# Still in the POW camp

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-pow-still-in-the-camp
- Themes: forgiveness, letting go, war, freedom
- Life situations: holding a grudge, trauma, forgiveness

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Two Australian veterans who were captured at the fall of Singapore and held in prisoner-of-war camps meet at a reunion. One asks the other whether he has forgiven the Japanese yet for what they did. 'No! Never! How can you forgive that?' 'I forgave years ago,' says the first. 'But you, my friend, are still in the POW camp.'

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

this was the story of those two Australian soldiers meeting together in a reunion, they'd both been in the Second World War, they'd both been in Singapore, the fall of Singapore, and both been put in P.O.W. camps. Well, one met the other, and said, "Have you forgiven the Japanese yet for what they did to us and our friends?" "No! Never! How can you forgive that??" said one of the soldiers. "What about you?" His friend said, "I forgave years ago. But you, my friend, are still in the P.O.W. camp." I love that story, simply because until you forgive -- until he forgave what those guards, those soldiers, did to him and his friends, in the camps in Changi on the Death Railway in Thailand on the Burmese border. Until they forgave, they were still being tortured. They're still in the camps. They can never be happy. His friend had let go and therefore he was free.

## Teaching point

Until you forgive, you remain imprisoned by what was done to you.

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

Two veterans of the prisoner-of-war camps meet again. One has never forgiven; the other forgave years ago and tells him: you're still in the camp. Whatever was done to you, or whatever you did, holding on keeps you imprisoned. Forgiveness opens the gate, for you first of all.

## Source

- [Freedom: The Path To Happiness | Ajahn Brahm | 11-05-2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnY050r025I) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 51:35 to 52:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnY050r025I&t=3095s