Today there is giant interest in all issues associated with health. There has been an explosion of health centers, gymnasiums and alternative therapies because folks know how important health is to their experience of happiness. Everyone understands that to be effective at work and at home, to enjoy our leisure and our spiritual life we have to be healthy.
Everybody experience discomfort and discomfort all the time to varying degrees. Even if we are sitting in a chair we have discomfort after a bit. Perhaps our home or office is not air-conditioned. Which will certainly make us uncomfortable. We have neck and back Problems because of hours spent at a computer. Maybe a sporting activity has been the cause of some imbalance in the body bringing agony.
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.
Though new treatments have been invented for new and old diseases their effects are doubtful. Infrequently the side-effects of substances can be worse that the original symptoms. Kava Kava was withdrawn from the shelving in Health Food stores because of uncertainty over the side effects. Yet folk are ready to take any medicine or use any treatment because they're desperate to get well.
There are many folk now who understand that only the symptoms of illness are being handled. We get better for a while and then sickness returns. As an example we will be able to take aspirin for a pain. That discomfort might disappear for some time but regularly returns. Aspirin does not cure pain permanently because it doesn't destroy the root or cause of the discomfort. If the root cause of an illness isn't demolished then we're going to continue to become ill.
Buddha said the roots of all illness is in the mind. If we have deadly roots in our mind they may at last produce mental and physical sickness; stress, depression, stress for example. Aches, pains, stomach abnormalities, skin sicknesses and cancer all arise from poison in our mind. Buddha encourages us to look at the relationship between our psychological activity and our health.
What is it that makes our minds unbalanced and that leads to imbalance in our bodies, leading to sickness? It's what Buddha called our delusions; negative states of mind like anger, attachment and envy and the why me sydrome that plagues millions.
We will be able to see how attachment can harm us with regard to food. Because for us food is a genuine source of happiness we eat too much and eat the wrong things. We eat because the food looks, smells and tastes good, not because it is good for our bodies. Often a craving sets in that cannot be satisfied regardless of how much we eat. Our attachment leads us to seek different, stronger and more exotic foods all the time. We pile on weight and and diverse illnesses start to appear. We see some unlucky people who become housebound and fully immobile because of excess poundage. Food is literally murdering 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 possible way to be actually healthy is to remove this inner poison of the delusions from our mind. Buddha's teachings are called 'Medicine for the mind" because they explain strategies for destroying delusions and cultivating instead minds of loving kindness, compassion and knowledge which bring inner peace and balance to our mind and our body.
Through the practice of meditation we apply the medicine to our mind and destroy the roots of our suffering. Meditation is the path to psychological and physical health and happiness for everybody, Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It is straightforward to learn and even ten minutes of meditation a day can have very favourable effects on our health and general contentment.
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. ".
Everybody experience discomfort and discomfort all the time to varying degrees. Even if we are sitting in a chair we have discomfort after a bit. Perhaps our home or office is not air-conditioned. Which will certainly make us uncomfortable. We have neck and back Problems because of hours spent at a computer. Maybe a sporting activity has been the cause of some imbalance in the body bringing agony.
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.
Though new treatments have been invented for new and old diseases their effects are doubtful. Infrequently the side-effects of substances can be worse that the original symptoms. Kava Kava was withdrawn from the shelving in Health Food stores because of uncertainty over the side effects. Yet folk are ready to take any medicine or use any treatment because they're desperate to get well.
There are many folk now who understand that only the symptoms of illness are being handled. We get better for a while and then sickness returns. As an example we will be able to take aspirin for a pain. That discomfort might disappear for some time but regularly returns. Aspirin does not cure pain permanently because it doesn't destroy the root or cause of the discomfort. If the root cause of an illness isn't demolished then we're going to continue to become ill.
Buddha said the roots of all illness is in the mind. If we have deadly roots in our mind they may at last produce mental and physical sickness; stress, depression, stress for example. Aches, pains, stomach abnormalities, skin sicknesses and cancer all arise from poison in our mind. Buddha encourages us to look at the relationship between our psychological activity and our health.
What is it that makes our minds unbalanced and that leads to imbalance in our bodies, leading to sickness? It's what Buddha called our delusions; negative states of mind like anger, attachment and envy and the why me sydrome that plagues millions.
We will be able to see how attachment can harm us with regard to food. Because for us food is a genuine source of happiness we eat too much and eat the wrong things. We eat because the food looks, smells and tastes good, not because it is good for our bodies. Often a craving sets in that cannot be satisfied regardless of how much we eat. Our attachment leads us to seek different, stronger and more exotic foods all the time. We pile on weight and and diverse illnesses start to appear. We see some unlucky people who become housebound and fully immobile because of excess poundage. Food is literally murdering 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 possible way to be actually healthy is to remove this inner poison of the delusions from our mind. Buddha's teachings are called 'Medicine for the mind" because they explain strategies for destroying delusions and cultivating instead minds of loving kindness, compassion and knowledge which bring inner peace and balance to our mind and our body.
Through the practice of meditation we apply the medicine to our mind and destroy the roots of our suffering. Meditation is the path to psychological and physical health and happiness for everybody, Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It is straightforward to learn and even ten minutes of meditation a day can have very favourable effects on our health and general contentment.
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. ".
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