Health, Disease, Recovery
Green Tara
http://www.tibetan-art.de/gruene-tara.jpg
Sample charts for health, dis-ease, & recovery
Nativities of physicians & healers, see Vocation
Astrological charts do not show the physical body directly.
Rather, Jyotisha reads the astral plane.
Geometric patterns between the seven massive planets & various energy points in earth's local system, form a map of the human body's astral plane.
The subtle particles of the astral plane, unless consciously interrupted, will by nature percolate "down" into the interstitial spaces between the larger particles which compose the material plane.
Keep in mind that whatever fleshly health conditions are revealed in the astral map, these conditions can be altered through accepting conscious responsibility (without guilt) for the karma and releasing attachment to it.
Om Tare Tutare Ture Svaham (Tib: So Ham)
[U-Chan mantra courtesy of www.lamamigmar.com ]
Above = the core mantra of Tara, the Mother of all Buddhas. (Printed U-Chan Tibetan script above, Roman character transcription below.)
Ta-ra = "sparkling tear" or "star".
It may bring comfort to those in need of healing (i.e., everyone!) to chant the mantra of Mother Tara the Greatest Healer.
Many are also comforted by visual memory of the Mother's energy, such as represented in the beautiful thangka of Green Tara below.
"... Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
~~ Philippians 4:8 (King James Version)
Returning to healthy balance:
Just as lifelines in the palm can grow longer or shorter, responding to conscious changes in lifestyle, so can the disease-causing imbalances be returned to balance, through conscious decisions that support true health.
Continuing to fill a pail after it is full, the water will be wasted. Continuing to grind an axe after it is sharp, will wear it away.
Excess of light blinds the eye. Excess of sound deafens the ear. Excess of condiments deadens the taste.
He who possesses moderation is lasting and enduring. Too much is always a curse, most of all in wealth.
~~ Lao-Tse
Sleepwalkers and the victim state:
Most people are sleepwalking. Sleepwalkers will experience the "system default". The default perceptual framework is created by astral (sub-conscious) action-reaction patterns accrued over lifetimes.
The 'default' repeating reactive patterns will continue to percolate into the interstitial spaces of the material plane, uninterrupted by conscious change. Sleepwalkers continue to experience the victim state. As Trulshig Rinpoche often says, "That's just how it is."
The good news: Those few with sufficient consciousness can in fact alter the effects of past-life karma in real-time.
But be warned: it takes humility, willpower, & commitment to do authentic all-body healing work.
Due to the fundamental structure of the universe, finer energies gravitate downward into grosser forms.
Energy originates in spiritual form (with God), percolates down to the mental form, from the mental to the emotional and psychic (astral) form, and last - but definitely not least! - to the physical form.
In general, problems originating at higher levels may be solved at higher levels without directly impacting your physical body. But problems neglected on spiritual, mental and emotional planes will unfortunately percolate down to physical dis-ease, imbalance, on the material plane. Physical Dis-ease is the RESULT of imbalances higher up.
Ayurvedic medical practitioners can use the Jyotisha charts to guide their diagnosis. Tibetan lama physicians also study astrology during their medical training, & rely on Tibetan Astrological charts to guide & supplement their understanding of the patient's total condition
Historically, in civilizations where medical treatment systems have evolved far enough to consider the effects of mental, emotional, & psychic experience on the patient's physical health, astrology - a key to reading psychic or astral body energy configurations - has been considered an adjunct medical science.
Most questions about health can be answered by assessing Ari Bhava, the rashi 6th house. However, the lagna (ascendant), 3rd, 8th, and 12th houses all play a role in health "problems." Further, planetary aspects and rulerships can be critical in easing or exacerbating health conditions.
Most common disease agent is lord of the domain-6.
Health itself is found in house-7, the house of contracts, agreements, relationships, and BALANCE.
