Stories about mental illness
5 Buddhist wisdom stories about mental illness from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Dig a hole, boil the waterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Early one morning a village headman tells Ajahn Chah a woman has been possessed all night; villagers bring her in, screaming profanities and foaming at the mouth, held down by…
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One example, which I will never forget, this is about my master was a person who came to his temple possessed. At least that's what the villagers said, Just early in the morning, the Headman and his assistant came into the monastery, and told Ajahn Chah that there was a woman in their village, who've been possessed by some spirit, by some demon the night before. And they were totally crazy. They'd been trying to deal with her all night and they could not. So they were bringing her to see this Great Monk Ajahn Chah. Now, of course, in Thailand, they don't have a PET (Psychiatric Emergency Teams) team, they don't have psychiatrists. It's actually the monks who are the psychiatrists in those days. We're the ones, who have the psychological wherewithal to deal with such problems. And so they were bringing this lady into this monastery. And as they were bringing her in, you could actually hear her screams, even though it was a long way away. When people are crazy, I mean, they scream in such a loud voice. And they screamed profanities, even in like a temple and you know how devout Thai people are among their monks in their monasteries. But this lady was out of her head. And of course, what did Ajahn Chah , a great master do? He just ordered these two novices, "Dig a hole, I want a big hole dug." And another couple of novices, "Boil some water, I want some boiling water, lots of boiling water." And I began to wonder who was the mad person, This lady being dragged to the monastery or Ajahn Chah because I couldn't understand what the heck he was doing. You don't sort of treat a person, who's mad by digging a hole and boiling some water. What's he going to do? Give her a cup of tea? (laughter) And as she was coming closer, Ajahn Chah was very sort of fierce with the novices. "Come on, I need the hole dug quickly! And I need more water, lots of water. Boil heaps of water!" And again, we didn't know what he was up to. I couldn't figure this guy out. And when they brought this woman to him, it was this classic case. She was literally foaming at her mouth. And she was so crazy, and so powerful with her madness, You know, these were, you know, tough northeast Thai farmers and had about three or four of them holding her down. And they were just, that's all they could do to keep her from sort of lunging at Ajahn Chah. And then he led on what he was up to. He told the villagers, "This is a very, very dangerous demon who's got into this woman. The only thing we can do to help her is put her in this hole, pour boiling water over her, heaps and then bury her alive. It's too dangerous a demon." And that's what he said. He was going to pour all this boiling water over this lady and bury her alive. Now, you think that people just don't do this. But Ajahn Chah was so eccentric, so unique. I thought actually he might do this. And certainly, this girl thought he might do this. And she started calming down, before the water was boiled and the hole was dug, she was sitting in front of him as calm as anything, receiving the Buddhist precepts, exhausted. And after giving the precepts, they calmly took her home.
- Dismembered heads that could not be doubtedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An article Brahm read describes someone who lived through schizophrenia and came out wise and free: at the extreme they saw dismembered heads rolling on the floor, visions that…
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I remember reading an article of a person describing their battle with schizophrenia and and just how they came out the other side just wise free living a beautiful life and they said that it was so extreme that sometimes they would see like heads dismembered heads rolling around the floor in front of them Visions which were totally irrationally logical which couldn't actually exist but to them it was obviously true that they had no way that they could doubt the logic the reason of a dismembered head rolling in front of them on the ground and I can understand that how that works once you have a certain world view once you really think that that's that that is actually the truth
- The Elvis impersonator with the walking stickStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At the old North Perth temple a man who had fallen off a roof and suffered brain damage starts dressing as Elvis, comes violent with a walking stick (always missing), and Ajahn…
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I remember this one guy once, this was in our previous temple over in North Perth. When I first came here he'd fallen off a roof and he hit his head and he was actually crazy, he had brain damage. And he was very nice guy at first, but now he started dressing up like Elvis Presley and impersonating Elvis Presley. He was out of his mind and he came to see me and he was violent, he had his walking stick and every now and again he'd try hitting me with a walking stick but always missing. He wasn’t a very good shot thank goodness and the only thing I could remember to do, I had no, I had no training on how to counsel people who were that sort of mad. The only thing I could think of: just make peace, be kind, be gentle, make peace, be kind be gentle, even though I didn't know what I was doing and I was in a very dangerous, very... maybe not life-threatening but I could certainly got injured very easily if I'd have said the wrong word and upset him, he'd have smashed me with his walking stick for sure. "Be kind, be peaceful, be gentle." And you calmed the whole person down. It's wonderful to be able to do things like that. When you know how to make good mental kamma, you get good results.
- The man whose thoughts ran awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a monk of one or two years in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm watches a man who comes to the monastery every morning grow more disturbed over four or five days: talking without…
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I remember seeing that happen once in this fellow who over space of 4 or 5 days when I was a young monk in Thailand, maybe 1 or 2 rains as a monk, 2 years as a monk, he would come to the monastery every morning and you could see he was going more and more crazy. There's no way nothing I could do about it. I didn't know what I was doing. I was observing at the time. He started talking and he wouldn't stop and the talking got more and more quick, more rapid, more incoherent and eventually just completely lost it. You can see that that thought was just going completely out of all bounds. The more he tried to control it, the worse it would get.
- The psychiatric team's flat batteryStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Several years ago a woman arrived one evening at Bodhinyana still wearing a hospital wristband from Bentley Hospital's psychiatric unit. Ajahn Brahm said she needed to go back;…
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It happened once that there was a lady who came uh in the evening to Bodhinana Monastery. This was several years ago. And unfortunately she and I could see from her wrist she still had that tag they put on the wrist. Uh she was in Bentley Hospital with no psychiatric problems. And so I recognized her and I said, "Well, you know, you really do need to go back to hospital." She said, "No, you told me to come here on the psychic plane." So I realized there's a problem here. And so she didn't want to leave. So one thing which I did know there was some people who worked for the they called it the PET team at the time psychological emer psychiatric emergency team. So we called them. Trouble is you know we lived down in Serpentine. It's a long way away. So by the time they came, it took a while to settle her down. But then uh when they arrived at the gate, they asked me how she be been behaving. And at one time she threw a cup of tea at me. I didn't mind the cup breaking, but what a waste of tea. But nevertheless, I told him that I said, "Oh, if we have anybody who's uh got psychiatric problems and was also violent, we have to call the police." So the only police station, you know, which was there at the time was over in Armadale. So we called them. I said, "You will come." And this is our local police station in Armadale. And they didn't know the way to Bodhinana Monastery. They went by Serpentine Dam, which is twice as long as it should be. And so we're waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. But then when the police actually did come, the psychiatrists, they know the stuff about the mind, but sometimes they lose what we call their common sense because they left their headlights on all the time. And so their car was actually had no no electricity in the the batteries anymore. And so when with the police they asked this lady to go back into hospital, they could not take her. They didn't have any power in their car. And the rules for the police, the police couldn't take them. That was against their rules. So they were stuck. But fortunately, we talked the police into taking her into the hospital.