Getting the FLU WAS, like HELL! And this man, experienced it, personally, to its, full, extent too, and he’d come back, after, walking through the fires of that hell…translated…
Because I’d, Long Observed How My Body Works, I’d Lost the Victimizing Thoughts of “Catching Something from Someone”. Every Time the Signs of a Cold Coming on, I’d, Understood, that I’d, “Asked for it”……….
Fallen Ill, for More than, Two WHOLE, Weeks
“Have you recovered yet?”, the first day I’d returned back to the office, my coworker, A asked me.
“Yes, I’m recovered, thanks for your, concern”, I’d smiled bitterly.
Having just recovered from his flu recently, he’d asked, “painful, wasn’t it? Like traveling through, hell!”
Two weeks ago, my coworkers started catching the flu one by one, and didn’t show up for work, including A, with whom I’m currently sharing this, conversation, with. I was alerted, started keeping my mask on in my office at work. But, my body started, feeling, strained, headache, drowsiness, and finally, I’d still, fallen, down, lying in bed, I’d felt the cold chills, and that very night, I had a, fever. “Must have caught it from someone at work!,” my family deducted.
illustration from UDN.com
I knew, that my age and my systems at this point in time, if I’d, forced myself a little bit more, to pull the all-nighters because work required me to, then, I’d, started, feeling it from by physical health, and started showing signs of a cold, forcing me to take a couple of days off. The debts owed to my body, it’d, come back to claim them immediately. Because I’d been made aware of how my system works, I’d dissed the belief of “caught that from someone”, this sort of the mindset of being, “victimized”, and every time the signs of a cold started coming up, I’d already, known, that it was, caused by, my own, self.
I’m not flustered, not worried, as cold would come and frequent me often, we’d become, more than, acquainted with one another already. By the third day as the fever continued, I’d felt, that it’s about time that the fever subsided, had my family made me some porridge, to chase away the chills, then, headed out to see the doctor, to get my symptoms confirmed. The physician said I contracted the “Type-B flu”, and he’d prescribe me some Tamiflu, thought, that I only needed to, rest up. What I’d not expected was that I was ill, for more than, two whole, weeks,
I’d never had this long an illness, I’d, tried to stay positive about my recovery abilities, made sure I stayed, warm, observed the changes in my systems carefully, getting enough vitamins and the cough meds in. But, the time I’d stayed in bed due to my flu was, too long, and, every evening when it came time for me to sleep, I’d started, coughing too hard I couldn’t, sleep, a wink. With the hopes of getting up in the morn, and finally going to work, but I’d not gotten, any better, yet, and, my own plans of work, got halted, and my wife became the one being responsible to care for the kids after school. I was so eager, to return back to my normal routines, and yet, the stuffiness of my chest, I’d, coughed too hard for.
My coworker, A told, that getting the flu was like, going to HELL. I’m certain, that he must’ve had his share of, difficult times with the flu too.
In the Torturous Hell, There’s Definitely the Endless, Coughing
There’s the beliefs of hell in most religions. Some Christians believed, when Judgment Day comes, the sinners will enter into hell to get tortured by the fires; the Islamic belief translates hell as “inferno”. In the beliefs of Buddhism, there’s the three realms of the world. And, although there is the karma of the three realms, the differences of joys and trials, but we hadn’t, surpassed the karmic cycles yet. A Sutra mentioned, “the unsettled three realms, is like a mansion of fires, filled with the world’s trials”. There’s also, the images of fires in that.
stuffy nose, coughing through the night…coupled with a fever too! Photo from online
What’s interesting is, in the meditative cultures of India, tapas also has the meanings of “disciplines”, and “trials by fire” assigned to it. Mediation is a path to walk the fires, burning up one’s own karmas, tossing one’s own desires, and selfishness to the fire. You can call it “sin” if you want to, “karma” if you want, those who’d not been enlightened yet, headed to everyplace that’s filled with the fires, that sounds, reasonable.
But, compared to the fires of hell, the inferno, the underworld in Norse mythology is comparatively, freezing. The imaginations of hell, is different because of culture. And if catching the flu is like walking through hell, then, the tortures of hell as I’d imagined, would be filled with endless coughing, and, the burst of my expectations of getting better, in that, vicious, cycle.
The American drama, “The Good Place” is one of my favorite shows, using a comedic way to discuss the afterlife, helping people redefine the standards of who is admitted to heaven, who’s sent to, hell. The architect of hell, Michael, believed that hell being physical torture is way too old-schooled, and he’d proposed an innovation, torturing the hearts, and the spirits. He’d based every character’s personalities, awareness, and habits, and devised up the hells for them each individually, to make them reexperience what they were dealing with when they were, still, living.
If the concept of hell is to teach people to do no evil, to do everything that’s good, then, there’s nothing more hellish than this feel of my body, burning from, within. Thinking back to the days of my catching the flu, there’s not much difference in the experiences of my own body, but my mind, my thoughts, flew all over the places. Or maybe, compared to the illness of the body, the running of my thoughts, is what’s, more, torturous.
And so, this still just showed, that it’s how the mind interprets things, that can make us live in hell, or live in heaven, like how this man had, experienced his flu, it was not just, physically trying, but his mind ran all over the places, and he couldn’t, quiet his mind down, and that to him, was, hell, and he’d, gained a better understanding of his own self, through his contracting the flu here.
The Ivory Tower of My Mind 