Story · Ajahn Brahm

The monk who stopped the bus by thinking

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Our Mind and Our Health | Ajahn Brahm | 7 July 2023

1 min read

Content note: paranormal claim (told as true)

There's one of the the forest monks a good meditator. It's a first time when he was visiting the town of Ubon. That's you know where I grew up as a monk. He was visiting Ubon and he went into a bus for the first time in his life. This was many years ago. And then he started thinking I wonder how a bus works. internal combustion engine. He never gone to school and seen diagrams of internal combustion engines. I wonder how it works. And so he started thinking about the motor. As soon as he started thinking about it, the motor stopped. It wouldn't work. And so he stopped thinking about it and it worked again. He said, "It's really weird." And then he thought about it again and it stopped. He was actually interfering with the firing of the car. But that became such a well-known story in that part of the world that when Ajent char got on an aircraft to go to London, people said to him, "Please don't think about how this aircraft works. You must stop the engine. They were all dead.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 40:40 (to 41:49)

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

A forest monk riding his first bus found the engine stalled whenever he wondered how it worked, so when Ajahn Chah later flew to London, people begged him not to think about the plane. Ajahn Brahm enjoys the story. He's more interested in what a kind mind does for ordinary frustrations and for your own happiness.

In brief (our summary)

A forest monk visiting Ubon rides a bus for the first time and wonders how an engine works; as soon as he thinks about the motor it stops, and when he stops thinking it runs again — repeatedly. The story became so well known that when Ajahn Chah flew to London people begged him not to think about how the aircraft worked.

Teaching point

The power of the mind is strange (told as true).

When this story may help

curiosity about the mind

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Our Mind and Our Health | Ajahn Brahm | 7 July 2023 · 2023-07-08 · ▶ watch from 40:40 to 41:49 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Ajent char' = Ajahn Chah; 'You must stop the engine. They were all dead.' as captioned (not changed).

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