Stories about work
25 Buddhist wisdom stories about work from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 'Because you're the principal'Joke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the start of term a mother can't get her son out of bed. 'Why do I have to go? The other kids don't like me. The teachers don't like me. No one likes me at that school.' 'You…
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mother was trying to get her son to get up to go to school beginning of the school term and the son would not get out of bed. And so she said, "Come on you've got to go to school, son." "Why?" he said to his mum. "Well, you have to go there." But "No, the other kids don't like me. The teachers don't like me. No one likes me at that school." "Well, you have to go." "Why?" "Because you're the principal."
- He laid the top bricks himselfStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building a hall: bricklayer refuses the shaking scaffold at the top; Brahm crawls the unsupported edge and lays the corner bricks himself.
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scaffold we had to build up and of course the monks did all that scaffold work and when he got to the very top there the brick L refused to go up because you know it was shaking this way and that way and this way and that way but we managed to coax him to go up there and and you could have seen some of the last bricks especially on the big Corners the top I laid those bricks myself because no one else would go up there
- He was wishing away months of his lifeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A fellow high-school teacher, stuck finishing a contract before a new job, realised on the way to work that he was wishing away four or five months of his life to reach the…
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he said he'd woke up that morning on on way to work he realized he was wishing away months of his life cuz he was in a job he didn't like and he couldn't change a job for another four or five months and so those four or five months he was trying to get rid of as soon as possible
- How heavy is the glass?Analogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Brahm's own analogy (he laughs hearing someone else quote it): how heavy is the glass? The longer you hold it the heavier it feels — minutes to pain, agony, hospital. When it…
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how heavy is the glass and i was laughing my head off when she was saying this because i i made that this story up how heavy is the glass the longer you hold it the heavier it feels if you hold it for two or three minutes you'll be in pain four minutes should be in agony five minutes you'll be in a hospital case and really stupid what do you do when it starts getting too heavy to hold comfortably you put it down
- “I always wanted to become a monk — but not now!”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a 2,000-strong talk in Singapore, a man challenges what a monk could know about real-world stress. Ajahn Brahm gives an hour-by-hour account of his day from 4 a.m. — hospital…
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I remember giving a simile like this earlier on when I was in Singapore giving a big talk to about 2000 people and at the end of the talk somebody asked a question, it wasn't much of a question, more like a comment, It was very much what I just said, they said to me how do you, you are a Buddhist monk how do you know what stress is. What you said may make sense in theory but in the real world where we do have to work so hard, it is much different, what do you know about stress, and then I told him what I had done that day in Singapore. Getting up at 4'o clock, how many of you get up at 4'o clock in the morning and you start working from the very beginning and that day I listed all the things which I had done that day, visiting people in hospital, doing work as the Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore and Director of the Brahm Centre, Singapore, that is overseas, this is not my core business, which is right here, all this stuff which I am doing, I gave hour by hour account of what I had done that day, and after I told what I've done that day, to say, "look I qualify, all the work which I do and get done, I qualify as someone who knows what I am talking about--working hard and dealing with stress". Then they came to the microphone afterwards and said Wow...I never realised how hard monks have to work in our modern world, he said you know, I always wanted to become a monk one day but not now...no..no..no !!
- I want to be a dog next lifeJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Man wants rebirth as a dog: no boss, lie around, good food, free health care — only job is walking the owner once or twice a day.
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wanted to be a dog in his next life. Why would anybody want to be reborn as a dog? In many Asian countries, calling a person a dog is almost a term of abuse. I don't mean it. This is Asia. And I kind of like dogs and he liked dogs as well. And he said, "Look, think about it. Use reason and logic. I don't know where you've been today. Many of you've been working. You had to get up very early in the morning. You work really hard. You're never enough. You may be having a boss always tells you what to do and tells you off. If you're reborn as a dog you don't have to go to work. Instead, you just lie in the beautiful house all day with nothing to do. You go around playing. You get incredibly good food these days. And you get free health care. And you got no All you have to do The only work you have to do is to take your owner out for a walk once a day or twice a day
- I'll only go to work on FridaysAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man works hard Monday to Thursday with no paycheque, thinks of quitting, is forced in by his wife, then gets paid on Friday and decides to work only on Fridays thereafter — not…
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I remember this fellow who went to work on a Monday morning, he worked so hard all day and at the end of the day - didn't get paid. He went to work on Tuesday, worked all day, worked really hard, he said he got nothing for his effort. On Wednesday he thought what's the point of going to work but his wife forced him to go, so went to work on Wednesday, worked hard - still got nothing. Thursday, well nothing much to do, so he went to work on Thursday as well, and on Friday he thought what’s the point going to work but end of the week, nothing better to do, so he went to work, and on a Friday his boss gave him a cheque, and he thought well from now on I'm only going to go to work on Fridays. [laughter] And of course you don't realize that the Friday cheque is accumulating all that you've done before, all of your good kamma which you've done before, that's actually how kamma works.
