May we not ask for no illness to befall, as without illness, greed and attachments can be left unchecked
As a doctor, my responsibility is to help heal and make others feel better and regain their health. But birth, aging, illness, death are the definite life processes that all of us will go through. However it is not random that life is designed for living beings in this way.
“May we not ask for no illness to befall, as without illness, greed and attachments innate in us will be left unchecked”
This line is extracted from a Buddhist classic text, in which the original meaning is to see illness as a teacher and through it we contemplate on conditions arising, including that which applies to the body. Hence there is no need to over pamper this body and through this we aim to break attachments towards this shell.
However from the medical point of view, this extract from the classical text implies that illness is a warning signal built in in the body to remind us to keep everything in moderation. Because “greed” is the first of the five poisons in human nature and many illnesses have their roots from this. Greed for food results in overaccumulation, greed for laze results in stagnation, greed for thoughts suck energy and leave one weak, greed for sexual desire dispense the essence of life. These are but a few examples of how greed can result in the imbalance of health and hence illnesses. Therefore we can see that illnesses are not created with the objective to make a living being suffer, but more as a reminder and signal to pay attention to the imbalance in the body, and a starting point for one to contemplate and reflect on possible unreasonable desires and attachments present in one’s life, in one’s heart.