| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| balto |
Posted - 08/23/2012 : 10:14:09
This is an old interview with a Tibetan Lama on how Buddhists deal with mental illness. I think it may help some of us to think a little deeper about how our mind work.
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An interview with Lama Yeshe
I was born near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and educated at Sera Monastic University, one of the three great monasteries in Lhasa. There they taught us how to bring an end to human problems, not so much the problems people face in their relationship to the external environment, but the internal, mental problems we all face. That was what I studied, Buddhist psychology; how to treat mental illness.
For the past ten years I have been working with Westerners, experimenting to see if Buddhist psychology also works for the Western mind. In my experience, it has been extremely effective. Recently, some of these students invited me to the West to give lectures and meditation courses, so here I am.
We lamas think that the main point is that human problems arise primarily from the mind, not from the external environment. But rather than my talking about things that you might find irrelevant, perhaps it would be better for you to ask specific questions so that I can address directly the issues that are of most interest to you.
Dr. Stan Gold: Lama, thank you very much for coming. Could I start by asking what you mean by “mental illness”?
Lama: By mental illness I mean the kind of mind that does not see reality; a mind that tends to either exaggerate or underestimate the qualities of the person or object it perceives, which always causes problems to arise. In the West, you wouldn’t consider this to be mental illness, but Western psychology’s interpretation is too narrow. If someone is obviously emotionally disturbed, you consider that to be a problem, but if someone has a fundamental inability to see reality, to understand his or her own true nature, you don’t. Not knowing your own basic mental attitude is a huge problem.
Human problems are more than just emotional distress or disturbed relationships. In fact, those are tiny problems. It’s as if there’s this huge ocean of problems below, but all we see are the small waves on the surface. We focus on those “Oh, yes, that’s a big problem” while ignoring the actual cause, the dissatisfied nature of the human mind. It’s difficult to see, but we consider people who are unaware of the nature of their dissatisfied mind to be mentally ill; their minds are not healthy.
Q: Lama Yeshe, how do you go about treating mental illness? How do you help people with mental illness?
Lama: Yes, good, wonderful. My way of treating mental illness is to try to have the person analyze the basic nature of his own problem. I try to show him the true nature of his mind so that with his own mind he can understand his own problems. If he can do that, he can solve his own problems himself. I don’t believe that I can solve his problems by simply talking to him a little. That might make him feel a bit better, but it’s very transient relief. The root of his problems reaches deep into his mind; as long as it’s there, changing circumstances will cause more problems to emerge.
My method is to have him check his own mind in order to gradually see its true nature. I’ve had the experience of giving someone a little advice and having him think, “Oh, great, my problem’s gone; Lama solved it with just a few words,” but that’s a fabrication. He’s just making it up. There’s no way you can understand your own mental problems without your becoming your own psychologist. It’s impossible.
Q: How do you help people understand their problems? How do you go about it?
Lama: I try to show them the psychological aspect of their nature, how to check their own minds. Once they know this, they can check and solve their own problems. I try to teach them an approach.
Q: What, precisely, is the method that you teach for looking at our mind’s true nature?
Lama: Basically it’s a form of checking, or analytical, knowledge-wisdom.
Q: Is it a kind of meditation?
Lama: Yes, analytical, or checking, meditation
Q: How do you do that? How do you teach somebody to check?
Lama: Let me give you an example. Say I have a good feeling about somebody. I have to ask myself, “Why do I feel good about this person? What makes me feel this way?” By investigating this I might find that it’s just because he was nice to me once, or that there’s some other similar small, illogical reason. “I love him because he did this or that.” It’s the same thing if I feel bad about someone; I don’t like him because he did such and such. But if you look more deeply to see if those good or bad qualities really exist within the person you may see that your discrimination of friend or enemy is based on very superficial, illogical reasoning. You’re basing your judgment on insignificant qualities, not on the totality of the other person’s being. You see some quality you label as good or bad, perhaps something the person said or did, and then exaggerate it out of all proportion. Then you become agitated by what you perceive. Through checking you can see that there’s no reason to discriminate in the way that you do; it only keeps you fettered, uptight and in suffering. This kind of checking analyzes not the other person but your own mind, in order to see how you feel and to determine what kind of discriminating mind makes you feel that way. This is a fundamentally different approach to analysis from the Western one, which focuses excessively on external factors and not enough on the part played by the mind in people’s experience.
