Buddhism and terminal illness

Mittakali

Going forth through conviction
from home into homelessness,
I wandered this place & that,
greedy for gain & offerings.
Missing out on the foremost goal,
I pursued a lowly one.
Under the sway of defilements
I surrendered the goal
of the contemplative life.

Then, sitting in my dwelling,
I suddenly came to my senses:
I'm following a miserable path.
I'm under the sway of
craving.
Next to nothing, my life —
crushed
by aging & illness.
Before the body breaks apart,
I have no time
for heedlessness.

After watching, as it actually was,
the rising & falling of aggregates,
I stood up with mind released,
the Awakened One's bidding
done.

My first teacher, who could "see" people's karmic roots of their present conditions (including diseases), often explained cancer-type diseases. While he never gave one summary "rule" to map diseases to karmic roots - and was actually offended when I proposed that to him - I can try and summarize some of the main points here, and hope that they can be of more help than harm due to overgeneralization.

In case of this answer, unlike with some other answers I give, I don't claim to see these things directly by myself - so this is only my attempt to explain main points of what I received as conceptual teaching:

• In general, physical diseases - just like most other types of troubles according to Buddhism - come from attachments. More often than not these attachments are subtle ones, like attachments to certain principle or a view system - not obvious/superficial attachments to a person or thing.
• Many times (but not always) I heard cancer-types diseases explained through attachment to spirituality. In this context "spirituality" should be understood in general as orientation towards the high ideals of outworldliness and away from the lowly values of this world. My teacher emphasized that spirituality, intellect, principles, etc. should not be placed above the genuine nondual love (as a first approximation of bodhicitta).
• As I understand, the person in this condition (again, I don't want to overgeneralize, but this seemed to be the gist of many of those cases) may actually be very selfless and noble - while at the same time projecting very strong contrast between him/her and the world or the corrupt society, which colored their attitude to life as a whole - not necessarily in a negative way but certainly in a way that made them somewhat isolated mentally or emotionally.
• This coloration of experience / the feeling of isolation then supposedly creates certain hormonal dis-balance that could lead to certain diseases, cancer-type ones being one of them.

In theory, if above is indeed the case, the healing is always possible through a deep change of one's perspective on life. However, because karma is very inertial it may work better on early stages - and on the later stages the person may simply not have enough time left to transform themselves.

I apologize if this offends anyone by putting the responsibility for the disease on the bearer of it, and I don't want this to seem like the only possible explanation - there are many types of and many objective causes of cancer. But this is what I was told, as much as I can remember it in a very simplified form, so I'm sharing it in the hope that it will help someone to prevent cancer, if not to heal it.

It is true that a terminal illness can be seen in a "positive" way, like purifying past karma.

From a Buddhist prospective, there are specific ways (like rituals, prayers) for helping with a terminal disease.

Also from a Buddhist perspective, one prays that if the disease can be cured, then let one's body be the vehicle to help many many other living beings.

Also from a Buddhist's perspective, one prays that if the disease cannot be cured, then let one die quickly and easily (to pureland).

First, from Tsongkhapa's viewpoint, there are three types of karmic results. One of them is the result similar to the cause. It is often thought that cancer or other deadly ones result from having taken life/lives in past life. A reason for thinking this way is that it may help the meditator to lessen anger (that would come from feeling that it's unfair or underserved). Thinking "cancer comes from such a negative action" is meant to generate regret (not incredible guilt or remorse that will have you paralyzed), and apply antidotes so as to stop engaging in negativities. One has to be careful with this way of thinking. For instance, telling a third person "it's just karma" or "it's because you killed in the past" might not be the best thing to do. It is first and foremost something to take for oneself, to improve one's own practice. To be taken and given carefully. These considerations are not so much to be taken as descriptive than instructive, so as to meditate, dwell on them, and generate within one's own continuum, antidotes to anger and so forth. Dwelling on the notion that "one created the causes of whatever awful turn of event occur" would otherwise be sterile or even possibly dangerous.

Also, a ripening of a karmic imprint is always "karma getting exhausted" but is not necessarily a sign of purification.

As to prayers, in Tibetan monasteries, we perform pujas ("ceremonies, rituals, prayers") on a regular basis, dedicating to specific people who requested (some giving donation, some not). The most common in this setting are Medicine Buddha Puja and Cittamani Tara Puja. This said, the practice we consider the best in these cases is animal liberation (i.e. saving life, as directly opposed to the cause that was taking lives).

An adverse diagnosis can certainly be seen as the ripening of past karma. But it's not a cause to beat yourself up: we have all done countless good and bad acts during innumerable past lives, according to Buddhist doctrine. I've certainly read texts which encourage people to put a positive spin on difficult experiences by viewing them as a chance to work through some negative karma.