- Joke: the young man who couldn't keep a jobJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Friends find a bright but jobless young man work as a waiter; he quits after half a day — serving delicious food he can't eat is torture. They make him the cashier, out of sight…
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And this was a story of a young man. And he was really sort of, he's quite bright and passed his university or whatever, or school or whatever, but he couldn't get a job. And so what happened was that his friends tried to get him a job. You're getting a job somewhere, you get to work, you get some money for something. It's good exercise and a good experience for you. So, they got him a fairly simple job as as a waiter in one of the restaurants. You didn't have to have much skill about that. You just find out what a person wants and take it to the cooks or whatever and then they give them the food afterwards. And then just after half a day, this young man soon resigned. Why? What was the problem? He said, "well look, so if I give all this delicious food to everybody and I can't eat any of it for myself, there's so much suffering. I can't stand it any longer, half a day is enough." So, they say now what can we do with this guy and they came up with a solution and they said "okay you can actually be the cashier because the cashier, that little area there, is all cordoned off. So you can't see the food at all, maybe smelling it but not that much. And you can just get the bills, count the money, give the change. Easy!" So okay, I'll try that. So he became the cashier at the restaurant. After half a day he gave that up as well. I can't stand this any longer. It's even more torture than serving food which I can't eat. I count money which isn't mine. I count all the money but I can't put any of it in my pocket. Oh, that's so much torture. They said how can we just deal with somebody like this and get him a job so they talked around. And they finally came up with a solution. A brilliant solution. They said the local cemetery needs a cemetery attendant. There is a little light cabin in the front of the cemetery just where the main gate is. All you need to do is sit in there quietly and just make sure that the right people come in and they don't. No food, you can't see any food there. You can't see any money. So you should be able to do this; such simple job. He said okay I'll give it a try. After half a day, he resigned. I can't stand this any longer. They said, why? While I'm sitting in there most of the day and I see all these people lying down and I have to sit up.
- Meditate in the restroomAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In the US toilets are called restrooms. When tired or stressed, find an empty cubicle and meditate. If the boss asks why you were twenty minutes, say you were constipated —…
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in United States they call it restroom. What a wonderful name it is. So, if you are tired, if you are stressed, where should you go? The restroom. And so when you enter the restroom, you find a nice empty cubicle, you sit there and meditate in the restroom. And if your boss comes and says afterwards, you've been in there for 20 minutes. Said, well, I was constipated. Oh, well, very okay. And you're not breaking your precept, you're telling the truth. It wasn't your bowels were constipated, it was your brain constipated.
- Paid to be shouted atStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In ancient Greece a teacher charges his students a few extra coins every time he has to shout at them for doing something stupid. One student pays for years. When he graduates…
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There was this one, this was ancient Greece and there there was a teacher and he had many many students and he teach them everything. [snorts] But every time any one of those students did something stupid and the teacher would shout at the student, the teacher would charge a few extra dollars. It's reasonable. It's logical. Shouting at someone is a lot of effort. And the know it's not the teacher's fault that the student did something wrong. The student should pay the teacher an extra five bucks or something for being so stupid that the teacher had to shout at him. So this young man, he studied with his teacher for many years. Every time he made a mistake, teacher shout at him, he'd hand have to hand over another five bucks. But when he graduated and got a job in Athens somewhere, every time his boss shouted at him at work, this young man would laugh. [laughter] The boss at him again. [laughter] And they wonder know why you keep laughing at us when you get told off. Could you do that at work when somebody shouted at you? Could you laugh? Or was your partner they shouted at you, told you off and you go? [laughter] Could you do that? He said, "Why are you laughing at it?" He said, "Well, look, when I was a student, I had to be paid when people shouted at me. Now I get it for free. That's why I think it's so funny.
