Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

King Canute ordering the tide

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

King Canute who stood apparently somewhere in England and because he thought it was a kingly emperor with divine rights he stood on the beach and tried to order the time to actually to go out when it was coming in and obviously he made a fool of himself because you cannot control nature

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 13:00 (to 13:29)

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

King Canute stood on the beach and ordered the tide back, and only made a fool of himself. For all our technology, we can't control nature, our bodies, our partners, or even our minds. Trying to brings frustration. Seeing that clearly is a relief. Stop commanding the tide. Learn to swim with it.

In brief (our summary)

Analogy: Canute stands on the beach and orders the tide out — nature does not obey kings.

Teaching point

Power that orders the tide only proves the tide.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Power | Ajahn Brahm | 16 Nov 2007 · 2008-04-03 · ▶ watch from 13:00 to 13:29 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'time' = tide.

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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