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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Men don't cry in Australia

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Ultimate Truth and Reality | Ajahn Brahm | 1 Dec 2017

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

fellow who came on one of my retreats, an Aussie guy. He started crying in while he was meditating. He said, "What's going on here?" And you know what I told him? I said, "When was the last time you had a cry?" And he said, "When I was about, I think about 11 or 12 or something." And my father said, "Men don't cry in Australia

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 48:27 (to 48:51)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

An Australian man started crying on retreat. His last cry was at about eleven, when his father said men don't cry in Australia. He had thirty years of tears to catch up on, cried all week, and felt wonderful. Ajahn Brahm jokes that it made him very attractive. Let yourself cry when you need to.

In brief (our summary)

Aussie retreatant cries in meditation; last cry was at 11–12 when his father said men don't cry in Australia.

Teaching point

Meditation sometimes returns the tears you were told to hide.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Ultimate Truth and Reality | Ajahn Brahm | 1 Dec 2017 · 2017-12-01 · ▶ watch from 48:27 to 48:51 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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