Stories about disability
4 Buddhist wisdom stories about disability from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “Give me another hand”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A GP tells the parents of a boy born deaf that an article reports 10% of such children can have hearing restored by a simple operation. The parents agree and it works. But the…
Read full story
There was a case which I read uh in a scientific journal. There was a boy who was born deaf and uh one day his parents took him for a medical checkup with his GP. his GP had just read an article, you know, in one of the medical magazines that some researchers had found that 10% of children who were born deaf could have their hearing restored and with a very simple operation but only 10%. So the doctor said it seems that your boy know might be one of those 10%. Would you like to give it a try? And you know the parents asked you know is it really invasive? is going to be painful. It's going to be a bit of discomfort, but you know, who knows? You know, your kid may hear as result of the operation. So, the parents gave the child the operation and it worked. The child could hear again. And as soon as the child recovered from the operation with his hearing restored, he was really angry and upset at his parents. Said, "Why did you not ask me if I wanted to hear?" He said, "This is a terrible, terrible noise. I've got to figure this one out now." He said, "If you really wanted to help me, give me another hand." Because he had learned to use his hands to explore the world where other people would have used sound. And when I realized that this was a person who was deaf, it was a person who understood what it was like. And he said, "That's actually much better." He preferred being deaf.
- The father who carried his son through the raceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a video someone sent him: an American father always takes his autistic son with him on Ironman-type runs — 30 km through rain and up mountains, the son on his back — and the…
Read full story
there was this one American guy. He had a son who was autistic, and this man would go on these - the Iron Man runs and stuff – he’d always take his son with him. He was running like 30 kilometres through the rain or up mountains and stuff; his son would be on his back. He'd carry him everywhere. And you could see the look on the son's face. Just the joy of when he finished the race, it was inspiring! That son was just so close to his dad. His dad was doing things and you could see just the joy on that son's face. He was autistic. Brilliant.
- The paper lotus on the shrineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Thai village a young woman, brain-damaged from birth, cannot speak but grunts, and her friends understand every grunt; she joins in dances and lives a full life. One day,…
Read full story
There was one lady in the village, lovely lady. Uh but she had some sort of um uh injury when she was born and she was uh mentally impaired, brain damage. But even though she was brain damaged, she couldn't speak any Thai, certainly not any English, a village girl, but she would always grunt. And her grunts, she growing up with her sisters the same age, all her friends knew exactly what grunt meant which. That's a special language she had with her friends. And she was almost at ease with her friends. She would go out to dances and stuff with her friends, have a wonderful life. She wasn't sort of sectioned aside in some institution for people who couldn't speak or were brain damaged. So other parts about her were wonderful. She had a beautiful life and I was very impressed with how people included her in rather than excluding them. So she didn't really worry about the things she couldn't do in other areas. She was brilliant and I love remembering her because she was responsible for one of the greatest acts of kindness and generosity I've seen because I was like, you know, monks, we do work. We don't just sit around all day doing nothing. That's what I should be doing. But anyway, we were I was just sweeping the hall in this monastery in Thailand. That was my job. I was just behind a cupboard when I heard somebody try and sneak into our our main hall and I just peeked around. It was this girl. It wasn't a thief. You I knew her because I've been in that monitor for years. And she was sneaking into the hall. She couldn't speak. She was, you know, brain damaged, but she was in there by herself. And I wonder what the heck she was up to. She never saw me. She went up to the shrine. She put something on the shrine and then as soon as she put it on the shrine, she did her little Buddhist boughs and then she ran away as fast as she could so she wouldn't be seen. But she was seen. I saw everything. And I thanked her for what I saw. I went up to the shrine. She made a paper folded into like a lotus and offered it in front of the Buddha statue. No one could no one could ever call it a work of art, but it certainly was a work of kindness. It's the best she possibly could do. He didn't need to be a mind readader to know how she was thinking. She wanted to give it to the shrine to the Buddha. And she thought if she come when other people were there, they'd have thrown it away. It's not beautiful enough for the Buddha, but it's the best she could possibly do. When I saw that, to me it was beautiful. Not because of what it looked like, but where it came from and how hard it was for her to do that. And so afterwards I told all the monks, you know, I wasn't a senior monk there, but I said to them, look, that little paper flower which was handmade on the shrine, if anybody tries to throw that away, I'm not a violent monk, but I will sort of really sort of fight against you because I know where that came from and how beautiful that was to have a person who felt they were rejected. They managed to find a way in and give a gift. The best they could possibly do.
- The paralysed man who forgave his surgeonStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As reported in a Singapore newspaper article someone sent him: during spinal surgery a surgeon drops an instrument on a man's spine and paralyses him. Instead of suing, he says,…
Read full story
there was actually an article uh which was in one of the newspapers in Singapore about a man who had an had a sort of some spinal problem and had an operation and during the operation the surgeon actually dropped an instrument on his spine and paralyzed him it's a surgical accident what would you do if that happened to you in Australia would you sue the doctor this guy said I forgive you it's an accident never mind even though he was paralyzed he forgave the doctor and had no anger or ill will and so not hardly being able to walk just to be able to stagger with incredible pain he goes to the hospital every week to actually to to help some of the medical students learn about these difficult conditions like paralysis he offers his time there for free without a complaint just getting on in his life not with any negativity but learning how to be with his So-Cal disability and this is an important thing in life a person could do that and he's inspiring so many people apparently simply by the fact that something terrible happened to him and instead of being negative about it instead of complaining about instead of getting a a lawyer and suing this doctor he's learning how to be with his disability to embrace it and use it for something wonderful to inspire other people on how we can live a much more beautiful life without complaining so much