Uplifting and 'Interesting' True Stories of a Buddhist Monk

In this talk Ajahn tells some inspiring and intimate stories from his own experiences to a group of sincere meditators who have been practicing very hard for many days, keeping the atmosphere light and the interest levels high. The stories allude to the existence of benevolent and supportive beings in parallel realms, and also the special abilities of his two main Teachers, Tan Ajahn Anan in Thailand and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The stories start out as somewhat interesting, 
but soon become VERY Interesting!

Transcript

People have been very diligent with the various reflections,

Meditations,

Listening attentively,

Putting forth effort,

Maintaining composure.

People are practicing very well.

The subjects of the last few days,

Body contemplation and earlier today,

Death reflection,

Contemplation of impermanence,

All very wonderful,

Gamatana,

Meditation methods for developing insight.

We do have to keep our practice balanced with practices that uplift the mind and practices which sober the mind.

So the body contemplations,

The awareness of death,

This sober the mind.

And this is important for people who think about the future too much or can't make the mind still,

A lot of restlessness,

Or if there's a lot of sexual lust or a lot of greed.

So when you're seeing the nature of the body more clearly,

This lust cools down and a bit of dispassion which is very helpful.

Of course later on insight,

In the process of developing insight these gamatanas deepen and actually liberate the mind as we know from reading part of Ajahnan's biography and part of Michi Gao's biography.

It was while doing body contemplation that they had profound mind changing experiences.

They did also mention that they felt disenchanted,

Dispassionate,

Sad.

So that's part of the process.

Tanarjan Anand in particular mentioned that he also loved cultivating the brahmaviharas at the same time and probably had developed them to the point of being able to absorb on the jhanic level.

So Tanarjan was balancing his body contemplations with very blissful,

Sublime states.

So there's a few practices we can do to keep things balanced because a bright mind with well-being is the best foundation for insight and so we have to know when it's right to calm things down and so with the mind.

We also need to know when it's right to boil the mind up,

Remember to have a light touch.

So the metta practice,

Obviously very uplifting,

Nourishing.

Buddhanusati.

So if we actually recollect the qualities of the Buddha,

This can give rise to a lot of joy.

If we open our heart with appreciation,

Just imagining this being who could teach people perfectly according to their dispositions and he would walk great distances to teach one person such incredible compassion and liberating many thousands,

Possibly hundreds of thousands of humans in northern India in his 45 years of teaching.

So we think of the Buddha's beautiful qualities and incredible example,

They say impeccable in conduct and understanding,

Not just perfect in appearance,

Thinking about the inner qualities.

It says that his heart quivered with compassion for all beings.

So that's what gives him that personable beauty,

Really lovely quality,

Someone who is not just having that scientific precision and that intellectual mastery but a heart that sees everybody like children who he wants to liberate,

Remove from all fear and danger.

So when we contemplate qualities of the Buddha like that,

Also very uplifting.

Another practice not talked about so much is the devanusati,

It's another of the anusatis.

So the way it's described in the Surya Maga is you just recollect the qualities of devas.

So devas are renowned for having patience,

They forgive,

Having loving kindness and particularly having restraint,

Hiri and otika is what they are praised for having,

Which is a sense of conscience and a sense of,

A wholesome sense of shame.

So it's obviously not all devas but it's generally talked about the qualities of devas,

They have a high level of conscience and a lot of metta and a lot of patience,

Which was the cause for their being born in the heaven realm.

So how it's taught is one thinks of the devas in different realms and their qualities.

So the higher you go the more radiant,

The more illustrious,

The more beautiful the devas qualities and minds up to the brahma realms.

But sometimes just hearing stories which allude to the existence of devas,

It does brighten the mind,

It is interesting and uplifting depending on one's character.

My character enjoys these kinds of stories.

And so I thought I might share a few little experiences.

When I was five years as a monk,

It's a little bit of a tradition in Thailand because for the first five years you are under dependence of a teacher and you can't go anywhere without their permission and their agreeing.

After five years you have freedom to make some of your own choices and so many of the monks go on Tudong wandering around for a while,

Visiting other teachers and celebrating their hard earned freedom in a way and enjoying the wide open road and the expansive horizons because after five years of having to be in the morning chanting,

Having to be at chores time,

Having to do this,

Having to do that,

Have to,

Have to,

Have to,

Have to,

It's a very good training.

But naturally young men long for a little freedom at times.

So I wandered off after my fifth Rains retreat alone just to explore some of these practices.

Tudong is an abbreviation of the word Dutanga and the Dutanga practices are for shaking off chilesa.

