# Carrying coffins of dead moments

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-coffins-of-dead-moments
- Themes: past, letting go, grief, present moment
- Life situations: rumination, grief, inability to move on

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

He compares obsessing over the past to carrying coffins of dead moments: cultures bury or cremate the dead and walk on — do the same with past memories, good or bad, so the present can be free.

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

Sometimes that I used to call the past by carrying so many coffins of dead moments from the past. One of the nice things about our culture, in all cultures, all traditions is that once a person dies they're buried or cremated, their bodies disposed of, we remember them, but we don't obsess with them, we walk on, we go forward. We never sort of linger too long in the past and that's the same with any past memories you have, good or bad, we try and let them go as fast as we possibly can

## Teaching point

Put the past down; dead moments don't need to be carried forever.

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

We bury or cremate the dead and walk on, yet we lug old memories around like coffins. Ajahn Brahm lets the past go, good and bad, even unanswered emails. You can't please everyone. Set down what's finished, and there's room to enjoy where you are now.

## Source

- [Contentment in the Moment | Ajahn Brahm | 16 June 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t5zraTyN90) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:22 to 2:06: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t5zraTyN90&t=82s