Category: dying

Contemplating Disease – Part 12d – Ten Characteristics – December 26, 2018

Fourth of the Ten Characteristics is Constancy.  By this Chih-I means that the methods we employ for living in disease should all be consistent.  Every thought, every effort, every should be focused upon our belief and actions in living in disease.  It would be counter productive for us as believers in the Lotus Sutra and Buddhism to then employ thoughts and beliefs that contradict what we say is our core belief.  As Nichiren points out…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 12c – Ten Characteristics – October 2, 2018

Chih-I is quite strict when speaking of diligence and my experience bears out the necessity of taking to heart in all seriousness the advice he offers.  When it comes to our diligence in overcoming or living with illness there is no room to slack off.  Chih-I says that night and day from sunup to sunset with out rest from the “beginning, middle, and late night to the morning” we should practice diligently. He says your…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 12b – Ten Characteristics – October 1, 2018

Utilization is up next.  While it is important to have faith, to have good medicine, to have good doctors, and to have a good treatment plan none of them have any value in themselves unless we put them to use.  Faith without practice is a three legged stool missing a leg, and will eventually sooner over later will certainly topple over.  The three pillars of our Buddhist practice is faith, practice, and study.  It does…

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Contemplating Disease – Part 12a – Ten Characteristics – 30 September 2018

In the previous section I gave a quote from Chih-I in which he talks about a free method of managing illness, one that doesn’t take much time, which can be done without any side effects, and may be taken with out limit.  He laments that in spite of all the benefits of this offering people refuse to partake.  In the Lotus Sutra in the parable of the Gem in the Robe we learn that the…

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