Stories about health
11 Buddhist wisdom stories about health from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Cough once, get eight bottles of medicineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Once in Australia Ajahn Brahm coughs at the start of a talk. By the end there are eight or nine bottles in front of him — Ayurvedic, homeopathic, 'horrible but you must take…
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this happened once when I was in Australia I coughed in public the beginning of a talk by the end of the talk there was about eight or nine bottles of medicine in front of me and people said you must take this this is Ayurvedic it's very good this is homeopathic it's much better this is horrible you have to take this I took this this is no usual medicine you've got to take that had so many medicines and now being compassionate and watching people to you know to make merit I said yeah I'll take that I'll take that so I had to take every of those bottles of medicine and that really made me sick
- Doctor, there's something right with me — I'm sickJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Instead of 'there's something wrong with me, doctor', say there's something right with me — I'm sick again. Sickness is the body responding; cultural shame makes it worse. He…
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Doctor, there's something right with me. I'm sick again. There's nothing wrong with being sick. Why do people add this this cultural shame on being sick? Why do you think you've made some big mistake? You're sick again. And you should try so hard next time not to be sick. If you try to be healthy, that makes you sick. One of the reasons I'm healthy because I don't even try to be healthy
- Get your wife to cancel if you're deadJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man needing an operation is told the earliest slot is in three months; he protests he might be dead by then. The doctor says don't worry — just get your wife to ring the…
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the guy who went to see his doctor and the doctor said well you know you really need an operation this is dangerous for your health we can schedule you in for three months said the doctor and the man said three months time I can't wait that long I might be dead in 3 months and the doctor said don't worry just get your wife to ring my secretary we'll cancel the appointment
- 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
- She thought she'd had a stroke — it was dehydrationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A member of the three-month rains retreat in Joondalup grows very sick and is taken to hospital thinking she has had a stroke. The cause is dehydration: she had been cutting back…
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There's one of our as he's probably listening, one of our members of our three-month rains retreat over in in Joondalup, Perth, she know, she thought she had had a stroke. Cuz you know, she started really getting very sick. We took her to the hospital. The obvious, dehydration. She wanted to just meditate for long periods of time and if you just have water, you have to go to the loo. And so she thought, I better not drink that much. And sometimes people forget the easy things. The obvious solutions are sometimes the best. And after that, she was fine. Just need dehydration.
- The big rocks go in firstStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A business-school professor fills a jar with large stones and asks if it's full; the students say yes. He adds gravel, shaking it into the gaps; then sand; then water. 'What is…
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This a professor came into his lecture hall. This was at uh a business school. And he had a jug and he asked he took out some from his briefcase took out a bag of stones and one by one put the stones into this jug until he could get no more stones inside the jug. And he asked his students, "Is the jug full?" Said, "Yeah, of course. You can't get any more stones in. He smiled and from his briefcase he picked out a bag of gravel, smaller stones. And one by one he put those into the jar, shook the jar, and many of those smaller stones found their way in the spaces between the big rocks and the smaller rocks. Is it full? No, they said they were on to him by now. So from his bag, he picked out his briefcase. He got a bag of fine sand, sprinkled the fine sand onto the rocks and gravel, shook the jar until much of the sand found its way in the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is it full yet?" he asked the class. He had nothing more in his briefcase and said, "No, you'll probably find some other thing to put in there. He got the water jar and poured the water into that big jar. So that much of the water found its way between the rocks, the s the gravel and the sand. And he didn't want to try and find any other thing to put in that jar. He said, "Now what is the meaning of this lesson?" Modern times. Okay. Business school. One smart ass kid put their hand up and said, "It shows us, sir, no matter how busy we are, we can always fit something more in." Have you ever heard your bosses saying that? No, said the professor. What it shows us, if you want to put the big rocks in, the precious stones, you have to put them in first. Otherwise, you'll never get them in. You can fit the other stuff in afterwards, but the important things in life, you have to put in first priority.
- The cold that vanished mid-talkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first visit to Canberra, his hosts take Ajahn Brahm everywhere all day in the cold, getting lost, with no rest. By evening he has a terrible cold, and at a big public talk…
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first time I went to Canberra to give a series of talks and to my house they took me all over the place all day and they got lost and it was one of these days no rest and just from early in the morning it was really cold so by the end of the day I had this terrible cold and I was supposed to give a talk public talk in a big Temple advertised all these people came and as soon as I started trying to give a talk every other sentence I'd sneeze and cough and stuff was coming out of my nose ears everywhere it was disgusting so after about 15 minutes there's no way I could give a talk like that so I said let's all meditate so I had half an hour meditation altogether and afterwards I gave this beautiful talk Not a Cough not a sneeze really impressive people saw that wow is that possible he had a cold you know any stuff coming out of your nose you weren't sort of imagining this it's real you meditate you know because I had to sometimes we're lazy don't really do it unless you really want to unless you have to mostly so you'd sit there and just after a while the cold vanish and I gave us lovely fluent talk without any interruptions wow that's interesting this meditation actually works
- The NHS invitation — bad for my healthStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After an HR conference in London (business class, hotel, family visit paid), the UK National Health Service asked him back to Birmingham for the same talk. He replied that they…
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I got another invitation from uh the National Health Service in UK. They said they attended my talk they liked it. Can you please come back to London? Actually the their conference was being held in Birmingham. can you please come to Birmingham in UK to give the same talk for the National Health Service? And I replied to them. I said, "Listen, you're the National Health Service. You should know better. I've just did an international tour, a long flight all the way from from London back to Perth, and now you want me to come back again. That's bad for my health." and you're the National Health Service. The lady who invited me wrote this lovely letter back saying, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's on my desk. It cheers me up. Instead of complaining, you made me laugh. Made me happy
- The Red Cross nurse knew meditation lowers blood pressureStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago he takes a young monk to donate blood on Wellington Street; the nurse already knows meditation lowers blood pressure — inspiring when meditation was little known.
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I went with him to the Red Cross over in Wellington Street to to donate blood. And when he donated blood, first of all, they had to check your your your blood pressure
- When we had no hospital, people were so healthyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Chah's chief disciples (interviewed in a BBC documentary; Brahm briefly confuses him with another monk who first went to see Chah) says honestly: when he was young…
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And I remember this other guy. He was one of Ajahn Chah's chief disciples. And he said something which really shocked me, but you know, he was very honest. And he was actually one of the people interviewed in the BBC documentary about Ajahn Chah many years ago. He said, "When I was young, we didn't have any hospital and people were so healthy. Now we have a hospital, there's so many sick people." Now that was fascinating comment because I trusted this fellow. He was very honest. And he was putting a window sort of into the past and into the the present. He's very, very old man, but very trustworthy. He was one of these guys he first went to see Ajahn Chah. No, so that's another guy. I'm getting him mixed up. But this was a very, very honest fellow, a very good man, one of the chief disciples. So I really trust, you know, what he said there because I was there in the very early days. But it was saying that sometimes development, what we think they need, that is one of the problems with with aid, with compassion.
- “Your meditation can't be that good”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the Serpentine doctor's surgery a monk sees an advert for another meditation group and suggests the doctor's people come to theirs instead. The reply: your meditation group…
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I think one of the monks was visiting the uh the local doctor in Serpentine. And when they were visiting that local doctor in Serpentine, they saw an advert there for a meditation group in Serpentine. Not our group, but another group. And he said, "Well, why don't you come to our meditation group?" And he said, "Well, your meditation group can't be that good because you monks are always coming into this surgery for help from the doctor.