Making Decisions | Dharma Talk With Ajahn Brahm

Are you afraid your decision will turn out to be a big mistake? Ajahn Brahm encourages us to be fearless and optimistic in our decision-making and explains how the most important part is what we do after we've made a decision.

Ajahn Brahm is a popular Buddhist teacher to a growing international audience of people keen to learn meditation and develop a deeper spiritual understanding. He is also the founding father of an emergent Australian forest tradition of Buddhism.

Transcript

So for this evening's talk,

As we mentioned earlier,

I mentioned earlier,

Just before coming in here we had an executive committee meeting discussing a few things about the AGM and running our Buddhist Society.

And then just coming in here I've got to now think,

What am I going to talk about?

You know,

Life,

You have to make decisions.

And even though when I became a monk I thought,

Oh,

I can leave all of that behind.

I don't have to do any more management.

Because you know what it's like when you have to make a decision?

Is it the right one?

Is it the wrong decision?

And sometimes that can cause you so much stress.

And I thought the solution is,

Become a monk and you don't have to make any decisions at all.

Hahaha,

Now look at me.

Oh,

When I was really.

.

.

It was true that when you are a young monk or young nun,

You have this beautiful time,

Your early years,

Where you don't have many things to do.

You don't have to give talks,

You don't have to choose your fashion,

Get up in the morning,

Just got his brown robes on,

Nothing.

It might be one of those stories.

There was one monk,

Not Ajahn Brahmali,

But one of the other monks,

He came from Norway.

And he was really a good monk and he came and ordained at Bodhinyana monastery and then he needed to go and visit his family back in Norway.

And so he wrote to his mother and just asked,

You know,

Just,

Okay,

If I come back at this time?

And he showed me the letter,

The reply he got from his mother.

Yes,

You can come back to Norway to visit,

But do not come in robes,

Wear a suit.

Hahaha.

And he showed it to me and I told him,

And he did it,

He followed my instructions,

He wrote back to his mother and said,

Now my boss,

Ajahn Brahm,

Told me that it's either these robes or nude.

Take your choice.

We haven't got a suit in monastery.

It's much easier to make those sorts of decisions when you've got no choice.

But also on the same subject,

I know many of you have heard these old words,

Old stories before,

But this was one of the most funny ones,

And real experiences,

But only monks can have these experiences,

Only senior monks can have this type of experience.

When I got this invitation through the post,

And they had the government of Australia,

So signature on,

Not signature,

That little emblem on top of it,

So this is interesting,

It was from actually that,

The Prime Minister at that time was John Howard from his office.

And there was an invitation,

Invitation to a state dinner in the Grand Hall of Parliament House with Queen Elizabeth.

Whoa!

This is true,

Honest.

That was really the most amazing invitation I had.

State dinner with Queen Elizabeth in Parliament.

There's a number of problems there.

Number one,

It was a dinner,

And we're not supposed to eat in the evening.

What am I going to do?

And number two,

I was over here in Perth and I was over in Canberra,

But that was something you could fix with an airline ticket.

It's amazing that sometimes you go to your travel agent,

And you say,

Well I need to get to Canberra,

I was too busy,

But you flash this invitation,

Dinner with Queen Elizabeth,

Oh yeah,

We could do something.

And then there was the impossible thing to solve.

Because I looked at the invitation.

I asked the other monks,

You know,

Should I go?

And they said,

Yeah,

You must go,

Yes,

Go.

And I said,

Look,

There's a big problem.

And that was dress code.

Because you know,

You dinner with Queen Elizabeth,

This is true story,

You can't,

You have a dress code you're supposed to wear.

And so I looked at the dress code,

And the first,

There were three options,

Only three options.

And the first option was black tie.

Have you ever had those invitations when they said black tie?

And I'm a monk,

Okay,

So I don't go to these sorts of things.

I don't know what dress codes really mean.

So I asked a few friends,

Is that all you need to wear,

Just a tie?

No trousers,

No shirt,

No jacket.

No,

That's code,

That means black tie,

Means you have to have black tie,

And there's all the other things which go around it.

So it didn't really matter,

We didn't have a black tie in Bodhinyana monastery,

Not one tie there at all in that monastery.

So I said,

I can't go on that.

Number two option was military uniform.

A pacifist,

You can't have a military uniform.

I'm trying to get one of those from.

Fancy dress shop,

I don't know.

Anyway,

I thought,

Oh my goodness,

I'm not going to be able to go.

And then I looked at the third option,

And my eyes went wide.

Yes,

I can go.

The third option was long dress.

I went,

Look,

We're qualified.

So I remember turning up at the sort of Parliament House in my robes,

That's all I had.

And just,

I went in,

I think,

I'd say I was standing next to one of the bishops or something,

Archbishop or something,

I don't know who's who.

I do remember though,

There's an opportunity,

You know there's sometimes you miss opportunities in life.

Because I remember just,

Well actually just not to rush ahead too much,

I was walking in with one of these archbishops,

And they stopped me,

Security stopped me.

Honestly,

They asked me,

Are you meant to be here?