They are forms of austerity practices.

So walking on Tudong is part of this tradition but there is also staying in wild places,

Staying in orchards,

Staying in an open field under the sky,

Various practices that you do to expose oneself to a little bit more vulnerability and practice more enunciation and practice with fear.

So I was doing that,

I was wandering and sometimes staying in fields and it was rice had been harvested so you could come across these big piles of hay in the rice field and you could set up a little mat and not so many mosquitoes in the cold season and you could sleep under the stars in the field and I would wander and I would come close to a village and so I would stop.

The next morning I would pack up my things,

I would walk arms around with my things on my back,

Two bags balanced with the arms bowled out the front and then usually get some food.

Northeast Thailand,

Most towns in Northeast Thailand have monasteries and there is a certain time that monks will go on arms round so often would get quite well fed and then have the meal at the other side of the town.

But I remember it was more difficult than I thought and in ways that I hadn't realised because it was very hot even though it was a cold season there is not much forest left and Thailand is largely deforested,

There are some national parks but there wasn't much forest left and there was a lot of litter along the side of the road as well and so there was this sense of wanting to be a forest monk wandering and here you are in the baking sun and there is all this rubbish around your feet and then naturally you get hot and you get thirsty and there is all these trucks with Pepsi driving past delivering Pepsi too because Thais drink a lot of soft drink and so it was very interesting because wanting to be with Buddha as you walk Buddha Buddha Buddha but then the Pepsi truck would go past Pepsi Pepsi Pepsi.

There were a notable number of occasions where I thought hmm I want a Pepsi and within not very long a car would stop and somebody would hand me a Pepsi and so that was very interesting but more interesting than this was there was one day where you get a bit fed up with your desires because you can't fulfil most of them and there is a lot of blisters,

