One of life’s inevitable hardships emerged from the pain mentioned in last blog post. When I finally got to a doctor (in Sri Racha, Thailand), a mass was found in my abdomen. I was able to get an early flight home on Friday the 10th and have been in a hospital since. The Dhamma lessons and inspirations continue.

In Bangkok last month, I gave a talk at the newly opened Buddhadasa Indapanyo Archives. In it, I borrowed a theme from a talk Ajahn Buddhadasa gave to western retreatants: The Coolest Point in the Blast Furnace. Then, I applied his theme to finding the calmest point, or still point, midst the insanely stressful business of post-modern life.

Now, it’s the healthiest point within a mind-body coping with an aggressive and treatable form of lymphoma (cancer of the lymph cells). How does one practice so that the feeling tired, painful, and crappy stuff doesn’t run the show? What can we tune into as healthiness, physical, emotional, and spiritual?

For me, the obvious answer is Dhamma, with its myriad forms to adapt to life’s myriad ways of impinging on health. More reflections on this to follow, energy allowing.