Being Mindful Stories

Joke · Ajahn Brahm

It's not the cough that carries you off

As told by Ajahn Brahm in How to Deal with Sickness | Ajahn Brahm | 29 June 2018

1 min read

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

cough that carries you off. It's the coffin they carry you off in. Haven't you heard that before? I thought that's a really neat one a long time ago. There's only a cough that's all. Sorry. Only a sneeze

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 29:31 (to 29:58)

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

It's not the cough that carries you off, his mother joked, it's the coffin they carry you off in. Ajahn Brahm calls his cough healthy exercise. Look at it positively, and a cold seems shorter. Then he turns to a young doctor crushed by guilt after losing his first patient. Some things are no one's fault. Let go of that guilt.

In brief (our summary)

Mother's line: it's not the cough that carries you off — it's the coffin they carry you off in.

Teaching point

Even a cough can carry a coffin joke.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in How to Deal with Sickness | Ajahn Brahm | 29 June 2018 · 2018-06-29 · ▶ watch from 29:31 to 29:58 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling 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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