Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

You're just helping me sharpen my knife

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Investigate Your Way to Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 19 Dec 2008

1 min read

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

you just helping me sharpen my knife and that's actually how he would uh regard when you ask difficult questions always it was accepted

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:22 (to 1:36)

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

An Englishwoman argued with the elderly Ajahn Chah for hours. When others asked her to leave him alone, he said no, she was helping him sharpen his knife. Hard questions were always welcome. Investigation is close to sacred in Buddhism. Don't fear people who challenge you; they may be sharpening you.

In brief (our summary)

An Englishwoman argues with elderly Ajahn Chah for hours; others say leave him alone — Chah says no, she is helping him sharpen his knife: hard questions are welcome.

Teaching point

A real teacher treats tough questions as whetstone, not threat.

When this story may help

  • afraid to ask
  • challenging authority

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Investigate Your Way to Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 19 Dec 2008 · 2008-12-28 · ▶ watch from 1:22 to 1:36 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'aanch'/'jancha' = Ajahn Chah.

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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    remember this one translation which was done by a monk I remember reading it and said what? that's not what Ajahn Chah said I was there when he gave that talk And the monk said oh .. yeah yeah but I think this is what Ajahn Chah wanted to say And you got to be very careful there, in translating

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