Just back from Ajahn Brahm's talk :) Some repeated stories that serves as a good check on my progress since last heard the stories. Plus some great insights shared by Bante.
Choosing who to believe
Once Ajahn Brahm was taking a bus and there was a panic that the bus is going to explode. Everyone ran around squeezing their way out to safety. Ajahn Brahm just sat there composely. The bus never explode and the passenger board the bus and start to pray to Ajahn Brahm.
He later on explained that it was not his bravery or practise but he does not know what happen actually . . .
We should all learn buddhism objectively and with wisdom.
Story of the brick
Ajahn Brahm was using his own hands building up a wall of his monastery in Australia and coz he has all the time, he makes sure he lays every single bricks with utmost precisions. But as he finished he whole wall, he spotted 2 mis-aligned bricks! And as he narrowly focused on the 2 misaligned bricks, he will try his best to make sure no one sees it. But one day comes someone that praised this wall. This person commented that while Ajahn Brahm may focus on the 2 bricks, he sees the perfection from the remaining ones.
Reality of things is that nothing is perfect. We often focus on the bad points of a person and neglected the other good points about him. When a couple quarrels and can't stand each other, they have forgotten the reasons and the goodness in each other that puts them together. Imperfection can be a beauty, just like the sunset covered slightly with clouds, and the uneven arrangement and height of the trees in the jungle.
Once upon a time, a monster stormed into the palace while the king was away to visit the temple. This monster is huge, ugly and smelly. As he ascends the throne, all the guards hurd abuses on him. Throwing all kinds of nasty shoutings on the monster. The monster grew bigger, ugly and smellier.
The king finally comes back and saw this horrendous monster grew to a size occupying half this throne room. He asked the monster politely and compassion whether anyone serve him tea, whether he was treated well. The king's kind words shrunk the monster and the monster left.
When we encounters stress or anxiety, we often challenged the anxiety and ends up getting ourselves even more tired and defeated. Instead, be mindful and face the stress squarely. And also face the issue with compassion and wisdom. Only then can we hope to succeed. Ajahn Brahm mentioned that when we feel anxious, we ask ourselves what and where are the bodily sensation of this anxiety. And when we found it, we stroke it with love and compassion. With that, the anxiety will get comforted and we will do our tasks (presentation or talks) better and more confidently.
Ajahn Chah's chicken dung story
There were 2 chicken farmer. Everyday in the morning, one will went into the pent to collect the dung and the other will collect the eggs. The one let got the eggs get to prepare a nice omelette for his family. While the other stinks the house.
As a working class, we often go home with all the stress piled up from a day's work and started to complain to our family members or even vented our frustration on our poor love ones. Instead, we should put down all the "dung" and shared the joy of the day with our family members.
We all have memories and we should remember the positive moments and let go of the sad ones. When we take our photos, we usually capture only our happy moments. Thus, for the album in our mind, we should selectively retain all the happy moments.
Big Bang Theory
Someone posted a physics question to Ajahn Brahm and one of the question is on the Big Bang Theory. This theory states that Big Bang created the universe. And seems like it happens spontaneously and what happens before the Big Bang seems to be irrelevant. Thus, the speaker wishes Ajahn Brahm to rationalise "Cause and effect" to Science.
Ajahn Brahm said that he do comtemplate on this issue before and a recent article from the scientific community commented there might be multiple Big Bangs before ours. If a Big Bang occured before and thus created our universe, there is reason that there are more than one such episodes.
He also mentioned how Buddha's remarkable accuracy in deriving the time line of a Big Bang. He also tied up to the fact on the negative energy (potential energy) with Buddhism which i have problem grasping the idea.
Synergy created in co-operation
A german economist mentioned to him that the reason for his countries' progress in economy, is due to co-operation. Instead of working against each other, why not with each other. The effect is more positive and definitely more efficient to the country or the company. It goes the same to the different Buddhist group in Singapore.
Getting things our way
Ajahn Brahm shared with us a good solution he always use to get his way. When we make a proposal to our boss, and the boss rejects us. We should accept it harmoniously and after 2 weeks, ask again since he would have forgotten. And he may again turn us down. Then 2 more weeks later, our boss will come out with a suggestion that is what we proposed! Instead of reacting violently to objections, we should just ask and plant the idea in his mind.
Toilet training tips
Punishment may not always be the best solution. For example when we caught a shoplifter, we punish him. This will only make the shoplifter comes out with ways to STEAL and yet scotch-free. Its the same with punishing speed drivers. Punishment will only make them choose route with less chance of getting caught.
To solve an issue or correct and action, we should see the real problem and corrects it.
Stress is for everyone
A married person has a married person's stress and the singles have their stress. The monk has their monk stress. And even the abbot has his abbot's stress.
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