And I flashed my invitation,

They're okay,

Go in.

But then of course you had to go to the toilet.

When I went to the toilet,

Well I mean,

There's quite a few men in here,

You know the toilet cubicles,

The urinals,

You know you stand in a line,

You know and just,

You know you stand next to them.

And I was actually urinating next to Lachlan Murdoch.

You know that's Rupert Murdoch's son.

And I thought,

Oh why didn't I bring a donation envelope?

He said,

Lachlan Murdoch,

Rah!

Anyway,

So,

And actually as for the dinner,

For those who haven't heard the story,

As for the dinner,

I was really amazed that they really did their research.

They had the protocol officers and I don't know who they called,

But they really just got all the information correct.

They couldn't give me like real food,

Like they'd add macadamia pie or,

I don't know what they had actually,

Because they gave me the three courses.

The first course was,

I think it was cheddar cheese,

Or something like cheddar cheese,

It was from Australia,

Had to be all made in Australia.

And other really good stuff.

I mean when they actually get some food for Queen Elizabeth,

They don't get rubbish,

They don't go to Coles or Meisters or Woolies and just get whatever's on the cheap shelves.

This is really sort of tasty stuff.

And they gave me another plate of some other cheese.

And then the last plate was dark chocolate.

I don't know where they got that from,

But that's actually just what we can eat in the evening.

So I just was side to side to your research team,

You got it right.

But anyway,

What was I saying?

Oh yeah.

Because sometimes,

Because you wear these robes and that's all you can eat in the evening,

You don't have any choice.

So sometimes it gets nice and peaceful,

The less choice you have.

Is that the case?

Sometimes supermarkets,

When was the last time I was in a supermarket?

I don't think for many,

Ten years maybe,

Fifteen years.

But I remember supermarkets when I was young as a student.

You know,

I used to eat muesli in the morning.

There's only one type of muesli you could get.

And sometimes you had to make your own,

Just where there was no oats.

There was no choice.

So it's so simple.

It took me two minutes to do my shopping.

But these days,

How many different types of muesli can you get?

Only you can get sort of organically grown muesli,

Free range muesli,

Fair trade muesli,

No organic.

.

.

What's it called?

Organic muesli.

So there's so many different choices.

Must drive you people crazy.

All the decisions you have to make is to actually to get some muesli in the morning.

So a lot of times,

If you're not even a manager of a shop or a business or a monastery or a Buddhist society,

You're just managing your family,

Just managing your finances.

Oh,

It can drive you crazy.

So many decisions and choices you have to make.

Even you come in here,

Where are you going to sit?

Where are you going to stay here or leave?

What clothes you're going to wear?

What are you going to say afterwards?

And a lot of times,

People are afraid of decisions.

Because sometimes you made decisions and got into trouble.

A bad decision.

Or was it a bad decision?

This is one of the things with decision making.

I was going to give this talk on decisions this evening because I couldn't decide what I was going to talk about.

So there we go.

It's relevant.

It's true.

And so when we talk about decisions,

That's one of the things which hinders us.

The fear of making a mistake.

So the first thing when you've got a decision to make,

Look,

What are you afraid of?

So I think of the options.

I was a scientist.

Okay,

If I decide to do this,

What would happen?

If I decide to do that,

What would happen?

If I decide to do something else,

What would happen?

And maybe it's because I was trained with a positive mind.

That doesn't matter what you decide.

It'll work out okay.

Somehow or other.

And that sort of attitude,

It was instilled in me,

Taught me by Ajahn Chah who trained me.

So just whatever happens,

It's all going to be okay.

Even that time when,

44 years ago,

About that time,

44,

45 years ago,

I was in this third world,

No,

Thailand was a third world country 44 years ago.

Ubon Ratchatthani,

That was the backwaters of Thailand and the Northeast.

In the hospital there,

In the monk's ward of the hospital,

With typhus fever,

It's called typhus.

We didn't know what it was.

And that was a really scary hospital.

And I'm telling you why it was scary.

I had lots of loving kindness when I was well.

But when you're sick,

Ugh,

And especially,

Especially,

There was I think about six beds on either side of this long old ward.

You know the old wards put everybody in the same sort of room.

It was the monk's ward.

And the very first night I had typhus fever and that just really was really bad sickness.

And I was sitting there feeling just terrible.

And then there was a male nurse at the front and he went out the door.

And he didn't come back.

And after an hour or two with no one looking after us,

That's when I asked one of the monks next to me in bed,

The reason I could speak Thai in the local language,

Northeast,

Eastern at the time,

And I asked,

When's the night nurse going to come?

He looked at me and said,

If I was crazy.

He said,

What are you talking about,

Night nurse?

There is no night nurse.

If something goes wrong at night,

It's just unfortunate karma.

I didn't like the idea of karma then.

And that was scary.

You had a dozen monks in there,

All different types of sicknesses,

And just no one to look after you at night time.

And worse was to come the next day.

The next day because the nurse would come to give you injections.

