September 24, 2003

Life Lessons from Buddha

Heidi Hoff
OP Contributor

Matt’s* apartment is clean and tidy. His custom-made
recliner is frozen in its highest position and tilted for-
ward, waiting to ease him back down. When you look
at Matt’s unlined face, it’s hard to tell how much pain
and suffering he’s been through in his 37 years, though
you can see it in his stiff fingers and laboured walk.
Matt has juvenile arthritis. His condition caused him
to question his Christian faith and even contemplate
suicide. Now, thanks to a woman who showed him the
path to Buddhism, he’s almost grateful for

his disease.

“I needed a belief system,
because from age fifteen to
eighteen, I really hated what
was happening to my
body. All my friends
were playing soccer
and I couldn't. I was
upset, really angry,
and suicidal to a
point. Christianity
didn't give me any
guidance, either.”

While Matt’s

friends were learn-

ing how to drive,

and dating girls,

Matt was going
through his first knee
replacement operation.
Three years later, he
faced his first hip replace-
ment and moved back into
the GF Strong Rehab Centre,
where he knew all the doctors and
nurses by name.

How does one get from contemplating sui-
cide to understanding “why me?” When Matt was 22,
he met a Buddhist named Nancy Chan at the GF
Strong Rehab Centre. “I thank Nancy for showing me
a little bit of Buddhism,” he says. “I knew she chanted
on a regular basis and, being a curious guy, I was inter-
ested in what Buddhism was all about. She gave me a
book called The Essential Tao, A Guide to the I-Ching
and a set of beads.” Matt read and slowly began to
understand. “Buddhism became the cornerstone for
the rest of my life. No matter how bad things get, if I
work on it really hard in this lifetime, the next one
wont be so bad,” he says.

Matt’s parents searched for solutions when the doc-
tors had none. They tried all the latest medical discov-
eries hoping to help their son. Holistic diets, vitamin
supplements, and even a trip to a radon mine to

  
  
   

breathe the gas, only left them disappointed. Matt

likened the process to trying to fix a physical problem

with a band-aid. “Now when people say there's this

new thing and you should try it, I say, ‘I’m not inter-

ested.’ I don’t want to go down that path of being on

an emotional high and having the carpet yanked out
from under me again.”

When Matt was 30, his doctors told him that his

bones were badly deteriorated and his upcoming hip

replacement was to be his last. The operation

went well, but one day during physiother-

apy Matt fell, jeopardizing the fragile

structure of the plastic hip, wires,

and screws. Months later, as he

rode the elevator from the x-

ray lab to his doctor’s office,

Matt pulled the image of

his hip out of its envelope

and held it up to the

light. He saw the dam-

age in black and white,

and realized he would

have to undergo yet

another —_ operation.
“There was this cold
adrenalin running

through my body,” he
says. “The reality of the
situation was that I had
no choice. I was angry for a
week or so and then I
thought about it and said,
‘okay I'll deal with it because it’s
there.’ What's the point of being
angry with people or being down? You
just have to go on.” Matt realized
Buddhist philosophy was telling him that this
was all a test. Suffer through the pain in this life and
breeze through the next. It was all in the attitude.
The only hints of Matt’s spiritual beliefs around his
apartment are in books such as The Essential Zen and
Edgar Cayce’s Many Mansions—and in Matt himself.
He carries his philosophies wherever he goes and con-
siders himself fortunate. “Now I look at this disease
almost as a gift because it’s opened my eyes. I'd be an
average guy, work nine to five, have two kids, watch
sports, and never look within to see what's going on in
my head or my philosophies. In a certain sense, maybe
that was my journey; maybe in the past I was not
thinking. I was a more physical person than I am
now.

* names have been changed to protect privacy

Features ¢ the other press ©

As he rode the

elevator from
the x-ray lab to
his doctor's
office, Matt
pulled the image
of his hip out of
its envelope and
held it up to the
light. He saw
the damage in
black and
white, and real-
ized he would
have to undergo
yet another

operation.

“Buddhism became the cornerstone for the rest of my life. No matter
how bad things get, if I work on it really hard in this lifetime, the

next one won't be so bad”

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