Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

General discussion, particularly exploring the Dharma in the modern world.
Post Reply
Ueopqiei453
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:35 pm

Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Ueopqiei453 »

This was something I didn't have to do and could easily have avoided. The choice was really against my morals as well but I did it very reluctantly after many weeks of deliberation. Playing it over again in my head I now see the reason I did it was because of grasping for something in my life.

Well the choice has turned out to have had catastrophic consequences and I have to live with it every day and deal now with constant chronic health issues. It has been over a year and it is pretty much all I think about every day. Although the physical ailments would be unpleasant either way, if I had been following what I believed in then I could at least stand by that. Conversely, it is doubly tortuous that this decision was against my values and I feel tormented every day by it while having to live out the consequences with constant health problems. Yes I know second arrow, but I just have not been able to let it go.

I have been reading buddhism furiously and practicing usually an hour a day. I get that you are supposed to not care if you have good health or not because everything is suffering but I really cannot accept that. How can you not be attached to having good health? It also seems contradictory that the buddha said not to care a la 8 worldly winds gain, loss, it is all the same yet he still had a physician for gas and back problems and such. If he was truly above feeling pain then he would seek no medical attention would he as pain or no pain would be equal to him?

This incident has brought me to the dharma in a serious way where before I had only dallied with it. It makes me kick myself though that I feel that had I come to the dharma before this happened I would not have taken the route I took. In hindsight I can see I felt the pressure to act based on wrong view and grasping and the dharma would likely have allowed me to see through that.

It just feels wrong in every way and so far I have not been able to make it feel anywhere near ok or anywhere near acceptance. I know in buddhism you are supposed to let go of everything, body, mental formations etc but I just have not been able to given that it has had such dire consequences on my health.

Recently I had been thinking to myself that whatever has happened could not be any other way as my choice was just a result of all my previous conditioned actions up to then.
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Ueopqiei453 wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 4:18 pm I get that you are supposed to not care if you have good health or not because everything is suffering but I really cannot accept that.
Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes those mistakes cannot be reversed.
Then, you really have no option but to start from that point, and move forward. Looking backwards won’t help. It will only distract you from watching where you are going.

Buddhist teachings don’t say that you shouldn’t care about your health. That really comes down to whether you are suffering or not, and if suffering didn’t matter, the Buddha would have just kept his mouth shut.

What the Buddhist teachings point to is that one’s peace of mind, being happy within oneself, doesn’t rely on external conditions. So, although being unwell can make you unhappy, you can’t depend on things like good health to guarantee that you will be happy.

The Buddha did teach that all existence is unsatisfactory (dukkha) or “suffering”. But he didn’t just leave it there. He also taught the path to the cessation of suffering. That has to do with working with one’s own thoughts. But it’s not automatic. When we have a lot of pain to go through, patience and diligent effort is needed. You can’t force it. And if you try to just “let go” of things, where are they supposed to land? So, you have to work with what you have, and if you have a lot to deal with, that can take some time. Thus, patience and effort.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
White Lotus
Posts: 1333
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by White Lotus »

Illness is caused and healed by attitude. You can give yourself a beautiful life even if you live in a cell. It’s very much in the mind. Practice makes happy.

You think you are suffering and so you are suffering. Suffering is an attitude. Examine it and then change it.

I know that some things are very hard to drop, like shame and guilt, but even these evaporate when self evaporates.

You have so much potential. You can find a new and better life. There is always hope. Just practice what you learn that you find helpful. Mindfulness is very important. And try to understand interdependence and emptiness. Things should get a whole lot easier. Patience.

You will find a way.

Best wishes, Tom.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

White Lotus wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 11:45 pm You think you are suffering and so you are suffering. Suffering is an attitude.
suffering can also be caused by a group of large plastic tubes draining fluids from your torso, even with the most positive attitude.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
User avatar
KathyLauren
Posts: 967
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:22 pm
Location: East Coast of Canada
Contact:

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by KathyLauren »

There is nothing wrong with wanting good health.

But a well-known Buddhist scholar, Shantideva, wrote:
Why worry about something if you can do something about it?
And what is the point of worrying about something if you cannot do anything about it?
It seems to me that this comes under the heading of something you can, at this point, do nothing about. What's done is done. All you can do now is to make good decisions going forward. Regret can be helpful if it motivates good conduct in the future. But regret as a form of clinging to what might have been is just needless suffering.

