Stories about body
9 Buddhist wisdom stories about body from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- He trained the muscles beside his spineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A Bodhinyana monk with degenerative spine pain was told not to sit cross-legged. Using mindfulness he learned to feel, stretch and strengthen the muscles either side of the spine…
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his spine was degenerated and was very weak. So what he did was, to compensate the weakness in his spine by learning how to develop the muscles either side of his spine. Starting off just by touching his back, with his fingers, the muscles on either side of the spine to become aware of them There is so much of our body we are not aware of at all. Because we don't need to be. And by keeping on stroking those muscles either side of the spine soon he became aware of the very existence of those muscles. In neurology you are making those connections in the brain. So you can feel those muscles. And then next thing with a bit of trial and error once he was aware of those muscles even without touching them he could learn how to stretch them trial and error the awareness could see how they stretch and how they contract. Once he could do that, next stage he could exercise those muscles just like you exercise your arms or exercise your legs through running. By working those muscles he exercised them and of course every time they exercise they got stronger and stronger and stronger until they became so strong much stronger than my equivalent muscles because I don't need them I've got a good back His muscles became so strong they compensated for the weakness in his spine and now he can meditate without any problem
- Her chronic arthritis was goneStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman overseas emailed that she had been on strong painkillers for chronic arthritis; after his talks and meditation technique the arthritis was totally gone and she was off…
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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
- “It's only fat” — “Same thing”Joke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Travelling through the US with only his one small bag, a customs officer asks where the rest of his baggage is, then what's under his robe — a suicide belt? He opens his robe:…
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When I was uh traveling through United States a few years ago, they looked at me, I only have my my bag. That's my baggage. Said, "Where's the rest of your baggage, sir?" said, "This is all I have." He said, "Well, what's underneath your robe?" And what this customs agent said, we said, "Is there a suicide belt under Europe?" Because in those days people would use suicide bolts. And so I opened up my R said, "No, it's suicide belt. It's only fat." And that's when the customs officer said, "Same thing.
- No such thing as a sudden heart attackStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Cardiologist summary: heart attacks don't come out of the blue — many body signals precede the big one; people aren't listening.
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cardiologist and he said and I really took this on board he said that there was no such thing as a sudden heart attack it does not come as they say out of the blue before you have a heart attack you have many signals which the heart gives you gives you before the big one comes but you're not listening to them you're not here not aware of your body
- The meditator twisted into a knotStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: 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…
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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.
- The monk who trained his back muscles with mindfulnessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A monk with a congenital spinal weakness and severe pain is told by doctors nothing can be done and he shouldn't meditate. Following a book, he rubs the unfelt muscles beside his…
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Just like, I won't say who this monk is. He had terrible pain in his spine and that was because he had some congenital deformation in his spine. Doctors at that time... He had a CT scan and said nothing you can do about it. But the doctor said I'd advise not meditating because that makes it worse. Well, I'm a monk! That's what I do! But fortunately he found this excellent book and of how... A long time ago, how to use some mindfulness to cure the problem. Because his spine was too weak and it was causing some problems. But, said this little book, there are muscles on either side of your spine which most people aren't aware of at all because you don't need to be. Much of your body you don't need to be aware of it, so you're not. So the book says start off, take your hand and rub those muscles on either side of the spine as an exercise every day for an hour or something every day. Because when you're actually touching them you can actually feel the sensation of your... And now my thumb touching one of those muscles and that creates a connection in your mind. A neuro connection. The more you do that the more you can be aware of those muscles, the more sensitive they become. Until you can actually feel those muscles without needing to touch them, just as I can feel my nose without needing to touch it. I can feel my hand without needing to touch it. It becomes sensitive. Then once you can actually be mindful of those muscles, trial and error, try and move them. After a while you'll learn how to move those muscles at will. Because now he was mindful of them you can do something with them. Now exercise them: stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them, stretch them relax them. So he did that and then after stretching relaxing them for a few months those muscles became so strong, much stronger than other people's muscles, that they perfectly compensate for the weakness in his spine. Now he can sit meditation, no pain anymore.
- The runny nose before live TVStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Korea, at −15°C with snow everywhere, Ajahn Brahm wakes with a cold and a dripping nose — and has half an hour before a live interview on South Korean TV, where a running nose…
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what happened in career a couple of years ago having a a cold woke up in the morning as -15° snow everywhere and my nose was dripping you know no snot I don't know what the correct word for it is but that's how I grew up with that just with the stuff in your nose so nasal fluid mucus whatever you call it to be polite so all this stuff was coming out of my nose and only had one half an hour and I was going on live TV for an interview in NKT that was South Korean TV and it's very it's so basically not done to go on TV we're stuff coming out of your nose so I had half an hour so what did I do sit down meditate focus on the irritable sinuses focus on them not force the scientist spinal fluid to stop but just be kind to it opening the door of my heart to this irritating we really like my imagining my mother kissing a wound to just a real eye sit let it be be kind be compassionate there knows everything will be okay and it works
- The Tibetan doctor's pulse diagnosisStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As Ajahn Brahm recalls from a Buddhist magazine, a newly arrived Tibetan refugee doctor with no English is tested in a US hospital; reading a patient's pulses, he says there's a…
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And I remember reading an article in a was a Buddhist magazine some years ago where they had a traditional Tibetan doctor who had only just came over from Tibet as a refugee, but he was one of the famous doctors in Tibet. He couldn't speak any English or that he could even read. And they took him into a hospital in the US just to test him out. They showed him patients and asked him to diagnose what was wrong with them. And I think he tested the pulses like in Chinese medicine. I think I don't is it nine pulses? I think I forget how many years is now. He checked all these pulses and then straight away he said that guy's got a blockage around his heart region. He had congested arteries around his heart. Was going to do a bypass soon. That was one example. I remember this guy got it straight away. But the way he interpreted it was like blockages in energy flows. The doctors in the US using the scan showed there was a blocked arteries close to his heart. Exactly the same.
- “When did you have your accident?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
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; astonished, she confirms a car accident injuring…
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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.