Stories about sensuality
5 Buddhist wisdom stories about sensuality from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Dixon of Dock Green vs the new cop showStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting his mother in London after seven years without TV, he watches a half-hour cop show with her and counts about a dozen people shot dead. He can't believe it: the police…
Read full story
I went to visit my mother in London about 15 years ago, the first time I'd seen TV in about 7 years. It was like a copper movie show. I forget what it was called - not Defenders, or something. Anyways, half an hour TV show, repeated every week. As I was watching it with my mother, for giving her company, I couldn't believe how many people died in about half an hour. I was actually counting them. I got to about a dozen or something got shot and killed. I couldn't believe this because before, when I was... before I became a monk, the TV was so tame. Because I had 7 years I hadn't seen the actual progress of violence on TV, the contrast was so strong inside of me because the police show I remembered as a kid was a police show - anyone old enough might remember this - Dixon of Dock Green. Dixon of Dock Green was this London bobby in the days when they didn't have guns. If he caught a burglar, the burglar would say, "Ah, Sergeant Dixon, it's an honor to be caught by you, sir." [Laughter]. And apparently they don't do that anymore. [Laughter]. Things have changed. And no one got shot, and if they did go ever get hurt, if there was a bullet, they'd go, "Ooh, ooh, ooh." You wouldn't see any blood at all. And they'd just fall on the floor without any gore or anything.
- Economy class was paradiseStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After seven years in austere forest monasteries he flies Bangkok–London on a cheap Philippine Airlines economy fare. He can't believe the luxury: a chair, ripe Western fruit, ice…
Read full story
I also remember the first time that after seven years I flew on an aircraft. From Bangkok to London. I got a cheap fare on Philippine Airlines, an economy class. This is 25 years ago. I couldn't believe just how sensuous and luxurious economy class on Philippine Airlines was. [Laughter]. It was my senses were, "Ah! Amazed!" Because I'd been in a forest monastery which was very, very austere. What I realized from that, that sensuality is also very relative. To other people cramped in the economy class of an aircraft 25 years ago that was just so tough and it was such an ordeal. But for me, who had never sat on a chair for seven years, being served ripe fruit which was hot and which was Western which I could eat. I even got ice cream. I remember that ice cream. [Laughter]. But in the tub instead of in my bowl. That was just melting into my rice and curry. [Laughter]. And even the muzak, the muzak on the plane that was.. I mean, I hadn't heard music for seven years. That was amazing, that was just so sensuous, I couldn't get that out of my head afterwards. So you see that's obviously a joke for you because you go on an aircraft and the muzak on there is just yucky and the food, aircraft food people think is disgusting. An economy class you're so cramped up. But for me, because I'd been living a far more austere existence in these forest monasteries. That was amazing. In the aircraft there wasn't even any mosquitoes. First time in seven years I was free from mosquitoes for more than an hour or two. That was to me, was luxurious and sensual.
- Sensual pleasure is a loanAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The Buddha's simile, as Ajahn Brahm gives it: sensual pleasure is like taking out a loan — joy at first, then the payback; and to repay it you take another, bigger loan, until…
Read full story
he compared such sensuality like to borrowing money, taking out a loan. Which is actually very deep and profound because when say you are watching pornography or you know getting into some sort of sensuality there's a lot of joy there at the beginning. But often we have to pay it back afterwards. And sometimes like a loan the only way you can pay it back is by taking out another loan to the pay off the original debt and the loan gets bigger and bigger and bigger until one gets into such a great financial mess, there's no way you can actually pay back your loan.
- The sludge that started to taste niceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Told that monks should eat plain food, he recalls that in his first year as a monk, as a practice, he stirred everything in his one daily meal — sweets and all — into a single…
Read full story
My first year as a monk, for a practice, I put all the food together which was disgusting anyway, and I got the spoon and mixed it all up. I only had one meal a day. It was a sludge, it was a slop and if you saw it, you'd actually pour it out straight away. It wasn't even fit for pigs, let alone for monks. But the trouble was it was an interesting experiment which I did. Every food no matter what it was, the sweets, everything in one bowl and stirred it up so it was absolutely consistent. After a while, it actually started to taste nice.
- Three months without looking at a girlStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Chah's own stories: as a lusty 18- or 19-year-old novice in a town monastery, he resolved that for the three-month rains retreat he wouldn't look at any girl at all,…
Read full story
one of Ajahn Chah's stories was that when he was a young, lusty novice, you-know, 18, 19 years of age, with all the hormones running through him, he wanted to become a monk, but, obviously, he saw young Thai girls, and he would have lust towards them. And so for three months, during a period of what we call Rains Retreat, the time when I don't come here, Sister Vayama doesn't come here. Those of you who have been coming here for a long time know for three months we always go back into our monasteries. He was staying in a town monastery, so for three months, he decided he would not look at any girl at all. He would keep his eyes down, and not even look at anybody, thinking that that type of restraint would overcome his lust. So for three months, he refused to even look at a girl. And he said what happened, for those three months he was fine, but after his resolution was completed, the first girl he looked at he went crazy with lust.