For those of you about my age,

I'm 70 this year,

In the old days,

Do you remember they didn't have disposable needles?

They were all recycled.

Now recycling is very good,

But not through needles used to inject medicine in your bottom,

Because that's what happened.

Those needles,

Honestly,

They were so blunt.

I never tested this out,

But I'm pretty sure they were used in Bangkok first.

And they were disinfected,

They were boiled.

And once they were used in Bangkok,

All the wealthy people lived,

Then they were sent up to the provinces,

And Ubon was really one of the backward provinces at that time,

Beautiful people,

But just very poor.

And then they were used in the ordinary wards first of all,

And last of all,

The monks,

Because we're the tough guys.

It doesn't matter what they did,

We wouldn't complain.

Other people,

Not us.

So that,

I've never experienced in my life such blood needles.

And what happened was the nurse would come in twice a day,

In the morning and afternoon,

To give you an injection in your bum.

And people had this idea that,

You know,

These days,

Thai nurses always petite and pleasant to look at,

But this one,

The one who was injecting me,

She resembled a water buffalo.

Why?

Because she had to be so strong.

Because she wouldn't inject the thing,

She'd stab you.

That's honest,

I'm not exaggerating.

No,

Honestly.

And oh,

My bottom really hurt.

Every time,

Twice a day she came in,

I had recovered from the one yesterday evening,

And oh,

My poor bottom was so sore.

And she came again,

I was only a young monk.

So I did try my loving kindness.

But it was except her,

No.

I couldn't do it.

It wasn't her fault,

But you know,

Just when you're sort of really hurting like that.

But anyway,

Feeling really terrible and hurting,

And then my teacher,

My Master Ajahn Chah came in.

He was even then a very powerful,

Famous monk.

I thought,

Wow,

He's come to see me.

Oh,

And I felt so uplifted.

And when you get excited like that,

Seeing this famous person,

You respect so much and they come into your room to see you,

You feel,

Oh,

It's such a pleasure.

And I felt,

I didn't feel any pain or aches then when I saw him.

I felt,

Oh,

So excited.

Until he opened his mouth.

And he was very kind,

But his bedside manner was terrible.

He took one look at me and said,

Bhama Wangsa,

You're either going to get better or you're going to die.

And then he left.

That's all he said.

Honestly.

And that's how it was,

You can argue with him,

That's true,

Wasn't it?

Either way it wasn't going to last.

And of course you thought about that and wow,

How powerful that is.

No matter what happens,

It doesn't last.

So whatever decision you make in life,

So what?

It doesn't last.

The worst thing that can happen to you is you just,

You avoid old people's homes.

In other words,

You die young.

So you can always see the positive side in things.

And that's why when you make decisions,

When you have no fear,

Obviously you're responsible and you're intelligent,

You do your research.

But if you make the wrong decision,

Very often,

Very often when I make decisions here about what to talk about,

What joke to say,

What joke not to say,

Sometimes when I say that,

The monk sitting next to me says,

I hope he doesn't tell that really nasty joke.

But the joke today,

Somebody sent me this book last week,

It's really on Buddhist jokes,

Really nice.

Only one line,

It's very easy.

It has the saying on the front,

That letting go is the only thing I've got left to hold on to.

Which is nice.

And especially being a monk,

Just if ever I feel sort of insufficient,

That's not good enough.

I should do better.

Now you didn't get that one,

Did you?

Maybe as well.

I'll give it a try anyway.

And who cares,

It doesn't really matter,

Because when you're not afraid of failure and making mistakes,

That is when your decisions are easy to make.

When we make decisions,

What if it goes wrong,

What if it doesn't work?

You know that sometimes it's wonderful if it doesn't work.

You learn so much when you make a decision and sometimes it doesn't work out.

And this is one part of philosophy of life,

Which I think I've shared with you.

Please never be afraid of mistakes.

These mistakes is where we learn.

If we didn't make mistakes,

The only place you could not make mistakes is if you stay in your house and never go out at all.

The times when I was young and just cut myself and bruised myself,

That's where I increased my immunity.

So these days I hardly ever get any infections or anything.

My immune system is pretty strong because it's just messing around in my youth.

When somebody says,

Why don't you try this new part for your career,

Give it a try.

That was also encouraged for me.

I was in a university,

In a science degree,

And there the people said,

Don't just do science.

Just go and experiment.

See what else is on offer in this great university.

And if you do do an experiment,

If things blow up,

Say,

Well done,

At least you're showing that you're courageous in your search for truth.

And in that university I'm sure that a hundred times experiments went wrong,

They didn't work at all.

But one time when it worked,

That's where they made great breakthroughs in science.

Because you have to have that courageousness,

Never any breakthrough,

Never any new invention made without hundreds of failures going on alongside.

They're also parts of life.

That is where we learn.

And even though I'm a monk,

Okay,

I've been a monk for 46,

47 years,

Very happy monk,

Even so,

Sometimes you get people come and they just want a little bit of counseling,

A little bit of support.

And again,

Sometimes that's one of the most important parts of your life,

Is your relationships,

Especially marriage.

