Stories about pain
16 Buddhist wisdom stories about pain from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Chah sits in the centre of the feverStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Malaria was an occupational hazard for jungle monks, and Ajahn Chah suffered it for years. During one intense attack, instead of lying in bed worrying, he sat up and meditated…
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And I know Ajahn Chah's story, my teacher, being a forest monk living in the jungles he had malaria for many years it was for those monks an occupational hazard just like these days, for current monks having tummy aches is an occupational hazard simply because as I told you I don't own my stomach you put whatever you want into it, and sometimes my stomach says 'no' (Ajahn laughs) But nevertheless you get to peace with that. His occupational hazard was malaria for many years I remember him telling me how he overcame his malaria once and for all having a very intense attack of the fever and instead of just laying in bed, sitting up meditating with it instead of running away from the thing or complaining about it, worrying about it what most people do when you got a problem, a disease or a tumor or whatever you think about it too much it creates more problems by the way react to them Instead he sat with it, he said he sat right in the centre of his fever quietly silently had peace with it. And it's a very hard thing to do but it's a wonderful thing to train yourself to be able to do. To be able to make peace with pain or with the fever, or with difficulty to make absolute peace with it so you don't even think you are just there at one with what you are experiencing not making any inner speech with it. he said as he was just with that he sort of felt like he was in the centre of a raging forest fire. but in the centre it was cool. but he could perceive all around him was a fire getting hotter and hotter and hotter which was his fever increasing in intensity and he said at one point the fever got so hot it burst and everything was cool. He never got malaria ever again.
- 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
- Hypnosis made the ice bath feel warmStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a TV hypnosis show a man sat in freezing water convinced it was a warm bath and enjoyed it — illustrating how much of cold and pain is mental.
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put a person in a freezing cold tub of water but they convinced this guy under hypnosis that it was nice and warm, just like a warm hot bath. You like going in warm hot baths this time of year? Really nice, warm and hot is very very nice. I don't usually indulge but I remember one of the people here we went to Bhutan together. When I walked up this mountain when you came down again, all your legs were very sore because really exerting yourself. I remember just going into the bath, a good excuse at last, a monk can have a hot bath. Lovely just to relax there. But in this particular case it was ice cold water. But they convinced him it was a warm hot bath and he was having a wonderful time in the cold icy water
- Joke: everything hurtsJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A man tells the doctor his whole body hurts: he touches his head, it hurts; his nose, his mouth, his belly, his elbow, his knees, his feet — all hurt. 'I know your problem,' says…
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There was a person who who went to the doctor. And he said, "What's wrong?" And he said, "My whole body hurts. My whole body's in pain." "What do you mean?" said the doctor. "Well, I touch my head, that hurts. Touch my nose, my nose hurts That hurts. I touch my mouth, that hurts. I touch my belly. My belly's down here, sorry. I touch my belly Belly that Touch my elbow, that hurts. Touch my knees, that hurts. Touch my feet, that hurts." "Well, I know your problem. You've got a broken finger."
- Kissing it betterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Growing up poor in Acton, west London, young Ajahn Brahm plays street football with migrant friends and keeps grazing his knees. He runs to his mother, who kneels and kisses the…
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falling over and scrapping the skin off my knee which really hurt, it stung, and my mother would just crouch down and kiss it better Just her kindness would take the pain away. Every time that happened
- Laughing when you hit your headStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm travelled to ceremonies in the back of a ute under a tarpaulin stretched over a metal frame. On the pot-holed dirt roads, every bump…
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And I learned this when I was reminded of this story by one of uh our Thai followers that when I was a young monk that we used to go over the for invitations here all over the place uh in Thailand uh in the back of a of a ute, a pickup truck. And uh I did actually go once on a back of a motorbike as a monk. Never again on a motorbike. Cuz you know what happens? You can imagine these robes and a motorbike. Once they pick up any speed, the wind gets inside of them and it balloons up. And I was I always thought I was going to fly off because like a big balloon. And but fortunately I managed to hold on just so I never go on a on a motorbike with loose robes like this. But anyway, on the back of a truck, the old utes, they would have like a cover on it, a metal frame over which was draped a tarpool in. And that was a place where you'd sit in the back with all the other monks going to this or that um ceremony. And number one, it was really dusty. At least the top water would keep off any rain. And these were those days where the roads were all uh just dirt roads with lots of potholes. In fact, because there was lots of potholes that every time every time that truck, that ute hit a pothole, what would happen was the ute went down and I would go up and hit my head on the metal frame. And that really hurt, especially because I've got no padding. So you hit your head really hard on this metal again and again and again. And I just this was getting too too much. It's really hurting. And I noticed that when any of the Thai monks or lashed monks whenever they crack their head on one of these uh the metal um frame on which the tarpon was was was covered, when they hit their head, they never sort of grimaced. They never swore. They laughed. And they must have been hurting as much as I was, but they were laughing at the pain. And I thought, what's going on here? And because scientists before, so I used my science, my western sort of logic to actually think of explanations and theories why when Thai monks hit their head, they laughed. And my first theory was they must have hit their head so many times that they were brain damaged. But of course that wasn't the case cuz they were really nice monks. They're very smart. And so then I thought I couldn't understand. So what do you do? You do experiment. Know western culture do an experiment. Find out. So I resolved. So the next time I hit my head, I was going to laugh instead of swear. I'd always always swear in English because the time I couldn't understand me, I thought, but they did. But anyway, when the next time I hit my head, I laughed and I discovered an amazing theory. You should get the Nobel Prize for things like this because it's actually practical that when you laugh when you hit your head, it hurts much less. And if you don't believe me, get the person sitting next to you to hit you on the head. Better not do it here. I get in trouble with insurance. But you can see that just one's attitude towards sickness and pain changes many many things. It does actually hurt much less when you laugh.
