# Her mother stopped shouting

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-bangkok-daughter-mother-stopped-shouting
- Themes: family, meditation, change, precepts
- Life situations: difficult parent, family conflict, starting to meditate

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A young woman in Bangkok whose whole family came to his talks never did herself — until she noticed her mother had stopped shouting at her so much. She came to the Phuket retreat and all his talks to find out why her mother had become a much nicer mother after meditating.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Just even Bangkok recently, sort of one of the girl, she told me, yeah, she knew me for a long time, but she hardly ever came to the talks. All her family did. And she came to my retreat in Phuket and started coming to all my talks because she saw the result on her mother. Her mother sort of stopped shouting at her so much. And that much was enough to say, "Hey, there's something going on here." So she wanted to try out and see if she could find out why her mother was a much nicer mother after she'd been meditating for such a long time.

## Teaching point

Others notice the rising happiness of a practitioner before the practitioner does.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A young woman in Bangkok never came to the talks until she noticed her mother had stopped shouting at her so much; then she came to find out why. Practice often shows up first to the people we live with. You may not feel any different yet. Ask your family; they'll notice the change before you do.

## Source

- [Sex and Booze | Ajahn Brahm | 01-07-2011](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQfkUXfx4Y) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:06:14 to 1:06:49: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQfkUXfx4Y&t=3974s