I don't know why it is,

But very often,

A person comes up and their relationship has all fallen apart.

They're really devastated.

They come and ask me for help.

I say,

Why are you coming to me?

What do I know?

I'm a monk.

There's something really weird about that.

This is not in Buddhism,

But even in,

Say,

Catholicism,

They get the priest to marry you.

What do they know about marriage?

What about me?

The monks?

The nuns?

What do we know?

Why do you come and ask?

Because there's something about being outside of all of that.

It's almost like you're up in a mountain,

Looking down upon everybody and finding out what actually happens without being influenced personally by what you're doing.

But anyway,

A lot of times,

I tell people,

Especially young men and young women,

If you haven't had your heart broken a few times,

You know what love is.

And they think,

Wow,

That's really good.

I made that up.

Well,

It is true because sometimes we have expectations of life which aren't really true,

Which aren't really valid.

And sometimes we need to almost purify in gold,

We need to heat it up with something that is quite hot and even painful,

We need it up to get some real understanding that what is the right way to have relationships.

And we need to learn that.

We never get it right first time.

We make mistakes.

When we make mistakes,

That's a wonderful part of life.

So when people keep sort of putting down mistakes and discriminating against mistakes,

They want to start a movement,

Sort of the right,

No,

Mistake rights.

Just to have all sorts of other rights in this world is okay to be wrong.

Have you ever been wrong?

You're wrong again.

Of course we make mistakes.

Imagine that we're not ashamed or afraid of making mistakes.

How would your life change?

How it would change would mean it would make more opportunities open for you.

You won't be so much afraid of making decisions.

Even like when becoming a monk or becoming a nun or joining our committee.

Oh,

I can't do that.

How do you know?

Have you ever joined the Buddhist Society of West Australia Committee?

How do you know what it's like?

Because that's illogical,

Irrational.

Give it a try,

See what happens.

If you make a mistake,

You learn so much.

You learn not to listen to Ajahn Brahm.

All the things he says.

Now what it means is you become a far more alive person when you're willing to make mistakes.

And when you're willing to make mistakes also,

You just don't,

Number one,

You don't hide them.

You know,

We have all this morality which we're supposed to teach as a religious person.

But instead of teaching people what to do,

I always think that we should teach people why to do it.

Not what to do,

But why to do it.

And I think that's more important.

And one of those precepts,

Somebody,

I don't know where she is,

But she asked me to sign her application form to join the cult of Buddhist Society.

She's not a cult,

Sorry.

The Buddhist Society of West Australia.

And they're supposed to get the five precepts.

And so I just,

I've done this to quite a few of you as well.

You know,

When you join up on the five,

Do you know the five precepts?

What's number four?

What's number two?

Why do people tense up when I play those games?

The reason why they're tense up is because they're afraid of making a mistake.

Instead we say it's okay to make mistakes.

That's where we learn.

And I learned a lot by my own mistakes and other people's mistakes.

And one of those mistakes which a person made,

This young girl came up to me many years ago and she said,

I've made a big mistake.

She said,

I'm in trouble.

Big trouble.

She was pregnant by her boyfriend.

And of course,

She was only about 17 or 18 or something.

It's a big trouble.

Is it?

Or is it,

You know,

Natural?

Part of life.

But she made a mistake,

Took a chance and it didn't go right.

Of course I asked her,

Have you told your mum and dad yet?

Well,

You know,

I knew the regulars over here.

And she said,

No,

I haven't.

That's what I'm hoping you'll do for me.

And you know,

I was just really touched.

You know,

She would trust me that much.

And actually give me the privilege,

The honor of actually helping her out of a difficult situation.

Because you knew I knew the parents.

If I told them,

You know,

Just give her a break,

She just made a mistake,

But she needs your assistance.

So then she listened to her.

Listened to me rather.

But anyway,

I also asked her,

Why don't you tell your parents?

And what she told me,

That was a great gift she gave to me.

She said,

No,

They'll kill me if they found out.

And that just opened up this whole area of why do people lie?

Why don't they tell their parents?

They made a mistake,

Something went wrong.

Why can't people just be honest?

Oh,

Because they'll kill me if they find out.

If my boss finds out that I wasn't sick,

But I just went to a meditation retreat for the weekend.

Oh,

That would really give me a hard time.

Why are people afraid of telling people the truth?

And if you have that lack of fear,

Have this beautiful thing called amnesty,

We all make mistakes,

You just admitted that,

Sometimes you're wrong.

How about telling the people you respect and love,

Your friends,

Your family,

Yeah,

I made a mistake,

I shouldn't have done that.

That is much better than lying.

How about just Mr Morrison just putting,

Oh yeah,

People in Australia,

I made a big mistake.

Have you ever seen a politician actually admitting that they've made mistakes?

The reason why is they're afraid.

The newspapers will say you're incompetent,

You can't make any more mistakes,

You shouldn't be running our country.

When you know that I met a few prime ministers,

They're human beings as well.

