Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Fall in the same hole three times

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Water the Flowers | Ajahn Brahm | 12 January 2024

1 min read

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

fall in a hole and it's, you know, it's just really muddy hole, dirty. It takes a really lot of effort to get out of that hole. So the next time they make a resolution, I've got to be more heedful. And they walk down that street and they still fall in that hole and they say, "Oh, I'm a terrible person." The third person, the third time, they go down that same street and now they really are heedful. So they walk around the hall

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 58:40 (to 59:13)

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

Someone falls in a hole in the street and feels awful. Next time, they fall in again. The third time, they walk around it. The wisest take a different street altogether. We all repeat mistakes; Ajahn Brahm still does, like telling a marriage joke to a nervous groom. Learning takes time. Never decide you're a bad person.

In brief (our summary)

Analogy: walk down a street, fall in a muddy hole twice with shame, third time walk around it — heedfulness learning curve (from cancer-care wisdom).

Teaching point

The third pass is when heedfulness finally walks around the hole.

When this story may help

  • repeating mistakes
  • recovery

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Water the Flowers | Ajahn Brahm | 12 January 2024 · 2024-01-13 · ▶ watch from 58:40 to 59:13 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'hall' = hole.

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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