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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Chah soaked to the skin

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Power of Kindness | Ajahn Brahm | 22 October 2021

1 min read

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

One of the things he did, remember he was uh just uh walking in the jungles of Thailand by himself. They called it just going on this um uh like dutanga. All your possessions on your back, sleeping in uh under a little umbrella with a um what's it called? A mosquito net on the outside, having such few possessions. And one day when he put up his uh little sleeping umbrella, the rain was just really harsh. And just like you know, we've had some big storms here. When you have a big storms like that, the umbrella just doesn't save you anything. And it's everything he had, every robe which he had, everything which he had was just soaked to the skin. There's no one there to talk to. and he felt just so alone and almost like rejected at the time and just so wet. He said, "This is not what I really expected meditation to be like.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:33:11 (to 1:34:14)

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

Alone in the jungle, Ajahn Chah's umbrella-tent failed in a storm and everything he owned was soaked. This, he thought, is not what I expected meditation to be. Letting go was sometimes very hard for him, but he never regretted it. If your practice feels miserable for a while, keep going. It's worth it.

In brief (our summary)

Walking alone on tudong in the Thai jungle, with all his possessions on his back, Ajahn Chah put up his umbrella-tent with its mosquito net one night in a harsh storm. It gave no protection: every robe and everything he owned was soaked through. With no one to talk to, he felt utterly alone and almost rejected, so wet — 'This is not what I really expected meditation to be like.' Letting go so much was very hard on him, Ajahn Brahm says, but in the end he never regretted it.

Teaching point

Meditation sometimes brings tears; keep going — it's worth it in the end.

When this story may help

  • difficult meditation
  • spiritual discouragement
  • loneliness

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Power of Kindness | Ajahn Brahm | 22 October 2021 · 2021-10-22 · ▶ watch from 1:33:11 to 1:34:14 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'whipped' = wept (the questioner's quote); 'dutanga' = dhutanga / tudong.

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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