- “Pushing the wheelbarrow is easy; thinking about it is the hard part”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Chah asks the young monks to move a mountain of leftover earth; three days of gruelling work on one meal a day. While Ajahn Chah is away the deputy says it's in the wrong…
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My teacher Ajahn Chah had just built his hall. And there was lots of earth left over. And instead of paying people or getting earth movers to move the earth, why pay money when you've got so many slaves. Like me, young monks. In those days I was fit, I was healthy, I was handsome. Not fat and old like today. But I didn't mind helping a teacher. It was like gratitude when someone had helped you so much, you just please give me something to do, I just want to help you. And so he asked us to please move this earth, all the leftover earth to put in the place around the back. Now that was not easy. It was three days of hard slog. We'd only eat one meal a day. And you really couldn't even call it a meal. It was just subsistence rations. Just sticky rice with a frog on the top. That was one of the meals. It was rotten fish curry, it stank. It was… that's what we had to eat. Because this is what the villagers ate. There was snail soup. I remember the snail soup that was just so disgusting. Because the snails are so chewy. You know, just it's really hard to break them up. You know like those rubbers you use to erase pencils that's what it was like it reminded me of. That was one of the common ones. Or the fried crickets, the bugs, the ant soup and egg soup was very common. Or buffalo afterbirth. That was vegetarian food. Think about it. It doesn't harm the animal at all. It's just extra. But anyway, really gross food. And then from nine o'clock on till about ten o'clock in the evening shoveling earth into the wheelbarrows, pushing it you know to where it's needed to go. A huge amount of three days work. And it was so hot. It was in the jungle. And there was so many mosquitoes. And it was so tiring. You didn't have time to have dinner. There wasn't any lunch or any afternoon snacks or dinner. We only had one meal a day. Wow! Even prisoners of war never had to work that hard. And I had faith. After three days it was all finished. But you can imagine how dirty you felt, how sweaty. All your robes stank and just, you know you didn't have time for a shower. As soon as you got back to your hut you just collapsed. And you woke up in the morning, alms around, have a quick meal and bound moving the earth again. Three days of really really hard work. But it was finished and when I went to bed after the third day I thought “great! Tomorrow I can have a really good wash and wash my robes and do some meditation, just relax a bit.” but that night my master Ajahn Chah, he went to visit another monastery. Just like I'm doing tomorrow. We do those things. We visit each other, help each other out. And that morning after our breakfast, the deputy monk, he made in the announcement. He said “I've been thinking of where we put that earth. It's the wrong place,” he said. We need to move it. And you know he, that deputy monk, he never pushed a wheelbarrow. Never touched it. He was one of the bosses. You know what bosses are like. They always tell you what to do but they never do anything themselves. All full of ideas but no experience. So three more days of hard work in the jungle pushing those wheelbarrows, shoveling the earth. But I still had faith. After six days it was finished. Because the deputy monk had a point, you know. Well it was almost in the wrong place. And that night, guess what happened? Ajahn Chah came back. And the following morning after breakfast he said “I told you to put it over here. Why'd you put it over there? Move it! And it was at that point I lost my faith. I never became a monk to move wheelbarrows of earth. I came to meditate, become enlightened, you know, learn the Dhamma and… that's what I was a monk for. Not as a laborer. Not as a slave. I got very angry. And you know I did say I think in the book, it's absolutely true. You did start to swear. In English thinking that you know, the Thai monks couldn't understand you. But of course they understood. The body language showed you're really really unhappy. And that I was stressed out. I was angry. For a good reason you're being exploited. You've been taken advantage of. I was so angry and upset. And that's when one of the Thai monks came up to me and he said something which I will never forget which I've shared with thousands of people. One of the great ways of overcoming stress in life. He said to me: “pushing the wheelbarrow is easy. Thinking about it is a hard part.” you know, that was worth all of that torture. Just to learn that. Pushing the wheelbarrow is a hard part. Going to work with a terrible boss that's easy. Thinking about it is a problem. Having to do all of that job being the president of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia it's easy. Thinking about it is a hard part. And of course once I got it straight away you know that the rest of the three days went really quick. And it was fun. You know we'd have races with the other monks, you got there first. And if they beat me you know, just for a bit of revenge you know, shoveling the next bit of earth and it was oh just sorry, sorry that's of I… I didn't get it in the wheelbarrow. Got it all over your face. Shoveling over each other. Just a bit of fun and games playing around. And that was really good fun. After nine days it was finished.
