Stories for terminal illness
9 Buddhist wisdom stories for terminal illness from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- An email from beyond the graveStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A dying man in Singapore who had come to love Ajahn Brahm's talks asks to speak with him; his sister gets through and Ajahn Brahm talks with him on a couple of evenings. He dies…
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There was a Sri-Lankan lady. She's been listening to my talks a lot, I think she's been over here. And she called me. She had an emergency. During the Retreat time, you're not really supposed to receive many calls. She said 'Can you please help my brother? He's got a very, very bad blood cancer. We sent him to Singapore for treatment. But nothing is working. He's now paralyzed. He's only got a few days to live. Can you please talk to him?' So, of course, you don't worry about retreats and stuff. Of course you help out. So, for two evenings in a row I talked to him on the phone. And he was so weak. When he spoke to me he spoke very slowly and you had to listen very, very carefully to listen to what he was saying. But I gave him some advice about dying, and about letting go. And then the third night, he died... So I called him just in time, which is wonderful. Now, he was paralyzed, he could only.. they had to just... he could only just about speak. The next evening, his sister called me to tell me that he died the night before. But also to tell me: 'You won't believe this Ajahn Brahm This is absolutely true... that this morning, I got an email from him. Just saying 'Thank you'. And the email was sent about 6-8 hours after he died. The email, it's true, email from beyond the grave. So, you're actually wrong here, people actually do. They don't get cell phones, that's passé. That's the 20th century, i this is 21st century They send emails... Twitters, have you checked your Twitter account yet, to see if there's anything? So, now, I told people, 'Now I know what Gmail means'. 'Ghost mail
- Anita Moorjani: “I'm cured”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Hong Kong, Anita Moorjani, riddled with cancers and expected to die, dies on the operating table. She sees and hears everything said (the doctors confirm it), floats out of…
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her experience while she was in hong kong she was uh indian but working in hong kong and brian joseph um walker was the her gp but she had so many cancers inside of her and all of those cancers which she had were literally killing her she had many operations and this operation was you know they think last chance for her they thought she was going to go and she did die on the operating table and when she died on the operating table she obviously came back again and then she told the story what it was like being first of all being able to see and hear everything which was being said the doctors confirmed it how the heck do you know that you were unconscious at the time and not only being able to see and hear everything but then floating out of her body and to this big beautiful light and those of you who heard me teach the deep meditation on retreats we call those nimiters in meditation beautiful lights what it is is a manifestation of your mind that's one thing which i disagreed with her on not sort of god who might feel like that but it's actually your own mind and when it's freed from the five senses it's very powerful and extremely blissful like being in the middle of pure love or pure bliss those meditation experiences which i said earlier they're such powerful happiness and and joys literally is blissing now very deeply and then when she came out afterwards she came out afterwards she didn't know how long she was in there she came with what we called in buddhism insight understanding but her main concern at the time obviously was her health her sicknesses her cancers and when she came out and became conscious again to the surprise of the doctors and they thought she would have died and then the first thing she said to the doctors is i'm cured and the doctors thought she was just being hallucinating because you know she had big tumours inside of her what do you mean you're cured and that's when afterwards she mentioned because i've understood the cause of my cancers and the cause of the cancers was the emotional stress of trying to live up to other people's expectations all the time like you your partner in life your children's expectation of you as a mother as a father as a grandparent your parents expectations of you your boss's ex expectations of you and more powerful your own expectations of you what do you think you should be doing how do you really feel that inner stress inside trying to live up to some standard and you don't know where those standards are from and when she saw that she was success a very successful woman when she saw that that was what was causing the stress which manifested in the tumors in her body she understood that was the reason why she had the cancer now she saw that and could understand the main cause of the cancers then she said i'm not going to try and live up to other people's expectations anymore i'm going to relax and just be me and you know that as soon as you if any of you ever do that you find out the you you end up being is much much much better than the you that you try to be all of that force you're not working well enough you're not good enough you're not trying hard enough you're not successful enough you could do more you could do better that is a terrible burden on your body which means that you work too hard injury don't work much at all you're still just trying too hard you still have that stress inside of your body and mind and she said that was what's causing my cancer
- Fifteen minutes of goodbyes from a brain-tumour comaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As reported (Ajahn Brahm recalls) in a Time magazine issue on the mind, a US patient with an aggressive brain tumour lies in a coma for days; against the prognosis he opens his…
