Healing Medicine

The main affliction of our modern civilization is that we don’t know
how to handle the suffering inside us and we try to cover it up with all
kinds of consumption. Retailers peddle a plethora of classic and novel
devices to help us cover up the suffering inside. But unless and until
we’re able to face our suffering, we can’t be present and available to
life, and happiness will continue to elude us.
There are many people who have enormous suffering, and don’t know how to handle it. For many people, it starts already at a very
young age. So why don’t schools teach our young people the way to
manage suffering? If a student is very unhappy, he can’t concentrate
and he can’t learn. The suffering of each of us affects others. The more
we learn about the art of suffering well, the less suffering there will be
in the world.
Mindfulness is the best way to be with our suffering without being
overwhelmed by it. Mindfulness is the capacity to dwell in the present
moment, to know what’s happening in the here and now. For example,
when we’re lifting our two arms, we’re conscious of the fact that we’re
lifting our arms. Our mind is with our lifting of our arms, and we don’t
think about the past or the future, because lifting our arms is what’s
happening in the present moment.
To be mindful means to be aware. It’s the energy that knows what
is happening in the present moment. Lifting our arms and knowing
that we’re lifting our arms—that’s mindfulness, mindfulness of our
action. When we breathe in and we know we’re breathing in, that’s
mindfulness. When we make a step and we know that the steps are
taking place, we are mindful of the steps. Mindfulness is always mindfulness
of something. It’s the energy that helps us be aware of what is
happening right now and right here, in our body, in our feelings, in our
perceptions, and around us.
With mindfulness, you can recognize the presence of the suffering
in you and in the world. And it’s with that same energy that you
tenderly embrace the suffering. By being aware of your in-breath and
out-breath you generate the energy of mindfulness, so you can continue
to cradle the suffering. Practitioners of mindfulness can help
and support each other in recognizing, embracing, and transforming
suffering. With mindfulness we are no longer afraid of pain. We can even go further and make good use of suffering to generate the energy
of understanding and compassion that heals us and we can help others
to heal and be happy as well.