Healing is mysterious. In my quest to guide others in their quest to wellness, I have been witness to many types of people. Some wear the mask of the martyr, some the mask of victim, while others wear the mask of advocates. The hero is the rarest of all. The reason many succumb to illness or languish for long durations of dis-ease is because of a condition I term allopathic hypnosis.
When a person goes to a physician for a serious condition, they fall under the spell of the physician and the entrapments of physical medicine. In the past, the physician, with their allopathic approach has administered the vital injection that has kept disease at bay or has vanquished acute pain. In most cases, people don’t even conceive that the physical manifestation of disease has a spiritual or karmic root. I call this state of mind, non-local amnesia. Even those experienced in meditation tend to forget that we are more than our body and that we are interconnected with every atom in the universe. All the healing energy of the multiverse is actually available to us at every moment, if we could only remember, or perhaps realize that. Belief that we are interconnected is of course, unnecessary, because natural laws do not require belief for them to function.
There are various interconnected Buddhist ideas that illustrate or suport my point. These ideas are the oneness of the person and their environment; the oneness of mind and body; and the oneness of microcosm and the macrocosm. Our life is interconnected to all other life, matter, and phenomena. When we can find the means to fully engage that realization, as we can by chanting daimoku for healing, all things are possible. In fact, any kind of prayer brings us closer to this reality.
I would like to share two example of facing serious illness by two people that show a marked contrast in approach. Neither case has played itself out, but the difference is striking to me because one embodies the powers of heroism and the other, allopathic hypnosis.
The first example is about my friend who is a psychiatric nurse. Although she's not a Buddhist, she is a big fan of my books and has encouraged others to read them. A few weeks ago, my friend was hospitalized with a serious kidney condition where diffuse stones caused by bacteria, impeded the flow of urine, thus requiring immediate surgery. These were not your garden variety kidney stones. It was a catch 22 situation where the stones had to be removed and the bacteria eliminated, but in the center of the stones was the very same bacteria that caused the stone's formation and proliferation. Often, people loose a kidney because removal of the stones is such a complex matter. When there are stones occurring in both kidneys, or if sepsis occurs, the condition can prove fatal.
My friend endured several back-to back surgical procedures that were extremely painful. Complication after complication emerged. When I spoke with her after her last procedure (but certainly not her final one), I asked her if she was using chanting and visualization effectively. What she told me was both sobering and had a familiar ring to it.
She said that she trusted the doctor to do the right thing and that she hadn’t even had time to think about doing any of that (chanting). Up against the wall, my friend had forgotten or perhaps didn't believe in the vital use of prayer as an essential supplement to her primary allopathic care.
I don’t know if chanting ten million daimoku could have eliminated her stones. Surgical intervention was the proper course of action. With that said, I couldn’t help but see that she was suffering from allopathic hypnosis, where one believes that the ultimate cure is a physical intervention. The positive immune response of remembered wellness, as termed by Herbert Benson. M.D., is the typical result of the physician's god-like utternace or intervention, and all of that is good. The words or intention of a physican has curative powers, indeed - in fact, a hundred years ago, it was actually the default treatment of choice. Still, the medical doctor is powerless in changing one's karma. For this reason - over all - I believe the function of the hospital chaplin is equal to the doctor. For true. permanent healing, we must go to the Great Physician inside us all.
To my friend, chanting was like a cloud being able to stop a freight train. Her prognosis is yet to be decided. For this reason, prayer is the best complementary medicine to attack the problem at its very root. If the wind that drives the cloud is strong enough, not only can it stop the train, it can damn well derail it. When the time is ripe, I will speak with my dear friend again and give her whatever direction or encouragement she needs to overcome her condition. I pray that the advise I give her is not how to prepare for the end.
The second example I present is the hero – one who faces obstacles, their own mortality, and suffering – overcoming them all to share the boon of their hard won victory with humanity. It's the same type of hero desc ribed by Joseph Campbell in his book Hero of a Thousand Faces. Let me explain.