Sunburn,

Sweat,

Chafed skin,

Smelly clothes there is a lot of unpleasant things to work with and I was being almost facetious one day I was walking into one village and I was thinking I was kind of playing with my chalazers as well and I was like well do I want to sleep in a field or do I want to sleep in a forest or do I want to sleep in a monastery and I was like no I want to sleep in a shelter in a field with a hard wooden floor and then I'm like do I want Pepsi no I actually want Fanta which is pretty stupid but anyway this man appears as I'm wandering into the village and he says I would like to invite you to come and live in my little shelter in the field and he took my bags and he said I will carry your bags and then he told his son he called over his shoulder he said buy the monks some Fanta and so this son of this man came on his motorbike to this wooden floored shelter in the field with one litre of Fanta so you see these things occasionally and I say oh now that's interesting and I think what's happening is it's hard work and one is trying quite hard so those devas who Buddhist devas who rejoice in monks trying possibly listening in and even though the desire is pure chalaza really I want to sleep in this shelter and I want this kind of sweet drink and well they're thinking possibly okay well we'll encourage him but another thing happened on this this trip I was staying in Dhamma Ute monasteries these dummiutes a different kind of a lineage Lumpur man was in that lineage and Ajahn Mahabuwa Ajahn Chah was a little unusual in that he banned smoking in his monastery a long time before other monasteries did and see Lumpur man smoked and so did Lumpur Chah and so I think the devas of Thailand might not have a condescending view towards smoking because they'd seen the Kruv Ratchan smoking and so I would stop in at these dummiute monasteries and there wasn't much by way of a cup of tea or a decent cup of coffee but they they all had these cigarettes they all had tobacco roll your own tobacco and so I thought I'd try one so I tried one and okay it was better than nothing and then you wander another few days and you're in another dummiute monastery and there's more cigarettes and everyone's smoking it's kind of funny because before the evening chanting they have their smoke and after the evening chanting they have their smoke and so I started to smoke first time in my life never smoked before I was a monk and I don't smoke anymore I don't smoke now either but during this time if I was there you know out and about exploring freedom and so I had one cigarette one monk gave me this cigarette was called a cron tip which means a Davis rib that's the brand name and it's probably the equivalent of a Winfield red or a Marlborough red and so I had this cigarette it was so strong I couldn't walk I sit down feeling dizzy okay I'm not going to do that again but then on another occasion I tried a different brand which was called Saifon which meant falling rain that falling rain cigarettes are a mild menthol and it turned out that I quite liked that one and so but I realized I was walking all together for about two months and I realized you know what you're getting a bit addicted to this whereas before because they give you some tobacco when you're leaving the monastery okay take some there's a lot and so you're wandering in the heat and it's a little bit hungry a little bit tired a little bit thirsty a little bit sore and I might have a cigarette and then you have a cigarette and you notice that you feel a bit better and then so I noticed that I was starting to have a cigarette instead of whereas before I might go under a tree and meditate I was thinking I have a cigarette I thought this is not this looks like not a good direction to be going and so I gave up I only I didn't go any smoke for about two weeks but then I gave up and then what was interesting was a couple of days later I was thinking well I know I've given up but I just want one I want one of those falling rain menthol cigarettes and so I turned the corner I think I crossed the road and I turned the corner and I'm not joking there was one perfectly clean falling rain menthol cigarette before my feet and that's interesting how did that get there now what's interesting about this is weeks later when I was walking up a mountain behind Chiang Mai to go and pay respects at some relics in Doi Suthep monastery very famous monastery the same thing happened I was walking pre-dawn and it was weeks since since the previous cigarette and I was walking up the hill and I had the same thought I thought it was actually quite steep and quite long and on an empty stomach and I'm thinking oh maybe cigarette would be good and so I turned the corner and once again a falling rain menthol cigarette in perfect condition right in front of my feet so isn't that interesting I don't even know how they do it but it's interesting with regards practicing in Bogaia I've experienced some interesting things with this phenomena of Bodhi leaves now many people who go to the holy sites want some souvenirs to recollect the joyful happy occasion but there's certain seasons where hardly anybody leaves fall so November December January there's not many leaves falling in the cold season come late February March many more but in that time they're not falling or very occasionally but I remember I was there at that time and I was like everyone else I wanted some Bodhi leaves and there was one morning I'd made some vow I was trying to sit at that time I think it was a hundred hours I can't remember within what time frame but I was trying to do a hundred hours of meditation during my period of practice there and I had to be at the tree fairly early and I had to be consistently there morning afternoon evening and so I remember one one morning I'd been to voltage beat the day before and I've got a bit of sunstroke actually and I went to the Bodhi tree and I was meditating and I was thinking I felt quite sick and I was thinking oh you should go back and sleep this isn't working and then I had this thought no we didn't come just to have peaceful meditation I actually came to develop more determination more consistency so just sitting here with that intention under the Bodhi tree being determined to fulfill a vow to increase my capacities to be more determined more patient more consistent that's that's what I should be doing and at that moment a Bodhi leaf landed in my right palm and there was this sense of oh that's interesting it felt to me like a deva might have been saying that's right actually you should be consistent and and determined and just practice even if it's peaceful or not so that was a nice occasion recently something happened a couple of times I was going early in the morning and one of the first under the Bodhi tree the different types of body leaves in different seasons so if a leaf falls in the cold season it's usually quite shriveled up and Tanarjanan has said that each body leaf does have some special energy in it because that Bodhi tree is on the very site where Lord Buddha was enlightened so there is a very special energy and the tree does have a special energy some of these very gifted monks who have divine eye can look at a body leaf and know if it's from that tree does have the particular qualities but I put my monks bag down and I went to offer some flowers and I I came back and I put my hand in my in my bag to get a few things earplugs and insect repellent and there was this very large perfectly flat perfectly smooth green Bodhi leaf in the bag and I'm like wow and I did my three