Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

The mother who never drops her baby

As told by Ajahn Brahm in 1. Relaxing the Body & Mind - Ajahn Brahm

1 min read

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

I see these uh mothers with their baby in their arms. And they've got the sort of the trolley in their other arm or something. And they navigate through these shopping centers and there's lots of people bumping this way and bumping that way. They never drop their kid. Never ever. And the kid knows it so much. The kid is fast asleep. Totally trusts his mother not to drop him. But you, you know, you so watch your breath and you drop it after 5 minutes. And worse, you don't know where you've left it. But imagine that. The mother is Is a mother who's gone in the shopping center with the kid and gone back home afterwards. Say, "I I thought I had the baby with me. Where did I leave the baby? I had it somewhere." Cuz why is it the mother never drops a baby? Why is it the mother never leaves it and forgets where they've left it? Cuz the mother cares for the baby. That's all. She's not tense. She's just got this beautiful constant care. Which means the baby is always safe, never gets dropped, never gets left anywhere. See, that care is the important ingredient of mindfulness. That's what maintains it. If you care for the stages of meditation, so you care for this present moment. Don't need to control it. Don't need to force it. Don't need to hold the baby so hard you strangle the poor thing. No, you just hold it gently and you care for it and then you'll never drop it.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 41:38 (to 43:22)

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

Mothers push trolleys through crowded shopping centres with a sleeping baby on one arm and never drop it, never forget where they left it. Not because they're tense, but because they care. Hold the breath and the present moment that way: not strangling it, just gently caring. Then it stays with you.

In brief (our summary)

Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds with a trolley in the other hand and never drop them, and the baby sleeps in total trust. No mother gets home wondering where she left the baby. Why? She isn't tense; she simply cares. Care for the present moment like that — not strangling it, just holding it gently — and you won't drop the breath.

Teaching point

Caring, not forcing, is what sustains mindfulness.

When this story may help

  • struggling to meditate
  • losing focus

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in 1. Relaxing the Body & Mind - Ajahn Brahm · 2012-01-31 · ▶ watch from 41:38 to 43:22 · BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media

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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