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Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

How to hold a glass of water still

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Sects | Ajahn Brahm | 01-06-2007

1 min read

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

How do you hold a glass of water still? Put it down, yeah. Once you put that glass of water down, actually it moves more at first. But after a few seconds you find that - those in the front row can see that - it's much more still than I could ever hold it.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 30:50 (to 31:10)

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

Try to hold a glass of water perfectly still and it trembles; the harder you try, the worse it gets. Put it down, wait a moment, and it becomes stiller than any hand could manage. Meditation works the same way. You can't force peace. Get out of the way, watch, and it happens.

In brief (our summary)

Demonstration simile: however hard you try to hold a glass of water still, it trembles, and more willpower makes it shake more. The easy way is to put it down. At first the water moves even more; wait, and it becomes far stiller than any hand can hold it. Meditation is like that: be the observer, not the doer.

Teaching point

Stillness comes from letting go, not from willpower; you get out of the way and meditation happens.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Sects | Ajahn Brahm | 01-06-2007 · 2007-06-05 · ▶ watch from 30:50 to 31:10 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

14 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

  • Too comfortable to waste on sleep

    In brief: Once Ajahn Brahm lay in bed unable to sleep — probably too much tea — worrying he wouldn't get to sleep in time. Then he thought: I spend…

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    difficulty getting asleep but I know it's too much tea or coffee probably but everytime I decided yeah I'm gonna fall asleep I really want to fall asleep I really have to fall asleep I'm gonna get up early in the morning I've got to give a talk I've got to do this if I don't fall asleep I'm gonna be in big trouble and of course the anxiety kept you awake so instead what I thought as a mark especially my bed is the most comfortable place in the whole world number one no one asked me any questions I'm quiet and you're really comfortably are your beds comfortable nice and cozy crane why do you want to waste that beautiful experience by going to sleep so lay down it's just so nice who wants to go and sleep this is just so cozy and nice I just really want to enjoy this I don't want to go to sea I just want to enjoy the comfort and coziness

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  • The mother who never drops her baby

    In brief: Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds with a trolley in the other hand and never…

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    I see these uh mothers with their baby in their arms. And they've got the sort of the trolley in their other arm or something. And they navigate through these shopping centers and there's lots of people bumping this way and bumping that way. They never drop their kid. Never ever. And the kid knows it so much. The kid is fast asleep. Totally trusts his mother not to drop him. But you, you know, you so watch your breath and you drop it after 5 minutes. And worse, you don't know where you've left it. But imagine that. The mother is Is a mother who's gone in the shopping center with the kid and gone back home afterwards. Say, "I I thought I had the baby with me. Where did I leave the baby? I had it somewhere." Cuz why is it the mother never drops a baby? Why is it the mother never leaves it and forgets where they've left it? Cuz the mother cares for the baby. That's all. She's not tense. She's just got this beautiful constant care. Which means the baby is always safe, never gets dropped, never gets left anywhere. See, that care is the important ingredient of mindfulness. That's what maintains it. If you care for the stages of meditation, so you care for this present moment. Don't need to control it. Don't need to force it. Don't need to hold the baby so hard you strangle the poor thing. No, you just hold it gently and you care for it and then you'll never drop it.

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  • The leaf moves only because of the wind

    In brief: Simile (from Ajahn Chah, as he tells it): Ajahn Chah would hold up his hand and wave it — not at flies — saying this is a leaf on a tree.…

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    This is a meditation teaching from Ajahn Chah, he would hold up his hand, [waves hand] this is for Liza in the United States, I'm not saying goodbye to you. He said: ‘This hand represents a leaf on a tree. And it only moves like this because it's the wind blowing. If the wind stops, the leaf still moves, but less and less and less, until it comes to a stop. Because the default position of a leaf is to be still. It's only the wind makes it move.' And Ajahn Chah said: ‘The default position of the human mind is to be still. It's the wind of wanting something makes you move.

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  • The novice who stopped

    In brief: A novice of 12 or 13 at Ajahn Chah's monastery, tired during a very long sermon, kept thinking: 'When is Ajahn Chah going to stop?' Then…

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    It reminds me of that novice in Ajahn Chah's monastery, just a novice, who was listening to one of Ajahn Chah's sermons, which was going on and on and on and on. And he said, "I'm just a little novice. You know, I didn't sort of elect to come and stay here. Just I had no place else to go, so this is what But this senior monks, they could listen, but I need to go to bed. I'm tired." He's only like 12 or 13 or something. And so this little novice started thinking, "When is Ajahn Chah going to stop? When is he going to stop? When is he going to stop?" And that became repeated in his brain again and again and again until then the novice thought had an insight, changed things around. Instead of when is Ajahn Chah going to stop, he thought, "When am I going to stop?" That's when this little novice stopped. He got into one of the really deep meditations, one of the jhanas. Just that simply, but just saying, "I will stop." Not doing anything. And went so deep that when he came out of meditation, Ajahn Chah had finished the the talk a long time earlier. All the monks had done the chanting to end the meditate to end the talk. And they all packed up their things and went back to their cottages or their huts to rest. He'd been sitting really still all that time. Couldn't hear a thing. It was the morning time. He'd missed the morning arms route. He didn't mind. He wasn't hungry. He just got into the most beautiful meditation for the first time in his life by stopping.

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