Category: dying

Contemplating Disease – Medicine King Bodhisattva – Part 6a – September 12, 2018

Deciding how I shall write about the bulk of Chih-I’s section in the Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan has been complicated.  There is much in his work that is important especially given his role in collecting, systematizing, and disseminating the full body of Chinese medicine available during his time.  He is often referred to as the father of Buddhist medicine and in fact Nichiren referred to him as the emanation of Medicine King Bodhisattva. Medicine King Bodhisattva appears…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 5c – Comforting the Ill – September 3, 2018

Walking the fine line between remembering the emptiness of the body and dwelling upon final extinction is often the fine line many who deliver medical care and care-givers travel.  How do you be honest without being forlorn or slipping into causing hopelessness.  Vimalakirti saw this difficulty and cautioned the person seeking to provide comfort.  Not being dishonest about the disease or illness causes harm, being too brutally honest also causes harm.  There is no one…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 5b – Comforting the Ill – September 2, 2018

It’s not just family and friends who don’t know how to interact with the patient.  I’ve witnessed many doctors who, while good at the practice and delivery of medicine are woefully inadequate in finding the balance between honesty and compassion.  I’ll say this from my witnessing many doctor patient interactions, most doctors don’t know how to deliver bad news.  Part of this comes from the sense of failure on the part of a doctor if…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 5a – Comforting the Ill – August 29, 2018

At this point I’d like to make a little detour away from Chih-I and look at Vimalakirti.  I mentioned earlier that the illness we are talking about do not cover those taken on by Buddhas or Bodhisattvas for the purpose of instruction, such as the illness of Vimalakirti.  Yet in the Vimalakirti Sutra we can learn important lesson, such as found in the exchange between Manjusuri and Vimalakirti on how to encourage a bodhisattva who…

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