One of the most inspirational people I have come to know is C.W. Metcalf. Charlie is a world-renowned author and motivational speaker. We became friends through a mutual acquaintance. He had read Modern Buddhist Healing after being stricken with leukemia and employed the lessons there in his “dance with the cancer bear.” So impressed was I by his body of work, that I humbly asked him to endorse my new book, which he did. To me, he is the embodiment of Fo-hi, the Chinese god of joy and laughter. His message to embrace the moment and regard adversity as a teacher is good medicine.
At the moment, C.W. Metcalf is in hospice. Those familiar with hospice care know that it is a palliative setting where one is made to feel comfortable with no extraordinary measures are used to treat the person, as they prepare to die. In early February, I received a letter from Charlie that brought me up to date. It was a letter more human and poignant than any other prose that I had ever read. Charlie is not a practicing Buddhist, but a sympathetic traveler, who cherishes sobriety, adores the Lotus Sutra, uses meditation, and employs mantra-powered visualization.
Thus far, Charlie has defied all expectations and has lived with a “seemingly” terminal condition that should have had him riding “the bus to light land,” four years ago. Even though Charlie is in a hospice setting, he continues to thrive. His creativity abounds, as evidenced by his new website at www.cwmetcalf.com, and his memoirs are being put together for a new book on his mighty battle.
On two occasions now, I have used portions of his letter to illustrate the spirit of healing, strength, and wellness, to seekers that have come to me whining like frightened children about their own health problems. It’s all a matter of perspective. Disease, catastrophic injury and death have a way of testing out mettle as human beings. Being freaked out won’t help us move forward.
Let me share with you an interesting part of his letter:
“The oncologist, Dr. H., said: "Well, whatever you're doing has retarded the growth of the disease remarkably. Still, you have to remember than not one person in medical history has gone back into remission with this disease."
My response was. "Well, if I go back into remission, will you pay for my health care until I do die?"
He laughed and said, "If it was anybody else, I'd take the bet."
Finally, meditation, visualization, prayer and your daimoku are part of that blend that seems to be moving me in the direction of another medical "impossibility." Whether I die tomorrow, next year, or 25 years from now is really not the issue. Most important is that I am living every day more fully and with greater clarity than I have ever experienced.”
"If those who know you believe you to be crazy,
you are either a person of great insight or
you are crazy. So long as you find this amusing
it really makes no difference.
C.W. Tzu
From: The Sayings of Tzu
Here, we have an amazing example of someone who refuses to go into the fetal position and die on command (which is the six month curse of hospice - "you will be dead in six months, buster"). He truly is the manifestation of Fo-hi, the Chinese god of joy and laughter. Even his doctor is confounded as to how he’s survived so long, thus far. He has actually improved in a hospice setting without any proactive treatment, has managed to raise his vital blood counts, and he looks at each moment as a learning experience. His own doctor believes that Charlie may reverse his so-called terminal cancer and walk out of hospice a free man (see addendum below).
I told him that there is no disease that someone, somewhere, hasn’t overcome. The term, “terminal illness” is a key phrase in allopathic hypnosis that has the power to render the subject to sleep – permanently. Nothing like a good dirt nap to free up a bed. I’d rather think of the word “terminal” like a bus or train terminal, where one enters to go in a new direction, not finding themself at the end of the line.
How could something like that be possible?
In my first book, I recount Norman Cousins five basic misconceptions listed in his book, Head First, Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit, that seem to dominate our thinking about health.
1. Almost all illnesses are cause by disease germs or other eternal factors.
2. Illness proceeds in a straight line unless interrupted by outside intervention of one for or another.
3. Pain is always a manifestation of disease and elimination of pain is therefore a manifestation of a return to good health.
4. What goes into the mind has little or no effect on the body *and vise versa).
5. Old age is connected to numbers, beginning at 65, at which point mental and physical abilities begin to fall off significantly, and therefore society is justified in mandating retirement based on age.
