# The toilet frame with no hole

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-squat-toilet-frame-girl
- Themes: mistakes, embarrassment, humour
- Life situations: embarrassing mistake, fear of embarrassment, travel mishaps

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

For Western visitors, the monastery made a sitting frame to place over squat toilets. An 18-year-old English visitor sits on a frame standing to the side — with no toilet under it. Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Brahm find it terribly funny: “Thank you … you gave me another story!”

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

I remember there was this one girl, this one girl came from England. She was like 18 or 19 years of age, came to visit our monastery. And you know the squat toilets we have in Asia where you squat down on them? So some people have a hard time squatting down on the toilets. You know, they fall over and that's not such a good thing when you want to go. So instead of actually down, we built, especially, out of compassion for all these visitors from places like England and Australia, we built like a frame so you can put it over the squat toilet and actually sit on it. You know, because most people use the squat toilet, so we just put this frame just to the side. And that's the toilet which this girl used. It just had no hole in the bottom. No water. It was only a frame. But she sat on it and did her business and it went all on the floor. [laughter]. Exactly! That's what you did. That's what Ajahn Chah did. That's what I did. I thought it was terribly funny. "Oh thank you for doing that. You gave me another story!

## Teaching point

Laugh at mistakes and the world laughs with you, not at you.

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

A young visitor used a toilet frame with nothing underneath, and Ajahn Chah laughed as hard as anyone. It's exactly the kind of moment we'd hate to have retold. Yet embarrassment shrinks when we join in the laughter, and the mishap becomes a gift to others. Just be careful what you confess to a monk who gives Friday talks.

## Source

- [Letting Go of Fear | Ajahn Brahm | 22-05-2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7rFsrdtMM8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 45:23 to 46:38: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7rFsrdtMM8&t=2723s

Other tellings of this story:

- [The Fault Finding Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 7 May 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekYLQ5buRQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 38:56 to 40:13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bekYLQ5buRQ&t=2336s