Stories about suffering
23 Buddhist wisdom stories about suffering from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A meditation question at the urinalStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a long talk and Q&A at the Jockey Club auditorium in Hong Kong, Ajahn Brahm desperately needs the toilet but queues of questioners keep him back, and more grab him as he…
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one probably the worst thing which ever happened to me was when I was in Hong Kong giving some talks like you know you talk for over an hour then questions and answers and then after people run out of questions and I think any more questions no and I think I can go and there's a whole line of people in front of me asking their questions and I'm a I'm a monk yes but I'm also a human being I too need to go to toilet and they wouldn't let me go really lot suffering. And so eventually the line finished and I got up to go and then people grabbed me as I was walking out to ask me questions about meditation. That's my job. Okay. I'm supposed to, you know, be a meditation teacher and about their life and stuff. And I finally finally made it to the toilet. It was in the jockey club auditorium in Hong Kong. I finally made it into the L. And as soon as I got into the L, I thought, "Ah yes, now I can go. Ah, I really need this. You know, it's the closest thing to enlightenment. The joy of when you know, you've been really want to go for a long time and now you can actually just evacuate your bladder. Well, you know what happened? This guy just finished washing his hand. Oh, I jump. Can I talk to you about my meditation? It was inside the toilet in the men's room.
- A problem or an irritation?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A backpacker working his way round Europe gets a job in a restaurant (in Germany or Austria) where staff eat for free. The owner over-orders sauerkraut and tells the staff their…
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There's another story about Awitz which I remember reading a good story. There was a a backpacker who was traveling through Europe said travel is now becoming allowable again. when this backpacker was traveling through Europe, he'd just get a job at restaurants and cafes and just any old uh easy work to get a few more dollars and then he would go on his next leg of his journey. And he got a job in this restaurant in somewhere in Germany. And then as he was um I think in Austria I think he said in that restaurant [snorts] it was always known if you get a job in a restaurant you get free food. That's you know part of the deal. You don't get paid very much. You get a few tips but the free food makes it just really quite worthwhile. But then one day the owner of the restaurant told all the workers he'd ordered too much sauerkraut. I don't know if you know Sauerkraut. We have a couple of German monks at Bodhinana Monastery and even though he's not a monk, we have like you know I'm talking about Amandis. Many of you been down there. You know Amandis and he loves sauerkraut. So anyway, they' ordered too much sauerkraut. And so the owner of the restaurant, this is quite a few years ago, told everybody, "If you want free food, it has to be sauerkraut. Sauerkraut for breakfast, sauerkraut for lunch, sauerkraut for dinner, whatever it is. Sauerkraut and only sauerkraut." And this young backpacker said, "You can't do that to us. That is unfair. That's not what we signed up for. I know some people like sauerkraut, but not everyone likes sauerkraut. This is not right. you can't do this to us. And he got very angry. And that apparently was when the owner, not the owner, the cook of the restaurant came up and took him aside. He said, "Look, I've been working at this restaurant for quite a few years now." Said this old man. And he said, "I want to tell you the difference between a problem and an irritation. And then this old cook, he bared his arm and you could see the tattooed numbers on his arm. He said I was in Awitz and he said every morning when I woke up I didn't know whether I would survive that day. I was very fortunate many of my relations and friends and loved ones did die. I survived living in Awitz. That is a problem. Eating sauerkraut is only an imitation.
- Bare midriffs in a Melbourne winterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Giving talks in Melbourne in winter, Ajahn Brahm sees the fashion for halter tops and low-slung jeans leaving about six inches of bare midriff in the cold; he swears some girls'…
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and I always also remember the time I was in Melbourne once don't worry about Fashions you know just do what you want to do because I remember going to Melbourne during the winter time giving a series of talks there and going from one place to another looking through the window I saw there was a fashion of these halter tops you know these low slung jeans or skirts and just you know High um jumpers or whatever leaving the whole midriff you know about 6 Ines of bare flesh in the cold me Melbourne winter and I swear I saw a few girls it was blue those poor women they were suffering so much because of fashion what what do you do that for you attra attract a guy do you really need a guy you get freezing to get a guy there's other ways so in the end sort of you know live simply
- Buddhism in a minuteStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Singapore gentleman asks Ajahn Brahm to teach him what Buddhism is — he has only a minute before work. Challenged, Brahm answers: suffering is asking from life what it cannot…
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when a singapore gentleman he came up to me many years ago and he said no i hear that you're a very wise monk so can you teach me what buddhism is i've only got about a minute because i've got to go to work so you know that sometimes when people just want really deep teachings and they've only got a minute instead of saying that's impossible i always like to challenging myself and just finding sort of see what you can do in such a short time and what i came up with i often repeat to people if i just stuffed it and failed and got something stupid of course i wouldn't remember it wouldn't repeat it what i said is like the suffering is asking from life what it can't give you is asking from life something which you cannot have that's called suffering so learning the limitations of life for yourself
- Don't walk the ant path twiceAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: barefoot on Thai jungle paths you learn which trails the ants own — leave those past-biting paths alone and take another way (the present).
