Full Moon – The Right Sort of Healing

Confusion ceases by maintaining
a meditation practice focused in the body,
by avoiding that which should not be done,
and by mindfully doing that which should be done.

DHAMMAPADA v. 293

The concept of ‘healing’ is obviously helpful. If we break our arm, for instance, we do what we can for it to be healed. Once the break is healed, we feel good. How we relate to those good feelings really matters. As with sunshine, the way we relate to it determines whether or not we risk getting skin cancer. Becoming lost in the pleasant sensation of a little sunbathing could mean we end up having a lot of it, with regrettable consequences. When we become lost in the pleasant feelings associated with a wound healing, we risk wanting to ‘heal’ everything that we find disagreeable. Becoming lost in good feelings risks distorting perceptions, thinking we have to heal everything. Even the Buddha in his old age had painful feelings in his back, which he apparently eased by sitting in the morning sun. Where we find pain, ideally we would want to do what we can to help, though that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more tsunamis or old age. Hence the Buddha’s emphasis on cultivating a wise relationship with suffering. Embodied mindfulness and wise reflection sustain that cultivation.

(This post is also available to view at dhammakatha.org)