- Old treasurer — migraine into the dark roomStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An old BSWA treasurer, not yet Buddhist, learned in the army to beat migraine attacks by sitting 15 minutes in a quiet dark place and going so deep he could not feel his body —…
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old treasurers of all things he passed away some time ago old fellow but he used to go into these deep meditations when he was even in the army he was just uh he didn't really wasn't a buddhist at the time but he just had these terrible um migraine attacks and the only way he'd get through those migraine attacks is finding a quiet dark place and sitting in that quiet dark place for 15 minutes and going deep inside and he said he can go deeper inside enough that he could not feel his body anymore
- Please — no jokes after the hysterectomyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The society's former secretary, after a painful hysterectomy, asked Ajahn Brahm to visit but begged him not to tell jokes because laughing hurt. He tried and failed; the laughs…
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Ajahn Brahm, please, please, please no jokes; [laughter] because if I laugh it really hurts". And I did try my best, and I did fail (laughter from the audience) the poor lady she was like oooh ahh ooh-that really hurt. (laughing) So if you think my jokes are painful wait till you have a hysterectomy and hear them. (laughter) But it did take away much of her pain, with a few laughs in the hospital
- Relaxing into food poisoningStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: About fifteen months earlier, several monks at Bodhinyana get food poisoning, Ajahn Brahm included. He skips a meal for the only time in years and is literally rolling on the…
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with that physical pain of the food poisoning I just gave that food poisoning kindness; "Thank you for coming to visit me" even though I was in agony with cramps in my cave down at Serpentine. And it took only 20 minutes for that food poisoning to disappear
- Root canal without anaestheticStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a young monk at the first Perth centre in North Perth, Ajahn Brahm goes to a free dental clinic and is assigned a trainee dentist — the son of a former society vice-president,…
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And even telling that story, uh just you know, one of uh uh vice presidents years ago. I remember uh Sit Oh, now what was his name? Uh Dr. Chan. This was a time when we first opened this place up with um uh the Premier Gordon Reid. But anyway, his son, Sing How. Um it just happened that uh uh Dr. Chan, he was a uh a dentist. And his son had joined in the the uh family sort of trade as dentists. He started off like almost like being an apprentice, learning his stuff. And in those days, you had to work in these like free dental clinics. And there was one in North Perth. And I was just around the corner from our first Buddhist center in Back in Audley Street in North Perth. So when I needed some medical attention, I just went there even not really knowing him. Sort of you know, I was assigned to him as my dentist. And he had a look, and because I was a monk, he said, "Well, best one of your teeth is not really good. Best to do a root canal." So I guess to do a root canal. And I saw him about 2 or 3 months ago. He came to Bodhinyana Monastery. It was the anniversary of his mother's death, and she's in uh her ashes are in the wall of Bodhinyana Monastery. And I just happened to see him, and I went to say hello and just just hadn't seen him for years. He said, "Ah." And he said to his friend, "This is Ajahn Brahm, and I did his root canal when he was a young monk." And he said I was so impressed because he refused to take any any anesthetic. He said, "Even as he was doing my root canal without anesthetic, even though tears were coming out of my He said, "Ah, it's okay. It's only tears." And just have my root canal without anesthetic. And he asked me what type of like crown do you want on that root canal? I said, "Oh, the cheapest one. You know, no need to anything flashy or something." And apparently the cheapest one was gold. And monks aren't supposed to to own gold, especially on your teeth. So I said, "I can't take gold. It's It's wrong. It's It's against my precepts." He says, "Well, I have to give you the expensive one." So anyway, he didn't mind giving me the expensive one anyway cuz he was a Buddhist, and his I think his father helped out.
