This content was created by Bridgeen Rea-Kaya. This content was uploaded by Bridgeen Rea-Kaya. This is a YouTube video titled "Unwise Listening 👂🏻" (content_type: YOUTUBE) uploaded on 2020-04-15. It is a short monologue/story by Bridgeen (introducing herself as 'Bridgeen, Miserable Minds') retelling an Ajahn Brahm anecdote from 'Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung' about a phone misunderstanding at a Buddhist centre and a dying HIV-positive man. The piece is a brief moral/spiritual anecdote advising listeners to verify what they hear and avoid spreading 'fake news.'
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Hi, Bridgeen here, Miserable Minds, back with another Corona Jackanory for you from the wonderful Ajahn Brahm and Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung. Tonight's story is very short. It's called Unwise Listening. The phone rang one evening at our Buddhist centre. Is Ajahn Brahm there? demanded the angry caller. I'm sorry, replied the devout Asian woman who'd picked up the phone. He's resting in his room. Please call back in 30 minutes. Grrr! He'll be dead in 30 minutes! growled the caller, then he hung up. 20 minutes later, when I came out of my room, the elderly Asian woman was still sitting white-faced and trembling. Others were around her trying to find out what was wrong. But she was too shocked to speak. But when I coaxed her, she blurted out, Someone's coming to kill you! I had been counselling a young Australian man since he was first declared HIV positive. I had taught him meditation and many wisdom strategies to help him cope. Now he was nearing his death. I had visited him only the day before and was expecting a call from his partner at any time. So I soon figured out what the call meant. It was not me who would be dead in 30 minutes, it was the young man with AIDS. I rushed to his home and saw him before he died. Fortunately, I also explained the misunderstanding to the terrified Asian woman before she too died from shock. How often are what is said and what we hear not the same? So that's tonight's lesson. Just be careful what you're hearing. Make sure it's not fake news. Check it out. Maybe say, are you sure? When you hear something. Good luck.