Q: So you say that the problem lies more within the person and don’t agree with the point of view that it is society that makes people sick?
Lama: Yes. For example, I have met many Western people who’ve had problems with society. They’re angry with society, with their parents, with everything. When they understand the psychology I teach, they think, “Ridiculous! I’ve always blamed society, but actually the real problem has been inside of me all along.” Then they become courteous human beings, respectful of society, their parents, their teachers and all other people. You can’t blame society for our problems.
Q: How does it happen that people mix things up in this way?
Lama: It’s because they don’t know their own true nature. The environment, ideas and philosophies can be contributory causes, but primarily, problems come from one’s own mind. Of course, the way society is organized can agitate some people, but the issues are usually small. Unfortunately, people tend to exaggerate them and get upset. This is how it is with society, but anyone who thinks the world can exist without it is dreaming.
Q: Lama, what do you find in the ocean of a person’s nature?
Lama: When I use that expression I’m saying that people’s problems are like an ocean, but we see only the superficial waves. We don’t see what lies beneath them. “Oh, I have a problem with him. If I get rid of him I’ll solve my problems.” It’s like looking at electrical appliances without understanding that it’s the underlying electricity that makes them function.
Prince Henry’s Hospital
Melbourne, Australia
25 March 1975
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| balto |
Posted - 12/09/2012 : 20:34:18
The Weather is Just the Weather
Not only is it of profound importance for each of us to understand in a deep way the law of impermanence but it's also quite practical. It's not merely metaphysical or something to be argued about in philosophy seminars and coffee shops. Learning the law of impermanence can be done there, too, but the Buddhist teaching is designed to help us learn how to live.
I grew up in the Depression, and my father was unemployed for five years. I saw what that did to him and how he handled it. I remember how embarrassed he was that he couldn't buy me toys that I wanted, and I remember how embarrassed my mother was that all she had for us when we went to Brighton Beach at Concy Island was cream cheese and jelly or peanut butter and jelly on white bread. But that's what they could afford. I saw what the Depression did to them; and it certainly had its effect on me. Were their actions skillful? Well, it was the best they could do. This relates to all of us, just in case you were thinking it's not about you. Today, as a culture, we find ourselves once again in a situation of massive unemployment. In my meditation classes, when people talk about what their fears are, these days it's often fear of losing their job.
This is about all of us, and it's not simply about work. It's about every aspect of life. Are we willing to actively accept a loss? Taking that beyond the obvious application regarding livelihood, are we willing to face the loss of youth? The loss of health? The loss of life itself? That's what I am getting at. There are many things in life that we lose. I remember having a conversation while studying with the Thai Buddhist teacher Ajahn Chah and he summed this point up in a rather unpretentious way. He spoke of how in Thailand, like many tropical countries, there is a great deal of flooding and people often lose their homes. I remember that he said, "If you lose your home because of a flood, is it possible to not lose your mind?" We're getting at a subtle point here: There's no question that hard and difficult things happen to us. The question is, what is our reaction to it? What is our relationship to what happens? The Buddhist teachings are both revolutionary and simple in that they attempt to change our relationship to our life experience, whatever that is. We move away from our tendencies to always, out of ignorance, either grasp or push away our experience, toward a better understanding of our actions and what they can lead to in the present moment and beyond.
There's a story I like to tell that illustrates this ignorance and grasping. One day in a Zen monastery, a student who has been practicing meditation approaches his master and asks, "How do you practice when it's hot and it's cold?" The teacher answers, "Kill hot! Kill cold!" The student asks, "What do you mean, kill hot, kill cold?" Here we're getting closer to getting to know our mind: The weather is just the weather; it's just what it is. It's just a certain temperature.
So when the Zen master says, "Kill hot, kill cold," what is meant is to kill the concept "hot," kill the concept "cold." The temperature is just what it is. And then he gives another answer that is even closer to the truth: "When it's hot, the Buddha just sweats. When it's cold, the Buddha just shivers." "Well, how is that wisdom? I sweat and I shiver." He answers, "You missed the word 'just.'" What this teaching is saying is, no one denies that you're hot and that you~re sweating. You just don't have to turn it into torment by adding anything to it. When it's cold, you can see the mind making more of it by resisting it. Resisting is suffering, and a waste of energy, big-time.
