# The wall that disappeared

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-zen-monastery-wall-vanished
- Themes: meditation, perception, mind, insight
- Life situations: learning to meditate, curiosity about consciousness

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

As a young theoretical physicist, Ajahn Brahm sits at a Zen monastery in the north of England, in a converted cowshed, told to meditate with eyes open. Calm and without inner speech, he gazes at a whitewashed wall — and suddenly, without warning, it vanishes. Rather than panic, he investigates, and sees it is the nature of sight: watch something that doesn't move or change, with full attention, and the sense of sight switches off.

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

I usually bring up this experience I had when I was a lay person. when I was meditating wherever I could find a place to meditate and this was in a Zen monastery in the north of England and in this Zen monastery I didn't know what I was supposed to do they just you know in the little hall which is a converted cow shed that we sat down and we had to meditate with our eyes open it one of the first times I'd meditated with my eyes wide open I didn't know what I was supposed to do but I just meditated. But because I'd done some meditation before and I knew how to be in the present moment and stop this inner speech, as I was just with my eyes open, just being very peaceful, very calm, a strange thing happened. One of those weird experiences which show you there's more to this world than you'd thought. And at this time I was a theoretical physicist when I just looked at this wall just a whitewashed wall. Then suddenly without warning the wall disappeared. It vanished. It just wasn't there anymore. Which was so weird. One minute there was a wall solid and now there was nothing there. And of course instead of getting scared or think I was going crazy I used know what we do in Buddhism called insight. What's happening? And it soon became very clear to me that this is just the nature of the physical senses especially the sense of seeing sight. If you watch something, put your full attention on watching and what you observe doesn't move or change. It disappears. The sense of sight turns off.

## Teaching point

When the senses are kept still they turn off by themselves; that is how meditation uncovers the mind.

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

A young physicist sat in a converted cowshed with his eyes open, and the whitewashed wall vanished. Instead of panicking, he got curious. When the senses are left still, they switch off like a screen saver. Rest your attention on something simple and unchanging, and let the mind quieten in its own time.

## Source

- [The Nature of Your Mind | Ajahn Brahm | 8 May 2020](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmc6aO6ElM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 7:29 to 9:41: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilmc6aO6ElM&t=449s

Other tellings of this story:

- [MN111 Anupada Sutta - Step by Step | Ajahn Brahm | 13 January 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizVrlCNjkU) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 52:56 to 53:32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizVrlCNjkU&t=3176s
- [Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 10 December 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unIkyg9hhIM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 5:16 to 7:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unIkyg9hhIM&t=316s
- [Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 18 February 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12jTLXDddZk) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 16:48 to 17:21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12jTLXDddZk&t=1008s
- [Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 18 April 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yP53pkFDIo) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 8:10 to 8:36: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yP53pkFDIo&t=490s