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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Mother's mantel shelf and the wombat

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010

2 min read

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

I told a story a long time ago about my mother's mantel shelf. She's an English woman, well she's in a home now, she's very old, but in her house like many English people's house they had a fireplace, and above the fireplace they have a mantel shelf and on that mantel shelf they keep the knick-knacks, the mementos, the photographs and all the things which which bring back happy memories. And so that one day I had just been in Australia for a few years and I went to visit my mother, and so I brought her a gift, and what sort of gift do you bring? Someone gave me a stuffed kangaroo, you know a little fluffy toy, really cute. So I brought that back and gave it to my mother, and she liked it very much, and she put it on her mantel shelf. Next time I went over there someone managed to get me a koala and so I took that back, and she said "Oh, it's so beautiful, everytime I see this I can remember you in Australia." So she put it on her mantel shelf next to the kangaroo. The next time I managed to get a kookaburra, the time afterwards a platypus, and the fifth time I went, I managed to get a wombat. The trouble was the wombat was so big, she tried to put it on the mantel shelf and all the other ones fell off. She spent about an hour trying to balance it on her shelf and everything else fell off. I said, "Why don't you throw those other things away?" She said, "Noooo, these are nice, they remind me of you." You had so much rubbish on that shelf and I said, "Mother, this is like the person, they get one more thing in their head, they have a nervous breakdown, your mantel shelf's having a nervous breakdown." That's what happens, we collect so many thoughts and so much stuff. So if that was my mantel shelf, everytime, if I got a kangaroo, I just put that on, everything else would be clear. The next time someone gave me something else, I'd throw that one away and get something new. So one thing at a time in your head. And then your mantel shelf inside your brain never, ever has a nervous breakdown.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 19:02 (to 21:24)

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

His mother's shelf collapsed not because the wombat was too big, but because nothing was ever taken off. A busy mind works the same way. Put one thing on the shelf at a time, this task, this person, this moment, and clear it away when you move on. Then there is always room.

In brief (our summary)

Each visit Ajahn Brahm brings his mother another stuffed Australian animal; when the big wombat arrives, everything falls off the crowded shelf, and he likens a cluttered mind to a mantel shelf having a nervous breakdown.

Teaching point

“So one thing at a time in your head. And then your mantel shelf inside your brain never, ever has a nervous breakdown.”

When this story may help

  • too many responsibilities
  • burnout
  • multitasking

Themes

  • overwhelm
  • one thing at a time
  • attachment to mementos

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010 · 2010-04-12 · ▶ watch from 19:02 to 21:24 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

4 other tellings of this story

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 company that banned overtime

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  • The social worker's solutions that popped up

    In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office…

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    A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.

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  • The postulant who tried too hard to be perfect

    In brief: A former monastery postulant tells Ajahn Brahm in Melbourne that he was so afraid of breaking a rule, controlling his body, speech and…

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    There was one of the men I saw in Melbourne, he used to be an Anagarika in my monastery down in Perth a long time ago. But he was saying when he was first there, he was trying so hard to be perfect. He was so afraid of breaking a rule. And that's why he got so tense trying to control his body, control his speech, control his mind. He got so tense, he couldn't stand it and he left.

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