- The 17-year-old bricklayer who didn't look busyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building a Sydney mansion, the wealthy client wants the apprentice bricklayer removed — he doesn't look busy. The builder has him watch: the youth lays bricks faster, in perfect…
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he was building some big mansion in Sydney and you know it was a very good contract because the owner was some very wealthy person and said look I don't care what the price is I want the best plumbers the best electricians the best Carpenters the best Brick Layers I don't mind paying extra because this is my house my Mansion I want it to be absolutely top quality and then one day when the uh the client this wealthy man just came to check on his Mansion he noticed this maybe 70 or 18 year old kid doing the brick work and he went straight to the building and complained he said look I wanted cross people people know what they're doing not some Apprentice this young guy get him off my building and that's when in the build said come and have a look at this young guy and this young guy didn't look like he was doing much work but when you counted the bricks he was laying those bricks much faster than any of the Old Brick Layers he had his incredibly beautiful Rhythm one brick at a time and every brick was perfect it was just flowing effortlessly and when the owner saw that or the client saw said wonderful great I never realized that because he didn't look busy he thought he was being lazy but when it was effortless one bit at a time it flowed so wonderfully he was an excellent brickl even though he's only 17 or 18 years of AG AG it's just like when you are in the moment
- The big rocks go in firstStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A business-school professor fills a jar with large stones and asks if it's full; the students say yes. He adds gravel, shaking it into the gaps; then sand; then water. 'What is…
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This a professor came into his lecture hall. This was at uh a business school. And he had a jug and he asked he took out some from his briefcase took out a bag of stones and one by one put the stones into this jug until he could get no more stones inside the jug. And he asked his students, "Is the jug full?" Said, "Yeah, of course. You can't get any more stones in. He smiled and from his briefcase he picked out a bag of gravel, smaller stones. And one by one he put those into the jar, shook the jar, and many of those smaller stones found their way in the spaces between the big rocks and the smaller rocks. Is it full? No, they said they were on to him by now. So from his bag, he picked out his briefcase. He got a bag of fine sand, sprinkled the fine sand onto the rocks and gravel, shook the jar until much of the sand found its way in the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is it full yet?" he asked the class. He had nothing more in his briefcase and said, "No, you'll probably find some other thing to put in there. He got the water jar and poured the water into that big jar. So that much of the water found its way between the rocks, the s the gravel and the sand. And he didn't want to try and find any other thing to put in that jar. He said, "Now what is the meaning of this lesson?" Modern times. Okay. Business school. One smart ass kid put their hand up and said, "It shows us, sir, no matter how busy we are, we can always fit something more in." Have you ever heard your bosses saying that? No, said the professor. What it shows us, if you want to put the big rocks in, the precious stones, you have to put them in first. Otherwise, you'll never get them in. You can fit the other stuff in afterwards, but the important things in life, you have to put in first priority.
- The blast that became a spiritual experienceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: WA northwest miner drills and sets explosives alone at night; a charge comes straight toward him — survival becomes a 'marvelous spiritual experience at the end of the tunnel'.
