Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Vomiting through the book signing

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 15 April 2016

3 min read

Content note: health claim (kindness calms illness)

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

one night when I was in Indonesia I was up most of the night vomiting what happens when you travel people are very kind they give you all sorts of food you don't know what food is the proper food for you and it's and it happened when I was giving a talk you start to feel the stomach start to move and move and all these people were waiting for you to give an exciting talk like this evening and afterwards to sign the books and just you know have photographs afterwards and the I could vomit while I was having a photograph taken with somebody but it's wonderful that how as over the years of meditation practice how you've learned to deal with this sort of stuff and it's actually so easy with a bit of practice exactly what I was teaching you during the meditation period you're aware these feelings now the rumbling in your stomach and the feeling that something very very wrong in there what most people do they get excited they get sort of worried but for me I don't get excited or worried anymore just leave it alone and give it lights of kindness and kindness so it just relaxed enough to finish off the sighting of the books and then run to the room and vomit but even afterwards you know it's sometimes you know people get so much negativity to being sick for me I always look to the positive side of sickness because I was vomiting it was at least that day I lost a bit of weight [Laughter] it's interesting stuff to see what you know I got in my tummy all the time and after a while it all just disappeared and vanished but afterwards with a very sore tummy and tried to get a few hours of sleep again I did exactly what I was teaching you there to relax the body relaxing relax and relax it until any of that pain ache or even the aftermath of a sore tummy just vanishes completely away and because practicing this for such a long time whenever you do have any pain or sickness irritation it's so easy now for me to deal with it you feel it that's the mindfulness really aware of the irritation the pain the sickness whatever it is that's a mindfulness and I keep saying mindfulness is not enough you do need to have the kindness that little extra thing which helps so much you've got your focus right now do something to care for this little body of yours and so I give my little tummy some kind that's all you poor little tummy I'm sorry for putting that in there with you I didn't realize what I was putting in there I do apologize please forgive me you know I'm not your enemy I love your little tummy whatever it is you treat it with kindness and it's amazing just how it relaxes you can actually feel it and you feel it you relax it some more you feel it relax more you give it more kindness and it relaxes and relaxes until it totally softens or just like this morning walking out for breakfast past the dogs in Bali if you've been to Bali there's always dogs around the place so you give them kindness nice dog you're fine woof woof no stuff wolf nice dog and it comes totally down that's like my tummy my tummy was like this dog woofing at me all night and I just calmed it down and calmed it down until it stopped barking it stopped vomiting

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 3:09 (to 6:59)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Ill on tour, Ajahn Brahm finished signing books, rushed to his room to vomit, then soothed his churning stomach the way you'd calm a barking dog: nice tummy, you're fine. Slowly it settled. Get medical help when you need it. And meet your body's distress with kindness rather than anger; it helps more than we think.

In brief (our summary)

On an Indonesia tour Ajahn Brahm's stomach turns during a talk and the book-signing queue. He finishes signing, runs to his room and vomits, then calms his sore tummy with the same kindness he teaches in meditation — apologising to it like calming a barking Bali dog — until the pain and the vomiting stop. He even jokes that at least he lost a bit of weight.

Teaching point

Mindfulness plus kindness can turn even violent sickness into something workable.

When this story may help

  • travel sickness
  • pushing through discomfort
  • food poisoning

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 15 April 2016 · 2016-04-15 · ▶ watch from 3:09 to 6:59 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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