Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The chanting worked too well

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Give Yourself Peace, Kindness and Forgiveness | Ajahn Brahm | 29 January 2021

2 min read

Content note: death humour

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

But this was the story of when I got called to go to Royal Perth Hospital, by a family of this Chinese fellow who was passing away. They said ‘you've got to come quick, he's really really sick, he's in the ICU, maybe only an hour or two to go’. So I rushed into the hospital, got up to the ICU, saw the family, just said ‘hello, I’ve arrived, I’ll see what I can do’. Went into the ICU, stood by the bed of this guy who was totally unconscious, obviously close to death. And I really gave full power chanting. Now this doesn't always work, but that day I was really on song. You know, that’s just like people playing football or tennis, sometimes you just ‘crack!’ - the ball always goes in. And this was one of those days I was just really on my game. And I chanted and chanted and chanted… He came out of coma. It was like a miracle. And it doesn't always happen, very rarely actually, but this time it actually did. He came out of comma, the daughters were amazed, he was gonna survive now. So when I went out, feeling all good about myself, and then went out to see the family, and said ‘oh well, I really did it, he came out of the coma, he's probably gonna live now'. And that's when the S.H.I.T hit the fan. Because these were the family who'd come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China. They stopped all their work, they got these expensive flights, a moment's notice; they came over to be with their patriarch for the last few hours of his life, they had already arranged the funeral service. [Laughter] Now they're gonna have to stop it and cancel it and they say ‘you have cost us a lot of money, Ajahn Brahm’. He's gonna die again, maybe in another six months, he comes back again and dies properly, but this time - no. [laughter] So they were not happy with me at all. All that way - stopping.. [laughter] I got no donations for the monastery, not even for the cost of the petrol in the car [laughter]. I never heard from them again. [laughter] So that was my mistake. What would you do, when you make mistakes like that, you learn. So now, when I go to the hospital, [laughter] I ask first of all, ‘what type of chanting do you want?' “Get-better” chant, or “die-peacefully

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 44:46 (to 48:01)

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

Asked to chant for a dying man, Ajahn Brahm chanted his strongest, and the man went into remission, to the family's dismay; the funeral was booked. Now he asks first: get-better chant or die-peacefully chant? He tells his mistakes so everyone can laugh. Laugh at your own, learn from them, and you keep the confidence to help.

In brief (our summary)

Invited to chant for a dying Chinese man in Royal Perth Hospital's ICU, Ajahn Brahm chants his strongest — and the man goes into remission. The family scold him: the funeral was arranged, relatives had flown in; they only wanted a peaceful death, and now must come back in a few months. Since then he always asks which kind of chanting they want.

Teaching point

Share your mistakes so people can laugh; mistakes are where we learn.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Give Yourself Peace, Kindness and Forgiveness | Ajahn Brahm | 29 January 2021 · 2021-01-29 · ▶ watch from 44:46 to 48:01 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

5 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: Manual (volunteer) captions; occasional misspellings kept as is.

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

  • Funeral chants at a wedding

    In brief: Too tired, Ajahn Brahm starts the chanting for funerals instead of a wedding blessing — and once you start you can't stop. He never tells…

    Read full story

    I was doing marriage chants for somebody and I got it wrong because I was too tired. I gave the chanting for funerals instead of marriage. True. And once you start you can't stop. So I gave the chant. And I never told them I they're still happily married.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The corpse in the elevator

    In brief: Funeral directors collecting a body from a top-floor old apartment find the gurney will not fit the stairs or elevator, so they hold the…

    Read full story

    there's no way you can get sort of like the the little it was not coffin yet a little um trolley they put the dead person on so strap him in there and just you know to try and take him take him down the stairs but even in the elevator the elevator was too small and he was on the top story so what to do that is it'd be it'd be like some comedy show but this was real life you know real life is much more funny than anything they can invent on the TV so what they did you know they decided well the only thing to do is actually just carry him down ourselves so that they forgot about the trolley that just his two Funeral Directors you know in Black they look pretty sort of weird already and with the dead person in between just holding on to him standing and of course it's one of these though one of these old apartment blocks where everybody knew one another so they knew this guy has died so top story about six stories or something down to the ground floor where the horse was waiting they were praying please nobody pressed the button halfway down but of course there is some law which is even the most powerful law in the whole universe which you can rely upon it's called Murphy's Law it's something can go wrong it does go wrong so the elevator stopped on the third floor halfway down they couldn't do anything about it and when it does open there's this little old lady who'd also lived in the apartment block for a long time and you can imagine what she saw this guy who she knew was dead standing between these two guys in Black and my friend the funeral director he said we don't know how this happened but we lost control of him and he started Falling Towards the old woman she just dropped out what should we do next so they thought they had to say we can do they they grabbed on the guy again and pressed the button and they just hope they didn't have another customer they ran up the stairs afterwards and she was okay she was a bit shocked but you know when it can happen it does happen

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The coffin stuck halfway down

    In brief: At a Chinese disciple's burial the ornate knobs on the coffin catch on the way down the grave; it sticks halfway. Ajahn Brahm has to chant…

    Read full story

    don't put so much knobs on the outside of the casket because they had this this um burial and they had so many ornaments on the outside of the coffin which they stuck on there. It looked really just very very like a little palace this fellow was being committed to. But when they lowered it into the hole, had so many knobs on the outside it got stuck halfway down. And there was your coffin. It hadn't got to the bottom. It wasn't to the top. They tried to move it and it was stuck stuck fast. And I, you know, do some chanting as it was being lowered down. And it hadn't been finished lowering down. So I did the chanting again another time. About five times I had to chant while they were trying to dispose this coffee which had got stuck halfway down

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The toilet frame with no hole

    In brief: For Western visitors, the monastery made a sitting frame to place over squat toilets. An 18-year-old English visitor sits on a frame…

    Read full story

    I remember there was this one girl, this one girl came from England. She was like 18 or 19 years of age, came to visit our monastery. And you know the squat toilets we have in Asia where you squat down on them? So some people have a hard time squatting down on the toilets. You know, they fall over and that's not such a good thing when you want to go. So instead of actually down, we built, especially, out of compassion for all these visitors from places like England and Australia, we built like a frame so you can put it over the squat toilet and actually sit on it. You know, because most people use the squat toilet, so we just put this frame just to the side. And that's the toilet which this girl used. It just had no hole in the bottom. No water. It was only a frame. But she sat on it and did her business and it went all on the floor. [laughter]. Exactly! That's what you did. That's what Ajahn Chah did. That's what I did. I thought it was terribly funny. "Oh thank you for doing that. You gave me another story!

    Open story page·Watch this telling

All stories·Find a story for your situation