House-6, as 12th-from-7th, shows the loss or dissolution of matters of house-7. Not only is house-6 the container for marital conflict (loss of marriage balance), poverty (loss of business agreements) and debt (loss of financial balance) but very importantly house-6 shows loss of the body's internal balance.
Health is a state of equilibrium. To know health, to be healthy, the physical body must be in a balanced relationship with the astral body & causal body. (Or if you prefer another energy-body model, whatever metaphysical system appeals to you, the various energy bodies must be in harmonious balance to enjoy health.)
Within the physical body itself, are a variety of exceptionally complex internal systems - pumps, pipes, membranes, networks - which must all cooperate and support each other. If one internal system weakens, the rest receive extra stress and the long-term imbalance becomes unsustainable.
So, disease is the result of loss of balance. The seventh house will indicate your natural state of balance. Strong planets in house-6 show past-life karma that unconsciously but compulsively detracts from your state of balance. By studying the relationship between your 6th & 7th radix houses, it is possible to see where the psychic imbalances are, where the harmony gets drained off by internal conflict. If house-6 is clear, yet the 7th house is troubled, there may be work to do in your marriage & partnerships.
But very predominantly the serious health challenges - which most of us face at some time in our lives - originate in house-6, with the radix-6th-lord, and various drishti upon the lord & His house.
Navamsha role of L-6 which shows the subconscious attitude toward imbalances, the D-30 Trimshamsha showing hidden expectations of "misfortune", and even the natural marakas Shani, Kuja, & Rahu can all contribute to the stress, frustration, and often despair that a serious accident or disease may cause.
In cases of poverty, marital conflict, and disease - the major "victim state" imbalances - our discovery focuses on L-6 and His home Ripu Bhava, house of "loss of balance".
"... Motion and emotion must balance. As in heaven [your own mind] so on earth [in your body and environment]. This is the great law of life."
You will find throughout all nature the law of action and reaction, of rest and motion. These two must balance, then there will be harmony and equilibrium.
You are here to let the life principle flow through you rhythmically and harmoniously. The intake and the outgo must be equal. The impression and the expression must be equal. All your frustration is due to unfulfilled desire.
If you think negatively, destructively, and viciously, these thoughts generate destructive emotions that must be expressed and frequently expressed as ulcers, heart trouble, tension, and anxieties,
What is your idea or feeling about yourself now? Every part of your being expresses that idea. Your vitality body , financial condition, friends, and social status represent a perfect reflection of the idea you have of yourself.
This is the real meaning of what is impressed in your subconscious mind and what is expressed in all phases of your life.
We injure ourselves by the negative ideas we entertain. How often have you wounded yourself by getting angry, fearful, jealous, or vengeful? These are the poisons that enter your subconscious mind. You were not born with these negative attitudes.
Feed your subconscious mind life-giving thoughts and you will wipe out off the negative patterns lodged within it. As you continue to do this, all the past will be wiped out and remembered no more."
~~ Joseph Murphy, Ph.D. (1963). The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, p 38-39
Release of conflict = loss of disease = domain-5
12th-from any house causes loss of the matters of that house. E.g., domain-10 for career also causes loss of income (domain-11) because the native is too busy with leadership duties to be optimally active in the marketplace. Domain-2 for family money causes loss of self-made wealth (domain-3) because one is focused on the family's assets, not one's own personal business.
Loss of disease and conflict occurs in domain-5, 12th-from-Ari bhava. Not surprisingly, domain-5 rules Confidence, expressed through intelligence, creativity, speculation, winnings, and children.
If the lord of domain-5 is a weak temporal benefic, wearing the gem for L-5 can boost confidence and remind the native to use their Divinely granted intelligence to help release the conditions of disease.
Lord of domain-5 releases the victim state, releases social and emotional conflict, releases debt and poverty, and replaces these conditions with items from its own agenda: confidence and courage.
