# Chanting for a dying mother in Singapore

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-chanting-singapore-mother-got-up
- Themes: uncertainty, death, chanting, illness
- Life situations: dying parent, terminal prognosis

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

In Singapore a woman asks Ajahn Brahm to chant for her mother, just home from hospital and expected to die soon. After the chanting the old lady gets out of bed and starts walking around. “Another miracle? That's not a miracle — it's uncertainty.”

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

I did some chanting for them the lady asked me to come even I was supposed to go to a funeral for somebody else say can you please child from my mom she's just come home from hospital and you know I think now may be the last time maybe looks like she's gonna die soon so can I come chant for her so I went to chant for this lady you know I've known a long time and apparently after chanting she got out of bed and started walking around another miracle that's not a miracle is uncertainty

## Teaching point

No one can predict life and death; it isn't miracles, it's uncertainty.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Asked to chant for a woman sent home to die, Ajahn Brahm later heard she'd got out of bed and was walking about. He refuses to call it a miracle; it's uncertainty. Chanting isn't a treatment, and a prognosis is an estimate, not a prophecy. Hold hope and preparation lightly, because nobody, doctor or monk, knows exactly how a life will turn.

## Source

- [Uncertainty | Ajahn Brahm | 15-07-2011](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pswsVGVdISY) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 15:17 to 15:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pswsVGVdISY&t=917s