Stories about time
5 Buddhist wisdom stories about time from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Can I please have one hour of your time?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A tired father snaps when his six-year-old asks how much he earns per hour, then guiltily answers $20 and lends him $10. The boy adds $10 in coins from under the pillow and hands…
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ten dollar note and after that the little son smiled, took the ten dollar note said "thank you so much daddy", and then the son opened up the little drawer by the side of his bed and there was coins in there and he had just about enough to count out another ten dollars in coins, and together with the ten dollar note he handed it to his daddy. “Daddy here's twenty dollars, can I now have one hour of your time please
- Dad always lost at cards on purposeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Poor though he was, his father gave pocket money by playing cards with the boys and always losing on purpose — so they spent an hour or two with him and left with the money. The…
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where we got our pocket money from we used to play little games of cards you know for money you know it was gambling but he would always lose he'd always lose on purpose cuz you know we knew I know from my brother and I that's the way we get our pocket money we'd have to spend an hour or two with our dad you know playing cards and we'd always win he'd always lose every time and we'd love that CU we know it was only fun in games it wasn't I and he know he always lost on purpose cuz that was the way he'd give his kids pocket money but we'd have to spend an hour or two of his of our time with him as well I love those occasions so it wasn't just okay here's know $10 or $20 it was actually spending time with our dad and then we got the money that's a beautiful thing thing to do and you know there the money wasn't that important it was important to me as a kid but what's really important was actually spending time with your mom and dad
- “If only my house were this small”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Showing a visiting local women's group his small monastery hut, Ajahn Brahm hears one woman say with envy: “Wow, if only my house were this small, I'd get all my housework done…
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And I still remember about ten years ago taking a group of women who were visiting the monastery, it was a local women's group who wanted to do weird things on an afternoon and had never been to the monastery and that qualified being weird, and when I took them to see my hut my room, I always remember one of the girls turning around to me and saying 'wow if only my house were this small I get all my house work done in half an hour'.
- The slingshot and the gongStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sitting with Ajahn Chah, with no clock and his legs aching after what must have been over an hour, the young Ajahn Brahm fantasises about practising with a slingshot in the…
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when Ajahn Chah was my teacher and sometimes we would sit together, sometimes you'd be sitting there - I’m sure it's over an hour, it must have been over an hour, we didn't have a clock at the time). And then so, my legs were really hurting. So you know what I thought of doing? I told the monks this, and it's true, this is what I thought, but never had the guts to do it - to get what they call like a slingshot. And practice in the forest first, until I was a really good shot. And then, when the meditation was happening, I’d just open my eyes and I'd sling and hit the bell - ‘GONG’. [Laughter] ‘Oh, it's time to come out of meditation’. You know what it's like, sometimes you're having a really difficult time. And you’re just like ‘it can't be just, it must be more than half an hour, ring the gong!’ [laughter] And other times, oh you're having such a beautiful, peaceful meditation, everything is just so nice and joyful and blissed, all these great insights are coming, everything, and then - ‘GONG’ [laughter] Imagine that was the Buddha under the Bodhi tree just about to get enlightened, and I went - ‘GONG’. [laughter] Shut up.
- “What day of the week is it?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a forest monk he lived without calendars or clocks and sometimes didn't know the month or year. In the first months in Perth, at the small house in North Perth, a visiting…
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but then the first few months when i came to perth we were staying in a small house in north perth you know lynn knows that she was there at the time and even erica you know you went there there was she's around here somewhere and uh there was a nepalese man who came to visit he had a um you know buddhist background and he had an epileptic epileptic fit just in front of the house so he called the ambulance and then uh first thing the ambulance guy said to him is what day of the week is it and why do you ask that so what if you don't know what day of the week it is they take you away straight away so oh my goodness if you ask me i'd be in big trouble so from that time on i realized i better always at least know what day of the week is