# A sack of wet mashed potatoes

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Analogy
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-wet-mashed-potatoes-padded-cell
- Themes: anger, resilience, rest, humour
- Life situations: exhaustion, being insulted, short temper

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Simile: a rested mind isn't brittle but soft like a sack of wet mashed potatoes — hit it and it makes no sound, doesn't reverberate. Or like a padded cell: what hits it just goes 'squelch' on the wall instead of bouncing back. So soft that people can call you anything and you just smile.

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

You become soft like a sack of wet mashed potatoes. You can hit it and it doesn't even just make any sound at all. It doesn't even reverberate because it's soft. Have a mind like what I call like a padded cell. So when something hits it, it just go squelch on the wall rather than bouncing back again. Have this mind so soft, people can call you anything and you just smile like an idiot.

## Teaching point

Rest and ease give the mind resilience, so provocations don't bounce back as anger.

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

A tired mind is brittle and rings when something hits it. A rested one is like a sack of wet mashed potatoes, or a padded cell: insults land with a squelch and don't bounce back. Ajahn Brahm would rather smile like an idiot than snap. Give yourself rest, and lower your expectations of the people around you.

## Source

- [On the Other Side of Anger | by Ajahn Brahm | 31-05-2013](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7fm_Es5THY) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 7:10 to 7:47: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7fm_Es5THY&t=430s