Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Crocodiles sleep with their mouths open

As told by Ajahn Brahm in What is Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 3 December 2021

1 min read

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

crocodiles over in northeast of Thailand would actually eat, how they would catch enough fish. They're very, very lazy, those crocodiles. And they didn't need to do very much. able to sleep out in the sunshine of the day with their mouths open. And once they were sleeping with their mouths open, of course, the flies went in all by themselves. They didn't need to hunt for flies. The flies just came

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 37:10 (to 37:43)

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

Villagers told Ajahn Brahm that lazy crocodiles sunbathe with their mouths open until flies fill them, then sink into the water so fish swim in after the flies. A free lunch. He jokes you could try it meditating by the Swan River. Nature doesn't hurry. Maybe we work harder than we need to.

In brief (our summary)

NE Thailand folk: lazy crocodiles sleep mouths open; flies walk in by themselves — no hunting needed.

Teaching point

Sometimes the catch comes to the open mouth that isn't chasing.

When this story may help

  • over-effort
  • nature lessons

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in What is Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 3 December 2021 · 2021-12-03 · ▶ watch from 37:10 to 37:43 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned.

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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