| God and Science, Health and Sickness |
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| God and Science, Health and Sickness |
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Published on Perspectiva magazine
Year 2 - Nş 1 - June 1997
Knowing oneself is the most important adventure a human being can pursue. It is not easy. There are many influences from the environment we live in that make us modify constantly who we are. However, certain essential things don't change, qualities and singularities that we carry around since birth, besides problems and conflicts that are difficult to overcome. Every day we learn things about ourselves, sometimes without being aware of it. Each day our conscience is expanded a bit more. Throughout life, the most valuable lesson is learnt: being oneself.
One of the most practical and direct ways of learning about oneself is through sickness. Rather, through the symptoms that we have.
The semantics are quite important in this case, which is why I'm making a distinction between one term and the other. Sickness is a state of man, the opposite of health. Just like there is no plural to the word "health", there shouldn't be one for "sickness", since both terms refer to states of being. A symptom is any evidence that tells us there is something wrong in the spiritual plane and it reminds us of the existence of sickness. What I call symptom is what is usually referred to as "sickness" or "disease".
Two German doctors, Thorwald Dethlefsen and Rüdiger Dalhke, wrote a book called "The Healing Power of Illness" where they summarize their investigations regarding the state of sickness in human beings and the different symptoms what are manifested in this state. They conceive symptoms as messages from the soul designed to make each one realize what is really going on inside. I adopted this way of interpreting symptoms and apply it in everyday life.
In the theoretical part of the book, they make reference to Jung's writings, especially regarding polarity. Jung proposed that every quality that man exhibits can only be the expression of one of two possible poles. For example, a person can be selfish or generous, but not both things at the same time. This peculiarity of man is illustrated with the classic example of the following image:
What do you see? A cup? Two faces facing each other? Depending on what color you choose as background you will see one thing or the other. We can, at the most, alter between one and the other, but never be able to see both at the same time. Our brain is incapable of interpreting both images at the same time.
Enlightenment, which is the final objective of oriental philosophies (Buddhism, i.e.), is the simultaneous expression of both opposite poles of each characteristic; it is the state of supreme perfection, the maximum to which each being aspires. According to Buddha: "the path to supreme perfection is the line that joins all points of balance". Since we are humans, we can't stop being "polar", to compensate, we have to oscillate between the different poles. That's the way to reach the point of balance.
The law that governs this balance is usually called the law of "karma", and it is the basis of the reincarnation theory, which proposes that during one existence of barely 80 or 90 years a person can't acquire the capacity needed to be completely balanced, therefore his soul will reincarnate a number of times until he can reach enlightenment.
Karma can also explain that for every action we do that is an expression of one pole, we will have to express the opposite pole in order to achieve balance. In plain words: if I kill someone today, tomorrow someone will kill me. The law of karma does not admit injustice.
From this point of view, each human chooses, at the time of incarnation, certain potentials and qualities. These are just polar expressions. Necessarily there will be an equivalent group of qualities, but perfectly opposite, that won't be exhibited.
All that which is not exhibited, it is called "the shadow" by Jung, a storage of sorts for the forgotten things of the soul. Following the prior reasoning, this shadow contains qualities that need to be expressed, lived and learnt from in order to be enlightened. These qualities need to be expressed in some manner. This is the function of symptoms.
The symptom announces a lack of balance, some "forgotten thing"; it is a warning from the shadow in order for us to pay attention to a certain situation that we have to learn from. We can either use this message or not, it is up to us. It turns out that each symptom possesses a different message. This is how there come up associations between the physical and spiritual planes.
Of course, the view of traditional medicine is much more comfortable and "concrete" (and familiar), but until now medicine has not found a solution to symptoms. People keep on being sick today as much as 1000 years ago, though the symptoms have changed. Eliminating the symptom does not mean that the sickness was eliminated.
On this point, doctors Dethlefsen and Dalhke illustrate their interpretation of traditional medicine (whether is allopathic, homeopathic or "alternative") using the following parallel. When there is a failure in our car a light is lit in the panel to indicate the anomaly. We then take the car to the mechanic with the hope that he will solve the problem. We would be disappointed to find out that the mechanic simply removed the indicator lamp instead of working on the problem itself.
Why then do we let doctors make our symptoms disappear without giving them a chance to help us solve the real problem?
Words associated to symptoms aren't pleasant or nice to hear, and nobody likes to be reminded of this or that fault that they possess; but I have discovered that it is true that symptoms are trying to tell us something. And it is in me that I first saw this relationship between the body and the spirit that is established trough symptoms. I have strabismus in the left eye, fact that shows that I'm partial towards not looking at the emotional (left-handed) side of things. Understanding the symptoms that we show is a very valuable way of knowing ourselves.
Every day there are new symptoms to which we have to pay due attention and try to learn the most from. But what is the solution to sickness? Certainly we all wish to never be "sick".
We have to know ourselves, investigate and inquire into each one of us in order to find out who we truly are. There are many ways to do it. Some people like to meditate, or they are vegetarian, or join self-help groups, they do therapy, etc.
It doesn't matter the way we do it, as long as the end pursued is to know oneself authentically, and to love and accept who you are. The important thing is to recognize and find oneself and be who one truly is, and not who others think or want us to be, which is often easier than the first.
Through others we can realize who we are. Relationships in our lives let us observe every aspect of our being. Knowing others, we know ourselves. Defects that irritate us in others, are usually our own defects, as much as we value in others the things we consider worth of value in us. In the first years of life, we identify ourselves with the way our parents define us, usually being us the instruments to fulfill their dreams. As time goes by and we relate to other people, we become separate from that.
Given the state of the planet right now, things are getting to a critical point. This is the time to be authentic and fight together for a world of more harmony. After all, this is the only world we can live in. Isn't it time we began looking after it?
And how do good manners begin? At home. Our home. Our body, our soul.