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barefoot through the jungle paths in Thailand because I didn't have any sandals and sometimes you would see where the ants left you would never walk on the paths where the ants were cuz they would bite you and they would sting and it was very painful you'd always find other paths where there were no ants
- Hägar: 'Why me?' — 'Why not!'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Hägar the Horrible cartoon, Hägar is shipwrecked on an island in a storm. He looks up at the sky: 'God! Why me?' And God roars back: 'Why not!'
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I got that from a cartoon once. Hägar the Horrible, do you know Hägar the Horrible? He got great cartoons. He was shipwrecked on an island. Shipwrecked, storm and he looked up in the sky and he said: "God! Why me?" And God roared back "Why not!"
- 'Joy at last to know there's no happiness in the world'Analogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A favourite image of Ajahn Chah's, which he used when visiting England about 25 years earlier: a statue in a monastery in southern Thailand of a fully enlightened monk throwing…
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the great image which I want to bring to you is an image which was one of the favorite images of my teacher Rena and I remember this image because I saw this on somebody's Shrine last week it was a picture of aenta my teacher when he visited England about 25 years ago and he was just explaining this teaching to some monks by using a statue which is in a monastery in the south of Thailand where there is this monk putting his hands up in absolute joy in Bliss fully enlightened and the caption is Joy at last to know there's no happiness in the world Joy at last to know there's no happiness in this world
- Junior-monk suffering, senior-monk sufferingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a skinny young monk Ajahn Brahm resents the senior monks: they get the cushions while he sits on concrete (they have their own 'upholstery'), they do no hard labour, and they…
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When I was a young monk, when I first or date, I wasn't as fat like this. I was really skinny, all bones and hardly any meat on me, any flesh at all. And when we would sit meditation or sit in a ceremony, only the senior monks had all the cushions, the junior monks, we had to sit on hard concrete. And I thought that was really unfair because those senior monks, they don't need a cushion. They've got their own upholstery. It's called fat. Then also those senior monks they didn't have to do any physical work you know in the monastery whether it was shoveling earth whether it was using the wheelbarrows or the hard labor was done by the junior monks and those fat lazy senior monks they didn't do anything and now it comes to the food as well because if you ever come to any of our diners ders is the what the giving especially feeding the monks and the nuns you always give the f the best food to the senior monk first of all and then it goes down the line one after the other to the junior monk and maybe the lay people afterwards and I was so thin in those days and I thought that's really unfair. The best food should start with me first and then go and then go to the big monks afterwards because after all know all the senior monks they're all enlightened already. They didn't need the good food. People like me did but I had to get the leftovers every day and really thin. I started getting what I called junior monk suffering and now I'm a senior monk. Now I don't need cushions, but I get lots. Now, now I don't need to do physical work. Other people do that for me. Now I get first choice of the food every day. But have I let go of my suffering yet? No. Cuz I see all these junior monks, they don't have to talk to people all day. They don't have to hear all the problems people actually load on me about their marriage, about their children, about the economy, about terrorism, about climate control and all these drives me crazy sometimes. I became a monk to get rid of all of that and all the other administration work, any complaints, it comes to me first of all. So now I do not have junior monk suffering anymore. I have senior monk suffering.
- Looking for a tortoise with a moustacheAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah used to say that looking for a happiness that doesn't exist is like looking for a tortoise with a moustache. Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean it doesn't…
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Ajahn Chah used to make that uh statement, and he would keep on repeating it. And when we were like looking for some sort of happiness that didn't exist, he said that was like looking for a a tortoise with a mustache. Have you ever seen a tortoise with a mustache? Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just you haven't found it yet. So, what many people do, they spend their whole lives looking for a tortoise with a mustache, realizing such things just don't exist.
