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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The king eagle in the mountains

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Checking Your Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 17 December 2021

1 min read

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

spying one of the biggest birds I've ever seen, a king eagle. I checked afterwards, and those birds exist. It's big as me. Huge. It was actually just sitting there looking at me. And I realized that, you know, that could do you a lot of damage. They could kill you or injure you very easily. So, very careful when you saw that, you turned around, and you walk back

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 48:26 (to 48:56)

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

Walking alone in cold mountains, young Ajahn Brahm rounded a corner and met an eagle as big as himself, staring at him. He backed away carefully. Wild places give joy and peace, but other beings depend on them too. Go out into nature with wonder, and with respect for those who live there.

In brief (our summary)

Young spiritual searcher in cold mountains sees a vast eagle (king eagle) after spotting a freezing lake of melting ice — wonder interrupting the climb.

Teaching point

Wonder arrives when the mountain turns a corner.

When this story may help

  • hiking
  • seeking

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Checking Your Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 17 December 2021 · 2021-12-17 · ▶ watch from 48:26 to 48:56 · 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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