The usual disease suspects= Primary karakas for illness and accident
6th-from = acute imbalance, acute conflict, enactment of the inner argument. 6th-from enjoys continuing manifestation vitality, albeit in an inequable, cranky, imbalanced state
12th-from = behaviors which cause the loss of vitality, loss of muscular movement, loss of activity in the body, loss of appearance, dissolution, dis-identification, de-manifestation, decay. 12th-from is actively losing vitality, as material form recedes, moving back into the field of astral memory.
8th-from = eruption of aggressive forces, sudden exposure to danger; secrets escape from their camouflaged hiding places; emergencies; disruption of the body's valve and sphincter control system.
Shani = karaka for troubles, pain, suffering, resistance, scarcity, fear
Mangala = sudden, aggressive movements; instinctive reactions; anger
periods of L-6 = acute conflict, injury, accident, disease; usually a rapid process; the native remains attached to the body - even in the case of chronic conditions, the native stays in the body and remains ego-engaged with the disease-disagreement process
periods of L-12 = dissolution and deterioration, usually a slow process, including loss of attachment to the body and gradual cessation of physical movement, increasing the sleep-dream state
periods of L-8 = shock and trauma, forced initiation; a rapidly destructive-creative process; usually an experience of death recycle rebirth which does not require destroying the body, but after a certain number of cycle-spins the physical form will be destroyed to create a new birth
L-6 from any lagna (baseline) - especially Chandra lagna = acute physical, mental, and social illness. 6th-from-Chandra = disagreement and inequity in emotional relationships.
Physical malfunctions of disease are caused by breakdown of supportive relationships at the causal (thought) and astral (emotional) levels, and this breakdown eventually percolates down into the gross physical body systems.
Clinical, ambulatory medicine for acute conditions. The condition is still "moving".
Poisoning, breakage, toxicity, infection, tumor, drugs, pain.
Shukra in 6th-from = the acute (using) phase of drug addiction (Michael Jackson).
Rahu in 6th-from =exotic or taboo diseases (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rahu-Kanya in 6th-from-Soma plus Rahu's lord Budha in Kumbha, 6th-from-lagna = nerve (Budha) sheath (Kumbha) disorder. FDR's severe nerve paralysis was considered a possible cause of public revolt or panic (Rahu) and was kept secret until after his death.)
How to Fix
Matters of domain-6 originate in the causal (thought-Budha) level and these problems can therefore be corrected by fixing the originating thoughts.
The source of the illness will be a thought-complex which expresses a pattern of inter-related negative expectations, typically subconsciously held. There is plenty of vitality in domain-6 and mental intervention can easily restore health when the native makes the proper self-correction.
12th-from any lagna (baseline) - especially Chandra lagna = the "dissolving" stage of physical, mental, and social phenomena. Physical vitality has ebbed; the conditions has begun its retreat from manifestation.
12th-from is more associated with "mental illness" as that label is used to describe the dissolution of the ego-identification with the physical body and social personality.
12th-from is an angle of Guru, and many 12th-from effects are beneficial types of dissolving process.
In the advanced stages of physical illness, this disintegration is normal and desirable as a step toward a peaceful death..
During periods of recovery after shock of a severe illness or accident, this disintegration may last for some period of time before a re-manifestation cycle begins.
In the midst of life, this type of disintegration is socially dysfunctional unless the native finds residence in a sanctuary, such as the home of a religious order.
L-12 = hospitalization, bed-ridden, institutionalization, imprisonment, long-term care away from public life, hospice; yet also: convalescence toward recovery, ashram sanctuary, convents and monasteries, prayer and meditation.
L-12 is 7th-from-6th - most alcoholics & drug addicts will admit they are married to their drug, and they experience peaceful union only in the 'dissolved' state of toxic stupor. (Shukra + Rahu = slow dissolution through drugs = Elvis Presley)
In normal human experience, 12th-from an undesirable thing is good and 12th-from a desirable thing is bad. Matters in the 12th-from will suck out the life force, drain the vitality, and motivate the process of de-materialization.