hour early morning session and by that time the leaf was beginning to shrivel a little and it was like I was thinking did that fall in the day before where did that come from but it really must have fell in those few seconds when I was offering flowers before I came back and it was really encouraging the sense of okay a beautiful green perfectly flat one in in the bag and that was interesting what happened most recently I think is related to another student's good karma her merit or her good intentions so there's a recently the monastery found out that land next door was going to be sold and they were going to build a resort on the land about well adjoining the women's section and resorts in Thailand unfortunately often have this karaoke phenomena and and then listening to drunk people singing every Friday and Saturday night it's not much fun and so although I didn't really want the burden of having more land to take care of I don't want a resort right next to the monastery and so I was talking to some committee people and we decided that we we had to try and get it we spoke to a lady and she agreed to have the price of what she was going to sell it because she is Buddhist and she gave us a year now this student from from Bangkok she decided that she would help one third of the cost it's quite a bit of money and so she said when should I offer it and I said well offer it under the Bodhi tree we make a nice ceremony this wasn't when I was eating the pilgrimage this is when I was there for a month of private practice I was doing I was trying to do 300 hours in 33 days of meditation dedicating that to my father and so she came and some other people had a attendant there as well another monk from the monastery two other monks from the monastery so it's a small group of of monks and close students she came for a week and she was also meditating I believe seven hours a day for seven days 49 hours she'd made that vow she said when should I make the offering I said last thing in the evening when we've completed our quota and so we were packing up our mats at 840 it closes at 9 and they start blowing whistles quite aggressively at 845 so I said to her her name is Jin Tana I said Yom Jin I don't want you to offer it to me since we're at this holy place which represents the seat of enlightenment of Buddhas I like you to invite the the merit or the Barami of the Buddha in fact all Buddhas past present and future and then I'd like you to invite the devas of the Bodhi tree to rejoice and I'd like so I led her in a little ceremony where we did the namutasa and then she repeated after me I offer this land for the sake of protecting a practice monastery and for the sake of increasing the lifespan of the Buddha sasana in this world may the Buddha s please receive this offering and may the devas rejoice now a very interesting thing happened it's literally closing time by this time just after I gave the blessing transferring the merit dedicating the merit so she wrote the amount that she was going to offer within which time frame and then she offered that that was her making her pledge and then literally picking up our bags to leave and this gust of wind a very very strong gust of wind with no rain blew at that moment and I'm not kidding hundreds of Bodhi leaves fell and so we were running around giggling with delight and at the end of a long day of striving and we pick up handfuls and we're trying to find plastic bags to put them in now soon as that gust died down another one came and then we were running around picking up we actually started to get fussy we're picking up the nice green big ones and not going for the little ones and there was only about 20 people left and usually there's many hundreds of people it's about 20 people left and even the guards they weren't chasing us around they were chasing us out they were enjoying the spectacle of these people running around laughing joyfully with their treasure so that went on for about 10 minutes and we all got at least 100 Bodhi leaves this is for the Thai Buddhists this is serious treasure this is everybody wants a Bodhi leaf and a Bodhi tree so it's wonderful because now I can give them away to my students in Thailand but I did have the sense that had never happened before and the timing was extraordinary and it did seem as though the devas of the Bodhi tree or the other devas facilitated something and we all got 100 Bodhi leaves but it was a very sincere and generous offering and we did ask for the devas to rejoice so there was I just like to tell these stories which seem to indicate that some of these subtle bodied non-humans do listen in and are perhaps capable of rejoicing well I think they are and I just like to tell some stories that suggest that other stories since I'm telling stories one a few things happened in my monks life which made me have no doubt that certain gifted monks have mind reading abilities so this comes into our Sangha Nusati the special qualities of Sangha so would you like to hear these stories or not when I was staying with Tanarjan Anand it was my second range retreat and I went to stay with Tanarjan and that's another interesting I'll tell you that story too I was because I was rich with suffering as a young monk and I had good teachers Tanarjan Jayasarov gives very good Dharma talks and Ajahn Pasanno I'd been his attendant before he went to America but I felt something was lacking and I'm not criticizing them I'm saying more that given the extent of my struggle I needed extra special help that's how I felt and so I actually went to the Emerald Buddha statue of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok before a period of intensive practice in the jungle and so I paid respects and I'd heard that making vows at the Emerald Buddha is quite effective but it's also said that if you make a vow the Emerald Buddha you better keep it because if you don't keep it apparently Davis can also punish so the vow I made was simply I want to be a monk for a long time and I want to be a good monk but I feel I need a teacher to help me with my challenges and if there is a teacher that I have an auspicious karmic connection with in Thailand may I meet that teacher and so I made that vow and then I went into a remote monastery called Daodam which means black turtle and it's a hermitage of Wat Nanachat it's on the border of Burma in a large space of jungle Ajahn Parvath spent six months there I've been there seven times usually for a two or three month period and so this this is my second time going there and I was going in before the group from Wat Nanachat the group from Wat Nanachat 15 or 20 monks will go for March and April most years but we went in in February for an extra month and so it was curious that during that month I think there were only four monks there Western monks Ajahn Kalyan was one of them Ajahn Anand decided to come with I think four or five of his monks from Wat Mapchan in Rayong and so I actually met Ajahn Anand curiously enough in a jungle in the middle of nowhere and it's interesting to note that that hermitage doesn't even have a village there's no town there they have to ship food in and they have Burmese cook making food so it was an unlikely occurrence it was also the only time that Tanajan went into the jungle there and I did have the opportunity to meet him and I had that very helpful conversation which I've relayed to you before about the experience I had and Tanajan Anand saying yes in the beginning it's like you're in this house it's on fire and your mind gets more sensitive and you're aware of Dukkha but you don't have