Imagine if the politicians did put their hand up,

Say I made a mistake,

There's a really wrong decision,

I should have made that decision,

And they take responsibility for it.

They might even like change politics.

It'd mean that many of our politicians wouldn't be so afraid of making decisions because they feel it's really going to help the country,

Going to help even help the planet.

And they've got the courage of their convictions because they're not afraid of being judged for a wrong decision.

And sometimes,

Again,

I'm also spiritual directors of this and spiritual dictators of that.

That was one of my epithets.

Many things people say about me,

But that was one.

Because spiritual director is the official title in our committee,

But then the nickname became spiritual dictator.

I kind of find that funny.

Sometimes people say,

Aren't people just criticizing you or being mean to you?

I say,

No,

I like it.

My nickname in Indonesia,

I think they started us in Indonesia.

My nickname was Ajahn Donut.

Donut.

Some of you have heard this before.

You know why they call me Donut?

For three reasons.

It's actually a word of praise,

Ajahn Donut.

First of all,

You're round.

Number two,

You're sweet.

Is that right?

And number three,

Most important,

You're holy.

Holy.

Ajahn Donut.

And sometimes I appreciated it because sometimes,

Especially as a monk,

A senior monk,

That sometimes you can feel so full of yourself.

You can feel just so proud,

Arrogant,

Elite,

Entitled.

And I've seen people like that.

They're disgusting to see and I never ever ever want to be like that.

Entitled.

As if somehow or other you're different than others.

So I like it when people sell funny stories like that,

Call me Ajahn Donut.

It makes me more human.

So anyway,

Making decisions in life is.

.

.

I found out just all those decisions I've made in my life,

Many of them,

Now 70 almost,

It's like you go out a door.

You can turn left or you can turn right.

Just simplify the decision making.

Which one should you do?

Oh,

What the hell,

I'll turn left today.

Because I know it doesn't really matter.

What really does matter though is I made the decision reasonably quickly.

I don't ponder,

Should it be left,

Should it be right,

Should it be right,

Should it be left,

Maybe I'll go and look on Wikipedia and find out which is the best way to walk.

Google Maps might be better because that gives you directions.

Or should I go and ask experts on which way is the best way,

Left or right?

Or should I actually check the weather because maybe go left,

It's a storm,

Maybe go right,

It's nice weather.

Should I just go and ask my friends?

That's ridiculous,

Isn't it?

That's what sometimes people do.

They're really hopeless at making decisions.

They don't procrastinate too much.

As for me,

I put off procrastinating till later on in my life.

That's a joke,

I'm really having a hard time with my jokes today.

Put off procrastination till later on in your life.

Anyway,

Back to,

Where was I?

Oh yeah,

Making decision left or right.

What's really important is you don't waste energies on your decisions and worry about is it the right decision.

No one knows what the right decision or wrong decision is.

You just make a decision and then you make it work.

You save your energy till after you've turned left or right.

And then you make that work.

It doesn't really matter what decision you make.

What really matters is how you commit to that decision afterwards and how you really make it work.

So that's why if any of you think you want a partner in life,

You're not married yet,

And you're looking for someone,

Well,

Just anyone will do.

Make it work.

Put energy into it and never think,

Oh,

If I'd have done something else,

If I would have turned the other way,

If I'd have not done it this way,

If I'd have stayed at university,

If I didn't even go to university,

If I'd have done this.

.

.

There's something about the past.

The God of you to be free of that past is understanding the past.

It's this very religious word.

The past is in-if-able.

Have you heard that word before?

It's usually said in-if-able.

Because I heard that word about spiritual things like enlightenment,

Nirvana,

God,

Just the ultimate,

The cosmos,

What's its meaning?

People say the meaning is in-if-able.

I've heard that so much in religious groups.

And I ask,

What does it mean?

If you analyse that word,

It's a compound,

It means in-if-able.

You can't F it.

So it's true,

You can't F enlightenment or God or anything if you do in trouble.

It's in-if-able.

Well,

It didn't really mean anything except just making it funny.

But I always think that you give it a meaning,

Something a bit more powerful.

Of course,

That's why I invented the word in-if-able.

You can't if the past.

If I hadn't come to Australia,

If I hadn't come to the Buddhist Society of Western Australia to listen to a talk this evening,

If I hadn't given a donation,

If I had a gift,

If I'd have joined the committee of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia.

You don't know what might have happened if you turned right instead of left.

Now I can say,

Which is one of the reasons why when you make a decision,

The decision is made and you make it work and you never go back to see,

Was that decision right or wrong?

You never get a such thing as right or wrong from the past.

You did it,

It happened and you learn from it.

You grow from it and you get such amazing experiences from it.

I know sometimes,

Sometimes I thought,

Why did I come to Perth?

I could be this wonderful monk living in a cave in Thailand now,

Just really peaceful,

Nothing to do all day,

No talks to give,

No houses to bless,

No people to talk to,

Just perfectly feel,

Look,

I could have retired by now.

But my retirement is not even a possibility in the distance.

I've got no superannuation.

I've got no pension.

I've got no place to live other than my little cave in Bodhinyana Monastery.