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there was an even better example which was in uh a Time Magazine of all things article on the mind this was the most amazing uh time when the Mind separated from the brain I think it was so we did have a copy of this in our Monastery I think 2009 or 10 or something January Edition Time Magazine the mind but anyway there was a doctor over in the United States was treating a person with brain tumor and it was a very aggressive tumor and he was uh in hospital just waiting for the end in a coma for many days because apparently the brain tumor just grows and takes over the other part of the brain until there's nothing left know for a person to be able to speak all higher brain functions disappear and eventually the last part of the brain is just used for keeping the body alive for doing the the basic functions of breathing and keeping the heart going and the other organs going but as soon there's no capacity left in the brain to do anything and that's when the person dies so the fellow would being UNC ious for a long time and the doctor told him what the prognosis was you go into this coma and never come out again but this person did come out he just again opened his eyes he bent up but this fellow talked to his family for 15 minutes saying their last goodbyes for 15 minutes he was totally clear before he died and the doctor was totally amazed it couldn't have happened but it did because by that time there's nothing left in the brain to perform such functions
- Ted's last dinnerStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ted, a Lancashire man dying of lung cancer, was one of the first patients in the new hospice next to Murdoch Hospital. Asked what he wanted for dinner, he listed what he couldn't…
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Finish off with the story of Ted. I I'll finish off now. I promise. Maybe [laughter] Ted. This guy, they just opened up St. John of God. No, no, no. One in Murdoch. Murdoch Hospice down in uh right next to Murdoch Hospital. really nice little hospital. They just opened up. So Ted was one of the first patients in there. Had lung cancer, was dying. So they put him in there to die. Just a one-way ticket. [clears throat] But with Ted, he was like from York. I got to be careful. From Lanasher. He's from on the borders between Lanasher and York. He was from Lancasher. And so the he told me afterwards I went to visit him a few times. The first night in the hospital, the nurse came up to him and said, "What do you want for dinner tonight, Ted?" And Ted said, "Well, you know, I got diabetes, so I can't have anything sweet. [gasps] I got sort of high cholesterol, so forget about anything oil or oily or or fried. I can't have anything like that. I can't have anything salty because I've got hardened arteries. I can't have. And the nurse looked at him and said, "What on earth are you talking about, Ted? You're not going to die of cholesterol or heart attack or or hardened arteries or diabetes. You're going to die of cancer in a couple of days." So Ted, the nurse said, "You can eat whatever you want. anything really. His eyes went wide apparently according to the nurse. Really? And so he had all this food, sweet, syrupy, salty, sugary, which is he told me his wife had never allowed him to eat for the last three or four years. And he ate it. Had lots of it. Why not? You're going to die soon. So, and we know what happened. Honest story. He went into remission and he walked out of that hospice. [laughter] True. I know. He's a good friend. God is his [laughter] daughter and and uh son-in-law was an ex monk and six months he had and then he went back into the hospice to die properly. [snorts] [laughter] He went back. He had six extra months because he cared for himself instead of trying to cure himself so much.
- The door prizeAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Imagine tonight's door prize is a first-class trip to Dharamsala for a private lunch with the Dalai Lama, then three days in a six-star Singapore hotel with a thousand dollars a…
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I remember telling this to imagine that at the end of this talk a special occasion that we were going to give a door prize and the door prize today was a free trip to say let's say um okay because many of you are Buddhists a free trip to India to Dam Salah on a first class uh trip, all expenses paid to see his holiness of Dalai Lama, have a private even uh lunch with his holiness of Dal Lama. And on your way back, you know, through um Singapore, is that a good idea? Singapore. Okay. Through Singapore, you can have uh three days and the six car six-star hotel with a thousand uh sing dollars a day spending money, whatever you want, on your way home. first class all the way and that was the door prize today. Now imagine hypothetically if you won that how would you feel? Would you be excited? you know, would you really be looking forward to actually having a private audience with this Holiness of Dal Lama? Would you? And this wonderful trip and if you said, well, it's going to be in about, you know, 4 months time. Would you be counting down the days, you know, 3 months, only two months to go, one month? Come on, can we get it quicker? And the day before you'd be so excited now, what's what's the difference? What's better? going to see his holdings the Dalai Lama and all expenses paid or going to heaven a great heavenly realm where you don't need money to spend anything you want you just get and you not just see the dollar you can see even all the great monks and the bodhic sattas and I'm going to say the Buddha but people get upset at me so say they can't see 11 but anyway see all these wonderful people up there not just the 14th alam the 13th the 12th 11th the whole series of dalas Wouldn't that be better, go to heaven? So why is it when people got a terminal disease, they think and the doctor says only about 3 months to live. Can I say can you make it quicker please? I want to go to heaven.