The outward appearance of illness appears to be physical, but at its root, is a psycho-spiritual phenomena, and its ultimate origin is from the karma of the alaya-vijnana. Physical and spiritual medicine combined, is the key to wellness. Since the body and mind are indivisible, from the quantum level to the macrocosm, we naturally possess all energy, knowledge, and power, if we can only make this realization manifest. Our spirit determines our true age - we can be decrepit at age twenty or robust and virile at 90.
I close this blog with a reminder to everyone that you are interconnected to every other power and phenomena in the multiverse. You are a jewel in Indra’s net. Take a lesson from Charlie and be well.
ADDENDUM
I received this letter today from C.W.
Dearest Charles:
If the post has not gone up yet, you should know that I have improved to such a degree that the folks from Hospice told me, two weeks ago, with some sadness, that I wasn't sick enough to require hospice care and they would have to drop me from the program. I think my burst of laughter rather suprised them until I asked them: "Why are you so sad that I'm getting better?" They had not even considered that perspective. We ended up laughing together, and I haven't seen them since.
As uncomfortable as I am being called anything akin to a hero, I am terrifically flattered by your perspective.
Three deep bows in your direction, my sensei...
Charley
I am asking for your opinion on an important matter. It is about displaying the image of the Gohonzon. Let me explain.
Not long ago, I was contacted by a high profile freelance journalist who had read Modern Buddhist Healing. She was writing a piece for a national magazine. The article that she wrote, which I am but one part of, looks at medical, genetic and spiritual approaches to trauma – that’s all I really know about the article. The entire article is supposed to be published in May/June 2007, but that may change. When it hits the stands, I'll let your all know.
Just a few days ago, the magazine contacted me for a photo and biography to be used in the article. Cool. I had all that and more in my promotional package. The magazine wrote back to request a photo with a higher resolution. Putting together a promotional photo can be a real pain in the ass, or it can be an opportunity. At that moment, I realized that there were a number of possible options available, and that’s where your opinion comes into play.
The first and most logical option is to have a photo taken somewhere nice. Since it’s winter, shooting outdoors seems out, but then again, maybe you have a suggestion. What crossed my mind, and is the reason for this blog, is whether to include the Gohonzon in the photo. The process in my own personal transformation and the sole object of observing my own mind is embodied in the Gohonzon. In my books, I am alluding to the Gohonzon, but my readers never had a frame of reference, kind of like a blind person trying to visualize a full moon. I was asked by my editor on Riding the Wheel to Wellness if we could include an image of the Gohonzon, and I immediately declined. My situation is that in the SGI, I was taught the superstition that the image of the Gohonzon should never be photographed or irresponsibly displayed. Because I have absolute respect for the Gohonzon, I would never do anything disrespectful. I never fully understood what the phobia was about. What would Nichiren say? My opinion is that he would allow tasteful public display of the Gohonzon in a technological age and condem its use as some cheap gimmick or in advertising. Maybe I've missed some consideration.
With that said, my evolution of thought and sense of logic tells me that respectfully displaying the image of the Gohonzon is not a bad cause. To be honest, I’m not sure where that SGI admonition came from and why there is such an openness by other sects to proudly display the Gohonzon. I am very interested to hear your opinion on this subject. Yet I may have to make a decision before much feedback comes in.
Of course, I could avoid all controversy by having my butsudan doors shut, while still including in the picture the object or general theme of my transformation. In fact, any high resolution shot in a decent backdrop would do.
In your own way, please be a part this magazine piece. I’m not really torn by this at all, but these opportunities don’t come along often, and if my experience can spread the word or the image of the Gohonzon positively into the world, this could be a wonderful thing. Is displaying an image of the Gohonzon some superstition that is in actuality a control mechanism by priests and/or religious corporations? Or can displaying the Gohonzon be a positive tool in propagation? I must make my decision very soon.