ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º BuddhaNet: Buddhist Info Network Buddha Dharma Education Assoc. º º Web Site: www.buddhanet.net PO Box K1020 Haymarket NSW 2000 º º Email: bdea@buddhanet.net Tel: +61-2-92123071 AUSTRALIA º º º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ ------------------------------------- Why you should love your illness - Venerable Dr U Zagara -------------------------------------------------- Abridgement of Unibuds Dhamma talk given on Friday, March 11th 1994 at the University of NSW. -------------------------------------------- Good Evening to you all. Tonight I would like to talk about why you should love your illness. Our illnesses usually upset us and cause us great pain and suffering. I feel very upset when an illness inconveniences me. But if we train ourselves, we can think of our illness as a friend. In this way, we can help ourselves keep a positive outlook, and therefore get better faster. Often when we have an illness we blame others. We are living with others and we react with unhappiness at the onset of an illness. We may be jealous and angry that we are sick yet others enjoy good health. During a weather or climate change, we may get a cold. So at that time we blame the weather. But not everybody catches a cold during the weather change. And if we blame the climate, we get another problem. - We look at the weather outside which is disturbing our routine, and we think thoughts of hate and anger. This does not help us cure our illness! We often think,"Why am I getting a cold while others are not getting sick at all?" We develop a cold on account of our unwise living. Others do not develop such troubles. They don't seem to make any mistakes or get very sick. If we think, when we develop the first winter flu,"Oh my body is just making some repair work to adapt to the colder weather. Therefore I should be grateful", it will help us avoid a prolonged sickness. We should love the climate, and respect that the rain and cold helps us in many good ways. But our bodily physical troubles can never be as bad as our mental troubles. Our unwise actions and eating habits may cause us greater bodily complications and illnesses. The disease we develop is actually giving a warning to us. We should cease our bad practices, and modify our behaviour. The moment our mind is free from disturbance, our bodily feeling will follow. Pain is physical and real. During painful episodes, we should try and keep our mind steady, and regulate and train our attitude. We should think simply,"Yes I am getting this pain because of my self-abuse and bad practises." Your trouble will become less when your attitude towards your ailment is friendly. You will retain your illness, but you may profit from it also. So when you get some physical pain, you should take advantage of it. Some people meditate on the unpleasant feeling and pain. Suppose you have headache and feel very disturbed. It is a good opportunity to mindfully meditate on a painful feeling. When we meditate, we still feel pain, but we have no trouble. Why don't we get trouble? - On account of the "self" idea. This is what creates a lot of the problems. Selfishness, - the more selfishness there is, the more trouble. When you are getting a headache you say,"My headache." You develop more trouble. But other people do not feel your headache, and do not feel your trouble. Therefore, if you say,"Not my headache", you will not develop further troubles! If you have attachments, you have troubles. Our mind is also our body. When we try to pinpoint "I" we cannot find it. There is no "I". The joint functioning of the mental and physical is considered as "I", but on account of this "I" idea, we create attachments for ourselves. We want something, and after we have it, then we want something more. See now we are sitting here. You have something in your possesion. Perhaps your clothes or your shoes become unusable. Perhaps someone comes to cut or burn your clothes and you get upset. They cut and burn your shoes and throw them out of the house. Yet if we see the same shoes by the side of a road being cut up and burnt, we say,"Not my shoes - not my trouble!" If you can develop up to the point of non-self, with no "I", "not mine", then you can look at yourself with true detachment. If you can do this, then you have no attachments, and you have no suffering! But this is difficult to practise. It's very easy to speak and talk about. We should try and train ourselves to look at things with the selflessness idea. We should try to understand why our ailments have come. There is something wrong with our living habits. This ailment has come to warn me as a friend that there is something wrong with my practice. If the strength of your hatred and anger towards your illness is less, you will develop less trouble. You should try to understand things better. This will enable you to heal yourself much faster! Our body is made up of our mind and our previous actions. When your mind is free from trouble and is wholesome, your mind will generate healthy elements in your body. For example, how did you come here tonight? - By car or walking? Without mind and desire you could not walk, you could not drive the car. - You would not be here! Why do passive smokers seem to develop more trouble in these modern times? The smoker loves smoking! Even though he inhales poisons, he enjoys smoking. He is very happy! His body system rejects the unfriendly substances of the smoking poisons and his body stays well. - But the passive smoker hates the smoke, and hates the smell. The passive smoker feels the smoke in his lung. He feels hatred and anger and feels bad. This creates a mental poison which creates internal poison. This mental poison affects the blood and combines with the poison in the lungs. Similarly for people who may hate the climate. A person who is mean and selfish often finds trouble. If we are not selfish, then we find we have no trouble! Some diseases and illnesses we should look on as a warning or friend. We should train ourselves to think of our illnesses in this way. This will reduce the troubles of our sicknesses considerably! But do not accept this advice blindly! Verify it for youself. Whenever you catch a cold or have some trouble, try these ideas, and refine them to your own situation. Q1 Venerable, you have not mentioned any karmic effects contributing to our illness? A1 You are right, but this would take more time to explain. We might have done something wrong. Depending on our karma we may have a different result. But we can change bad karma through mindfulness. This does not depend on whether we are mediocre or of great intelligence. It depends on whether we have right understanding to practice for the benefit of all. Venerable Dr Uzagara is the abbot of the Burmese Buddhist Society Temple at 121 John Street, Merrylands. Abridgement of the Dhamma talk given on Friday, March 11th 1994 at the UNSW as reported by Mike Kiddle. Friday Dhamma Talks between 7pm - 8.30pm are conducted regularly by the Unibuds through out the university semesters, and are open to all students and the general public.