The relationship between ignorance and disease

Huaigu Wang
Huaigu Wang
Since 1995 till now, I have been following the kind mentor of BPI to start the journey on Buddhism....Read More

Essay Writing of Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated

(Issue 18)

The relationship between ignorance and disease

Instructor: Bennie Spirit

Shi Wuguang

Author: Wang Huaigu

June 23, 2024

Abstract

The relationship between ignorance and disease is a close causal relationship. Ignorance can cause both mental and physical illnesses. Ignorance affects an individual’s mental health, including mental illnesses such as greed, anger, and arrogance. Ignorance can also cause diabetes, uremia, lower limb paralysis, edema, obesity, heart disease, certain liver and kidney diseases, and can easily cause lumbar vertebrae and hip pain; high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke, osteoporosis, kidney stones, stomach cancer, obesity, susceptibility to colds, and so on. Ignorance inevitably leads to a variety of physical and mental illnesses.

Keywords: ignorance, mental illness, physical illness.

Chapter 1 Introduction

As a pre-study topic, this chapter first clarifies the motivation and purpose of this study, then explores the current status of the study from the literature review, and then gives a statement on the structure of the whole paper. Since I was a child, I have heard of “lovesickness”, “mental illness”, but I do not know what it is, not to mention the reason why, only think that these are individual phenomena.

When I grew up and studied Buddhism, I realized that illnesses are related to anger and other afflictions. In order to dispel the confusion in the heart, the author according to my own learning of sutras and medical, scientific knowledge, investigate the root cause of this disease preliminarily, in order to better understand the relationship between ignorance and disease.

This article first defines ignorance and disease, and then utilizes the results of Buddhist and medical research to explore the two major aspects of ignorance that lead to mental and physical disease. Ignorance leads to mental illnesses, including greed, anger, arrogance, and other aspects of mental illness.

Ignorance can cause diabetes, uremia, lower limb paralysis, edema, obesity, heart disease, certain liver and kidney diseases, and can easily cause lumbar vertebrae and hip pain; high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke, osteoporosis, kidney stones, stomach cancer, stomach cancer, obesity, susceptibility to colds, and many other physical diseases. Finally, an important conclusion is drawn: ignorance will lead to various physical and psychological diseases, and there is a definite causal relationship between ignorance and disease.

The text is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The concept of ignorance and disease; Chapter 3 The relationship between ignorance and mental illness; Chapter 4 The relationship between ignorance and physical disease; Chapter 5 Conclusion.

Chapter 2 The Concept of Ignorance and Disease

Let’s first understand what ignorance is. Ignorance, in Buddhism, is also known as foolishness, evil view, having no brightness, perversion, also known as the fusion of delusion, these terms describe the ignorance from various levels. t can also be interpreted as what modern people would call a delusional thinking, not knowing anything but thinking that one knows everything.

This is how it is defined in the Buddha’s Aham Right Practical Sutra Preached By the Buddha:

What is ignorance? This life one becomes as a human being from ignorance, but also the obtuse mind does not understand, eyes do not open, one does not know where the destination of death is; if one sees the Buddha, he does not ask, if one sees the scriptures ,he does not read, if one sees the Sramana he does not serve, and he does not understand morality, even if one sees the parents ,he does not respect, One does not think of the sufferings of the world, does not know the huge sufferings of the hells. This is the name of ignorance, and therefore there is birth and death.

From the above quote, it is clear that these manifestations are foolishness and ignorance. It is because of these foolish and evil views that sentient beings have various phenomena of the cycle of birth and death, as well as all the pains, misfortunes, and misfortunes in the process of the cycle of birth and death!

The Kusha Theory says, “Ignorance, the so-called stupidity, is to have no light of wisdom. According to Volume 4 of the Abhidharma Kusha Sutra, “In this case, ignorance, so-called stupidity, is lack of light, wisdom and manifestation. According to Buddhism, because of ignorance and lack of knowledge, people are divided into “human being and self”, and they cling to the afflictions of their own lives, and react with greed, anger, arrogance, suspicion, and jealousy. It can be said that ignorance is the root cause of all these afflictions.

