# How Opening the Door of Your Heart was written

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-how-opening-the-door-was-written
- Themes: creativity, ease, writing, serendipity
- Life situations: creative projects, procrastination, getting published

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A woman who'd been through a terrible divorce urges him to publish his stories; he's too busy, so she offers to write them — and her first drafts are so bad (on purpose, he suspects) that he writes them himself: one hour each afternoon of a 15-day solo retreat, by hand, almost without error, then a few more days to finish. Ron Storey types it up and hands him a disc before his flight to Melbourne; after his first talk at Melbourne University a woman in publishing asks if he has anything. 'Here you go.' The handwritten manuscript was later bought at auction by Hugh Sykes for the nuns' monastery.

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

He was the owner of this draft of my first book 'Opening the Door of your Heart’ which I wrote. And I love telling the story of how that happened. It just shows you how emotional wisdom becomes so powerful rather than just thinking and ideas. And the story of that book is: I have been teaching many years, and had all these stories which I tell, that some of these stories are very powerful. And one of these ladies, who had a very terrible divorce, and she said: ‘You really do need to publish those stories to give them a wider, a broader reach, not just only actually in the Armadale group - but the whole of Perth, the East Coast and other countries of the world. You have to do this Ajahn Brahm, it's unfair that you keep this great wisdom just for a few people’. You know my reply? ‘I’m too busy’. Which was true, I had lots of stuff to do, I can't do that. But then this lady, she was so smart, she totally outwitted me. I admit defeat, because she said: ‘I’ll write them’. And when she wrote the first three or four draft stories, they were terrible. They were so bad - which I think she did on purpose. [Laughs] So I thought I’d better write these myself. And it wasn't as hard as I thought. Because what I was doing - I was having one of these quiet retreats by myself for two weeks - and so I decided just to have one hour every afternoon, just to write down some of these stories. Just one hour, 15 days. When I finished that 15-day retreat, I had over half of the stories written down by hand, and I have the manuscript - it really belongs to Hugh, because he bought it at an auction for raising money for the nuns’ monastery at that time. But I look at that and this is… it's beautiful, that handwriting is almost without error. And it’s just done on paper with a pen. It's not, sort of, on the computer - and you wouldn't believe it, sometimes I look at it - did I do that? And those are the first 50, first almost 60% of the book. It was so easy, when your mind is relaxed and peaceful and kind. You just flow and you let all the words come out, just without interfering with them. And I took a break and, in another few days, finished the whole book. All written out by hand. And having the manuscript, just the first draft of the manuscript… not a first draft and a second or a third draft, just one draft. Somebody typed it out for me on the computer, they had a computer and could use it… You know I can't use a computer that much, I try, but I’m not that good. But nevertheless, even though I’m just not that good with computers - (this is one of our IT guys - how good am I at computers? ‘You're all right?’ Ah, it’s because he's nice. [Laughter] I'm not that good. But anyway, nevertheless, even though you're no good at a computer - I can still give the keynote address at the world computer conference in Daejeon South Korea in 2019. [Laughs] Stupid things in this world. [laughter] This was a world computer conference in south Korea. And I remember this, one of the guys I was talking to, he was the European Union Head of Cyber Security. And one of these ministers, I think from Sydney - we were chatting too. And all these other – and this was really, sort of, high power computer experts. Other than me. [laughter] Honest, I’m being honest. But you can go there, you can still perform. Simply because you just know how to get that emotional twist on what you're talking about and what you're teaching. Just like writing a book. So easy, when you know how to be peaceful and get the emotional quality. You just let it happen. Who knows? Good, bad, who knows. But of course, the end of that story was - fellow Ron Storey - actually his ashes are just behind here, just in the garden. But he just typed it out for me going to Melbourne. He gave me the little CD, remember those old CDs or computer discs I think they were called; gave it to me just an hour or two before I got on the plane. Cause I thought ‘I’m going to Melbourne, there's lots of publishing houses in Melbourne.’ How do you actually get a book published anyway? I never had a book published before, so I thought: ‘Well, somebody in Melbourne I find’. And this is absolutely true story, no exaggeration. Off the plane, straight to Melbourne University to give my first talk - and after the talk was finished, this woman came up to me and said: ‘Oh, it was a wonderful talk, Ajahn Brahm. I work in the publishing industry. If ever you have something you want published, please let me see it’. I said: ‘Here you go’. [laughter] She couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it, it was just so easy. Not like, you know, that - uhm - what's her name, ‘Harry Potter’ author. What's her name again? Oh - J.K. Rowling - but apparently, she had to put her book for quite a few publishers before she got that published. Me, I just published straight away.

## Teaching point

A relaxed, peaceful mind lets work flow; success comes without striving.

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

A friend's deliberately awful drafts pushed him into writing his stories himself, an hour an afternoon on a solo retreat. A disk handed over at an airport became his first book, published at the first ask. He shrugs at the luck. Things often flow when we relax and stop chasing success.

## Source

- [Give Yourself Peace, Kindness and Forgiveness | Ajahn Brahm | 29 January 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PPWbmzp6M) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 21:26 to 27:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PPWbmzp6M&t=1286s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Learn to be Silent | Ajahn Brahm | 13 April 2018](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-RV0F1OJw) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 2:46 to 10:31: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-RV0F1OJw&t=166s
- [Energy in our Body and Mind from Inspiration | Ajahn Brahm | 2 November 2018](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWz3LAAj-J0) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 39:11 to 43:44: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWz3LAAj-J0&t=2351s
- [How to Manage Responsibilities | Ajahn Brahm | 21 June 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8GTX-NZkQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 54:02 to 55:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8GTX-NZkQ&t=3242s
- [Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 7 February 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5c9FkL1hM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:04:10 to 1:04:43: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5c9FkL1hM&t=3850s
- [Deeper Meditation - Armadale Meditation Group | Ajahn Brahm | 30 January 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttaIU70aZI) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:15:53 to 1:16:17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttaIU70aZI&t=4553s