It has been a busy day. Dr. Krishna has seen maybe 23 patients suffering a variety of diseases, ailments and dubious complaints. At the end of the day, he now enjoys closing 'shop' (as he calls his humble medical office), retreating to the back room and setting a little pot of tea. Beside maintaining his own rapports, he stares through the dirty window, over the sheet metal roofing of his neighbour's, beyond, beyond, to a lone eucalyptus tree.
Virtually all his patients, he reflects, believe their woes to originate from their lack of health. 'If only i were healthy', they would say, 'Then i would be happy'. Dr. Krishna is not by nature a cynical man, but once and a while he allows himself a gentle smile and sigh in private: once healthy, it would be riches, once rich it would be power, once powerful it would be security. For most of his patients the world is not a perfect place.
Dr. Krishna sips his tea. All illness and suffering is in the mind, he knows. Sure the body get sick, just as a body heals. Sure a body is painful, but all pain subsides. It is the mind that woes, fights, screams, demands pity and attention and churns up rage, depression, shock, all the suffering that men know.
One patient of his he shall never forget. She had cancer, yet smiled at the world like a newborn. The good doctor knew that at that moment in her life she had been unstained by the world: Clean and pure and bright, the world hummed and sparkled and she accepted the world for what it was. Like a clear stream, she did not let her mind stir up the muddy bottom. The water flowed undisturbed. Her mind observed. Her will and motivation and concentration, the doctor smiles, are remarkable, a model for how all could live without suffering. And this sweet, dying woman told him as much:
My saviour said to his followers, at a time when they doubted, at a time when they were weak, at a time when their minds grasped for any surety, even incorrect truths and old habits, my saviour reminded them that, "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." At first i never truly understood what was written in his words, but now, at the end of my life, i think i understand. I have encouraged all whom i know to see the wisdom in these words and to live by these words. Because from within people, from their minds and hearts, from their emotions and actions, come conflict, bitterness, greed and aversion. The mind generates the filth that blinds wisdom and creates all the sins that keep us apart, lost on our own selfish paths, doomed to suffer in our own minds and drag all around us down like drowning men. The world is perfect. This is paradise, if only we could see it that way! Nothing in this world can truly make us suffer, not even my cancer: though i might know pain, i will not suffer poisonous words, ruinous deeds, bitter thoughts and lies upon lies upon lies which is the true cancer.
Dr. Krishna had had a cup of tea with this wonderful woman, the only time he had ever shared his little private space with another patient. He had felt honoured to know her. And since that time many years ago, a great weight had fallen from his shoulders. His eyes sparkled like a clear stream, unchurned. His voice resounded like crisp morning air, free from the smoke of cooking fires. Ahh, the doctor sips his tea now, the world has never been so perfect, he smiles, offering up a thanks.
Virtually all his patients, he reflects, believe their woes to originate from their lack of health. 'If only i were healthy', they would say, 'Then i would be happy'. Dr. Krishna is not by nature a cynical man, but once and a while he allows himself a gentle smile and sigh in private: once healthy, it would be riches, once rich it would be power, once powerful it would be security. For most of his patients the world is not a perfect place.
Dr. Krishna sips his tea. All illness and suffering is in the mind, he knows. Sure the body get sick, just as a body heals. Sure a body is painful, but all pain subsides. It is the mind that woes, fights, screams, demands pity and attention and churns up rage, depression, shock, all the suffering that men know.
One patient of his he shall never forget. She had cancer, yet smiled at the world like a newborn. The good doctor knew that at that moment in her life she had been unstained by the world: Clean and pure and bright, the world hummed and sparkled and she accepted the world for what it was. Like a clear stream, she did not let her mind stir up the muddy bottom. The water flowed undisturbed. Her mind observed. Her will and motivation and concentration, the doctor smiles, are remarkable, a model for how all could live without suffering. And this sweet, dying woman told him as much:
My saviour said to his followers, at a time when they doubted, at a time when they were weak, at a time when their minds grasped for any surety, even incorrect truths and old habits, my saviour reminded them that, "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." At first i never truly understood what was written in his words, but now, at the end of my life, i think i understand. I have encouraged all whom i know to see the wisdom in these words and to live by these words. Because from within people, from their minds and hearts, from their emotions and actions, come conflict, bitterness, greed and aversion. The mind generates the filth that blinds wisdom and creates all the sins that keep us apart, lost on our own selfish paths, doomed to suffer in our own minds and drag all around us down like drowning men. The world is perfect. This is paradise, if only we could see it that way! Nothing in this world can truly make us suffer, not even my cancer: though i might know pain, i will not suffer poisonous words, ruinous deeds, bitter thoughts and lies upon lies upon lies which is the true cancer.
Dr. Krishna had had a cup of tea with this wonderful woman, the only time he had ever shared his little private space with another patient. He had felt honoured to know her. And since that time many years ago, a great weight had fallen from his shoulders. His eyes sparkled like a clear stream, unchurned. His voice resounded like crisp morning air, free from the smoke of cooking fires. Ahh, the doctor sips his tea now, the world has never been so perfect, he smiles, offering up a thanks.
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