What is disease? The story “The King of Medicine of Man” says, “When the Buddha was practicing the Bodhisattva’s Way long ago, he was very eager to save the world. He saw that the people in the world of Yanfuti were suffering from serious heart diseases, like a pandemic. All over the world, the number of mental illnesses is ten thousand times greater than the number of physical illnesses.” The Volume 4 of the rough explanation of Brahma Sutra Bodhisattva Precepts says: “The four great elements are the body. There are four hundred and forty diseases.”

As you can see, illnesses can be divided into physical illnesses and mental illnesses. There are 440 kinds of physical illnesses, and mental illnesses are the vexation illnesses, which are divided into five major illnesses, namely, greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt, and in detail, there are infinite dust and sand vexation illnesses.

Disease, like health, can be defined differently from different perspectives. What is the definition of disease? Disease is an abnormal process of life activity that occurs when the organism’s self-regulation is disturbed due to the damaging effects of certain causes. The most commonly used definition is “deviation from the normal form and function of the body”.

Chapter 3 The Relationship Between Ignorance and Mental Illnesses

I would like to discuss the relationship between ignorance and disease from two main perspectives: ignorance causes both mental and physical disease. First of all, let’s recognize that ignorance triggers all kinds of mental illnesses.

Ignorance causes mental illnesses such as greed, anger, arrogance, and doubt.

For example, if a certain person wants to eat a watermelon, and the watermelon is lined up in front of his eyes, and he wants to eat it very much, and he doesn’t know why he wants to eat it, then in reality, it is the mind of greed that stupidity or ignorance triggers.

However, he loves to save face, and he thinks that if he shows himself to be so gluttonous, people around him will definitely think that he is a glutton, and won’t this be a great loss of face for him? So for the sake of his own face, a certain person is holding back, holding back, but in his heart, he really wants to eat, but he doesn’t dare to eat for the sake of his face, so in reality, a certain person is triggering anger in his heart because of his foolishness and ignorance.

It is because of his ignorance that he can only look at the watermelon, but he cannot eat it. At this time, a B came to eat the watermelon not allowing one to speak, a certain A thought what ate his own watermelon by the virtue of, he has no qualifications to eat my watermelon, he is not a personage, and what onion he is? This is because the foolishness and ignorance causes arrogance in the mind.

From this we can see that ignorance can cause the mental illnesses of greed, anger and arrogance.

Chapter 4 The Relationship Between Ignorance and Physical Disease

Ignorance not only causes sickness in the mind, but also causes various physical illnesses. People may wonder, “Can the evil thoughts of ignorance really make our bodies sick? Can bad emotions affect our health?

The cause of ignorance will surely lead to all kinds of bodily diseases. Because of stupidity, one will certainly be greedy, will eat and drink, wildly eat and drink, eat and drink indiscriminately, and ultimately must be sick, and even finally paralyzed in bed, can not move, and only rot, pain, and wait for death. Because of stupidity, one will have greed, anger, arrogance, doubt, if one has greed, anger, arrogance, doubt, one will certainly lead to a variety of physical diseases, these have been widely described in the previous papers, and will not be repeated here.

Because of ignorance, one goes on craving for food, and craving leads to all kinds of bodily diseases. Because of greed, numerous diseases arise. In the Sutra on Buddhist Medicine Preached by the Buddha, the Buddha said, “There are five sins of eating too much: first, sleeping too much; second, being too sick; third, being too lascivious; fourth, not being able to recite the sutras; and fifth, being too attached to the world.” The Buddha is teaching us that the mere act of gluttony brings about many illnesses, that we have to suffer all kinds of illnesses, and that the Dharma is like that originally.

Because eating produces an instantaneous good feeling, even though the good feeling is immediately gone, one cannot let go of this instantaneous good feeling, and one must eat, and this creates all kinds of illnesses. There is a lot of Dr. Berg’s video as an argument.

For example, eating too many carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta, will form absolute damage and destruction the liver, kidneys and other internal organs, diabetes, uremia will naturally follow. All these are because of foolishness, will certainly be greedy for food, being greedy for food will certainly lead to a variety of physical diseases.

One of the most important causes of diabetes is eating too many carbohydrates, eating a sugary diet that triggers insulin and causes high insulin. If you want to lower insulin, you must eat less carbohydrates.