- The man who attended his own funeralStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A terminally ill man in the United States decides to hold his funeral service a week or two before he dies, so he can be there to hear the eulogies and the difference he made to…
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that gentleman in the United States who decided okay this is a bit of a pattern but here it comes decided to think outside the box decided to have his funeral service when he was still alive just a week or two before he died what a wonderful thing to do now his death was gonna happen you know it was predicted and one was unstoppable some disease we decided a week or two before his demise to hold his funeral service so he could be there and listen to the effect which he had had on other people's lives and he could be there to listen so what a great idea that would be but he also said that is also he could see a she who turned up for his funeral what he still had time to adjust the will
- The woman who refused to go backStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman who dies on the operating table meets a spirit telling her it isn't her time; she refuses — she's having too good a time — until the spirit throws her back into her…
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there's this one lady who died on the operating table and so she left her body looking at her body over there just a mess so off she went but apparently that she described it as meeting some Spirit and the spirit saying you know it's it's not your time you know you got to go back and she said no way I'm having too good a time I don't want to go back sorry and the spirit said but you have to go back I don't care about that I'm not going you know like people are pretty independent these days and you know you don't actually do what you're told by your parents or by the government or by God or anybody so Spirits you know go and get lost I'm having a good time so that degree of Independence know she didn't want to sort of go anywhere until eventually having this argument you you got to go back no way apparently she described because obviously she did go back that's why she could tell this story this Spirit sort of got hold of her and threw her back into her body and it just had all this aches and pains and heaviness again and she was really pissed off of that spirit I mean really big time so when she gave this interview said now when I die next time of course I would die eventually I'm going to find that guy and I you do know what I'm going to do to that guy what he did to me that's how you described it
- “There is no problem in the Middle East”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Asked during the Six-Day War about 'the problem in the Middle East', a British Prime Minister (Ajahn Brahm says Harold Macmillan) replies there is no problem: “a problem is…
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the famous story of the Prime Minister of Britain many years ago, Harold Macmillan, who was interviewed during what was known as the six-day war between Israel fighting Jordan, Syria, Egypt and I don’t know who else but a lot of countries. It was called the Six Day War. One of the beginnings of the difficulties in that part of the world and this journalist interviewed the prime minister and the first question was, what is your view about the problem in the Middle East? To which the Prime Minister replied without hesitation. Sir, there is no problem in the Middle East. What do you mean said the journalist, there's the war on as we speak, people are blowing each other up, bullets are flying all over the place people are dying. There's a war on. What do you mean there is no problem in the Middle East? To which this Statesman said very calmly. "Sir, a problem is something with a solution," there's no solution in the Middle East. Therefore it can't be a problem.
- Tolstoy's screaming patient falls quietStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm recalls a Tolstoy story read as a student: a wealthy man in constant pain screams day and night for weeks, no therapy helps, and then the house suddenly goes quiet —…
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there was a story of a person quite a wealthy person in his country house who had his sickness and who was uh in to in pain constantly moaning and screaming literally 24 hours a day would not sleep and it was driving all the people in the house crazy imagine you're in a house and there's someone moaning and screaming in pain and there's nothing you can do about it being wealthy they tried to get all sorts of therapists homeopaths allopaths everything but nothing could relieve this person's pain and there were tolto when a beautiful writer was describing the emotions of the people who had to deal with this for many weeks but at the end of the story he mentioned that everything suddenly went quiet in the house but the man hadn't died yet for 5 or 10 minutes he was free of pain clear Lucid before he passed away