Stories about self-worth
6 Buddhist wisdom stories about self-worth from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Puppies for young offendersStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm reads that Western Australia gave repeat juvenile offenders, aged 16 or 17 and beyond the reach of counsellors, a puppy each to train. Every session the puppy jumped…
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I read it in the newspaper in the local Western Australia. There's some really smart person here in this state, there're lots of smart people in government. Rare, but there are some. [laughter] Decided to take some of these juvenile offenders who got into all sorts of trouble with the law. Instead of like bagging them up in a jail again, or giving them counsellors because sometimes the counsellors can't do anything either. Instead, they gave them dogs. They assign every one of these really bad juvenile offenders, a little puppy to look after, to train. And the results were incredible. And they were saying instead of like a counsellor, another human being. Yeah, they've been there. They've done that. They went to sort of to that little puppy little dog to train and to get to know and every time they went to this session with their puppy, the puppy would jump all over them and lick them. No counsellor ever does that. [laughter] Not even a monk does that. I'm not going to lick you. But, these dogs would do that. And they just melted some of these really repeated offenders. And they were just only 16 or 17 and gone through just a lot, a lot of therapies, and that really got to them.
- “Thank you, I do deserve this medal”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the annual John Curtin Medal ceremony, a woman with decades of community service insists others deserve it more — just as Ajahn Brahm himself had done; he realises both should…
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Because four years ago on that day the John Curtin University gave me this medal, the John Curtin medal, which is actually for community service, for doing good things for other people. And the first year after I got the medal I thought well, other people came to see me get a medal. I should go and see them. So I rocked up thinking I was just doing a duty, but I really was impressed with what I saw because there were people who'd done good things for the world, especially just this part of the world; and they were getting rewarded. I was just really impressed every year to see how people were really giving and serving for others. It was inspiring, so I've gone every year since. Just a couple weeks ago there was one lady there who'd done a huge amount around the Kalamunda area for the local community, but when she got her medal she came up to give a little speech and she said "I don't know why you've given it to me. There are so many other people who are much more deserving than me and even in my group, these other people work much harder than I do in this group. I've founded it and led it but.." And she was saying all this stuff and I remembered "oh here we go again - why can't you see that actually you do deserve that," because when I was listening to what she did -- she's an amazing woman -- how much she'd given and sacrificed and served for no reward through 30 or 40 years of her life she'd given to others. I thought wow you really deserve that medal. But could she say she deserved it? No. I did the same when I got my medal. "What the heck are you giving it to me for? There are many other people who work harder than me." Me, too, I could not see the beauty in myself. Really what I should've done was go up there and say "Thank you very much, I do deserve this medal." [laughter] But it was true, I did deserve it And she deserved it.
- The boy who failed grade one three timesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A north-east Thai boy fails grade one three years running, so he is sent to the village monastery, where even the patient abbot can't teach him to chant 'Namo Tassa'. Sent on to…
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There was one of my favourite monks in Thailand long time ago. I only heard about him when I was a young monk. I never actually met him. But the reason why I was impressed by him was his story how he became a monk, and how he became fully enlightened. Because he was a young kid when he went to grade one in school in the northeast of Thailand, it was only basic education. Only four years of school. This was over 40 50 years ago. Only four years at school and then you are out in the fields ploughing and doing stuff with your father and mother. It was subsistence economy. So when he went to grade one at school after finishing the year, his teacher said "I'm sorry, I can't pass you. You can't go on to grade two. You have to repeat grade one." I don't know how anyone could fail grade one at school. Maybe plasticine, you can't do. Otherwise how can you fail grade one? But this kid was so stupid, he failed grade one and had to repeat it when all his friends went on to grade two. And after another year in grade one, his teacher said "Look, I'm sorry. Just for the best one in the world. You have to repeat it for third year." And after three years of repeating grade one at school, that teacher the headmaster again "Sorry we can't pass this kid. He's that stupid." And anyone who can't pass grade one after three tries, it's a waste of time, sort of getting him to help plough the fields. He doesn't know one end of a water buffalo from another end. And so the only place they could send him and this was in Thailand in those times if you're that stupid, you can't pass grade one after three years, was to send him into the monastery and make him a novice monk. Now not all novice monks start their life out like that. [laughter] And the reason they sent him to the monastery, village monastery, because that was just a catcher that was a social safety net. And at least the head monk in these monasteries they are always incredibly kind and so patient. Much more patient now than any sort of teacher in a school. So, this head monk in this monastery took this young kid under his wing and tried as much as he could to train him. Now we have to do some sort of chanting, you know, as a Buddhist monk. He tried to teach him how to chant simple things like the Namo Tassa. And so you get the first word Namo. Yeah, what's the second word? Tassa? Oh, yeah, Tassa. What's the first word again? He was just so dumb. He could not even do Namo Tassa. And after a couple of years in the monastery in the village, even the abbot just could not teach him. So the last resort, the final resting place for such hopeless little kids were the forest monasteries, where I come from. [laughter] They said send him to one of these forest monasteries. That's where you don't have to do the chanting, and you just meditate all day. And this fellow, his mind was so simple. They just asked him, just notice and watch your breath go in and out. And he could do it no problem at all. Because he, you know, he didn't think that much, not like you guys. And so this person who everyone thought was stupid, he got into the deep meditations really quickly, and very quickly became fully enlightened, an arahat. So you say, who's a stupid one? Not this guy, his mind was so peaceful, they're so pure and kind. Interestingly, I remember the story. They said, well, you know, as a monk, he has to do some chanting. And he could chant very well after that experience. Because what he actually did. So he said, with a powerful mind like that he could remember his past lives, remember the past life when he was a monk before and when he actually did learn the chanting. And he would actually connect with that past life whenever he had to do the chanting. So you know he's actually sent his memory back. And that's where he could chant in this life.
