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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The novice who stopped

As told by Ajahn Brahm in The Nature of Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 10 February 2023

1 min read

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

It reminds me of that novice in Ajahn Chah's monastery, just a novice, who was listening to one of Ajahn Chah's sermons, which was going on and on and on and on. And he said, "I'm just a little novice. You know, I didn't sort of elect to come and stay here. Just I had no place else to go, so this is what But this senior monks, they could listen, but I need to go to bed. I'm tired." He's only like 12 or 13 or something. And so this little novice started thinking, "When is Ajahn Chah going to stop? When is he going to stop? When is he going to stop?" And that became repeated in his brain again and again and again until then the novice thought had an insight, changed things around. Instead of when is Ajahn Chah going to stop, he thought, "When am I going to stop?" That's when this little novice stopped. He got into one of the really deep meditations, one of the jhanas. Just that simply, but just saying, "I will stop." Not doing anything. And went so deep that when he came out of meditation, Ajahn Chah had finished the the talk a long time earlier. All the monks had done the chanting to end the meditate to end the talk. And they all packed up their things and went back to their cottages or their huts to rest. He'd been sitting really still all that time. Couldn't hear a thing. It was the morning time. He'd missed the morning arms route. He didn't mind. He wasn't hungry. He just got into the most beautiful meditation for the first time in his life by stopping.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 26:36 (to 28:51)

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

Bored by a long sermon, a young novice kept wondering when Ajahn Chah would stop, then asked when he himself would stop. He sat in deep stillness until morning, missing alms round and not minding. Next time you pass a stop sign, take it personally. Stop judging and controlling, and just be here.

In brief (our summary)

A novice of 12 or 13 at Ajahn Chah's monastery, tired during a very long sermon, kept thinking: 'When is Ajahn Chah going to stop?' Then he turned it around: 'When am I going to stop?' He stopped, and fell into a deep jhana. When he came out, the talk and chanting had long ended, the monks had gone back to their huts, and it was morning — he had missed the alms round and didn't mind. It was the most beautiful meditation of his life.

Teaching point

Deep meditation comes from stopping, not doing.

When this story may help

  • restless meditation
  • impatience

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in The Nature of Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 10 February 2023 · 2023-02-10 · ▶ watch from 26:36 to 28:51 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

7 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'morning arms route' = morning alms round.

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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