Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The psychiatric team's flat battery

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Growing from Difficult Times | Ajahn Brahm | 21 April 2023

2 min read

Content note: mental illness depicted (a psychiatric patient); handle respectfully; minor violence (a thrown cup)

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

It happened once that there was a lady who came uh in the evening to Bodhinana Monastery. This was several years ago. And unfortunately she and I could see from her wrist she still had that tag they put on the wrist. Uh she was in Bentley Hospital with no psychiatric problems. And so I recognized her and I said, "Well, you know, you really do need to go back to hospital." She said, "No, you told me to come here on the psychic plane." So I realized there's a problem here. And so she didn't want to leave. So one thing which I did know there was some people who worked for the they called it the PET team at the time psychological emer psychiatric emergency team. So we called them. Trouble is you know we lived down in Serpentine. It's a long way away. So by the time they came, it took a while to settle her down. But then uh when they arrived at the gate, they asked me how she be been behaving. And at one time she threw a cup of tea at me. I didn't mind the cup breaking, but what a waste of tea. But nevertheless, I told him that I said, "Oh, if we have anybody who's uh got psychiatric problems and was also violent, we have to call the police." So the only police station, you know, which was there at the time was over in Armadale. So we called them. I said, "You will come." And this is our local police station in Armadale. And they didn't know the way to Bodhinana Monastery. They went by Serpentine Dam, which is twice as long as it should be. And so we're waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. But then when the police actually did come, the psychiatrists, they know the stuff about the mind, but sometimes they lose what we call their common sense because they left their headlights on all the time. And so their car was actually had no no electricity in the the batteries anymore. And so when with the police they asked this lady to go back into hospital, they could not take her. They didn't have any power in their car. And the rules for the police, the police couldn't take them. That was against their rules. So they were stuck. But fortunately, we talked the police into taking her into the hospital.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 0:08 (to 3:00)

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

An unwell woman arrived at the monastery from a psychiatric ward, then the care team's battery died and the police got lost. In the end the monks gently persuaded the police to take her back to hospital. Ajahn Brahm stays kind and light about it. When things get tangled, stay patient. It may become a good story later.

In brief (our summary)

Several years ago a woman arrived one evening at Bodhinyana still wearing a hospital wristband from Bentley Hospital's psychiatric unit. Ajahn Brahm said she needed to go back; she replied that he had told her to come 'on the psychic plane', and wouldn't leave. They called the psychiatric emergency team, who took a long time to reach Serpentine; when he mentioned she had thrown a cup of tea at him ('what a waste of tea'), the rule meant the police had to be called too, and the Armadale police got lost via Serpentine Dam. Meanwhile the psychiatric team had left their headlights on and their car battery was flat, so they couldn't take her — and police rules didn't allow the police to. In the end the monks talked the police into taking her to hospital.

Teaching point

When troublesome things happen, take them lightly — 'it gives me a nice story to talk about later on'.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Growing from Difficult Times | Ajahn Brahm | 21 April 2023 · 2023-04-22 · ▶ watch from 0:08 to 3:00 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'with no psychiatric problems' probably = 'with psychiatric problems' (caption reads 'no'); 'Bodhinana' = Bodhinyana.

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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