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Story · Ajahn Brahm

“Why don't you come and stay with us?” — the monk in Casuarina Prison

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010

6 min read

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

And this particular story is an anecdote when one of our monks, when I was too busy doing all these other things, we used to go teaching in prisons, but another monk started teaching in prison. When he started teaching in prison, this was in Casuarina Prison, at one of the top-security jails. After a while the prisoners there said "Can you stay back a bit longer, we want to sort of talk to you, just find out about you." So he stayed back a little bit longer, they gave him a cup of tea and some chocolate now if you give a monk a cup of tea and chocolate, they're gonna stay forever, so he stayed behind for a bit of tea and chocolate. They started asking him questions about life in a Buddhist monastery in the West. What do you guys do? Have you ever wondered what we do in our monastery? So he said, "Okay, the day in the life of a monk, we get up at four o'clock in the morning." And just at that the prisoners were aghast. "Four o'clock in the morning! Even in prison, you don't have to get up at that time." And the monk he did actually make a qualification, he said, "Actually it's voluntary, it's optional, getting up at four o'clock in the morning," which is true, it's optional, you can always get up earlier, if you want to, that's the option. "And then what do you do?," and he told them, "We meditate." They said, "Can't you just watch the end of the late night movie?" He said, "No, we don't have TVs." "You don't have TVs in the monastery, we have TVs in our cells in prison, that's terrible. So what you do then, you have your breakfast?" We do have a breakfast at the monastery, we usually have just one cup of cereal in it and that's about it, or you know someone, you know has his noodles, but it's only one cup, that's all. They said, "Wow, you know in Casuarina Jail we can have bacon, we have pancakes, we can have cereal, you have everything there, whatever you want." And they said, "Why don't you do that in the monastery?" "No, no, we only have a bit of cereal and that's it." "And then what do you do in the morning?" "And then we work hard at Bodhinyana Monastery." We do these amazing chores, you know building, and even I do that, and if you go down to the retreat centre, we're doing this ramp and I was spending two days cutting the bricks, it was a huge angle grinder, really heavy work, getting myself all dusty. I like some joining in when there's any concrete work. Tell the story once with doing concrete work, when you do concrete work, even as a monk, you get it all splashed all over you. So you know just boys being boys, I'm still a boy you know, still just maybe a bit old to be a boy, but I still like getting myself all dirty. So I got all this concrete on top of me, as I was walking back to my hut to have a shower, I passed a Sri Lankan woman and she was in this really expensive sari, she was visiting the monastery. She came up to me and I'll never forget this, she said, "Uh... I've come to see the abbot Ajahn Brahm." I thought very quickly and I said, "Madam, if you go to the hall over there he'll probably be there in about fifteen minutes." That was enough time for me to go to my room, get a shower and get changed into some clean robes. So I went up to the hall, and there she was waiting, and I said, "Oh! I'm Ajahn Brahm," you know she never recognized me. That's how dirty I was. I gave her a nice talk, you know about the monastery and about Buddhism, what we're doing here and she was really impressed, so just before she left she said, "You know you've got a really good monastery, are you're a really good monk, but if you don't mind me saying this, I saw this really dirty monk when I came here and I think you should do something about that." I said, "I'll talk to him later, Ma'am". Which I did. So that's actually how hard we work, and when the prisoners heard this, again they were really surprised, 'cause yeah, in prison you have to do jobs, but they take it real easy in those jails in Australia. They said, "They'll never get us to work that hard." They said "And then you have your lunch?" Yeah, we have our lunch, many of you have been to our monastery, we eat it out of a bowl, everything goes in one bowl. Sometimes it's true you do get curry on spaghetti. No sorry, I got that wrong, you got custard on spaghetti. That's right, you ever had custard on spaghetti? Why do you say "yuck" for, you've never eaten it, but actually you're right, it is gross. Sometimes you have custard on spaghetti. I've had ice cream on curry, chocolate ice cream, yeah, that's also yucky. 'Cause you know, you put it in your bowl, and for me because I'm the senior monk I put it in the bowl myself and I give it to somebody to take up, 'cause that's their duty. By the time, they're not really careful, they just shake it all over the place, you know I put it in the right position when I start, by the time it gets up there it's all over the place, but that's life. And they were saying that even in prison, even when you go to solitary, you get a tray the custard is here, the spaghetti is over there, it's separate compartments. "Don't you have compartments in your bowl?" Have a look at our bowls, we don't have separate compartments, it goes all over the place. They said, "That's disgusting!" "So what you do in the afternoons?" He said, "We meditate." "Can't you sort of play some music, or sort of play a game of footie or something." "No, we're not allowed to play footie, we just meditate all afternoon." They said, "Don't you get bored?" "No, that's what we're supposed to do." "So I suppose you hangout for dinner?" "Dinner? We don't have dinner in our monasteries, we just eat in the morning time, there's no dinner." They said, "Well, even in prison they give you something to eat in the evening and you have snacks throughout the day, whatever you want. So what do you do in the evening then? You know, can you play cards play monopoly or something, pass the time?" He said "No, we can't do that." "Don't tell us" they said, You meditate, don't you?" "Yeah, of course we do." "Oh God, that must be terrible. Then what time do you go to bed?" And the monk said, "Bed? Bed?... we don't have beds, I sleep on the floor." They were absolutely disgusted. Even in prison they put you in that little cot with the mattress on top, not in our monastery, I sleep on the floor. Anyway, the prisoners were actually really surprised. They were really surprised, but not only surprised, they felt sorry for this monk who had been visiting them, and this is true story, one of them was so upset that this man who they got to like was living in such a hard situation, one of them blurted out, "That's terrible in your monastery, why don't you come in here and stay with us instead?" And they had a point, it is actually much more comfortable in any prison in Western Australia than in Bodhinyana Monastery, or even in Dhammasara Nun's Monastery. So why is it that people are trying to get out of jail, and they're trying to break into our monastery, to stay there, waiting lists. That got me thinking, what's the difference between our monastery and the prison? Prison is actually more comfortable, the monastery is much harsher. What's the difference? The only difference is in a monastery people want to be there. In a prison, doesn't matter how comfortable it is, people don't want to be there, that's the only difference.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 23:08 (to 30:28)

