Stories about meditation

Looking for a Buddhist story about meditation? Here are 135 complete stories from talks by Ajahn Brahm. Each page has his own telling, a short reflection, and a link to the original talk.

• The most beautiful thing in the toilet bowl — On one retreat Ajahn Brahm's mind is so still and full of energy that everything looks beautiful.…
• The mother who never drops her baby — Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds…
• The mushy peas that exploded — Every year Ajahn Brahm spends 15 days alone in his cave, not talking, just meditating. On the…
• The naughty hour from three to four — As a young monk in a silent forest paradise (one car a week) he fights thoughts — including old…
• The noisy breather on the Sydney retreat — On a nine-day retreat in Sydney one man breathes so loudly that a meditator complains. Ajahn Brahm…
• The novice who stopped — A novice of 12 or 13 at Ajahn Chah's monastery, tired during a very long sermon, kept thinking:…
• The preceptor's snake in the lap — Ajahn Brahm's preceptor, later acting Sangharaja of Thailand, came out of deep meditation in a Koh…
• The professor's overflowing cup — Japan's greatest philosopher, whom no one will debate, decides to debate the most famous…
• The Red Cross nurse knew meditation lowers blood pressure — Years ago he takes a young monk to donate blood on Wellington Street; the nurse already knows…
• The retreat that ended a romance — As a Cambridge student with a lovely girlfriend (not a Buddhist), Ajahn Brahm asks her permission…
• The runny nose before live TV — In Korea, at −15°C with snow everywhere, Ajahn Brahm wakes with a cold and a dripping nose — and…
• The slingshot and the gong — Sitting with Ajahn Chah, with no clock and his legs aching after what must have been over an hour,…
• The smell of his baby pram — Asking in deep meditation 'what's my earliest memory?', Ajahn Brahm (soon after leaving Thailand…
• The social worker's solutions that popped up — A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at…
• The Spitfire engine in the old bomb — A monk's mate in England fits a Spitfire aircraft engine into an old car. On the motorway he…
• The tangled brain cleared before the second operation — A Malaysian man in Penang had a rare disease he described as things in the brain physically…
• The tiger that was a mouse — Meditating alone at night deep in the Thai jungle, Ajahn Brahm hears rustling. As a…
• The wall that disappeared — As a young theoretical physicist, Ajahn Brahm sits at a Zen monastery in the north of England, in…
• The whitewashed wall that vanished — Young seeker ~21–22 at a north-England Zen monastery: sit in a line, open eyes on a whitewashed…
• The woman who wasn't her mother — After deep meditation on retreat, a woman tries recalling her earliest memory and sees herself…
• There are zombies in your retreat centre — At Jhana Grove a visiting child tells him there are zombies — retreatants doing very slow walking…
• Three thousand Singapore executives heard the gaps — In a Singapore hall of about 3,000 busy executives who said they could not meditate, he asked them…
• Too comfortable to waste on sleep — Once Ajahn Brahm lay in bed unable to sleep — probably too much tea — worrying he wouldn't get to…
• Toothache in the night — In his first year at a Thai monastery, with an empty medicine cabinet and no telephone, Ajahn…
• Top of medicine by being silent — A woman tells Ajahn Brahm she came top every year in medicine at Melbourne University with…
• Two hours on Bunbury beach — With a free afternoon before teaching at Bunbury prison, Ajahn Brahm meditates for two hours, eyes…
• Vomiting through the book signing — On an Indonesia tour Ajahn Brahm's stomach turns during a talk and the book-signing queue. He…
• What drug is he giving you? — A high-flying Sydney executive has to beg and grovel to her boss for time off for a nine-day…
• “Whatever those monks are on, I want some” — A past president of the Buddhist Society, Rachel Green, first came only to learn meditation for…
• “When did you have your accident?” — A retreatant reports that as she grew still her back became very hot, not painfully. Ajahn Brahm…
• “Why?” — Ajahn Chah's answer: nothing — After an inspiring talk by Ajahn Chah, the young monk skips attending him at the sauna and sits…
• “You're a much better mum when you come home” — A tired mother tells her children she will skip the meditation group; her daughter insists she go,…
• You've demoted me — A sweet village woman finishes a Colombo meditation course and is certified a stream-winner…
• You've got such beautiful blue eyes — like my baby Holly — Sydney clothing entrepreneur Julie flies at short notice to London to sign a contract. Directors…
• “Your meditation can't be that good” — At the Serpentine doctor's surgery a monk sees an advert for another meditation group and suggests…