anywhere to rest yet and as you practice patient endurance you develop this cool place where you can rest he says the house is on fire and it is an accurate perception but the mind doesn't yet have a space to rest but through patiently enduring it will develop and so that piece of advice and that bit of empathy and that perspective at that point in time was extremely helpful I'm not sure if I would have made it much longer had I not met him and so then I asked him am I trainable Ajahn because I was losing confidence in myself and he looked at me and he says you have merit Achlo he said and that was so helpful at that time because I didn't feel like I didn't feel like I had merit and then I said so can I come and practice with you and he says you may you may come and practice with me so that was when I went to that went to stay with Tanajan's monastery for my second rains retreat having had the very good fortune to meet him there in the jungle and so is that interesting making the vow at the end of Buddha and then that occurred then the thing that made me confident that Tanajan may have special abilities is there were many occasions actually I think he really he went out of his way to be encouraging during that time because it was obvious that I needed encouragement so there was a an out of season cold snap and Thai people feel the cold very acutely because they are accustomed to 30 degree 35 degree temperatures so I know I think it went down to 20 and everybody's and everybody's and blue it sounds funny but their skin actually goes dry and starts to crack when it's 20 degrees I mean because they're so used to 30 35 and their teeth literally chatter it's quite funny and now that I live there a little bit similar actually so I don't laugh quite as much anyway so somebody gave Tanajan a like a box of baby oil and he was handing it out to to the monks to rub on this dry chafing skin now ever since childhood I've had this I don't know what it is but I don't like greasy feelings I don't know why but I don't like greasy feelings and so I've never used I never used baby oil before in those days it was only about 15 months so it was this very family like feeling and we used to have tea in front of Ajahn's kuti and so he would come out and chat occasionally or just come out and walk around and so on this day he came out and he was handing baby oil small bottles and he walked towards me with the baby oil and I thought I don't like greasy feelings and he stopped and he turned his back and he went back inside his kuti I felt terrible I felt oh you're getting a gift from an enlightened being and you're going to be fussy what are you thinking I was giving myself a hard time now the next time the next day at tea Ajahn called me into the office he said actually come in the office I came in the office and he handed me a little bottle of moisturizer with vitamin E isn't that interesting so there were some that was I think his way of saying I'm paying attention and it's okay that you don't like greasy things and he's not judging me I gave myself a really hard time when I thought that I don't want it and he turned around and there was another occasion I can tell you are you bored yet okay just let me know if you're bored there are a few other occasions where sweet occasions where one day I used to get irritated because we had to do the chores together in those days now they've broken it up in little teams but in those days everybody would meet except for the team that was cleaning Ajahn Anand's kuti but everyone would meet and clean one of the halls upstairs and all these different cloths with Thai language on it you had to use the cloth for the floor the cloth for the wall the cloth for the furniture the cloth for the Buddha the cloth for the shrine and I couldn't read Thai and it used to drive me crazy and I said which cost is this and the monks didn't want to explain it every day and I was trying to learn but it wasn't that easy and I was actually the only I think I'm gonna was there he wasn't coming out for chores because he was studying for the Abhidhamma and he if I but if I understand correctly he actually came first in the country that year Thailand so he wasn't out to help say which cost was what he was studying Abhidhamma too but I used to get a bit frustrated the other thing I get frustrated about because after we clean that hall we have to go and clean the eating hall down down below and then we'd all sweep leaves and Thais kind of like doing things in groups but Westerners prefer a bit of personal space and we also like things to make sense it just didn't seem to make sense to all do it together because it took a long time it was taking like nearly two hours and you know young idealistic monk you want to have time to meditate this is a waste of time and we broke it up it'll be over in half an hour blah blah blah and so I'd think those thoughts well often and the thing that really used to bug me was when we sweep the leaves we would sweep them so that when none left and it's a bit absurd because it's a it's a forest and leaves are always falling so as soon as you finish and you turn around there's more leaves falling so I just I just had this sense of can't we sweep most of them can't we just sweep a bit more quickly and just leave a few because it really took a lot longer to sweep till there were no leaves and but anyway I remember I was thinking these angry thoughts about how stupid it all was one day as a young monk and all of a sudden my mind and my body just felt light joyful empty the thoughts fell away the feelings and the heart fell away and this involuntary smile was on my face and I'm like wow and I turned around and I saw Ajahn Anand walking in the distance and I went later on I asked him Lapao did you do something when I was sweeping leaves and he did this interesting body language thing he said he knocked the mind state out of my mind with his metta now this was a very valuable occasion because we identify with our mind states we think it's ours if it really is ours how can another person knock it out of your mind it's an interesting contemplation isn't it and he said I just wanted you to see what it's like to not have that type of suffering as an encouragement well thank you very much could you do it every day please no it was an encouragement but you have to you have to get back to work now I have another similar story this time with the Dalai Lama this is this was very interesting would you like to hear a story about the Dalai Lama so I came to the Dalai Lama's teachings in Melbourne actually many years ago when he taught at the Rod Laver arena and I actually I was visiting came to visit my parents and we came to this teachings a close student from Thailand a French man came with me and was my attendant so we turned up at these teachings this was before I was staying at Walberton I think I had 10 rains retreats from nine years ago so we went to the Rod Laver arena and I got my seat allocation which was on the stage and it was in the front row on the stage I was in the front row on the stage closest to the audience and it was about seven meters from his hall in a seat and I was the only Theravadan monk and so I felt a little bit self-conscious but anyway I sat down and then this guy comes up to me and he says can you chant the Mangala Sutta I said yes I can but I'm not going to and he said yes you are His Holiness has requested that somebody chant the Mangala Sutta I'm like I'm not yeah you are and he went away and he left the microphone there and by that stage I think was about well maybe at least 7,

