HT reviewer Suhit Bombaywala picks his favourite read of 2025
Based on the Pali canon, this book deals with rites of passage at various points of a layperson’s life
The monk Ajahn Brahm’s collection of 108 essays Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung is helping me achieve more happiness, peace and resilience in the worldly path. I recommend it to interested householders, both those who are new to Buddhadhamma and those who’ve studied the fundamentals.
The language is casual and conversational, tailored for laypersons, eschewing technical terms from the suttas/sutras. And, breaking the stereotype of the sombre Buddhist discourse, the writing is downright hilarious, even entertaining.
As expected, the book is based on teachings from the Pali canon, which examines the nuts and bolts of the human condition: inconstancy and impermanence (anicca), frequent unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and not-self (anatta). The generously large book deals with the rites of passage at various points along life as a layperson. What’s remarkable is, the humour and warmth is present particularly when dealing with this kind of Big Stuff.
Commonly faced issues are addressed: perfectionism, guilt, love and commitment, how to work with the mind without blindly believing it, how to meet fear and pain, how to meet suffering in general, how to work with anger and how to forgive, how to be kind and supportive to oneself and others, how to play the hand dealt by life, the spiritual life in the mundane context, the meaning of freedom, how to meet suffering. These teachings, coming from a Pali monastic tradition, are also infused with a concept in the way that Buddhists understand it: that karma/kamma exists and is non-fatalistic. And it’s because of this understanding that the advice is optimistic and empowering, focusing on what to do in given situations.
There are many entertaining anecdotes from the author’s or other lives. Handling uncertainty is illustrated with an incident, literally, of dealing with the brick-and-mortar everyday, where Ajahn Brahm while constructing his monastery [in Australia] along with other monks deals with rough-and-ready civil and building materials suppliers, with pleasant results. A tale on humour and goodwill has the author being accosted by curious young Australian schoolgirls who, having attended his teaching, want to know why his name is ‘Bra’. A teaching on unpredictability and good humour has our celibate, dressed in the red robes of a bhikkhu, walking down an Australian street, incorporating the insight that he has just been propositioned romantically. Moreover, mainly Thai folk tales, quite piquant ones at that, provide pleasant shifts in landscapes and eras.
Suhit Bombaywala’s factual and fictive writing appears in India and abroad. He tweets @suhitbombaywala.
