# The man who walked straight past the judge

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-german-boy-nde-no-judging
- Themes: judgement, near-death experience, self-compassion, afterlife
- Life situations: being judgemental, self-criticism, low self-esteem

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

From a German book a German-born monk translated aloud: a seven- or eight-year-old boy has a near-death experience, walking through a forest to a shed where a man checks a book — his name isn't there; he must go back, but may first watch. A farmer arrives and denies killing animals ('he still lies through his teeth'). Meanwhile another man walks right past the shed into what the boy thinks is heaven. 'Aren't you going to stop him?' 'Throughout his whole life he hasn't judged anybody, therefore we're not going to judge him.'

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

A long time ago, there was a book coming around our monastery down in Serpentine. I don't know if it's still there. It was in German, it'd be great if it was translated into English. I don't know if it's been done. But one of our German monks, a German-born monk, he read it out to me in translation. It was a story of a young boy in Germany who had an out-of-the-body experience, just floating out of your body, near-death experience, he was only about seven or eight years of age. And the reason I remembered it was because of what this little boy learned from that out-of-the-body experience. He was walking through a forest, in Germany, forests are really important to people, so they live in the forest, their culture is born out of the forest. So that he was walking through a forest, having temporarily died, and he came to like a barn, like a shed, and it's typical the way that some people perceive that time when you left your body at the near-death or death, that he came to this guy who asked what his name was, and the guy looked in some book, they always say it's a book, these days if young people die, they find he just logs into a computer and checks your name, looked into a book, his name wasn't there, so he said, no you're not supposed to be dead, you'd better go back. But he said that before you go back, you can actually see how this all works. And so the next person who came to see if he really deserved to die or not was a farmer. And when the farmer came up, you know the guy, what's your name, oh yeah, your time's up, time you're dead, but said the guy who was with the book, and he said, have you ever killed anything, any animals? he said, oh no, no, no, maybe one or two, but no more than that. And the guy looked at this little kid and said, you see, even though he's dead, he still lies through his teeth, he was a farmer, he killed many animals. But as they were just talking to this farmer to see what he thought, where he is gonna go.. there was another man walked right past the shed, right past, and went up to what the little kid thought was heaven. And the kid said to the guy, aren't you going to stop him and ask him what he's been doing? And that's when this judge told this little kid, throughout that man's whole life, he hasn't judged anybody, therefore, we're not going to judge him.

## Teaching point

If you don't judge others you don't judge yourself — and aren't judged.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

In a boy's near-death account, a man strolled straight past the judge, because in his whole life he hadn't judged anybody. True or not, the point stuck with Ajahn Brahm. Harshness toward others and toward yourself come as a pair. Ease off one and the other begins to soften too.

## Source

- [Am I Good Enough? | Ajahn Brahm | 28 April 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2mWuCk70Ck) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 11:35 to 14:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2mWuCk70Ck&t=695s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Expanding Your Views | Ajahn Brahm | 18 April 2008](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJAM2kn9zTI) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 47:42 to 49:37: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJAM2kn9zTI&t=2862s
- [Winning and Losing | Ajahn Brahm | 02-07-2010](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo7fnJ4DYLk) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 31:58 to 32:09: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo7fnJ4DYLk&t=1918s