The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

REFLECTION AND CHANGE 31
Not only did she come to accept death; but by following
the practice with complete dedication, she was healed. I have
heard of many other cases of people who were diagnosed as
terminally ill and given only a few months to live. When they
went into solitude, followed a spiritual practice, and truly
faced themselves and the fact of death, they were healed.
What is this telling us? That when we accept death, transform
our attitude toward life, and discover the fundamental connection
between life and death, a dramatic possibility for healing
can occur.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that illnesses like cancer can be a
warning, to remind us that we have been neglecting deep
aspects of our being, such as our spiritual needs. 4 If we take
this warning seriously and change fundamentally the direction
of our lives, there is a very real hope for healing not only our
body, but our whole being.
A CHANGE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE HEART
To reflect deeply on impermanence, just as Krisha Gotami
did, is to be led to understand in the core of your heart the
truth that is expressed so strongly in this verse of a poem by a
contemporary master, Nyoshul Khenpo:
The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral,
Those with dualisic perception regard suffering as happiness,
Like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.
How pitiful they who cling strongly to concrete reality:
Turn your attention within, my heart friends. 5
Yet how hard it can be to turn our attention within! How
easily we allow our old habits and set patterns to dominate
us! Even though, as Nyoshul Khenpo's poem tells us, they
bring us suffering, we accept them with almost fatalistic resignation,
for we are so used to giving in to them. We may idealize
freedom, but when it comes to our habits, we are completely
enslaved.
Still, reflection can slowly bring us wisdom. We can come
to see we are falling again and again into fixed repetitive patterns,
and begin to long to get out of them. We may, of
course, fall back into them, again and again, but slowly we
can emerge from them and change. The following poem
speaks to us all. It's called "Autobiography in Five Chapters." 6