Yesterday my wife started complaining about how it was too cold. But just a couple of days ago she was complaining about how it was too hot.
And so I asked, "Well, make up your mind; is it too hot, or is it too cold?"
"What do you mean? It was too hot then, it's too cold now," she answered.
"And what will it be tomorrow? Too something, right?"
"Well, some days it's just really nice."
"And then what?" "I like those days." "So what do you do?"
"Well, I prefer it to be that way."
"Yes, and does it go that way?" "No, not necessarily." I said, "So what happens?" She's on to me. "Well, there's a little
bit of suffering."
"OK?"
The weather is just the weather.
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| balto |
Posted - 12/04/2012 : 20:39:15
people just have different beliefs. If we can all respect other people's belief this world would be a lot more peaceful.
Is it make sense to you if some unemploy carpenter walk down the street and tell everyone he is the only son of God and come to save you?
Is it make sense if someone tell you he just saw some old men walking with a stick just split the Red Sea?
Is it make sense to you that someone who was nailed to a cross, pierced at the heart, burried for 4 days can still "resurrect"?
Is it make sense someone can cure a man who was blind from birth 2000 years ago and modern medicine can't?
any of these make sense to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracles_of_Jesus ?
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| eric watson |
Posted - 12/04/2012 : 20:08:29
quote:
Originally posted by Peregrinus
Now that the Tibetans have figured out how to get rid of mental illness they can start working on how to get rid of the Chinese.
This stuff is really a lot of nonsense wrapped in a few half truths. Forty nine days?! Really!
you can learn a lot from these post -you sound angered
|
| Peregrinus |
Posted - 12/04/2012 : 19:44:27
Now that the Tibetans have figured out how to get rid of mental illness they can start working on how to get rid of the Chinese.
This stuff is really a lot of nonsense wrapped in a few half truths. Forty nine days?! Really!
|
| eric watson |
Posted - 12/04/2012 : 16:43:50
very good balto-most excellant of choices |
| balto |
Posted - 12/04/2012 : 15:52:24
I thought this is good reading, hope you like it.
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The Second Arrow : The Practice of Emotional Awareness
When afflicted with a feeling of pain those who lack inner awareness sorrow, grieve and lament, beating their breasts and becoming distraught. So they feel two pains, physical and mental. It is just like being shot with an arrow, and right afterwards being shot with a second one, so that they feel two arrows.
Thus the Buddha explained the distinction between pain - an affliction - on the one hand, and, on the other, our suffering from pain, -- how our experience of pain can discomfit, frustrate or agonize us. We can see this on any hospital ward, where the responsive of patients to much the same affliction may vary very widely, from depression and despair to a buoyant and inspiring good state of mind.. This is an extremely important distinction whether in helping ourselves, in offering help to others, or in trying to do something to remedy the injustices in the world. In the ancient practice of emotional awareness our first step is to lean to distinguish between the two arrows in the experiences of our own lives.
In our high-resource, high-tech culture it has become more difficult to perceive this distinction between the two arrows because as soon as we are discomfited we are able in most cases to reach for some external fix to remove or alleviate the affliction. In traditional cultures, without the quick fix mentality, there was more opportunity to reflect on how an affliction was experienced, and from such reflection evolved magic and spirituality. Let us consider two present-day examples, of a person diagnosed with cancer, and an old age pensioner suffering from poverty. The cancer may be fixed by treatment, but perhaps still not curable. The poverty may be reduced by welfare payments for which the pensioner had not known she was eligible. But in both cases the second arrow may continue to be felt.
"Suffering I teach, and the way out of suffering" was the Buddha's fundamental teaching. The ancient meditative practice of bare awareness (or mindfulness) which he taught can enable us to experience our afflictions at least so they feel less acute and more manageable. And more, it can enable us to work with our afflictions so that we begin the experience the whole of life in a radically different way - the "way out of suffering".
