# The paper lotus on the shrine

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-village-girl-paper-lotus
- Themes: inclusion, generosity, disability, kindness
- Life situations: disability, volunteering, feeling not good enough

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

In a Thai village a young woman, brain-damaged from birth, cannot speak but grunts, and her friends understand every grunt; she joins in dances and lives a full life. One day, sweeping behind a cupboard in the monastery hall, Ajahn Brahm sees her sneak in alone, place something on the shrine, bow and run off so no one will see. It's a lotus she folded from paper — no work of art, but a work of kindness, the best she could do. He tells the other monks that if anyone throws it away, he'll fight them.

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

There was one lady in the village, lovely lady. Uh but she had some sort of um uh injury when she was born and she was uh mentally impaired, brain damage. But even though she was brain damaged, she couldn't speak any Thai, certainly not any English, a village girl, but she would always grunt. And her grunts, she growing up with her sisters the same age, all her friends knew exactly what grunt meant which. That's a special language she had with her friends. And she was almost at ease with her friends. She would go out to dances and stuff with her friends, have a wonderful life. She wasn't sort of sectioned aside in some institution for people who couldn't speak or were brain damaged. So other parts about her were wonderful. She had a beautiful life and I was very impressed with how people included her in rather than excluding them. So she didn't really worry about the things she couldn't do in other areas. She was brilliant and I love remembering her because she was responsible for one of the greatest acts of kindness and generosity I've seen because I was like, you know, monks, we do work. We don't just sit around all day doing nothing. That's what I should be doing. But anyway, we were I was just sweeping the hall in this monastery in Thailand. That was my job. I was just behind a cupboard when I heard somebody try and sneak into our our main hall and I just peeked around. It was this girl. It wasn't a thief. You I knew her because I've been in that monitor for years. And she was sneaking into the hall. She couldn't speak. She was, you know, brain damaged, but she was in there by herself. And I wonder what the heck she was up to. She never saw me. She went up to the shrine. She put something on the shrine and then as soon as she put it on the shrine, she did her little Buddhist boughs and then she ran away as fast as she could so she wouldn't be seen. But she was seen. I saw everything. And I thanked her for what I saw. I went up to the shrine. She made a paper folded into like a lotus and offered it in front of the Buddha statue. No one could no one could ever call it a work of art, but it certainly was a work of kindness. It's the best she possibly could do. He didn't need to be a mind readader to know how she was thinking. She wanted to give it to the shrine to the Buddha. And she thought if she come when other people were there, they'd have thrown it away. It's not beautiful enough for the Buddha, but it's the best she could possibly do. When I saw that, to me it was beautiful. Not because of what it looked like, but where it came from and how hard it was for her to do that. And so afterwards I told all the monks, you know, I wasn't a senior monk there, but I said to them, look, that little paper flower which was handmade on the shrine, if anybody tries to throw that away, I'm not a violent monk, but I will sort of really sort of fight against you because I know where that came from and how beautiful that was to have a person who felt they were rejected. They managed to find a way in and give a gift. The best they could possibly do.

## Teaching point

Value a gift by where it comes from, not how it looks; include people and they will find ways to give.

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

A young village woman who couldn't speak slipped into the hall alone, left a paper lotus she'd folded on the shrine, bowed and ran. No work of art, but a work of kindness; Ajahn Brahm said he'd fight anyone who threw it out. Value gifts by the heart behind them, and make room for everyone to give.

## Source

- [Expectations Cause Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 24 June 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z8q_FWbWa8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 30:11 to 33:58: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z8q_FWbWa8&t=1811s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Manifestation of Consciousness and Future Predictions | Ajahn Brahm | 29 December 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QqevcL9VDI) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:11:30 to 1:11:58: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QqevcL9VDI&t=4290s
- [Importance of Kindness in Buddhism | Ajahn Brahm | 23 June 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21XOJTImHWg) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 21:49 to 24:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21XOJTImHWg&t=1309s