Story · Ajahn Brahm
Cambridge Botanical Gardens — first bamboo clump
The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)
Cambridge Botanical Gardens. It was only about 5 minutes walk from where we had our retreat center. And do you know, I don't remember my girlfriend's name. I remember the place where we had our retreat in Baitman Street in Cambridge. My memory of those times was so powerful. Still is. If you really enjoy something, it becomes easy to remember. So just down the road from Baitman Street in Cambridge, we had the botanical gardens and I went in there the first day and just when you went through the entrance [snorts] on the right hand side there was this clump of bamboo and I couldn't believe it. That was the most beautiful clump of bamboo that I've ever seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating. And I kind of thought that isn't that what happens? Bamboo is such a beautiful plant. It's in most of the Chinese water colors you see in museums throughout the world. They always have a clump of bamboo there. If you look at the bamboo stems, they're slender and they have the little joints, the color changes and then the next stem and it gets thinner and thinner and as it does, it bends under its own weight as it curves through space and then you have its branches and leaves which are also very slender. And I'd always say from that time, please excuse me, I'm a monk. Sensuous, soft and slender, coming to a point. And I looked at that first clump of bamboo and it was incredibly beautiful. That I remember very easily. So much so that I just stared at it for about 10 or 15 minutes. When you see something which shocks you, which is really beautiful, you do end up just staring. But I had enough introspection to realize in those days, I think it was 1970, many students took drugs. I never did, but I thought if somebody sees me, [snorts] they call the police, have me arrested or tested or something and disturb my solitude. In those days I had hair and I tell people the hairstyle which I had was such a big curly hair on the outside. Very different than what I've got now. And that went all around the top of my head and where it finished that's where the beard started. Very thick beard. It was very useful to endure the cold. And when people asked what was it, it was like the donut look. You could see my face in the middle and around the outside was all hair. That kind of describes it. And so if someone had seen me and semi staring, you know, entranced by a clump of bamboo, they would have thought the wrong things. So what I did, I just there was a bench close by and just sat on that bench and stared at the clump of bamboo for as long as I could
▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 13:54 (to 17:57)
A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)
On retreat as a Cambridge student, Ajahn Brahm stared for an hour at a clump of bamboo in the Botanic Garden, entranced by its beauty. Days later, without the retreat's stillness, the same clump looked ugly. Nothing had changed but his mind. Beauty is in the quiet eye. Calm the mind and the ordinary shines.
In brief (our summary)
Student days near Baitman Street, Cambridge: first day in the Botanical Gardens he finds a bamboo clump so beautiful he stares 10–15 minutes, invents 'sensuous, soft and slender, coming to a point,' then sits on a bench so no one calls the police on the doughnut-haired hippie.
Teaching point
Real beauty stops the mind; memory keeps what joy touched.
When this story may help
- student life
- nature
Themes
Source & credit
Told by Ajahn Brahm in Effortless Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 30 October 2026 · 2026-10-30 · ▶ watch from 13:54 to 17:57 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia
4 other tellings of this story
- Meditation - 16-05-2015 | with Ajahn Brahm · 2015-05-17 · ▶ watch from 6:55 to 10:04 · DhammalokaMeditationMay 2015: retreat walk to the gardens; stares 15 minutes then 50 from a bench; weeks later the same clump looks pathetic — the beauty was the mindfulness.
- 2022 January (1/19) | 9 day Retreat | Ajahn Brahm · 2022-01-14 · ▶ watch from 24:41 to 28:21 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaJan 2022: Cambridge retreat bamboo, so beautiful for eight of nine days; afterwards it looks like an ordinary plant in the wrong place.
- 4 Stillness Give Clarity & Energy - October 2011 · 2012-06-24 · ▶ watch from 12:18 to 15:04 · BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & MediaOct 2011: 1971 Cambridge retreat; he never makes it into the Botanical Gardens because the clump at the gate holds him for eight mornings; later, cycling back in ordinary mind, the bamboo looks miserable and dry.
- Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 17 January 2026 · 2026-01-17 · ▶ watch from 1:20:40 to 1:21:20 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaJan 2026: a hairy student staring at a bamboo clump so long that, he thinks, someone would have assumed he was on a drug.
Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'Baitman Street' = Bateman Street 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