Introduction


 
 
Today's Dhamma talk is entitled "The Bojjhangas - Medicine that Makes All Diseases Disappear." Virtuous Buddhist people are very familiar with the word bojjhanga. They often chant the Bojjhanga Sutta when they are sick or when somebody who is dear is sick. If they are not able to recite it themselves, they listen to it when it is chanted by monks or other virtuous persons. This is why we can say that the Bojjhanga Sutta is something that virtuous Buddhists are well acquainted with. However, they have often just heard the word bojjhangas, neither understanding their nature and power, nor knowing how to develop them.

People may have heard the names of renowned Sayadaws or the names of famous actors and actresses, but they may never have actually met them. This Dhamma talk about the medicine of the bojjhangas is for virtuous people who are familiar with the word but do not yet understand it.

Before I start with the actual Dhamma talk, I want to use a metaphor and explain a few basic ideas, so that you will easily understand my meaning.

1 . The Buddha's sasana is like a hospital.

2. The Buddha is like a skilled physician.

3. The bojjhangas or the factors of enlightenment are like medicine.

4. The meditators are like the patients.

5. The practice of vipassana meditation is similar to undergoing treatment.

6. When one engages in the practice of vipassana meditation and is taking the medicine of the bojjhangas, one becomes free from sorrow and worry and feels both physically and mentally happy. As a result of the practice, one is released from physical pain and lives in peace and happiness. One can experience the happiness of devas as well as the happiness resulting from the attainment of magga, phala, and Nibbana. Experiencing these benefits is like the disappearance of the disease that results from taking the medicine.

In this way, virtuous meditators who are engaged in the practice of meditation for the eradication of disease find themselves in the hospital of the Buddha's sasana. By applying the medicine they undergo the treatment of the Buddha, who is the great physician.

In the most ordinary sense, a patient is a person who is afflicted with a disease or pain. Usually, a sick person goes either to a doctor or a hospital and explains what is wrong. Then the doctor examines the patient, prescribes the appropriate medicine or treatment, and then the sick person undergoes the treatment outlined by the doctor. It is essential that the patient takes the medicine given by the doctor, so that the disease disappears. Therefore, the patient has to take the medicine whether she or he wants to swallow it or not, whether she or he is busy or not, or whether she or he is uninterested or enthusiastic about it. The patient has to swallow the medicine whether it is sweet or bitter. Obviously, the sick person has to take the medicine prescribed by the doctor every day on a regular basis. Only in this way will the disease disappear, and it is only with the disappearance of the disease that one will feel happy and peaceful mentally and physically.

Let me ask you, "Why does a sick person want the disease to disappear?" Isn't it because sickness makes one feel miserable and causes suffering? When a certain sickness arises, one feels pain, aching, or unpleasant feelings. One feels tortured to the extent that one wants to call out or cry. This is real suffering.

There are two different kinds of diseases:
  • Physical disease: this refers to the ninety-six diseases that can afflict the body. 
  • Mental disease: this refers to the one thousand five hundred defilements (kilesas) that can afflict the mind.
Overcome by one of these ninety-six diseases, a person may be unable to eat food or drink any more; one may desperately call one's mother or father because one cannot sleep from rolling and tossing in one's bed. This is extremely difficult to bear because it is so painful and exhausting. When the body is overcome with suffering, the mind can no longer be happy or at ease. Likewise, the mind becomes agitated when it is afflicted by one of the one thousand five hundred defilements. The result is sorrow, worry, mental exhaustion, grief, or lamentation. "Pounding the mind, the body gets crushed," - this traditional Burmese saying points to how strong mental suffering also leads to physical suffering.

Due to diseases of the mind, uncountable living beings have lost their lives. Feeling unbearably tortured by disease, the sick person experiences a great deal of suffering and exhaustion. Wishing to make this dreadful sickness disappear and become free from it, the sick person willingly undergoes the treatment by either swallowing the medicine, getting injections, or undergoing surgery. Because the patient is afraid of immense suffering, he or she bears the lesser suffering caused by the treatment. In other words, because we are afraid of the suffering connected to the death process, we patiently bear the less severe suffering caused by the treatment.

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