Spirituality
Reflect
upon the Meanings of Illness and Set Your Intention
1.
I never cease to be impressed by the capacity of some ill people
to live life more fully than most, to find more meaning and more
depth, more awe in the ordinary.
— Rachel Naomi Remen in Kitchen Table Wisdom
2. I believe that illness can be a call to consciousness, a wake-up call some would say, that illness involves a descent into the depths and an exposure to what we fear.
I have seen how illness can unearth love and reveal strength of character, and I know that it is truly an opportunity for soul growth.
— Jean Shinoda Bolen in Close to the Bone
3. When we learn to see our illness as a companion or friend, it really does change the way the illness is present.
The illness changes from a horrible intruder to a companion who has something to teach us.
— John O'Donohue in Eternal Echoes
4. Our health is an extraordinary if at times frightening vantage point from which to view the terrain of one's life.
— Kat Duff in The Alchemy of Illness
5. An illness opens the heart to growth in relation to the Divine, it also awakens the 'wisdom eye' from its slumbers.
The wisdom eye is essentially a subtle capacity to see, to know, to understand, and to respond.
— Wayne Teasdale in A Monk in the World
6. Illness offers us a path into the kind of religion that rises directly from participation in the deepest levels of fate and existence.
— Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul
7. Instead of pushing illness away, I hold it as I would a baby. I embrace it because suffering is part of life.
I regard food and water and meditation and visualization of being well as medicine.
— Barbara Ann Kipfer in 201 Little Buddhist Reminders
8. Defects, disorders, diseases can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forces of life, that might never be seen or even be imaginable in their absence. It is the paradox of disease, in this sense, its 'creative' potential, that is amazing.
— Oliver Sacks in An Anthropologist on Mars
— Rachel Naomi Remen in Kitchen Table Wisdom
2. I believe that illness can be a call to consciousness, a wake-up call some would say, that illness involves a descent into the depths and an exposure to what we fear.
I have seen how illness can unearth love and reveal strength of character, and I know that it is truly an opportunity for soul growth.
— Jean Shinoda Bolen in Close to the Bone
3. When we learn to see our illness as a companion or friend, it really does change the way the illness is present.
The illness changes from a horrible intruder to a companion who has something to teach us.
— John O'Donohue in Eternal Echoes
4. Our health is an extraordinary if at times frightening vantage point from which to view the terrain of one's life.
— Kat Duff in The Alchemy of Illness
5. An illness opens the heart to growth in relation to the Divine, it also awakens the 'wisdom eye' from its slumbers.
The wisdom eye is essentially a subtle capacity to see, to know, to understand, and to respond.
— Wayne Teasdale in A Monk in the World
6. Illness offers us a path into the kind of religion that rises directly from participation in the deepest levels of fate and existence.
— Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul
7. Instead of pushing illness away, I hold it as I would a baby. I embrace it because suffering is part of life.
I regard food and water and meditation and visualization of being well as medicine.
— Barbara Ann Kipfer in 201 Little Buddhist Reminders
8. Defects, disorders, diseases can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forces of life, that might never be seen or even be imaginable in their absence. It is the paradox of disease, in this sense, its 'creative' potential, that is amazing.
— Oliver Sacks in An Anthropologist on Mars
To Practice This Today:
Take a few minutes to reflect upon your intention now.
Then record it in your journal or write it on a piece of paper to carry with you.
A second "getting started" activity is to reflect on the various meanings of illness. A
bove are eight quotations from different authors (many of whom we will be quoting later in this e-course) on various aspects of illness.
Read through them slowly. Which one(s) confirm your understanding of illness? Which ones challenge some of your assumptions?
Take a few minutes to reflect upon your intention now.
Then record it in your journal or write it on a piece of paper to carry with you.
A second "getting started" activity is to reflect on the various meanings of illness. A
bove are eight quotations from different authors (many of whom we will be quoting later in this e-course) on various aspects of illness.
Read through them slowly. Which one(s) confirm your understanding of illness? Which ones challenge some of your assumptions?