# The man whose thoughts ran away

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-thai-man-thoughts-psychosis
- Themes: mind, control, mental illness, thinking
- Life situations: racing thoughts, mental health crisis

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

As a monk of one or two years in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm watches a man who comes to the monastery every morning grow more disturbed over four or five days: talking without stopping, faster and more incoherent, until he completely loses it. He could do nothing; he could only observe that the more the man tried to control it, the worse it got.

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

I remember seeing that happen once in this fellow who over space of 4 or 5 days when I was a young monk in Thailand, maybe 1 or 2 rains as a monk, 2 years as a monk, he would come to the monastery every morning and you could see he was going more and more crazy. There's no way nothing I could do about it. I didn't know what I was doing. I was observing at the time. He started talking and he wouldn't stop and the talking got more and more quick, more rapid, more incoherent and eventually just completely lost it. You can see that that thought was just going completely out of all bounds. The more he tried to control it, the worse it would get.

## Teaching point

Thought is the inner controller; trying to control it can feed it.

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

As a young monk, Ajahn Brahm watched a man's racing thoughts spin out of control over a few days, and saw that fighting them only fed them. That's his observation, not clinical advice; serious distress needs proper care. Alongside that care, a gentle approach can help: struggle with dark moods a little less, and they may loosen.

## Source

- [Control and Freedom | Ajahn Brahm | 05-01-2007](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKxKGFw6B68) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 47:47 to 48:27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKxKGFw6B68&t=2867s