- May you get whatever you want as soon as you want itStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Middle-Eastern friend: second-worst curse is fleas of a thousand camels in your armpits; worst is getting whatever you want immediately.
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two worst curses in the Arab world. And the worst curse you can second worst curse you can give to somebody was to wish somebody "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits." [laughter] The fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits. That's pretty gross. But worse than that was "May you get whatever you want as soon as you want it
- No escape, even in the toiletStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Returning exhausted from Los Angeles via Singapore, Ajahn Brahm is met at the gate by supporters with an airport buggy who take him for tea and ask about meditation, Buddhism and…
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the worst thing worst occasion one worst stories about this was when I was just returning from Los Angeles this it's a long journey on that aircraft and unfortunately when I fly Singapore Airlines there's people in the airport who know me and they meet me at the gate you know this is in the internal area because they got these little cars they can go anywhere in the airport so it's very nice they go and take me for a cup of tea or cup of coffee and they start asking questions about their meditation or about Buddhism about their family life and gee that you know if you're a counselor you've got an office and you can actually secretary have appointments and certain times for me that it's anytime and I got really I must admit that that time I got a bit tired and think just can't you leave me alone and of course you can't really say that as a monk instead I said I need to go to the toilet and I did you know I could hold on for a bit longer but going to the toiler was the way of escaping and sitting down in a place I could have a bit of peace and quiet but of course what happened as soon as I went into the L the toilet attendant recognized me oh a br can I ask you some questions about Buddhism even in the toilet I can't escape
- “Oh no, not again”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A baby boy born in a US maternity ward, still attached to the umbilical cord, is said to have spoken words everyone heard: “Oh no, not again.”
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there was this one story supposed to be true confirmed as best you possibly can a a baby being born in a maternity ward knows a boy so born in a maternity ward in the u.s when the baby came out of the womb still attached to umbilical cord spoke uttered words and the words which it said were just classic it said and everyone there heard it oh no not again
- “Samsara sucks” — and the taxi's replyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a week of breakdowns, missing shower water and redone tickets, Ajahn Brahm writes “samsara sucks” with his finger in the dust on an old donated car's windscreen. Driving in…
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so just a couple of days ago on the vehicle which we're using which somebody donated to us an old magnet car no one had watched the wind screen so I use my finger to write on there that samsara sucks Sam is a Buddhist samsar is a Buddhist word for sort of life and we were using that car to come in this afternoon and on the freeway we were behind a taxi and on the taxi there was an advert on the back and all the bugs saw it burst out laughing because on the advert it was if if you hear anyone say that life sucks send them to and i' just been saying that life sucked we didn't have see where you're supposed to send them to
- “Suffering is asking from the world what it can never give you”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A rushed executive in Malaysia or Singapore demands a quick answer: “Four Noble Truths, suffering — what is suffering? Come on, quickly.” Put on the spot, Ajahn Brahm rises to…
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again I think it was another of the Malaysia or Singapore one of these executives who was in a rush you know what people are like they're busy they can't spend all no even's you spending an hour listening to a talk is amazing most people want to get it quickly I often thought of getting like a driving Buddhist temple you know just go in there you order what talk you want and I give you advice anger depression or whatever and you go and go to the window and it's a few nice wise words thank you very much pay your money and leave I mean that would be a wonderful thing to have a driving Buddhist temple these days but so this person was doing that instead okay this this Buddhist teaching Four Noble Truths suffering what is suffering come on quickly and actually that there's sometimes I'd like it when people put me on the spot like that because when you put on the spot often you rise to the occasion and I was rose to the occasion I said what suffering is asking from the world what it can never give you I was actually credibly profound I was actually quite amazed at myself where do you get that word from but no investigator asking from the world but it can never give you and how much do you suffer because you continue to ask either from your partner from your boss at work you know from your 40 team or even worse from yourself asking from yourself what you will never be able to do that's called suffering
- The comfortable prisonAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: someone born in a modern prison does well at prison school, works hard, gets a bigger cell with nice things and holidays in other wings, marries another prisoner and has…
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sometimes it's like a person is born in this little place and you know, they're fed well, they're treated well. They go to school and they do well at school. They work hard and they save some money and they get a nice little place where they can stay and they can mess around inside where they're living. They can't go too far because a place where they were born and living is called prison, a jail. You have in prison, it's uh it's a modern prison. So, it's there both genders. So, this little prisoner meets another prisoner of a different gender or maybe the same gender and they get married and they have other little baby prisoners and they do very well. If they work hard and behave, they get a nice cell, a big cell with many things in there, and they can get lots of nice food, and they can just go on holidays to other parts of the prison if they wish. And they think that prison is very nice, but they don't call it a prison. They call it planet Earth. You're confined here and you don't know anything else. So you think that that's as good as it gets cuz you don't know anything more.