000 people attending that teaching at that time so His Holiness came on the stage and got to shake his hand that was nice and so he's giving his introduction and he's saying his usual very gracious diplomatic introduction talk about he doesn't recommend that people change their religion he understands he recommends that people study their religion and then if if people really want to they can become Buddhist but he's not trying to convert people and people should understand their own faiths first so he gave his very gracious talk and he's been very careful and then all of a sudden he says so who's chanting the Mangala Sutta he says okay you in front of 7,

000 people and so another microphone arrives there's two now and I see the camera as well and I'm like oh god now in the old days if I if I had to talk when I was a young monk if I had to talk to more than 10 people my voice would shake with shyness it would quiver I was very shy and self-conscious and I had this choice I had to make it was like either I embarrassed myself and let down the team by saying that I'm not doing this I'm too nervous or I try and I do it as an offering to him and so I thought oh god I have to try and so I I start to do that but I'm very nervous and I more than half of me doesn't want to do it so this is where I feel that I experienced the psychic power of the Dalai Lama because just in setting the intention of doing this as an offering to your Holiness because I really respect your practice and your example and so I start with the namo tassa and very kindly his Holiness joins in so I'm chanting namo tassa with the Dalai Lama very nice and I start with the asevanachabhala when I start ah that feeling of being Achalo the the guy that I'm quite familiar with is just isn't there and all that is there is the awareness of the next syllable and I feel that he because we've been talking about this the self view is a habitual way of perceiving things which isn't the truth and it's based on the fact that we're grasping the body and grasping the feelings of being a self now his Holiness is always talking about emptiness how to contemplate emptiness and various realizations into emptiness and so I think that with his the power of his mind he just pushed Achalo's self view out of the mind body experience so that all that was there and I chanted this mangala sutta perfectly with this strong clear voice and then finished the last syllable and then that feeling of being me came back and I was like whoa and he's like his Holiness is like thank you and I'm like oh thank you and so people came and asked me oh really good chanting yeah that was great what was it like to chant the Dalai Lama I have no idea I wasn't there and but that was a very interesting experience and then so the next time I attended his Holiness teaching so I think it was in Sydney then I was like it'll be fine but what's interesting about that experience is if I had known that I had to chant the mangala sutta on stage in the front row in front of seven thousand people alone I would not have got out of bed that day it's interesting to see what what is possible when at least you have the pure intention and you have the faith and you want to want to serve the Sangha and be a good example so it turned out okay and he did something funny in Sydney which really that was a bit rattling actually next time I chanted in Sydney he said okay mangala sutta to me and so I started to chant the mics about there and I started to chant and I got two verses in and he said stop I'm like what he said your voice good microphone closer they made me start again and in that moment I wasn't there like before then all of a sudden I was I was back again and my mouth went completely dry and so I had it one second one second I had to drink some water and start again so anyway I've listened to the voice for many hours there was another there was another occasion with a dilemma should I tell you or not I went to India I do have a I believe strong karmic connection with India so actually went after my eighth rainy season retreat and I visited his honest I was teaching a nine day teaching in one of the monastic universities in southern India so I went with a good friend and we were attending that teaching and I asked Arjuna nun what would be a suitable gift for the Dalai Lama and he gave me some relics and so I thought well some Buddha relics to give to the Dalai Lama now the Dalai Lama was teaching I think was about 15,

