From: Jeevacation < To: Eman Moss Subject: Re: The Story of 998 Bricks Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 00:09:44 +0000 I hope you are well Sent from my iPhone On May I, 2009, at 7:22 PM, Eman Moss wrote: I have a lot of gratitude for Ajahn Brahm, a meditation master in Perth, Australia. Here is a story from his days as a young monk. After about eight years practicing in the forests of Thailand, his teacher Ajahn Chah sent him to start a monastery in Australia. Since hired workers were very expensive there, the monks themselves had to learn to lay bricks. Ajahn Brahm's Cambridge education had taught him no such skills! Nevertheless he took to the task with great enthusiasm. He decided he would approach the task of laying bricks as though it was a meditation. So with great diligence and care, Ajahn Brahm set each and every brick. Ask any brick layer, this is not as easy as it seems! The ability to evenly balance bricks in mortar takes slow and careful labor. After several days of careful work, Ajahn Brahm stood back to admire his work. He was horrified: there were two crooked bricks! "How can I ever be enlightened if I can't even make a simple wall properly?" he thought. So he pleaded with the Abbot, could he break the wall and start again? Could he atleast grind the bricks so they look even with the others? He was denied permission and told that the wall was good enough. There were other important projects to work on. However "good enough" wasn't what Ajahn Brahm wanted. For several months whenever he passed the wall he inwardly berated his poor workmanship. It reminded him of all his previous failures and all the imperfections in his life. Then one day, a visitor came and Ajahn was asked to show him around the monastery. Usually, out of embarassment Ajahn Brahm avoided taking people past the wall he had built. Some how on this day they happened to walk past that wall. As they were walking the visitor sponatneously remarked "mats a fine wall. Did y