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

Any place you don't want to be can feel like a prison — a job, a relationship, even a sick body. Ajahn Brahm's way out is not always to change the place: change the attitude and want to be here. When you want to be here, you're free. That contentment is a kind way of letting go.

In brief (our summary)

A monk teaching at a high-security prison describes monastery life (4 am rising, one meal, hard work, no TV, sleeping on the floor); horrified, a prisoner invites him to come and live in the jail instead. Ajahn Brahm concludes the only difference between prison and monastery is wanting to be there.

Teaching point

“Any place you don't wanna be is a prison … all you need to do is to change your attitude and want to be here. When you want to be here, you're free.”

When this story may help

  • stuck in a job you dislike
  • unhappy relationship
  • chronic illness
  • traffic / delays
  • dying

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Four Ways of Letting Go | Ajahn Brahm | 09-04-2010 · 2010-04-12 · ▶ watch from 23:08 to 30:28 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

5 other tellings of this story

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

  • Ajahn Chah sits in the centre of the fever

    In brief: Malaria was an occupational hazard for jungle monks, and Ajahn Chah suffered it for years. During one intense attack, instead of lying in…

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    And I know Ajahn Chah's story, my teacher, being a forest monk living in the jungles he had malaria for many years it was for those monks an occupational hazard just like these days, for current monks having tummy aches is an occupational hazard simply because as I told you I don't own my stomach you put whatever you want into it, and sometimes my stomach says 'no' (Ajahn laughs) But nevertheless you get to peace with that. His occupational hazard was malaria for many years I remember him telling me how he overcame his malaria once and for all having a very intense attack of the fever and instead of just laying in bed, sitting up meditating with it instead of running away from the thing or complaining about it, worrying about it what most people do when you got a problem, a disease or a tumor or whatever you think about it too much it creates more problems by the way react to them Instead he sat with it, he said he sat right in the centre of his fever quietly silently had peace with it. And it's a very hard thing to do but it's a wonderful thing to train yourself to be able to do. To be able to make peace with pain or with the fever, or with difficulty to make absolute peace with it so you don't even think you are just there at one with what you are experiencing not making any inner speech with it. he said as he was just with that he sort of felt like he was in the centre of a raging forest fire. but in the centre it was cool. but he could perceive all around him was a fire getting hotter and hotter and hotter which was his fever increasing in intensity and he said at one point the fever got so hot it burst and everything was cool. He never got malaria ever again.

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  • Imprisoned in a six-star hotel

    In brief: On a conference tour in Japan, his hosts put Ajahn Brahm in what he later hears was a six-star hotel room. He's afraid to touch the taps…

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    I remember going this one time and I was giving some talks in Japan and going to I'm not sure if it's possible because I couldn't speak Japanese, but this hotel, it looked like it was a six-star hotel. It was crazy. We was just, you know, going to give a series of talks and conferences and stuff when I got inside of there in this hotel and I don't know if you know the Japanese culture said, "Please, we want you to be in here because we want to know where you are." It was a bit of a conference and so had to make sure I was in the right place. And then just I was inside this and I thought this is like a prison for me. I'm a monk. I'm not used to hotels. They had this big bath and a jacuzzi or something. I never been in one of those before. I own too scared to turn on any tap cuz any button or something. If I turned it on, I don't know what would happen. And of course, being a monk, you can't turn on the TV. That's against our rules. And the beds not like beds we have in in Serpentine where monastery where I live. And let many of you been inside my place where I live. And it's just it's not a bed. It's just a mat on the floor about that that thick. That's happy for me. I don't if you put me on big bed, it's very hard to fall asleep. And a small bed is very very easy and comfortable for me. And so what am I doing with this big beds? They're buttons on them. I don't know what to do with those buttons. I must admit though, when I went inside the toilet in this fancy hotel, I well, I couldn't resist pressing the buttons and see what happened. It was crazy. They don't have toilet paper. They just press a button and something squirts out in the right place. And sometimes it's in the wrong place, but never mind. [laughter] you get it hot and cold and all sorts of stuff. It was good fun. But then after a while I said, can't I just have a simple place to stay and it was one thing which I noticed that it was obviously that somebody paid a lot of money for me to spend a night in this hotel. It was part of a conference tour and and I was thought I don't want to be in here. I just want to be a nice little cave know where I stay in serpentine or under just over here just a nice little room. You don't need all this special stuff. And you know after a few minutes I didn't want to be in there. I want to get something else more simple. It's just too elaborate for me. They had many sort of TVs in there. Obviously didn't know which one to turn on. I didn't turn any on. And after a while I realized that I was suffering. You know what was probably I think I heard later on it was a sixstar room in the hotel. Six star. Have you ever been in a six-star hotel room? It really sucks. It's terrible. If you're a [laughter] monk, why on earth? And I realized that what is suffering is not if it's a six-star hotel or if it's just out in the bush somewhere. Any place you don't want to be is called suffering. Any place, even a six-star hotel, any place you like to be, you can feel something nice, beautiful, or simple, or whatever it is. If you want to be here, then you're free. you're happy. If you don't want to be here, you are in a prison.