000 monks at this teaching occasion and it's the biggest monastic university and he had a lot of meetings a lot of teachings and I asked his secretary I've got this special gift that I want to give him he says no there's just no time and I said look all I all I ask is for permission to be along the side of the road that he has to walk by and to just give it to him and he said okay let me see what I can do so he told me the Dalai Lama was receiving guests very briefly after teaching and before a meeting and so I was I was at the end of the line and there was this long row of Tibetans who'd actually traveled all the way from Tibet especially to oh and this is very interesting I'll tell you that too so you see if I get in this in the mood there's lots of stories so I was at the end of this line and then some of these Tibetans had obviously saved up a lot of money for a long time and they just want to see his Holiness the Dalai Lama once in their life and they've come all the way to southern India and they smelled awful because it was summer in India and they've come all the way from Tibet where and they were wearing thick clothes but anyway that's not that's not an issue that's not the point so I was behind them you see and but one old man his Holiness must I'm sure he has abilities to see when somebody's close to death and he looked at him and he said you're not well and he said to his attendants I was right behind him he said take this man to hospital and whatever the cost I'll cover them and that man actually died that evening so his Holiness was obviously able to see that that consciousness was about to leave and but see that old man was so important to him he also see the power of determination so important to him to see his guru traveling all the way from Tibet that he would not die until he'd done it and then as soon as he received his Holiness blessing he died that evening so very inspiring now I was behind in his Holiness by this stage was we had to go and so I had my relics and I had another gift and I was concentrating my mind just with appreciation and I thought I really really respect your example your service to humanity and so I looked up and I could see his Holiness face but there were these silver and gold light rays shining out in all directions incredibly bright I'm like wow and I took the next step and then it was his normal form and I gave him these relics and he said thank you and then he gave me back the white scarf and then he went and I was talking with Tanarjanan about that and he said the silver was the seal of barami the gold is the matter and compassion barami and he said that he has that emanating from his body all the time and he said because you had faith because he didn't have time to talk to you he probably used his abilities to help you to see that as his way of acknowledging his gratitude and his appreciation and isn't that interesting so when the faith faculty is ripe or powerful then these beings remember we're reading that talk Ajahn Anand said it was because of these special abilities of his teacher that he had some kind of vision about body contemplation and his mind became very peaceful and then he knew it was a correct practice and Ajahn Chah had told him he needed to do body contemplation but he had resistance to it and so one day he had this vision and his mind became very peaceful and they know I do need to have this practice and then he said it was because of the special abilities of my teacher that I had that vision so Ajahn Chah has used his his insight his understanding about the nature of the body sent it into his disciple for long enough for them to get to get it all this is valid this will be useful so I think his holiness did something like that just increased my sensitivity and ability for that those moments so that I can see so it was a very nice thing to observe thinking talking about Davis when I was this is the last story when I was staying with Ajahn Chah another time he had built his positive hall which is where the monks chant the padimokka and there's this tradition in northeast Thailand if you build an impossible it's so much good karma and make so much merit that there's a chance that some of your bad karma might might ripen if I don't know why they believe that but they believe it or it might be that your karmic debtors want to take revenge because they're upset that you made so much merit so they come to make some obstructions but there's a folk belief that if you build that building you should spend the rainy season retreat in another monastery the year after that so Ajahn Anand spent that rainy season retreat in the nearby branch monastery with his one of his foremost students Tanajan Thong and I was fortunate he invited me to stay with him and Ajahn Tom was preparing to build his positive hall and so they were they were digging the ground and they chopped down a bunch of trees and they were bringing in fill to fill in the space one night after the I didn't see this for the other monks did but one night after the evening chanting I think I stayed in I was actually meditating and I but a couple of monks walked out of the hall and they saw this beautiful green light hovering in the air a very very bright very very beautiful green color and Ajahn Tom saw it as well and just as we've been reading in the life story of the Buddha that Sakha the king of gods would come and talk to the Buddha praise the Buddha etc so that was apparently Indra's jewel because Indra's believed to have a green body and it was Indra's jewel and he was saying this is the right spot for the hall and so the next day they completely scrapped but even though they chopped down the trees and brought the field and and it'd been noisy I was a little bit disappointed because I'm thinking oh great I get to go and practice special meditation with my teacher in a quiet monastery and it was trucks arriving all day and it's a large part of forest monastery practice in modern Thailand practicing with building noise and so yeah so they built the whole in a completely different place because that's where Indra said it should be it's interesting I don't probably says I should tell you about the porpoise the dolphin in the first period of time when I was with a gentleman my second rings it for any season retreat he asked me to join him on a two-dong trip a trip into it onto an island Ko Chang in those days nearly 20 years ago Ko Chang wasn't very developed and he had a student who had some land on the side of the of the island which had no roads no buildings it's jungle and it had a crystal clear stream and so I was there I think it was with four or five other monks Ajahn Anand there as well was staying in umbrella you see the monks have these umbrella and they put their mosquito nets over it so we're staying in these I can't remember how many nights four or five and this dolphin would come around in this island in the Gulf of Thailand this dolphin would come around and I noticed that came around the next day as well and then the next day and I think one day I came twice and I asked Ajahn Anand I said what's going on with this dolphin and he said the dolphin was human in a past life but it broke some precepts and he really liked swimming and so a combination of merit and karma that he had to be a dolphin he said but next lifetime he'll be human again he's just working through this karma and he said he can feel the matter of the monks and he likes it so they're coming around to feel meta and I don't know if I didn't know what a proof of me telling the story that's why I'm slightly reluctant but don't tell him I told you so it was the last night it was the last night and the monks had actually made a kind of a stage like thing that the monks could sit on that at high tide the sea was around us but we could sit on this using rocks from the stream and from the from the beach made a rock wall and filled it in and made it flat and so I was sitting on there I believe I was massaging Dhanajan's feet it was a one or two days after the full moon and all of a sudden he said look up in the sky I looked up in the sky and where the moon was there was one cloud in the whole sky and the cloud was in the perfect shape of a dolphin you see the tail and the shape and the fin and the moon was where the heart would be and he said the western monk has many doubts he says the devas want to encourage him and the devas made that cloud for you isn't that interesting and there were there was not another there wasn't a single other cloud in the sky one cloud in the middle of the sky in the perfect shape of a dolphin I don't know if the deva was Arjuna or could be a naga he told me that naga's have some kind of abilities to affect water element clouds and auspicious types of rain with those few interesting contemplations and do our meditation and so that brings us to the end of the talk uplifting true stories of a Buddhist monk my intention in telling this story is not to encourage people to become fascinated or obsessed about the supernatural or to stimulate doubts or anything like that rather it's simply to share some personal stories as an encouragement and to affirm that I really think it's the case that there are very supportive beings in other realms that rejoice when human beings cultivate generosity maintain ethical standards and cultivate their minds through meditation and also that there are wonderful marvelous results from cultivating the mind I hope something that was shared was useful.