- The crooked trees are the beautiful onesAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a mental-health conference a woman apologises to Ajahn Brahm: when he walked in she thought “who is this wanker?” — but his talk made her laugh and cry. What made her cry was…
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this is the story I told this at a conference on mental health during the wintertime last year, and that was over in the convention centre in Perth. And they were the person came up to me afterwards and said, she apologised to me, because she said, "When I first saw you coming into our conference", now please excuse the language. This is what she said, "I thought who is this wanker coming to our conference?" And she came to apologise for thinking like that, because I made her laugh, I made her cry, what made her cry. These were clients who have been through mental health problems. And were just trying to do something to improve the service for others. So the story which made her cry, is my story of the the trees in the forest. I often use this when people go to Bodhinyana monastery or go to Jhana Grove, but you know, don't need to say it there, say it here as well. If you go this weekend and go for a walk in the forest somewhere, please find a perfect tree for me. A tree which has got all of the branches equally spaced, only green leaves, no yellow leaves, no brown leaves, no leaves which have been eaten by the insects, which is perfectly straight, not crooked, or leaning to the left or the right. And with a bark, which hasn't been damaged by the bush fires or by the winds and things hitting it. A bark without scars on it. If you can find such a tree, you'll be the first in the world to find a tree in the natural forests because every tree you look at them. They're all bent and crooked. They've all got branches which have fallen off and that leaves holes where the birds and other animals can nest. And if you look at the leaves, there's lots of yellow leaves and brown leaves and leaves which have been eaten by insects and all the trees are crooked and bent. And the scars on their bark, they're just the bark is really rough, and knobbly and scarred. They're the beautiful trees. And I said in this talk if you are one of those trees, all bent and crooked, with heaps of scars on the bark with branches which have been ripped off by the storms of your life. You belong as one of the beautiful trees in the forest, you're my favourites. Because certainly I like the crooked trees, the bent trees, with all the scars and the knobbly bits on the outside. They're the ones which are beautiful.
- The Happiness CertificateStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For people who feel they don't deserve happiness he makes a certificate on monastery letterhead: 'This certificate grants the holder the right to be happy, for any reason or no…
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I started making this Happiness Certificate for them. Just to reinforce the idea – that this certificate is on BSWA… no, it’s on Bodhinyana monastery letterhead I think. This certificate grants the holder the right to be happy. For any reason or no reason at all. For the rest of their life. And their next lives as well. Signed ‘Ajahn Brahm’. No, I didn't ‘sign’, I said: ‘By order of Ajahn Brahm’. [Laughter] To make it a bit more assertive. Some of those actually worked. You gave it to people and they said ‘Yeah!’. The problem was, when I first did that - it was actually the retreat I was giving in… I suppose in Frankfurt. Because sometimes, people think they don't deserve the happiness, they're getting so close, but… So I gave one of these certificates out. And this fellow, he put it on the Internet. And then the next day he said ‘uhmm, can you please do another 50
- The prisoner who fed the catStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A depressed prisoner insists he is only a bad person. Ajahn Brahm has him list bad deeds on the left of a sheet and good deeds on the right. At first the right side is empty…
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there was one of these prisoners who just so depressed? And when I said, why are you depressed? Look, I'm in jail. I did a bad thing. I feel so terrible. This my life is over. Finished. And then usually I asked him, well, what good things have you done? Nothing. You must have done something good. No, I'm a bad person. And then and then he he uh wrote out I wrote out this piece of paper line down the middle your name on the top. Now on the left hand side write all the bad I won't show it to anybody else. Write down all the bad things you've done. Things which you put been put in jail for and things which you did but weren't put in jail for. Put them all down. They won't show them to anybody else. He trusted me. That's one of the nice things about being a monk. People actually trust you and you know if that's what you say that's what you're going to do. So he wrote all these things on the left hand column all the terrible stuff he'd done. He felt good about confessing opening up. But then I asked him on the right hand side all the good things you've done. Nothing. No. Come on. You must have done something. The prison had a cat and I knew that he looked after the cat. Did you give the cat anything this morning? Said I gave it source of milk. Put it down. Had to force him to put down and write down. Fed the cat saucer of milk. But then he found another thing you could put down afterwards. Once you break that damn wall, it was amazing all the kind good things he'd done that past week. And you filled up the right hand side of that piece of paper. You know what I did next? tore that paper down the middle, threw away all the terrible things he did, and gave him the good things he did. Please keep this. Put it next to your bed in your cell. Photocopy if you like, but please keep that to realize you're not such a bad person after all