Illnesses

    ''Spiritual aspirants eat and act in an orderly manner with mind and spirit stable and at ease, not performing any unnecessary deeds. If occasionally they fall ill, they should accept this as ordained by heaven or as karma from previous lives. First of all, one should realize that the four scandhas which make up the body are all false. Then if illness comes, accept it with equanimity of mind; if death is to follow, also accept it with equnimity of mind. If the mind is not obsessed with the illness, serious illness becomes light and light illness will gradually heal on its own accord without disturbing the tranquility of the mind. When all the impure and malicious chi (that caused the illness) disperse, the aspirant would have repaid his bad karmic debt and also have passed a crisis unscathed.

If, however, he fails to understand this, his mind is bound to be thrown into aflictions by his illness. He would be calling out for help, crying out of pain, resenting heaven and blaming earth, or moaning about other people not helping him or calling in a good doctor, or the doctor not prescribing the right medicine, or friends or relatives not comming to visit and comfort him, thus entangling himself in even more bad karma. Such a person cannot see that his mind is the master of his body; if the master is restless and disorderly, the body cannot remain in peace and order. Isn't there an ancient saying 'when the mind is in chaos, the gate of hell is not far'?
When the mind is in such a state, even light illness will turn into serious illness and serious illness will result in death. If someone falls victim to illness as a result of unruly and disorderly life style, then he has only got himself to blame. On the other hand those who keep their mind checked is less likely to suffer illnesses. ''
-- sayings of Wang Zhi Jun(1177-1263), a Yuan dynasty Taoist adept.