Story · Ajahn Brahm
The big rocks go in first
The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)
This a professor came into his lecture hall. This was at uh a business school. And he had a jug and he asked he took out some from his briefcase took out a bag of stones and one by one put the stones into this jug until he could get no more stones inside the jug. And he asked his students, "Is the jug full?" Said, "Yeah, of course. You can't get any more stones in. He smiled and from his briefcase he picked out a bag of gravel, smaller stones. And one by one he put those into the jar, shook the jar, and many of those smaller stones found their way in the spaces between the big rocks and the smaller rocks. Is it full? No, they said they were on to him by now. So from his bag, he picked out his briefcase. He got a bag of fine sand, sprinkled the fine sand onto the rocks and gravel, shook the jar until much of the sand found its way in the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is it full yet?" he asked the class. He had nothing more in his briefcase and said, "No, you'll probably find some other thing to put in there. He got the water jar and poured the water into that big jar. So that much of the water found its way between the rocks, the s the gravel and the sand. And he didn't want to try and find any other thing to put in that jar. He said, "Now what is the meaning of this lesson?" Modern times. Okay. Business school. One smart ass kid put their hand up and said, "It shows us, sir, no matter how busy we are, we can always fit something more in." Have you ever heard your bosses saying that? No, said the professor. What it shows us, if you want to put the big rocks in, the precious stones, you have to put them in first. Otherwise, you'll never get them in. You can fit the other stuff in afterwards, but the important things in life, you have to put in first priority.
▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:57 (to 5:06)
A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)
A professor filled a jar with rocks, gravel, sand and water. The lesson: put the big rocks in first or they'll never fit. For Ajahn Brahm, the big rocks are your physical and mental health. Once those go wrong, nothing else fits. Give them first place in your week.
In brief (our summary)
A business-school professor fills a jar with large stones and asks if it's full; the students say yes. He adds gravel, shaking it into the gaps; then sand; then water. 'What is the meaning of this lesson?' A smart student answers: however busy we are, we can always fit something more in. 'No,' says the professor. 'If you want to put the big rocks in, you have to put them in first. Otherwise you'll never get them in.' Ajahn Brahm names the big rocks: physical and mental health.
Teaching point
Put what matters most — health, peace — first; everything else fits around it.
When this story may help
Themes
Source & credit
Told by Ajahn Brahm in Building Resilience | Ajahn Brahm | 8 November 2019 · 2019-11-08 · ▶ watch from 1:57 to 5:06 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia
1 other telling of this story
- How to Prioritise | Ajahn Brahm | 29 May 2020 · 2020-05-29 · ▶ watch from 1:13 to 2:46 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaMay 2020 telling: classic big rocks / gravel / sand jar priority demo.
Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'jug'/'jar' alternate 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