Dhamma Talks - Genie :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Genie is a story that was told by Ajahn Mitsuo Gavesako. He is a student of Ajahn Chah. He is Japanese. When he was young, he had many questions about life, such as “What is life? and how to live a life?” With those questions in his mind, when he grew up, he traveled to many countries such as India, Nepal, Iran, Europe, Africa and then back to India again. In India, he visited Buddhagaya and saw the Buddha’s statue. He realized that Buddhism was what he was looking for. He stopped traveling outside and turned inwards. He became a Yogi and practised Yoga. When his visa expired, he returned to Japan.

In 1971, he traveled to Thailand and became a student of Ajahn Chah from then onwards. In 1989, he went back to Japan with a Japanese monk, Nanarato Bhikkhu and made a pilgrimage around Japan for 72 days. In Japan, they stayed in SHINAGAWA-JI temple, Tokyo, and they hiked to Hiroshima to commemorate the World Peace. At the end of 1989, they went back to Thailand and stayed at Wat Pah Sunan, Saiyok, Kanjanaburi. There he taught people and conducted meditation classes. He gave a lot of Dhamma talks and good similes; genie is one of them:

Once upon a time, there was a gardener who was working in his garden. Then he found an old lamp. He cleaned and rubbed it and suddenly a genie appeared. The genie thanked him for releasing him and said, “From now on, I will become your slave. Whatever you want, I can do it for you, my lord. If you can accept my word; you must have some work for me to do all the time. If there is no work, I will kill you. Can you accept this?”

The man thought for a while, “It should not be a problem”, and agreed with the genie. So he started to give the genie work, ordering, “You build me a big house”. Then the genie build the big house by magic, it took just a second. After finishing the big house, the genie asked for another job. The man ordered the genie to dig out the big swimming-pool. The genie did it by magic, in just a second. After that, the genie asked for another job. The man gave the genie the job of constructing a big road from his house to the town. The genie did that by magic, in just a second. The man had to give the genie some work all the time; day and night, and all the work concerned desire, especially greed; I want this and that.

The genie did everything very quickly, by magic. Now it seemed that the man had become the slave of the genie, as he had to find some work for the genie all the time. He was depressed and suffered from trying to find the genie some work. He tried very hard to find a job that lasted for a long time so that he could take a rest. But it seemed that it was impossible because the genie did everything by magic. One day he got an insight into a realization, so that he ordered the genie to build a long pole. The genie made it in just a second and asked for more work as usual. The man told him to climb up and down the pole. When the genie did that, the man could take a rest calmly and peacefully.

Ajahn Mistuo concluded that all of us have such a genie; some become its slave and some become its owner. What does the genie signify?

We are comparable to the mind and body.
The genie is our thought directed by desire.
The long pole is the in-and-out breath.

Therefore, if we want to live a calm, peaceful and happy life, we must focus our attention on the in-and-out breath and try to tether our mind to the in-and-out breath. When we notice that our mind, or attention, has drifted from the breath, we should bring our mind back gently to the breath; breathing in and out. Then we can take a rest calmly and peacefully.