# The boy who stretched his seedlings

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-boy-stretched-seedlings
- Themes: patience, growth, meditation, nature
- Life situations: impatience with progress, meditation practice, parenting, waiting for results

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

One of Ajahn Brahm's first meditation teachers recalls planting seeds with his father at five or six. After three days with nothing showing he complains; his father explains the shoot is pushing up underground — be patient. Two days later a green shoot appears, and he excitedly waters twice a day. But when the plants are two inches high he loses patience and stretches them to make them grow faster — and kills every one. You can't stretch nature.

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

there's a story of one of my first meditation teachers in Thailand he told me I usually tell this on the meditation Retreats not usually on a Friday night he told me when I was starting out my meditation career that when he was a young boy in Thailand that his father gave him some seeds to grow in the garden he was only about five six years of age and this was the first time he grew anything so this little five or six put his little seeds with the help of his father underneath the ground underneath the soil and he would water them every day after 3 or 4 days he saw no result said where are my plants where my flowers is three days now can't see anything his father had to tell him that when you have seeds when the water gets to them they germinate they split the seed a little green shoe comes out it's probably under the ground right now pushing its way to the surface just wait for a little while and you'll see a shoot be patient and he took his father's advice and fortunately at the end of two days a tiny green shoot was appearing above the Earth so so he decided to water those flowers two times a day he was getting excited and those flowers grew grew grew until about 2 in high and that's when he lost his patience he decided to stretch them to make them grow faster and he killed every one of them but he learned a wonderful lesson you can't stretch nature nature takes its time to grow

## Teaching point

Spiritual growth takes time; it goes faster the slower you go.

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

A five-year-old in Thailand watched his first seedlings push through the soil, watered them twice a day, then tugged them taller to speed things up and killed every one. Meditation, healing, trust and careers all have their own pace. Keep watering, keep the weeds down, and let the growing happen underground for as long as it needs.

## Source

- [On Patience | Ajahn Brahm | 26-06-2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl0Lyxi8nbQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 10:46 to 12:32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl0Lyxi8nbQ&t=646s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Guided Meditation | 1 January 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWeud_pk2f8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:44 to 5:17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWeud_pk2f8&t=224s