It can also give rise to compassion, realising that one's own suffering is mirrored in that of countless other beings. Indeed the Lojong or Mind Training teachings include specific techniques for turning one's own suffering round, for instance by thinking "May this bit of suffering I'm experiencing stand for the suffering of all other beings... May I take on their suffering."

In my own experience a diagnosis is encouraging me to focus on Buddhist practice and to appreciate the present moment, rather than frittering my life away.

The specific Tibetan Buddhist practice most associated with relief of illness is Medicine Buddha (Menla) puja. It involves a mantra, ideally accompanied by visualisations, and is most likely to be effective if you get the transmission and empowerment for the practice from an authentic lama.

Sarve mangalem!

According to the Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta, certain types of karma leads to short lifespans and sickliness.

The Blessed One said: "There is the case, student, where a woman or man is a killer of living beings, brutal, bloody-handed, given to killing & slaying, showing no mercy to living beings. Through having adopted & carried out such actions, on the break-up of the body, after death, he/she reappears in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, hell. If, on the break-up of the body, after death — instead of reappearing in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, hell — he/she comes to the human state, then he/she is short-lived wherever reborn.

"There is the case where a woman or man is one who harms beings with his/her fists, with clods, with sticks, or with knives. Through having adopted & carried out such actions, on the break-up of the body, after death, he/she reappears in the plane of deprivation... If instead he/she comes to the human state, then he/she is sickly wherever reborn.

On the other hand, according to the Acintita Sutta, the precise working of karma cannot be clearly understood.

"There are these four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them. Which four?

"The [precise working out of the] results of kamma...

Also, according to the Sivaka Sutta, not everything that happens to a person is caused by their previous karma. Rather, it is also caused by other factors such as environmental factors.

"There are, revered Gotama, some ascetics and brahmans who have this doctrine and view: 'Whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action.' Now, what does the revered Gotama say about this?"

"Produced by (disorders of the) bile, there arise, Sivaka, certain kinds of feelings. That this happens, can be known by oneself; also in the world it is accepted as true. Produced by (disorders of the) phlegm... of wind... of (the three) combined... by change of climate... by adverse behavior... by injuries... by the results of Kamma — (through all that), Sivaka, there arise certain kinds of feelings. That this happens can be known by oneself; also in the world it is accepted as true.

"Now when these ascetics and brahmans have such a doctrine and view that 'whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action,' then they go beyond what they know by themselves and what is accepted as true by the world. Therefore, I say that this is wrong on the part of these ascetics and brahmans."

In the Kucchivikara-vatthu of the Vinaya, the Buddha describes how a good patient and a good nurse or caretaker is like:

"A sick person endowed with five qualities is easy to tend to: he does what is amenable to his cure; he knows the proper amount in things amenable to his cure; he takes his medicine; he tells his symptoms, as they actually are present, to the nurse desiring his welfare, saying that they are worse when they are worse, improving when they are improving, or remaining the same when they are remaining the same; and he is the type who can endure bodily feelings that are painful, fierce, sharp, wracking, repellent, disagreeable, life-threatening. A sick person endowed with these five qualities is easy to tend to.

"A nurse endowed with five qualities is fit to tend to the sick: He is competent at mixing medicine; he knows what is amenable or unamenable to the patient's cure, taking away things that are unamenable and bringing things that are amenable; he is motivated by thoughts of good will, not by material gain; he does not get disgusted at cleaning up excrement, urine, saliva, or vomit; and he is competent at instructing, urging, rousing, & encouraging the sick person at the proper occasions with a talk on Dhamma. A nurse endowed with these five qualities is fit to tend to the sick."

According to the Girimananda Sutta, the Buddha teaches the ill monk Girimananda ten contemplations, through Ananda, which healed him of his disease. I take it here, that the Buddha wants to get the monk to contemplate on these things that helps him to overcome cravings.

(Thereupon the Buddha said): "Should you, Ananda, visit the monk Girimananda and recite to him the ten contemplations, then that monk Girimananda having heard them, will be immediately cured of his disease.

"What are the ten?

Contemplation of impermanence. Contemplation of anatta (absence of a permanent self or soul). Contemplation of foulness (asubha). Contemplation of disadvantage (danger). Contemplation of abandonment. Contemplation of detachment. Contemplation of cessation. Contemplation of distaste for the whole world. Contemplation of impermanence of all component things. Mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing.

(for details, please read full Sutta)

Thereupon the Venerable Ananda, having learned these ten contemplations from the Blessed One, visited the Venerable Girimananda, and recited to him the ten contemplations. When the Venerable Girimananda had heard them, his affliction was immediately cured. He recovered from that affliction, and thus disappeared the affliction of the Venerable Girimananda.