Contemplating Illness

For the majority of my life I have in one way or another engaged in caring for people suffering from various diseases and illnesses. First, as many of you know by now, taking care of boys dying from AIDS. In fact, most of the years were involved in caring for HIV/AIDS patients. Then a few years ago I formally trained for and received my Board-Certified Chaplain, BCC, credentials. As I have been reading through the Paul L. Swanson's translation of T'ien-T'ai Chih-I's Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan: Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight I have been mulling over, sitting with, ruminating, meditating on the section "Contemplating the Objects of Disease." Every living being endures in some form or another disease and suffering. Since so much of my life's work has been in this realm, I feel strongly compelled to offer my insights from studying this section. Perhaps it will be of benefit to many people or, as often is the case in my writing, I will mainly benefit.