For a start, we can develop a positive frame of mind for this work by reflecting on how illogical it is for this self to be so unique and special as to expect to be free from affliction. We can then determine to make a transformative use of our suffering, instead of just being a confused, complaining victim.
Once we can distinguish between the two arrows in our own life experience we can move on to the next step. What is it that most discomfits us or gives us pain in our life ? Where does the shoe pinch ? Probably in several places, in which case with what particular affliction do we feel able to work ? It may be something relatively small, like the annoyance caused by the chronic untidiness of someone with whom we share a home. Or it may be some flaw of personality which, we believe, afflicts us. Again, it may be persistent problem in a personal relationship. It maybe something that has for so long been a part of our life that we need to take time to identify it and get the feel of it.
Awareness practice is learning to open up to some such powerful emotion without either letting it discharge itself (as anger or self-pity, for example), or suppressing it. This, incidentally, is not to deny that anger may be a healthy response to some injustice out there - but when angry we can often sense how much is in fact coming from some gutsy ego frustration. This middle way of creative containment is not easy to describe, and harder still to do. It requires a lot of personal experimentation.
John Welwood, a transpersonal psychologist, writes of "befriending emotion" which, "by neither suppressing emotions nor exploring the meaning in them, teaches us a way to feel their naked aliveness and contain their energy." Some further explanation from teachers in different Buddhist traditions may help to get the measure of awareness practice. In the Theravada Buddhist tradition, Nyanaponika Mahathera writes that "by the methodical application of Bare Attention . all the latent powers of a non-coercive approach will gradually unfold themselves with their beneficial results and their wide and unexpected implications." "Let yourself be in the emotion", wrote the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa. "Go through it, give in to it, experience it .Then the most powerful energies become absolutely workable rather than taking you over, because there is nothing to take over if you are not putting up any resistance." Zen philosopher Hubert Benoit warns as follows: "If a humiliating circumstance turns up, offering me a marvellous chance of initiation, at once my imagination strives to conjure what appears to me to be in danger. It does everything to restore me to that habitual state of satisfied arrogance in which I find a transitory respite, but also the certainty of further distress. In short, I constantly defend myself against that which offers to save me; I fight foot by foot to defend the very source of my unhappiness !"
Pain, whether emotional or physical, can be very threatening when we try to look it straight in the face. It is like spilling cold water on a hot stove: the bubbles run in all directions and turn to steam. Anything to escape ! For this reason it may be best to begin with whatever might be our favourite evasions of a specific discomfiture. We can begin by examining possible evasion in terms of lifestyle, as described earlier, like the escape into busyness or into fussy and petty preoccupations. Next we can move in closer and try to get a taste of the inner, psychological evasions that lie beneath what I have called lifestyle evasions. For example, Elizabeth Kubler Ross identified a sequence of successive attitudes to death and dying as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.
We each have our favourite evasions when blocked, frustrated or frightened by some circumstance that threatens our control over our lives. In my experience, strongly masculine personalities often fixate on "my problem out there" and may find it very difficult to get in touch with "how it feels in here". Another first line of defence is denial ("I'm not really ill at all !"). Or we may try to rationalise and intellectualise painful feelings (like kidding ourselves we are not really in denial, or burying ourselves - thanks to the internet ! -- in study and discussion of the minutiae of our illness). Or, again, anger and frustration may be projected onto others or the world in general ("Young people today .."). Even feeling guilty is evasive, in that by punishing ourselves we do retain a perverse kind of control. The same can be said of self-pity, often a final resort. Here we are getting down to very basic emotions, stripping away successive self-protecting layers. Anger itself, for example, is an evasion which protects us from what we eventually discover lies beneath it and fires it up - root fear.
Always this practice is about deepening our physical awareness of how affliction feels. What are its physical sensations ? Its colour ? The taste of it? Getting in touch will be easiest in sitting meditation, when the surface of the mind has become still and the deeper feelings can be observed. And we may again confront ourselves with the question; "Yes, but what does it truly and deeply feel like ?"
