02/08/2025
This modern obsession that we have with health is highly egotistical because its based on the notion of knowledge. I know what other people need, I know what food you should eat in order to be healthy but each culture has different readings of this. We don't know. From the buddhist point of view whether they are healthy or not depends on their karma. That is to say that the buddha said if you want to know about your previous lives look at your body, if you want to know about your future body in future lives look at your present action. This doesn't mean that if you have orange juice for breakfast it will make you healthy. The theories about what makes us healthy or not healthy are floating on an ocean of ignorance. We don't remember our past lives, we don't know what we did, Out of this ocean of ignorance suddenly a big shark arrives and jumps up and bites you. You have a pain in your side you go to the doctor, they send you to the hospital, bad news. How could this happen. All these vegetables I have eaten, even my best friend is called broccoli, but you have cancer. Where did it come from. Past life. This is very different. This is not to say that you shouldn't do yoga and exercise and so on but the ego seeks certain things, it seeks omniscience and omnipotence and if it can have this it feels safe. I know how it works and I can make things happen on my terms . This is not the buddhist understanding The buddhist understanding is the ego is a confusing force full of deluded ideas
- James Low
