Joke · Ajahn Brahm

Why you never see elephants in trees

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Being Afraid | Ajahn Brahm | 16 March 2018

1 min read

He said, "Why? Why don't you see elephants hiding in trees? Why don't you see elephants hiding in trees?" And don't say it's because they can't climb the trees or they're too big or the branches will break. That's not the answer. The answer is why you don't see elephants hiding in trees. Because they're too good at hiding. That's why you never see them. They're very good hiders. Just like the story of the the US Army who brought the state-of-the-art camouflage trucks. Now they can't find them where they park them.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 39:20 (to 40:08)

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

Why don't you see elephants hiding in trees? Because they're so good at it. Ajahn Brahm calls it logically consistent, and challenges you to spot one this weekend. A daft joke clears the air before he turns to the fear of being different. People who aren't like us aren't a threat. Let them in.

In brief (our summary)

A joke a man told him: why don't you see elephants hiding in trees? Because they're too good at hiding. Like the US Army's state-of-the-art camouflage trucks — now they can't find where they parked them.

Teaching point

An 'intellectual' joke — logically consistent, he says.

When this story may help

needing a laugh

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Being Afraid | Ajahn Brahm | 16 March 2018 · 2018-03-18 · ▶ watch from 39:20 to 40:08 · 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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The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)