# Club Med versus Club Meditation

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-club-med-vs-club-meditation
- Themes: rest, holiday, humour, meditation
- Life situations: planning a holiday, retreat

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Someone shows him a Club Med holiday schedule packed with yoga, scuba, activities and a nightclub — exhausting. He contrasts it with 'Club Meditation' at Serpentine, where the point is to get away from it all into peace and quiet.

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

This is not a concentration camp, this is a stillness, it's the happy camp. It is much more like Club Med than a concentration camp It is Club Med. And what do I mean by that? Club Meditation Serpentine

## Teaching point

A real holiday is rest, not more busyness with a different backdrop.

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

Someone showed Ajahn Brahm a holiday-resort schedule crammed with yoga, scuba and nightclubs; he felt tired just reading it. Why does a holiday need so much doing? A retreat is the real getaway: good food, a bed, peace and quiet. Rest doesn't have to be earned. Let calm people carry you into it.

## Source

- [Meditation is stillness, not concentration | Ajahn Brahm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyH604b4YsI) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 0:58 to 1:15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyH604b4YsI&t=58s

Other tellings of this story:

- [3 Overcoming thinking - Ajahn Brahm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlB3uksRV8M) (BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media) — watch from 0:15 to 1:09: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlB3uksRV8M&t=15s
- [Why Do People Do Bad Things? | Ajahn Brahm | 17-06-2011](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaEI0Z2tesA) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 31:26 to 32:19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaEI0Z2tesA&t=1886s
- [Meditation 07 01 2012](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og1YVQMYIPg) (DhammalokaMeditation) — watch from 14:56 to 15:33: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og1YVQMYIPg&t=896s