But because a person is so accustomed to carbohydrates like rice, noodles, bread, he is bound to crave for these carbohydrates again, and then he is bound to develop diabetes. And all these are the evil consequences because of ignorance.

Therefore, it is impossible for sentient beings to live a healthy life by being ignorant and unwise; they will only bring upon themselves endless diseases.

Also, many people, because of their ignorance, do not want to exercise, and they just want to be comfortable and sedentary, which will also bring a lot of diseases and sufferings, and even increase the chances of death.

There is a report titled “Sitting is Killing You” on the U.S. website “Medical Billing and Coding”, which points out that people who sit for more than 6 hours a day have a 40% higher chance of dying 15 years later than those who sit for 3 hours a day. Other studies have also pointed out that even if sedentary people are physically active, the chance of developing diabetes is as high as 90%, and the death rate of heart disease will also increase by 18%, with the average overall mortality rate 24% higher than that of the general population.

Sedentary lifestyle is extremely harmful to the human body. In addition to the familiar lower limb paralysis, edema, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and certain liver and kidney diseases, it can also easily lead to lumbar spine and hip pain, which is more commonly known as “sciatica”, and another disease related to the lumbar injuries caused by sedentary lifestyle is known as “cauda equina syndrome”.

Let’s take a closer look at why a sedentary lifestyle is an underestimated risk factor for death.

Because of stupidity, one is reluctant to exercise, thinking that it is tiring, and lack of exercise increases one’s risk of stroke by 117%. Sedentary means that a person tends to sit for long periods of time, but the problem is that our bodies need a lot of exercise. Inactivity activates genes for disease and suppresses genes for health. But idiots don’t know this.

An interesting study compared people who exercised less than 2.5 hours per week (i.e., less than 24 minutes per day) with people who exercised more than 2.5 hours per week (i.e., more than 24 minutes per day). They found that people who exercised less than 2.5 hours per week had an increased risk of mortality and serious health problems, including: 1. breast cancer, 2. cardiovascular disease, 3. diabetes,4. insulin resistance, 5. gallstones, 6. colorectal cancer, 7. stroke, 8. decreased cognitive function, 9. decreased mood, 10. cholesterol problems, 11. sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, and 12. Increasing in inflammation.

It is clear that all of these amazing diseases are the result of a foolish and unwise reluctance to exercise. Life lies in movement. There is a world of difference between movement and inactivity. However, more and more people in our society nowadays, because of ignorance and stupidity, and because of the subversion of evil views, especially advocate mental labor and avoid physical labor.

Dr. Burger said it very well, “Our bodies, our genes, are designed to do a lot of physical labor. Whether it is sports, labor, activities, worshipping Buddha, rubbing Buddha statues, in short, since we are pretentious advanced animals, we should exercise, so that we can stay away from diseases to a greater extent! Don’t incur all kinds of diseases and sufferings because you are foolish and ignorant and do not want to exercise for the sake of comfort and ease.

On the other hand, if you are foolish and do not believe in science, you will like the flavor that salt brings to your food, and this will also lead to various diseases. If you add too much salt to your food, you will also have serious problems if you nourish your cravings. This is because a diet with too much salt is very harmful to the body, increasing the metabolic pressure on the kidneys, increasing blood pressure, affecting the stomach, etc., and bringing a lot of pain and disease to people.

According to the evidence, salt craving, eating more salt on the body has seven major harmful effects: 1. liver and kidney disease 2. high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke 3. osteoporosis and kidney stones 4. gastric cancer 5. obesity 6. easy to catch a cold 7. more wrinkles. University of London survey found that in 2010, the United Kingdom, about more than 7,000 patients with stomach cancer, of which about 1/4 (1,694 patients) and excessive salt intake correlation. Consuming too much salt over a long period of time may indeed increase the risk of stomach cancer.

These examples all tell us an ironclad fact: because of ignorance and stupidity, we will be gluttonous, and gluttony will lead to a variety of physical diseases.

In addition, because of stupidity and lack of wisdom, not understanding the principle of autophagy in the body, it is also easy to cause a variety of diseases.

As long as a person does not eat for 18 consecutive hours, macrophages will come out to work. In other words, after 18 hours of fasting, the body will be in a deep state of autophagy.

