Buddhism and Mental Illness | Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm gives a talk about mental illness. He makes a distinction between an illness of the brain and illness of the mind because whilst the mind and brain are related, the nature of illness for each has different symptoms. This becomes very clear when one develops deep states of meditation (the jhanas) and the mind becomes separated from the body (and brain). Ajahn Brahm starts the talk with an amazing story about his teacher Ajahn Chah going into deep meditation despite his body not working. Ajahn Brahm goes on to talk about the causes of mental illness (which can go back to previous lives).

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This dhamma talk was originally recorded using a low quality MP3 to save on file size (because internet connections were slow back then – remember dialup?) on 12th December 2003. It has now been remastered and published by the Everyday Dhamma Network, and will be of interest to his many fans.

These talks by Ajahn Brahm have been recorded and made available for free distribution by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia under the Creative Commons licence. You can support the Buddhist Society of Western Australia by pledging your support via their Patreon page.