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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The tangled brain cleared before the second operation

As told by Ajahn Brahm in A Talk About Nothing | Ajahn Brahm | 16 July 2021

2 min read

Content note: health claim; medical

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

this guy in Pinang is a Malaysian gentleman. And he told me, "Oh, he had this terrible disease, a very rare disease where the best way he could describe it is things in the brain were all tangled up, physically tangled." And he said he had one operation for that and it's really painful and very sort of unpleasant. But he went through it and they thought it was cured. It was very very rare. And then when later on he had some aches and pains in his brain, in his skull, then they said again that it's reoccurred. It's very very rare that reoccurs, but it's back again. They showed him the the CT scans and he was really scared because you've been through these terrible operations once. You don't want to go through them again. Ah, what am I going to do? And so I told him about meditating, meditating properly and just relax. Don't be afraid. Don't try and cure it, but care for it. That's s the trick there. When you try and cure things, you get tense with it. When you care for it, you just allow it to be really relaxed and at ease. And so he did that. And I think straight after the what was supposed to be the operation, he came back up to Pinang, I think, just to see me and just to thank me. He said, "What happened?" He said, "They took the CT scan again." You know, just before the second operation and they said the words to him, "Uh, sir, I'm sorry to say this, but there's something wrong with the CT machine. The cat's going. We have to do it again." And they put him through the CT scan again and realized nothing wrong with the machine. It's something they didn't expect. They whatever the disease was scrambling up some of the stuff in his brain had actually unscrambled and he was perfectly healthy again. So what the heck is going on? They never seen that before. That's he did that sort of procedure in Singapore

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 16:04 (to 18:12)

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

Facing a second brain operation, a man in Penang meditated as Ajahn Brahm suggested: care for the body rather than strain to cure it. His next scans showed the problem had cleared, surprising his doctors. One story, not a promise or medical advice. Still, tension rarely helps healing. Give your body rest.

In brief (our summary)

A Malaysian man in Penang had a rare disease he described as things in the brain physically tangled; after one painful operation it seemed cured, then recurred on CT. Terrified of a second operation, he followed Ajahn Brahm's advice to meditate — care, don't try to cure. Just before the second operation a repeat CT was blamed on a faulty machine, then another scan showed the tangle had unscrambled; he was healthy. Procedure was in Singapore.

Teaching point

Care for the body instead of tensing to cure it; sometimes healing needs room to work.

When this story may help

  • facing surgery
  • chronic or rare illness
  • medical fear

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in A Talk About Nothing | Ajahn Brahm | 16 July 2021 · 2021-07-16 · ▶ watch from 16:04 to 18:12 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Pinang' = Penang; 'The cat's going' likely 'The scan's gone' / machine fault.

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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