- The ants left a circle of kindness around the monkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous Thai forest monk, waiting to give a village talk, sat by an ant mound; red ants bit him until he fled, then he forced himself back and switched to metta — may all ants…
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he found a nice tree and sat down and started meditating then he realized he hadn't been really mindful enough to to to really see where he was meditating cuz there's a big ant mound right next to him and after just a minute or two he You could feel the red ants start start crawling up his legs and as they crawled up they started biting him and they're very painful but he said I'm a monk I can enjoy this [laughter] but after about 20 or 30 bites then [clears throat] there is thousands of Then he's amazing. He said he just he didn't know just jumping up and running, but he was running. He lost his mindfulness and he was running away. And at that point, he said, "No, I am a monk. I'm a forest monk." So he turned around and went straight back to where he'd been sitting and sat down in the middle of these thousands of ants again. Could you do that? So what happened next? The reason I tell the story, he changed his meditation object to loving kindness. May all ants be happy and well. Look, you know, I've got plenty of blood there or flesh. You can take some if you want, but please leave me some [laughter] or something like that. But just real kindness. You know, you've had that sort of feelings of kindness and love towards people and sometimes they're so strong even if someone is hurting you. Just give kindness and joy and goodwill towards them. That's what he did. And then the next thing he told us in his biography, the next thing he felt that the the ants stopped biting him. The next thing you could actually feel them just walking down his body rather than up his body. It's this amazing thing to see when you give kindness like that and the last ant just left him. They went into a very blissful meditation for the hour or so, hour and a half he had. When he came out of the meditation, you know, that's when what disturbed him was the sound of the the villagers coming, you know, they had their dinner and they were coming to listen to a dharma talk from him. And what he didn't really understand in that part of Thailand when they come into the presence [clears throat] of like a monk or a nun to listen to a talk that they dance. He thought this is really weird. Hadn't seen this before. People dancing when they come into the presence of a monk. He opened his eyes more fully and he realized they weren't dancing as a cultural welcome. They were dancing because they've been bitten alive by these millions of ants. And what he said and it's I totally accept this. This is what happened around him. There was a circle about maybe a meter in diameter. There was no ants at all. And then there was millions of ants all around him like protecting him
- The monk who pulled his own toothStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Rather than travel to a dentist, a Bodhinyana monk pulls his own tooth with workshop pliers; he explains that only the twenty seconds of wiggling hurt — planning, walking and…
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I know that one of our monks many years ago, he, you know, he had a bad teeth, and you know, we live in Serpentine, it's a long way to go to the dentist. And you know what it's like these days, you have to make an appointment, and when you go to the appointment then you have to wait and then... It's just such a pain in the... actually probably the pain in the neck is worse than the pain in the mouth to go to the dentist sometimes. So this monk decided "ah yeah, it's a waste of time going to the dentist". So he decided to pull his own tooth out. I saw him! He just, he went to the workshop, got a pair of pliers and just yanked his tooth out. And I just happened to be going to the workshop at Bodhinyana Monastery and I saw this bloody tooth, you know, in a pair of pliers. "What have you been doing?" "Oh you know, took my tooth out, It's much cheaper and much quicker than going to the dentist." And I thought "How did you do that?" And he said "It's very easy, because..." It's a wonderful little teaching He said: "When I decided to pull my tooth out, that didn't hurt. You know, thinking about, planning doesn't hurt. And when I went to the workshop that didn't hurt, when I picked up the pliers that didn't hurt, when I put the pair of pliers on the tooth that never hurt, when I wiggled that hurt! But you know, just for, maybe, twenty seconds, thirty seconds and it was out and it didn't hurt much afterwards. It's only twenty seconds of pain, that's all." But if that was you, (Points at audience), even before you'd even picked up the pliers it would hurt like hell (Laugh). You see what pain is? Anticipation. He trained himself not to anticipate, being in the present moment, so it's only ten seconds of pain.
