Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Don't walk the ant path twice

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Suffering Leads to Liberation | AjahnBrahm | 12 May 2020

1 min read

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

barefoot through the jungle paths in Thailand because I didn't have any sandals and sometimes you would see where the ants left you would never walk on the paths where the ants were cuz they would bite you and they would sting and it was very painful you'd always find other paths where there were no ants

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 13:08 (to 13:39)

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

Walking barefoot on Thai jungle trails, Ajahn Brahm learned to avoid the paths where ants bit. The past is like that. Painful memories bite every time you walk there. You don't have to go back. Take another path, the present moment, and feel your body sitting here now. It's a skill worth learning.

In brief (our summary)

Analogy: barefoot on Thai jungle paths you learn which trails the ants own — leave those past-biting paths alone and take another way (the present).

Teaching point

Past suffering is an ant trail — you are allowed another path.

When this story may help

  • rumination
  • painful memories

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Suffering Leads to Liberation | AjahnBrahm | 12 May 2020 · 2020-05-12 · ▶ watch from 13:08 to 13:39 · 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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