Buddhism is quite interesting
I want to share this part from the book I'm reading "How To Be Sick" I highlighted this technique in orange. I think I'll try it when I feel panicky it could work.
BEFORE BECOMING CHRONICALLY ILL, I had the good fortune of
attending several retreats at Spirit Rock co-led by the Theravadan
teacher Kamala Masters. At one retreat, she told us a story about her
root teacher, Munindra-ji, who lived in India.
Munindra-ji had always wanted to see the Buddhist sacred sites.
He was getting quite old, so Kamala traveled to India with some
friends to take him to some of the sites. One day they were waiting in
a train station. The train was five hours late. It was blazing hot. They
had no food. There were no restrooms. The platform where they were
to catch the train kept changing, so they had to keep getting up and
moving. Munindra-ji would sit down in each new location and rest his
head on his arm. He looked so frail that Kamala began to worry
about how he was holding up, especially since she and her friends
were barely coping with the conditions. She finally asked him if he
was all right. He replied, “There is heat here, but I am not hot. There
is hunger here, but I am not hungry. There is irritation here, but I am
not irritated.”
I recalled Kamala’s story one day as I lay in bed after becoming
sick, so I silently said, “There is sickness here, but I am not sick.” The
statement made no sense to me. But, inspired by the story, I
persevered, repeating over and over, “There is sickness here, but I am
not sick. There is sickness here, but I am not sick.” After a few minutes,
I realized, “Of course! There is sickness in the body, but I am
not sick!”
It was a revelation and a source of great comfort. After a time,
however, I decided to investigate more deeply. When I did, this
question arose: “Who is this ‘I’ who isn’t sick?” This question led me
to consider the most radical implication of the universal law of
impermanence — that what I think of as my “self” is also in constant
flux. This is what the Buddha called the third mark of experience —
anatta — which is usually translated as “no-self” or “no-fixed-self,”
depending on the context. It is the principal way in which he broke
from the religion of his birth, Hinduism.
BEFORE BECOMING CHRONICALLY ILL, I had the good fortune of
attending several retreats at Spirit Rock co-led by the Theravadan
teacher Kamala Masters. At one retreat, she told us a story about her
root teacher, Munindra-ji, who lived in India.
Munindra-ji had always wanted to see the Buddhist sacred sites.
He was getting quite old, so Kamala traveled to India with some
friends to take him to some of the sites. One day they were waiting in
a train station. The train was five hours late. It was blazing hot. They
had no food. There were no restrooms. The platform where they were
to catch the train kept changing, so they had to keep getting up and
moving. Munindra-ji would sit down in each new location and rest his
head on his arm. He looked so frail that Kamala began to worry
about how he was holding up, especially since she and her friends
were barely coping with the conditions. She finally asked him if he
was all right. He replied, “There is heat here, but I am not hot. There
is hunger here, but I am not hungry. There is irritation here, but I am
not irritated.”
I recalled Kamala’s story one day as I lay in bed after becoming
sick, so I silently said, “There is sickness here, but I am not sick.” The
statement made no sense to me. But, inspired by the story, I
persevered, repeating over and over, “There is sickness here, but I am
not sick. There is sickness here, but I am not sick.” After a few minutes,
I realized, “Of course! There is sickness in the body, but I am
not sick!”
It was a revelation and a source of great comfort. After a time,
however, I decided to investigate more deeply. When I did, this
question arose: “Who is this ‘I’ who isn’t sick?” This question led me
to consider the most radical implication of the universal law of
impermanence — that what I think of as my “self” is also in constant
flux. This is what the Buddha called the third mark of experience —
anatta — which is usually translated as “no-self” or “no-fixed-self,”
depending on the context. It is the principal way in which he broke
from the religion of his birth, Hinduism.
31-35, M
