Dhamma Teaching of Venerable Phra Brahmapundit

Dhamma Teaching of Venerable Phra Brahmapundit

I called a taxi to take me to the temple. The taxi driver agreed on a 50 baht fare. I sat in front with the driver as the taxi rolled along. 

Suddenly the taxi driver spoke up, “Venerable, have you been ordained as a monk for a long time?” 

I answered him in the affirmative. He continued asking, “Are you happy being ordained?” 

“Well, it goes on steadily,” I replied and then took the opportunity to ask him a few questions too. 

“Have you been driving your taxi for a long time?”

“It’s been a long time. I have driven a taxi for 27 years.”

“Are you happy driving a taxi?”

“I’m very happy. I am the commander of my own taxi and can end my own suffering.”

“You have been driving a taxi the whole time, never doing any other job right?” I asked

The driver replied, “I used to drive for a Ministry, but I couldn’t really live with that. I didn’t like the bureaucratic system and people ‘playing games’. Too many of them get their jobs based on connections. 

The value of a person is not based on the result of one’s work or performance. I got so fed up with it that I resigned. Later I went to drive for a University. But I still couldn’t work there.”

“Why? Was there favouritism being practiced at the university?” I asked.

“Not like that. But Venerable, let me ask you a question. People all like to get a good education. For what reason? People who study are supposed to become smarter right?”

“It should be so.”

“People who study should become very much smarter. And by right they should become happier, isn’t that so? Yet that place taught me otherwise.

I saw the people who learnt a lot, the more they learnt, the smarter they are, the more they suffer. The doctors and teachers there are suffering. 

Students are also suffering. There must be something wrong with the education system. 

I’m sure about it.”

“And what do you think is the mistake in the system?” I continued.

“I think the teachers teach wrongly. 

They teach people to suffer instead of teaching people to be happy. I advised them to change their ways but they didn’t listen to me. So I decided to quit and start driving a taxi.”

“Friends of mine who drive taxis are in trouble. They complain that their rental is high, but their income is low. 

But I don’t suffer because I use Phor Phan พ พาน. If we understand contentment then we know happiness isn’t that right?” continued the taxi driver.

I went along with him because the Buddha said “santutthiparamam dhanam” – contentment is the greatest wealth. 

“There are two types of poor people. 

Poor people because they really do not have enough and poor people because they don’t know how much is enough. Most people belong to the latter group. People today are lost in materialism. No matter how much they get, they do not know what is enough.”

I asked the taxi driver, “So what do you do?”

He replied, “Oh if the passenger negotiates the price with me, I will give him some discount. If the passenger is an elderly, I’ll just go along with him.”

Because of the Dhamma conversation, the taxi driver didn’t notice the lights has turned from red to green and got honked at. But the taxi driver continued, “The green light just came on and I got honked. I get honked at regularly, people often tail-gate, not sure why they are rushing to die, but I am not angry or upset.”

Finally, the taxi arrived at Wat Mahathat. I paid for the taxi fee with 60 baht, around an increase of 10 baht from the agreed price. But the taxi driver only agreed to accept 50 baht. 

When I asked him why, he replied:

“I won’t take the extra. I know what is enough.”

And he continued to drive on happily because he had only 3 things to remember:

1. Knowing what is enough

2. Knowing how to share

3. Knowing how to let go

Dhamma Teaching of Venerable Phra Brahmapundit

[Admin: I skipped translating some parts as it is difficult for non-Thais to understand without contextual knowledge]