Trap to Break Your Heart
Trap: A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.
Unwary person: Me and you...
A few weeks ago I sat in my car in my driveway to finish hearing Dr. Sandeep Jauhar speak on a radio program about people who die of a broken heart. I thought that was the stuff of 1950s movies but nope, it happens and it is real.
We don’t hear about it too often because it isn’t something doctors can objectively measure or cure with a pill, surgery or other medical intervention. This is the stuff of the mind, a mind that perceives and reacts to our life as it unfolds. The medical term for broken heart syndrome is takotsubo cardiomyopathy - named after the trap used by Japanese fishers to catch octopus. The shape of the trap resembles that part of the heart that “breaks.”
The effect on the heart is rarely fatal and symptoms usually go away in a short period of time. According to the American Heart Association*, it can be caused by “…an emotionally stressful event. It could be the death of a loved one or even a divorce, breakup or physical separation, betrayal or romantic rejection. It could even happen after a good shock, like winning the lottery.”
But what about all the years of little stresses? What happens then? Things we experience and then forget almost immediately, like our impatient reaction when the car in front of us doesn’t move after the light turns green? These are the little traps we fall into. We may not like them, but what if we begin to think little irritations are normal? When they escalate we may not notice them as such and get into the habit of thinking these too are normal. What is the toll they take on us? The toll is both emotional and physical. The toll is giving away the present time when we could be living this life instead of being attached to our ego attachments.
Most of us just don’t seem to have the tools to not let the stressors of life entrap us in the first place. In other words, prevention. Is it even possible? The more common way is for us to process experiences that don’t fit with how we want the world to be as stressful. Then we try to find ways to reduce or eliminate that stress. Some ways include meditation, hiking, or quietly enjoying nature.
But what about seeing the world as it is, awakening to its reality? This doesn’t mean accepting the status quo or being passive. What it does mean is dropping the ego attachments that land us in the traps so we may have the wisdom and compassion to see how we can make a difference, and then do it.
We each have our own reasons for coming to Buddhism as a way of living this life, a philosophy we understand and a belief we come to accept only after our own evaluation of it. One aspect of Buddhism is the perspective it gives us on life. It is these perspectives, as we make them our own that offer the key to prevention. It is a key to not experiencing events as stressful in the first place.
Bishop Marvin Harada wrote a piece on the Buddhist View on Happiness that is included in The Nightstand Buddhist below. Happiness or the trap of broken hearts? It isn’t always easy to choose. Most times we figure it is easier to stay the way we are and demand the “other” to change But if we can practice not letting that car that doesn’t move at once when the light turns green to upset us, then we know we can avoid all the other traps too.
Namo Amida Butsu.
In Gassho,
Rev. Anita
rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com
*
https://www.heart.org/en/healt...
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