- The foster-care leader who had been a foster childStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Curtin medal ceremony, one recipient had been put into foster care as a child and suffered. After raising her own family she fostered others, then devoted her life to fixing…
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And this year, one of the recipients was, uh, a woman that if I remember correctly, she, you know, was put into, uh, an orphanage, foster care when she was very young. And she had a terrible time, as many people do. And so, she survived. And then when she survived, uh, she had a family. And when her children grew up, she thought, "What can I do, you know, to actually to to help?" So, she started with fostering other kids. And then from there, she was so good at it, so energized, she gave all of her time, her life to making sure that the foster care system in Western Australia was not going to follow the mistakes which she had endured as a foster kid when she was young. And so, I think she's now head of foster care WA. The person's running the organization. The person who's spending so much of her life making sure that kids who don't have a home, kids who don't have a family, have one. Now, she had been there, she had suffered, she knows what it's like. But she also knew what the solutions were. And when I sort of heard that, I thought, "Wow, these are great people. People who actually doing something, but you don't know about it.
- The leper's smile was bigger than anyone's in PerthStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a Ganges tour, walking back to the tourist bus through a leper colony, Ajahn Brahm is approached for money. Explaining he is a monk who cannot carry money fails; he hugs the…
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One thing which changed me was when I went over to India. When I went over to India, I remember seeing this Actually, we you know, we went on this little tour down the Ganges River and on the way back to the bus to take us to our nice hotel, as people do when you visit India. On the way back, we passed through this leper colony. First time I seen real lepers. This is quite a few years ago. And of course, you know, they weren't all that hygienic. They had bandages on, but you know, dirty bandages. You can see the blood and pus coming out through the the bandages. And of course, they were coming to me, not because I had a brown robe, because I had a white face. And a white face meant money. So, they came and asked me for money. And I tried and I was stupid monk sometimes. I tried to say to them, said, "I'm a Buddhist monk. I don't have any money. That's one of my rules." And how would a leper understand English for a start? In India. And I realized I was getting nowhere. So, the only thing which I could do, which I thought I could give him, I could just give him some compassion, kindness. I just put my arms around him, gave him a hug and a big smile. Now, I gave him what I thought was a big smile. But what that leper gave me back was a much bigger smile than I've ever seen for years. I can't see any of you smiling like that leper. Even now. That was a big smile. And that blew me away. And I always remember that to this day. Actually, I could I can visualize it now. How on earth, I thought, you know, on the bus and many other days on that trip, how on earth can a leper be so happy? And he was showing incredible happiness. And when I came back to Perth, where are those smiles? And you haven't got leprosy. You've got nice houses, good health, health card. You can go to any hospital under Medicare. You can get bulk billed if you're poor. You eat very well. You sleep very well. You can go on holidays overseas and live in air-conditioned houses or heaters this time of the year. What are you worried about? And you started to see from that that suffering is not just having no food in your belly. Suffering is not sleeping out in the cold. In Australia, the suicide rate is much, much higher than in Benares, India, with all the poverty there. Why is it that those lepers would never contemplate killing themselves? But rich, beautiful, wealthy, young people in Perth do. Why?
- The mangy dog who tried to run awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A dog with mange suffers terrible itching and blames the village, so runs off to the forest — still itchy. It tries the pond, the shade, the sun, the shelter of a rock;…
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There's one of Ajahn Chah's favourite stories and this actually comes from an old story in the Buddhist commentary. Once there was a dog and the dog had mange. And the dog's skin was so itchy, no matter if it scratched it, the mange, the skin disease got worse. That's why sometimes in poor countries you see dogs with no hair. So this mangy dog was just having such a lot of suffering and so he decided to run away from the village and live in the forest. So he went in the forest but still had the suffering there. So he went actually under water in the pond but still his back itched. So then he went under the shade of a tree, then out in the sun, then under a rock. Wherever that dog went it was always suffering until it realised it wasn't the village's fault, it wasn't the other dogs. It wasn't the forest or the shade or the sun or the rock's fault. It was actually carrying around the mange inside of itself.
