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Because People Are Sick, I Am Sick: The Medicine of Interbeing and the Five Mindfulness Trainings
Vimalakīrti became ill—“Because people are sick, that is why I am sick.” In a society pervaded by violence, hatred and despair, our own health falters unless we learn to protect and heal ourselves first. The Buddha’s path offers that protection through the Five Mindfulness Trainings, creating an island of resistance that can extend its healing into the world. With our individual talents, any of us can become healers of society:
- physician
- journalist
- filmmaker
- member of parliament
- school teacher
Bodhicitta—the mind of enlightenment and love—arises when we awaken to collective suffering and resolve to help. This powerful energy gives life meaning, immunizes us against despair, and calls us into Sangha, where our shared mindfulness acts as a boat through the river of suffering. Grounded in the insight of interbeing—that body and mind, self and other, are one—mindfulness becomes “the medicine of interbeing,” a sentinel at the six sense doors. True bodhisattvas manifest this love-in-action with a thousand hands (instruments) and eyes (understanding), joining the Buddha’s two-thousand-six-hundred-year career of healing and transformation.