In recent
years, medical-science has come to the realization
that much—some say as much as 80% or even
more—of our physical sickness and disease
is psychosomatic or psychogenic—that is,
mental in origin. What a tremendous realization!
Now it is possible to go deeper, to the cause
of the problems, instead of dealing merely with
their manifestations. This doesn’t mean
it will be easy, of course, because it requires,
first and foremost, honesty, courage, and willingness
to ‘look within’.
For thousands
of years, Buddhism has taught much the same
thing: that Mind is the culprit behind the vast
bulk of our suffering. We complain about and
blame others for things which happen to us that
we don’t like, instead of examining them
objectively and maybe discovering thereby that
very often, we are suffering from our own limited
way of looking at things; how often, for example,
do we imagine slights and insults where none
was intended, or become filled with worry and
fear about what will happen if ……
? Our propensity to do wrong, even though we
know it to be wrong, is another example of this;
nobody makes us do wrong but ourselves. This
causes us anguish and disease, and we do it
to ourselves. |
