Thank you kim123 and djhampa both for your responses.
kim, what u have detailed in your posts have to do with the
general mental suffering that human beings in general face as their
experience in life, and not regarding those with
neurological/mental disorders, e.g. obsessive compulsive disorder,
bipolar, schizophrenia, which i had originally wanted to bring into
the subject of discussion on this thread.
All of us are deluded as defined by buddha but to every buddhist
that I asked when I was in singapore NONE said that they were
deluded. The best they could offer was that they were 'sometimes'
deluded and could not see clearly. Given that all of us due
to karmic obscuration could not see clearly then up to what degree
would we consider that such delusions become an illness ? I
would use harm as the criteria - harm to ourselves and to
others.Even when we go around trying to malign others could be
considered as such illness. Our delusions make us insensitive. Our
clever rationalisations make us feel good with the bad that we
do.
Does buddhism with all its meditation, philosophy and teachings
offer a way out of such intense and accentuated delusions ?
My brief answer is a no. These delusions have to be resolved at a
deeper level. We can't use a dirty cloth (the mind) to clean the
mind. Some energetic meditations can help but these were not taught
by buddha.
I believe chinese medicine do hold vital keys to helping the
people resolve such difficulties. Western medicine had failed
miserably.( <!-- @page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm }
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-->Shankar
Vedantam,“Against Depression, sugar pill is hard to beat”,
Washington Post
May 7,2002;Page A01) All the mindless killings we read these
days , many of it were a result of such medication.
thanks djhampa for sharing these things, they are really
meaningful.
Those in your case there are some who wrongly refer to others as
having mental illness, i am talking about real cases here, with the
cause of their mental being more of physiological rather than
psychological.
I agree with you on your perceptive that all of humans are
deluded and bounded with karmic obstructions. i dont really
understand why the buddhists u questioned said they were not
deluded. I as a buddhist would agree with u i am totally deluded,
not to mention the delusion is made worse by my condition of
neurological mental problem.
Does buddhism with all its meditation, philosophy and teachings
offer a way out of such intense and accentuated delusions ?
My brief answer is a no. These delusions have to be resolved at a
deeper level. We can't use a dirty cloth (the mind) to
clean the mind.
I do not know how much of an extent buddhist meditation,
philosophy and teachings offer a way out of intense and accentuated
delusions u are talking about, in my opinion, and
especially for those with mental illnesses, these methods
are an impossibility. and i cant agree more with u that we cannot
use the already deluded mind, to attempt to clean the mind and get
out of this delusion. at least that is my belief in the present
times, it is very difficult if not an impossibilty.
You expressed that buddhism does not have a way to resolve this.
my answer to this is pureland buddhism, and relying on the
other-power of the Buddha, by buddha recitation, and I would
recommend to read more into Jodo shu pureland buddhism, and
teachings by Honen. www.purelandsect.org
i also agree with u, that western medication drugs are unable to
cure or heal the mental illness i have mentioned in question, these
drugs only treat or cover up the symptoms while u are on them, but
are unable to restore the mental health of the sufferer.
i would think that in this respect chinese medicine has indeed
more potential.
I think i have more or less found my own answer of how to
address and treat my obsessive compulsive disorder, and thanks for
the responses.
