# Junior-monk suffering, senior-monk suffering

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-junior-monk-senior-monk-suffering
- Themes: complaining, suffering, contentment, monastic life
- Life situations: envy of others, career progression, retirement, complaining about work

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

As a skinny young monk Ajahn Brahm resents the senior monks: they get the cushions while he sits on concrete (they have their own 'upholstery'), they do no hard labour, and they get the best food first while he gets leftovers. Now a senior monk, he has cushions, others do the physical work, and he gets first choice of food — but he envies the junior monks, who don't have to hear everyone's problems all day or deal with every complaint. He's swapped junior-monk suffering for senior-monk suffering.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

When I was a young monk, when I first or date, I wasn't as fat like this. I was really skinny, all bones and hardly any meat on me, any flesh at all. And when we would sit meditation or sit in a ceremony, only the senior monks had all the cushions, the junior monks, we had to sit on hard concrete. And I thought that was really unfair because those senior monks, they don't need a cushion. They've got their own upholstery. It's called fat. Then also those senior monks they didn't have to do any physical work you know in the monastery whether it was shoveling earth whether it was using the wheelbarrows or the hard labor was done by the junior monks and those fat lazy senior monks they didn't do anything and now it comes to the food as well because if you ever come to any of our diners ders is the what the giving especially feeding the monks and the nuns you always give the f the best food to the senior monk first of all and then it goes down the line one after the other to the junior monk and maybe the lay people afterwards and I was so thin in those days and I thought that's really unfair. The best food should start with me first and then go and then go to the big monks afterwards because after all know all the senior monks they're all enlightened already. They didn't need the good food. People like me did but I had to get the leftovers every day and really thin. I started getting what I called junior monk suffering and now I'm a senior monk. Now I don't need cushions, but I get lots. Now, now I don't need to do physical work. Other people do that for me. Now I get first choice of the food every day. But have I let go of my suffering yet? No. Cuz I see all these junior monks, they don't have to talk to people all day. They don't have to hear all the problems people actually load on me about their marriage, about their children, about the economy, about terrorism, about climate control and all these drives me crazy sometimes. I became a monk to get rid of all of that and all the other administration work, any complaints, it comes to me first of all. So now I do not have junior monk suffering anymore. I have senior monk suffering.

## Teaching point

Changing your situation just exchanges one type of suffering for another; stop complaining and be at peace where you are.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

As a skinny junior monk, Ajahn Brahm envied the seniors their cushions, light duties and first pick of the food. Now senior, he has all three, plus everyone's problems and every complaint. He swapped one kind of suffering for another. Before campaigning for the next stage, a new job, retirement, a partner, try making peace with this one.

## Source

- [Making Our Own Joy | Ajahn Brahm | 04 Dec 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSQpOCenwMw) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 6:26 to 9:03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSQpOCenwMw&t=386s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Jealousy | by Ajahn Brahm | 15-11-2013](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBSPHe1RCc) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 3:15 to 8:13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBSPHe1RCc&t=195s