Disease is the second sight that awakened the Buddha. His teaching that we are the makers of ourselves and the cause of our misfortunes is finding expression today among physicists and physicians who tell us that our bodies know what our minds tell them, suffer diseases our thoughts and emotions contract and, that because we take part in the process of getting sick, we can and must take part in the recovery. This approach gives us an appreciation of our bodies which labor tirelessly not only to neutralize the poisons we consume, but also to fight off the hordes of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses that surround and infest us. It reminds us too that it is the often thoughtless, overindulging, self-centered human consciousness which catches diseases and inflicts them on our physical and psychological bodies which may have become so weakened or impaired by our dissipations they no longer function as they should. Preoccupation with self, anger, jealousy, hateful thoughts, overeating, overdrinking, or any excess, increases vital tempos, blocks, disrupts, or depletes energy flows that normally maintain health and healing.
Nature strives for balance, harmony, wholeness.
The first of the Buddhist virtues, right belief, applies on all levels of our natures, for each reflects and acts upon the others. This is because we participate intelligently with a trusted physician or healer in the treatment and healing processes. He and his colleagues would readily admit that physicians do not heal, nor do their medicines or treatments. Through pain, hunches, and sometimes dreams, they pinpoint the trouble, suggest cures, or sound warnings either to get professional help at once, or to change our attitudes and behavior. The real seeds of dis-ease, and of accidents too, are our thoughts.