chapter two, part two (p30-39 ‘Enriching Your Life Exponentially’ up to end of chapter)
Note: after this week we will take a week off to allow people to catch up on any reading and commenting before continuing with the next part of the book.
Darlene begins this section talking about why it is especially important for people in pain to create a life they love and enjoy. She explains how this leads her to engage totally with her life, even those parts we might consider to be mundane such as washing the dishes. As the Treeleaf motto states, “All of life is our temple.”
Although illness is not generally seen as a positive thing, it gives us an opportunity to fully engage with our life. Our body is often telling us exactly how it feels in response to each and every action we perform.
Through careful observation Darlene observed how focussing on different parts of the body at different times (such as the foot that is in the air rather than on the ground) could make a huge difference to her experience of an action. One of her clients also observed that everything that happens to her is information about her body. This kind of curiosity can be harnessed in our practice.
However, rather than this enquiry being purely functional, Darlene goes on to say that “we must penetrate our anguish and pain so thoroughly that illness and health lose their distinction, allowing us just to live our lives.” This reminds me of the koan in which a monk asks Dongshan (Liangjie), “When we are surrounded by cold or heat, how can we avoid them?”. Dongshan replies, “When it is cold, kill yourself with cold, and when it is hot, kill yourself with heat.” (The Blue Cliff Record, Case 43, Dongshan’s Hot and Cold). In that case, Dongshan is similarly asking us to penetrate hot and cold so thoroughly that we are no longer separated from them.
She emphasises that illness is not a preparation for anything else, nor a journey to another situation called wellness. It is its own self.
Darlene next talks about the importance of comfort. She points out that when we are overwhelmed with how we are feeling, it is okay to seek solace. Sometimes that solace will be in directly feeling what is going on in our body, focussing on the sensations rather than the stories in our head, sometimes it will come in the form of distraction and that is okay. We are not failing by taking a break from our pain, but instead seeing the reality that living with chronic pain and illness is hard, and allowing some space away from that. Darlene notes that there is a difference between making that a conscious choice and it being a reactive habit of avoidance.
Question prompts, although feel free to talk about any part of the reading that you wish:
1. Would you say you have created a life that you love and enjoy? Has this been hard in terms of your illness or pain?
2. How do you relate to Darlene talking about finding comfort, both in the centre of pain and suffering, and by using distractions? Do you think you use distraction in a conscious and mindful way or more as a reactive escape?
Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Kokuu
In better weather I do try to garden, though lately it seems to be in ten minute increments. What can be more lovely than a tiny baby daikon shouldering its way through the earth crumbs?