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mines in the northwest. Now, this is many years ago. And his job, apparently, he told me, was to drill um the holes, you know, in the rock face, I'm not sure what they were mining, put the explosives in and set them off to actually to crack the rock face. And so the he would work at night alone cuz it was a dangerous work at that time. and his the other workers would come in the middle of the day and once he crack cracked the rock face with the explosives then they would come and um uh dig out the the ore and he said he'd been doing that for many times and very very careful and very very skilled with explosives but that actually was his downfall. He was so skilled that you know the the tunnel was almost perfectly round and he was working one night and he heard a sound of something coming towards him a strange sound. He realized it was one of the the carts, the orc cars, and it was coming straight towards him because someone had left off the brake. And he realized there was no way to go that that would actually come straight towards him. And because he was so good with his explosive work, there was no nook or cranny to hide. He was going to hit him. And the very last minute, he just tried to jump, you know, above the cart, but it caught his leg and cut it off. And he realized that there had been no one coming to meet him for another few hours until the next shift started. And there he was, you know, in the darkness in, you know, the end of the mine shaft with a leg cut off, bleeding, in great pain. They did manage to get him in time before he lost too much blood and he got taken to the hospital and he said there was a wonderful thing which happened to him. He said had this marvelous spiritual experience at the end of the tunnel
- The dancing lollipop ladyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Being driven to the airport early one morning in London as children went to school, Ajahn Brahm sees a 'lollipop lady' stopping traffic with her big round sign — not walking…
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these are the people who look after the crossings Here in Australia they have flags. Over in the UK they have these big poles with this circular 'stop' sign. And I will always remember this woman maybe 55-60 year old woman English lady with a lollypop, she was dancing she was doing rap with the lollypop dancing away across the road and she made so many people happy that morning including me going to work on a Monday morning, me going for a long flight. That's all you need to do! Just add a little bit of fun to being a lollypop girl
- The floor the monks finished overnightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Jhana Grove for an Easter 2008 opening by its patron, former Premier Geoff Gallop, Ajahn Brahm is assured it will be ready well ahead of schedule. On the Thursday…
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Notice the floor in the meditation room, it hasn't got a carpet because we thought there's some people want to meditate and they have allergies. So, it's just a bamboo floor. It's very beautiful, but on bamboo floor. You know what happens again, Ajahn Brahm being the builder. I'm not really the builder, but it's my project, so I had to make sure everything was done properly. And it's a huge project, I asked the person in charge of doing the building, "Are you sure it's going to be ready by Easter 2008 or nine or 12? What was it, about 12/13 years ago? 2008. Are you sure it's going to be ready?" He said, "Yes! No trouble at all! Well ahead of schedule." And I should know by now. I'm really stupid. I trust people too much. Because it wasn't. It was a real rush. Especially the last day. We're going to have the opening ceremony, it was on the Easter retreat. And we're going to have it on Friday, the Good Friday. And we invited even the the former Premier, Geoff Gallop. He was gonna, he still is the what do you call it? The patron of Jhana Grove Retreat Centre. And he was gonna come and open it for us. And as soon as the opening was finished, we're gonna have our retreat, the 8/9 day retreat, and we had all this ceremony all arranged. And you know what happened? You know what happened? It wasn't finished. Thursday evening. Half the floor had not been laid. It was just concrete. Half the floor was finished. Half the floor was bare concrete. We tried to get floor makers in to come and finish it off for us. Would they work on Thursday evening, before the long weekend? No way. So what happened? Duh duh duh, in come the monks like the seventh cavalry to save the day again. And it was brilliant. It's beautiful. Ajahn Brahmali and Ajahn Santutthi, they were the main collaborators. They worked till 4am. All night. 4am. And that's a beautiful job they did. If you sit on that, when every time I see that, I feel so much joy and happiness. Just finishing off like that. They had a lot of fun. A lot of joy, not sleeping, working hard. Had an hour or two to sleep before we started the ceremony in the morning, big ceremony all day. Have a look at it. It's gorgeous. That is how we work. Do we get paid? Imagine if we did get paid. There'll be it's Easter. So that's double time. Overnight, that's double time again. So, night time work, oh, they could have made a fortune. If we were paid. But we don't do that. Do it for the fun of it, the joy of it because you don't have fault finding. You have the opposite. Joy finding, beauty finding. And that's one of the reasons why we don't get paid, we get exploited. Please exploit us some more. We don't think like other people. So instead, we just see the joy of doing these things and the wonder of doing these things, which means the fault fighting is not there. So we don't get upset and don't argue. And if you notice carefully, there is a mistake in that floor. Have any of you seen it? It's in the corner, which is closest to the entrance door. Doesn't quite match. But that's beautiful. It doesn't have to match and be perfect.
