Short overview of the essence of buddism and the healing
Buddha, born as Siddharta Gautama, was a legendary prince, the son of Suddhodana, the head of the Sakya tribe. At the age of 29, Siddharta renounced his family and situation and set out on a spiritual journey of abstinence and contemplation, searching for the absolute wisdom and spiritual fulfillment. What he was looking for was a greater understanding of life, and a way to surpass world’s suffering.
For six years, he practiced the ascetic arts, learned yogic meditation and become familiar with the many religious philosophies of his days. None of those had helped him to find what he was looking for, so he tried to find release from suffering through physical discipline, enduring pain and fasting nearly to starvation. He deprived himself of food until he became emaciated, but concluded that this method only intensified suffering. Since neither the pleasures of life nor the ascetic practices offered him the wisdom he sought, he realized that only the way between these two extremes- the Middle Way, could possibly lead him to the state of deep peace that he ache for.
He undertook a long and arduous period of meditation and contemplation that culminated in his acquiring of a deep insight into the human condition. Overcoming all the demonic temptations, he attained Nirvana (Nibbana) – the understanding that liberated him from samsara, the repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. At this moment he earned the title of Buddha – the Awakened One or the Enlightened One.
The state of awareness that he attained, known as Enlightenment, is the experience of true reality, an “awakening” through which one could comprehend the true nature of things. At that equilibrium point, there is no satisfaction or dissatisfaction, but neutrality and indifference, only. It’s the point where the mind reaches its pure state.
The Enlightened one can visualize and live the true condition, that of pure energy, that flows infinitely and towards the infinite along with the entire Universe, as one piece. The body and everything related to it doesn’t have any meaning anymore. Birth, Ageing, Death lose their meaning, melting down in an uninterrupted existence. Distress, suffering, pain, illness and sickness do not exist anymore. There is more happiness or sadness, no more satisfaction or dissatisfaction, no more pleasantness or disappointment. When the Enlighten one is gone, he becomes one with the Universe and loses its individuality. As individual existence, he is gone. He is cured of the human life.
To reach Nirvana or, at least, some inner peace, is not easy for the people from the nowadays society. It shouldn’t be hard, but it is not easy. People tend to cling to things and situations, even if they are aware that things are transient and unsatisfactory. Especially when it comes about illness, the notion of “surrender” to get free of sufferance is out of the sick person’s comprehension. Considering the essence of Buddhism, when people get sick, they shouldn’t raise any resistance to their medical problems. Fighting the symptoms and the continuous concern regarding the illness only add more mental suffering to physical suffering. People must learn to befriend their illness, to embrace it. It is also important for them to understand the deeper significance of life itself. Facing illness, life or death, without any sense of attachment or clinging, will free their mind of denial, dread, and anxiety and the physical condition will not worsen.
Since is so hard for ill people to attain the Enlightenment that could give them the power to cure themselves, by receiving a superior control of their body, also the Buddhist doctrine advice them to ask for the help of a doctor, to discover the origin of the illness, achieve a thorough understanding of the illness, receive the appropriate medication to cure the illness, and completely cure the illness in a manner that prevents it from reoccurring.
1. short overview of the essence of buddism and the healing
