Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Toss a coin to find out what you want

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Am I Good Enough? | Ajahn Brahm | 28 April 2017

1 min read

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

But, if you read my book, you toss a coin, you marry her, tails I get divorced. Oh no, you can't get divorced until you're married. Heads I marry her, tails I don't. And the point is, once it comes up heads, how do you feel? Heads I marry her, do you think 2 out of 3? In other words, you're not happy with the decision. Then of course what that's telling you is how you feel inside. If it comes up heads, heads I marry her, yes! That means you really want to do it in the first place. So tossing a coin, it's finding out what you really want to do. So you make a decision, heads I go left, tails I go right. After you've tossed a coin, how do you feel? What's the emotion inside? It's just getting that intuition up to your brain.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:01:00 (to 1:01:53)

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

Heads I marry her, tails I don't. Ajahn Brahm's coin isn't there to decide for you. Watch your heart when it lands: relief or the urge to try best of three. That reaction is the answer you already knew. The coin just brings your intuition up into your head.

In brief (our summary)

Advice for a hard decision: toss a coin — heads I marry her, tails I don't. If it comes up heads and you think 'two out of three?', you don't want it; if you think 'yes!', you wanted it all along. The coin just gets your intuition up into your brain.

Teaching point

Your reaction to the result reveals what you really want.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Am I Good Enough? | Ajahn Brahm | 28 April 2017 · 2017-04-28 · ▶ watch from 1:01:00 to 1:01:53 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

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

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