Story · Ajahn Brahm

Tolstoy's screaming patient falls quiet

As told by Ajahn Brahm in What Happens After You Die? | Ajahn Brahm | 08-04-2011

1 min read

there was a story of a person quite a wealthy person in his country house who had his sickness and who was uh in to in pain constantly moaning and screaming literally 24 hours a day would not sleep and it was driving all the people in the house crazy imagine you're in a house and there's someone moaning and screaming in pain and there's nothing you can do about it being wealthy they tried to get all sorts of therapists homeopaths allopaths everything but nothing could relieve this person's pain and there were tolto when a beautiful writer was describing the emotions of the people who had to deal with this for many weeks but at the end of the story he mentioned that everything suddenly went quiet in the house but the man hadn't died yet for 5 or 10 minutes he was free of pain clear Lucid before he passed away

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 13:05 (to 14:10)

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

After weeks of screaming pain, Tolstoy's patient fell quiet, clear and lucid for a few minutes before he died, and Ajahn Brahm says he has seen the same at bedsides. If you sit with someone near the end, it's a gentle reason to stay present and keep speaking kindly; those moments may matter. It's a story, not a medical promise.

In brief (our summary)

Ajahn Brahm recalls a Tolstoy story read as a student: a wealthy man in constant pain screams day and night for weeks, no therapy helps, and then the house suddenly goes quiet — for five or ten minutes before he dies he is free of pain and lucid.

Teaching point

In the last moments of life the mind can separate from the failing brain and become clear.

When this story may help

caring for a dying loved one
terminal illness
fear of a painful death

Themes

death
dying
clarity of mind

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in What Happens After You Die? | Ajahn Brahm | 08-04-2011 · 2011-04-09 · ▶ watch from 13:05 to 14:10 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: 'TL sto' / 'tolto' = Tolstoy (caption mis-hearing; not changed).

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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Finish off with the story of Ted. I I'll finish off now. I promise. Maybe [laughter] Ted. This guy, they just opened up St. John of God. No, no, no. One in Murdoch. Murdoch Hospice down in uh right next to Murdoch Hospital. really nice little hospital. They just opened up. So Ted was one of the first patients in there. Had lung cancer, was dying. So they put him in there to die. Just a one-way ticket. [clears throat] But with Ted, he was like from York. I got to be careful. From Lanasher. He's from on the borders between Lanasher and York. He was from Lancasher. And so the he told me afterwards I went to visit him a few times. The first night in the hospital, the nurse came up to him and said, "What do you want for dinner tonight, Ted?" And Ted said, "Well, you know, I got diabetes, so I can't have anything sweet. [gasps] I got sort of high cholesterol, so forget about anything oil or oily or or fried. I can't have anything like that. I can't have anything salty because I've got hardened arteries. I can't have. And the nurse looked at him and said, "What on earth are you talking about, Ted? You're not going to die of cholesterol or heart attack or or hardened arteries or diabetes. You're going to die of cancer in a couple of days." So Ted, the nurse said, "You can eat whatever you want. anything really. His eyes went wide apparently according to the nurse. Really? And so he had all this food, sweet, syrupy, salty, sugary, which is he told me his wife had never allowed him to eat for the last three or four years. And he ate it. Had lots of it. Why not? You're going to die soon. So, and we know what happened. Honest story. He went into remission and he walked out of that hospice. [laughter] True. I know. He's a good friend. God is his [laughter] daughter and and uh son-in-law was an ex monk and six months he had and then he went back into the hospice to die properly. [snorts] [laughter] He went back. He had six extra months because he cared for himself instead of trying to cure himself so much.
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Fifteen minutes of goodbyes from a brain-tumour coma
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The woman who refused to go back
In brief: A woman who dies on the operating table meets a spirit telling her it isn't her time; she refuses — she's having too good a time — until…
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there's this one lady who died on the operating table and so she left her body looking at her body over there just a mess so off she went but apparently that she described it as meeting some Spirit and the spirit saying you know it's it's not your time you know you got to go back and she said no way I'm having too good a time I don't want to go back sorry and the spirit said but you have to go back I don't care about that I'm not going you know like people are pretty independent these days and you know you don't actually do what you're told by your parents or by the government or by God or anybody so Spirits you know go and get lost I'm having a good time so that degree of Independence know she didn't want to sort of go anywhere until eventually having this argument you you got to go back no way apparently she described because obviously she did go back that's why she could tell this story this Spirit sort of got hold of her and threw her back into her body and it just had all this aches and pains and heaviness again and she was really pissed off of that spirit I mean really big time so when she gave this interview said now when I die next time of course I would die eventually I'm going to find that guy and I you do know what I'm going to do to that guy what he did to me that's how you described it
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The door prize
In brief: Imagine tonight's door prize is a first-class trip to Dharamsala for a private lunch with the Dalai Lama, then three days in a six-star…
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I remember telling this to imagine that at the end of this talk a special occasion that we were going to give a door prize and the door prize today was a free trip to say let's say um okay because many of you are Buddhists a free trip to India to Dam Salah on a first class uh trip, all expenses paid to see his holiness of Dalai Lama, have a private even uh lunch with his holiness of Dal Lama. And on your way back, you know, through um Singapore, is that a good idea? Singapore. Okay. Through Singapore, you can have uh three days and the six car six-star hotel with a thousand uh sing dollars a day spending money, whatever you want, on your way home. first class all the way and that was the door prize today. Now imagine hypothetically if you won that how would you feel? Would you be excited? you know, would you really be looking forward to actually having a private audience with this Holiness of Dal Lama? Would you? And this wonderful trip and if you said, well, it's going to be in about, you know, 4 months time. Would you be counting down the days, you know, 3 months, only two months to go, one month? Come on, can we get it quicker? And the day before you'd be so excited now, what's what's the difference? What's better? going to see his holdings the Dalai Lama and all expenses paid or going to heaven a great heavenly realm where you don't need money to spend anything you want you just get and you not just see the dollar you can see even all the great monks and the bodhic sattas and I'm going to say the Buddha but people get upset at me so say they can't see 11 but anyway see all these wonderful people up there not just the 14th alam the 13th the 12th 11th the whole series of dalas Wouldn't that be better, go to heaven? So why is it when people got a terminal disease, they think and the doctor says only about 3 months to live. Can I say can you make it quicker please? I want to go to heaven.
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The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)