Om mani padme hum
Kathy
White Lotus
Posts: 1333
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by White Lotus »

Perhaps you are right Padma. I have not had to endure cancer treatment. You have. But then again when you underwent your treatment you did have a good attitude if I read your posts correctly. Surely the time comes even in this life where suffering ceases, not pain.

There is something we can do about suffering: we can bring it to an end? Not pain, but suffering. It may not be an attitude. It may be a state of experience. I don’t know.

I just know that life gets easier. Pains within no longer signify. The mind does not cling to pains, they cannot hold its focus for long. The problem is that there is still the appearance of suffering in the world around us, but not within?

Please bear with my humour or at least humour me.

Best wishes, Tom.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

White Lotus wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:15 am Perhaps you are right Padma. I have not had to endure cancer treatment. You have. But then again when you underwent your treatment you did have a good attitude if I read your posts correctly. Surely the time comes even in this life where suffering ceases, not pain.

There is something we can do about suffering: we can bring it to an end? Not pain, but suffering. It may not be an attitude. It may be a state of experience. I don’t know.

I just know that life gets easier. Pains within no longer signify. The mind does not cling to pains, they cannot hold its focus for long. The problem is that there is still the appearance of suffering in the world around us, but not within?

Please bear with my humour or at least humour me.

Best wishes, Tom.
I welcome humor.
Yes, the world is full of pain. That’s a different issue than one’s personal pain. There is also the pain of having committed an action such as murder, or even by accident, or killing in wartime, which very few people can be free from. As the term goes, “haunted by it”.

But don’t let anyone say that overcoming this kind of trauma is easy. It is not. Whether it is even possible or not to totally erase it is debatable. I was a real delinquent in my youth. Do I regret it? I regret that I made some choices that I made, but I also know that every mistake I ever made has also brought me to this very moment in my life, to this very second where I am for some reason sharing personal information anonymously with strangers on a Buddhist Internet forum.

So, “regret” is there, but it really doesn’t mean much by itself. It’s like the sprig of parsley they put in your plate at a restaurant as some kind of decorative garnish that you aren’t really supposed to eat: it’s there, you can’t help but notice it the whole time, but it doesn’t do anything. Regret has no power in and of itself.

I didn’t have cancer, but I did have a double lung transplant. Nobody knows what caused by lungs to develop fibrosis. Probably a combination of things genetic and environmental, and my ever-so-wise immune system decided that the best course of action was to coat my lungs with scar tissue.
Yes, a brilliant move.
(Do immune systems ever feel regret?)

But there’s not a whole lot of reason to ponder that now (except for some kind of medical research or whatever). So, like everything else in the past, it happened, sometimes things suck, and life is too short to spend time dwelling on it. So I turn around and face forward and see what life brings next. Wrap up regret in aluminum foil and stick it in the back of the fridge where it can be forgotten with everything else back there.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

It is often easier to forgive someone else than it is to forgive oneself.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
Ueopqiei453
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:35 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Ueopqiei453 »

Thanks for the replies all.
PadmaVonSamba wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:06 am from. As the term goes, “haunted by it”.

I didn’t have cancer, but I did have a double lung transplant. Nobody knows what caused by lungs to develop fibrosis. Probably a combination of things genetic and environmental, and my ever-so-wise immune system decided that the best course of action was to coat my lungs with scar tissue.
Yes, a brilliant move.
(Do immune systems ever feel regret?)

But there’s not a whole lot of reason to ponder that now (except for some kind of medical research or whatever). So, like everything else in the past, it happened, sometimes things suck, and life is too short to spend time dwelling on it. So I turn around and face forward and see what life brings next. Wrap up regret in aluminum foil and stick it in the back of the fridge where it can be forgotten with everything else back there.
See, what happened to you, while I am sure it sucked, it 'just happened' as in it was no direct fault of your own as far as you explained it. I am 'haunted' because my situation and physical condition is a direct result of my heedlessness, taking my health for granted, prioritizing and grasping to what I now in hindsight see what a ludicrous thing. I put that above my health, looking at short term pleasure rather than what would be better for me long term.

This really eats me up because besides that incident I am the most cautious and health conscious person you would probably ever meet. I research things to an obsessive degree before doing them. This is an outlier in my behavior, which in hindsight was acted on due to clouded thinking from grasping, so it has really rocked my identity and I feel so idiotic for it. Most times if you make a mistake and get ripped off for money or some other material thing you might be irritated but you still have your health however this has cost me some of my precious health.

