Healing.

It is important to know that healing doesn't mean to cure.

We can have wounds, even open wounds, and be healed. 

Someday, this might be important to know. 

Liberation.

གྲོལ་བ་
Tibetan: drolwa
English: liberation, release, let go, freedom, untied

Most days we have a pretty visceral experience that we are not liberated.  We are often tied up in knots, awkward, caught up in highs and lows.  We don't really know how to relate to ourselves, others and the world around us.  We are caught up in a subject-object, self-other duality in which everything has its own compartment and attachment and aversion are our constant companions.

We don't need to look to far into our life to realize that we are not liberated.  What is the biggest source of problems in your day?  Work, your relationships, money, internal politics, chronic disease or illness?

Liberation is an experience of release or freedom.  When we talk about liberation it is the mind that is liberated.  What is the mind liberated from?  Negative emotions, concepts, habitual tendencies, karma and ignorance. 

We all have an experience of mundane liberation.  You quit your job and walk out the door, everything is suddenly lifted off your shoulders.  You finish a hard day at work and step out into the wide open sky.  You pay off the last of your debts, nothing more to worry about.  You orgasm, an ecstatic release of blissful sexual energy.  Your illness subsides.  Your doctor tells you the scan is clear.  You are healed.

It is funny, at least to someone aspiring to awakening, because you can see directly that which binds you by identifying these moments of struggle and mundane release, these moments of struggle where we really wish we were liberated.   

Those areas should be the focus of your practice.

Can you include them?  Is it even possible?

Own it.

What are you?

Angry.
Tired.
Scared.
Stuck.
In pain.
Disappointed.
Suffering.
Unfulfilled.
Happy.
Content.
Anxious.
Sad.
Uncertain.
Sick.
Dying.

Good.  Own it.

Now you know where to start your practice.

How does transformation occur?

What is the basis for transformation?  How does it happen?

Is it a miracle?  An act of god?  Is it luck or simply a chance occurrence?

When we talk about transformation we need to look closely at what is being transformed.  Our habitual mode of relating with reality is to ascribe identity and characteristics to things.

This is a car.  It is a blue Ford.  Leather seats, fancy gadgets.  That is what it is.

We don't really question this version of reality.  This is the world and that is just the way it is.
Or is it?

When we break a car apart, we end up with a bunch of parts and pieces.  Are they collectively still 'car'?  I don't think anyone looking at a pile of parts and pieces would call them a car.  So when does 'car' come into being, and when does it cease to exist?  At which point in the dis-assembly do we go from having a car to not having a car?  It is kind of a weird question to think about.

In our life, when we encounter a problem, where is the problem exactly?  If we take apart the problem into pieces, is it still there? When we come down with illness or disease, we get stuck on the permanence of that disease.  Is it really permanent?  Will it ever change?  Is there something we can do to change it or are we simply a choice-less victim?  

Who we are, the quality of our mind, our well being and identity; all these are in a constant state of flux.  It may not be readily apparent, but time and the impermanent nature of all things has already shown this to be true.  We already have this knowledge.  

Reality is not fixed.  It is not permanent.  Our minds are not fixed, they are not permanent.  If we understand that the basis of all things is impermanent, changeable and dynamic, transformation becomes possible.  Actually change and transformation are happening all the time, day and night.  If we are able to use discernment, insight and clarity we can actually impact that change.  Through intention we can transform negative situations into strengths, we can transmute the pain and suffering of our present circumstance into an opportunity to show others how to walk this path. 

Do you think this is impossible?  I'll show you that it's not. That is what we are doing here.  Our life is the example.  We are the example.  How do you transform the ordinary into the extra-ordinary?  How do you transform the mundane aspects of your life into something meaningful?

Don't confuse transformation with being magical.  The real magic lies in its simplicity.  The extraordinary starts out as ordinary.  Transformation isn't about turning iron into gold, it is about turning your life as it is right now, into a life of great purpose.  It is about transforming your mind and your intention.

And it is possible.   

A source of refuge?

Everyone who enters a healthcare setting is there because of hope and fear.

The 52yo male with high blood pressure.
The 46yo female with Type 2 Diabetes.
The 27yo male with generalized anxiety disorder.
The 4yo female with a nasty cough and an earache.

The are looking to get rid of the pain or discomfort.  They are hoping to feel better.  They don't know what their future holds and they are afraid of untimely death or medical complications.  The process of aging, sickness and death affects us all and it is a lot to handle.

So we ask the doctor, the pharmacist, the nurse or dietician to help us.  And they want to help.

So we give you a medication, set out some treatment goals that have been statistically proven to reduce your long term risk (even as those goals change every couple of years), and we enforce regular follow up and examination.

But we aren't in the business of curing things.

We can get rid of certain infections, cure your kids pink eye (if its bacterial).  We can remove certain tumors and benign growths, but we don't cure much of anything.

We can't even cure acid reflux (but here is a Prilosec).  Funny isn't it, how easy it is to direct you to a pill instead of doing the hard work of recommending a change in your diet and lifestyle and following up on that change.  What if a doctor's first words weren't as simple as take this?

So people come to us, looking for health, to feel better and to remove the fear of death and the unknown.  We give them a pill.  A subscription prescription for health.   A placebo would not be a moral treatment, but placebo or active medication the cure rate would remain the same.  Zero. 

That is because the cure lies in you.  If there is a cure at all. 

It is your choices, your decisions and actions.  It took a long while to get where you are, and it won't reverse over night.  But if you care about your health, your well being and happines, then you need to take responsibility for it. 

Do you turn the keys to your health, well being and happiness over to others?
Or do you own it?  Take the keys.  In the meantime, we are still here to help you manage your symptoms and reduce your long term risk while you make those changes. 

That is what we should be here for- helping you in the pursuit of your own health and well being.  Empowering you, providing the support and filling in the knowledge gaps. 

This is about our healthcare system, but it also applies to our work, religion, happiness- everything.

Take the keys.