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Story · Ajahn Brahm

An email from beyond the grave

As told by Ajahn Brahm in How To See Past Lives Through Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

1 min read

Content note: paranormal claim (unexplained, told lightly)

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

There was a Sri-Lankan lady. She's been listening to my talks a lot, I think she's been over here. And she called me. She had an emergency. During the Retreat time, you're not really supposed to receive many calls. She said 'Can you please help my brother? He's got a very, very bad blood cancer. We sent him to Singapore for treatment. But nothing is working. He's now paralyzed. He's only got a few days to live. Can you please talk to him?' So, of course, you don't worry about retreats and stuff. Of course you help out. So, for two evenings in a row I talked to him on the phone. And he was so weak. When he spoke to me he spoke very slowly and you had to listen very, very carefully to listen to what he was saying. But I gave him some advice about dying, and about letting go. And then the third night, he died... So I called him just in time, which is wonderful. Now, he was paralyzed, he could only.. they had to just... he could only just about speak. The next evening, his sister called me to tell me that he died the night before. But also to tell me: 'You won't believe this Ajahn Brahm This is absolutely true... that this morning, I got an email from him. Just saying 'Thank you'. And the email was sent about 6-8 hours after he died. The email, it's true, email from beyond the grave. So, you're actually wrong here, people actually do. They don't get cell phones, that's passé. That's the 20th century, i this is 21st century They send emails... Twitters, have you checked your Twitter account yet, to see if there's anything? So, now, I told people, 'Now I know what Gmail means'. 'Ghost mail

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 0:37 (to 2:43)

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

A dying man in Singapore asked to talk with Ajahn Brahm, and they spoke on a couple of evenings. The morning after he died, his sister got an email from him saying thank you. Now I know what Gmail means, he jokes: ghost mail. Make of it what you like. Gratitude has a way of getting through.

In brief (our summary)

A dying man in Singapore who had come to love Ajahn Brahm's talks asks to speak with him; his sister gets through and Ajahn Brahm talks with him on a couple of evenings. He dies two or three days later — and the next morning his sister receives an email from him saying thank you. Ajahn Brahm jokes that GMail must mean 'ghost mail'.

Teaching point

(Told playfully, as a 'real ghost story' during a talk on dropping the fault-finding mind.)

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in How To See Past Lives Through Meditation | Ajahn Brahm · 2018-10-06 · ▶ watch from 0:37 to 2:43 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

5 other tellings of this story

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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  • The tsunami ghost who gave a phone number

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