- The ninth weddingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting Seattle, Ajahn Sumedho meets an old school friend who invites him to her wedding — her ninth, or so. Why? She loves meeting a new man, dating, falling in love, the…
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It's one of the stories which Ajahn Sumedho told me a long time ago. He went to visit his home in Seattle where he was brought up, and he caught up with an old school friend of his. And the old school friend, oh great, you're here, I'm just about to get married, please come to my marriage ceremony. He said, you're getting old now, why are you getting married? No, this is not my first marriage, this is my ninth, or something like that. He said, why are you getting married again nine times? She said, well look, it's like this, I like meeting a new guy, dating, it's really exciting, and then falling in love, and that moment when he goes down on one knee and he proposes. I love that moment, it's just so beautiful, so romantic, and planning the wedding, getting all the guests in and a nice dress, I love that stuff. And the wedding itself, we look at each other with just really dewy eyes, smiling, he looks so handsome, and I have to dress up, look so beautiful, and we exchange our vows. That is so beautiful. I love that. It's what happens afterwards I don't like.
- The truckload of dungAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: You come home to find a truckload of manure dumped in front of your door. You didn't order it and no one saw the truck, so you're stuck with it. You can carry it around in your…
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because that was relating to a particular story that if you do have shit happens to you in life, you can dig it in and you can make these beautiful things out of the most unpleasant aspects of your life, there's always something you can do. Now I use that as an extreme example to show that when these things happen to you or happen nationally, the law of kamma means stop thinking why this happened and do something about it. Dig it in, yeah, it's tough to do, but the alternative which is in that story "who ordered the truckload of dung", is people carry the shit around with them in their pockets. And you find if you carry dung and smelly shit in your pockets or your bags you lose a lot of friends, and you understand what I mean by this.. When people really get depressed, angry and upset about what happens to them in life, no one likes to be around you, that's not the way to deal with these problems
- The two arrowsAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The Buddha's simile: when you suffer, it is as if two arrows strike you — the physical arrow and the mental arrow. The physical arrow (sickness, losing your job, criticism,…
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that was a great simile of the two arrows. He said that it's like, when you're suffering, when you're in pain, when there is a difficulty in your life, There is like two arrows inside in you. The physical arrow and the mental arrow. He said that the physical arrow, you can't do much about. Disappointments happen in life, sicknesses happen, It doesn't matter just how much brown rice and veggies and exercise you do, you get sick. As for me, some of food I eat; is all types of rubbishy food. Now every morning, one thing I really like in my tea is sweetened condensed milk. Or if not that, the long-life milk. That's why I'm healthy because it's says "long-life" milk! That's the secret of living a long age you drink a lot of long-life milk. It says on the package, "long-life" milk. (Laughter) But sickness would come to me, I'm not gonna avoid it forever, you know, we all get sick from time to time. So, when you get sick, that's the physical arrow. When you lose your job, that's the physical arrow. When something happens to you, people criticise you, that's the physical arrow. He said "We're gonna accept that. That's the part of life." Each one of us will meet that from time to time. Number one. Look, it's not your fault. It doesn't matter what you do, you're gonna get sick, you're gonna lose your job, you're gonna have arguments in your relationships, some of you gonna get divorced, some of your kids are gonna just, you know, call you all sorts of terrible names. That's life. It happens. But the mental arrow is just what we add to that with our mind.
