Stories about chronic pain
2 Buddhist wisdom stories about chronic pain 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…
Read full story
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
- The man in constant 'saw-cut' pain who was at peaceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man tells Ajahn Brahm that scans at Osborne Park Hospital's pain clinic show his pain equals having an arm sawn off with a two-handed saw — 24 hours a day. Yet Ajahn Brahm…
Read full story
The level of pain which he was experiencing constantly was exactly the same as an ordinary person would experience if they were having their arm cut off with a chainsaw And he was experiencing that constantly. And that was an objective standard. They could do the brain scan and say this is what this guy is actually feeling. So you can imagine that degree of pain intensity he was feeling. And that was one of the reasons why he came to a place like this: to learn some Buddhism, some meditation, some psychology to deal with that incredible intense pain which was there all the time. I know one thing - he got this incredibly good meditation as a result - because he had to. There was a great incentive for him to find a way of being at peace with the pain. And he managed to do it. Because I remember him coming up to me once with a big smile on his face and he said "I've finally done it Ajahn Brahm, I've finally done it!" I said "What have you done?" And I knew he had been meditating and I sort-of second-guessed it. Have you got the ECG to be flat, to be able to meditate under the hospital conditions, so your heart stops, gets very peaceful He said "Oh yeah I did that weeks ago" "Now I got the EEG to be flat." So he could get so still in meditation So peaceful that even the ECG and the EEG flat-lined. Totally peaceful and still. That's what he learned because of the extreme pain. He had to.. somehow be at peace with these things. And he found that was the way that he was free ...of the pain It just basically vanishes