Shukra + Rahu in 12th-from-Chandra = dissolution of emotional stability through drugs, alcohol, women and bed pleasures, although expressed in a conservative or restrained (in rashi of Shani) and unusual style (Rahu); extravagant over-spending (Elvis Presley)
Chandra-Simha in 12th-from-lagna = slow development of the conditions for de-manifestation of the physical body through emotional need for recognition & attention (Simha) (consorting with entertainment celebrities, friendships with dangerous but glamorous mafiosi, riding like a king in an open-top car, John F. Kennedy )
8th from any lagna = eruption of hidden forces, perhaps extremely violent. Think of the shamanistic hunter, on perceptual high-alert, moving cautiously through the danger-infested jungle. There is massive hidden energy present. A predator or prey could burst forth from the foliage at any moment. The hunter could win (Kuja) a source of critically important nourishment - or he could be ripped to shreds and die a horrible death in the jaws of a man-killer. The outcome depends on his skillful awareness!
8th-from = emergencies. Onset of sudden, catastrophic change. Shock and trauma. Physically invasive trauma, attacks, surgery. Psychologically invasive trauma, intimidation, abuse. Childbirth. Hidden interior bodily conditions. Undiagnosable diseases.
Invasions which "open" the body through an aperture (randhra) to discover & correct the cause.
Sphincters most affected by 8th-from events: fontanelle (top of skull, mainly psychic), uterine cervix, throat, anus. Also the sphincters in the digestive system, including the pyloric and esophageal sphincters of the human stomach.
Includes invasive surgeries, body-opening accidents, childbirth which forces the opening of the cervix, and often the "opening" of psychotherapeutic inquiry. L-8 demands sudden change but result are often beneficial.
3rd-from = active mental health disorders.(12th-from = loss of attachment, but 12th-from is not crazy. 3rd-from can be crazy.) Lord of Trimshamsha (D-30) shows timing of general misfortune
Surya
Head, skull
Guru
Speech, Face, Mouth, Hair, Right Eye
Kuja
Ears, Arms; nerves
Chandra, Budha
Breasts, Heart, Chest, Torso
Guru
Belly, womb
Shani, Kuja
Lower abdomen, intestines
Shukra
Lap area
Shani
Genitals, Anus
Guru
Thighs, Hips
Guru-Surya-Budha-Shani
Knees, Ankles, Back
Guru
Legs; Skin
Shani
Feet, Left Eye
Body Parts by Nakshatra (chart from Das Goravani)
Chart 1: Toxic Shock, Adrenal Insufficiency, Steroid Addiction & Recovery
Chart 2: Liver Disease, Pneumonia, Spinal Trauma & Recovery
Chart 3: Crohn's Disease
Chart 4: Alcoholism, Substance addiction
Chart 5: Eye Surgery at age 40 Corrects Lifetime Myopia
Chart 6: Third-degree Burns over 30% of Body, Healed; near-fatal drowning
Chart 7: Breast Cancer & Recovery
Urinary Infection: see sudden infection with fever in young adult
Chart 8: Obesity, Hodgkins Disease
Chart 9: Mental Health challenge, financial issues, bipolar
Chart 10: Breast Cancer, Angioplasty, and Recovery
Chart 11: Cerebral Palsy, Deafness, Learning Disabilities
Chart 12: Brain seizure/ childhood developmental challenges
Chart 13: Quadriplegia (actor Christopher Reeve)
Chart 15: Multiple Sclerosis
Chart 16: Three nativities compared for the role of L-6 in lifestyle health practices
Ripu bhava (house-6)
6th-from-Moon
The following should be considered from the 6th house by examining the influence of signs & planets:
enemies,
thieves,
injuries,
obstacles,
sorrow,
navel region of the body (intestines, kidneys etc)
venereal diseases.
~~ Sarvatha Chintamani, Ch.6, Shloka 1
6th lord brings animosity, debt, & disease wherever it goes.
