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Meeting with Father Bede Griffiths, by Ajahn Sumedho

By Buddhism Now on 22 October 2009 • ( 2 )

Years ago when I [Ajahn Sumedho] was in Berkeley, California, the Christian monk, Father Bede Griffiths, was staying in the Korean Zen Center there and I went to see him. He had had a stroke and had been quite ill, so he was lying in bed. He had these rosy cheeks and a white beard, and looked quite beautiful lying there, actually. When I went in, he woke up and smiled, and he looked very joyful, and he said, ‘I had a stroke and I lost my memory . . . thank goodness!’ He looked overjoyed! His intellect was brilliant and he obviously understood what had happened to him, but he wasn’t frightened. Other people are often terrified when that happens to them.