The Venerable Somā was herself dealing with illness while giving this talk, and she spoke about what we can learn from sickness. The Buddha himself became sick; all creatures get sick. Enlightenment doesn’t remove the pain of sickness, but it does remove the suffering associated with sickness. Pain is inevitable, suffering is not. Suffering comes from our attachment to a state of health, or to things we can do when we’re healthy. We can come to take our health for granted, and only realize it when it’s taken away.
The Venerable Somā says that when the Buddha met sick people, he asked them two questions – Do you have any remorse or regret? And Do you have any virtue you have not yet developed? Being very sick can make us realize what we should be doing when we’re healthy. If we become healthy again, we can remember these thoughts and use them as motivation for practice.
Sickness, whether physical or mental, can make it difficult to achieve states of heightened concentration in meditation. That doesn’t mean that one can’t practice; one can still practice insight meditation. Rather than seeking great concentration, observe feelings and sensations. See their impermanence. Watch what happens, and observe what the mind does. Observe the body’s pain.
The Venerable Somā teaches that taking health for granted creates attachment to it. Then taking that health away creates suffering. The suffering is something that you do to yourself. In this way, sickness can teach us about the first Noble Truth (the truth of dukkha, or “suffering”), and the second Noble Truth (that attachment is the cause of suffering). The suffering comes from making a mistake about the body. The body is of a nature to get sick, get old, and die. Believing instead (either consciously or not) that the body will always be healthy, or should always be healthy, leads to suffering.
The Venerable Somā says that even if you understand this intellectually, it’s normal to still have attachments and suffer. You shouldn’t feel guilty about this! Feeling guilty isn’t helpful. Instead, try to stop the mind’s chatter and feel the body and mind.
It’s also normal to avoid meditating when we’re feeling ill, but this is a mistake. It’s always the right time to practice, and we should certainly practice when sick. The Venerable Somā talks about what she calls “informal meditation”, by which she means practice that happens during the rest of your life when you’re not sitting on the cushion. She points out that monks in Mahayana monasteries spend the majority of their time working, not meditating. The work is still practice, though. The monks strive to be mindful in all of their actions and speech throughout the day.
The Venerable Somā teaches that when we’re healthy, we should strive to cultivate wholesomeness and abandon the bad. That will help us fare better and suffer less when we inevitably become ill.
Scroll down to listen to Ayyā Somā’s talk. Happy Learning!
From the Teachers: Practice and Sickness
Dharma Video:
“Dealing with Sickness” by Ayyā Somā*
* Venerable Ayyā Somā is an Italian Buddhist monk and co-abbot of Empty Cloud Monastery in New Jersey. A former fashion and lifestyle editor, her first encounter with Buddhist monasticism was at Santacittārāma Monastery in Italy, in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. She started practicing as a renunciant in 2016, received monastic ordination in 2018, and full bhikkhunī ordination in 2020.
As the co-founder of Buddhist Insights, a non-profit organization connecting people with monastics, she has learned the Dharma through the perspective of monks of all different traditions like Bhante Suddhāso, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ajahn Pasanno, Ven. Robina Courtin, Khenmo Drolma, Ajahn Brahm, Thich Phap Hai, Ven. Paññavati, and Bhante Gunaratana.