L-6 in Ari Bhava is largely neutralized
Should Ari's lord be in Ari itself, or in Lagna, or Randhra, there will be ulcers or bruises on the body.
- BPHS, Ch 17, shloka 2
If Ari's lord is in Ari Bhava, the native will have enmity with the group of his kinsmen, but be friendly to others and will enjoy mediocre happiness in matters like wealth.
- BPHS, Ch 24, shloka 66
Budha
(natural lord of domain-3 and domain-6)
The diseases indicated by Mercury are mental diseases, skin diseases, leucoderma, indigestion, piles, leprosy, nervous disorder, impediments of speech, diseases of the stomach, intestines & those arising from the curses of the devotees of Vishnu & wise men.
-- Satyajatakam Ch. 2, Sloka 4
6th from Budha
The 6th from Budha be also considered in regard to indications derivable from Ari Bhava.
- BPHS, Ch 39, shloka 41
Malefic grahas occupying dusthana bhavas often give good fruit
Bad planets in bad houses often give good results.
Malefics damage, threaten or prevent the matters of the house they occupy.
Destructive Mars, change-resistant Saturn, or chaotic Rahu/Ketu can give beneficial results in Ari Bhava, because they damage the 6th-house's business of imbalance & dis-ease.
E.g. Shani = anxiety & resistance. In the house of imbalances, Shani creates fear of losing one's health. People who obsess about health & diet may be annoying :) However Shani blocks success in whatever house He occupies. If he occupies 6, He will block the loss of balance... so the person ends up with reasonably good health, despite all their anxiety.
E.g., Kuja = anger & aggression. In the house of imbalances, Kuja goes to war with the disease process. If Kuja is strong He will win the war, defeating disease, poverty, & debt. If Kuja is weak He will nevertheless harass the disease process, keeping the worst effects at bay.
Strong planets in domain-6
... frequently show a professional who is socially approved to manage imbalanced conditions -- e.g. a physician, epidemiologist, clinic manager, a divorce attorney, hazardous waste expert, debt counselor, international financier, mortgage broker, etc.
Strong Saturn in 6 is *obligation* to serve the poisoned, Strong Sun in 6 is *rational thinking/profession* concerning medicine/poison/debt, Strong Rahu in 6 is often a Psychic Healer helping to release psycho-emotional toxicity.
When conflict is gainful
If Dhana's lord is in Ari Bhava along with a benefic the native will gain wealth through his enemies."
-- BPHS, Ch 24, shloka 18
enemies, illness, or expense in relationships
If Putra's lord is in Ari Bhava, the native will obtain such sons who will be equal to his enemies, or will lose them, or will acquire an adopted or purchased son.
- BPHS, Ch 24, shloka 54
If Yuvati's lord is in Ari Bhava, the native will beget a sickly wife and he will be inimical to her. He will be given to anger and will be devoid of happiness.
- BPHS, Ch 24, shloka 78
Benefics in 6 are troublesome
...indicate personal illness caused by old animosities, carried over from past lives.
For example, moon in 6 gives psychological pain - the enemies get into one's mind too easily. ("Weak aura.")
Venus in 6 gives enemies in love - attraction to high-conflict partners. Emotional problems will have physical symptoms, such as attraction to excessively sweet foods
Drishti of Guru helps any house, including Aristhana. Gives wisdom to address the imbalances compassionately. In the house of victims, Guru drishti helps eliminate blame-the-victim attitude, replace with kindness.
The 12th house
...shows enclosures and spiritually positive losses. (Such as giving all one's money to the poor, which is not a practical material decision but which may have stellar spiritual effects.)
Strong planets in 12 show a professional working within the walls of an enclosure, such as a hospital, prison, concentration camp, ashram, spa, convent, monastery, or other sanctuary.
Whether one is a compassionate servant to those in pain or one suffers oneself, depends on the level of ego-association with matters of house-12.
