In yesterday's New York Times there was an article titled, "What Are Friends For? A Longer Life," about scientific studies showing the healing power of friendship - and that's just for ordinary friends. Imagine what the results would be if they studied Sangha friends. I encourage you to do your own study : )
Here are a couple excerpts:
Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone.
The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.
...
In 2006, a study of nearly 3,000 nurses with breast cancer found that women without close friends were four times as likely to die from the disease as women with 10 or more friends. And notably, proximity and the amount of contact with a friend wasn’t associated with survival. Just having friends was protective.
In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This made me think of the old James Taylor song, maybe you remember...anyway, looks like you start your chemo on Monday. I will definitely be praying that it works against the cancer and that you do not experience any side effects.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Gamo
Mimi, you definitely have friends! Wishing you lots of protection. Love, Sally
ReplyDeleteBTW, as I was posting the above, I was looking for the link to sign back into G-mail and a big picture of Geshe-la popped up. Now there's a real friend and protector for you! :-)
ReplyDelete