A walk down Cherry Street makes me realize that it's been a year now since I had last gone on this adventure. A lot has changed, but in this area, much has also stayed the same. I suddenly notice that what used to be a golf driving course has now expanded to include a drive in movie theatre. It's one of the many things I hadn't noticed previously but am now privy to take in with my senses awakened. I begin to wonder why there are situations when I am able to see a lot of things, and others where the view somehow fails me.
The modern life, particularly medicine, tends to treat the body as the central point where things begin and end. I was reflecting today how a person can visit a doctor and complain of symptoms such as poor concentration, sad moods, and low energy. And after a short 10-15 point questionnaire, the person is diagnosed with depression or anxiety, which then calls for a specific prescription. But throughout this diagnosis, have other factors been considered? Even the weather can have an effect on one's mood, as well as social pressures, work stress and family situations. So why are doctors quick to diagnose a person's pain in terms of a chemical imbalance in the brain?
One of the issues is that of assuming that a person knows exactly where the source of their pain or challenges are. The mind is tricky in the sense that whatever it alights upon comes to seem quite real, when it is often momentary. For instance, if a person has read an article stating that jaw issues can cause certain kinds of headaches, the person might automatically associate headaches with jaw pain. No sooner does this arise then they will start to ask for special surgery on the jaw, assuming that the jaw causes headaches. But even the die-hard scientists in the world would agree that there is no real single-factor theory for anything that arises. There may be special tendencies for headaches to start in a certain area of the body, but these tendencies also need to be activated, usually by some social stress or position of the body.
A similar kind of thing often happens in meditation. I found in my own meditative practice that I sometimes get into 'fix it mode' with whatever pains or problems are arising in mind. In other words, I want to do something to fix the pain, at which point I start to hypothesize on the most effective methods and positions to deal with the pain. Little do I understand that looking for single-cause answers is only driving me to a frantic form of suffering. It usually arises when I alight upon a potential problem, reach out for the solution based on the problem, and then assume that this phenomena is the source of all my problems. But, as I suggested above, there could be many mitigating factors in determining why something works in some situations. The world does not operate in such a linear manner of single cause/single effect. In fact, the actual mindset of seeking out fundamental causes can rive a person to even greater amounts of suffering.
Perhaps the best solution in these cases is no solution at all. Instead, one way to reflect on our challenges or illnesses is to actually contemplate the many factors that exacerbate or add to the challenges. It's only when I reflect on the multiple-conditioned aspects of a problem that I can let go of trying to attribute it to an 'enemy' cause. Seeing the nuanced and rich layers of how we behave can also make us much more tolerant and forgiving toward ourselves and others as well.
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