Robyn Lebron How we respond to life’s inevitable sufferings is the key Negative, painful experiences are often necessary to motivate us One Buddhist scripture describes illness as awakening the desire to seek the truth Likewise, people have been inspired to a lifetime commitment to peace and justice by their experience of war and injustice The process of changing poison in to medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion The more we are able to this, the more we are able to grow in vitality and wisdom and realize a truly expansive state of life From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential 34 By taking a difficult situation—illness, unemployment, bereavement, betrayal—and using it as an opportunity to deepen our sense of personal responsibility, we can gain and develop the kind of self-knowledge from which benefit flows Buddhism teaches that self-knowledge ultimately is awareness of our own infinite potential, our capacity for inner strength, wisdom and compassion This infinite potential is referred to as our “Buddha nature.” The original meaning of the phrase “to turn poison into medicine” relates to this level of self-knowledge This teaching of the possibility of profound transformation makes Buddhism a deeply optimistic philosophy This optimism propels Buddhists as they seek to transform the negative and destructive tendencies within their lives as well as those in society and the world at large [ , Jan 2002]35 ǣ At the writing of this book, there was a multitude of websites both pro and for this religion But one has to examine the question, “Why are they growing at such an amazing pace, and why are their followers so devoted?” ... , Jan 200 2]35 ǣ At the writing of this book, there was a multitude of websites both pro and for this religion But one has to examine the question,... this religion But one has to examine the question, “Why are they growing at such an amazing pace, and why are their followers so devoted?”