute meditation, 1969Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In 1969 — about fifty-five years before this talk — Ajahn Brahm sits for his first meditation, only five minutes. Even that tiny taste of peace and relaxation catches him; he…
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I sat down to do some meditation, which was in 1969. How many years ago is that? 55? 55 years ago. It was only for 5 minutes. And I remember that and it was just like, "That feels good. It's peaceful. It's relaxing." And it was a lot of only a tiny bit of happiness, but it really felt good. And it caught me the very first time I I did some meditation. And hopefully that every one of you can feel the same
- I'd rather die in the monastery — 25 more yearsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Famous monk in Thai royal hospital, told nothing more can be done for cancer, asks to die at his Mae Hong Son / north monastery. Taken home; dies 25 years later — peace…
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there was a famous monk who was in the main hospital being supported by the king of Thailand. All expenses paid. and was dying of cancer. You know what happens sometimes? A doctor says, "There's nothing more we can do." "So what do you do?" He said, "Well, there's nothing more I can do," said this monk. "I'd rather die in the monastery where I spent so many years." It was on the Marong River in the north of Thailand, a beautiful monastery. So he said, "If I'm going to die, I'd rather die there than in hospital." So they took him back to his monastery. 25 years later was when he died. 25 years of extra life
- Kissed on the nose by an emuStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An anagarika sitting calmly with eyes open at Jhana Grove is approached by a wild emu that has never seen a human so still. It puts its beak on his nose — almost a kiss — then…
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One of the anagaracas was sitting over in the area of Janna Grove some years ago, sitting very peacefully, but with his eyes open and an emu came up to him. And I've seen emus before, but they're always this very scary. No, they're scared. They run all over the place. But this monk or monk to be one day he was sitting there perfectly not perfectly still he had his eyes open but really calmly and the emu never seen a human being like this before. So the emu came right up to him. The m the anagara never moved and the emu just put its beak on this anagaraka's nose like almost like a kiss just smell it. What is this? Have you ever been kissed on the nose by an emu? A wild one. Nate, you know, not sort of tamed or anything. And of course, then the emu just very hopped away just very gracefully and and and calmly.
- Parachute the monks into SyriaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone told Ajahn Brahm about an episode of the ABC's Q&A on violence in the Middle East. Asked for a solution, a panellist — the editor of The Spectator — cited a study (at…
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apparently somebody saw this on Q a the Q a TV program on a Monday night I've never seen that but every now and again people actually hear something on that program and this was say uh a program about the problems in the Middle East and the wars and the terrorism stuff going on there and they had one of the presenters there was the editor of The Spectator magazine a very influential magazine in uh in England and they asked her what was his solution or give some advice try and stop the violence in the Middle East in Syria and Iraq and all the bombings and stuff which go on and he said he quoted there had been a study done in Sussex University in the UK though when people were meditating even for seven minutes they said everybody in the vicinity also calmed down and became peaceful unless fighter less aggressive just actually the a few people meditating had calmed everybody else down so this guy on TV on ABC said his solution was getting a few Buddhist monks and parachuting them into Syria
- Sadat just got in a plane to JerusalemStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After the Six Day War, what inspires him is President Sadat skipping endless cabinet politics — he simply boards a plane to Jerusalem/Tel Aviv so Israel's leader has to meet him…
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after The Six Day War they called it a Six Day War it didn't last for six days did it but I don't know how many years but but I remember just one thing which did inspire me in that conflict was the it was the president of Egypt at the time a president Sadat yeah he decided and I love the way he did this instead of having a cabinet meeting instead of you know trying to sort of win over everybody he was a president so he just got in a plane and hardly anyone else knew what he was up to and he flew to Jerusalem
- 'She's in denial'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Thai woman, a great early supporter of the monastery, calls him to hospital: what she thought was hay fever is inoperable lung cancer, perhaps two weeks to live. He finds her…
