Being Mindful Stories

Joke · Ajahn Brahm

The coffin that chased him home

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Living a Happy and Peaceful Life | Ajahn Brahm | 10 July 2026

1 min read

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

got out of the of the cemetery, he thought he'd made it to safety. But as he turned around again, he saw the coffin had come out the front gate and was bumping behind him. So, he really sprinted as hard as he could to get to his house. The front gate was only just a, you know, a little bit further. He managed to get to his front gate. He didn't open his front gate. He jumped over. He was so scared. He jumped over and looked around. That coffin had seen him and was now trying to smash down the front iron gate

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 9:59 (to 10:57)

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

A man fleeing a graveyard is chased home by a bumping coffin. He leaps the gate, fumbles his keys, slams the door. Ajahn Brahm milks every moment of the chase. Running from what scares us rarely works; fear follows us home. Sometimes the bravest thing is to turn around and look.

In brief (our summary)

Man flees a cemetery thinking he is safe; the coffin bumps after him; he jumps his front gate — then the coffin tries to smash the iron gate down.

Teaching point

Sometimes what you run from follows you over the gate.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Living a Happy and Peaceful Life | Ajahn Brahm | 10 July 2026 · 2026-07-10 · ▶ watch from 9:59 to 10:57 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

4 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; 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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