When the root fear in which our evasions originate does itself become transparent we become that fear (or whatever it is that is afflicting us). The self ceases to put up a resistance and we begin to experience our affliction in a radically different way. The self just gives up trying to sustain its illusions (sometimes in a state of extreme despair) and is freed at last into acceptance of the "suchness" of things, of "just how it is", "just how we are". Reality appears without our need to colour and shape it, to make pictures, and hence we become more open to other people's realities. Indeed, it has always been there, trying to break through to us, but obscured by the clouds of self-protectiveness. There is here a sense of liberative joy, of gratitude, freed of the constant strain of trying to make our condition as we vainly desire it to be. Note that "acceptance" here signifies a positive liberation instead of the grudging putting up with things that the word might otherwise suggest.
Similarly the "empowerment" we experience is not a self-empowerment, but the empowerment of a universal energy that floods in when we give up our futile attempts at self-empowerment. When all our evasions become transparent they lose their compulsive power. We see more clearly how to respond to our problems, which now appear more open and manageable. And if there is little we can do, for example, about our eventual decrepitude and death, in that deep hearted acceptance lies liberation.
Stacking firewood
this winter evening
how simple death seems
Freed of self-preoccupation we are freed wholly to respond to others' needs. The wisdom of bare awareness thus manifests itself as compassion in the world. Laughter and tears mingle when we become aware of the tragi-comedy of our unavailing struggle to be free of this or that without being able to see that struggle as itself the greatest of our problems.
If we work with others who are also suffering - and preferably in the same way as we are -- this can, in turn, help our own awareness practice. For example, if you suffer from loneliness and despair then volunteer to work with the Samaritans.
When we befriend others as equals, hang out with them and share and feel what they are going through, a wondrous chemistry can take place. Together there grows warm and positive acceptance of our suffering human condition, releasing a new sense of possibility.
For Buddhists working for peace and social justice the parable of the two arrows also has great value. The first arrow is the underlying angst of being a vulnerable and mortal human animal. Throughout history people have struggled fruitlessly to fill this sense of lack by banding together by race and gender and as clans, nations, states, social classes, ideological movements, political parties, and a host of other groupings. This sense of belongingness identity has been boosted by strongly differentiating between us and them, and by projecting the "Three Fires" of rage, greed and fear-driven ignorance upon alien groups. All this tragic folly is for humankind the "second arrow". Both history and experiment have shown that this antithetical bonding can kick in at the slightest pretext sometimes with murderous consequences.
Buddhist activists need to summon up all their intellectual and, especially, their emotional awareness if they are not to be caught up in the push and pull of this process. The analyses, theories and policies required by any movement for social change need to be distinguished from the tendency for these to solidify in self-affirming dogma and ideology -and their subtle variants. Similarly it is necessary to distinguish between mutual support and the belongingness which breeds a uniformity of outlook and erodes individual judgement.
It requires a trained emotional sensitivity to detect and avoid these often quite subtle evasions and to sustain an authentic spirit of inquiry and independence. Thereby we expose ourselves to the elusive and complex nature of social realities and must find the courage to act resolutely amidst uncertainty. Further, it can be deeply unsettling to open with empathy to the feelings and views of our adversaries, beyond the black-versus-white mentality of many people with whom we may be working.. And when we see through what are often self-serving illusions about the effectiveness of radical movements we then expose ourselves to previously masked feelings of powerlessness and frustration.
All this may precipitate a mood of despair ("burn out") similar to when we open in full awareness to some personal affliction. And, similarly, this practice can gift us with the same calm clarity and the same inner strength. We become more effective as activists but also we begin to experience self and reality in a radically new light.
by Ken Jones, Secretary of the UK Network of Engaged Buddhists
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| eric watson |
Posted - 09/28/2012 : 07:06:59
love one another as i have loved you and judge not lest ye be judged.
..........balto thanks for the post..i love the part about the clouds passing as this is how our problems or pain is ....really exciting stuff ...Thanks..... This introduces the notion of "ultimate healing". By ridding the mind of all its accumulated "garbage", all of the previously committed negative actions and thoughts, and their imprints, we can be free of problems and sickness permanently. We can achieve ultimate healing - a state of permanent health and happiness.
This works
Visualisation can also be very powerful healing. One method is to visualise a ball of white light above your head, with the light spreading in all directions. Imagine the light spreading through your body, completely dissolving away all sickness and problems. Concentrate on the image of your body as completely healed and in the nature of light.
