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Story · Ajahn Brahm

“Is this heavy?” — Ajahn Chah and the stick

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010

1 min read

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

The first way of letting go, it was starting off with an old experience with my teacher Ajahn Chah, a long time ago, we were walking back from alms round and a great teacher, they always find an opportunity to, sort of you know, give you some teaching, but not these teachings with so many words and big concepts just simple down-to-earth teachings which once you hear, you think "Crikey, that's really good," and you remember it, and it changes much of your life. What he did on this occasion walking back, he picked up this stick, there's forest all over the place, picked up a stick, turned around and says "Brahmavamso, is this heavy?" Is this heavy? [throws stick away] Not now. I was very careful, I didn't throw that too far, wonder what it's gonna bust. It's only heavy when you hold it. But if you let it go it's got no weight at all. Profound, simple, and unforgettable.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 6:19 (to 7:23)

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

Ajahn Chah didn't give a lecture; he picked up a stick and threw it away. A worry about a job, a diagnosis or a difficult relationship is real, but much of its weight comes from carrying it every waking minute. You can put it down for a meal or a night's sleep, and pick it up again only when there's something to do.

In brief (our summary)

Walking back from alms round, Ajahn Chah picks up a stick and asks the young Ajahn Brahm whether it is heavy, then throws it away: it is only heavy while you hold it.

Teaching point

“It's only heavy when you hold it. But if you let it go it's got no weight at all.”

When this story may help

  • overwhelmed by responsibilities
  • job stress
  • illness worry
  • relationship problems
  • money worries

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010 · 2010-04-12 · ▶ watch from 6:19 to 7:23 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

3 other tellings of this story

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

  • A Sunday in Singapore that 'Amnesty would call torture'

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm recounts a Singapore Sunday from 6:15 a.m. meditation through a 'breakfast banquet', talks, counselling over lunch, a…

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    Again just being in Singapore last Sunday -- there's couple of people here from Singapore, you know this is true -- started off my Sunday morning at 6:15 in the Canning Fort Park teaching meditation. It was only supposed to be a short meditation. But you know what it's like afterwards, people start asking you questions and taking photographs. I had to rush for the morning..so-called breakfast. It was not a breakfast, it was morning banquet. People saying "Please eat this, please eat that, because I made this specially for you Ajahn Brahm." [laughter] And now you may always see I'm a fat monk. It is not my fault. [laughter] I get pressured, forced, cajoled. And if you don't believe me, you just come and follow me for one day and see what happens. So I had to eat this big breakfast and then talk to people. And then as soon as that was finished, had to go off to this morning service at the Buddhist Fellowship, which was only supposed to be a talk for an hour but went on and on and on with questions and stuff. And then we were supposed to have some lunch. But on the lunch, people come up and ask you to sign a book and ask some questions because they have some really big problems in life. So you give them free counseling. You're trying to put a spoon of food in one mouth and counsel them about their marital problems in the other. It is really working. And after that was finished, then I had to sort of rush off to a seminar they'd organized for four hours of giving talks and asking questions. And of course it wasn't four hours, it lasted for five or six, finished about eight o'clock. And after that, I had to go to this golf club where they were having a sort of a launch of an education program which I had to give another talk; didn't get back to bed till about quarter to midnight. And if anyone looked at that schedule, you'd call that torture. Amnesty International will probably take the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore to court for that.. [laughter] human rights abuse; war crimes. But of course I enjoyed every minute of it.

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  • A monk costs less than a dog

    In brief: When monks of the tradition first went to England, supporters worried whether they could afford one. The head of the trust, an economist…

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    when the monks in this tradition first went to England, the people there were a bit concerned, I mean, can we... this was in the early days when there wasn't so many supporters. Now, can we afford to look after a monk? You know, how much does it cost to look after a monk and there was this guy he was, he became the head of this trust, which looked after our monastery in England. He was an economist, and he was actually on the board of the Bank of England. He was a professor at one of the universities in England. So you know, he really knew his stuff about economics, so he decided to work out before they invited any monks to their place. How much does it cost to look after a monk? And surprise, surprise, he found out that it's much cheaper to look after a monk or a nun than to look after a dog. Dogs are far more expensive.

