The Rough Lover, Fasting, & Chronic Illness

[Guest guest]

Dear Jan and Dharma,

 

I read your story of what you are going through Dharma, and I feel a

tenderness so much for you. I understand chronic illness and constant pain

from rheumatoid arthritis. 38 years with it my constant shadow.

My dearest friend, she also has CFIDS, and she goes through the most

challenging times when she is fighting for her life, literally. She just had

three TIAs, so many infections. She has such a sweetness and acceptance of

this that it brings me to my knees weeping. And Jan, when I was growing up,

seeing doctors all the time, I tried to tell them that I felt better when I

fasted. I had found out that it really did help me. Of course the doctors

boo-hooed it and dismissed it as a

wild imagination. Today I am fasting because of an attack of cellulitus and

such a flash of the pan's pain striking the fire. I do what I do, and go

about what must be done, but this testing of one's endurance of such

devastation is indeed something to ponder. I hope that we can all become the

Compassionate Flower when we are tested by these things with disease and

pain. Dearest Dharma, here is a poem for you about this:

 

Wonder of wonders!

This sharp blade of Love

has hit Its mark!

Being leveled everyday,

in every way, the cutting away

of all the past notions,

in this moment when pain

brings freedom unbounded,

I am Compassion's Flower.

 

These lifting sorrows,

they are the body's kiss

from The Ardent Lover, the One

Who always practices Rough Love.

Pressed against a wall of pain,

held down under a crushing touch,

This One knows how to break me open.

 

After these many years

of being offered on the alter

of disease, That One

still Dances, Dances

across This Devastation

of the garden of this body's mine-field.

There are just these tatters

fluttering in the wind

and singing,

singing to the world

a song too sweet to endure.

Look up, across the wonderful,

wonderful Stillness

That is always ever-present

when the pain and I are mating.

What will we do when the Friend

no longer comes to lift us up?

Where will we ever find another Lover

so Passionate His Kisses bruise

and break the illusion

of suffering.

 

Love to you,

Mazie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_______________

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[Guest guest]

That is a beautiful post, Mazie. It is very heartening to be reminded of the

strength of others, like yourself and your friend, in the experience of chronic

pain or illness; it can be such a lonely and difficult place when one is in it.

 

Jill

>>> sraddha54 02/07/02 01:08PM >>>

Dear Jan and Dharma,

 

I read your story of what you are going through Dharma, and I feel a

tenderness so much for you. I understand chronic illness and constant pain

from rheumatoid arthritis. 38 years with it my constant shadow.

My dearest friend, she also has CFIDS, and she goes through the most

challenging times when she is fighting for her life, literally. She just had

three TIAs, so many infections. She has such a sweetness and acceptance of

this that it brings me to my knees weeping. And Jan, when I was growing up,

seeing doctors all the time, I tried to tell them that I felt better when I

fasted. I had found out that it really did help me. Of course the doctors

boo-hooed it and dismissed it as a

wild imagination. Today I am fasting because of an attack of cellulitus and

such a flash of the pan's pain striking the fire. I do what I do, and go

about what must be done, but this testing of one's endurance of such

devastation is indeed something to ponder. I hope that we can all become the

Compassionate Flower when we are tested by these things with disease and

pain. Dearest Dharma, here is a poem for you about this:

 

Wonder of wonders!

This sharp blade of Love

has hit Its mark!

Being leveled everyday,

in every way, the cutting away

of all the past notions,

in this moment when pain

brings freedom unbounded,

I am Compassion's Flower.

 

These lifting sorrows,

they are the body's kiss

from The Ardent Lover, the One

Who always practices Rough Love.

Pressed against a wall of pain,

held down under a crushing touch,

This One knows how to break me open.

 

After these many years

of being offered on the alter

of disease, That One

still Dances, Dances

across This Devastation

of the garden of this body's mine-field.

There are just these tatters

fluttering in the wind

and singing,

singing to the world

a song too sweet to endure.

Look up, across the wonderful,

wonderful Stillness

That is always ever-present

when the pain and I are mating.

What will we do when the Friend

no longer comes to lift us up?

Where will we ever find another Lover

so Passionate His Kisses bruise

and break the illusion

of suffering.

 

Love to you,

Mazie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_______________

MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:

http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

 

 

/join

 

 

 

 

All paths go somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights,

perceptions, and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside back

into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than the ocean,

all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of Awareness. Awareness does

not come and go but is always Present. It is Home. Home is where the Heart Is.

Jnanis know the Heart to be the Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee

relishes in the Truth of Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into

It Self. Welcome all to a.

 

 

 

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