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Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

On top of the pyramid at Tikal

As told by Ajahn Brahm in How To Deal With Confusion | Ajahn Brahm | 19-12-2014

5 min read

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

one of the great ways I figured out how to overcome confusion was uh a time when I was 19 no 18 only 18 and I went to uh just before going up to University went over to United States you know just didn't have a gap year but a gap three or four months and I got really bored with being in the US it just like any other country and just to the south over the Border was Mexico and a little bit South in the jungles of Central America and that was really interesting because there was indigenous cultures over there which were totally different than anything which I had known and so I went into the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula in bordering Mexico and Guatemala and I always wanted to go and visit those great pyramids in the middle of the jungles and those were 1969 there was no other way to get to that central part of the Jungle except on Old buses and fishing boats and uh trucks on the back of heavily Laden trucks going through the jungle it was like an adventure and I always remember just going down this river which separated uh bise British Honduras and Guatemala and you know it was literally just jungle on either side any moment I expected Taren to come swinging through on the trees and there was a Dugout boat with a couple of Indians indigenous uh jungle dwellers totally naked and I remember we stopped at the cafe and the Cafe was this is old thatch and bamboo Hut which serve this incredibly thick and sweet coffee and black beans with tortilla absolutely delicious probably terrible for your health but absolutely delicious and just going from there to the end of the river and then on the back of a truck and for about 3 days traveling through the jungle until you got to the the pyramids in teal and as soon as I arrived there there was I think one person supposed to be maybe an archaeologist was fossing around but no one else was there it was no sort of place where you had to pay entrance fees no shop selling artifacts or selling uh Cups of Tea it was actually totally sort of free and no signs telling what you could do what you couldn't do so I was an 18-year-old boy so you know what 18-year-old men do when they see a pyramid climb it don't worry do those things but so I climbed it not knowing what I'd find at the top but when I got to the top of this PID it's a long way up there I found a story about confusion and about insight and about wisdom and about truth because I was told that these pyramids have some religious or spiritual significance but I hadn't any idea what I never I couldn't afford any guide book and I hadn't done any research at all about those ancient um Mayan civilization they disappeared and no one actually knows why they disappeared and so it was totally unknown it's beautiful if you can have what we call like this open empty mind whenever you face any experiences because if you expect to find something if you know what you're supposed to see it spoils the whole experience you're not open to truth and seeing things in incredible beautiful ways and so as soon as I climbed on the top of that pyramid it was obvious to me what they were there for because I'd spent three days at least traveling in the jungle and if you ever been in real rainforest real jungle which hasn't been developed you'll find that any road or path they cut through the jungle within a few days gets covered over with this this Jungle which is full of Life trees branches they all cover over the path so you are literally traveling through tunnels and I'd never seen the Horizon for 3 days I never seen any far distances and now for the first time in 3 days I climbed up to the top of that pyramid and it was just above thee tree line and now I could see the Horizon these great distances and first of all I thought wow what it would be like to have been born in that jungle spent all your life never see seeing far distances and for the first time some priest takes you up to the top of that pyramid and now you can see Infinity in all directions with nothing between you and the infinite in every direction wow the metaphor was so striking you understand why sometimes when we put things between you and whatever you take to be the infinite in other words religions that that blocks you experiencing the vast emptiness and space there's no barriers there as you stand on top of that pyramid and see forever in every direction and of course afterwards then I looked down at the jungle and you could see where you'd come from it took days to get there but you know because it was Jungle you can't travel fast it's not like the freeway it takes forever and on the top there you can see these great distances I could see the village which I slept in the night before wasn't that far away away and you got the What I Call These Days a Google map view of the Jungle now I was not confused and I use that simil about how to overcome confusion in life wherever it happens to be cuz confusion is like you're right inside the jungle and you can't see great distances all you can see is the next tree the next Vine the next Bush and you know you don't know where you are where you should go even where you've come from to arrive here and the obvious solution when it's confusion is to try and find metaphorically a way to get out of that jungle a tree a tower or in this case a pyramid so you're actually out of your confused little lifestyle that your um entangled web of relationships emotions where you're climbed out beyond the the thicket of thoughts and when you climb out above that you can see from above all the confusion is resolved not only can you can see where you come from you can see where you need to go the path to go on you can also understand why you had to come that way and the greatest thing is to being above all of that thinking emotions difficulty entanglements you're so high above all of that for little while that you can see this great emptiness Infinity foreverness which Embraces and covers everything and gives it some meaning wow so I always thought that that was the meaning of those great pyramids only works in the jungle because it gives you that few moments where you're totally free of confusion

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:42 (to 10:08)

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

At eighteen, after three days of jungle with no view, Ajahn Brahm climbed a Mayan pyramid at Tikal and suddenly saw the horizon and the whole road he'd travelled. That's what the pyramids were for, he decided. When life feels like a thicket, don't think harder. Climb into stillness for a while, then walk on clearly.

In brief (our summary)

At 18, in 1969, before university, Ajahn Brahm got bored of the USA and travelled into the jungles of Central America — buses, fishing boats, a river between British Honduras and Guatemala with naked men in a dugout, thick sweet coffee and black beans in a thatched café, three days on the back of trucks through tunnels of jungle — to the Mayan pyramids at Tikal. No tickets, no signs, almost no one there. Knowing nothing about them, he climbed one. At the top, just above the tree line, he saw the horizon for the first time in three days — infinity in every direction — and could look down and see the village he'd slept in and the way he had come. He understood what the pyramids were for. Confusion is being inside the jungle; the answer is to climb above it for a while.

Teaching point

To overcome confusion, get above the thicket of thoughts (through stillness and meditation) and see where you came from and where to go.

When this story may help

  • confusion
  • big decisions
  • overwhelm

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in How To Deal With Confusion | Ajahn Brahm | 19-12-2014 · 2014-12-22 · ▶ watch from 1:42 to 10:08 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

11 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'teal' = Tikal (probable); 'bise British Honduras' = Belize / British Honduras; 'Taren' = Tarzan; 'PID' = pyramid.

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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    again I remember this story that I used to know whenever I was confused you I used to go to these great churches they had these beautiful cathedrals in London when I was young and I remember the last time I ever went into a cathedral in this was in England in London was actually Westminster Abbey this huge cavernous uh place where I could just go and just sit down and be quiet outside was all the noise of the traffic in London you go inside it was just absolutely s you can sit down relax and find answers to any problems you didn't need to be told you just need to be relaxed and be still and the last time I went in there I was very very upset I must admit because I went in there there was a refuge of silence and peace you know my little pyramid in London where I can get above everything the jungle of people and traffic and noise but then when I went in there they had just a week or two before installed a PA system throughout the whole complex having all these announcements and sermons and stuff and so what the silence had disappeared and I thought that was sacr because the best the most sacred part of that old ancient building was the silence and it was not there anymore and to this day I thought that that was one of the great reasons why they had those immense Cathedrals because they were celebrating and worshiping silence

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  • Vomiting through the book signing

    In brief: On an Indonesia tour Ajahn Brahm's stomach turns during a talk and the book-signing queue. He finishes signing, runs to his room and…

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  • I'm leaving — but there's only ocean

    In brief: Janice and her husband, finishing a mining contract in WA, sold their house, bought a yacht with another couple and sailed for Vancouver.…

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    Janice was uh from Canada came with her husband he was working up in the mines somewhere some engineer here on a contract when it finished they had to go back home to Canada the young couple and they were very smart very wise instead of doing what most people would do get an air ticket they decid no no let's sell the little house we have and use the money to buy a boat so they got a yacht idea let's sail to Vancouver in Canada when we get there sell the the yacht we got our deposit for the next house a brilliant idea you have an adventure of a lifetime imagine that my sailing from Perth you know over to the north of Australia and then through the South Seas over to you know maybe up the Atlantic coast eventually up to Vancouver like a journey of a lifetime and on the cheap too because you know you buy the boat you sell it when you get to the other end brilliant idea and of course you know they wrote to us when they arrived safely back in Vancouver but what Janice said in the story you in a letter a brilliant thing happened in the middle of the ocean their engine stored that actually I should have said that Janice and a husband they teamed up with another couple two married couples you know to help on the journey so in the middle of the ocean so the engine store they will be calm they couldn't go anywhere now this was 26 years ago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean you can't call up the RAC you're stuck you have to fix it up for yourself no satellite phones so you're in big trouble but you know they had a good tool kit and they knew what they were doing and so the two guys went into the engine room to sort out the the problem with the engine the two girls apparently were on Deck reading magazines sexist but that was 26 years ago so two guys in the engine room now any of you guys who've ever tried to fix up an engine you know that sometimes as I said in the book it just does not want to be fixed up and they were getting more and more frustrated maybe you haven't tried to fix up an an engine of a boat but maybe you try to fix up your computer and you start swearing that's what these guys did they started swearing cuz they're getting frustrated and frustration led to blaming each other it's your fault stupid and blaming each other soon led to a full on argument and the argument got to such a high level of conflict that one of them threw down their wrench in anger and said right that's it I'm leaving and this actually occurred he was so mad with his rage he went to his cabin he actually changed cleaned up he's all dirty changed into his best clothes packed his bags and appeared on Deck carrying his two suitcases and the two women almost fell off the boat laughing cuz he looked around and there was ocean in all directions as far as you could see there's no place to go so he had only one choice red in the face with embarrassment he turned around went back to his cabin got back changed back into his work clothes back into the engine room to help out and they ended that Voyage as they began the best of friends I love that story CU that's like our world we like a boat in the ocean there's nowhere to go you may think right that's it I'm leaving where you going to go to instead go back into the anent room help your enemy fix up the problem

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  • Free buffet lunch on the Norway ferry

    In brief: Hitchhiking student on a cheap Norway–UK ferry; a couple say he reminds them of their son and buy him a huge buffet lunch — first and only…

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    cheap boat going over from uh Norway over back to UK. I was just hitchhiking, living on a cheap and this uh couple came up to me and they said, "You remind us of our son who was also hitchhiking during a summer vacation over in Europe." So [snorts] I said, "Please let us give you this wonderful lunch." And they paid for this incredible lunch for me. And it was like a big buffet. And it was actually the first and only

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