Stories about second chances
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about second chances from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- From prison to 'Reservoir Dogs'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A boy who fled an abusive Los Angeles home at six becomes a career criminal. Near release in his late 40s or 50s, his case officer gets him a job advising on a gangster film; the…
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about this young kid, six years of age is when he ran away from home in Los Angeles I think he had one of these very abusive families, beating him, not really looking after him. So he left home and lived on the streets from the age of about six years of age. It's incredibly he survived but you know the only way to get by was petty crime and you get sort of arrested every now and again and from petty crime to bigger crime he became a career criminal and what changed his life. He’s in his late 40s or 50s was when he was shortly to be released from another spell in jail. He had a case officer who was trying to find him a job. How can he get a job? You know, once you've been in prison most of your life, who would employ you but she was very resourceful, she found just the right job with his life experience qualifications cos she knew a friend of a friend who was making a movie about gangsters and they wanted someone who really knew how true criminals spoke and acted. He was about to be released so she got him a job as a consultant in this gangster movie that he was highly qualified for that. But once the director saw him, he was so authentic, he gave him a part in the movie and he became one of the stars. The movie was called Reservoir Dogs it was a breakthrough movie of Quentin Tarantino. And this guy, he wrote this article, he was only six months out of jail he made this movie and he was sitting in a mansion in Malibu somewhere with more money he had ever had in his whole life. Because this movie was a success and he married that case officer he couldn't believe just how life changes so quickly, six months ago he's in prison with no money and prospects now he had more money than he could deal with and he was free and married and happy.
- From the park dance to the gorillasStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Young woman with Asperger's leaves school early, drugs and homelessness; a dance teacher spots her stretching in a park and pays her; with dance money she sits with zoo gorillas…
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Asberers which is a form of autism. Had a terrible time at school, left very early. Um hated it. Um difficult parents. So she left home very early, was on drugs for 5 years, drugs and alcohol to cope and um homeless. And anyway, she was apparently lovely mover. And one day she was just just sort of stretching and just pre-dancing in the park and she was noticed by um a lady who was actually a dance teacher. She had a school and she said could you you know could could you please come and join us? You're so good and we'll pay you. So she sort of agreed to that. And um so from the money that she earned from the dancing, she used to go to the zoo and sit with the gorillas and just stay there and she just sort of for two hours at a time and the staff actually noticed this after quite a while and they came up to her and they offered her a job. They said please come and you know please because you love the you know we love you with the gorillas