Relaxing into food poisoning

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• Laughing when you hit your head

  In brief: As a young monk in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm travelled to ceremonies in the back of a ute under a tarpaulin stretched over a metal frame. On…

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  And I learned this when I was reminded of this story by one of uh our Thai followers that when I was a young monk that we used to go over the for invitations here all over the place uh in Thailand uh in the back of a of a ute, a pickup truck. And uh I did actually go once on a back of a motorbike as a monk. Never again on a motorbike. Cuz you know what happens? You can imagine these robes and a motorbike. Once they pick up any speed, the wind gets inside of them and it balloons up. And I was I always thought I was going to fly off because like a big balloon. And but fortunately I managed to hold on just so I never go on a on a motorbike with loose robes like this. But anyway, on the back of a truck, the old utes, they would have like a cover on it, a metal frame over which was draped a tarpool in. And that was a place where you'd sit in the back with all the other monks going to this or that um ceremony. And number one, it was really dusty. At least the top water would keep off any rain. And these were those days where the roads were all uh just dirt roads with lots of potholes. In fact, because there was lots of potholes that every time every time that truck, that ute hit a pothole, what would happen was the ute went down and I would go up and hit my head on the metal frame. And that really hurt, especially because I've got no padding. So you hit your head really hard on this metal again and again and again. And I just this was getting too too much. It's really hurting. And I noticed that when any of the Thai monks or lashed monks whenever they crack their head on one of these uh the metal um frame on which the tarpon was was was covered, when they hit their head, they never sort of grimaced. They never swore. They laughed. And they must have been hurting as much as I was, but they were laughing at the pain. And I thought, what's going on here? And because scientists before, so I used my science, my western sort of logic to actually think of explanations and theories why when Thai monks hit their head, they laughed. And my first theory was they must have hit their head so many times that they were brain damaged. But of course that wasn't the case cuz they were really nice monks. They're very smart. And so then I thought I couldn't understand. So what do you do? You do experiment. Know western culture do an experiment. Find out. So I resolved. So the next time I hit my head, I was going to laugh instead of swear. I'd always always swear in English because the time I couldn't understand me, I thought, but they did. But anyway, when the next time I hit my head, I laughed and I discovered an amazing theory. You should get the Nobel Prize for things like this because it's actually practical that when you laugh when you hit your head, it hurts much less. And if you don't believe me, get the person sitting next to you to hit you on the head. Better not do it here. I get in trouble with insurance. But you can see that just one's attitude towards sickness and pain changes many many things. It does actually hurt much less when you laugh.

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• The monk who trained his back muscles with mindfulness

  In brief: A monk with a congenital spinal weakness and severe pain is told by doctors nothing can be done and he shouldn't meditate. Following a…

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  Just like, I won't say who this monk is. He had terrible pain in his spine and that was because he had some congenital deformation in his spine. Doctors at that time... He had a CT scan and said nothing you can do about it. But the doctor said I'd advise not meditating because that makes it worse. Well, I'm a monk! That's what I do! But fortunately he found this excellent book and of how... A long time ago, how to use some mindfulness to cure the problem. Because his spine was too weak and it was causing some problems. But, said this little book, there are muscles on either side of your spine which most people aren't aware of at all because you don't need to be. Much of your body you don't need to be aware of it, so you're not. So the book says start off, take your hand and rub those muscles on either side of the spine as an exercise every day for an hour or something every day. Because when you're actually touching them you can actually feel the sensation of your... And now my thumb touching one of those muscles and that creates a connection in your mind. A neuro connection. The more you do that the more you can be aware of those muscles, the more sensitive they become. Until you can actually feel those muscles without needing to touch them, just as I can feel my nose without needing to touch it. I can feel my hand without needing to touch it. It becomes sensitive. Then once you can actually be mindful of those muscles, trial and error, try and move them. After a while you'll learn how to move those muscles at will. Because now he was mindful of them you can do something with them. Now exercise them: stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them. So he did that and then after stretching relaxing them for a few months those muscles became so strong, much stronger than other people's muscles, that they perfectly compensate for the weakness in his spine. Now he can sit meditation, no pain anymore.

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• The runny nose before live TV

  In brief: In Korea, at −15°C with snow everywhere, Ajahn Brahm wakes with a cold and a dripping nose — and has half an hour before a live interview…

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  what happened in career a couple of years ago having a a cold woke up in the morning as -15° snow everywhere and my nose was dripping you know no snot I don't know what the correct word for it is but that's how I grew up with that just with the stuff in your nose so nasal fluid mucus whatever you call it to be polite so all this stuff was coming out of my nose and only had one half an hour and I was going on live TV for an interview in NKT that was South Korean TV and it's very it's so basically not done to go on TV we're stuff coming out of your nose so I had half an hour so what did I do sit down meditate focus on the irritable sinuses focus on them not force the scientist spinal fluid to stop but just be kind to it opening the door of my heart to this irritating we really like my imagining my mother kissing a wound to just a real eye sit let it be be kind be compassionate there knows everything will be okay and it works

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• The mushy peas that exploded

  In brief: Every year Ajahn Brahm spends 15 days alone in his cave, not talking, just meditating. On the first day out, the first spoonful of food at…

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  I did my 15-day retreat in my cave every year it's my holidays my vacation and of course no not giving any talks not talking not doing anything just meditating all day and every day for 15 days in a row not saying anything you get really deep meditation and of course after you get that you get really powerful mindfulness so the first day out lunchtime I always remember the first the first piece of food I put into my mouth was a spoonful of mushy peas and it was it exploded honestly it just wow that was such incredible flavor and taste I never ever tasted mushy peas like that all it was was that my mindfulness was so incredibly strong you could have tasted anything it tasted a carrot and that carrotness would be so intense just an ordinary carrot

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