Stories about praise
5 Buddhist wisdom stories about praise from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A thank-you letter to the Health MinisterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk enjoys his stay in Fremantle Hospital because the nurses are so kind; at Ajahn Brahm's suggestion he writes to thank the Minister of Health, and gets back a personal…
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there's some time ago, one of our monks spent time in hospital. I think it was in Fremantle hospital. And I asked him when he came out, it was only a small thing. How did you enjoy it? What was it like in there? He said, wonderful time, people were so kind. And they were just so nice to me, all the nurses. I said, well, you should actually write to somebody to thank them. And he wrote to the Minister of Health. Said thank you for your hospital. You know what happened, then it was McGowan. Was it McGowan? Minister of Health anyway, Minister of Health sometime. He got this personal letter back, not dictated to a secretary not printed out. But handwritten. Oh thank you so much. I got your letter that made my day. Thank you for enjoying this this wonderful health service; and signed, the minister or something.
- Class A and Class BStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An English school splits a year group into two classes of exactly equal ability by exam score — only the headmistress and two psychologists know the results — with equally good…
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This was a story of a test which was done in a school in England. Two classes of kids, the end of the year exams, you know, we just done the end of the year exams for our kids in school here in Western Australia. The school year is just finished or about to finish. And it's usually the usual thing is on the basis of the results this year, you know, that's how you'll be graded for, you know, the streams of learning for next year. And there was one school did this really interesting experiment. They had two classes in one year and having done their examination, they never published the results. There was, if I remember correctly, the head mistress and two psychologists were the only ones who knew what scores every kid got. But instead, what they did, they allocated the children as evenly as they possibly could. The kid who came top went in the same class as a kid who came fifth and sixth. No, fourth and fifth. Yeah. Fourth and fifth, 8th and 9th, 12th and 13th, 16th and 17th. They all went in one class. The kids who came second and third, sixth and seventh, 10th and 11th went in the other class. So they split the classes up as evenly as they possibly could. And the head mistress tried to find teachers who she thought were equally good. And they even went as far as to find classrooms with equal facilities. They made everything equal as possible except for one thing. They called one of those classes class A and the other one class B. And they were totally equal in ability based on the exam results. and they wanted to find out what would happen next year. Half of those kids went into class A and they weren't more brilliant, but their parents said, "I don't know how you did it, son. You're in class A. Carry on. Well done." And even the kids who came second and third going into class B. I want you to work harder next year. You know, no more privileges for you, more homework. the the parents thought class B meant the worst and even the teachers taught her to a lower level and the kids be know with her in class B the kids started to believe the class A kids were superior than the class B kids because one year later when they gave the exam again the children in class A did so well as if they were the top half chosen from the year before. And the class B kids did terribly. Literally after one year, half those children became class A children and the other one became class B simply because they gave that label and they believed in it, they became it.
- “That's a beautiful baby” on the TubeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a depressing London Underground ride where nobody looks at anyone, Ajahn Brahm tells a young mother her baby is beautiful — a fib, he admits, since he doesn't like babies —…
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one of the hardest places to crack, for me anyway, is the London Underground. But I've succeeded many times. You know if you have ever gone in the London Underground, you're not allowed to look at each other. You've got to look down and you've got your paper and someone's looking at you. What do they want? You can do that. I remember it just very easy. You are stuck in this underground. I don't know how long. And this is depressing. So, I just saw this girl. She was holding a baby and I just okay, I told a fib. I looked up and said, that's a beautiful baby. [laughter] I don't like babies, but I said it's a beautiful baby. And that just opened this girl up. Should I really said who are you? Where are you from? Oh you are from Australia. You are a monk. We had this beautiful conversation to the very end.