- The letter that wouldn't comeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Tired one morning, Ajahn Brahm struggles at the computer over a very difficult letter about a published book — every draft seems wrong. So he stops, goes to meditate, takes a…
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that I had to write a very difficult letter (this is about a book which was published). And this morning I was a little bit tired, and so, when I was trying to write that letter - have you ever had that experience, you're on the computer, you’re trying to write a letter, it just doesn't come out. You're writing, ‘that doesn't seem good, that doesn't seem good, that doesn't seem good’. You're wasting so much time. And again, just as I taught many of you, if you're in the office, at work, you've got some report to write, some letter to write, some really sensitive letter to write, and it doesn't come out, then stop. And go meditate. That's exactly what I did. Went off to meditate, took a shower, went back to the computer and a beautiful letter came out
- The Mexican fishermanStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An American business professor on holiday meets a Mexican fisherman unloading his morning catch: enough to feed his family, then lunch, a siesta, playing with his kids, dinner…
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it's a story of the old Mexican fisherman you know there was American who went on vacation to the Caribbean coast and when he was uh just walking around by the shore he saw a fishing boat come in to unload its morning catch and his Mexican fisherman unloaded the catch and this American came up to have a conversation with him said what are you doing seor he told the American I've been out fishing all morning I've got enough fish here to sell to feed my family so now I'm going to go home and have a nice lunch after lunch I'm going to have a sleep a cesta it's good for your health you don't get stressed out if you have a siesta can you have a siesta or you're too busy I'm going to have a cester and after cester I'll be home when my kids come back from school they play with them help them with their homework and in the evening I'm going to have dinner with my wife and maybe you know go to the the canteen or the pub in Mexico having a a couple of tequilas not much and play the guitar with my friends now life is good and that's when the American said sir I am a professor of business studies in a business school in the United States I think I can help you don't be so lazy you are not exploiting this wonderful resource of a fishing boat yeah go home and have lunch but go out in the afternoon you'll catch twice as much fish with the extra profit from twice as much fish you'll be able to buy a much bigger boat with a crew that way you'll soon be able to catch about four or six times as many fish with that extra profit you'll be able to buy a second boat in about four or five years you'll probably have a whole Fleet of boats and then with a whole Fleet of boats you can even make your own caner so you can process the fish it's Downstream processing to make increase your profits and then with that business you can actually uh move the center of your business to Mexico City or even better to LA and then because you own the whole business you can float it on the stock market know sell shares because you're the CEO you can award yourself these amazing obscene salaries and give yourself stock options which means if the stock goes up you can buy if it doesn't you don't need to you can make a millionaire many times over in about 10 years now I'm a professor of business studies that's how it's done and the Mexican fisherman listened very respectfully until the end of this presentation the Mexican fisherman said but Senor what will I do with all those millions of dollars and Professor thought for a few moments he hadn't thought the business plan out that far so he had to think that's all people think about making the few Millions but then what and the professor said well yeah with all that Millions few Millions you know you can retire you know you can retire to you know a nice fishing Village like this buy yourself a small boat just to go out in the morning for fun you'll be able to have lunch with your your wife every day you'll be able to take a siesta afterwards and you always be home to play with your children when they come back from school and you'll be able to go out in the evening with no worries at all Senor I do that already
- The pest man who fell off the roofStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A pest exterminator keeps pitching his services; later falls from a roof cleaning gutters, hits his head and becomes mentally unstable — guilt/accident framing in the guilt talk.
