# Walking up the hill instead of driving

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-walk-up-the-hill
- Themes: slowing down, mindfulness, beauty, positive attitude
- Life situations: busy and rushed life, unable to enjoy life, depression

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

After nine years of only driving up to Bodhinyana, Ajahn Brahm gets out at the foot of the hill and walks; the familiar hillside becomes unrecognisably detailed and colourful, and when he stands still it deepens further.

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

I noticed the experience of walking up the hill to Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine. Now, many of you have been down there, hopefully some of you will come down on Sunday for our Katina Ceremony. We bought that 25 years ago, 26, I think now, and for about nine years, I'd gone up, and down, the road to the monastery, always in a car, in some sort of vehicle. It was like one of those days we had a couple of days ago, just warm spring morning. I remember just coming back from some sort of appointment, and feeling just so positive, so energized, and having plenty of time, I told the driver, "Drop me off at the foot of the hill, I'm going to walk up today." Not for exercise so much, just for enjoying the morning, I had plenty of time. So, I started walking from the southwest highway, up Kingsbury Drive, to the gate of Bodhinyana Monastery. As I started walking I got very surprised. Actually, it was a shock. As I looked around me, I could not recognize where I was. That hillside looked totally different from what I remembered seeing looking through the window of a car. It was totally different. I was seeing things which I never knew were there. What I saw had more detail, had more depth of colour. It was just basically more beautiful. Of course that surprised me, and not being in any rush, not being in a hurry, I just stood still. And as I stood still, the whole hillside changed again. It was like evolving. As a monk you're not on any sort of psychotropic substances, you don't take alcohol, although, during our rains retreat, somebody offered the monks some chocolate cake, and, fortunately, before we ate it, one of the monks looked at the little writing on the cover, saying it had alcohol in it! Fortunately, we stopped in time, because sometimes you're not sure when you get some chocolate cake sometimes they put the alcohol in there just for the taste and then they cook it and all the alcohol goes, it doesn't matter. But we didn't know whether it was put in before or afterwards, and so we decided not to take it. We gave it to one of our visitors who was very happy to be a guinea pig [laughter], Like a food taster. And when he came back the next week he said "That was a lot of alcohol." [laughter] It hadn't evaporated, it was a very good job we were very careful. Otherwise, we may have gone to our monastery just after lunch in a rains retreat and seeing all the monks singing and dancing and goodness knows what else. [laughter] Which would not have done very much for our reputation, so you've got to be very careful. So we don't take such things. We are sort of sober, mindful, alert. So here I was having an experience, like sometimes you have in life, when things become really weird and they start changing in front of your eyes. But what had happened was, what I was seeing, it had more detail, more information. That hillside, you started to see little flowers, started to see rocks, and just the shape of the rocks and the lichen on the rocks. And, just look at the tree barks, and the whole tree bark was just amazing, beautiful. What was also strange was that the colours, the colours of everything you saw, started to grow more intense, more rich, more deep and more beautiful. The whole thing was exquisite. Of course, when a monk has experiences like that, we don't just enjoy, we sort-of contemplate afterwards what the heck was going on. And I decided to analyze it through science, and it became quite clear to me that, when you see things, sight is a chemical reaction on the back of your eye, on the retina. What happens with most people is that when they see something, they move on to another image almost immediately. So, the image on the back of your eye doesn't have time to properly form, and the colors don't come out. They're just maybe 10 percent of what's there, and the detail is all smeared, because the image does not have time. When I walked, I was going slower. The images on the back of my eye, the light had more time, so you could see a much more full picture with more detail, and the colours were deeper because they had more time to manifest. It was just a simple physiology of sight which was occurring. And, of course, when I stood absolutely still, only then did my eyes have all the time they needed to form a full picture. And for the colours, which were out there all the time, to be fully represented in the image on the back of my eye. And for my mind to have time to explore it fully, to appreciate it, and to taste it 100 percent.

## Teaching point

“too many people live life as if they're in a fast car, looking through the window … when we do go slower … your senses, at last, have time.”

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

For nine years Ajahn Brahm drove up the same hill; the day he walked it, the slope filled with colour and detail he had never seen. Much of what feels dull in life is simply passing too fast. Slow down, and now and then stand completely still. The beauty was there all along, waiting for you to have time.

## Source

- [How To Be Positive | by Ajahn Brahm | 17 Oct 2008](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H94Dz4Iq2d4) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 2:55 to 8:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H94Dz4Iq2d4&t=175s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Building a House of Peace | Ajahn Brahm | 13-04-2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxK7iqG2XQA) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 18:39 to 22:26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxK7iqG2XQA&t=1119s
- [The Nature of Your Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 8 May 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmc6aO6ElM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 38:27 to 44:34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmc6aO6ElM&t=2307s
- [Develop Your Heart | Ajahn Brahm | 2 Dec 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqwCXGkmSy0) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 9:06 to 12:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqwCXGkmSy0&t=546s
- [Get Real | Ajahn Brahm | 12-06-2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1o51NPCk-U) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 43:12 to 44:03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1o51NPCk-U&t=2592s
- [1. Relaxing the Body & Mind - Ajahn Brahm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUMEd3bWVIM) (BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media) — watch from 27:20 to 33:14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUMEd3bWVIM&t=1640s
- [Finding fault or finding beauty | by Ajahn Brahm | 5 June 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K8ejLdmOK8) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 33:06 to 35:08: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K8ejLdmOK8&t=1986s
- [1 Intro to meditation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jMZugitTk) (BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media) — watch from 12:14 to 13:22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jMZugitTk&t=734s
- [Importance of Pausing and Reflecting | Ajahn Brahm | 31 December 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yifAjwBk1aA) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 29:03 to 31:08: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yifAjwBk1aA&t=1743s
- [Mindfulness With Compassion | by Ajahn Brahm | 11-05-2012](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVV0a3Ctmmc) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 27:17 to 28:44: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVV0a3Ctmmc&t=1637s
- [Develop Your Heart |Ajahn Brahm | 2 Dec 2016](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UDa1XujJow) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 6:22 to 11:10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UDa1XujJow&t=382s
- [Batin Yang Melakukan dan Batin Yang Mengetahui | Ajahn Brahm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFpuL9Pj8zg) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 4:41 to 6:07: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFpuL9Pj8zg&t=281s