# Working backwards from the solution

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-think-tank-work-backwards-from-solution
- Themes: hope, problem-solving, innovation, bhikkhuni ordination
- Life situations: seemingly impossible problems, climate anxiety, illness

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Some ten years earlier Ajahn Brahm attended a high-powered think tank in the Whitsunday Islands, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Anna Bligh, the Victorian Premier and even a representative of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. A climate panel began with a scenario: a chunk of Greenland's ice falls off, a tsunami wipes out half of New York's port — and we solved it, cutting emissions to zero. Now think backwards: how did we get there? Ajahn Brahm used the same method with Ajahn Brahmali on bhikkhuni ordination: imagine full ordination has happened; how did we get there? 'And of course, that's what we did.'

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

One of those conferences I went to several years ago was very high power conference and at the time I think I don't know exactly the year because I live in the present moment but I know it was when Kevin Rudd was the prime minister cuz he was at this conference together with Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan and uh the premier of Victoria at the the the time and also Anna Bllye from Queensland. All these very highprofile also had a representative from the Iranian uh revolutionary guards. How they got him into this country, I don't know, but very highprofile people on this think tank in the Wit Sunday Islands. And the presentation I always remember was on climate change but they looked upon it a totally different way. This is actually the thinking outside the box type of stuff with the hope not just the anxiety with a terrible situation. what they said. The uh moderator of this one panel started saying, "Well, this is the scenario. Just imagine this. A huge chunk of the uh Greenland uh Greenland glacia fell off, created a tsunami, and just wiped out half of New York port." And so they had to um solve this problem and they did reducing greenhouse gases to zero. So they did it. Okay. So this is where you start. You start from the end. Now I want all you experts to think backwards. How did we get there? How did we reduce everything to zero? And that was actually that thinking backwards thing and I thought what a wonderful this was just over 10 years ago. I knew know that you know why I I got that timeline correct because when it came to my little problem my little problem was how can we give full ordination to bikunis? That was just over 10 years ago. You know what I did? I said, well, I I talked with Ajin Bumali. Okay, suppose let's imagine that we've got full auto ordination for Pikunis. We solved the problem. How do we get there? Let's work backwards from the solution. And of course, that's what we did.

## Teaching point

Start from hope: imagine the problem solved and work backwards — it frees innovative solutions.

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

At a think tank, leaders were asked to imagine the climate problem already solved and work out how they got there. Ajahn Brahm used the same trick for bhikkhuni ordination, and it happened. Facing a big problem? Picture it resolved, then work backwards. Starting from hope frees ideas that anxiety blocks.

## Source

- [Building Resilience | Ajahn Brahm | 8 November 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_znbRN8JRXw) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 38:40 to 41:37: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_znbRN8JRXw&t=2320s