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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Crunchy frog and the bladder on the rice

As told by Ajahn Brahm in The Middle Way | Ajahn Brahm | 11-06-2010

2 min read

Content note: animal death / food

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

we did have like frog suit once now I remember just as a kid I used to watch Monty Python for those of you that want watch Monti P one of the sketches was crunchy frog where somebody went into a movie theater selling chocolate cover crunchy frog and they sort of ate this and they said this is gross you left the bones in it he said that's why it's crunchy and I thought that's gross that's why it was funny and a few years later I was eating crunchy frog you know without the chocolate and this was all we had one day a bowl of sticky rice and a pot like a big sauce pan and you looked inside there was no salt no nothing like garlic or anything it's like boiled water and floating it was about 20 like spoon size frogs and that was our lunch so only one me a day a spit of rice and put the frog on your spoon in your mouth crunch boiled crunchy frog and there's other gross things even more gross than that was a time it wasn't actually um crunchy frog it was like boiled frog one each a big one like a toad on rice and there you was your rice and there's towed on top of it it it wasn't towed in the hole that I used to like towed in the hole that's an English dis sausages this was a real toad and the problem was and this is true story I was there that's all we had that day no fruit no vegetables no salt no condiments no chili or anything just one frog and a piece of rice and that was it for the whole day so you had to eat it so you know I was fortunate I'd like to tell the story to kids because some kids do not pay attention in school you must pay attention in school especially in biology I did pay attention and this is where I got the payback cuz when you eat the meat off the legs of the Frog you I was a vegetarian before okay and I had to there's no vegetables it's rice and frog so you take the meat off the legs first of all you can actually eat that that's not so bad but that's not enough to keep you going for the day so you have to start picking at its insides I knew what organ was what the guy sitting next to me did not he pressed the bladder it had urine in and that frog peeded all over his rice it doesn't matter how hungry you are you can't eat after that

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 4:14 (to 7:02)

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

In the early Thai forest years, lunch might be sticky rice and a boiled toad. Ajahn Brahm knew his biology and avoided the bladder; the monk beside him didn't, and his rice was ruined. He laughs, then admits such harshness made monks ill and drove good ones away. Austerity isn't wisdom. Look after the body you practise with.

In brief (our summary)

Early Thai forest austerity: Monty Python 'crunchy frog' becomes real — sticky rice and spoon-sized boiled frogs, then a whole toad on rice. Biology class pays off: he avoids the bladder; the monk next to him presses it and urine soaks the rice — even hunger cannot make him eat.

Teaching point

Harsh austerity can turn lunch into a biology exam — and still leave you sick.

When this story may help

  • extreme diets
  • romanticising hardship

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in The Middle Way | Ajahn Brahm | 11-06-2010 · 2010-06-14 · ▶ watch from 4:14 to 7:02 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

4 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'frog suit' = frogsuit / frogs; 'towed' = toad; 'peeded' = peed.

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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    My first year as a monk, for a practice, I put all the food together which was disgusting anyway, and I got the spoon and mixed it all up. I only had one meal a day. It was a sludge, it was a slop and if you saw it, you'd actually pour it out straight away. It wasn't even fit for pigs, let alone for monks. But the trouble was it was an interesting experiment which I did. Every food no matter what it was, the sweets, everything in one bowl and stirred it up so it was absolutely consistent. After a while, it actually started to taste nice.

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  • Strawberry ice cream on spaghetti bolognese

    In brief: Monks eat everything from one bowl. Once, the person serving Ajahn Brahm tipped strawberry ice cream straight on top of his spaghetti…

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  • Ajahn Maha Bua said carry on eating

    In brief: Visiting one of Thailand's strictest monks (captioned Ajahn Mahaboor — Maha Bua), where no one may eat after the teacher stops, skinny…

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    that was this month called ajahn mahaboor he was really strict and he had this ruled in the monastery that only have one meal a day and uh you couldn't start eating before he started eating and when he finished everybody else had to finish that's why all those monks only one meal a day they always ate very fast because sometimes when my boy stopped eating then everybody had to remember on this occasion i just gone there for the first time and i was at the end of the line there i was eating my lunch they told me to be fast and when i he finished everyone had to finish me too i put down my spoon and he looked at me and he said carry on eating honestly i was really thin in those days no skin on bones because the food which i had in ajahn charles monastery was very very lack of nutrition very simple food and so i was skin and bones he saw that and he said carry on eating and that touched my heart wasn't i needed to eat more it was this is kindness so i carried on eating and that was the sort of thing which how you don't break a monk you're kind to them

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  • Income: nil

    In brief: Renewing his low-income health care card, Ajahn Brahm writes 'Nil' in every income box. The first time, the office wrote back asking him…

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    A monk who every time I write off to renew my health care card, 'cause I'm low-income, when I write in all the boxes, "How much money do you earn a week?" "Nil." "How much money do you earn from rental property?" "Nil." "How much money do you earn from shares?" "Nil." "How much money do you earn from other sources?" "Nil." "Sum total of your yearly income?" "Nil." I love sending that form off [laughter]. When we first did it we'd get the letter back, "Can you please explain how you've supported yourself." And I said, "very wonderfully, very peacefully, and I'm fat.

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