- 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 nail that didn't hurt until someone said soStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On alms round in Thailand Ajahn Brahm steps on a nail that goes a couple of inches into his foot. It doesn't hurt — until the monk with him says, “Oh, that's terrible.” Then it…
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stepping on a nail - it went about two inches into my foot! It's a long way, a big 4 inch nail, it went right inside my foot! It didn't hurt at all! until somebody said "Wow that's terrible!!" and as soon as they said that it started to hurt
- The slingshot and the gongStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sitting with Ajahn Chah, with no clock and his legs aching after what must have been over an hour, the young Ajahn Brahm fantasises about practising with a slingshot in the…
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when Ajahn Chah was my teacher and sometimes we would sit together, sometimes you'd be sitting there - I’m sure it's over an hour, it must have been over an hour, we didn't have a clock at the time). And then so, my legs were really hurting. So you know what I thought of doing? I told the monks this, and it's true, this is what I thought, but never had the guts to do it - to get what they call like a slingshot. And practice in the forest first, until I was a really good shot. And then, when the meditation was happening, I’d just open my eyes and I'd sling and hit the bell - ‘GONG’. [Laughter] ‘Oh, it's time to come out of meditation’. You know what it's like, sometimes you're having a really difficult time. And you’re just like ‘it can't be just, it must be more than half an hour, ring the gong!’ [laughter] And other times, oh you're having such a beautiful, peaceful meditation, everything is just so nice and joyful and blissed, all these great insights are coming, everything, and then - ‘GONG’ [laughter] Imagine that was the Buddha under the Bodhi tree just about to get enlightened, and I went - ‘GONG’. [laughter] Shut up.
- Toothache in the nightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his first year at a Thai monastery, with an empty medicine cabinet and no telephone, Ajahn Brahm has a terrible toothache. He can't watch his breath; walking meditation turns…
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I told the story of very very very bad tooth ache which I had in the jungles of Thailand. I don't know why I am focusing on teeth this evening [laughter] but this was a very bad toothache. And again there was no telephone, no dentists for miles around, you're in the jungles. And there's no way of getting anywhere: no cars, no transport in the middle of the jungles, away from everywhere. And it was such a poor monastery there wasn't even any Aspirin or Paracetamol in the medicine cabinet, there was nothing to take at all. I don't know why it is when you get these pains, I know actually why it is now, When you get these pains they always get worse at night time. Why is that? I think it's because the fear grows at night time. And the fear makes that pain even more intense. But anyway as it got very very late the pain in my jaw was so intense.. I have read afterward, and the dentist will say, this is true, some of those pains, infections, in your teeth can get so incredibly strong, they can affect the brain, they can drive you crazy. And I thought it was really going to drive me crazy that was the worst toothache I have ever had in my life. Nothing else has matched that anywhere close. Intense pain. And I was trying everything I could to try and overcome that pain. First of all my meditation. But my meditation at the time I tried to suppress the pain. Tried to get rid of it with the force of the will Trying to move my mind somewhere else so I couldn't experience that pain. Never try that! Never try focusing somewhere else when there is a pain in one part of the body, trying to focus on other part. You won't be able to succeed If it really is an intense pain. The pain will keep compelling you to watch it. So I couldn't even meditate, the pain was just too strong. We have another type of meditation which we do called walking meditation. We very slowly mindfully walk backwards and forward on a path. Eventually I tried that but I had to give up that because I was not doing walking meditation I noticed I was doing running meditation (laughter) Because whenever you are in great pain you are so desperate you can't do anything slowly; everything is jerky and fast. I was running backwards and forwards. The last thing I tried was doing some chanting. Sometimes we have all these superstitions, if you do some special chanting miracles can happen. I never believed that at first because remember I was a scientist before theoretical physics at Cambridge University we don't believe things that easy. All this rigmarole of superstitious chanting I never really believed that at all. By I tried it anyway. Which is what you do when you are desperate anything you will try. I tried the chanting and I had to stop that after a few minutes because I realized I was shouting at the top of my voice and I was afraid I'd wake up all the other monks in this monastery because again when you are desperate you can't do anything softly even when you speak, you're shouting. And I had one of those wonderful experiences when your back was against the wall as Ajahn Chah used to say "you can't go forward, you can't go back you can't stay still. You're really.... everything is just hopeless. And those experiences, if you ever have those experiences you can't go forward, you can't go back and you can't stay still. Those are brilliant moments in your life. The opportunities to see things in a different way And the only thing I could think of was those words "just let go" And I did it. I let go! Because I had to; there was no choice. And as soon as I let go his is one of the great experiences of my life immediately, not just after second or two immediately the pain vanished. It just wasn't there anymore. And in its place was this incredible delightful bliss I was actually happy. It was such a weird experience that that could actually happen You could have intense pain and then let go, really let go. And it was just beautiful peace. Even though it was in the middle of the night Couldn't do anything else, except just meditate for a little while and then just lay down not really go to sleep but have a very light sleep because you are just too happy. Woke up in the morning and then I had a toothache not that bad Went to see the dentist afterwards The amazing thing was you can take an intense pain and just by letting it be, it vanished. What had happened was I had taken away the emotional, mental part of that pain. the physical part was there but it was tiny compared to the emotional. "I don't want, I can't stand this" It taught me that what you add what human beings add onto the physical feelings of pain is more than 90 percent