..续本文上一页d making merit, encouraging him or her to donate food to monks, to meditate or chant, to make a vow to ordain for a period of time, etc., all as a means of turning the patient”s thoughts in the proper direction. This is called dhamma-medicine.

　　In some cases, a disease that normally requires a great deal of medicine will disappear after using only a little medicine. Experienced doctors are sure to have met with cases like this. For example, a patient is seriously ill, but if we can find a way to console him and boost his morale, the symptoms — instead of worsening as they normally might — grow less severe; instead of dying today, the patient may live on into next week or next month. Some people, when they”ve stepped on a thorn, think that they”ve been bitten by a snake, and this can cause the pain to flare up immediately. Other people, when they”ve been bitten by a poisonous centipede, think that they”ve stepped on a thorn, and this can keep the poison of the centipede from causing much pain. If they then go to an experienced doctor who tells them that they”ve been bitten by a centipede, they can then become upset and the pain will flare up. Cases like this all offer proof for the role that kamma plays in causing disease.

　　The word "kamma" refers to two things —

　　1. Kamma vipaka, or the results of actions performed in the past that can affect the body in the present, upsetting the physical properties and giving rise to disease. Sometimes even when we treat such diseases correctly in accordance with medical principles, they won”t go away. When the time comes for them to go, the patient may drink even just a gulp of lustral water and they disappear. This, partly, is a matter of the patient”s morale. This sort of disease is the result of old kamma. Sometimes the old kamma can spread to affect the mind, making the patient upset, and this in turn causes the physical disease to worsen. Sometimes the case is hopeless, but the patient recovers. Sometimes there”s hope, but the patient dies. In cases like this, we should conclude that the disease comes from old kamma. We”ll have to treat both the physical causes and the mental, kammic causes if we want to relieve the pain of the disease.

　　2. Sometimes diseases can arise from new acts of the mind. This is called kamma-citta. For example, when we feel extreme anger, hatred, love, or restlessness, the mind is agitated in full force and the defilements that enwrap it splash into the body, where they mix with the various properties of the body — in the blood, for instance, which then flows to the various parts of the body, causing weakness and fatigue. If blood of this sort stagnates in a particular part of the body, disease will arise right there. The mind becomes murky, the properties of the body are murky. At the very least, we”ll feel not up to par. If we don”t hurry to find a way to correct the situation, disease will arise.

　　Here we can make an analogy: The mind is like a fish in a pond. If a person stirs up the water with a stick, the fish will have to swim around in circles, and the mucus covering its body will slough off into the water. The water will become murky, the mud at the bottom of the pond will get stirred up, and the fish won”t be able to see. After a while the mucus from the fish will adhere to particles in the water, providing food for algae. As the algae multiply, the water will grow stale and unfit for use. In the same way, when mental defilements flare up in full strength, the power of such mental acts can spread to cause diseases in the body. If the properties in the body flare up at the same time as the mind, the disease will be hard to treat — or if it”s easy to treat, it will go away slowly.

　　Thus, kamma diseases in some cases arise first in the body and then spread …

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