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You remember, those of you, again, who have been long time, Ratana, this Thai girl, who really helped out our monastery in the early days, one of the close supporters, and she got lung cancer. And in hospital, I think it was the King Edward Memorial Hospital. She called me, she'd just got the diagnosis, the biopsy back. She had lung cancer, it was not curable, not much point of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, she's gonna die, she had four young children, the youngest was about, Joseph was about 8 or 9 at the time, roughly about that... So she called me. So... I was building at the time when I got the message, so I dropped whatever I was doing, got in th car, and went to the hospital. As soon as I went in to her room, there was a lady, who'd taken out the mental arrow. She was in the room laughing. And, just, you know, said, "Well, you know, this is what I want for the funeral, this is what I want to do." And, you know, she was so open about this, which was a wonderful refreshing thing to see that there was someone who'd been following these teachings for such a long time, and internalised them and there was a case you, just an hour before, been told you were gonna die, and there was no possibility of any... any recovery. She was so at peace, and so happy, laughing and cracking jokes. Jokes she said said, "When you go back to the temple here, "please tell all my friends, the Thai ladies, don't come to visit me yet. "Come and visit me later, when I'm in my box," she said, "That's when they can come and visit me." Laughing laughing all the time. So, you know we talked about the arrangements and everything, and then when I walked out of the room, not the nurse, not the sister, but the actually the matron, the actually the head nurse, was actually waiting for me, a very old nurse. And she said, "I'm so glad you've come. Can you come into my room, please?" "Yeah, what?", I said. "She's in denial. She's not admitting she's gonna die." "What do you mean? She's just been telling me all the funeral arrangements." "No, she's in denial. She's not crying, she's not screaming, she's not upset." And, that was a wonderful experience for me, because that was early on my life here, the first time I saw someone just not understanding. This was not denial, this was total acceptance, taken out the mental arrow. There was someone in a very painful situation, lung cancer. You know you gonna die, you gonna leave kids, you know, the youngest... And she didn't have a partner, she was a single mum, and she took it so beautifully. I had to explain to the sister, "Look, this is what the Buddhists are like. "Really the ones who have understood these teachings." She's taken out the mental arrow. It's a waste of time crying and screaming about it. Yeah, it is not usual, but it’s not denial. There was a person in a difficult situation, Who said "Let it be. Can't change it. Let's make the most out of this." And she died so beautifully. At the funeral I remember the doctor saying to us, "She died with grace."
- Thai insurgents forgiven — then hiredStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Northeast Thai insurgency collapses; rebel leaders give themselves up and instead of jail or execution are forgiven and given civil-service jobs. Years later in Sydney the Thai…
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the leaders of the insurgency the main rebels who were responsible for attacks on many army posts and many people being killed they gave themselves up as well they had no resources left to fight the government and the beautiful thing was they were not put in jail they were not interrogated or put against the wall and shot instead they were forgiven almost immediately they were given very good jobs in a civil service their ability to organize a sacrifice to pour their own safety second to what they thought was the benefit of their friends and relations in the villages and provinces but that was much more important for them why not make use of their abilities let them join up the government and once many years ago when I told this story in this was in Sydney and the Thai ambassador was listening and when it came question time he stood up with his hand up and said yes that is true but you lift out something he said two of those leaders two of those leaders were trying to overthrow the Thai government
- “Thank you for the car park”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After lunch at Bodhinyana a stranger turns out to be the Serpentine-Jarrahdale Shire building surveyor who signed off all the monastery's plans. On his last day before retiring…
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that over in Bodhinyana monastery, over in Serpentine, I was just sitting there after lunch receiving guests, and this gentleman came up I’ve never seen before (but I remembered his voice for a strange reason), and I find out after he told me that he was the local building surveyor at the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale. So every building which we applied for permission for, he'll be the one who looks at it and checks that it fulfils all of the regulations and ticks it off. And I asked him: 'What are you doing here' and he said that he's not come to check up on anything, because this was his last day at work in that job, he was retiring that afternoon - but he said he came here to thank me for the car park. I felt really weird, ‘thanking me for the car park, what are you talking about?’ And he said to me that he wasn't a Buddhist, he didn't know how to meditate - but - every time he got stressed out at work, he simply got into his car, drove to the monastery in Serpentine and parked his car in the car park, and just sat there maybe 15 minutes or half an hour. And then, afterwards, he felt so much better, he went back to work
- The free afternoon after schoolStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 13 or 14, with an afternoon off school and all his homework done at lunchtime, the boy walks out of the school gates with nothing to do, nowhere to go and no appointments —…
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You know one of the first times I felt free, going back to my experience in childhood I had this afternoon off school and at lunch time, I did all my homework. So as I walked out those school gates, and actually had nothing to do, and nowhere to go, I had no appointments, no business which I needed to complete. I remember that afternoon even now I was then about 13 or 14 at the time it was my first experience of freedom. I could do whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted with no constraints at all no force, no compulsion, totally free. It's a beautiful feeling. Can you ever feel like that? You don't have to achieve anything you don't have to fulfill any duties, complete any projects you can just be. That told me what freedom was.
