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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Walking into the DMZ

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Dealing With Anxiety | Ajahn Brahm | 31 January 2020

1 min read

Content note: names Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un and Ajahn Ganha

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

the last time I saw this monk that was in the demilitarized zone. I mentioned that story a couple of years ago. I went to Korea, South Korea and was having a peace movement at the time. That was a time when you may remember it over a year and a half ago when Donald Trump and Kim Jong- fell in love. That's what it said on the newspapers. Anyway, [laughter] so anyway, so they wanted to move on that and just have this the big peace conference up there. So I went there to join in and I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to do. But then they had these big senior monks. I was one of the senior monks. They wanted us to go on this walk, meditation walk inside the deulatory zone. Wow. The senior monk. No, he couldn't go because he was busy. Ajan Ganha, he was sick. So that left your own aan. Yay. Would you have allowed me to do that? It was a three-hour walk really fast. No rest b leading oh 6,000 uh jogj yeah yeah jog jj buddhists over into the de DMC demilitarized zone walking yeah so off I went just doing that had a wonderful time could you do that would you be anxious no I wasn't anxious at all but I must admit I did mention at the time There was a lot of shooting in there. There was I can't lie to you. I was shot a few times. Actually, many times click. Click. Photographed and videoed and stuff.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 28:36 (to 30:32)

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

Ajahn Brahm ended up leading six thousand people on a peace walk into Korea's demilitarised zone and felt no anxiety at all, though he admits he was shot many times, by cameras. Anxiety grows as we feed one fearful thought with another. Catch it early, and even a dangerous place can be walked calmly.

In brief (our summary)

During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior monks are to lead a fast three-hour meditation walk into the demilitarised zone; the most senior is too busy and Ajahn Ganha is sick, so he leads some 6,000 Jogye Buddhists in. He wasn't anxious at all — though, he admits, he was shot many times: click, click — photographed and videoed.

Teaching point

Anxiety builds on itself; without it you can walk calmly even into a 'dangerous' place.

When this story may help

  • facing danger
  • travel
  • public events

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Dealing With Anxiety | Ajahn Brahm | 31 January 2020 · 2020-01-31 · ▶ watch from 28:36 to 30:32 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

3 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'deulatory zone'/'DMC' = demilitarised zone; 'jogj'/'jj' = Jogye (Order); 'Ajan Ganha' as captioned; 'your own aan' = your own Ajahn.

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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