Anyhow nothing I can do I know yet I fester in this.

Also the unknown worries me because I do not know the trajectory of my illness since there is no currently understood treatment and a nebulous complex illness which doctors have little knowledge or interest in currently since it doesn't fit in a neat box.

This has certainly opened up 'groundlessness' within me that they speak of often in Tibetan practice.

I have been looking to accomplished Buddhist teachers who managed to live and still thrive with health ailments, with the idea that it will inspire me. The result has been limited so far but I still continue with the practice. I have been reading the compiled works of Ajahn Chah and in the first few pages it was said (paraphrased) "he never had sex in his life, lived with various forms of malaria and diabetes and was still the happiest person I had ever met".

There is another, Garchen Rinpoche, who I read around in my research and recently happened upon again in another random post here, having forgotten his name, who had overcome great adversity in his life. Having lived in a Chinese prison camp for a large portion of his life during which he was subjected to much hardship that most would never face yet is still around and spreading the dharma from what I have read.

There are a lot of fantastical tales of Bodhidharma and Huike, his disciple, cutting of his arm to impress him however I am not sure how much can be taken as fact vs fiction.

Besides that though real, recent examples, of things like buddhism self-immolation or self-mummification, although macabre, I think if they have the mental fortitude to due such, what most would consider, extreme things while remaining what would appear to be completely calm then it would seem buddhism is a good candidate to provide solace. Those people I am sure had trained for large parts of their lives though so I am not sure how far I can get so late in the game. Progress has certainly been slow so far but it is only a few months, so to be expected.

I do feel I have to devote myself very assiduously to this though and am proceeding as such.
Last edited by Ueopqiei453 on Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:02 am, edited 3 times in total.
master of puppets
Posts: 1647
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:52 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by master of puppets »

:alien:
I have a motto:

"There always find a way"

best wishes,
Kai lord
Posts: 1166
Joined: Sun May 15, 2022 2:38 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Kai lord »

Ueopqiei453 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:58 am There are a lot of fantastical tales of Bodhidharma and Huike, his disciple, cutting of his arm to impress him however I am not sure how much can be taken as fact vs fiction.
Unlikely because even if he can somehow cut off his arm/hand on his own, he would have bled to death without receiving any immediate medical attention.

BTW, think on the bright side, due to your unfortunate circumstances, you have understood impermanence, suffering of samsara and rarity of precious human life much better than most people and here's some dharma stories to share with you:
Story of the Woman Who Killed Many People


At one time the great Nyungne master Bodhisattva Dawa Gyeltsen was in the southern part of Tibet, where an old, infi rm woman came for blessing.
Bodhisattva gave her blessings and made dedication prayers on her behalf, and he told her that her illness was due to past life karma and that
she should practice patience and develop bodhichitta. He gave her many instructions. She was very moved and devotion arose within her. With
tears in her eyes, she told Bodhisattva, “I’m sure I have done lots of wrong deeds in the past, but even in this life I have committed terrible acts.”
Bodhisattva replied, “Well, wrong deeds can be overcome if you confess them sincerely.”

The old woman then told him her story. “In a place called Kyi Dong, I was the wife of a rich businessman and had one son. When my son was seven years old, my husband went on a business trip to Nepal. He was gone for about three years. During that time I had an affair with another man and bore a daughter with him. I killed the daughter so that my husband wouldn’t find out. I also wasted a lot of our fortune. My son told me, ‘When father comes back, we’ll see what will happen to you.’ I was very angry and I grabbed a stone and hit him, saying, ‘What did I do?’ Then he bled to death. I was making up all kinds of stories about what had happened, but we had an old monk living in the house who said prayers for us. He knew everything, so I poisoned him. One day my husband came back with lots of wealth, and our maid told him everything. I was listening to them, and I heard my husband say, ‘Tonight I will pretend that I don’t know anything, but tomorrow I will punish her by gouging out her eyes.’ I was so afraid that I put a lot of poison in the chang (Tibetan barley beer), and I gave it to my husband along with eight of his people, two of our neighbors, and two maids. The next morning, they were all in a coma and within two days they all died. So I ran far away to the south, and my parents and other family members suffered a lot because of what I had done. In addition to all this, in my life I have done many other despicable deeds.”

