Illness and the Soul

The reality and possibility of serious illness evokes soul from the first moment it registers:

it might be after hearing a report that something serious was found on the X-ray

or more sophisticated scans or in the specimen sent to the lab,

or after an illness announced itself with the sudden onset of an acute pain,

loss of consciousness or bleeding...

whenever or however that line from health to illness is crossed,

we enter this realm of soul.

Illness is both soul-shaking and soul-evoking for the patient

and for all others for whom the patient matters.

We lose an innocence, we know vulnerability,

we are no longer who we were before this event,

and we will never be the same.

We are in uncharted terrain, and there is no turning back.

Illness is a profound soul event, and yet this is virtually ignored and unaddressed.

Instead, everything seems to be focused on the part of the body

that is sick, damaged, failing, or out of control.

 

Illness makes us acutely aware of how precious life is

and how precious a particular life is.

Priorities shift.

We may see the truth of what matters, who matters,

and what we have been doing with our lives and have to decide what to do--

now that we know.

Significant relationships are tested and either come through strengthened or fail.

Pain and fear bring us to our knees in prayer.

Our spiritual and religious convictions or the lack of them are called into question.

Illness is an ordeal for both body and soul,

and a time when healing or either or both can result.

 

Illness takes us out of our ordinary lives and concerns,

and confronts us with big questions

and the opportunity of tapping into soul knowledge

that can transform us and the situation.

 

At a soul level,

we can see clearly what matters and recognize the truth of our personal situation.

We know that we are spiritual beings on a human path

rather than human beings who may be on a spiritual path.

At the soul level we recognize what is sacred and eternal.

At the soul level,

an illness, even a terminal one,

is a potential beginning,

a liminal time when we are between the ordinary world and the invisible one.

 

excerpts from Jean Shinoda Bolen's Close to the Bone: Life-threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning

生病讓人謙卑

一旦失去健康

就像進入一個陌生的國度

天地驟然變色

人生從此不一樣

從此不再無辜 深刻體驗脆弱

沒有退路

生命裡的事物

孰輕孰重

昭然若揭

身體輕了

為了求生 斷尾也可

靈魂重了

人生的大問題不得不面對

因為生病所以更加知福惜福

病痛讓自己從平常的渾渾噩噩清醒過來

但是這種清醒

可以不要嗎?

可不可以回到渾渾噩噩的平常?