Third Day of the World Course, 35th of Autumn, 526 M.E. (Castor): It's a moody, overcast day here in Georgia today, cool, but a clammy kind of cool with heavily overcast skies. We got 0.65 inches of rain yesterday, and it felt like it all fell within one hour in the early afternoon, and while it's not raining now, it looked and felt like rain all day.

Meanwhile, somewhere over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, a trough of low pressure is expected to develop into a tropical depression by the middle of this week. The system is drifting eastward and is expected to eventually turn north toward the Gulf Coast.

The three marks of existence in classic Buddhism are impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). Impermanence is swift, as I've been saying, and it's also pervasive. My sister in Massachusetts, who had surgery for oral cancer around this time last year and then spent months in chemo-, immuno-, and radiation therapy, had an appointment with her oncologist today. The cancer's back, despite the surgery and all the torturous treatment, and is manifesting itself through a swollen face and tongue and debilitating headaches. A PET scan last month revealed "hot spots," but the doctors still can't pinpoint the exact sites, or determine whether or not they're malignant. Bottom line: they can't determine a treatment without a better understanding of exactly where and what it all is. 

Meanwhile, she can't swallow and therefore can't eat, and is still on a feeding tube directly to her stomach that was inserted following her surgery last November. She's taking Oxycontin to help manage the pain and suffering. A brutal lesson in dukkha.

My ischemic heart has me reflecting on my own impermanence but I'm not getting clobbered by suffering the way that she is. I can't even describe my angina as "pain" - it's more of a sensation that frankly doesn't even rise to the level of discomfort. 

However bad I may have things, she's suffering a thousand times more, putting my complaints into perspective. And that's a powerful lesson.