Stories about thailand
15 Buddhist wisdom stories about thailand from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Bangkok air-con room — no sloth and torporStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After sleep-deprived NE Thai forest conditions, a stay in Bangkok with decent food, sleep, no mosquitoes and an air-conditioned meditation room means no sloth and torpor at all —…
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went to Bangkok I got decent food a good night's sleep no mosquitoes and they're not in the buildings there and we managed to find an air-conditioned room to meditate in. You know what? No sloth and torpor at all. I could meditate just really easily simply because it was the supporting conditions
- Bangkok walking meditation — my name from miles awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On walking meditation in Bangkok years ago, Brahm hears his ordination name Brahmavamso as if from miles away. Paying attention, he finds another monk shouting it into his ear —…
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walking meditation uh this was in Bangkok many years ago that I heard this sound like it was a long distance away like miles away and it was it was my name no I don't promise another the name I'm known as now but the real name is Brahma wongsa and I heard this sound like from a really long distance brahmawang so Obama Wong so and I thought this was really weird because it felt so distant for me but then I just paid attention to it instead of my feet walking and I found out it was another mug was shouting in my ear hole
- Crocodiles sleep with their mouths openAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: NE Thailand folk: lazy crocodiles sleep mouths open; flies walk in by themselves — no hunting needed.
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crocodiles over in northeast of Thailand would actually eat, how they would catch enough fish. They're very, very lazy, those crocodiles. And they didn't need to do very much. able to sleep out in the sunshine of the day with their mouths open. And once they were sleeping with their mouths open, of course, the flies went in all by themselves. They didn't need to hunt for flies. The flies just came
- 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
- He won the Chiang Mai lottery — and went madStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Chiang Mai illegal number-lotteries run by gangs: a man sells his house, wins a fortune, then the gangs offer only a couple of million of the ten owed. He cannot sue; they…
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Chiang Mai in north of Thailand they have illegal notaries there I think it's the last two or three numbers and they bet on it and he won it and a lot of money I think he actually sold his house and put a fortune on this lottery number and because it was run by the gangs in Chiang Mai they said no we're not going to pay you the full amount you know just a couple of million is enough he said no no it's 10 million I said a couple of million and they said no we're only going to give you two million he said no I demand 10 million he couldn't take them to court because his illegal Lottery and they told him listen mate a bullet only cost about ten dollars but he still wouldn't accept it and he went crazy they're committed to a mental institution simply because he won and couldn't accept a lesser payment greed sent him mad
- In Thai law the bus driver was guiltyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Outside the Thai monastery a drunk villager on a bicycle, no lights, wrong side of the road, is killed by a bus that had lights and was sober. The bus driver flees — under Thai…
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there was this one villager was driving home from another Village after the party drunk on a bicycle on the wrong side of the road with no lights on it was totally drunk driving on the the highway wrong side of the road no lights on and he got creamed by a bus killed the bus had his lights on the bus you know was on the correct side of the road the bus driver didn't have any uh alcohol or drugs in him but the bus driver had to run away and flee cuz in Ty Law the bus driver would be guilty because in now when I heard that that's unfair there's a guy the bicycle is fault he's on the wrong side of the road he was drunk no lights on how can you blame the bus driver just explain to me that that's the Western way of looking at it always looking at the individual's responsibility but in tie law they were saying no the bus driver the bigger vehicle has a responsibility to look after the smaller vehicles they have more onus on them to be on the lookout and so in tyw if that buzz driver had been caught he had to run away and escaped till the heat went down he would have been put in jail for that
- No alcohol from sunrise to sunset — for vassaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Thai alcoholic vows during rains retreat: no drink sunrise to sunset; hangs at the temple all day; tops up before dawn and after sunset — the best he can do, and it is hard.
