At the monastery, I met couple new friends seeking a quiet and peaceful time to energize themselves before the new year.
"Why did you turn to Dhamma and meditation?" was a question being asked during an evening teatime,
JJ, the 60-year-old Chinese who joined me and Sirinat during our teatime openly talked about her story. Ten years ago, at the age of 50, menopause and maybe other things in life did have a lot of effects on JJ. She was trapped into depression and could not come out of it. It was at the point when she could not work nor function in life at all. Eventually, she needed to be on anti-depression medicines. When trying to stop the medicines, she got relapsed twice.
One day, she decided to sign up for a program offered at Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. She said the instructor talked Dhamma, sufferings and such and she knew that was it. What the instructor talked was what exactly happened to her. After the first program she attended, she started to participate more and more of this type of programs and retreats. Until today, she has been attending more than 1,000 hours of these programs. And the best of all, she no longer needs to use anti-depression medicine.
Her 22-year-old son also has been struggling in school since the age of 14. Her son is still taking anti-depression medicines but has not yet sought advice from Dhamma and meditation. He is studying at a college right now and planning to stay in the college for another 2 more years.
JJ did not talk about her husband much. She only said she and her husband did not have the same interest, so, they did not do things together much.
It was not clear if JJ is still working or retired already. She said she volunteered at a hospital to teach Yoga and Meditation for people struggling in life. She said she experienced it before, so, she understood these people and she would like to help them.
JJ seemed to read a lot. She seemed to understand Dhamma very well. She also traveled to Japan, sought a temple to stay and practice meditation there. She mentioned she would like to go to a place where she could shave and become a nun once in her lifetime.
Life is just like this indeed.
I came to the temple with lots of sadnesses. I did not share everything with JJ. Through her story, JJ did not know that she did help me as well. While she was struggling herself, her son was also struggling. Even now, I am certain she might still feel down from time to time, but I am glad she did find the refuge sheltering her from distress and sufferings.
Life is just like this. What about my life then?
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