Did I make the wrong decision?

That was pretty quick.

Of course,

I never even think of things like that because I know the past is in,

If able.

You don't know what might have happened.

I'm here and I'm going to make it work.

So when I turn left,

Turn right,

Which should I do?

I make sure that once that decision is made,

I give it everything I've got,

Make it work.

And if eventually,

It doesn't go the way I expected,

Actually nothing goes the way I expected.

Does your life go the way you expected?

If I'd have asked you 10 years ago,

20 years ago,

Would you be spending Friday night sitting on the floor with sore legs?

Listening to a Buddhist monk,

Give a crazy talk.

Would you have been able to predict this?

Of course not.

But here you are.

So you make it work.

So because things never go the way I expect them to,

But that's part of life.

I learned so much from that.

I give as much energy as I possibly can.

And that's actually just a beautiful story,

Which comes to mind.

I usually tell this when we're doing fundraisers.

They always need funds for something or other,

Because we spend too much.

Not the monks.

Monks,

We don't spend anything at all.

I'm looking up peasant of our committee.

That's all good stuff.

But anyway,

A story from Ajahn Chah.

Now sometimes people really do think that religion and spirituality has to be profound and difficult to understand.

I mentioned that before.

If you go to a talk by me or by somebody else,

And it's a really deep talk,

And afterwards you go outside,

You tell your friend,

Oh,

That was really deep.

You say,

Yeah,

Really deep.

I didn't understand a word of it,

But that's why it was deep.

But hopefully you can understand what I say here.

It doesn't mean it's not deep.

That's one of the great things with Ajahn Chah.

He's done some incredible deep teachings,

But they're so easy to understand.

But one of the things which he's.

.

.

He didn't tell me,

He told this man from Sydney.

And this man from Sydney had heard this great enlightened master in northeast of Thailand.

He wanted to go and see him and ask some questions.

And he was determined enough to actually to get on a flight from Sydney,

This is quite a few years ago,

All the way to Bangkok and find out Ajahn Chah didn't live in Bangkok,

Get another flight to Ubon Rajatani and from there get a taxi to Warinchamrap and then to Awotbapong to Ajahn Chah's monastery.

And he could only go for a day or two.

So he was going to get the flight back to Bangkok that afternoon.

And so he found out where Ajahn Chah's hut was and Ajahn Chah was surrounded by all these people.

And so he was on the outside,

On the edge,

Waiting for his turn to see the great master.

He's waiting and waiting and waiting,

Getting no closer to Ajahn Chah and after a couple of hours of waiting,

He thought,

Waste of time.

He came on this great journey all the way from Sydney to the northeast of Thailand for one reason and he hadn't achieved his goal.

So he got up,

Quite depressed,

Walked over to where the taxi was going to pick him up to take him to the airport to get his flight back to Bangkok and then connection back to Sydney.

And then he realized the taxi was not going to come for another 45 minutes or an hour.

So he saw some monks.

They picked up brooms to do some sweeping.

So he thought,

Well,

Why not?

At least I could do some good karma and I'd just do some sweeping.

So he picked up a broom and started sweeping.

And as he was sweeping,

He told me this story in Bodhinyana monastery.

I'd never heard this story before.

And he was sweeping away and then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

And he wondered,

Who did this?

So he turned around and that hand belonged to Ajahn Chah.

Ajahn Chah was standing in him,

Standing about a half a meter away,

Hand on his shoulder just smiling at him.

And he said something which was translated by a translator.

He said,

If you're going to sweep,

Give it everything you've got.

And then Ajahn Chah smiled and went away.

And he told me that that little saying changed his whole life because he realized that was from not just an ordinary person.

Ajahn Chah had often seen and obviously seen this Australian man.

He must have been young,

About 30 at the time.

Seen this man come all the way from Australia,

Hadn't got a chance to ask any questions.

And Ajahn Chah didn't have any time to do anything except give a very quick teaching.

If you're going to sweep,

Give it everything you've got,

100%.

And he realized that was not just about sweeping,

It was about life.

When he was at work,

In his office,

He gave that 100%.

He never thought about his family or his health or anything.

It's 100% work.

And when he was driving home after work,

100% to drive home carefully.

When he was with his family,

He gave his family 100%.

Didn't even think about work.

When it was time to go to bed,

He gave sleep 100%.

Never thought about anything else.

He gave this 100% effort to everything he did in the moment,

One by one.

And he said because of that,

His family life flourished.

He always had time for his family because when they were in front of them,

He was in front of them,

He gave them 100%.

He never thought about his work,

Said,

I'm tired of watching the TV.

When he had his food,

He gave food 100%.

He never watched the TV while he was eating or talked when he was eating.

He just made sure he ate and enjoyed his food.

And his business,

He gave that 100%.

And he flourished,

He became very wealthy.

Everything about that little teaching,

He said,

That was such a wonderful teaching,

It really changed my life.

When you're listening to a talk,

You give listening 100%.

Are you doing that?

And last of all,

When you go past the donation box,

Give everything you've got.