Hearing this story, with tears in his eyes Bodhisattva thought, “What a poor woman, with so much negative karma. Nyungne is the solution for her since Lord Chenrezig has vowed to protect any sentient being who does one set of the practice from falling into the three lower realms.” Then he gave her teaching and empowerment and instructed her to do eight sets of Nyungne practice. After having received the blessing, the old woman felt better immediately, and during the month of Saka Dawa she participated in an Eight Nyungne practice. One day she was very thirsty and she drank a little bit
of chang, and then another day she was very hungry and she ate two of the four torma offerings. So she did six perfect sets of Nyungne and two
broken sets. Soon after that she died. Many years passed and one day someone remembered the story of this old woman and asked Bodhisattva what happened to her. Bodhisattva, being completely clairvoyant, smiled and told everyone that even though this Nyungne practice of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig is extremely beneficial, very few people are able to do it. The woman was born in a wealthy, Brahman family in east India. Although she managed to obtain a human birth, because she violated one Nyungne by drinking, it caused her to have some mental problems. And because she ate the food, she had an ugly physical appearance. But she was very devoted to Chenrezig practice, and he could see her going to Amitabha Buddha’s pure land after this life.
Since this is a truly powerful purification practice, I strongly recommend that people do at least eight consecutive practices if they are suffering from incurable disease or any forms of obstacles and defilements. If someone is suffering from a serious, ripening karmic illness, such as cancer, in order to counter and prevent further ripening of the karma they should do at least 108 Nyungne practices. If someone were to do 108 Nyungne practices, I believe with complete confidence that they would be able to overcome whatever karmic disease they might have, but those 108 Nyungne practices must be done consecutively. I can describe some of the benefi ts that a few of my students have experienced. One woman had a heart problem that prior to doing the practice required surgical treatment. After the practice, the problem was no longer there. Another woman had a small breast tumor that disappeared after she did eight Nyungne practices. Another student was a cancer patient. I encouraged her to do eight sets of Nyungne, but she was only able to participate in two. After finishing the two practices, she told me that before the practices she had felt terrible, mentally and physically; and after the practices, she felt much better, as if a huge burden had been lifted. Another woman commented that she never knew what happiness was until she practiced Nyungne. These are a few examples of the immediate, relative benefits of Nyungne practice. Additional great stories of overcoming karmic illness can be found in the biographies of Gelongma Palmo and the lineage holders of the practice
Life is like a game, either you win or lose!
Life is like a fight, either you live or die!
Life is like a show, either you laugh or cry!
Life is like a dream, either you know or not!!!
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Ueopqiei453 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:58 am See, what happened to you, while I am sure it sucked, it 'just happened' as in it was no direct fault of your own as far as you explained it. I am 'haunted' because my situation and physical condition is a direct result of my heedlessness, taking my health for granted, prioritizing and
It doesn’t matter.
And also, it might have been something I had done. As I said, “cause unknown”.

I also lived a pretty reckless and self-destructive life in my younger days. I’ve dodged death many times in my life. We used to joke, “if I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself”.

You mentioned how what you did to mess things up totally contradicted everything you believed.
It’s like you betrayed some perfect concept that you had of yourself, and this has led to a chronic health condition, and you hate yourself for it.
Does that sum things up? (If it wasn’t a concept of perfection, then having screwed up wouldn’t be a conflict).

If that sounds extreme or exaggerated, then break it down and see where that is incorrect. People say “I know I’m not perfect’ but they seldom believe it subconsciously.

I knew a guy who got a serious head injury after riding a motorcycle drunk. It left him with a serious cognitive condition and ended up living in a state-run group home. But he still had enough brain power to feel a lot of remorse over what he had done to himself, and he suffered from that.

Hating others and hating yourself is the same thing. And it never works. And especially, hating yourself never works. So, the question. Then becomes, “how do I stop hating myself?” And the answer to that, I think, it’s like that old antiwar expression: “there is no path to peace- peace is the path”. There’s no path to not hating yourself. Not-hating yourself is the path. You just have to start there. You have to decide that you aren’t going yo keep making mistakes that screw up your life, stop regretting what you did, forgive yourself just as you would forgive someone else for their mistake, and move on.