Reviews

Thank you for your kindness Ajahn. May you live long enough to experience more stories and inspire dharma in all :))

Thank you for sharing these inspirational stories! My faith is increased from listening.

Beautiful☸️♾️☯️☮️⚛️⚘️☄️
Thank you so kindly✨️
Namaste🙏🏽✨️🖤🪔🕯

That was an awesome and fascinating talk! It was inspiring and gives much hope. Thank you 🙏

So fascinating, thank you for sharing. I feel I have had some experiences that I could not explain logically and have come within me in some intuitive space.

A very uplifting talk that helps greatly when times are difficult and the path seems stuck or going backwards. I’m very grateful 😊 for Ajahn sharing this track. I’m hopeful it helps others in this difficult time for our Earth Family. Thank you 🙏🏽

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful stories and for shining your light. I truly believe I’m small miracles and gifts that surrounds us every day. Namaste 🙏🏼

Very uplifting and encouraging - thank you Ajhan Achalo

Very inspiring! Thank you 🙏🏻

Love your stores !
came to this talk after experiencng a "miracle" myself this week
Needed xtea money for someone in need this week
and the ATM gave me that mney wthout charging it to my account for three days ....
unprecedented for me...but also banks seem to be part f the spiritual realm sometimes :)
🙏🏼

Absolutely awesome
Thank you 🙏

Thank you, really amazing.

So beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing. 💚

Realy very beautiful. Brought back memories from my own special events. Thank you ever so mucg for sharing these stories.

Thank you very much for sharing this stories! Thank you for the gift of faith!!

Thank You, I feel so happy & blessed.
These stories were like Bodhi Leaves coming thru my phone, Thank You for sharing them
🤙💕🌞🌴🌎

Thank you for sharing your secrets and inspiring me to not be silent when interesting events happen in my own life.. to trust they are there to encourage me on my own personal path

Love to you and the Buddha's within all of us
; )

Definitely uplifting and fascinating

The title perfectly describes this talk. I was both interested & uplifted!

❤❤❤ such sweet stories to bolster faith and trust and connection to devas/guides/gurus. I listened to this while cleaning and it definitely helped to brighten my mental state 😊
Thank you so much for sharing these experiences.