Thank you for listening.

Finish off the talk.

What a dis-sus-us.

There you go.

Okay,

That never works.

Poor donation box is still getting empty.

Okay,

So we've got some questions now from the floor.

I hope from overseas or somewhere,

Maybe.

So thank you all for listening.

And again,

That announcement tomorrow,

There's that eighth full pathway to bhamaali and his helpers.

That's live streamed,

Isn't it?

Live streamed.

So if you want some real deep teachings,

Which you probably won't understand,

No,

You probably won't understand,

That's online or here tomorrow.

Yeah,

Please come up.

Here we go.

Wow,

We've got some from Brazil,

UK,

India and Poland.

It's really nice to get some all types of parts of the world.

From Brazil,

Knowing that everyone is getting what they deserve according to their karma,

How should one observe and manage to their compassion?

Don't turn into indifference.

You get the ingredients of life according to the law of karma,

But what you do with those ingredients,

That is where people need some inspiration,

Encouragement.

It's just like,

I don't know how you're going to get home tonight.

Maybe you've got a bicycle,

Maybe you've got to get the bus,

Maybe you've got a Mercedes limousine car to take you home,

I don't know.

But the vehicle you have,

That's because of your karma.

But how you drive that vehicle,

What you make of it,

That is even more important.

So you get what you deserve,

But what do you do with what you got?

And you see some people in this world,

They've hardly got anything at all.

But what they do with what they've got is really,

Really,

Really impressive.

You know,

You've got a car and you give a person a lift back home.

And that person you turn out is,

You know,

You're almost like your soul mate and you have a wonderful time and you have a wonderful relationship with them.

Who knows?

It's what you do with what you've got.

That is the other part of karma.

You get what you deserve in the sense that that's your old karma.

But what you do with that old karma now?

That's why you manage for their compassion,

Don't turn any difference.

No,

You encourage people to do more,

To be kind to one another.

This is what we've got.

Now this is how we share it.

From the UK,

Do I jump on?

I experienced a very strong energy coming out of my body.

I felt a bit scared but I decided to stay till he went.

Was it perhaps some old energy?

It could have been but it could have been some beautiful new energy,

Strong energy.

If it's delightful and very powerful,

That could mean some of the beautiful energies which come up through meditation.

So I need a bit more sort of description,

See what type of energy it was.

But you know,

Sometimes,

Especially if a person has been sick or been in accidents,

Car accidents,

Or even like emotional trauma,

Sometimes that trauma is almost like stored in your body.

And for it to come out and be released,

Sometimes that's quite a lot of energy comes out of you.

But if you had a nice peaceful meditation and you're a really kind,

Good person,

Trust,

Imagine,

No,

You want to come out,

Come out.

Because you are always totally in control of these things.

If you think it's like some spirit who's taking you over,

Somebody came and saw me once and said they had this vision,

Their meditation,

This big demon,

And it came to them,

I've come to take over your mind.

And she was so scared,

A demon,

I've come to take over your mind.

I said,

Oh,

Come on,

That's like a burglar knocking at your door on a Saturday morning,

Saying,

I've come to steal from your house this evening.

Burglars don't make a now,

If that spirit wanted to take over your mind,

They just do it.

They won't make a now,

For goodness sake.

So that was just,

And she got it and said,

Oh yeah,

Just start making it up.

I said,

Yeah,

Of course you are,

But enjoy it.

Oh,

I think I told a few people this,

And sometimes,

You know,

Because I'm a monk,

You know,

Get some really nice nimittas,

Nimittas are like these mental images.

One of those mental images I got years and years and years and years ago,

That,

You know,

I was out of my body and I was doing a battle with an Indian,

A Hindu holy man,

So we're flying through the air,

Zap,

Zap,

Zap,

Zap,

Zap.

It's really good fun.

I'm being honest with you,

But because it was my nimitta,

My mental thing,

Of course I won.

But you weren't at all afraid or anything,

Because,

You know,

This was like,

A lot of you were adding,

I was adding most of what was happening into there,

As a person always does.

So what you do,

You make sure that it works.

Oh,

The next question is from India,

Am I in trouble?

So don't be scared.

Sometimes being scared by these experiences is the only sort of problem.

They're all very safe,

Very helpful,

Very interesting,

So enjoy them.

From India,

After loss of my brother in an accident,

My parents have become weak physically and are worrying much,

Not well.

As a hopeless idiot having no dreams daughter,

What can I do?

Please guide.

Now first of all,

I think many of you have heard me say this before,

You never lose any member of your family which you loved very much.

You had them for many years.

Just even changing the language changes the attitude.

I'd rather have my brother for much,

Much,

Much,

Much longer.

I had him for 10 years,

15 years,

25 years.

That was wonderful,

Thank you so much.

So you don't just look at what's been taken away from you,

You look for what you've had.

Which means that you look at,

Yeah,

The death was a shock,

A terrible but.

That death was only one day,

What about all the other days in their life?

All the wonderful memories you have of them.

So you never judge and experience a relationship with say a family member or anyone by just how it ended.