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alcoholic but he came up to us and he said during the wasser period for three months I'm not going to drink any alcohol from sunrise to sunset and this gentleman that was a very big sacrifice for him you could see it he would come to the temple and try and hang out in the temple all day because he knew there was no alcohol there and to try and make sure he kept his precept and he was waiting and waiting and waiting in the evening for sunset throughout he'd have some alcohol and he had a big top up before the Sun rose because that's the best he could do
- Thai insurgents forgiven — then hiredStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Northeast Thai insurgency collapses; rebel leaders give themselves up and instead of jail or execution are forgiven and given civil-service jobs. Years later in Sydney the Thai…
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the leaders of the insurgency the main rebels who were responsible for attacks on many army posts and many people being killed they gave themselves up as well they had no resources left to fight the government and the beautiful thing was they were not put in jail they were not interrogated or put against the wall and shot instead they were forgiven almost immediately they were given very good jobs in a civil service their ability to organize a sacrifice to pour their own safety second to what they thought was the benefit of their friends and relations in the villages and provinces but that was much more important for them why not make use of their abilities let them join up the government and once many years ago when I told this story in this was in Sydney and the Thai ambassador was listening and when it came question time he stood up with his hand up and said yes that is true but you lift out something he said two of those leaders two of those leaders were trying to overthrow the Thai government
- The birds queued — and punished the queue-jumperStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Near the Burmese border in hot season he put out a water bowl by a knothole. Birds of different sizes lined up in a queue; when one jumped the queue the others piled on, pecked…
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to see all these birds of different sizes and species line up in a queue. Have you ever seen birds queuing? I have. And it was true. That's what they did. There are maybe eight or nine birds, maybe a dozen at the best, you know, and they were big ones, small ones, and they were sitting there just waiting until the one in front finished and then the next one would actually come in. And of course, it is fascinating. And then there was always every afternoon one bird would come in and would actually jump the queue and try and get in there first. Couldn't wait to have a bath or have a drink. Weird. But you know what the other birds would do? They would all get out of queue, jump on that Q jumper, [laughter] pick him and beat him and whatever. And that Q jumper would fly away. And then all those birds would queue up in exactly the order they were before. [laughter] It's unbelievable. Absolutely true. And so what that really did was, you know, increase your respect
- The bucket with so many holesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Coming from Cambridge to subsistence villages in northeast Thailand, Ajahn Brahm is shocked at how happy people are eating frogs and snails. Years later a villager tells him that…
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And I remember seeing an example of that living in this poor part of Thailand, you know, which had no roads, no electricity. But you know, there's this great sense of happiness in those villages. That's one of the great shocks to me coming from a rich country and having spent 3 years in this elite university where people would actually call you young gentleman. And if you looked at me at the time, that would be a stretch of everybody's imagination to call me a young gentleman the way I behaved in those days. But that we had to be called that. And it is awkward in Cambridge. It's really a weird place. But you come from that place where you could have dinner, you know, with a Nobel laureate or just to play soccer with an earl and all that sort of stuff. And they were actually hopeless at soccer, by the way. But and you went from there to the villages of northeast Thailand of subsistence farming, you know, as I had mentioned before, eating frogs and snails and all this other stuff. Whatever crawled on the floor went into your curry. And seeing that people were so happy. That was one of the weirdest surprises to see that people in these villages had far more happiness than anyone I'd ever seen in those great colleges or this, you know, developed society like UK. It made me challenge, I mean, why are all these aid organizations pouring millions into northeast Thailand making them suffer just like us? And actually that is actually what happened. And I saw it in my own eyes. They saw that I remember cuz I cuz fluent in sort of Thai and now and you would speak to people and I remember this one guy I saw after maybe 20 years I'd been there. And he said, "You know, when we you first came here, yeah, we didn't have very much, but you know, we had enough to get by. We had enough food. No, not the best food, but enough." He said, "Now it's just like having a bucket with so many holes. You know, I get money for all these things. But the more water I put in my bucket, the more holes there are. They just keeps on dripping out and I can never fill my bucket anymore." He said, "That's just all these things I now have to pay for electricity, for television, for medical insurance and blah blah blah." And he says, "In the old days, life was so simple and so happy." And I remember this other guy. He was one of Ajahn Chah's chief disciples.
