Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

The comfortable prison

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Happiness and Wanting | Ajahn Brahm | 24 February 2023

1 min read

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

sometimes it's like a person is born in this little place and you know, they're fed well, they're treated well. They go to school and they do well at school. They work hard and they save some money and they get a nice little place where they can stay and they can mess around inside where they're living. They can't go too far because a place where they were born and living is called prison, a jail. You have in prison, it's uh it's a modern prison. So, it's there both genders. So, this little prisoner meets another prisoner of a different gender or maybe the same gender and they get married and they have other little baby prisoners and they do very well. If they work hard and behave, they get a nice cell, a big cell with many things in there, and they can get lots of nice food, and they can just go on holidays to other parts of the prison if they wish. And they think that prison is very nice, but they don't call it a prison. They call it planet Earth. You're confined here and you don't know anything else. So you think that that's as good as it gets cuz you don't know anything more.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 26:28 (to 27:58)

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

Imagine being born in a comfortable prison: you study hard, earn a bigger cell, marry a fellow prisoner, and think it's lovely. We just call it planet Earth. Ajahn Brahm isn't scolding comfort. He's hinting that stillness offers something richer and more peaceful than we've imagined. Don't settle for less.

In brief (our summary)

Simile: someone born in a modern prison does well at prison school, works hard, gets a bigger cell with nice things and holidays in other wings, marries another prisoner and has baby prisoners — and thinks it's very nice. They don't call it a prison; they call it planet Earth. Not knowing anything else, they think that's as good as it gets.

Teaching point

Sense-bound life feels complete until you taste the freedom of deep meditation.

When this story may help

  • ambition
  • feeling trapped
  • spiritual search

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Happiness and Wanting | Ajahn Brahm | 24 February 2023 · 2023-02-24 · ▶ watch from 26:28 to 27:58 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions (machine-punctuated); 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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