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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Feeding the mosquitoes

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 15 April 2016

2 min read

Content note: health claim (attitude prevents malaria/dengue)

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

there was a room and there was so many mosquitoes were in the room so I was being bitten all night another night without much sleep so what did I do so this is Indonesia's Asia what do you expect there are mosquitoes around it's Asia so I accepted the mosquitoes and I was kind to them because I thought to myself well you know I don't work for my food I don't cook my food and buy it in a supermarket people come and feed me every day so this is my chance of feeding the mosquitoes it was what we called in Buddhism dhana generosity so now I know you know you have to work very hard working hard gaining the food from the supermarket cooking it for me presenting to me sometimes you come all the way to Monastery to feed me so I thought now this is payback time so mosquitoes come on because I thought look they're going to eat me anyway so I might as well give come on take service so you had the choice that you often have in life you can't change the world but you can't change the situation but you can change the way you look at it and as soon as you change the way you look at it there's something much more positive like an act of kindness an act of generosity these poor mosquitoes because have you ever had thought about what a mosquito must feel like you know they're really hungry and they sort of come and land on a human being it's really dangerous imagine you go to a restaurant and you don't know if you're going to come out alive that's what a mosquito does every time so it's also I imagine those mosquitoes you know when they had with that all the time in the world they could relax and drink as much as they wanted most of these mosquitoes because they're so afraid of being swatted they must probably have really bad digestion they're so anxious to get it out of the way quickly and run away as far as they can but so now I gave this beautiful kindness and time please have as much as you like and I got plenty left in there and my bread is pretty good it's like holy blood so it's like giving them a blessing as well

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 36:42 (to 39:13)

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

Bitten all night in an Indonesian hotel, Ajahn Brahm decided to give the mosquitoes his blood as an offering, just as laypeople feed him. Take your time, enjoy. Do use protection where diseases are a risk. But when you can't change a situation, you can still change how you see it. The itch fades, and so does the irritation.

In brief (our summary)

Bitten all night in an Indonesian hotel room, Ajahn Brahm reframes the mosquitoes as recipients of his dana: laypeople feed him every day, so tonight he feeds the mosquitoes, inviting them to take their time on his 'holy blood'. He claims that with this attitude he never got malaria or dengue.

Teaching point

You often cannot change the situation, but you can change how you look at it — into generosity.

When this story may help

  • travel discomfort
  • insect bites
  • can't sleep

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 15 April 2016 · 2016-04-15 · ▶ watch from 36:42 to 39:13 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

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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