Stories about self-sacrifice
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about self-sacrifice from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Seven monks in a caveStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Seven monks practise loving-kindness in a jungle cave: the abbot, his brother, his best friend, his 'enemy', a very old monk, a very sick monk, and the useless monk who snores,…
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And that was the story of the seven monks meditating in a cave. This is in the Opening the Door of Your Heart. And I had great fun telling this story when I was in the USA a couple of years ago, and listening to me was a bishop, an Episcopalian bishop, Similar to an Anglican bishop. I told this because I was feeling a little bit cheeky, See if I can catch him out, and he fell into the trap, but he thanked me for it afterwards. And he said, can I please use this in my sermon? I said, oh, please do. And it was this story of the seven monks meditating in a cave. They were meditating on loving-kindness which I hope you all know, May all beings be happy and well. May all beings without distinction, without discrimination on species or race, gender, sexual orientation, my loving-kindness goes to everyone. And the seven monks meditating in this cave, listen carefully because there's a question coming at the end. And if you've heard it before, you have to promise to please shut up. Don't spoil my fun. So, the seven monks were the head monk, the boss, the abbot. The second monk was his best friend. They'd grown up together, they loved each other, just like the third monk who was his brother. They loved each other. The fourth monk, however, even though they ordained, was an, he called him his enemy. They just had personality clash, they just didn't get on. Even though they were really good people, they just, you know, whenever one said one thing, it just always grated on the other. You know, really good people, they still can't get on. I see that quite often when people come to marriage counselling. Really good people, why don't you get on? There's something I still can't understand. You see the woman, the wife, she's just a beautiful girl, known her a long time. See the guy, amazing fellow, just be getting into bad habits, that's all. So this was a typical bad habit, this monk, two monks, didn't get on together. And the fifth monk, number five, was a very old monk. He's so old, so advanced in years. he could die any day. Just waiting for just his last breath. And the next monk was also, he was a sick monk, very ill, so ill, they never thought he would recover, no monk would know who was going to die first, the old monk or the sick monk. They were both at the end of their life. And the last monk, number seven, is what we call the useless monk. The useless monk, whenever they tried to meditate, he would always be the first one to fall asleep, which wasn't that bad, but he'd snore really loudly. Whenever they did any chanting, he would always chant out of key, if he could remember the words anyway. And even when he was wearing his robe, his robe always tended to fall off. I wonder what that useless monk is. And he was a useless monk, and as I often say when I mention this part of the story, and this is actually true, every monastery has one. (audience laugh) You can find out who it is. (audience laughs) No... He's a good monk. (laughter) He's supposed to be my attendant for the weekend. If I didn't say that, he wouldn't feed me. Look after me. Ask Ayya Hasapanna Nunneries as well, the same, they always have the useless one. Anyway, and the useless monk was number seven. And what happened next was this gang of robbers, these thieves, they found this cave deep in the jungle, and they thought, this is a great place for our hideout. After we've robbed and maybe killed, we can take all of our loot, all of our stolen goods into this cave. And they didn't have money laundering in those days. I was going to say sort of overseas banks, Panama, but I bet I'll get in trouble for that. So they didn't have overseas banks in those days, so they just had to hide their ill-gotten goods. This is a brilliant place to hide our goods. And also, they found it first. So, let's kill all the monks, so none of the monks can say the location of this cave to the police. That was what they wanted to do. But the senior monk, the senior monk was such a great talker, so convincing, if he hadn't taken the robes, he could have been the treasurer of a country like ours. I better not go further on that one either. So, the senior monk managed to talk and convince the head of the thieves to letting all the monks go except one. Because the only reason he wanted to kill everybody, or kill all the monks, is so they didn't tell where the location of the cave was. So the head monk said, look, we're monks, we keep our promises, we won't tell the location of the caves, let us go. And the head bandit said, no, I've got to be sure, I'm going to make an example, I'm going to kill one of the monks in front of the rest of you, in front of the other six, as a warning. Because if you tell the location of this cave, we'll find you, we'll come for you, and the same will happen to you. And that's the best deal the head monk could do. That one of them had to be killed in front of the others, so the rest could go free. So now the question is, who was chosen? And before you answer, I've got to go through the list again. Head monk, brother, best friend, enemy, old monk, sick monk, both at the end of their lives anyway, it was a day or two, 60, 70 years matter. And lastly the useless monk, and the useless monk had never done