This type of meditation is even more powerful when combined with visualising holy images and reciting mantras. I often tell my Christian patients to visualise the light as Jesus, with the light emanating from him.
if you believe .all things are possible to those who believe.
thanks again balto |
| tmsjptc |
Posted - 09/26/2012 : 10:07:54
Thank you for the posts Balto. I have lately been reading spiritual growth and inner peace types of books. As much as Dr. Sarno's books did for healing in my physical body, my developing understanding of my mind and spirit is doing even much greater healing. Your posts are wonderful and I appreciate you sharing them. |
| balto |
Posted - 09/26/2012 : 04:06:22
Here is another one:
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HEALING: A TIBETAN BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE
Compiled by: Ven. Pende Hawter
What is healing?
What do we mean by healing? Do we mean healing of the physical body, healing of the psyche/soul/mind, or both of these. What is the connection between body and mind?
Many modern healing techniques regard successful healing as the cure of the presenting physical problem, whether this be symptoms of cancer, AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, or some other illness. If the person does not recover from the presenting physical problem, or if that problem recurs or another develops at a later time, this may be regarded as failure.
It is not uncommon in these situations for the therapist or organisation that has been helping the "sick" person to infer or state that the person must have done something wrong, that they haven't stuck strictly enough to the diet or meditated enough or done whatever else it was that they were supposed to do.
In these situations the person can become very guilty, depressed or angry. In many cases, they just give up hope. To avoid these problems, it is necessary to consider a more comprehensive view of healing that incorporates not only physical healing but mental healing.
Mind is the creator
To understand healing from the Buddhist perspective, a useful starting point is to consider the Buddhist concept of mind. The mind is non-physical. It is formless, shapeless, colourless, genderless and has the ability to cognize or know. The basic nature of mind is pure, limitless and pervasive, like the sun shining unobstructedly in a clear sky.
The problems or sickness we experience are like clouds in the sky obscuring the sun. Just as the clouds temporarily block the sun but are not of the same nature as the sun, our problems or sickness are temporary and the causes of them can be removed from the mind.
From the Buddhist perspective, the mind is the creator of sickness and health. In fact, the mind is believed to be the creator of all of our problems. That is, the cause of disease is internal, not external.
Unlimited potential
You are probably familiar with the concept of karma, which literally means action. All of our actions lay down imprints on our mindstream which have the potential to ripen at some time in the future. These actions can be positive, negative or neutral. These karmic seeds are never lost. The negative ones can ripen at any time in the form of problems or sickness; the positive ones in the form of happiness, health or success.
To heal present sickness, we have to engage in positive actions now. To prevent sickness occurring again in the future, we have to purify, or clear, the negative karmic imprints that remain on our mindstream.
Karma is the creator of all happiness and suffering. If we don't have negative karma we will not get sick or receive harm from others. Buddhism asserts that everything that happens to us now is the result of our previous actions, not only in this lifetime but in other lifetimes. What we do now determines what will happen to us in the future.
In terms of present and future healing, the main objective is to guard our own actions, or karma. This requires constant mindfulness and awareness of all the actions of our body, speech and mind. We should avoid carrying out any actions that are harmful to ourselves and to others.
Buddhism is therefore a philosophy of total personal responsibility. We have the ability to control our destiny, including the state of our body and mind. Each one of us has unlimited potential - what we have to do is develop that potential.
Healthy mind, healthy body
Why do some people get ill while others remain in the best of health? Consider skin cancer. Of all the people who spend many hours out in the sun, some will develop skin cancer and others will not. The external situation is the same for all of them, but only some will be affected. The secondary cause of the skin cancer - the sun - is external, but the primary cause - the imprints laid down on the mindstream by previous actions - is internal.
Also, people with similar types of cancer will often respond quite differently to the same treatment, whether this be orthodox or alternative. Some will make a complete recovery. Some will recover temporarily and then develop a recurrence. Others will rapidly become worse and die. Logically one has to look to the mind for the cause of these differences.
Buddhism asserts that for lasting healing to occur, it is necessary to heal not only the current disease with medicines and other forms of treatment, but also the cause of the disease, which originates from the mind. If we do not heal or purify the mind, the sickness and problems will recur again and again.