First, damaged or destroyed proteins, which are toxic to our bodies, are recycled and used to make new amino acids to fuel and build new tissues. Damaged proteins are toxic to our bodies. For example, they are the cause of diabetes type 2, Alzheimer’s disease (dementia) and Parkinson’s disease (neurodegenerative). So obviously, it’s beneficial to get these toxic proteins out of your body so you don’t develop these diseases.

Secondly, autophagy also removes germs and viruses.

Most people do have some autophagy, especially after 18 hours of fasting, the body is at a high level of autophagy, and every part of the body has its own autophagy.

For example, one type of autophagy is specific to the mitochondria, which are the energy source of cells, or others are specific to the bones or lungs of the body. That is to say, because of ignorance and stupidity, one does not understand the extraordinary role of macrophages, and one eats greedily, more often, and at a very high density, and in this way, it is impossible to go without food for 18 hours or more, and one will not go on one-meal precept, and one will not go on longer fasts, and one will certainly lose the extraordinary benefits of fasting, and it will be easy to call upon the kinds of diseases mentioned above.

Also, obsessions and delusions are alarm signals for physical illnesses, and different emotions and obsessions correspond to different physical illnesses. For example, fear and anxiety lead to abdominal pain; criticism and guilt trigger arthritis; depression leads to asthma; people who are often angry are prone to bad breath and love to develop abscesses; fear triggers motion sickness and menstrual cramps.

The gastrointestinal tract is considered to be the most emotionally expressive organ, and they are able to anticipate the slightest fluctuations in the psyche. Gastrointestinal disorders are at the top of the list of all psychosomatic disorders, such as gastric and duodenal ulcers, which approximately 10% of the world’s population suffers from in their lifetime. Many people experience stomach pain or diarrhea at the first sign of a stressful and anxious situation.

Next is the skin. For many people, an itchy scalp when they are nervous, increased dandruff when they are irritable, wild hair loss after a bad night’s sleep, and erratic hives, eczema, and acne can all be consequences of chronic bad moods.

The third is the endocrine system. Women’s ovaries and mammary glands and men’s prostate glands are most vulnerable to the impact of bad moods.

A large number of clinical medical research has shown that the smallest colds, coronary heart disease and cancer, are inextricably linked to emotions. Full of psychological contradictions, repression, often feel insecure and unpleasant people, will have low immunity, often colds, a sore throat in a hurry; nervous people will have a headache, elevated blood pressure, easy to trigger cardiovascular disease; often tolerate people get cancer three times the odds of the average person. The emotions mentioned here are all kinds of ignorance.

In summary, ignorance will lead to a variety of terrible physical diseases.

Chapter 5 Conclusion

Ignorance leads to all kinds of terrible physical and mental illnesses. The cause of dementia is the effect of physical and mental diseases.

Bibliography

1 Ancient Texts (in chronological order)

1 [Wu] Translated by Zhu Luyan and Zhi Yue: The Sutra on Buddhist Medicine Preached by the Buddha, Chapter 1, Volume 17 of Da Zheng Treasure.
2 [Later Han] Translated by An Shigao: The Sutra on the Right Conduct of Aham Preached by the Buddha, Vol. 2, Da Zheng Treasure.
3 [Tang] Translated by Xuanzang: The Abhidhamma Kusha theory, Chapter 4, Volume 29, Da Zheng Treasure.

2 Others

1 Website name: Medicine Encyclopedia: URL:https://www.yixue.com/%e7%97%85%e7%90%86%e7%94%9f%e7%90%86%e5%ad%a6/%e7%96%be%e7%97%85%e7%9a%84%e6%a6%82%e5%bf%b5 , Retrieve Date: June 23, 2024
2 Website name: Medicine Encyclopedia: URL :https://www.yixue.com/%e7%97%85%e7%90%86%e7%94%9f%e7%90%86%e5%ad%a6/%e7%96%be%e7%97%85%e7%9a%84%e6%a6%82%e5%bf%b5 , Retrieve Date : June 23, 2024
3 Low carbon ketogenic light fasting science blogger: (sedentary butt soreness and pain of office workers, beware of “ponytail syndrome” entangled you ), website name: Zhihu, URL: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/35064121, Retrieve Date : June 23, 2024。

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