# Doctor, there's something right with me — I'm sick

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-something-right-with-me-im-sick
- Themes: illness, acceptance, humour, doctors
- Life situations: seeing the doctor, chronic illness stigma

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

He teaches that sickness is normal; students then walk into Perth surgeries saying 'Doctor, there's something right with me — I'm sick' — doctors recognise Namara/Buddhist influence.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

there's something right with me. I'm sick again. Some people I told that story before and actually doctors have actually come up to me and said, "We had one of your students come into my surgery today." You know why? Because they came in and said, "Doctor, there's something right with me. I'm sick. They know they must have come to Namara Temple

## Teaching point

Refusing to call sickness 'wrong' changes the first sentence in the clinic.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Doctors told Ajahn Brahm his students walk into surgeries announcing: there's something right with me, I'm sick. It's a joke with a point. Drop the guilt about illness and you'll see a doctor sooner instead of hiding it. The body may be sick, the Buddha said, but the mind needn't be. Look after both.

## Source

- [Only The Body Is Sick | Ajahn Brahm | 04-11-2011](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfy69sa-h8E) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 5:05 to 5:32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfy69sa-h8E&t=305s