What does it mean to use illness, pain and disability as a spiritual path?
Normally we try get rid of pain and illness as soon as possible. If we can’t get rid of our difficulties our next approach is to distract ourselves so that we don’t have to deal directly with the problem. We can distract ourselves with food, drugs, television or any number of other things.
But the Buddhist teachings tell us that there is wisdom in our suffering. They tell us to stay with the pain, move towards the illness in order access the insight it is trying to teach us.
“Illness is extremely precious because with it I can gather the inner wealth of spiritual realizations that will bring full awakening” – Geshen Ben Gungyal, Tibetan Buddhist scholar and Lama
The 5 Steps:
There are 5 steps to awakening through adversity: 1. Recognize it is possible; 2. Set an intention; 3. Do an action (prayer, meditation…); 4. Create a habit; 5. Then go deeper.
There are very inspiring examples from Tibet of people using great difficulties on the path. His Holiness the Dalai Lama talked about one monk who escaped Tibet after imprisonment and torture there. The monk said at only one point he had great fear and that was when he thought he might not be able to have compassion for his torturers.
I followed the blog of Lama Zopa Rinpoche as he recovered from a stroke. It was a very inspiring description of how to use a very difficult illness on the path as he struggled to learn how to talk, eat and walk again.
I suffer from chronic pain after a car accident that damaged my spine, pelvis and leg. On a retreat led by Tibetan Buddhist nun, Ani Pema Chödrön, I asked her how to deal with this chronic pain. She told me to move toward it, to embrace it and I have been working with that advice ever since.
The First Step
The first step is to recognize it is possible and being inspired by the many great examples. A more in-depth look at how illness and pain can be a path can be found here.
The Second Step
The second step is simple; set an intention. Set an intention that you will use your illness, pain, or disability as a spiritual path.
If we are on a spiritual path we will intend to use devotion, meditation, prayer, love, or mindfulness on the path. Here we intend on using illness and disability as part of that path. We can still use devotion, prayer, meditation or love, but we also incorporate our physical challenges too.
The Third Step
The third step is to do an action. When starting out on this path, you don’t have to have a grand gesture or an extraordinary practice. The most important thing is to start with something simple. This will help build your confidence and trust that this path will be helpful.
Something simple might be a short prayer. When I first started feeling the effects of chronic pain, I wrote a short personal prayer. I typed out the prayer on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket. Every time I put my hand in my pocket and felt the paper, I would recite the prayer to myself. Here is the prayer:
May I use my pain to open my heart and mind
May I use my pain to become more compassionate of all others who suffer
May I use my pain to become more understanding and more wise
Here are some other examples that may also be used:
“May I be open to receiving the blessing that comes from this illness” – Lama Jangchup Rabar
Another simple example:
If I am to suffer, bless me to suffer so that I may learn whatever I need to learn through suffering. If it’s good for me to be sick, bless me to be sick. – Jamgon Kongtrul
You can also write your own prayer, one that speaks to your heart and has meaning for you.
Of course you don’t have to start with a prayer, it could be meditation or chanting a mantra; whatever speaks to you and has meaning.
The Fourth Step
The fourth step is to make the action a habit. This means repeating step 3 until it becomes automatic. Repeat until it becomes like brushing your teeth; it just doesn’t feel right until you do it. By making it a habit, it plants the concept into your subconscious and it becomes a part of who you are and what you do.
The Fifth Step
The fifth step is to go deeper. Once the idea of using illness and pain as the path has become firmly established, it is time to really dig into it. This step comes a little later and usually develops on its own. Following steps 1 to 4 will make pain your path and step 5 will naturally follow.
You can also explore how to deepen into step 5 here.
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