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Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Nudge the bushfire

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Control and Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 05-01-2007

1 min read

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

living out in the bush in Serpentine and having been through some some of the worst bushfires over there in was it 1991? The hottest day of the year, the hottest day ever in Western Australia that day when we had a bushfire in Serpentine. There was another day a few months later which was even hotter. And that was a day a huge bushfire, crown fire came through our land. I learned a lot about bushfires there. How you can't control them. What you do is you nudge them this way and nudge them that way. You don't face them head on and say stop. Can't be done. You know by back burning, just by a little bit of fire break here, by watering this way just to push them slightly around. And that's the the they usually dealt with. Not the head-on control. That's waste time. So, you can nudge, but you can't control.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:08:44 (to 1:09:38)

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

Facing the 1991 fire at Serpentine, Ajahn Brahm learned you don't stop a bushfire head-on. You nudge it with a firebreak, some back-burning, a little water. Wars, family rifts, big problems at work: you can lessen them, rarely obliterate them. Nudge where you can, and let go of the fantasy of total control.

In brief (our summary)

From the 1991 crown fire at Serpentine he learned you can't control a bushfire by facing it head-on and saying stop. You nudge it this way and that — a bit of back-burning, a firebreak, some water — and push it slightly around. So with the world's wars and intolerance: nudge, don't control.

Teaching point

We can lessen problems, not obliterate them; nudge rather than control.

When this story may help

  • speaking out against injustice
  • managing crises
  • trying to change others

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Control and Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 05-01-2007 · 2007-01-12 · ▶ watch from 1:08:44 to 1:09:38 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, 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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