- The frozen forest and the sacred silenceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first visit home after seven years in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm stays at a new, unheated monastery in Sussex in a winter so cold the papers report 'even the beer froze'.…
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I still remember one of the amazing times of my life one of the mornings which I will never forget when I was staying in England The ..Veriliam.. Monastery, one of the first monasteries which our tradition built in England, in Sussex That was a winter time about now I have gone to visit my family I think it was the first time after seven years that I went after living in Thailand that I went to visit my family for Christmas and this monastery has just been established and it was one of the coldest winters in England at that time in a typical British news-sheet it showed me the headlines -26 degrees centigrade even the beer froze But that following morning even though it was just so cold I went out for a walk in the forest early not many people were up let alone outside of the houses in such cold weather I remember that walk in that forest even now because as I walked in the fresh snow fall you look down in the freshly fallen snow and there were no prints of any animals, let alone human beings the snow has fell the night before and I was like the first person on earth to walk in that forest and as I walked nothing moved there was no wind or even breeze not even the leaves fluttered when I stopped, the whole world stopped moving all the animals were hibernating nothing stirred It was so silent and of course my own mind went silent when you are faced with such profound and deep and powerful peace your mind can't resist resonating with that peace as if the peace gets right inside of you just like the cold can do But this was not unpleasant you became one with that peace. It became one of those magic experiences of my life just walking and then stopping and enjoying the power of silence.
- The noisy airport prayer roomStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Delighted to find a meditation and prayer room at Perth Airport, Ajahn Brahm sits down to meditate — and the room is filled with security warnings, passenger pages and boarding…
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I once went into one of the chapels and meditation rooms in the airport to try and get a bit of peace and quietness to do some meditation. Of course after only about 30 seconds "please do not leave your bags unattended paging Mr. so and so, your flight is about to board' and all these other announcements which were going on in the quiet room as there's noises anywhere else.
- The preceptor's snake in the lapStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm's preceptor, later acting Sangharaja of Thailand, came out of deep meditation in a Koh Samui coconut grove to find a snake coiled in his lap. He felt no fear, watched…
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he would meditate in a coconut grove. And he said once he had a nice deep meditation in the coconut grove and that when he came out of the meditation he saw a snake coiled up in his lap. Now, what would you feel if you came out of meditation at 8:00 and you find a big snake had been caught up in your lap? How would you react? And this monk, he was was my preceptor and he became the acting sangaraju of Thailand with lots of responsibility. And this coconut grove was in in the island of Got Samoy when that was not a famous place where tourists went to. That was his his hometown in there. But he said the amazing thing was he was so peaceful when he came out and opened his eyes. He saw the the snake in his lap called up very happy and he had no fear at all. And that was really surprising to him. He thought how can this happen? No fear. And of course he just watched the snake for about 10 or 15 minutes and then the snake just uncoiled and just slithered away with you can imagine gratitude simply because he had no fear.
