Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

The tadpole who studied water

As told by Ajahn Brahm in 16 Non-Self (Anatta)

1 min read

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

little tadpole and she was born in this wonderful lake she was a very intelligent tadpole and she went to school and she went to university and she even became a nun this little tadpole and at university she learned all about water now this chemical composition or what it does and when she was an Angie even studied the abbe de mer on water what its nature was but even the socio is one of the highly most intelligent tadpoles in the whole lake and she had a PhD in hydraulics could the little tadpole understand what water really was no more than a fish could understand what water is

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 36:48 (to 37:41)

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

A brilliant tadpole studied water all the way to a PhD and still couldn't understand it, because she'd never known anything else. Only when she became a frog and leapt out of the lake did she see what water was. Some truths can't be studied from inside. Be brave enough to leap and experience them.

In brief (our summary)

Analogy: intelligent tadpole goes to school and university and even becomes a nun studying the chemical composition of water — while already swimming in it.

Teaching point

You can earn degrees about what you are already immersed in and still miss it.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in 16 Non-Self (Anatta) · 2013-01-26 · ▶ watch from 36:48 to 37:41 · BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media

8 other tellings of this story

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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