The D/D method is a supreme technique to use whenever you're feeling sick. Defusing, diffusing, the Compassion/Lovingkindness. There's someone else in the world sicker than you are, that's just a fact. Now unless you're on your very last breath, there's always somebody worse off, and in fact, even if you're on your last breath there's somebody who's worse off. So to use that, to use the Compassion/Lovingkindness meditation. To reflect on How Fortunate You Are even when you're sick. We just got an email from one of our assistants who's still on the island. He got sick, he got a stomach wog, and he wanted to write us on his birthday which was about four days ago, but he was too sick to get to a computer. He talked about how the techniques were so valuable, the sickness wasn't so bad, and two of the other assistants who were still on the island came and took care of him, they were a godsend, and this and that. The email didn't focus that much on his pain, it focused on how he felt he was so fortunate, how well the teachings worked, and to have good friends close by, all these things. How many other people do you know who just complain, complain, complain, even when they're sick? Can we think about how fortunate we are even when we're sick?
Now, part of this question though, is, "How can I react properly when I suffer from it in the moment?" Now, if a person has never ever done the "How Fortunate You Are" reflection, and they're the type of person who's always kind of wallowing in self pity, and they're sick and wallowing in self pity and are all upset, and I come along and I say, "Hey wait a minute, aren't you fortunate, haven't you got this and that?", they're not going to believe me, they're not going to hear me because they're wallowing in self-pity, they've never trained this stuff. So, the other day we talked about a person dying, trying to encourage them to think about their good past Kamma and all, but if they've never trained in it, how are they going to really believe you? What you want to encourage them to do, it's going to be really hard. In this sense, your ability when you're sick in the moment to bring up the D/D method, to bring up How Fortunate You Are, your ability to do that depends on how well you've practiced it. If you haven't practiced it, and you've all heard me say it before, if you haven't practiced this, and you think that it's only a method to get you out of problems when they come, then you will be laying in bed all sick and all angry, thinking, "Oh, what did Steve and Rosemary teach me, what did they teach me to do for this one?" You can go on and on, but if you've practiced it yourself you don't have to ask, you're just going to know automatically, "Oh yeah, I'm sick, oh well, that's not so bad, I've had worse," etc. So you've got to practice these techniques. And those two in particular, the D/D method and "How fortunate you are" are very valuable.