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do you need any pests exterminated he was a pest exterminator you know looking for business so you know this guy you know he would say it's actually answered the door he said no no we're Buddhist we don't exterminate pests say why not and so they had this argument argument but whole discussion of about an hour on why Buddhists don't exterminate pests it's bad for his business but he was actually quite intrigued so he started coming every Friday and soon became a Buddhist it's amazing amazing the story why people become Buddhists but anyway that's why he came and he would have all these uh you know great discussions you know he was Irish migrant to Australia and he got to give it to him he had a really really good brain and he would he would not just accept things he would talk and discuss and oh he really loved discussing the deepest implications of this Buddhist philosophy and it's very taken by it unfortunately what happened one day he was just working on his roof cleaning the gutters or something he fell off and he hit his head
- The promotion won with three questionsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Penang disciple working in customer relations at a big firm puts the emperor's three questions into practice: whoever is in front of her — boss, customer or co-worker — is the…
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there was one of the disciples from pinang a couple of years ago she heard that story and she put it in her through her life and custom relations and she was in a big firm in pinang and she came up to tell me with great Glee that she applied for a promotion a prestigious promotion she had 100 150 other people applying for that job she got it and she said she got it because she used the emess three questions whenever she was in customer relations whoever was in front of her whether it was her boss a customer or a coworker they were the most important person in the world for her now was the most important time and she cared she cared for this person they felt it
- The social worker's solutions that popped upStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office with big unsolved problems. She has…
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A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.
- The thank-you letter to the plumbing shopStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Bodhinyana's first toilet block, Ajahn Brahm can't afford a plumber, so a salesman called Fred at Galvins in Osborne Park shows him how to glue and lay the pipes. The…
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one of the stories in open the door of your heart when we just started out building Bodin Monastery the first year you know I you know all know the story of the brick wall but I didn't didn't just lay bricks I did the plumbing on our toilet block the very first building I did all the we couldn't afford a plumber they cost a fortune plumbers so I had to learn how to do the plumbing so how can you learn Plumbing I went to the shop it was Galvin don't mind giving an advertisement for Galvin cuz they were really a good shop and they uh have put the plans on the table and basically I said help and of course you know it's a reasonable size building and there's you know quite a uh a few pipes and fitting so it's actually worth the the um the salesperson's time you know looking at it and so you need one of these you need one of those and getting all the parts and just showing how to glue it together it's quite simple but you know just all you need is 5 minutes to show you pull the glue around this way just twist it around so the glue spreads hold it together for you know 10 to 15 seconds then you can leave it and know use a sort of a spirit level to make sure you get just the right drop one in 40 which is about you know a third of a bubble on a spirit level they gave me all these beautiful tips so took all the stuff back to Monastery and took a few days you know didn't have uh to do it fast and took my time and got it all done of course if it's Plumbing like sewage you have to get it checked by the health inspector so the health inspector came checked it all out and it worked I was really sort of say flush with success as somebody said for sewage pipes and I was so happy and at that same day the bill came and know I don't know couple thousand in those days you know quite a lot of money so I got the check from the treasurer and now I sent it off to the plumbing department cuz I knew I was the one who ordered it all so I could check the the the bill make sure it was correct send it off and instead of just sending off the check I wrote a little letter only took me 10 minutes saying like thank you the guy salesperson was called Fred thank you to Fred behind the counter you know at Osburn Park galvin's cuz he really helped me sort of with this plumbing job you know without his help we've had to get a plum with cost of Fortune and with just a charity just starting off we really needed this so thanks so much and today it was passed of you're so happy thank you so much and here's a check and because first year doing this sort of stuff I thought it would just go to the shop I never realized that Galvin is a huge company so the letter went to the the um the accounts department and so some little Clark in the accounts Department I got this uh later on the story they opened this and I thought oh my God a letter what have we done wrong this time cuz apparently the only time you write letters to companies is to complain about bad service 4y pipes so of know too much money or whatever it is hardly anybody writes a letter to say thank you and so the account the little Clark in the accounts Department took it straight to the the head of the accounts and they were just so surprised at getting a letter like this they took it to the managing director and the managing director read that letter and he picked up the telephone and called Osburn Park office can I speak to Fred and so Fred got this call from the managing director and the managing director apparently said well well done Fred that's the sort of that's the sort of attitude I want in this company you know of of customer relationship I don't know what you've done but you really did a really good job Fred and thank you sir and by the way Fred you know what salary are you on oh