“The triple world is not peaceful.
It is like the burning house.
It is full of sufferings.
It is dreadful.
There are always the sufferings
Of birth, old age, disease and death.
They are like flames
Raging endlessly.”
Lotus Sutra, Chapter III
In this installment I will cover the suffering of disease. Generally when we use the term disease we think first of sickness of the body. However, now you might perhaps be thinking of the way many things become diseased, especially since in this series I have been showing how these four sufferings apply to many things other than just our bodies which can also cause us suffering.
Dis-ease is the way one of my Chaplain instructors would say the word in order to emphasize the fact that there is no long ease present in the person. Disease is not one condition but many types of conditions which all result in some malfunction or breakdown of the body which can cause either physical or emotional crisis. Disease is generally not planned, coming to each of us unexpectedly, and it is usually not welcomed.
Over these past few articles and in recent other blog postings I have talked about interconnection and disease is usually something that does not just affect one person but groups of people. These groups of people may simply be family members or they may be entire societies, and they also impact those trained professionals who help people overcome disease.
Disease affects not only people though, it affects animals, it affects social structures, it affects governments, it affects economies, it affects ideas. Everything that can ever be born is subject to disease, including religions and their beliefs or practices.
The Buddha teaches in the Lotus Sutra that over time it would become increasingly more difficult to practice Buddhism because it would be corrupted with false ideas and misleading teachers thereby making it difficult just to sort out what teaching would be the most efficacious for the people of certain eras to practice. In other words Buddhism too would suffer disease and if not rescued it would potentially die. The Lotus Sutra is the teaching he intended to rescue Buddhism in ages when Buddhism is declining.
I work with the sick and dying as I carry out my Chaplain responsibilities, and in that process I work with doctors and nurses who provide medicines and prescribe treatments for those who are diseased. These treatments are intended to enable the individual to recover to the point where that person is capable of taking care of their own health.
The good medicine of the Lotus Sutra acts in much the same way. The Buddha has given the prescription to treat the disease of the degeneration of Buddhism in the form of the Lotus Sutra. It is the good medicine he left us but it is only going to be effective if we consume that good medicine by actually carrying out the practices of faith, study, reading, reciting, and teaching others.
In the parable of the Good Physician we have the children who are suffering from some poison they have consumed, they are said to be diseased of the mind. They are incapable of making good choices and so some refuse the perfect medicine, it is a medicine which is perfect in color, fragrance, taste and it ability to cure. The Lotus Sutra is just like that medicine, being perfect in all ways to measure a medicine, and it is capable of curing the most fundamental disease of delusion.
I have been working as a Chaplain for over three years now and I witness an interesting phenomena, something all healthcare professionals see as well; frequent readmissions for the same or similarly related diseases. In other words the same people come in for the same things repeatedly. Most often these are fully treatable conditions and have been treated in the past except the individual after being treated and healed fails to participate in their own continued good health. Eventually and frequently these same people either die or will die from this repeated condition; something that is completely treatable but requires patient participation.
Our Buddhist practice is like this as well. In order for this good medicine to cure us of our disease of delusions and enable us to break the cycle of suffering we need to not only take the good medicine it is also necessary to begin to participate in our own good spiritual health.
When people first come to practice Buddhism frequently they will notice a rapid change in their lives; perhaps even overcoming some obstacle or problem that has plagued them. This provides some immediate relief and there is a feeling of joy and happiness. Then however the critical time arises when they either reach a plateau of relative peace and security or they reach a really difficult patch in their lives. It is at this point when many people choose to abandon their practice.
This is very similar to those people who are frequently readmitted into the hospital for the same illness which are preventable. The way to end suffering is available to us through our daily practice of the Lotus Sutra though chanting the Odaimoku and reciting passages of the Sutra. This is much the same as following dietary guidelines or exercise programs in order to maintain good health. The daily practice of the Lotus Sutra is the prescription to maintain good spiritual health.
I hope you will continue in your daily practice so that you will be able to create a strong spiritual foundation for the blossoming of your enlightened life.