High personal attachment to private suffering means that the person is defining their identity in terms of hidden worlds. That would be Surya, Chandra, or lagnesha in 12.
Detached planets in 12 - cold, dry Budha & Shani, L-8, others by circumstance, can yield a brilliantly neutral servant of the voluntarily or involuntarily sequestered.
Vimshottari dasha periods of L-6
...show activation of imbalance Skandha
For example, if L-6 = Mars, disease factors will increase during Kuja mahadasha & dramatically so during Kuja bhukti.
Disease karma arises, causes suffering, is understood, accepted, & healed, within the periods of L-6.
Rahu-Ketu
[during Budha periods] There will be fear of premature death, if Rahu is in Dhana, or in Ari.
-- BPHS, Ch 58, shloka 54-55
[during Shukra periods] Enjoyments, destruction of enemy, enthusiasm and beneficence of the king will be the results, if Rahu is in Sahaj, or Ari, or Karma, or Labha.
-- BPHS, Ch 60, shloka 38-39
If at the time of birth of a child all the planets are posited in their own signs, they guard against all evils caused by them. Rahu occupying the 3rd, the 6th or the 11th aspected by benefic planets wards off all evil.
-- Jataka Desha Marga,
Ch. 4: Arishta Bhanga Prakaranam 2
Generally speaking, malefics do good work in dusthana houses. Rahu and Ketu with another planet may cause imbalance.
For example, Ketu with Moon or Ketu with Mars may cause sexual impotence in the male. Rahu with Moon can lead to endocrine imbalance, especially in the female.
Even the supreme benefic Guru can make health problems if He becomes L-6 or L-8
(if Guru occupies domain-6 = entitlement, corruption, bribery)
Jupiter may be said to be responsible for appendicitis, disorders of the intestines, including fevers, neurotic disturbances caused by anxiety, fainting or swoon and phlegmatic disorders, ear trouble, vertigo ..."
-- Phaladeepika, Ch. 14, shloka 6
"You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends."
-- Joseph Conrad
"Stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts."
God cures, and the doctor sends the bill.
-- Mark Twain
We are mortal as long as we fear death.
-- Lama Govinda, The Inner Structure of the I Ching
"It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity."
-- Dave Barry
... Compassion diminishes fright about your own pain and increases inner strength.
It gives you a sense of empowerment, of being able to accomplish your tasks. It lends encouragement.
Let me give you a small example.
Recently, when I was in Bodh Gaya, I fell ill from a chronic intestinal infection. On the way to the hospital, the pain in my abdomen was severe, and I was sweating a great deal.
The car was passing through the area of Vulture Peak (Buddha taught here) where the villagers are extremely poor. In general, Bihar State is poor, but that particular area is even more so. I did not even see children going to or coming from school. Just poverty. And sickness.
I have a very clear memory of a small boy with polio, who had rusty metal braces on his legs and metal crutches up to his armpits. It was obvious that he had no one to look after him. I was very moved. A little later on, there was an old man at a tea stop, wearing only a dirty piece of cloth, fallen to the ground, left to lie there with no one to take care of him.
Later, at the hospital, my thoughts kept circling on what I had seen, reflecting on how sad it was that here I had people to take care of me but those poor people had no one. That is where my thoughts went, rather than to my own suffering. Though sweat was pouring out of my body, my concern was elsewhere.
In this way, though my body underwent a lot of pain that prevented sleep (a hole had opened in my intestinal wall), my mind did not suffer any fear or discomfort. It would only have made the situation worse if I had concentrated on my own problems.
This is an example from my small experience of how an attitude of compassion helps even oneself, suppressing some degree of physical pain and keeping away mental distress, despite the fact that others might not be directly helped.
Compassion strengthens your outlook, and with that courage you are more relaxed.
When your perspective includes the suffering of limitless beings, your own suffering looks comparatively small.