- The two sisters: one with a husband, one withoutStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Two Thai sisters come for counselling. The elder can't stand her Australian husband and is considering divorce ('recycling'); the younger desperately wants a partner. Ajahn Brahm…
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These two Thai sisters came one day to see me. Oh, I'll never forget this. They still come to feed us every now and again, but they wanted personal counseling. And so I talked to them and the elder sister first. And the elder sister said to me, he said, "Oh, you know, I've got a husband, a Western husband, Australian guy." He said, "I can't stand him." There's so much suffering and and now I'm just really wondering should I keep working on this? Is it really salvageable or should I sort of get divorced and try again? And you all know again I don't call it divorce anymore. I sped this word around in Singapore. They really liked it. We don't call it divorce. What do we call it in Buddhism? Recycling. Yes. It's a much much more positive word. So, and she was thinking of getting divorced. And so, I gave her some nice ideas about how to solve the problems in a marriage because it's not that hard to solve problems in marriage. Even as a monk, I can do that. Like, oh, this great story which just comes to my mind. Some of these are golden oldies, but you know, they're just great stories about this because actually the lady who told me this, you know, I was uh had lunch with her yesterday in Singapore. She told me that she was a bit of a marriage counselor in her early years and she had one client who came to her Singapore lady. She couldn't stand her husband because her husband was coming home very late at night. She was certain that he had a mistress. And so she told the marriage counselor, you know, actually I don't really need counseling. I just want to get rid of the guy. I want to divorce. I want to separate. Just help me get rid of him. And a marriage counselor was a very very smart girl. She said, "Look, if you divorce him now, do you think he will be happy or he'll be miserable?" And she thought about actually it's what he wants. He'd be really happy. And in your present state, do you want him to be happy? No, I want him to be miserable. So this is the plan. Don't get divorced yet when he, you know, doesn't like you. Go out and get a really good hairstyle. Go and get your face, you know, made up. Go and learn a bit more grooming. Go and get some sexy clothes. And when he comes home, just being really nice to him. Just cuddle him and see what happens. because you fell in love once, see if you can make him fall in love with you again. And when he does fall in love with you again, then divorce him. Yeah. Yeah. What a great idea. So that's what they did. She spent a lot of money just getting sort of uh uh face done up and nice hairstyle and what they call it, a makeover. A nice makeover. So she really looked much more attractive and every week go and see the marriage counselor. He started coming home earlier and earlier and earlier. He started becoming more affectionate towards her and they'd always ask how's it going? Yeah, he's you know he's becoming much more affectionate. It's really seems to be working. He's falling in love with me again. And then she missed an appointment. And so the the counselor called her up at home said, "You missed an appointment this week. What happened?" He said, "Oh, well, he's having such a lot of time. He's fallen in love with me. I'm sure of it." "Great," said the counselor. "Now's the time to divorce him." "Oh, no. We're so much in love now." Mission accomplished. Cuz all it is that sometimes is we have a little bit of problems in life, but there's always ways we can work it out. They fall in love with you once, why not try and fall in love again? Now do something like romantic. No, don't come. Honestly, don't come to the Buddhist society if you want to have a nice romance. You know, we're going to get soon another couple of months Valentine's Day. Go and get her a present. Like that one of my favorite jokes like the person who asked his his wife, he said, "Valentine's Day tomorrow, darling, what do you want?" And she said, "I need nothing. I've got you." He said, "Yes, but what do you want?" He'd been married long enough to know women. And so she looked at him and said, "Something, anything with diamonds in." So when she opened her present the following day, she found a pack of playing cards. It has 13 diamonds in it. So that's what you guys you can get for your your wife's Christmas present. A pack of play cards. Diamonds, darling. Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Anyway, back to reality. So I told this lady, you've got husband suffering. That's what it's like having a husband. you ask other women and it's just it's a difficulty having a relationship. It's not easy but you know you can work at it and make it work. And the junior sister, this the younger one of course her problem was she was looking for a partner in life like many people do. They can't find one. You know they find someone who's just almost okay but then it just all goes pear-shaped. It doesn't work. And people keep telling me actually see all these girls coming up here say I just really need a partner in life. I'm looking for someone to go out with and share my life with someone I can trust. And see all these nice guys come up. I'm looking for a girl. I really should start a dating agency cuz I've got all these potential clients and they're all really nice people. I can't understand it cuz I've known some of these people for such a long time. Why can't you get on together? You I get on with you. Really nice people, really good people. But anyway, this is coming in in a few moments. But I told this lady said, "You you are looking for a husband, somebody you can share your life with. And your elder sister has got a husband she doesn't want. I can see a solution." And I actually said that they got very upset at me. I don't know why. It's logic. It's reason. Your sister's got a husband she doesn't want. a younger sisters and I wants one share. Isn't that what brothers and sisters are supposed to do? But then I told her, okay, you've got, you know, a single woman suffering. And I said, if you find a partner in life, you'll have what your elder sister have, married woman suffering. And so they actually understood that. They said, "Yeah, you're right. And if you're married, you have married woman suffering. If you're single, you have single woman suffering." So they thought they'd become nuns. And I said, "If you become nuns, then you have none suffering. Go and ask the nuns at Gijigan.
