Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The ants left a circle of kindness around the monk

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Getting Along with Difficult Family Members | Ajahn Brahm | 18 June 2021

2 min read

Content note: animal behaviour claim

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

he found a nice tree and sat down and started meditating then he realized he hadn't been really mindful enough to to to really see where he was meditating cuz there's a big ant mound right next to him and after just a minute or two he You could feel the red ants start start crawling up his legs and as they crawled up they started biting him and they're very painful but he said I'm a monk I can enjoy this [laughter] but after about 20 or 30 bites then [clears throat] there is thousands of Then he's amazing. He said he just he didn't know just jumping up and running, but he was running. He lost his mindfulness and he was running away. And at that point, he said, "No, I am a monk. I'm a forest monk." So he turned around and went straight back to where he'd been sitting and sat down in the middle of these thousands of ants again. Could you do that? So what happened next? The reason I tell the story, he changed his meditation object to loving kindness. May all ants be happy and well. Look, you know, I've got plenty of blood there or flesh. You can take some if you want, but please leave me some [laughter] or something like that. But just real kindness. You know, you've had that sort of feelings of kindness and love towards people and sometimes they're so strong even if someone is hurting you. Just give kindness and joy and goodwill towards them. That's what he did. And then the next thing he told us in his biography, the next thing he felt that the the ants stopped biting him. The next thing you could actually feel them just walking down his body rather than up his body. It's this amazing thing to see when you give kindness like that and the last ant just left him. They went into a very blissful meditation for the hour or so, hour and a half he had. When he came out of the meditation, you know, that's when what disturbed him was the sound of the the villagers coming, you know, they had their dinner and they were coming to listen to a dharma talk from him. And what he didn't really understand in that part of Thailand when they come into the presence [clears throat] of like a monk or a nun to listen to a talk that they dance. He thought this is really weird. Hadn't seen this before. People dancing when they come into the presence of a monk. He opened his eyes more fully and he realized they weren't dancing as a cultural welcome. They were dancing because they've been bitten alive by these millions of ants. And what he said and it's I totally accept this. This is what happened around him. There was a circle about maybe a meter in diameter. There was no ants at all. And then there was millions of ants all around him like protecting him

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 14:41 (to 18:16)

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

Bitten by red ants while waiting to teach, a Thai forest monk returned and sat sending them kindness. They stopped biting; when villagers arrived, dancing from bites, he sat in a clear circle while ants swarmed all around. Ajahn Brahm trusts the story. If ants respond to sincere kindness, so might in-laws and bosses.

In brief (our summary)

A famous Thai forest monk, waiting to give a village talk, sat by an ant mound; red ants bit him until he fled, then he forced himself back and switched to metta — may all ants be happy. The ants stopped biting, walked down his body, and when villagers arrived dancing from bites there was a clear metre circle with no ants around him — millions outside as if protecting his sit.

Teaching point

Sincere kindness can change even how animals treat you.

When this story may help

  • enduring irritation
  • wanting kinder responses

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Getting Along with Difficult Family Members | Ajahn Brahm | 18 June 2021 · 2021-06-18 · ▶ watch from 14:41 to 18:16 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, 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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