Nobody Gets Out Of Illness

Once the Buddha was staying in Savatthi, in Jetavatana asked the monk:

Oh monk, there are two kinds of deceases. Which are two? Disease belongs to mind and body.

Here, monk, people normally think they have no disease within one, two, ten or even hundreds years.

But monk, it is difficult to find anyone who has no disease in spirit even just a moment but the Noble One who had eliminated all afflictions or mental intoxicants. 

(Anguttara Nikaya II, Book 4, chapter Faculty of senses, part of Disease)

Comment:

Disease is a big affliction related to human’s life. Most people can’t escape from disease just the difference between the serious and the minor illness and the way how to overcome from each man.

There are hundreds of illness that make human suffering but nothing more than physical and spirit illness. For the medical development today many hopeless illnesses can be cured and it may be not so difficult to cope with others in the future. And from the reality we can see there are many people spend their whole life without disease.

However with the Buddha’s wisdom he can see that although these people who have no physical illness but still get the spirit illness. The spirit illness here is expressed by being greedy, hatred, jealous, fretful …in general these motions make disturbance in mind and one can’t control oneself in sometime.

There is close relationship between spirit and physical body, so they interact and mutually affect each other; therefore it can’t be considered as completely healthy if the treatment is only for physical body but no mind-cured.

This is the main problem of modern therapeutic methods. Mental disorder also needs the same method which applied in body-cured and Buddhist meditation can be considered one of the best method which applied effectively in psychotherapy  nowadays however it still not really noticed by mostly people.

Buddhism pointed out that the mental disorder causes the physical body illness; therefore, no matter physical body is in healthy or gets sick, the mind-cured is still necessary. Applying Buddhist meditation will bring out a healthy life, long life and happy life.