This introduces the notion of "ultimate healing". By ridding the mind of all its accumulated "garbage", all of the previously committed negative actions and thoughts, and their imprints, we can be free of problems and sickness permanently. We can achieve ultimate healing - a state of permanent health and happiness.
In order to heal the mind and hence the body, we have to eliminate negative thoughts and their imprints, and replace them with positive thoughts and imprints.
The inner enemy
The basic root of our problems and sickness is selfishness, what we can call the inner enemy. Selfishness causes us to engage in negative actions, which place negative imprints on the mindstream. These negative actions can be of body, speech or mind, such as thoughts of jealousy, anger and greed.
Selfish thoughts also increase pride, which results in feelings of jealousy towards those higher than us, superiority towards those lower than us and competitiveness towards equals. These feelings in turn result in an unhappy mind, a mind that is without peace. On the other hand, thoughts and actions directed to the well-being of others bring happiness and peace to the mind.
Conscious living, conscious dying
It is important to consider what happens to us when we die. The Buddhist view is that at the time of death the subtle consciousness, which carries with it all the karmic imprints from previous lives, separates from the body. After spending up to forty-nine days in an intermediate state between lives, the consciousness enters the fertilised egg of its future mother at or near the moment of conception. New life then begins. We bring into our new life a long history of previous actions with the potential to ripen at any time or in any of a myriad ways.
The state of mind at the time of death is vitally important and can have a considerable effect on the situation into which we are reborn. Hence the need to prepare well for death and to be able to approach our death with a peaceful, calm and controlled mind.
Death itself can be natural, due to exhaustion of the lifespan, or untimely, due to certain obstacles. These obstacles arise from the mind and can be counteracted in different ways. One method commonly employed in Tibetan Buddhism to remove life obstacles is to save the lives of animals that would otherwise have been killed. For example, animals can be rescued from being slaughtered or live bait can be purchased and released.
For those with a life threatening illness, it is important to understand that being free of that illness doesn't mean that you will have a long life. There are many causes of death and death can happen to anybody at any time.
Not just pills and potions
Tibetan medicine is popular and effective. It is mostly herbal medicine, but its uniqueness lies in the fact that in the course of its preparation it is blessed extensively with prayers and mantras, giving it more power.
It is said that taking such medicine will either result in recovery, or, if the person is close to death, they will die quickly and painlessly. (Another theory, based on personal experience, is that it tastes so bad you want to recover quickly so that you can stop taking the medicine!)
Blessed pills and blessed water are also used extensively. The more spiritually developed the person carrying out the blessings or the healing practices, the more powerful is the healing result or potential. These pills often contain the relics of previous great meditators and saints, bestowing much power on the pills.
Many Tibetan lamas actually blow on the affected part of the body to effect healing or pain relief. I have seen a person with AIDS with intense leg pain have his pain disappear after a lama meditated intensely and blew on his leg for twenty minutes. Compassion is the power that heals.
Visualisation can also be very powerful healing. One method is to visualise a ball of white light above your head, with the light spreading in all directions. Imagine the light spreading through your body, completely dissolving away all sickness and problems. Concentrate on the image of your body as completely healed and in the nature of light.
This type of meditation is even more powerful when combined with visualising holy images and reciting mantras. I often tell my Christian patients to visualise the light as Jesus, with the light emanating from him.
In the Tibetan tradition, there are many Buddha figures (deities) which can be visualised while reciting their mantra. The Medicine Buddha; Chenrezig, or Avalokiteshvara (the Buddha of Compassion); or one of the long-life deities such as Amitabha are commonly used. Deities can be in peaceful or wrathful aspects. The wrathful ones are often used to cure heavy disease such as AIDS.
If you are not comfortable with these images, you can use other objects such as crystals, or simply visualise all the universal healing energy absorbing into you, transforming your body into light, and imagine yourself as totally healed.
Over the centuries many people have used these methods and have recovered from their illnesses, even from conditions such as leprosy, paralysis and cancer. The aim of these practises is to heal the mind as well as the body, so that the diseases or problems will not recur in the future.
Also, many diseases are associated with spirit harm. Lamas and other practitioners will often recite certain prayers and mantras or engage in ceremonies to stop the spirit harm and allow the person to recover.
A seven year old girl I knew had petit-mal epilepsy as the result of spirit harm; the epilepsy disappeared after various rituals and prayers had been performed. Whenever she had an epileptic attack, the girl would see a frightening apparition coming towards her. After the initial prayers had been performed, however, her attacks lessened and she would see a brick wall between her and the frightening figure. This wall was the colour of a monk's robes. Eventually the attacks and visions disappeared altogether.
In summary, we can say that the essential ingredients in the healing process, for both the person doing the healing and the person being healed, are compassion, faith, and pure morality.
Changing our minds
Another powerful method of healing in Tibetan Buddhism is to meditate on the teachings known as thought transformation. These methods allow a person to see the problem or sickness as something positive rather than negative. A problem is only a problem if we label it a problem. If we look at a problem differently, we can see it as an opportunity to grow or to practice, and regard it as something positive. We can think that having this problem now ripens our previous karma, which does not then have to be experienced in the future.
If someone gets angry at us, we can choose to be angry in return or to be thankful to them for giving us the chance to practice patience and purify this particular karma. It takes a lot of practice to master these methods, but it can be done.
It is our concepts which often bring the greatest suffering and fear. For example, due to a set of signs and symptoms, the doctor gives the label 'AIDS' or 'cancer'. This can cause great distress in a person's mind, because they forget that it is only a label, that there is no truly existent, permanent AIDS or cancer. 'Death' is another label that can generate a lot of fear. But in reality 'death' is only a label for what happens when the consciousness separates from the body, and there is no real death from its own side. This also relates to our concept of 'I' and of all other phenomena. They are all just labels and have no true, independent existence.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a highly realised Tibetan Lama, says that the most powerful healing methods of all are those based on compassion, the wish to free other beings from their suffering. The compassionate mind - calm, peaceful, joyful and stress-free - is the ideal mental environment for healing. A mind of compassion stops our being totally wrapped up in our own suffering situations. By reaching out to others we become aware of not just my pain but the pain (that is, the pain of all beings).
Many people find the following technique powerful and effective: think "By me experiencing this disease or pain or problem, may all the other beings in the world be free of this disease, pain or problem" or "I am experiencing this pain/sickness/problem on behalf of all living beings."
One voluntarily takes on suffering in order for others to be free of it. This is similar to the Christian concept of regarding one's suffering as sharing the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Even death can be used in this way: "By me experiencing death, may all other beings be freed from the fears and difficulties of the death process."
We have to ask ourselves "What is the purpose of my life? Why do I want to have good health and a long life?". The ultimate purpose of our life is to be of benefit to others. If we live longer and just create more negative karma, it is a waste of time.
Giving and taking is another powerful meditation. As you breathe in, visualise taking the suffering and the causes of suffering from all living beings, in the form of black smoke. When breathing in the black smoke, visualise smashing the black rock of selfishness at your heart, allowing compassion to manifest freely. As you breathe out, visualise breathing out white light that brings them happiness, enjoyment and wisdom.
Developing compassion is more important than having friends, wealth, education. Why? Because it is only compassion that guarantees a happy and peaceful mind, and it is the best thing to help us at the time of death
We can use our sickness and problems in a very powerful way for spiritual growth, resulting in the development of compassion and wisdom. The highest development of these qualities is the full realisation of our potential, the state of full enlightenment. Enlightenment brings great benefit to ourselves and allows us to work extensively for others. This is the state of ultimate healing.
I have outlined some of the concepts that are the basis of the Buddhist philosophy on healing. Many of these methods were taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Tara Institute in Melbourne in August 1991 during the first course given by Lama Zopa specifically for people with life-threatening illnesses.
Some of these ideas may appear unusual at first, but please keep an open mind about them. If some of the ideas appear useful to you, please use them; if not, leave them aside.
May you achieve health and happiness.
(revised January 1995)
REFERENCES
Levine, Steven Healing Into Life and Death, Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, 1987
Geshe Rabten and Geshe Dhargyey Advice From a Spiritual Friend, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1986
Sogyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Rider, London, 1992
Lama Zopa Rinpoche Transforming Problems Into Happiness, Wisdom Publications, Boston 1993
Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche The Door to Satisfaction, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1994
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
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