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Ajahn Mosquito

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Dealing with people that irritate us | Ajahn Brahm

1 min read

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

the mosquitoes will irritate you so much And it was worse for the Western monks We used to get bitten maybe 10 or 20 times as much as the Thai monks did I didn't understand First I thought what it was Now Look; if you were in Thailand you are lucky because you got hair on your head Actually what we are supposed to in Thailand, it's so hot we have the bare shoulder So literally we had more seats at the dinner table for the mosquitoes They can get on you because you had more exposed skin And number two: it was the very first time in Thailand that there were westerners in that area. I went to many villages and I was the first westerner, the first white man they have seen in the village. Let alone a monk. So that was the same with the mosquitoes That was the first time they had western food in that area of Thailand You know what it is alike a new Chinese Restaurant a new Lebanese Restaurant people love to taste it First of all it's like a specialty, a rarity, a novelty So all those mosquitoes were going around and telling their mates Hey there's western food in this monastery 'come on taste it, it's a novelty' So we got bitten to death. And we complained to Ajahn Chah Look can't we get some repellent, can't we get some mosquito coils Can't we get some mosquito nets? Help us! Look, we are getting bitten to death And Ajahn Chah told us 'from now on you call those mosquitoes--Ajahn Mosquitoes They are now going to be your teachers not me

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:01 (to 2:45)

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

Young monks begged Ajahn Chah for coils and nets against the mosquitoes. Call them Ajahn Mosquito, he said; they're your teachers now. Ajahn Brahm still wants a nose transplant for his hay fever. Irritations bring us to the meditation cushion. Thank them, and let them teach you patience.

In brief (our summary)

As a young monk, Ajahn Brahm finds the mosquitoes intolerable and asks for repellent, coils and screens — surely the monastery can afford them. Ajahn Chah says no: from now on call them 'Ajahn Mosquito' — they are your teachers.

Teaching point

Irritations can be our teachers; respect them instead of fighting them.

When this story may help

  • small annoyances
  • difficult people

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Dealing with people that irritate us | Ajahn Brahm · 2018-10-11 · ▶ watch from 1:01 to 2:45 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

8 other tellings of this story

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

  • The man paid to irritate everyone

    In brief: From an early book on spirituality: in Gurdjieff's community in France one man was a pain in the neck to everyone, and members kept asking…

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    I do remember one of the early books I read on spirituality was of this teacher called G he was a Russian guy was you know a bit of a guru maybe in the late 50s I think maybe earlier than that and he ran this ashram this spiritual community in France of all places and apparently that when he died they got all his papers together and in his community there was one guy who was really really a pain in the neck to everybody you know a fellow that no one else could really sort of get on with at all and they often ask you know can you let this gu guy go he's causing a lot of problems for everybody it's just so irritating and they found out that everybody else in that Community had to pay no rent or sort of some contribution to the food that was the only guy who was actually paid by GF to be there he was an employee of the place he was paid to be there and irritate people

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  • The 18-hour flight delay

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm's flight to Indonesia is delayed 18 hours; he thanks the desk and goes back to the monastery, while the passengers behind him…

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    And just was it in January, when I was going off to Indonesia to give a series of talks I got to Perth airport and found that the Garuda flight was cancelled. It was actually delayed by about 18 hours. And I was a monk so I just went up to the counter and said, "Oh is it delayed? When is it going to leave? 18 hours. Okay, thank you very much," and I sort-of called the monastery and got a lift back to the monastery. But the people behind me they were thumping the counter - "You can't do this to us! I've got all of these arrangements and plans!" I had arrangements and plans as well - thousands of people were waiting to listen to my talks. But I couldn't do anything about it. And you know all that anger and all that thumping and all that shouting.. it didn't make the plane leave earlier. It didn't do anything good at all except making people upset. Themselves upset, and other people upset.

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  • All his questions vanished before Ajahn Tate

    In brief: Ajahn Tate, a famous monk once sent home from hospital to die of cancer (he lived another 25 years), is so revered that young Ajahn Brahm…

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    I went to visit this famous monk called Ajahn Tate in Sri Chiangmai on the Mekong River over in Nong Khai Province, the north of Thailand. He was supposed to be an amazing monk. In fact, when I first became a monk, he was dying of cancer. He was in the main hospital being looked after by the King of Thailand because he was a famous monk. And the doctor said okay, waste of time looking after you anymore, there’s nothing more we can do, you’re going to die. So he said, well I might as well die in my temple in Bangkok. So he went back to his temple and he died about 25 years later. [laughter] And he was an amazing monk and of course he had such a good reputation that, I could speak Thai, and I just wanted to go to these great masters and ask all my questions. It was just like, you know, we all have these questions inside of us, you get these incredibly wise beings and you just wanted to ask questions from someone who knows what they’re talking about. And so, you know, he was very famous, had to make an appointment, went up there, spent about two days waiting. When I went into his room, and you know what happened, all the questions totally vanished. My mind was so blank but what I felt instead, was this incredible, and I mean just this incredible unconditional love. I was a young monk. I still had my fantasies, my defilements and all that sort of stuff. And this guy he loved me for who I was, I didn’t have to become enlightened. I didn’t have to sort of be a good monk. I didn’t have to clean up my act. You felt totally accepted for who you were with all your faults. And that’s the feeling I had. As soon as I got a feeling like that, the next feeling I had, I don’t want to move, I want to stay in here. for the rest of my life. I’m not going anywhere because it was such a beautiful feeling of having this total, absolutely hundred percent acceptance. This guy would not criticize me at all and he never would.

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  • A problem or an irritation?

    In brief: A backpacker working his way round Europe gets a job in a restaurant (in Germany or Austria) where staff eat for free. The owner…

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    There's another story about Awitz which I remember reading a good story. There was a a backpacker who was traveling through Europe said travel is now becoming allowable again. when this backpacker was traveling through Europe, he'd just get a job at restaurants and cafes and just any old uh easy work to get a few more dollars and then he would go on his next leg of his journey. And he got a job in this restaurant in somewhere in Germany. And then as he was um I think in Austria I think he said in that restaurant [snorts] it was always known if you get a job in a restaurant you get free food. That's you know part of the deal. You don't get paid very much. You get a few tips but the free food makes it just really quite worthwhile. But then one day the owner of the restaurant told all the workers he'd ordered too much sauerkraut. I don't know if you know Sauerkraut. We have a couple of German monks at Bodhinana Monastery and even though he's not a monk, we have like you know I'm talking about Amandis. Many of you been down there. You know Amandis and he loves sauerkraut. So anyway, they' ordered too much sauerkraut. And so the owner of the restaurant, this is quite a few years ago, told everybody, "If you want free food, it has to be sauerkraut. Sauerkraut for breakfast, sauerkraut for lunch, sauerkraut for dinner, whatever it is. Sauerkraut and only sauerkraut." And this young backpacker said, "You can't do that to us. That is unfair. That's not what we signed up for. I know some people like sauerkraut, but not everyone likes sauerkraut. This is not right. you can't do this to us. And he got very angry. And that apparently was when the owner, not the owner, the cook of the restaurant came up and took him aside. He said, "Look, I've been working at this restaurant for quite a few years now." Said this old man. And he said, "I want to tell you the difference between a problem and an irritation. And then this old cook, he bared his arm and you could see the tattooed numbers on his arm. He said I was in Awitz and he said every morning when I woke up I didn't know whether I would survive that day. I was very fortunate many of my relations and friends and loved ones did die. I survived living in Awitz. That is a problem. Eating sauerkraut is only an imitation.

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