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To seize is not to seize- what is the difference?
Thu, 03/31/2011 - 04:59
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
J Krishnamurti
I find this quote interesting and the more I think about it, the more I am unsure how to define health.
If this society has become profoundly sick in a certain sense, if the above statement does have any validity whatsoever, then what does it say about me...I feel I have been grasping to find answers since my first "seizure", grasping to find a new purpose, all the while eating pills in an attempt to get back to "well adjusted"...
No wonder I feel confused about how to feel "genuinely me" all the time.
much love
marty
I am extremely interested in how others may feel about any of this.
What does "well adjusted" mean to you? What about purpose? Are you more purposeful now or less?
Has your definition of health changed?
pgd has posted a few times now about somehow finding common language and definitions on words like awareness, consciousness, perception... this would make a very interesting separate thread.
Comments
Why do we distinguish sickly from healthy?
Submitted by thebettles on Sun, 2011-04-03 - 03:34
Hey Allina,
Interesting.
Your comment raises the question that if we can easily distinguish between a sick individual and a healthy individual, then how do we distinguish a sick society from a healthy society?
Most importantly, in my opinion, is why we distinguish sick from healthy.
What is the purpose of distinguishing sick from healthy?
Why do I feel the need to distinguish sick from healthy? In fact, in order to even have an idea of "sickness" in the first place I need some contrasting idea of "health" that gives each a boundary defining each other. In this sense, sickness and health are the same pulse, one is on, one is off. You cannot "know" on without off. I cannot turn left without having turned right. I cannot breath in without breathing out.
But something happens when we start to distinguish things from each other. Distinguishing this thing from that thing, I have forgotten that all things are inherently the same "thing".
Sickness is health just as birth is death just as seizing is not seizing.
In order to "know" something, we must also "know" what something is not so that we know the difference.
This all begs the question- what types of events might occur when huge populations of people start to focus on one side of the equation? For example, what types of events might occur when tens of millions of people focus on being sick and therefore not healthy, forgetting that to be healthy is to be sickly.
What happens when we start to focus solely on inhaling and pay no attention to exhaling?
What happens when we forget that seizing is not seizing?
Hey Allina,
Interesting.
Your comment raises the question that if we can easily distinguish between a sick individual and a healthy individual, then how do we distinguish a sick society from a healthy society?
Most importantly, in my opinion, is why we distinguish sick from healthy.
What is the purpose of distinguishing sick from healthy?
Why do I feel the need to distinguish sick from healthy? In fact, in order to even have an idea of "sickness" in the first place I need some contrasting idea of "health" that gives each a boundary defining each other. In this sense, sickness and health are the same pulse, one is on, one is off. You cannot "know" on without off. I cannot turn left without having turned right. I cannot breath in without breathing out.
But something happens when we start to distinguish things from each other. Distinguishing this thing from that thing, I have forgotten that all things are inherently the same "thing".
Sickness is health just as birth is death just as seizing is not seizing.
In order to "know" something, we must also "know" what something is not so that we know the difference.
This all begs the question- what types of events might occur when huge populations of people start to focus on one side of the equation? For example, what types of events might occur when tens of millions of people focus on being sick and therefore not healthy, forgetting that to be healthy is to be sickly.
What happens when we start to focus solely on inhaling and pay no attention to exhaling?
What happens when we forget that seizing is not seizing?
Re: Why do we distinguish sickly from healthy?
Submitted by Allina on Sat, 2011-04-09 - 12:48
I really think you are thinking wayyyy too much. I would define healthy as the body being free from pathogens, disease, and is in good physical form. Sick, to me, does not include disorders such as epilepsy because you can live a healthy life with E. Sick to me would be someone with a cold, or a disease, or cancer, even obesity. You can be mentally healthy and be physically sick, and you can be physically healthy but mentally ill.
The reason I changed that quote is because I feel that with E, I have a hard time adjusting and adapting to everyone else's life that is free of disorder, seizures, sickness, and can live a normal life at whatever pace they choose. I have the hardest time adapting when out with friends who can eat whatever they please and stay up however long they want, or at work, because individuals call in "sick" when they are just "tired" and I am still there having seizures on the hour and somnolent.
There is an individual where I work who has Lupus and is there every day. I never knew she was sick until she told me, because she wears it well, and wears life like it is something we should be thankful for instead of something we should have constant fear over. It's like the people who get diagnosed with cancer and take it in strides, they are the ones that survive, they are the ones that beat it. I don't call individuals like this sick,
I call them remarkable.
AJ
I really think you are thinking wayyyy too much. I would define healthy as the body being free from pathogens, disease, and is in good physical form. Sick, to me, does not include disorders such as epilepsy because you can live a healthy life with E. Sick to me would be someone with a cold, or a disease, or cancer, even obesity. You can be mentally healthy and be physically sick, and you can be physically healthy but mentally ill.
The reason I changed that quote is because I feel that with E, I have a hard time adjusting and adapting to everyone else's life that is free of disorder, seizures, sickness, and can live a normal life at whatever pace they choose. I have the hardest time adapting when out with friends who can eat whatever they please and stay up however long they want, or at work, because individuals call in "sick" when they are just "tired" and I am still there having seizures on the hour and somnolent.
There is an individual where I work who has Lupus and is there every day. I never knew she was sick until she told me, because she wears it well, and wears life like it is something we should be thankful for instead of something we should have constant fear over. It's like the people who get diagnosed with cancer and take it in strides, they are the ones that survive, they are the ones that beat it. I don't call individuals like this sick,
I call them remarkable.
AJ
Re: An intriquing quote
Submitted by Allina on Sat, 2011-04-02 - 18:12
Maybe we could turn that quote around and say;
"It is a great measure of health for a sick individual to be profoundly adjusted to a healthy society."
That's how I feel my life goes. That's my measure of health.
AJ
Maybe we could turn that quote around and say;
"It is a great measure of health for a sick individual to be profoundly adjusted to a healthy society."
That's how I feel my life goes. That's my measure of health.
AJ