- The forest monk chased by the tigerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Dhammindu (caption: Mark Edge and Drew) tells of a wandering Thai forest monk who insists on camping on a tiger trail despite the headman's warning. Meditating peacefully…
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many years ago there was a well I was told a story by this Mark Edge and Drew and long time ago before he died he said there was a monk who was wandering from place to place in Thailand and uh just know for Solitude for Freedom meditating and he came to one Village late in the afternoon and told the head man of the village that I just arrived you have to tell the head man so the villagers know to get some food for you the following morning for your arms around otherwise you don't eat I said I just arrived I want to meditate in the forest the jungle close by just to let you know I'll be here when arms around in the morning and that's when the head man told him well you better stay here in the village with us he said no I'm a forest monk now stay in the village there was a tiger in the vicinity in the last few days it's eaten two or three water buffaloes and even one of our kids you know it is a really dangerous this is the jungles 40 years ago very dangerous tiger but this Mark said I am not afraid of tigers show me where the tiger comes from he said I can't do that it'll kill you I said no I am a monk I have no fear really said the head man okay follow me and about a kilometer outside of the village you could see where the Tiger Trail cut through the jungle and the Mark said right here I am going to put my mosquito net and here I'm going to stay tonight I'm going to face down the tiger real Brave Monk would you be able to do that knowing there is a not a man-eating Tiger but a monkey eating tiger right there is gonna come tonight are you willing to face the the Tiger in the middle of the night so this Mark was really a tough Monk and so the head man helped him set up and then the head man went back to make sure before he got dark he didn't want to face a tiger let the monk face the Tiger and that night the Monk was meditating so peacefully so so calm in the jungle once all the shakadas stopped their their racket the jungle at night time is just so peaceful and he was meditating peacefully peacefully peacefully breathing in peace breathing out let go and that's when he started to hear that's the best I got for for sound effects not very good but we're riding on the cheap and I bought a society these days so many stuff we can't afford anything so he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him and those four steps were there four steps of an animal so there wasn't any more breathing in peace beating out I let go he reverted to the old Thai way of meditating they used to do breathing in board breathing out oh using the name of the Buddha with the in-breath and the out breath as a protectionist to remind you to be peaceful but and the first steps got louder as the animal approached and his chanting became and as it got really close and it's got even closer he opened his eyes he couldn't resist it and he saw this massive tiger says white fangs not teeth glistening in the Moonlight is big eyes it's huge Jaws could rip anything apart even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have no chance Superman a loser in front of this tiger this was a huge monster of a tiger and as I remembered his eyes again he changed his meditation object and the next thing he knows you know sometimes we just don't know how this happened these things happen he found himself running towards the village and his his meditation was not very very um quiet now instead of doing tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger has this this animal chased him to the Village
- The monastery monkey and the cheeky visitorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Supporter frees a market-caged monkey into a forest monastery; it joins afternoon tea. Grateful to the head monk, it sits in visitors' laps — until a cheeky Bangkok lady gets a…
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monkey, and he was actually just in a cage in the market. And in order to give this monk monkey a life, one of the late uh supporters bought that monkey and asked to release it in the monastery. At least a monastery, forest monastery, had trees, and the monks could let it swing around where it wanted to go. And so, this monastery joined So, this monk joined this monastery and became a kind of pet. Whenever the monks would have tea in the afternoon, the monkey would also sit in the group and have a cup of tea. It was quite cute. It's a wild monkey, you know, it wasn't really a pet. It wasn't sort of hurt at all, but always was well fed. And this monkey would always be, obviously, just very, very uh grateful to the head monk. So much so that sometimes you had visitors who would come in from Bangkok to see uh the head monk, and sometimes, please excuse me, it's like Thai custom, sometimes you're cheeky. And so, this monk uh this uh one of these ladies from Bangkok was a bit cheeky to the head monk. And this monkey would actually jump on people's laps and let them stroke it. And of course, people loved actually stroking this very docile monkey. And then he would jump into the next person's lap. And when he got to the lady who was being cheeky, he jumped into her lap
- The monk who built a women's prisonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous Thai monk, already housed, spent surplus donations on schools and hospitals — and, after visiting Bangkok's inhumane women's prison, on designing and building a humane…
