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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The preceptor's snake in the lap

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Confidence, Fear and Anxiety | Ajahn Brahm | 28 January 2022

1 min read

Content note: paranormal-adjacent calm with a venomous animal

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

he would meditate in a coconut grove. And he said once he had a nice deep meditation in the coconut grove and that when he came out of the meditation he saw a snake coiled up in his lap. Now, what would you feel if you came out of meditation at 8:00 and you find a big snake had been caught up in your lap? How would you react? And this monk, he was was my preceptor and he became the acting sangaraju of Thailand with lots of responsibility. And this coconut grove was in in the island of Got Samoy when that was not a famous place where tourists went to. That was his his hometown in there. But he said the amazing thing was he was so peaceful when he came out and opened his eyes. He saw the the snake in his lap called up very happy and he had no fear at all. And that was really surprising to him. He thought how can this happen? No fear. And of course he just watched the snake for about 10 or 15 minutes and then the snake just uncoiled and just slithered away with you can imagine gratitude simply because he had no fear.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:09:16 (to 1:10:45)

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

Coming out of deep meditation, Ajahn Brahm's preceptor found a snake coiled in his lap. He felt no fear at all, watched it for a while, and it slithered away. Deep calm can be a kind of protection. When you meet something frightening, steadiness often serves you far better than panic.

In brief (our summary)

Ajahn Brahm's preceptor, later acting Sangharaja of Thailand, came out of deep meditation in a Koh Samui coconut grove to find a snake coiled in his lap. He felt no fear, watched it for ten or fifteen minutes, and it uncoiled and slithered away.

Teaching point

Deep peace can remove fear so thoroughly that even a snake is no threat.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Confidence, Fear and Anxiety | Ajahn Brahm | 28 January 2022 · 2022-01-28 · ▶ watch from 1:09:16 to 1:10:45 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

8 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'Got Samoy' = Koh Samui; 'sangaraju' = Sangharaja.

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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