# The bear attack and the sapling in her head

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-nun-bear-attack-sapling
- Themes: fear, chanting, humour
- Life situations: surviving an attack, trauma, travel danger

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A nun, before ordaining, is meditating outside a Himalayan cave when a bear clamps its jaws on her head; she chants, and the bear lets go. She felt no pain — the worst part was the bear's bad breath. Years of headaches later, a CT scan finds a tiny tree sapling growing in her head, implanted by a seed on the bear's tooth; keyhole surgery removes it. 'That's one of the dangers of being attacked by bears — they implant trees.'

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

one of the nuns i think i forget where she is now that you know she came to visit once and she told the story before she was a monk and none other that she was trekking in himalayas with her a boyfriend and they just rested a nice little place to rest in front of a cave and she arrested she made it started meditating in front of the cave and her boyfriend meditated on top of the cave and then the bear came out and you know these bears they just attack you they said this bear attacked her and says put his really big bear his uh jaws on her head trying to crush her skull i mean that was just really serious stuff and then she remembered some of her buddhist chanting and started doing chanting because you know what else to do screaming for her boyfriend to help you know she'd learn from her past i was not going to help at all so anyway she started doing some chanting another bear for some reason or another just opened its uh jaws and ran away so she was actually saved of course she was bleeding heavily and then they took her to the nearest village to get some medical attention but i remember asking her did it hurt having the bear you know almost crushed your head and she said no it didn't feel any pain at all the worst part of the experience was the bear's bad breath because bears don't brush their teeth after they he anything it was disgusting she said and so she recovered but also afterwards that she had a headache for years and so after a while you know she went to the doctor and said where's his headache coming from never had a headache there before so they gave her not the cat scan of last week i mean a real ct scan of her brain and this is no exaggeration what they found in there there was a small tree sapling growing in her brain what had happened is when the bear sort of tried to crush her head with his teeth one of the teeth had a little seedling in from where the bear was eating and it actually implanted the seedling in her bed in her head there's only a small seedling but they could see that that was a reason for a headache very simple operation to you know keyhole surgery and took the the seeding out and she was fine afterwards so that's one of the dangers of being attacked by bears they implant trees

## Teaching point

(Told as a digression; he admits 'I don't know why I told that story — different ways of perceiving'.)

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Ajahn Brahm tells, with a straight face, how a bear's bite left a tree sapling growing in a nun's head, removed by keyhole surgery. He admits he doesn't know why he told it. Sometimes a tall tale is just for fun. Don't take every story, or every thought, too seriously. Enjoy the laugh.

## Source

- [Positive Perspective and Acceptance | Ajahn Brahm | 3 June 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5YVDTB1bE) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 27:51 to 30:35: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5YVDTB1bE&t=1671s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Friday The 13th](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0krodCJYes) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 50:32 to 51:22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0krodCJYes&t=3032s