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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Maha Bua sat in the cool centre of the fever

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Ultimate Reality | Ajahn Brahm | 5 May 2017

3 min read

Content note: health claim; medical

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

when I was with this monk mahaboah he was a very famous monk he was the the late king of Thailand's teacher and but he never realizes how well I understood Thai at the time because he decided to give a talk and he'd said this is for that Western Market just come which was me gave me a special talk all the monks were there and afterwards he asked for it to be translated I didn't need that I understood it perfectly and obviously other people like that talk because I've seen it you know published you know in little booklets which they have and the core of that teaching was an experience mahabua had at when he was a student of adjun Charles teacher this guy called ajanman this monk great man and it was when the malaria fever now remember these are Forest monks living in the jungles of Thailand Northeast Thailand North Thailand even Central Thailand at a time when malaria was Rife it was just another Forest monks disease everybody got it and uh you learn how to deal with it yeah there was some herbal medicines but a lot of times you just dealt with it just as an aside I'm just going off and I love tangents but this is how he overcame his malaria fever he said he was still in just the first years of his Monastery upon where he settled down where monks like me went and listened to his teachings right in the middle of a malaria fever but he was meditating at the time meditating with a fever got no choice you know we can't sort of lay down well yeah he's still got the fever it's still really sort of uh aches and all lots of joint pains and no no energy so they decided to meditate and what he did was important it's part of the story instead of running away from it you know what it's like when it's something which is hurting which is life-threatening we always want to escape run away get rid of it find a place where you know we can live without this torturing us but he decided to go in the opposite direction go right into it now face it and go right towards it this is what we do in meditation we don't go away from stuff we always go into it we don't go on to another thing always into where we are now it's always in in never on on in meditation so you may hear me say about stages of meditation yeah that's almost like I call that land landmarks so you can some find some idea of where you are it's always going in this stage into the next stage into the next stage always going in so he went so far in to the malaria fever then he came to like a spot like the eye in the middle of a cyclone where it was really cool that's how we described it and around it was just like fire really intense he could feel the fire but he was cool in the middle he knew it was there but you know he was in a quiet calm peaceful cool spot right in the center and he said it got hotter and hotter and hotter but he always remained in that cool spot in the center and it got so hot it exploded and that was the end of the malaria fever never had it again

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 20:25 (to 24:15)

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

Ajahn Maha Bua told of meditating into a malaria fever until he found a cool, still spot at its centre, like the eye of a storm. Ajahn Brahm notes it's an anecdote, not science, so don't skip treatment. The teaching is about any problem. Instead of fleeing or fighting it, look calmly right into the middle of it.

In brief (our summary)

Visiting Ajahn Maha Bua (late king's teacher), Brahm hears his talk about malaria under Ajahn Man: instead of fleeing the fever he went into it in meditation until he found a cool spot like the eye of a cyclone; the surrounding fire grew hotter then exploded — fever never returned. Nested teaching: Man stopped him from sweeping toilets in fever — don't fight, investigate.

Teaching point

Go into the problem's centre rather than fighting or fleeing it.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Ultimate Reality | Ajahn Brahm | 5 May 2017 · 2017-05-05 · ▶ watch from 20:25 to 24:15 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'mahaboah'/'mahabua' = Maha Bua; 'adjun Charles'/'ajanman' = Ajahn Chah's teacher Ajahn Mun.

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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