- The tired schoolteacher on alms roundStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An old friend who became a schoolteacher visits Ajahn Brahm in northeast Thailand. Exhausted and stressed, he resists the dawn alms round; Brahm insists. Walking back afterwards…
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he came to visit me in thailand many many years ago and he was he became like a school teacher and i was a monk and he came to visit me in thailand and when he arrived there it's amazing to actually define me all that way and so i settled him into his room and i said one of the wonderful things to experience in those days in northeast thailand was the arms round in the morning could we get up really early at dawn and just as the they get slight the monks take their ball and they walk silently mindfully through the village and it's really poor people they get up early to put some rice in the monk's bowl and if you don't go there they sort of come and ask you where have you been we want you to come here seeing peaceful calm people first thing in the morning it starts our day and we'd really miss it if you never came so it was just a sight of peaceful people calm quiet people just walking through the village reminding them of their spirituality and they'd come in there and quietly they put a bit of rice in the poll and then we come back to the to the monastery afterwards for our meal and you know that i said this is one of the best times of the morning it's cool the light is perfect you know you must come and he said listen i'm just i'm so tired i get so stressed at work there's no way i can wake up at that time of the morning and i said you don't have to worry at all i'll come to your room and i'll knock on the door 15 minutes before we go so you can get time to get ready okay that was the agreement and i obviously did that and as we were walking back he thanked me because there was a wonderful time of the day and it was really spiritual peaceful kind people looking after one another and he on the way back he told me thank you for
- The Vietnam monk who blessed both armiesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During the Vietnam War a monk receives government and communist soldiers alike for meditation and blessings; non-political goodness softens both sides.
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Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the government soldiers would come to his temple to meditate to listen to Dharma get blessings so at the Communists soldiers say to would come to his temple and receive blessings there's such a good monk he was respected by all his goodness was not political and they made both sides a little bit more tolerant and peaceful towards one another
- Walking into the DMZStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior monks are to lead a fast three-hour meditation walk into the demilitarised zone;…
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the last time I saw this monk that was in the demilitarized zone. I mentioned that story a couple of years ago. I went to Korea, South Korea and was having a peace movement at the time. That was a time when you may remember it over a year and a half ago when Donald Trump and Kim Jong- fell in love. That's what it said on the newspapers. Anyway, [laughter] so anyway, so they wanted to move on that and just have this the big peace conference up there. So I went there to join in and I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to do. But then they had these big senior monks. I was one of the senior monks. They wanted us to go on this walk, meditation walk inside the deulatory zone. Wow. The senior monk. No, he couldn't go because he was busy. Ajan Ganha, he was sick. So that left your own aan. Yay. Would you have allowed me to do that? It was a three-hour walk really fast. No rest b leading oh 6,000 uh jogj yeah yeah jog jj buddhists over into the de DMC demilitarized zone walking yeah so off I went just doing that had a wonderful time could you do that would you be anxious no I wasn't anxious at all but I must admit I did mention at the time There was a lot of shooting in there. There was I can't lie to you. I was shot a few times. Actually, many times click. Click. Photographed and videoed and stuff.
- Wrap yourself a gift of peaceAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For a birthday or anniversary, wrap an empty box carefully, put inside a paper that says 'peace — to me, with love from me', hide it, 'find' it next morning and play along until…
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go to the cupboard and get an old box, get some gift wrapping paper and maybe a bow and a little gift dedication card, and then in that box put something really really really important for you - a real gift - something you would really treasure - peace. Even write it on a piece of paper "p e a c e - to me", your name, with love from me, with your name again. And then put that little piece of gift paper, "peace to me with love from me", put it in the box, put the lid on, and wrap it as carefully as you possibly can with beautiful gift-wrapping paper, tie a nice little bow and put a little card, "happy whatever, happy anniversary, happy birthday, happy Mother's Day, Father's Day or whatever day" to yourself and then put it somewhere and then just go and have your lunch or go to work or go to sleep and when you wake up the following morning - you find it! Wow! Surprise! Someone's given me a gift. And play the game as best you possibly can - "wow I wonder what it is inside" and when you open the parcel and you open the lid you see a gift of peace from me with love to me. Ohh, how sweet, what I've always wanted - peace