Question and Answer and Dhamma Discussion
with Overseas Disciple from USA
(Part VIII)
(Part VIII)
Not feeling
well or failing health is an alarm or the warning that your habitual created actions
are causing danger to your health and body.
You can definitely be able to detect your body's health alarm if you
keep on practicing dhamma diligently.
As long as
you have the mind power called 'abandoning', it does not really matter if you still
carry out your routine actions because you will know how to do them as
'doing-only'. You can do your actions such
as working, doing, talking, etc as your routine actions without paying central emphasis
on whether going or not, reaching to the destination or not, being successful
or not, being alive or death, healthy or sick, etc in your mind. If you have the ability of doing those
actions as 'doing-only', you will not be experiencing any side-effects from
those actions.
Since you
cannot do those actions as they are supposed to and since you do those actions
in your habitual way, you will surely be confronted with unwanted side-effects such
as sickness, disease, health problems, mental problems, etc.
If you do
'cause', you will get 'effect' in equal strength. If you change the 'cause', the 'effect' will automatically
be changed.
A good
example can be the health issues .... though you try to cure your sickness by
using all your means, there is no guarantee whether your sickness can be cured
and your health will definitely be back on track. There are so many evidences to proof this
concept.
Another way
to look at this dreadful circumstances is .... when you are sick or when your
health is failing, though you cannot do other routine actions like healthy
people, you can still be able to practice meditation and contemplate on dhamma
since these actions are not physically demanding. Instead of feeling down and out, you can best
make use of these unfortunate situation to change your mindset and lifestyle in
order to obtain the best possible benefits.
It does not
matter how you get yourself back on the track but the most important point here
is to get yourself back on the track ... the dhamma path .... one and only Magga path ... the
Noble Eightfold Path ... the Middle Way (majjhimā paṭipadā)
... this should be the most important objective of your life.
Strength depends on "unity", not on "quantity".
Doing only is doing with detachment.
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If you are
successful in your endeavours and if you are enjoying smooth sailing life, it
might be unimaginably difficult for you to abandon what you are enjoying and
switch to Magga
path.
In reality and in
my point of view, it is not really matter how successful you are, how rich you
are or how smooth sailing your life can be.
In contrast, it is much much more important for you to be able to walk
on the right path ... one and only Magga path successfully.
When your health
is failing, if you have traditional mindset or if you are in different
religious belief, you might probably resort to the medicines and medical
treatments to solve your failing health problem ... or you might probably
submit yourself to your ill fate and accept yourself as a sick person. Hence, you might not have chance to learn and
understand dhamma in a right way.
When you are
not healthy, you might not be able to do your routine actions in the same
manner as your healthy days. Whether you
are in good health or not, you will surely have countless of created actions
which you want to do.
By nature,
human being always have desire and preference to do usual and routine actions. No matter how busy you are, you still need to
set aside some of your time do the actions which are deemed necessary for you
to do. This include practicing
meditation and listening to dhamma teachings.
Due to
current global economy, high cost of living, high tech and knowledge era,
everyone in the family needs to work hard to maintain a decent standard of
living, to keep pace with others in terms of knowledge and technology, to learn
the highest education at the best institutions, to maintain solid bank account,
etc ... and at the same time, you still need to prevent yourself from falling
victim to the side effects of these actions.
Place
more emphasis to what you do rather than who is it.
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You need to
take the signs of these side effects as warning signs and thus learn to take
the warnings seriously. The side effects
might not be so dreadful if you know how to solve them with dhamma. The side effects might become out of control
if you ignore the warning signs and still keep on placing central emphasis on
created truths such as win or lose, right or wrong, I and you, etc.
The failing
or deteriorating health can be considered as an announcement from the
body. The body is telling you that 'if
you do this action, you will receive that result'. Such announcement from the body is far more
accurate than the doctor's diagnosis.
Due to the
demand from the society, though your health is failing, you are not granted any
permission to be discharged from your obligations. As such, you have no choice but to use all
your means and capacity to get your sickness cured as soon as possible so that
you can be back on track in shortest possible time.
Solving
health problems in this way might not give you definite results and will not
give you specific and accurate outcome.
You might probable have to endure the side effects of the medicines and
the treatments on top of your sickness.
If you choose
to resort to medicines and treatments, you might not gain merits out of this dreadful
situation because you still do not have any chance to do good deeds. Instead, due to the sickness, you might
probable accumulate bad kamma and therefore your health condition might become
more serious.
The meaning
of one 'understands dhamma' or 'acquires insight wisdom' is one attains understanding
and realisation of the Law of Cause and Effect.
This
understanding is useful and handy even when you are old and sick. As long as you attain right understanding,
this right understanding will forever be useful and helpful.
Place
more emphasis on conditions rather than the results.
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In typical created
point of view, you need to be young and healthy in order to work hard and
achieve your ambitions. You are useful and valuable only when you are young and
healthy. Once you are no longer young
and healthy, you become useless and worthless in society's point of view.
So long as
you understand dhamma and attain insight wisdom, no matter which condition you
are in, you will always be useful and valuable.
As long as people know the value and how to appreciate this particular
value, you will always be useful.
If you still
dogmatically hold on to your created values, you might probably perceive this value
as useless.
Since you are
somewhat familiar with dhamma, it might not be difficult for you to practice dhamma
successfully. Things will become easier
if you practice dhamma regularly.
For those who
are neither familiar nor in touch with dhamma might probably perceive
understanding dhamma and attaining insight wisdom as impossible or way beyond
their imagination. Hence, they might
probable spend their entire life by working endlessly, earning money endlessly,
seeking medical treatments endlessly, studying endlessly, etc.
If you choose
to do only what is deemed necessary, you definitely do not need to worry about
any side effects later on.
For my case,
I was given this priceless opportunities to be in acquaintance with dhamma,
embrace myself with dhamma and carry out dhamma duta duties, etc at young
age.
Should I
continue doing created actions like I was in the past, I might probably be
surrounded by endless of problems and issues related to business, social, health,
etc like many other in the world.
You
should strive to practice till there is no more need to practice and you
become absolutely free from desire.
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Since I was
given this golden opportunity, I successfully grasp this golden opportunity and
try my utmost best in making use of this golden opportunity as much as
possible.
By doing so,
I also have chance and opportunities to help other to become like me, which I
think is very very important and valuable.
