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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The boy who regretted remembering

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Reincarnation | Ajahn Brahm | 9 Jan 2009

2 min read

Content note: unverified: the claim that he was one of Stevenson's cases is the young man's own, as reported; paranormal/rebirth claims

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

And I remember once giving a talk at the uh the London Buddhist Vihara, a Sri Lankan temple in London. It's very close to where my mother lived. And giving a talk on reincarnation, and a boy came out to me afterwards. And he was one of those cases in that book. He said, you know, "I'm one of those 20." And had a lovely conversation with him. When he was about this time about 18 or 19 when I saw him. And he told me personally, he said, "That was the worst thing I ever did in my life, tell someone about my past memories." Because he said once it was publicized, and he was only a young boy at time, he got hell at school. As you know what happens, you know, in school if there's anything about you which is weird or strange, you know, the other boys in the school tend to tease you about it. And he got a terrible teasing from his friends at school once they found out, once it became well known that he was one of these people who could remember his past lives. And when I actually heard his pain in having admitted that and told that coming out remembering his past life, it became very clear to me that this boy never got anything out of telling people that he was reborn except a lot of suffering. And that meant a lot to me in the sense that people don't invent these memories to to gain anything. In fact, when you tell people those memories, you lose a lot. There's nothing to gain out of that, but everything to lose. And so the very fact that he had to suffer with coming out about his memories meant something to me. It meant that it gave his memories that little bit more legitimacy legitimacy cuz it was hard and difficult for him to uh let people know what had happened to him. But there he was, it's wonderful to meet a person who uh was courageous enough or you may say stupid enough to tell people about their previous lives.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 9:18 (to 11:23)

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

A young man in London told Ajahn Brahm that speaking up about his childhood memories of a past life was the worst thing he ever did; he was teased mercilessly at school. He'd had nothing to gain. Whatever you make of rebirth, notice how much courage honesty can cost. Be gentle with people who tell you strange truths.

In brief (our summary)

After a talk on reincarnation at the London Buddhist Vihara, an 18- or 19-year-old comes up and tells Ajahn Brahm he is one of the cases in Ian Stevenson's book on children who remember past lives. Telling people about his memories, he says, was the worst thing he ever did: once it was publicised he was teased mercilessly at school. Ajahn Brahm takes this as a sign such memories are not invented for gain — there was nothing to gain and much to lose.

Teaching point

People don't invent past-life memories to gain anything; telling them often costs a lot.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Reincarnation | Ajahn Brahm | 9 Jan 2009 · 2009-01-25 · ▶ watch from 9:18 to 11:23 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; 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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