2016 Spring Sesshin – Gillian Coote, roshi – Medicine & Sickness
Teisho by Gillian Coote, roshi ‘Yunmen’s Medicine and Sickness’
#87 Book of Serenity
I came down with a mysterious and painful condition earlier in the year. Coming out of the surgery in intensive care after three days, I knew nothing about any of this because I’d been taken emergency in a delirious state of mind. At first, coming round after the operation, there were just skerricks of consciousness darting about in the vast darkness like bright little fish. Once out of the intensive care unit, I had no watch and the clock in my ward had long ago stopped at three minutes to seven. And there was the Buddha’s medicine right there. Awakening from yet another sleep breathing in, out, deep, slow, breathing mu – my body’s wisdom. Noticing whenever I began to think about what might be happening next, and letting it go. Projecting a future was beside the point.