Story · Ajahn Brahm

The whitewashed wall that vanished

1 min read

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

I went to this Zen monastery. And I never knew what we were supposed to do. So, all they told us to do was to sit in a line, and just to watch the wall with open eyes. And it was sort of serious because they had the Zen master. And they would walk behind you with a Zen stick. And they would hit you if you were sleepy. People told me, "Oh, yeah, you know, if they hit you, it doesn't hurt." But when the guy next to me got hit, I didn't believe that at all. But it worked. Cuz the guy next to me woke up. So did I. For the rest of the retreat, I wasn't sleeping at all. But that was out of fear, not really the right way of doing things. But going back to the the story, that watching the wall with your eyes open, just a simple whitewash wall, and then the wall vanished. It disappeared. And it just it left existence

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 8:33 (to 9:39)

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

At a Zen retreat in northern England, young Ajahn Brahm sat staring at a plain whitewashed wall until it vanished completely. No drugs involved; he was weird but virtuous. He worked out why: the brain only registers change. Close your eyes and the eyelids disappear too. When the mind grows still, the unchanging drops away.

In brief (our summary)

Young seeker ~21–22 at a north-England Zen monastery: sit in a line, open eyes on a whitewashed wall, Zen stick for sleepers. Watching without change, the wall vanishes from existence — early clue that the brain only registers what changes.

Teaching point

Stillness makes the unchanging drop out of awareness.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 4 July 2020 · 2020-07-04 · ▶ watch from 8:33 to 9:39 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

16 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned.

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

All stories·Find a story for your situation