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There's only one person I know who was actually a monk, a very famous monk in Thailand. He got lots of donations. Instead of losing them to build his monastery, yeah, he had a monastery, had enough rooms there. So any extra donations, he used to build schools or hospitals in Thailand. One amazing thing I was told he did, that with the donations he received, you know, he wanted to help society, so he built a women's prison in Bangkok. Now that is aid. And I thought, "What are you doing?" I can understand collecting money to build a hospital or a school or an orphanage, but a prison? And when actually I investigated it, what happened, he'd visited someone in a women's prison in Bangkok. Saw how inhumane it was. Just how harsh conditions there were for women who'd broken some law and been sentenced to jail. He thought, "There's no way I'm going to convince the government to increase or improve the facilities. So, I'm going to improve the facilities myself." Collecting some money to design and build a humane hospital a humane prison for women in Thailand. Knowing that they will get sentenced. If they're going to get sentenced, I need to give them a good jail, a humane jail. Where they can have decent facilities. And maybe a little bit of compassion to the prisoners will mean that they realize they are cared for somewhere along the line. There is some monk somewhere in Thailand who's responsible to have had them having a clean toilet and a bed to sleep on. And I thought, "What innovative aid that was?" Someone thinking outside the box. When I heard that, I thought, "Wow, what a great way." So, maybe we can have a little fundraiser to raise funds for a women's prison here in Perth. Maybe later later on we can do things like that.
- The Singaporean monk, the snake book, and the witch doctorStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Singaporean monk in NE Thailand asks for the snake book — to identify the snake that just bit him. Fang marks swell; village has thrown away antivenom. A herbal 'witch doctor'…
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Singaporean monk who came to stay in Northeast Thailand. And one day apparently he came into our library in what? banana chart and just said, "Oh, can I please have a look at the snake book? It has all the different species of snake in that part of Thailand and also describes how venomous they are." And as he was given a snake book, the librarian was just not really paying too much attention. And a Singaporean monk was looking through the books and then oh my goodness. That's the one which just bit me. That's what a single point was looking at the book of snakes to try and identify the one which had just bitten him to see whether it's dangerous or not. And it was really dangerous. So the other monk looked to the poor uh Singaporean monk's leg, saw the bite marks, the two fang marks and so already starting to swell. And that's one time if you're a monk, you're allowed to run. You're supposed to run. You know, if any one of you got bitten by a snake and I was me, I would have to run. Even though that might kill me, nevertheless, you know, just to save another person's life. That's so important. So, this monk just ran into the village to get a doctor. Now, these snakes exist in Thailand, so you have to keep some antivenenom. But this village had no antivenenom. They thrown it away years ago. Cuz when this monk came back with one of the villagers on a little motorbike, he didn't come back with a doctor. Well, it was a kind of a doctor. What you usually call like a witch doctor. a poor villager who didn't have any injections. He had this special medicine, a herbal medicine which was supposed to be really really powerful. And the herbal med herbal medicine man started doing some chanting. And he put this medicine in his mouth, started chewing it, mixing it with saliva, and then spitting it on this poor Singaporean man's wound, which was getting really big by now. And this Singaporean, imagine that was you. How would you feel? This Singaporean who was highly educated looked to the other monks and said, "Can I please have a proper doctor?" But then looking at this Singaporean, now this Singaporean and this witch doctor doing chanting and spitting over the wound, you could see apparently what the other monks told me. the the two fang marks started to get smaller and smaller and smaller and the inflammation got less and less and less until the inflammation totally vanished. The two fang marks disappeared and that Singaporean mark was totally healed
- Three-day village parties with petrol generatorsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk in rural Thailand he learns old parties ran for three days: when people tired they slept where they fell, woke, and danced again — with petrol generators and huge…
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when I was a monk in Thailand now the old Tha culture you know was very down to earth and when they had a party not like these days a party you maybe start at 8:00 you finish by 1 these went on for 3 days and it's absolutely true once you know they got tired they went to sleep when they woke up they started again so know three-day continuous party now that was great fun for them but you know our monit was only about a kilometer kilometer and a half from the village so when they had a party we heard it now there was no electricity in those days but they had these petrol gener petrol generators