well it can always be improved sir or something like that and as it happened there was one other part you know for the think the water supply not the waste water which was actually too small got the wrong part and I went into that shop about an hour or two after Fred had got this call from the managing director and there were two big plumbers in front of me in in the queue those big big guys you know what plumbers are like you know with sort of shoulders as wide as septic tags and as soon as Fred saw me said Bram come over here and so these two plumbers I mean they were a bit upset they were waiting in queue but I got the first service and I just wonder what's going on and Fred's um the person who assisted him the other salesperson said you know your wife's here he called me his wife he said what do you mean he said because somebody just praised Fred and he got a call about an hour ago from the managing director and of course he was uh really chuffed about getting a praise and getting a rise in salary because of my letter and so I got the first service there's a big sign on there say customers not allowed around the back with all the fitting side said come around the back bro lo I can't said come around the back what do you want my had ised he said no that's too small said this part over here is what you want it's about two or three times the size said oh this is the one I want I said what's the difference and he smiled at me brah for you no difference CU I save the Buddhist Society about $10 or $15 on this and I never had to wait in queue got first class service and why just for a stupid little letter of thanks
- The young doctor who wanted to quitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A first-year intern loses his first patient, a young mother, and must tell her husband that his wife is dead and his kids have no mother. Shattered, he comes to Ajahn Brahm…
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The doctor, he’s not here this evening, he lost his first patient first year as a doctor, as an intern, came to see me, wanted to resign, “I don’t want to be a doctor anymore.” Why? He said, “Cos I had to tell, I had to tell this girl’s widow, this young man, the one he loved the most in his life, is dead. And your kids have got no mother.” And you could see just the pain in this poor young man’s face. He’d just come back from the hospital, I don’t know whether it’s Royal Perth or Charlies Gairdner’s, just having told, you know, this poor guy, you know that he lost his wife, kids have no mom, and that just hurt him so much. Can you imagine having to do that? He said, “I can’t do this anymore, I have to just give in. I can’t be a doctor. Cos that’s going to happen again and I just can’t face having to be the one to tell somebody the incredibly painful news.” That’s when I told him and said, “You’ve misunderstood what being a doctor is all about. If you think that being a doctor is curing all your patients, you are going to fail so many times in your life. You’re going to go through this so many times. The reason is because you haven’t understood what the role of a doctor is. The role of a doctor is not to cure, is to care. To care for your patients, not to cure them.” You know what I mean, if curing is the number one thing you're supposed to do, some of the interventions which happen in hospitals today – cure at all costs, forget about caring for the patients. If it hurts, it’s going to prolong their life unnecessarily, that’s curing. Caring is a totally different agenda. If it’s caring, a lot of times, I have to care for this person, it’s time to let them go. No more interventions. The quality of their moment is more important than keeping them alive. And I said, “If your job as a doctor is to care for people, you will never have to fail. You can always care for people, you can’t always cure them. Therefore you can always be a successful doctor. You will lose many of your patients. They will die. But you will be able to go to their widow, to their family and say – they were cared for. They were cared for to the max, and the family, yeah they will be sad. They’ll realise everything was done and your loved one died, being loved and cared for.
- What drug is he giving you?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A high-flying Sydney executive has to beg and grovel to her boss for time off for a nine-day retreat at Jhana Grove. Afterwards she emails Ajahn Brahm: as soon as she got back,…
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This lady from Australian girl from Sydney, one of these high executives. When she came, she said, "I had to beg and crawl and grovel from my boss to get the time off." But then she sent me this email after the 9-day retreat had finished and she said, "AJ, as soon as I got back to work, my boss took one look at me." And she he said to me, "Look, I don't care what drug Ajan Brah is giving you, but please bring me back some next time." She looks so peaceful and happy. It's weird.
- Why the German worked harder in AustraliaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A society member who migrated from West Germany before reunification is told by Australian workmates that Germans have a strong economy because they work hard. No, he says — he…
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many years ago when I first came there's one of the members he just migrated from West Germany this was before unification at that time I think the West German economy was the best in the world beating Japan China United states there's a very very strong economy and he told me that when he when he came and worked here in Western Australia his work friends sort of said to him oh you Germans you got such a good economy because you really know how to work hard no that's not right I work much harder here in Australia than I ever worked in Germany and I asked him well why was your economy so strong he said because when I was working in Germany family. This was before unification. He said we would work cooperatively here in Australia. He said we work like this competing against each other in the same office in the same company. He said that was why we had to work so hard to be competitive to be productive. Sorry when you work together you have cooperation instead of competition you get far more success far more productivity and also you don't have this jealousy business