When was the last time you had an embarrassing moment?
Well... Surely everyone has one, if not a lot.
Last Saturday, I went for a Dhamma talk. Surely the first thing that pops into your mind is: "Sigh, another boring talk by some 'holy' monk" Well at least that was what came into my mind.
But after the talk, trust me, he's nowhere near divine nor holy. He uses the words "shit", "ass", "stupid", but of course, his stories are still in the Buddhism context. He's quite a down-to-earth Australian monk named Venerable Ajahn Brahmavamso, Ajahn Brahm for short. He incorporates interesting stories with great meaning in his talks. Not only me, but even politicians and businessmen find it very amusing to hear how he applies the Buddha's teaching in everyday life.
This story is about himself.
He was at the airport waiting for his next flight. So he orders a cup of coffee while reading the newspapers. When his coffee arrives, he attempts to suck the coffee through what he thought was a straw. He was thinking "Hmm, is the straw stuck? How come there's nothing coming out of it?" Little did he knew that what he was sucking was actually a spoon!! At that moment, the people there were staring at him thinking "What's this stupid monk doing?! Sucking from a spoon?!" When he realised, he laughed at himself!!
The moral of the story: Do not feel embarrassed when you do something stupid or wrong. Instead, laugh about it! Who knows? You may be missing out on the biggest joke of the century!
Ok now comes my story.
In my life, I prefer everything to be standardised. E.g. Light switches on the left and fan switches on the right, pencils/pens in this drawer and erasers/blanco in that drawer. At the Monash campus, most of the male toilets are on the left and females on the right. (or at least the one next to the cafeteria) So I assumed that all the toilets in the campus are built that way.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I was right on time for my Malaysian Studies lecture but I needed to shit, urgently. Since the lecturer was not here yet, I dashed into the left toilet and since the door was opened, I didn't bother to look.
After I was done, I felt weird that a guy's toilet didn't have those stand-up-cubicles. Only when I exit the toilet that I saw the female symbol!!
I was like "OMG, OMG, OMG, OMFG!!!" Luckily no one was around. So I quickly entered the lecture hall and shortly after that, laughed over it!! =D
Even now when I think about this incident, I would laugh and people would think I'm crazy XD
Feel free to share your story at my comments column, otherwise, leave your comments on my CBox on the right! =D
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