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On the same note, highly recommend "Being Mortal", which talks a lot about that mindset and palliative care. It can be really damaging to think in terms of winn

by iooi 8y ago

On the same note, highly recommend "Being Mortal", which talks a lot about that mindset and palliative care. It can be really damaging to think in terms of winners and losers since you might end up going through a lot more pain than necessary. It can be really beneficial for everyone involved to readjust goals and make the best out of the situation. Dying is part of life, and we need to be better at accepting and dealing with it.

specialist 8y ago
Life is a celebration. Every day a gift. I have a chronic life threatening disease. Side effects from a bone marrow transplant when I was kid. I recognize the stages of bereavement in others (patients, caregivers, family, friends). The only difference between me and them is I had decades to process my mortality, to learn how to cope. Sort of. Surviving is a strange gift. Live long enough and you'll see that you're not special, you weren't unlucky. It just happens. None of us get out alive. The trick is figuring out how to press on, despite the foreknowledge, the futility. Maybe I'm finally becoming buddhist in my old age.
- babyloneleven 8y ago
  Since you mentioned Buddhism you probably know what it's about, but for the benefit of someone that might be curious, The Buddhist perspective is that none of this is actually real. It's all an elaborate illusion. The battle is an illusion, the cancer is an illusion, and death itself is an illusion. Like the film Matrix, we live in a virtual world. Everything we see is a creation of our mind. All our perspectives, experiences, everything we feel, our cravings and impulses, none of this is actually real. Our mind has both the power to create anything but also the power to understand how fragile and empty those creations are. Everyone has the Buddha nature. Anyway what Buddha discovered is that we suffer because we are attached to the creations of our mind (such as the idea of being alive and the fear of dying). And he proposed a fix that is very simple, just see reality as it is: empty. Devoid of substance. That's it. This insight is elaborated in four points and is called the four noble truths. Now, Buddhism isn't an intellectual exercise. Just having a cognitive understanding of the Buddhist philosophy is too limited and isn't how you practice Buddhism. Just believing in Buddha or any teaching is useless. You practice Buddhism by having the right motivation (which is to bring benefits to all beings - since they, too, deserve to be free from suffering), having the right vision and acting the right way. This can be elaborated in eight points and comprise the noble eightfold path if you want to look up. To follow this path, you need to convince your unconscious mind of those goals: too often we know what's the right thing to do but fail to act on it. And it's much easier to understand Buddha's insight than to fully incorporate it into your unconscious mind. We do this by training the mind through meditation. Meditating helps you to release yourself from the slavery of always having to follow your own desires and impulses, but also enables the deepest parts of your mind to perceive reality as it really is. It's Buddha's mind hack. It's never too late to practice a little bit of meditation. Just search for some guided meditation video on YouTube and follow it (5 mins is enough). You don't really need to believe anything nor abandon your religion and it may benefit you and, due to the way it changes you, benefit those around you.

by iooi 8y ago

specialist 8y ago

Life is a celebration. Every day a gift. I have a chronic life threatening disease. Side effects from a bone marrow transplant when I was kid. I recognize the stages of bereavement in others (patients, caregivers, family, friends). The only difference between me and them is I had decades to process my mortality, to learn how to cope. Sort of. Surviving is a strange gift. Live long enough and you'll see that you're not special, you weren't unlucky. It just happens. None of us get out alive. The trick is figuring out how to press on, despite the foreknowledge, the futility. Maybe I'm finally becoming buddhist in my old age.

babyloneleven 8y ago
Since you mentioned Buddhism you probably know what it's about, but for the benefit of someone that might be curious, The Buddhist perspective is that none of this is actually real. It's all an elaborate illusion. The battle is an illusion, the cancer is an illusion, and death itself is an illusion. Like the film Matrix, we live in a virtual world. Everything we see is a creation of our mind. All our perspectives, experiences, everything we feel, our cravings and impulses, none of this is actually real. Our mind has both the power to create anything but also the power to understand how fragile and empty those creations are. Everyone has the Buddha nature. Anyway what Buddha discovered is that we suffer because we are attached to the creations of our mind (such as the idea of being alive and the fear of dying). And he proposed a fix that is very simple, just see reality as it is: empty. Devoid of substance. That's it. This insight is elaborated in four points and is called the four noble truths. Now, Buddhism isn't an intellectual exercise. Just having a cognitive understanding of the Buddhist philosophy is too limited and isn't how you practice Buddhism. Just believing in Buddha or any teaching is useless. You practice Buddhism by having the right motivation (which is to bring benefits to all beings - since they, too, deserve to be free from suffering), having the right vision and acting the right way. This can be elaborated in eight points and comprise the noble eightfold path if you want to look up. To follow this path, you need to convince your unconscious mind of those goals: too often we know what's the right thing to do but fail to act on it. And it's much easier to understand Buddha's insight than to fully incorporate it into your unconscious mind. We do this by training the mind through meditation. Meditating helps you to release yourself from the slavery of always having to follow your own desires and impulses, but also enables the deepest parts of your mind to perceive reality as it really is. It's Buddha's mind hack. It's never too late to practice a little bit of meditation. Just search for some guided meditation video on YouTube and follow it (5 mins is enough). You don't really need to believe anything nor abandon your religion and it may benefit you and, due to the way it changes you, benefit those around you.