Just all the wonderful things you enjoyed at the time.

That's why I gave that simile which I haven't heard yet about the concert.

Life is like concerts.

All our friends are enjoying this wonderful performance together.

But sooner or later the band has to disband and go home.

So do you,

But we go in different directions.

When the concert is over,

We never cry.

Instead we feel what a beautiful performance that was and how lucky I was there,

Was to be there at the time and enjoy this amazing music.

All the people I've known and loved and now they're gone.

That's how I feel about them.

With my mother,

My father,

Great concert,

That is amazing.

I feel privileged.

Lucky,

Oops.

Is this lucky?

Yeah,

Just about.

Nowhere is it all gone.

Yeah.

Okay.

Can I have IT support please?

Okay.

Anyway,

There's one more question anyway.

But anyway,

You've been a very good tablet.

So even now you may be gone.

No,

It's not gone.

We had a wonderful time together.

Yeah,

It's reincarnated.

It is reincarnated.

You don't believe in reincarnation,

It's now back here.

So people do die,

But it's also just how they live.

We also just remember not just the deaths,

But the lives and the wonderful memories we've had with that person.

What's the other story?

Often tell this at funeral services.

See this glass here?

Can you see the crack in it?

You're the closest.

Can you see the crack in it?

Nope.

You see there's a crack in it?

It's called the crack of fragility,

Impermanence.

This is glass.

It's not made out of plastic and unbreakable.

Because it's glass,

If I drop it,

Like almost drop this thing here,

It's going to crack,

Break and not be useful anymore.

Just like me,

I'm cracked.

One day I'm going to perish and die.

Not this evening,

Don't worry.

Each one of you are also going to perish and die.

Because we're all cracked,

That's why you must care for one another.

I care for this glass because it's fragile.

I care for my body because that too is fragile.

Care for each one of you because relationships are fragile.

If this was unbreakable,

There'd be no reason to care.

Anyway,

From Poland,

It's the first time I've joined live streaming.

Yay!

I don't know if there's anybody who can pass my thankfulness to Ajahn Brahm.

Yeah,

There is Mr.

Tablet.

After years of struggle with depression and anxiety,

Including medications and psychotherapy,

I'm cured after hearing one sentence.

Yeah,

Amazing.

And that sentence was,

It's okay,

I'm depressed.

There's nothing wrong with being depressed.

All those,

The usual simile which comes up now.

Wherever you go to any of our monasteries,

We call forest monks,

Forest nuns.

The reason why is because we live in forests.

And we get so much information and amazing truths from seeing nature.

One of the things which you see is that there's no tree in Dhammasal Monastery,

In Bodhinyana Monastery,

In Jhana Grove,

There's no tree which is dead straight.

With all the branches in the right place,

With all the leaves green,

No brown leaves,

No leaves eaten by bugs,

You never see a tree which has got no damage on its trunk.

Every tree in the forest is twisted,

Bent,

Damaged,

Burnt.

That's why they're beautiful.

So I always thought that damaged trees should be exterminated,

Got rid of and only having the perfect trees.

That's not a forest anymore.

Real forests,

Damaged trees all over the place.

Trees with depression,

Trees with schizophrenia,

Trees with,

I forget now,

With Alzheimer's.

We've got what species they are.

All sorts of different trees in the forest.

And so sometimes when we stigmatize an illness like depression,

And we treat it with medication,

It's okay to be depressed,

Which means that you're at peace with it.

Energy comes back,

Depression goes.

Well done Michael from Poland.

It's okay to be depressed.

Everything's gone,

I feel alive again.

And now almost a year passed without any panic attacks.

Yay!

Thank you Ajahn Balak.

BSWA,

You are truly amazing.

Greetings from Poland.

And from Michael Godlewski from Poland,

Jyn Kweer.

Any Polish people here?

Jyn Kweer means like a greeting in Polish.

To Michael in Poland.

And thank you.

It's a nice way to finish off for today.

So thank you all for listening.

And what do we do in the end?

Three sadhus?

Sadhu,

Sadhu,

Sadhu.

That's cool.

Give me everything you've got.

And now we also,

For those who are Buddhist,

And I'm supposed to be a Buddhist,

So we do the three bows.

Don't throw like a charm.

Okay.

Well,

That's all I can say.

Okay.

Well,

That's nice,

Isn't it?

Bhagavata dhammo samvang namah sami Supatipanno Bhagavata Savakasangho Sangham namami Very interested in joining our committee.

The president's already gone home.

But we have our vice president here,

Kseniya.

Yay!

So you can ask her or ask me.

And how wonderful it is to join the committee of the.

.

.

Reviews

Delightfully humeroius and finsightful, thank you

Joy and ease. If you’re going to sweep, give it all you’ve got. Thank you for the spirit and the message.

Wonderful teaching as always! Thank you 🙏💖

Lighthearted, fun, and a joy. This monk is the coolest! He makes me laugh and smile. Thank you :)

☮️💖🙏🕉️

Gratitude

😁🙏🙏