Description
Usually, casually, I think of myself as being well. When I am sick, wellness is the me I imagine I’ll get back to. I can’t always be sure what is healing and what is the opposite.
Sickness and Medicine
Links to Audio, Video, & Text on the topic
Usually, casually, I think of myself as being well. When I am sick, wellness is the me I imagine I’ll get back to. I can’t always be sure what is healing and what is the opposite.
What is sickness for you?
What are your own personal medicines?
What works for you?
Have you ever been surprised by something that helped you?
ARTICLE : The Whole World Is Medicine – John Tarrant, Zenosaurus Course in Koans, Spring 2014
The Whole World Is Medicine
Koans have a status as luminous fragments, little stories that are doorways. The phrase “the whole world is medicine” is a short form, convenient and portable, that opens into something beyond itself. (John Tarrant)
Sickness and medicine are in accord with each other.
The whole world is medicine.
What am I?—Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 (Yunmen)
VIDEO : Sickness and Medicine: Deep Listening – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Spring 2023
AUDIO CLIP: Deep Listening Music – Michael Wilding on flute, Sunday Zen, Spring 2023
AUDIO : Sickness Heals Medicine – David Weinstein, Zen Online, Spring 2020
AUDIO : The Whole World Is Medicine – Jon Joseph, Zen Online Spring 2020
AUDIO : How Is It That Sickness and Medicine Heal Each Other? – Jon Joseph, Winter Sesshin 2017
Wanting to get better is just a part of sickness. But a question might help when nothing else will. If I have a question, I’m beginning to wake up in the thick dark.
—John Tarrant
VIDEO : Mind of Awakening, Mind of Suffering – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2014
VIDEO : The Spirit of Love, Joy, and Play in Koans – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2014
VIDEO : Someone with Nothing To Do – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2014
Dear Sickness,
Recently, when I was teaching, an older version came out of my mouth: “Sickness and medicine correspond with each other.” Afterwards, someone said, “I was deep in meditation and my thinking was down deep too. I took the word ‘correspond’ to mean ‘write a letter to’ and I began to do that in my mind. ‘Dear Sickness,’ the letter began, and it ended, ‘Your friend, Medicine.’” (John Tarrant)
Your friend, Medicine
When Dongshan was not feeling well, someone said,
“Teacher, you are not feeling well. Is there anyone who doesn’t get sick?”
Dongshan said, “Yes, there is.”
“Does the person who doesn’t get sick take care of you?”
Dongshan said, “I have the opportunity to take care of the person.”
“What happens when you take care of that person?”
Dongshan said, “At that time, I don’t see the sickness.”—Book of Serenity, Case 94
TEXT : Healing Paths – a Poem by John Tarrant, Spring 2022
AUDIO : Put Out the Fire – A Panel on Koan Practice and Pain – hosted by Jon Joseph, Spring 2021
ARTICLE : Placebo, Chronic Fatigue, & Dormitive Principles – John Tarrant, Lion’s Roar, Fall 2009
TEXT : Meditation as a Basis for Healing – John Tarrant, Summer 2006
We’ll Walk Together
Oh yes let’s sleep when we’re tired
and eat when we’re hungry—
and lay down a path in the empty land
for those who wade through sorrow and have need of a path,
and we’ll walk together, talking…—excerpt from Healing Paths, a poem by John Tarrant
Related Materials & Koans
BOOK OF SERENITY 96: Unexpected Gifts, Unexpected Help Along the Way – John Tarrant
BOOK OF SERENITY 11: Yunmen’s Two Kinds of Sicknesses – John Tarrant
BOOK OF SERENITY 11: Beyond Clarity and Confusion – Jesse Cardin