‘For sure, great king, you should know this: I am coming from the east / west / north / south, and there I saw a great mountain high as the clouds coming this way, crushing all living beings. Do whatever you think should be done, great king.’ If, great king, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life, the human state being so difficult to obtain, what should be done?”
“If, venerable sir, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life, the human state being so difficult to obtain, what else should be done but to live by the Dhamma, to live righteously, and to do wholesome and meritorious deeds?”
“I inform you, great king, I announce to you, great king: aging and death are rolling in on you. When aging and death are rolling in on you, great king, what should be done?”
“As aging and death are rolling in on me, venerable sir, what else should be done but to live by the Dhamma, to live righteously, and to do wholesome and meritorious deeds?
One of my all time favourite nuns! She’s like the female Ratthapala, and goes on a hunger strike to get permission to go forth. But she also gives her parents and husband-to-be a very profound and touching dhamma teaching. And when they don’t stop pleading with her to get married, she just cuts off her hair and throws it at them!
Unfortunately there’s no translation on SC but if you have a book, it’s a highly recommended read!
Thig 16.1
“Even birth among gods is uncertain,
it is only birth in another place just as impermanent,
but somehow fools are not terrified
of being born again and again.”"
Then Sumedha said to her mother and father,
“I will not eat any more food as a householder,
if I do not receive permission to go forth,
I will be in your house, but I might as well be dead.”
Her mother suffered and cried
and her father’s face was covered with tears,
they tried to reason with Sumedha
who had fallen to the palace floor.
“Why should I cling, like a worm,
to a body that will only turn into a corpse,
a sack always oozing, frightening, stinking
foul and putrid, filled with foul things?”
A great contemplation to counteract the pre-Christmas frenzy:
Wings as its only burden
MN 51
Just as a bird, wherever it goes, flies with its wings as its only burden, so too, the bhikkhu becomes content with robes to protect his body and with almsfood to maintain his stomach, and wherever he goes he sets out taking only these with him. Possessing this aggregate of noble virtue, he experiences within himself a bliss that is blameless.
LOTR - Lord Of The Rings (the JRR Tolkien books). Sorry, should have explained the acronym (though didn’t because there was some mention of it way way back in the thread).
Today I went with my teacher, on behalf of her nearly 90yr old mother who can’t drive, to buy light-sabers as Christmas gifts for her adult grandchildren. There were all sorts of characters I didn’t know existed.
Why did I not know there was so much Star Wars involved in Anagarika training?
“Bhikkhus, suppose a man would throw a yoke with a single hole into the great ocean, and there was a blind turtle which would come to the surface once every hundred years. What do you think, bhikkhus, would that blind turtle, coming to the surface once every hundred years, insert its neck into that yoke with a single hole?”
“If it would ever do so, venerable sir, it would be only after a very long time.”
“Sooner, I say, would that blind turtle, coming to the surface once every hundred years, insert its neck into that yoke with a single hole than the fool who has gone once to the nether world [would regain] the human state. For what reason? Because here, bhikkhus, there is no conduct guided by the Dhamma, no righteous conduct, no wholesome activity, no meritorious activity. Here there prevails mutual devouring, the devouring of the weak. For what reason? Because, bhikkhus, they have not seen the Four Noble Truths. What four? The noble truth of suffering … the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
“Therefore, bhikkhus, an exertion should be made to understand: ‘This is suffering.’… An exertion should be made to understand: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’”
She’s like the female Ratthapala, and goes on a hunger strike to get permission to go forth. But she also gives her parents and husband-to-be a very profound and touching dhamma teaching. And when they don’t stop pleading with her to get married, she just cuts off her hair and throws it at them! 
That’s where I got the idea from!
If only I could share these sweet little details with my blind friend… 
