Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun

impermanent. Yet I hold on to the illusion of permanence, and when a change takes place, I suffer. I suffer because I take for granted what is, and I want to control what is not.

When feelings of irritation or sadness arose, I didn’t dwell on them so as to not waste my energy on them. I did my best to be mindful, calm, peaceful, and joyful.

Suffering has no beginning and no end. It has no single cause. It has been transmitted to us from our ancestors, from our parents, from our environment, and from the way in which we have lived these past many years. Peace, stability, and freedom also work in the same way. They have no beginning, no end, and no single cause. We can choose the path o

I have surges of anger, and I also have waves of sadness. I have learned to see it is not just my own sadness, but it is also my mother’s sadness and her mother’s before her, from

When sadness or restlessness arises, I can sit still or lie down and remain still in order to be present for it. I recognize the old tendency to grab a book or to look for someone to talk to, in order to fill up that void or to distract the buzzing of my mind. But I practice to be still because I no longer wish to run away from myself.

Our sensory perceptions are like a trail. When we pass by once, a faint line is laid down. It can be overgrown if we don’t ever use it again. However, if we travel it very often, it will become a trail, a road, a street, and then a freeway. When we experience an emotion again and again, it becomes habitual and habituated. When the neural pathway is

had slowly begun to embrace my sadness without siding with it or thinking that it is permanent.

Yet I feel more peaceful and fulfilled than ever before. It is because I have learned the practice of stopping, of non-wishing and non-seeking.

“If you have pain or discomfort in your body, notice it, embrace it. Breathe in, and know this pain is not ‘you.’ We can be there for the pain without becoming the pain.