Bringing Sickness onto the Path

Three Ways of Bringing Sickness onto the Path

by Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpé Nyima

There are three ways of bringing sickness onto the path: 1) best, 2) intermediate and 3) inferior.

1. The Best Way

The best way is simply to leave any intense pain that accompanies your sickness just as it is, without seeking to remedy it, and, by settling into it relaxedly, to allow the essence of the pain to arise as an experience of emptiness beyond conceptual elaboration.

2. The Intermediate Way

The intermediate way is to consider that the suffering and harmful influences (dön) that afflict sentient beings are all included within the intense pain that accompanies your sickness. Then, by bringing this pain onto the path and eliminating it together with the mental afflictions, it can become a support for virtuous practice.

3. The Inferior Way

The inferior way is to recognise sickness as a repayment for past negative actions. Without employing any method to alleviate it, do not react with aversion, but understand that it arises through the compassion of the Three Jewels, and, in this way, you will purify harmful actions and obscurations.

| Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2018

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'jigs med bstan pa'i nyi ma. "na tsha lam du khyer tshul/" in rDo grub chen ’jigs med bstan pa’i nyi ma’i gsung ’bum. 7 vols. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003. BDRC: W25007, vol. 1: 443

Version: 2.0-20231106