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."

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Words I Wished I'd Written

I'm still in the hospital getting chemo until this evening, but Richard brought me my laptop, and there's Wifi Internet access in my room, so despite what I said earlier, I'm online - surfing and blogging.

I found a very eloquent blog by a NY Times editor with prostate cancer who expresses many thoughts and feelings I've had, but in much more beautiful language than I could come up with.
Below are a few excepts from his April 7 post titled "In Cancer, a Deeper Faith, "By Dana Jennings.
You can more of his thoughtful posts about having cancer at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/jennings/

"I need the skills and the insights of the nurses and doctors who care for me. But they don’t treat the whole man. Medicine cares about physical outcomes, not the soul. I also need — even crave — the spiritual antibodies of prayer, song and sacred study.
And it’s a powerful thing to know that others are praying for your return to health. My faith reminds me that I am not alone, that I am part of a larger whole, part of an ancient tradition and a timeless narrative. Disease often makes us feel cut off from community, even from ourselves, and faith helps defy that sense of isolation.
One of our cultural verities about serious illness is that it often challenges our faith. But for me, if anything, having cancer has only deepened it, heightened it.
...
And I know, soul deep, that I have not been cut open, radiated, and tried physically and spiritually so that I can merely survive, become a cancer wraith. Since my diagnosis — after shaking off the initial shock — I have kept asking myself, in the context of my belief: What can this cancer teach me?
The most surprising thing I’ve learned is that cancer can be turned toward blessing. ... "

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