Mindfulnessinaction’s Blog
An interactive Mindfulness Meditation blogWhy on earth would I ever want to think about illness!
For what good reason should one often contemplate the fact… that they are sure tobecome ill, and cannot avoid illness? Beings while healthy take pride in their health and infatuated by that pride in health, they conduct themselves in a bad way in deeds words and thoughts. But in one who often contemplates the certainty of illness that pride of health will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker…For that good reason the fact of illness should often be contemplated.
In our culture, it has become part of our conditioning to deny or tone down the fact of illness and disease. In general, we take of three approaches to the fact of illness: Denial, blame or the martyr. Denial ranges from disbelief to why me? Blame tends to take the form of pinning illness to some supernatural force as being a test from either a loving God or affliction from an evil Satan. The martyr takes the form of the American hero image who will fight and is not going to let illness beat them; the “I will survive mentality”
Contemplating the fact and inevitability of illness is counter intuitive to this cultural and individual mental conditioning. The Buddha encourages us to take a hard-unbiased look into reality so that we can truly understand what real strength is. Real strength is in knowing and facing reality instead of running from it.
Imagine the kind of society we could have if, as parents, we skillfully taught our children the fact of illness. If we resolved not to cover their eyes and allow them to delude themselves into thinking, they will be healthy and strong forever. Teaching them to contemplate the fact of illness would help them realize there are consequence to any evil they commit in words, deeds and action. Instead of living with reckless abandon and giving into peer pressure while they are young, a voice of reason, in times of temptation will remind them “I am sure to become ill, and cannot avoid illness?
It is unfortunate that we remain determined to distract ourselves from reality at all cost. With all the ageing, illness and death that exists in our world it is amazing that few stop to think deeply about what these realities mean. Contemplating them can lead us from fear, ignorance, hate and delusion and give us the peace of mind we so desperately long for and need. Finally grasping them will help us make better choices on how we treat our bodies and others. This contemplation makes it clear that we all have an expiration date and we should live a full and meaningful life with the time we have.
