Today there's enormous interest in all issues in relation to health. There's been an explosion of health centres, gyms and alternative treatments because people know how crucial health is to their experience of happiness. Everybody understands that to be effective at work and at home, to enjoy our leisure and our non secular life we have got to be healthy.
All of us experience pain and pain all of the time to varying degrees. Even when we are sitting in a chair we have pain after a while. Maybe our office or home isn't air-conditioned. That will actually make us uncomfortable. We have back and neck issues due to hours spent at a P. C.. Perhaps a sporting activity has caused some disequilibrium in the body bringing discomfort.
Even though we've got more hospitals, hospitals, cures and specialists to help us there has not been a concurring dip in our physical suffering or Problems. Actually folk appear to be getting more ill, more frequently. More people take sick days from work. There are new sicknesses that were extraordinary years ago- Aids [*COMMA] Prolonged Fatigue syndrome, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Loony Cow Disease and many others.
Although new treatments have been devised for old and new illnesses their effects are uncertain. Occasionally the complications of gear can be worse the original symptoms. Kava Kava was withdrawn from the shelves in Health Food shops due to doubt over the side-effects. Yet folks are willing to take any medication or use any treatment because they are frantic to get well.
There are lots of folks now who understand that only the leading indications of disease are being treated. We improve for a bit and then illness returns. For instance we can take aspirin for a pain. That pain might vanish for a bit but frequently returns. Aspirin doesn't cure agony permanently because it does not destroy the root or basis of the pain. If the main cause of a sickness is not destroyed then we are going to continue to get sick.
Buddha recounted the base of all sickness is in the mind. If we have lethal roots in our mind they will eventually produce psychological and physical illness; stress, depression, anxiety etc. Aches, pains, stomach disorders, skin illnesses and cancer all arise from poison in our mind. Buddha inspires us to have a look at the link between our mental activity and our health.
What is it that makes our minds unbalanced and that leads to inequality in our bodies, resulting in illness? It is what Buddha called our delusions; negative states of mind such as outrage, attachment and jealousy and the why me sydrome that plagues millions.
We are able to see how attachment can hurt us with respect to food. Because for us food is a real source of happiness we eat too much and eat the incorrect things. We eat as the food looks, tastes and smells good, not because it's good for our bodies. Infrequently a craving sets in that can't be satisfied irrespective of how much we eat. Our attachment leads us to find different, stronger and more exotic foods all of the time. We pile on weight and and various infirmities begin to appear. We see some unfortunate folks who become housebound and absolutely immobile due to excess weight. Food is slaughtering them.
If we live with anger in our mind, our heart experiences powers of adrenalin frequently. This will not only damage the heart, but affect every organ in the body ultimately. It might take many years for the results of anger to be felt physically but ultimately our body will take the toll.
The only way to be really healthy is to get rid of this inner poison of the delusions from our mind. Buddha's teachings are called 'Medicine for the mind" because they explain methods for destroying delusions and cultivating instead minds of loving kindness, compassion and wisdom which bring inner peace and balance to our mind and our body.
Thru the practice of meditation we apply the medication to our mind and destroy the base of our suffering. Meditation is the trail to mental and physical health and happiness for everyone, Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It is simple to learn and even 10 minutes of meditation a day can have extraordinarily constructive effects on our health and general well-being.
In his book" Transform Your Life", Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso writes:
" When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within. This sense of contentment and well-being helps us to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily existance. So much of the tension and stress we routinely experience comes from our mind and many Problems we experience such as sickness are caused or aggravated by this stress. Simply by doing ten or 15 minutes breathing meditation a day we can reduce this stress. ".
Jonah White employs quantum jumping and likes to research NLP skills.
Related Reading:
