There are a couple of related issues regarding the subject of meditation and illness. The first is the idea that illness is a result of ‘negativity’, unreleased issues, and / or ‘bad karma'. The second idea is that illness is something, ‘wrong’ and that we have a ‘right’ to a pain free, wonderful life.
Much of the literature about meditation and illness talks about developing the 'relaxation response' in by going in to an alpha state. This is a wonderful discovery that will continue to benefit many people, but it is not all that meditation is about.
Meditation can be a way of coming to terms with ‘what is’, whatever that may be. Using meditation in an attempt to cure illness may or may not be successful. This is one possible application of practice which has a desired result in the world.It is using meditation as a tool to 'get' something, in this case, good health.
Meditation as a technique for getting results in the world is a valid way of using your practice, and is a major perspective taken on this site. It is not however the whole purpose of meditation, and in the context of illness, if we mistake the way for the Way, we will end up disappointed.
Meditation is not just a bolt on technique that overlays what ever we happen to be like and is then used to obtain a specific result. Meditation is a transformative journey during which we "work on our stuff". Through working on our 'stuff' we become more able to shape ourselves in certain ways that support our healing or our success in the world.
To limit our understanding of meditation to the relaxation response is to limit ourselves to having another pill to take. It either works or it doesn't.
To work with a more expansive concept of meditation offers us the opportunity to cultivate a more receptive and flexible mind so that more becomes possible for us. It is the 'giving fish' or 'teaching how to fish distinction'.
Returning from fish to the spiders...I would encourage sufficient awareness to notice what is going on during such a conditioned response and then make a choice about what to do with that response, for example to change it with an NLP technique.
Choosing from a position of awareness seems to me more valuable than a knee jerk reflex to get rid of something unpleasant. We do not change the response just because we are trying get rid of something. Having cultivated the strength to hold the energy, to be present with the feelings, we then choose to change them in order to better support the person we choose to be.
In this way, modern change systems such as NLP can work in conjunction with meditation, cultivating people who work on and with themselves, people who contribute to an abundant wholesome world whilst knowing that it is all a construction and play of awareness.
This is my take on the relationship between meditation and illness. Meditation can be a valuable approach to help manage illness. If we are cured, that is wonderful. If not we have a poweful way of managing our ongoing experience that happens to include, 'illness'.
There is nothing wrong with being ill. It hapens, along with old age and death. Illness is not a punishment and it may or may not be karmic in origin. Illness is a natural part of being alive.
The only issue is how to pick up being ill. If we allow it to become a limiting part of our identity we are denying our full potential even more than the illness is already doing...
If we nurture a meditation practice, we have a chance to manage illness in a saner manner and keep open the potential for a rich and fulfilling life.