You can spend years running around this in all directions, but eventually you will just have to accept that you are stuck where you are, laugh it off for having been a fool for doing it, be grateful for those who love you and for what you have, and maybe focus on doing things to benefit others.

I’ll repeat what I said before: as long as you keep looking backwards, you can’t see where you are headed.

Also, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I should have said so up front. I’m sure it causes a lot of anguish.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
White Lotus
Posts: 1333
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by White Lotus »

Thank you. It’s not always easy to be gentle to oneself and to love ourselves. I’m so sorry to hear that you all have suffered so terribly. May all be well for you and wisdom guide and cherish you.

With best wishes from Tom.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
Ueopqiei453
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:35 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Ueopqiei453 »

PadmaVonSamba wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:31 pm
Ueopqiei453 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:58 am You mentioned how what you did to mess things up totally contradicted everything you believed.
It’s like you betrayed some perfect concept that you had of yourself, and this has led to a chronic health condition, and you hate yourself for it.
Does that sum things up? (If it wasn’t a concept of perfection, then having screwed up wouldn’t be a conflict).

If that sounds extreme or exaggerated, then break it down and see where that is incorrect. People say “I know I’m not perfect’ but they seldom believe it subconsciously.
Well it wasn't about being 'perfect' but rather doing something that is not congruent to your core values is going to grate on you isn't it? It certainly does for me. Also the consequences being constantly reminded almost every moment of the day through my illness so it is not something to easily just forget and move on from.

It happened in part through being put under a false pressure to act imminently, like the common sales tactic to make you sign on the dotted line and now in hindsight I also feel foolish for falling for the coercion. Extreme buyer's remorse. The pressurees have long moved to other things and I am left in the funk.
User avatar
Virgo
Posts: 4844
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:47 am
Location: Uni-verse

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Virgo »

Ueopqiei453 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:59 pm It happened in part through being put under a false pressure to act imminently, like the common sales tactic to make you sign on the dotted line and now in hindsight I also feel foolish for falling for the coercion. Extreme buyer's remorse. The pressurees have long moved to other things and I am left in the funk.
The upside is you learned two important lessons:

1. Never be coerced. Ever.

2. Listen to your moral compass more.

If you take these two lessons really to heart from this, I guarantee you your life will be richer.

:anjali: Virgo
User avatar
PadmaVonSamba
Posts: 9437
Joined: Sat May 14, 2011 1:41 am

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Ueopqiei453 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:58 am it is not something to easily just forget and move on from.
Not easy …that is the important thing to remember. Not impossible is the other important thing to remember.

Patience & diligent effort.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
User avatar
Matt J
Posts: 1440
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:29 am
Location: Denver, CO

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Matt J »

I have yet to meet anyone who was able to change the past by thinking and ruminating on it. If you want to improve your today and tomorrow, practice now.
"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
--- Muriel Rukeyser
Soma999
Posts: 702
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:52 pm

Re: Don't know how to come to terms with chronic illness that is a result of one decision I made that I regret every day

Post by Soma999 »

Making mistakes is really part of our human condition. We do our best.

If you learn from your past, the « bad » csn become good.

To forgive oneself and others is an important step for healing, and finding peace.

Considering your condition and how you feel, receiving help from a skilled professional Seems wise to me.

You can also help achieve the process of healing by practicing : breathing exercice, chanting mantras like Medicine Buddha. When you meditate on Medicine Buddha, feels like he condense all healing powers of the universe : the nectar of plants and stone, the medicine of humans, the medicine of earth, moon, sun, stars… the medicine of love and forgiveness, the medicine of peace, the medicine of joy, the medicine of patience, the medicine of faith… and he radiates the condensation of all healing powers in you. You become more relaxed, and allow this immense goodness to fill you while you recite his mantra.

Tong len is also very powerful. You can say : all sufferings, and especially of those you suffer the same things as me, by the fact i experience this, may they all be free. I live it for them. Lama Zopa gives very good advise on tong-len,

Also, the great compassion dharani is very deep. You can recite it 5 times a day, with confidence, and as an offering to all. If you recite it as an offering, you will empower the recitation and find confidence.

Depending on your problems, some professionals may help. I friend had been poisoned by a « medicine » she took, and was severely ill. Doctors give up on her situation. A very skilled naturopath completely healed her in a year. So, everything is possible.
Post Reply

Return to “Dharma in Everyday Life”