Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Rumpelstiltskin — power in a name

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Power Of Slience | Ajahn Brahm | 11 May 2018

1 min read

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

Rumpelstiltskin. You don't know that name? Okay. Oh, good. Glad you remember that cuz cuz apparently there was this, I don't know, magician or demon or spirit or something, I forget what it was really called, but there was this poor lady who was um was a a weaver and he said that you can weave gold out of straw. But if you don't find out my name, you'll have to marry me tomorrow or something. And so she had to she had to find out his name. Eventually she found out Rumpelstiltskin. And so, you know, he had to sort of let her go. But in I always remember many, many times if you knew somebody's name, you had power over them. This was like in ancient almost like magic of of Middle Age Europe. You had power if you knew someone's name

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 50:13 (to 51:12)

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

In the fairy tale, knowing Rumpelstiltskin's name gave the queen power over him. We still name things to feel in control, which is why nameless silence can unsettle us. Ajahn Brahm says the sacred is best left unnamed. Let stillness be what it is. Not controlling it is how you get to feel it.

In brief (our summary)

He recalls the Grimm tale: know the demon's name and you have power over him. In the same way, putting names on silence, on people, on God, feels like control — and that is why nameless silence scares us.

Teaching point

Naming gives a feeling of power; silence asks you to let that go.

When this story may help

  • fear of silence
  • labelling people

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Power Of Slience | Ajahn Brahm | 11 May 2018 · 2018-05-11 · ▶ watch from 50:13 to 51:12 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, 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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