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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The meditator twisted into a knot

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Our Mind and Our Health | Ajahn Brahm | 7 July 2023

1 min read

Content note: health claim (self-healing in meditation)

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

There was this one lady once on a meditation retreat and uh she was twisted around into such a contorted posture that I can't show you what it looked like. If I did, you'll have to take me to hospital too. And somebody actually interrupted my meditation. Ajam brah look at that lady and she was really really heavily twisted and I was concerned for her too. I thought you know if you do that to a person with against their will that would just really torture them. So I waited for her to come out of a meditation. And when she did, I took her aside and said, "Excuse me, but when you were meditating, you were really twisted around in such an extreme position. I feel okay." She said, "Yeah, I didn't know I was twisted around so much. I felt great." And then I felt stupid. Ajan Brahmy should have known better. So the next question I asked was, "Where did you have your uh car accident?" I remember her response there was a bra at last I've got proof you have got psychic powers. I never told anything about that. And of course they didn't have psychic powers. All it really was is just you knew that that was the most common injury to your back. And somehow or other she had a very bad she told me about it very bad car accident. She was happy to get out alive and she obviously went to hospital many times and then she started twisting around against it. Didn't know what she was doing. She was in a meditation. She didn't understand that she was twisting around. Her body did it all by itself. When it twisted around that allowed the energies to flow to actually to heal some of those places in her body which the doctors couldn't get to. That's why she said she felt tremendous afterwards.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 5:55 (to 7:54)

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

A retreatant's body twisted into a knot while she meditated, and she came out feeling wonderful. Ajahn Brahm guessed an old car accident and was right. He sees it as the body releasing what it needed; that's his view, not medical advice. When you meditate, relax and let the body find its own way.

In brief (our summary)

On a retreat someone interrupts his meditation: a woman is twisted into an extreme, contorted posture. Afterwards he asks if she's all right; she had no idea and felt great. Then he asks, 'Where did you have your car accident?' — 'At last, proof you have psychic powers!' No: it's the commonest cause of such back injuries. Her body, relaxed, twisted by itself to let energy reach places doctors couldn't.

Teaching point

If your body takes a strange posture in meditation, let it be; it may be healing itself.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Our Mind and Our Health | Ajahn Brahm | 7 July 2023 · 2023-07-08 · ▶ watch from 5:55 to 7:54 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

3 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Ajan Brahmy' = Ajahn Brahm (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

  • “When did you have your accident?”

    In brief: A retreatant reports that as she grew still her back became very hot, not painfully. Ajahn Brahm asks when she had her accident;…

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    Few years ago a person in the retreat in North Perth came up to me and said she had a very strange experience during her meditation. She was getting quite still but her back became very hot. It was like on fire. not unpleasantly so, not painfully, but like an information was occurring there and she did not know why. So she came and saw me afterwards and say, "What's going on?" I was meditating there and suddenly got really warm and hot. So I asked her, "When did you have your accident?" And she looked at me and bra you read my mind had a car accident a few years ago. Yes. And you injured your back and shoulders. Yes. How do you know? Look, it's not psychic powers. It's just you told me because this is what happens.

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  • Her chronic arthritis was gone

    In brief: A woman overseas emailed that she had been on strong painkillers for chronic arthritis; after his talks and meditation technique the…

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    I had chronic arthritis strong painkillers because of your talks and meditation technique I've got no arthritis anymore totally gone I like saying that because that gives me just this you know the old if I had any hairs on my head they'd be standing up you know just wow that's really amazing you can take something like chronic arthritis incredibly painful no cure supposedly possible just heavy painkillers just to get through the day and this woman and she's listening now well done just got off her painkillers and no arthritis no pain at all gone totally

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  • 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…

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    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

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  • The social worker's solutions that popped up

    In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office…

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    A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.

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