~~ H. H. Dalai Lama. (2004). Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously. Jeffrey Hopkins (Trans. & Ed.). www.snowlionpub.com
"In dealing with those who are undergoing great suffering, if you feel "burnout" setting in, if you feel demoralized & exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw & restore yourself.
The point is to have a long-term perspective."
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
All Excess is ill: But Drunkenness is of the worst Sort.
It spoils Health, dismounts the Mind, and unmans Men: It reveals Secrets, is Quarrelsome, Lascivious, Impudent, Dangerous and Mad.
~~ William Penn. (1693). Fruits of Solitude.
"We often speak of the external enemy.
For example, in my own case, our Chinese brothers and sisters are destroying Tibetan rights and, in that way, more suffering and anxiety develops.
But no matter how forceful this is, it cannot destroy the supreme source of my happiness, which is my calmness of mind. This is something an external enemy cannot destroy.
Our country can be invaded, our possessions can be destroyed, our friends can be killed, but these are secondary for our mental happiness.
The ultimate source of my mental happiness is my peace of mind. Nothing can destroy this except my own anger."
~~ H. H. Dalai Lama, from The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom
H.H. Dalai Lama, The Path to Enlightenment:
"A tantric yogi who has gained control of the subtle energies of the body and the subtle levels of consciousness will have control over the inner and outer elements and consequently can transform his or her ordinary samsaric form into a joyous rainbow body.
But until we can do this, we have to accept the fact that our physical basis is a magnet attracting every kind of discomfort and pain.
...This samsaric body keeps us running all of our lives. We have to run to fulfill its endless needs, to keep it away from things that may harm it, and to protect it from anything unpleasant. We have to give it pleasure and comfort.
We become ordained, and at first this is very satisfactory; but soon our body makes it so difficult for us that we think our practice would be less disturbed if we were to live as a layperson.
So we give up and return to ordinary life; but then we end up with a family to support, leaving us with no time or energy for meditation.
We have the pressing tasks of feeding, clothing, and sheltering our children, and of arranging their education and so forth.
Our lives are spent alternating between work and worry, with occasional short periods of pleasure, and then we have to die; but even this we cannot do in peace, for, when we lie down to die, our last thoughts are worried ones concerning the family we are leaving behind.
Such is the nature of worldly existence.
...To care for our old people--these ones who have given us our body, our life, and our culture--is a sacred duty of humanity. But most humans act more like animals than people, and often we see old people who have been abandoned by their families. Family units were very strong in Tibet, and old people were usually cared for directly by relatives.
The national care for the old that we see in the West is something very good, a healthy sign, although perhaps here the spiritual and psychological basis is somewhat lacking.
The suffering of old age is something we all must face, unless we die prematurely.
There is nothing we can do about it. Gone will be that false sense of personal ability and strength that made us so proud when we were young.
Instead, helpers or friends will bathe us, dress us, spoon-feed us, and have to take us to the toilet.
Rather than live under the delusion of permanence, we should engage in spiritual training so that we can enter old age at least with the grace of wisdom.
... So we can see that this body indeed causes us much grief in this life and, sadly, in their quest to satisfy its many needs, most people just collect an endless stream of negative karmic instincts that will lead them to lower rebirths in the future. These are the sufferings of the human world.
... The important point here is to become aware of the third type of suffering, the subtle suffering that pervades all imperfect existence, the all-pervading misery concomitant with having a perishable, samsaric base....
[All are] enmeshed in suffering because the nature of their body and mind is bound with compulsive cyclic processes.
Until we develop the wisdom that is able to free the mind from these compelling forces, there is no doubt that we shall experience suffering throughout our lives, and that we shall continue to wander endlessly in the wheel of birth, life, death, and rebirth where the presence of misery can always be felt."
~~ H.H. Dalai Lama, The Path to Enlightenment. Glenn H. Mullin (Trans. & Ed.), Snow Lion Pub.
updated: 08 November 2009
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