Story · Ajahn Brahm

Knocking in the coffin — the monks jumped first

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Ghosts | Ajahn Brahm | 10 March 2023

1 min read

Content note: premature burial adjacent

I remember telling this story a couple of days ago and one of the Thai ladies who comes every Tuesday to Bodhinyana Monastery, she said she experienced something similar to that in her village. This an old lady died and they had her in a coffin and the monks were there ready to do the cremation and then she was knocking in the coffin. This is a true story. Knocking in the coffin. And apparently the first to jump away were the monks who were there ready to do the jumping. [laughter] They were not that impressive at all. And then most of the other people ran away quickly cuz they were terribly scared, but then they opened the coffin and she was still alive.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 16:26 (to 17:15)

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

Knocking came from inside a coffin at a Thai village cremation, and the first to leap away were the monks. Then everyone else ran. When they finally opened it, the old woman was alive. Ajahn Brahm enjoys how unimpressive the monks were. Robes don't make anyone fearless; we're all human.

In brief (our summary)

A Thai lady who comes on Tuesdays says an old woman in her village was in the coffin ready for cremation when knocking began. The monks jumped away first; most others fled; they opened the coffin and she was alive.

Teaching point

Told as parallel to the Indian NDE; even monks can panic.

When this story may help

funeral fright

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Buddhism and Ghosts | Ajahn Brahm | 10 March 2023 · 2023-03-10 · ▶ watch from 16:26 to 17:15 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

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

“I can't understand Thai ghosts”
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When I remember I just went uh Ajahn Chah's I think his brother died when I first went up to to Thailand and they did this open cremation. And so, it's after they they had all the monks around the fire and we all did the chanting and as soon as we could, all the monks left. Then afterwards, I said, "Oh, I'm just going to go by the fire." They said, "You go by the fire?" I said, "Yeah." They said, "Alone?" I said, "Yeah." "Aren't you afraid of the ghosts?" I said, "No, I'm not afraid of the ghosts. I can't understand Thai." Cuz even if the ghost goes something in Thai, I don't know what they're talking about. So, what's the point of being afraid? Is that the case that Thai ghosts only speak in Thai? And Sri Lankans only in Sinhalese? So, if it's a Western ghost and you don't understand English, you've got nothing to worry about
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Miso soup against the bomb
In brief: When Ajahn Brahm first came to Perth in the early 1980s, many feared nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union; there were films…
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when I first came to Perth many people thought there was going to be a nuclear war between um I think was it President Reagan and um Soviet Union at the time and there were movies about it and we were told to watch them. At that time my predecessor Ajan Jakaro he made sure that every morning there's only two monks at that time. We had to drink miso soup. You know why? Because apparently miso soup makes you a little bit more tolerant to nuclear radiation. It was actually quite nice but nevertheless that's what we drank it for and it never happened. There was many bunkers built a huge expense which were never used. So that fear came in years ago but it never happened.
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The forest monk chased by the tiger
In brief: Ajahn Dhammindu (caption: Mark Edge and Drew) tells of a wandering Thai forest monk who insists on camping on a tiger trail despite the…
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many years ago there was a well I was told a story by this Mark Edge and Drew and long time ago before he died he said there was a monk who was wandering from place to place in Thailand and uh just know for Solitude for Freedom meditating and he came to one Village late in the afternoon and told the head man of the village that I just arrived you have to tell the head man so the villagers know to get some food for you the following morning for your arms around otherwise you don't eat I said I just arrived I want to meditate in the forest the jungle close by just to let you know I'll be here when arms around in the morning and that's when the head man told him well you better stay here in the village with us he said no I'm a forest monk now stay in the village there was a tiger in the vicinity in the last few days it's eaten two or three water buffaloes and even one of our kids you know it is a really dangerous this is the jungles 40 years ago very dangerous tiger but this Mark said I am not afraid of tigers show me where the tiger comes from he said I can't do that it'll kill you I said no I am a monk I have no fear really said the head man okay follow me and about a kilometer outside of the village you could see where the Tiger Trail cut through the jungle and the Mark said right here I am going to put my mosquito net and here I'm going to stay tonight I'm going to face down the tiger real Brave Monk would you be able to do that knowing there is a not a man-eating Tiger but a monkey eating tiger right there is gonna come tonight are you willing to face the the Tiger in the middle of the night so this Mark was really a tough Monk and so the head man helped him set up and then the head man went back to make sure before he got dark he didn't want to face a tiger let the monk face the Tiger and that night the Monk was meditating so peacefully so so calm in the jungle once all the shakadas stopped their their racket the jungle at night time is just so peaceful and he was meditating peacefully peacefully peacefully breathing in peace breathing out let go and that's when he started to hear that's the best I got for for sound effects not very good but we're riding on the cheap and I bought a society these days so many stuff we can't afford anything so he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him and those four steps were there four steps of an animal so there wasn't any more breathing in peace beating out I let go he reverted to the old Thai way of meditating they used to do breathing in board breathing out oh using the name of the Buddha with the in-breath and the out breath as a protectionist to remind you to be peaceful but and the first steps got louder as the animal approached and his chanting became and as it got really close and it's got even closer he opened his eyes he couldn't resist it and he saw this massive tiger says white fangs not teeth glistening in the Moonlight is big eyes it's huge Jaws could rip anything apart even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have no chance Superman a loser in front of this tiger this was a huge monster of a tiger and as I remembered his eyes again he changed his meditation object and the next thing he knows you know sometimes we just don't know how this happened these things happen he found himself running towards the village and his his meditation was not very very um quiet now instead of doing tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger has this this animal chased him to the Village
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The door prize
In brief: Imagine tonight's door prize is a first-class trip to Dharamsala for a private lunch with the Dalai Lama, then three days in a six-star…
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I remember telling this to imagine that at the end of this talk a special occasion that we were going to give a door prize and the door prize today was a free trip to say let's say um okay because many of you are Buddhists a free trip to India to Dam Salah on a first class uh trip, all expenses paid to see his holiness of Dalai Lama, have a private even uh lunch with his holiness of Dal Lama. And on your way back, you know, through um Singapore, is that a good idea? Singapore. Okay. Through Singapore, you can have uh three days and the six car six-star hotel with a thousand uh sing dollars a day spending money, whatever you want, on your way home. first class all the way and that was the door prize today. Now imagine hypothetically if you won that how would you feel? Would you be excited? you know, would you really be looking forward to actually having a private audience with this Holiness of Dal Lama? Would you? And this wonderful trip and if you said, well, it's going to be in about, you know, 4 months time. Would you be counting down the days, you know, 3 months, only two months to go, one month? Come on, can we get it quicker? And the day before you'd be so excited now, what's what's the difference? What's better? going to see his holdings the Dalai Lama and all expenses paid or going to heaven a great heavenly realm where you don't need money to spend anything you want you just get and you not just see the dollar you can see even all the great monks and the bodhic sattas and I'm going to say the Buddha but people get upset at me so say they can't see 11 but anyway see all these wonderful people up there not just the 14th alam the 13th the 12th 11th the whole series of dalas Wouldn't that be better, go to heaven? So why is it when people got a terminal disease, they think and the doctor says only about 3 months to live. Can I say can you make it quicker please? I want to go to heaven.
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The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)