- The worm in the pile of dungStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A good monk reborn in heaven searches every realm for his misbehaving friend and finds him reborn as a worm in dung; he offers to take him to heaven, but the worm, hearing there…
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Once there were two monks, two Buddhist monks. And I say this because I'm a monk myself, not all monks behave well. There are many scallywag monks. Unfortunately, those are the ones people like to read about in the newspapers. The good monks very rarely get in the newspapers. It's not newsworthy to say "Ajahn Brahm meditated for the last three months." But if Ajahn Brahm did something stupid like went to the casino or whatever, then of course -- or got drunk because somebody gave us a cake steeped in alcohol -- then you might sort of put it in the newspaper. But... one of the monks, of these two monks misbehaved. The other one was a good monk. So when they died one of the monks got reborn in a beautiful heaven realm, while the other naughty monk got reborn as a worm in a pile of shit. And as monks, we have a lot of friendship and community and fellowship. Like even here we try and look after each other. And so after a few, who knows, days up in heaven this ex-monk who was born as a heavenly being started to think "Where is my friend? My old mate? I haven't seen him for a couple of days." So when you get reborn in a heaven realm, according to Buddhism, you have all these powers and so he used some of his powers to search his heaven realm for his friend. He couldn't find him anywhere there. So he went up a couple levels of heaven trying to find him there. He wasn't there either. Lower heavenly realms, couldn't find him there. He said, ah -- according to Buddhism the rebirth as a human being is one of the best rebirths because it's not too much happiness, not too much suffering, a great place to become enlightened -- he said "Ah, my friend, he's been reborn as a human being again. I bet that's what's happened, why I can't find him in heaven." So he searched around the human realm. No trace there either. "My goodness," he thought, "he didn't do some really bad karma and got reborn as a dog or a cat...?" So he looked in the realm of the dogs and the cats. I know some people here think being reborn as a dog is a wonderful rebirth because you don't have to go to work on a Monday morning, but that's not the case. If you think that being reborn as a dog is a good idea, please remember what they do to a dog after one or two weeks when it's born. They take it to the vet and you know what they do to it there. So if you want that... [laughs] Anyway, he couldn't find his friend as a dog or a cat, so he looked at all the other animals. Still couldn't find his friend. He wouldn't give up. He started looking in the lower realms of the creepy crawlies, and there, to his shock and surprise, he saw his best friend was born as a worm in a pile of shit. Now, what would you do if that was your friend? You go and help them out. So he went up to that pile of stinky poo and actually called out and said "Hey worm, worm! Do you remember me? We were monks in a past life. We were the best of friends. Now, you've made some bad karma, but don't worry I can get you out of this. Come with me up to heaven." And the worm in the pile of dung said "First of all I'd like to ask some questions. Number one, is there any shit up in heaven? Of course there's no shit in heaven! It's pure and fragrant and lovely stuff there. He said "If there's no shit I'm not going." "Why not?" He said, "Well look, it's fragrant. It smells so beautiful. It's so warm and cozy inside and it's also my food." Imagine -- there's lots of sort of Asian people here -- imagine you got reborn sort of in a big pile of noodles. [laughter] Or if there's any westerners here like reborn in a big hamburger so you can eat it all your day. I don't know what else you like. But he said "No I'm not going to go." Because this was his home, this was his food, this is where he belonged; he liked it. And so that heavenly being tried to pull the worm out. And remember worms which live in piles of dung are smeared with slimy shit and so it's very hard to take them out, especially when they don't want to go. So the worm would wriggle and writhe, and every time this heavenly being took it out a little bit, it would escape and go right in the middle of the dung again. Now this heavenly being, imagine like you were sort-of a high being, you had to put your hand in this most stinky, smelliest stuff. His friendship was so strong he would not give up. Because he thought "If I could just take my friend the worm up to heaven so he could just see for himself, of course he would give up his shit and come up to heavens, it's so much nicer." But of course because the worm never wanted to go, it wriggled and writhed, and escaped every time and eventually the heavenly being had to give up and leave the worm to his pile of shit.