Story · Ajahn Brahm

Ghost stories on the walk to the grave

1 min read

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

Kolkata Cemetery. There was a Chinese funeral and so those of you who know Kolkata cemetery that you start at the gate and we go in procession leading the cortees in this case was a burial and the Chinese burial site is the furthest away from the entrance and I knew I've been there many times about 10 or 15 minutes walk so I knew I had no know uh 10 minutes to kill that's the wrong word at a funeral but you know I knew it's just know 10 minutes walk. So we were just uh the funeral director, she was an elderly woman and uh I said, "How long you been in this industry?" And she said, "Oh, you know, for 20, 30 years." Said, "Oh, great. Just to pass the time till we get to the the grave site. Have you got any ghost stories

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 59:46 (to 1:00:39)

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

Walking to a graveside, Ajahn Brahm asked an elderly funeral director for ghost stories. She had heaps. When a ghost strolls past her office door, she scolds it: get back in your box. Whatever you believe, her matter-of-fact calm is lovely. Even around death, there's room for curiosity and humour.

In brief (our summary)

At a Chinese burial in Kolkata Cemetery he kills ten minutes walking with an elderly funeral director and asks for ghost stories — she has heaps, treating cemetery ghosts as routine.

Teaching point

Even funerals leave room for curiosity about what walks past the office door.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Manifestation of Consciousness and Future Predictions | Ajahn Brahm | 29 December 2017 · 2017-12-29 · ▶ watch from 59:46 to 1:00:39 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'cortees' = cortege.

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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