# The broken pot of ghee

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-sutta-ghee-pot-chanting-for-the-dead
- Themes: karma, death, ritual, superstition
- Life situations: funerals, religious ritual, bereavement

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

The Buddha's simile, asked whether chanting for the dead helps them: break a clay pot of ghee over a lake — the clay sinks and the oil floats. If a monk stood on the bank chanting, would the shards rise and the oil sink? Of course not. Just so, beings go according to their karma when they die; chanting can at most give a small nudge.

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

imagine this you take a pot of oil was actually ghee but ghee is a type of oil you take a clay pot of oil you take it to some sort of lake or Pond and you break it over that Lake then what would happen the clay heavy part would go to the bottom and the oil will float to the surface then said the Buddha suppose that some Monk went to the side of that Lake and started praying or doing some chanting do you think because of that chanting that the the Shar s of clay will float to the surface and the oil will go down to the bottom of course not it's in just the same way that beings will go according to their karma when they die

## Teaching point

Rituals can't override karma; what you do in life is what counts.

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

Smash a pot of ghee in a lake: the clay sinks and the oil floats, and no amount of chanting on the bank will reverse it. The Buddha used it to say that rituals can't override how we've lived. Chanting may give a small nudge. What really counts is the kindness you practise now.

## Source

- [Superstitions | Ajahn Brahm | 12-01-2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RggiVQ6F0fk) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 9:56 to 10:43: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RggiVQ6F0fk&t=596s