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."

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Big "C"

Ok - the title is a bit of a tease. Usually when people refer to the Big C, they mean Cancer. Here I'm talking about the common Cold.
Yesterday that's what I had - congestion in the front of my face and a sore throat - not even a particularly bad cold. I felt worse than I ever did from my surgeries, abdominal and brain. You feel lousy when your head is fuzzy. The sore throat I could deal with.
Of course, that's just my experience. I wouldn't want you to think no one with cancer suffers.
But I'd also like you to get a sense of how little pain or discomfort I had from my cancer treatment.

Mostly I don't want people to fear Cancer. If you have spiritual refuge, you will deal with it the same way you deal with the many other awful things that happen in samsara.

As Buddhist practitioners. Geshe-la suggests we should fear our delusions more than we fear cancer, because cancer is just of this life. Isn't that a wild concept? I'm not quite there yet, but I like to remind myself: You should  be more scared of your irritation, your annoyance, your clinging to people and things ... .

1 comment: