Yeas ago, I stuck a bright red sticker with the words ‘Namo Amituofo’ (Homage to Amitabha Buddha) on a dangerous sharp corner of a cabinet – to alert people from banging their heads on it. Yes, mindfulness of Buddha can save your life. It can even lead you to transcend the cycles of life and death! (Someone later stuck a piece of foam there.)
From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedailyenlightenment-realisation/message/225 four years ago, is the story of how I banged my head on that corner:
If you want to be free of pain,
be free of wanting the pain to free you.– Stonepeace
In the pantry without lights on, I banged my skull on a sharp corner of a wall-hung cabinet. With an excruciating pain searing deep into my head, I clasped it with a hand, rubbing it vigorously… in the hope that it would dissipate faster, and not leave a bump on my head. Suddenly, my hand felt warm and sticky – there was fresh red blood on it – plenty of it. I rushed to the restroom and stole a look at the mirror. Other than during blood donations, I had never seen so much blood from myself before… it was in streaks smeared across my forehead. But the very instant I recovered from shock at the sight, the wound wasn’t that painful anymore… all that was left, was, to pardon my equally figurative and literal language, one “bloody mess”.
Out of unmindfulness, we injure ourselves, be it physically or mentally. And again out of unmindfulness, we aggravate the pain by mentally exaggerating the situation. Yet again, out of unmindfulness, we sustain the “gravity” of the problem. No matter how sharp is the pain you feel, even if it persists for some time, it will surely naturally fade away – because nothing physical or mental is permanent. No pain lasts forever. How comforting this truth is! The next time your heart hurts so bad that you feel suicidal, just know that when you “hit rock bottom”, the only way is up! You just need to mindfully live out the “sinking part”. With open-hearted acceptance of your pain without attachment to it, you actually heal faster! But if your physical heart ever hurts, eg. while having a heart attack, please quickly do something to help yourself! But likewise, do so as calmly and mindfully as you can, because panic can prove deadly!
Back to the head-banging example, most of our pains are not much ado about “nothing”, but are indeed about “something”, though it eventually becomes “nothing”, whether it is fussed over or not. Don’t be mistaken that this advocates numbness or inaction; am instead encouraging active mindfulness or even some analysis. No need to embrace your pain tightly – just watch it openly. There are few experiences as liberating as consciously seeing the rise and fall of your feelings. You become genuinely convinced that, just as the Buddha taught, no physical or mental phenomenon stays static. It’s all too easy to agree with this in theory, but when you experience the flux of the elements first-hand, you realise the sheer insanity of clinging to pain, and become almost immediately free of its grip on you. During the mirror moment of shock, I was stunned and distracted from mentally sustaining my pain. Not doing so, it suddenly dropped to an all-time low. It was almost magic! But since I can’t create such zen-like “shocks” at will, it pays to further cultivate mindfulness, which is truly the miracle medicine for all suffering!