Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The dreams that were right — until they weren't

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Dreams And Other Things | Ajahn Brahm | 13 Mar 2009

2 min read

Content note: paranormal claim; drug use; violent death

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

he'd always have this recurring dream he told me that his younger sister would fall into the swimming pool drown and die and he said one day he was just as a young 16 or 17 year old he was just sitting around the pool just doing nothing and then the dream which he had uh seen so often started to unfold it was exactly as he dreamed but because he remembered the dream and knew what was going to happen next he actually intervened and saved his sister's life he said it was weird but if he hadn't had that dream his sister would be dead and that gave him such confidence in dreams especially in those Vivid types of dreams that he believed in them except for once when he said he was maybe about 2122 and he was in New Zealand remember this was 30 40 years ago uh shows how old I am but this was a time when young people were really into smoking marijuana and he was in a house over in New Zealand with a few other young people you know sort of taking those recreational drugs and he had a dream he said many times that the New Zealand police came into the house and arrested everybody and he said he was kicking himself because he never took preventative action and it happened and he got deported and so he had two dreams he said which actually turned out to be true and he said the third dream which he had and this was the one he kept on telling me this was in 1974 when I became a monk and it was just the towards the end of the Vietnam War and the Viet Kon had taken over Vietnam patet La had taken over LA and the Karu had taken over Cambodia and our monasteries were very very close know to the border between Cambodia and L right in that sort of West northwest corner of Thailand and I remember looking at a map once and the distance from my Monastery in Thailand to Bangkok was twice as distance as it was to Hanoi we're much closer to Hanoi let alone the other sort of communist places and there was an evacuation plan which we had to register for our embassies because most western diplomats at the time subscribed to what was called the Domino Theory they thought once Vietnam LA and Cambodia fell tider would be next especially the Northeast where we were very close and so he thought he had this dream of the Communist soldiers invading that part of Thailand him running away across a pfield and got him shot in the back of the head he was so convinced of that dream he said that's how I'm going to die I know I'm going to die the Communists are going to invade and I'm going to be caught and killed cuz two out of two times he got it right that never ever happened you know he disrobed fell in love got married and one year after he got married he got killed in a head- on car crash in California so it never worked out

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 2:31 (to 5:54)

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

A fellow monk's dreams had twice come true, so he was sure he'd be shot on the Thai border. Instead he disrobed, married, and died in a car crash in California a year later. Dreams sometimes tell the truth and sometimes don't. Don't build your life around them. Live well today, whatever the night brings.

In brief (our summary)

A fellow monk told Ajahn Brahm he had twice dreamed truly: a recurring dream of his sister drowning that let him save her at 16 or 17, and a New Zealand drug-bust dream he ignored and was deported for. Convinced a third dream of being shot by Communists on the Thai border would come true, he later disrobed, married, and was killed in a California head-on crash instead.

Teaching point

Dreams sometimes tell the truth and sometimes don't — you cannot rely on them.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Dreams And Other Things | Ajahn Brahm | 13 Mar 2009 · 2009-03-22 · ▶ watch from 2:31 to 5:54 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Viet Kon'/'patet La'/'Karu' 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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