- The thank-you letter to the plumbing shopStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Bodhinyana's first toilet block, Ajahn Brahm can't afford a plumber, so a salesman called Fred at Galvins in Osborne Park shows him how to glue and lay the pipes. The…
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one of the stories in open the door of your heart when we just started out building Bodin Monastery the first year you know I you know all know the story of the brick wall but I didn't didn't just lay bricks I did the plumbing on our toilet block the very first building I did all the we couldn't afford a plumber they cost a fortune plumbers so I had to learn how to do the plumbing so how can you learn Plumbing I went to the shop it was Galvin don't mind giving an advertisement for Galvin cuz they were really a good shop and they uh have put the plans on the table and basically I said help and of course you know it's a reasonable size building and there's you know quite a uh a few pipes and fitting so it's actually worth the the um the salesperson's time you know looking at it and so you need one of these you need one of those and getting all the parts and just showing how to glue it together it's quite simple but you know just all you need is 5 minutes to show you pull the glue around this way just twist it around so the glue spreads hold it together for you know 10 to 15 seconds then you can leave it and know use a sort of a spirit level to make sure you get just the right drop one in 40 which is about you know a third of a bubble on a spirit level they gave me all these beautiful tips so took all the stuff back to Monastery and took a few days you know didn't have uh to do it fast and took my time and got it all done of course if it's Plumbing like sewage you have to get it checked by the health inspector so the health inspector came checked it all out and it worked I was really sort of say flush with success as somebody said for sewage pipes and I was so happy and at that same day the bill came and know I don't know couple thousand in those days you know quite a lot of money so I got the check from the treasurer and now I sent it off to the plumbing department cuz I knew I was the one who ordered it all so I could check the the the bill make sure it was correct send it off and instead of just sending off the check I wrote a little letter only took me 10 minutes saying like thank you the guy salesperson was called Fred thank you to Fred behind the counter you know at Osburn Park galvin's cuz he really helped me sort of with this plumbing job you know without his help we've had to get a plum with cost of Fortune and with just a charity just starting off we really needed this so thanks so much and today it was passed of you're so happy thank you so much and here's a check and because first year doing this sort of stuff I thought it would just go to the shop I never realized that Galvin is a huge company so the letter went to the the um the accounts department and so some little Clark in the accounts Department I got this uh later on the story they opened this and I thought oh my God a letter what have we done wrong this time cuz apparently the only time you write letters to companies is to complain about bad service 4y pipes so of know too much money or whatever it is hardly anybody writes a letter to say thank you and so the account the little Clark in the accounts Department took it straight to the the head of the accounts and they were just so surprised at getting a letter like this they took it to the managing director and the managing director read that letter and he picked up the telephone and called Osburn Park office can I speak to Fred and so Fred got this call from the managing director and the managing director apparently said well well done Fred that's the sort of that's the sort of attitude I want in this company you know of of customer relationship I don't know what you've done but you really did a really good job Fred and thank you sir and by the way Fred you know what salary are you on oh well it can always be improved sir or something like that and as it happened there was one other part you know for the think the water supply not the waste water which was actually too small got the wrong part and I went into that shop about an hour or two after Fred had got this call from the managing director and there were two big plumbers in front of me in in the queue those big big guys you know what plumbers are like you know with sort of shoulders as wide as septic tags and as soon as Fred saw me said Bram come over here and so these two plumbers I mean they were a bit upset they were waiting in queue but I got the first service and I just wonder what's going on and Fred's um the person who assisted him the other salesperson said you know your wife's here he called me his wife he said what do you mean he said because somebody just praised Fred and he got a call about an hour ago from the managing director and of course he was uh really chuffed about getting a praise and getting a rise in salary because of my letter and so I got the first service there's a big sign on there say customers not allowed around the back with all the fitting side said come around the back bro lo I can't said come around the back what do you want my had ised he said no that's too small said this part over here is what you want it's about two or three times the size said oh this is the one I want I said what's the difference and he smiled at me brah for you no difference CU I save the Buddhist Society about $10 or $15 on this and I never had to wait in queue got first class service and why just for a stupid little letter of thanks
- The tribe that praises the wrongdoerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm recounts an email about a tribe untouched by other cultures: when someone does wrong — steals or hits someone — he stands in the centre of a circle of the whole…
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somebody sent me this interesting email the other day and it was some tribe which has you know been totally untainted by other cultures that in this try when anybody makes a mistake or does anything wrong or bad like steals or hit somebody or he stands in the center of this circle and all the members of the tribe stand around him he's done something bad but do they punish him no for two or three days he has to stand in the middle and they all tell him wonderful things about himself what a great person he is for three days when he's done something wrong