anything for anybody, never done any good karma in his whole life, maybe this was his chance. So if you were the head monk, who would you choose? Answer? If you know the answer, please be quiet, don't spoil it. Who did he choose? Thank you for that wrong answer because that's what the bishop said. (laughter) And when I tell the story, that's what most people say. He sacrificed himself. And that is the wrong answer but there's a reason why I tell this story which is coming up soon. Any other suggestions? Who else? Anyone for the useless monk? yeah, there at the back, I thought that. No, of course not. The answer is, those people who have heard the story know, it's a very good story once you find out what the answer is and why the meaning of telling this story. The answer was that the head monk's love for his brother was no more, no less than the love for the best friend. If you love two people just the same, you just can't choose between them. And his love towards the enemy was no more, no less than the other two. Even the old monk and sick monk and the useless monk, he loved everybody equally, he just couldn't judge between them, no matter who they were and what they did. His love was unconditional, all beings, no matter what gender, what race, what religion, what they did or what they didn't do, his love was given to everybody equally. And most importantly, his love towards himself was no more, no less than his love to all the other six monks. And that's where I told the Bishop, I said, didn't your teacher, Jesus, tell you to love your neighbour as yourself? He said, yeah, doesn't that mean to love yourself as your neighbour? No more, no less, that's what the word "as" means, to love your neighbour as yourself means to love yourself as your neighbour, equally Yes, he said, he gave me the Buddhist respect. He said that's why he wants to teach that in his sermons.
- The rabbit who jumped into the potStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Traditional Buddhist children's tale of the rabbit in the moon: otter, jackal/hyena and rabbit keep precepts and give dāna when Sakka disguised as a monk tests them. The rabbit,…
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There were these three friends. Was it the rabbit, the otter, and the the jackal? And they were the best of friends. And when it came to the moon days, they would always keep special rules at the moon days. In Buddhism, we usually do eight precepts instead of five precepts. So, they decided on that day they would keep the five precepts. I don't know why they're talking about five precepts because they'd never drink alcohol anyway. But anyway, they do five precepts and they would try and do charity. Anytime they can do some charity or give some donna, they would. And so what happened that this this god came down. No, one of these many gods in Buddhism. This was supposed to be Saka came down to test them out. And he took the form of a Buddhist monk, Asadu, with an arms ball. And as soon as they saw him, they said, "We got to keep our promise. We got to give him something." So the otter, well, what can I give him? He said, "Well, look, I can't get any fish cuz I'm keeping precepts today." But this otter had actually buried some fish for later on. So he took out that fish he'd buried and he offered it to the monk and the monk gave him a little blessing. And then it was the job of the the hyena. what can I get? What can I get for this for this monk? And he couldn't steal anything that was breaking the precepts. So what he did, he knew where there's many people and many people were not very careful and they left things out and so nice food. And so he went there and he said, "Does this belong to anybody? Does this belong to anybody?" When nobody responded, he took that and gave that to the monk. And the monk gave him a blessing. And then there was a job of the rabbit and the rabbit started getting some grass for the monk. But they said, "Hey, but monks don't eat grass. What can I get for this monk? He has to keep his precepts." [snorts] So the rabbit got some wood and made a little fire. And cuz a rabbit knew, oh no, he got also a pot and put some water in it and started boiling the water. And the rabbit said, I know that monks don't eat grass, but sometimes they eat rabbit stew. So the rabbit to keep his precepts and his and his vow, he was about to sacrifice himself to keep his precepts and his promise. But before before he jumped in the pot, he shook his body the first time. If there any fleas or any other parasites in my body, get out now, cuz I cannot kill you. When I jump in the pot, you will die as well. That's not fair. And he shook his body a second time. And he shook his body the third time and said, "Any bugs, any lice or anything in my fur? Get out now. This is your last chance." And he was sincere. So many of those bugs, they just jumped out and just went away. And then to keep his promise, he jumped in the pot of boiling water. But but it looked like it was boiling. It should have been boiling. But that monk was really is like one of the heavenly beings, the davas in disguise. Made it so that the water never even scolded that little rabbit. It was like cool, beautiful water. And so the rabbit climbed out and the monk revealed himself. I'm not a monk. I was one of these davas just testing you three and you all did so well. But the rabbit the rabbit was prepared to give his life to keep his promises. [snorts] So I'm going to make a sign so that everybody will remember you. And so this God, this heavenly being made an image of the rabbit in the moon. So that every full moon people can see the rabbit who would always keep his promises