Story · Ajahn Brahm
The social worker's solutions that popped up
The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)
A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.
▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 32:31 (to 34:34)
A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)
A social worker arrived at a retreat straight from the office, her biggest problems unsolved, and after a few quiet days fresh solutions simply surfaced. She knew she couldn't have thought of them. When a hard decision is weighing on you, gather what you need to know, then stop chewing it over. Let the calm mind do the work.
In brief (our summary)
A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office with big unsolved problems. She has gathered all the information but forgets about it; after two or three days of quiet meditation innovative solutions pop up on their own — ones she says she could never have thought of — and she resolves to implement them when she gets home.
Teaching point
Gather all the information, then wait: a calm mind produces the decision by itself.
When this story may help
- overwhelmed at work
- difficult decisions
- burnout
Themes
Source & credit
Told by Ajahn Brahm in Decisions, Decisions, Decisions | Ajahn Brahm | 9 May 2008 · 2008-06-19 · ▶ watch from 32:31 to 34:34 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia
5 other tellings of this story
- How To Deal With Confusion | Ajahn Brahm | 19-12-2014 · 2014-12-22 · ▶ watch from 20:02 to 22:39 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia2014 telling: the retreat at the Redemptorist Monastery in North Perth; her decisions were whether to remove children from drug-addicted mothers; she arrived late and slept for the first few days.
- Problems and Solutions | Ajahn Brahm | 30 Oct 2015 · 2015-10-30 · ▶ watch from 43:24 to 45:35 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaOct 2015 telling: senior social worker (Ron knows her); late to retreat after tying up cases about removing children from a drug-addicted or violent mother; on retreat solutions 'bubbled up' from silence; he told the same method to IT engineers in Daejeon.
- Patience and Renunciation | Ajahn Brahm | 19 January 2024 · 2024-01-20 · ▶ watch from 35:44 to 37:02 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaJan 2024 telling: late-to-retreat social worker — solutions pop up in stillness.
- Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 1 April 2023 · 2023-04-01 · ▶ watch from 15:23 to 16:10 · Buddhist Society of Western AustraliaApr 2023: social-services decisions popped up in stillness on retreat.
- 12 Insight Into the Path · 2013-01-24 · ▶ watch from 35:00 to 36:30 · BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & MediaNorth Perth Redemptorist retreat; arrives late from the office; after four or five days of not thinking about work, solutions bubble up one afternoon.
Caption notes: Manual (volunteer) captions; occasional misspellings kept as is.
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