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  • The Mexican fisherman

    In brief: An American business professor on holiday meets a Mexican fisherman unloading his morning catch: enough to feed his family, then lunch, a…

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    it's a story of the old Mexican fisherman you know there was American who went on vacation to the Caribbean coast and when he was uh just walking around by the shore he saw a fishing boat come in to unload its morning catch and his Mexican fisherman unloaded the catch and this American came up to have a conversation with him said what are you doing seor he told the American I've been out fishing all morning I've got enough fish here to sell to feed my family so now I'm going to go home and have a nice lunch after lunch I'm going to have a sleep a cesta it's good for your health you don't get stressed out if you have a siesta can you have a siesta or you're too busy I'm going to have a cester and after cester I'll be home when my kids come back from school they play with them help them with their homework and in the evening I'm going to have dinner with my wife and maybe you know go to the the canteen or the pub in Mexico having a a couple of tequilas not much and play the guitar with my friends now life is good and that's when the American said sir I am a professor of business studies in a business school in the United States I think I can help you don't be so lazy you are not exploiting this wonderful resource of a fishing boat yeah go home and have lunch but go out in the afternoon you'll catch twice as much fish with the extra profit from twice as much fish you'll be able to buy a much bigger boat with a crew that way you'll soon be able to catch about four or six times as many fish with that extra profit you'll be able to buy a second boat in about four or five years you'll probably have a whole Fleet of boats and then with a whole Fleet of boats you can even make your own caner so you can process the fish it's Downstream processing to make increase your profits and then with that business you can actually uh move the center of your business to Mexico City or even better to LA and then because you own the whole business you can float it on the stock market know sell shares because you're the CEO you can award yourself these amazing obscene salaries and give yourself stock options which means if the stock goes up you can buy if it doesn't you don't need to you can make a millionaire many times over in about 10 years now I'm a professor of business studies that's how it's done and the Mexican fisherman listened very respectfully until the end of this presentation the Mexican fisherman said but Senor what will I do with all those millions of dollars and Professor thought for a few moments he hadn't thought the business plan out that far so he had to think that's all people think about making the few Millions but then what and the professor said well yeah with all that Millions few Millions you know you can retire you know you can retire to you know a nice fishing Village like this buy yourself a small boat just to go out in the morning for fun you'll be able to have lunch with your your wife every day you'll be able to take a siesta afterwards and you always be home to play with your children when they come back from school and you'll be able to go out in the evening with no worries at all Senor I do that already

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  • Walking off with everything he owned on his back

    In brief: After five years as a monk in Thailand (around 1979) Ajahn Brahm leaves his monastery to wander on foot. Nothing can be stored, so he must…

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    One of my most memorable experiences in my training as a monk after 5 years being a monk in these monasteries in Thailand you are expected, encouraged to actually leave the monastery, just go wondering on foot. Its a great opportunity to visit other teachers' You have been in a one monastery and to see how the other teachers teach To get a wider experience or may be go and find some solitude in the jungles or the mountains That was after five years--what would that be 1979 or something; somewhere around then. I left the monastery; and the rule was you couldn't store anything there. You can give it away but once you gave it away nothing would be kept for you. So everything which was yours you had to carry with you. And of course if you are walking especially through the hot tropics carrying lots and lots of stuff is just really really unpleasant. It was reminding you how much a burden your possessions were. So after a couple of days, you gave this away and you gave that away and you are down to the absolute minimum you needed Once you got down to that minimum, my goodness it was so light. You can imagine the experience. Just put yourself in that experience that everything you own you are carrying on your back and it's light. And you can dance, there is hardly any burden there at all. Because as a monk we knew that, there are monasteries everywhere any place you go you can get a bed for the night. If you don't get a bed for the night you can sleep under a tree. Its the tropics, it is easy to do. You can go anywhere, you get something to eat, not delicious food but enough to keep you going through the day, there is waters in the well. There was this total sense of freedom freedom from possessions. And that was just like being in heaven. You didn't have any worries at all. You had cloths to wear, you had this little mosquito net umbrella which you could park anywhere to sleep at night. And the best thing about it; you had no appointments. Your future was blank. I could go anywhere I wanted. Every cross road, you can go left, go right, turn around, go forward, stay still No one was asking you to go anywhere, to do anything or be anything. That was one of my wonderful experiences of being free from attachments at all.

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