Meditating through the fever

Related stories

• Ajahn Chah sits in the centre of the fever

  In brief: Malaria was an occupational hazard for jungle monks, and Ajahn Chah suffered it for years. During one intense attack, instead of lying in…

  Read full story▾▴

  And I know Ajahn Chah's story, my teacher, being a forest monk living in the jungles he had malaria for many years it was for those monks an occupational hazard just like these days, for current monks having tummy aches is an occupational hazard simply because as I told you I don't own my stomach you put whatever you want into it, and sometimes my stomach says 'no' (Ajahn laughs) But nevertheless you get to peace with that. His occupational hazard was malaria for many years I remember him telling me how he overcame his malaria once and for all having a very intense attack of the fever and instead of just laying in bed, sitting up meditating with it instead of running away from the thing or complaining about it, worrying about it what most people do when you got a problem, a disease or a tumor or whatever you think about it too much it creates more problems by the way react to them Instead he sat with it, he said he sat right in the centre of his fever quietly silently had peace with it. And it's a very hard thing to do but it's a wonderful thing to train yourself to be able to do. To be able to make peace with pain or with the fever, or with difficulty to make absolute peace with it so you don't even think you are just there at one with what you are experiencing not making any inner speech with it. he said as he was just with that he sort of felt like he was in the centre of a raging forest fire. but in the centre it was cool. but he could perceive all around him was a fire getting hotter and hotter and hotter which was his fever increasing in intensity and he said at one point the fever got so hot it burst and everything was cool. He never got malaria ever again.

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• The noisy breather on the Sydney retreat

  In brief: On a nine-day retreat in Sydney one man breathes so loudly that a meditator complains. Ajahn Brahm explains he has a terminal tumour…

  Read full story▾▴

  At meditation retreats I always remember this one man when I was teaching a Meditation Retreat in Sydney many years ago and a 9-day retreat. You know that people are supposed to be quiet when they are meditating but this man (Ajahn breathing noisily) He was breathing so heavily through every meditation sitting so much so that someone came up to me to complain Can you please tell this person to keep quiet. I am trying to meditate. He had a tumor in his nasal passages blocking both nostrils. It was terminal; the doctor had given up surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy So the doctors have abandoned him and he came to the meditation retreat as a last resort So when I told all the meditators that, they felt very embarrassed and guilty that they were complaining about somebody who got only few weeks to live. He told me that; on the last day of the retreat (Ajahn making the sound) breathing loudly again but not thinking being silent; he had a 'pop' He said he could breath again. That's what he said 'a pop' as his nasal passage cleared but only for about 5 or 10 minutes then it closed again. That was an amazing thing which happened I thought that meditation was working but he left it a bit too late. I never thought he would survive. Few years later teaching meditation in Sydney, this guy came up to me 'do you remember me?' I said 'of course I don't remember, who are you? ' As a monk I am honest He was that man. He cared with his meditation and his nose had cleared and now he was going around teaching people how to be peaceful, how to be silent. because his cancer had got into regression even though he should have been dead years ago.

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• The tangled brain cleared before the second operation

  In brief: A Malaysian man in Penang had a rare disease he described as things in the brain physically tangled; after one painful operation it seemed…

  Read full story▾▴

  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

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• The man in the latex mask whose psoriasis cleared

  In brief: At a North Perth / Redemptorist retreat centre near Northbridge a man arrived in a latex face mask — severe whole-body psoriasis; the mask…

  Read full story▾▴

  this guy came wearing a a latex rubber mask on his face. And I thought, "Oh my goodness, this is some weirdo from the red light district. He got the wrong place, sir." He said, "No, no, no." He said, "I've come on your retreat because he actually lifted up the face mask, had this terrible rash all over his face." And it was a warm day. He actually unbuttoned his shirt and showed me his chest. Had a rash all over his chest. He had psoriasis, quite severe, and he even lifted up the bottom of his trousers, he said. And the rash looked disgusting. He said, "This rash, this psoriasis is over my whole body, every square inch, and it just drives me crazy. The rubber mask is so I don't scratch the skin off my face." He said, "I tried everything. Nothing works. doctors have given up on me, but I can't stand it. So he said, "I've come on your retreat." He wasn't a Buddhist, at least not at the beginning anyway. I think it was at the end. He said, "I've come on your retreat to try something different to deal with this psoriasis all over. I can't even sleep at night." And he said, "If I don't stay for your talk, your introductory talk, please, it's nothing to do with you. It's just He was just so agitated 24/7. But he stayed not just for my opening talk. That gentleman stayed for the whole nine days. And at the end of his retreat, he came to see me. He wasn't wearing the rubber face mask anymore. This is no exaggeration. He was had this beautiful smile on his face and his skin on his face was clear. Not many people have celebrated by showing me their chest. That's what he did. Unbutton his shirt with a beautiful proud smile on his face. His chest was free of the rash and he lifted up you know his bottom of his trousers and there was rash around his ankles but everywhere else was gone. He said, "Look at that ajam brah. That's all that's left. Just maybe an inch around each ankle

  Open story page·Watch this telling