# The fall from the ladder

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-fell-off-ladder-ablution-block
- Themes: healing, meditation, injury
- Life situations: injury, accident

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Building the ablution block at Serpentine, he falls a long way when a fully extended ladder loses its footing and he gets caught in it. No bones broken, but his hands are too painful to sleep. The next morning's X-ray shows nothing wrong — as he expected, since through meditation you can attend to a part of the body and heal it quickly.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

I remember just years ago falling off a ladder in the corner of of ablution block when we were building it over in uh Serpentine. It was really a long fall. This is one of those very long ladders fully extended because uh it was um it was actually stupid thing to do. But nevertheless, he fell off the ladder, or rather the ladder just lost its footing and went all over the place and he got caught in the ladder. And you know, I was just amazed. I didn't break any bones at all. That night, I couldn't sleep very well because my hands were just I couldn't sleep at all because the hands were very, very painful. So, I went to the doctors the following morning to have an X-ray and say, "Nothing wrong there." I kind of knew there would be nothing wrong because sometimes just the way you meditate, you could look at a part of your body and heal it pretty quickly.

## Teaching point

The relaxed mind lets the body heal (his claim).

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Caught in a falling ladder while building the ablution block, Ajahn Brahm hurt his hands too badly to sleep, yet the X-ray next morning showed nothing broken. He credits a relaxed, attentive mind with helping the body mend. That's his experience, not medical advice; see a doctor when you're hurt. Still, calm helps any healing along.

## Source

- [Our Mind and Our Health | Ajahn Brahm | 7 July 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irCk-DJXisM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 8:24 to 9:26: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irCk-DJXisM&t=504s