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  • Barefoot in the Korean snow

    In brief: After the Pope's visit to South Korea, Korean Buddhists organised a World Meditation Masters gathering, planning seven famous monks (only…

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    So when I was off in Korea, it was the World Meditation Masters Conference. It was started ... the reason behind this ... again, Buddhists, Christians, we are all the same. The Pope visited South Korea last year. And the Buddhist were... Urgh!!! The Pope visited South Korea We Buddhist must do something as well. What can we do? We don't have a Pope and the Dalai Lama can't go there because of the Chinese influence, trade and stuff like that; so that was a no go. So they decided to have ... it was based on, I don't know if you remember the old movie -The Seven Samurai... What's it call... the seven... whatever it was. Somehow rather seven is a lucky number especially in South Korea. That is a lucky number 7. And they decided to invite 7 famous meditation monks to have a debate. I don't know what they are expecting, I really thought when they first suggested it, sit all the seven monks together and see who could meditate the longest. (laughter) the first person to move, loses. Or even better--Psychic powers... come on Tibetan.. lift up in the air Ajahn Brahm .. come on. see how far you can go. The one who levitate the highest ... hah, hah... It's not like that being a senior monk you don't compete at all. That is just not part of Buddhism, competing with each other, we just enjoy each other's company. Anyway in the end they could only get four to go over there. So I was one of them. Many of those monks are just too old. They shouldn't really go there anyway. So one of the most important features of being a wise monk is you are supposed to be old. So I don't really qualify yet, for being a wise monk I am not old enough. As they said I am the baby monk which I was. So anyway what we did do there. They wanted us to go..... this was in the mountains of Korea and this in .. was it February yeah end of February. And it was deep winter. And the mountains were full of snow. We went right to the very top on the highest peaks in the region. It was actually a ski resort. They asked me if I could bodyboard I said "should be with a body like this!" I would not need a board. (laughter from the audience) But then no we can't do things like that. But what they wanted us to do is to do this walk and it was going to be called ... "The Saints walk" afterwards. That's marketing again. But anyway it was minus 15 degrees. When I left it was 42C plus here... 42 to minus 15. And it was on national T.V because it was a big event in Korea. Forcusing on Buddhism and all different Buddhist monks coming from overseas walking in the snow -15 degrees. And after awhile I found all the cameras they weren't looking at me or the other monks they were looking at my feet because I never had any socks on just my sandals and bare feet. And they thought, " Wow!" Ajahn Brahm won the seven meditation masters (laughs) I didn't win, I was messing around. But how can you walk -15 degrees in the thick snow with no socks on? Just so easy. Just be content! Be happy to feel cold and then there's no problem. It's when I don't want to be cold. This cold is going to be bad for me; I am going to get frostbite. My feet, my toes are going to all fall off, I better count them before I go to the hotel afterwards. What's going to happen to me? I am going to get gangrene! No, that's not the case because I always figured out a long time ago that cold is good for you! It's good for you. People who live in cold places live much longer. They have a much longer life. And the reason is... same reason why you put things in the refrigerator to extend their lives. (laughter) It's obvious, it's science. That's why my fingers were fine they were frozen, didn't feel a thing.

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  • The 18-hour flight delay

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm's flight to Indonesia is delayed 18 hours; he thanks the desk and goes back to the monastery, while the passengers behind him…

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    And just was it in January, when I was going off to Indonesia to give a series of talks I got to Perth airport and found that the Garuda flight was cancelled. It was actually delayed by about 18 hours. And I was a monk so I just went up to the counter and said, "Oh is it delayed? When is it going to leave? 18 hours. Okay, thank you very much," and I sort-of called the monastery and got a lift back to the monastery. But the people behind me they were thumping the counter - "You can't do this to us! I've got all of these arrangements and plans!" I had arrangements and plans as well - thousands of people were waiting to listen to my talks. But I couldn't do anything about it. And you know all that anger and all that thumping and all that shouting.. it didn't make the plane leave earlier. It didn't do anything good at all except making people upset. Themselves upset, and other people upset.

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