Is it all in the mind?

There was a time when I taught at a school in Kodiang, Kedah, where the food in the canteen was really tasty, especially a meaty soup which we could use with noodles or bread.

All the teachers enjoyed that soup and so, each day, most of us ordered that to go along with other types of food.

There was this teacher who enjoyed the soup just as much as anyone of us for a number of years. Then, one day, as we were talking, the subject of allergy cropped up. I told them about my allergy with beer and other alcoholic drinks. This teacher talked about his allergy towards beef. Well, it is understandable that a Buddhist would not take beef, whether he is allergic to it of not. However, this Chinese man claimed he could not consume beef because he was allergic to it, not for religious reasons.

He told the group of teachers there that he would throw up each time he ate beef. The discomfort and reactions to the meat was so bad that he had no alternative but to forgo eating such meat. Well and good, as no one can deny that would be the best move to make under such circumstances.

Then, just as we continued slurping our soup, one of the other teachers spoke up, "Hey, Ah B, do you know what you are taking?"
Ah B turned towards him and replied, "Soup. What else?"
"Do you know what Ah Kau Shou put into that soup, ahh?"
"Don't know but it certainly taste fabulous."
Another teacher turned his head towards the kitchen, saw Ah Kau Sou, the canteen lady and shouted towards her direction, "Kau Sou ahh, what do you put into that soup of yours?"
The canteen lady looked puzzled a moment, smiled and replied, "Don;t worry. It's just spices, bean curd and beef ribs."
Everyone turned his or her face towards Ah B. The guy stopped taking the soup all of a sudden and turned to Ah Kau Sou for confirmation, "Are you sure, Ah Kau Sou?"
"Of course! Why? What's the matter? You think I don't even know what I put into my soup, ahh? Don't worry, lah. It's good meat from the butcher."

Ah B suddenly stood up, he face pale and he claimed he felt like vomitting. He quickly disappeared from the canteen in the direction of the toilet.

After he had gone, the group was quiet for a while. The question on everyone's lips was, "How's it possible? He has been enjoying that soup all these years without any side effect until today."

Since, no allergic effect took place without the mind receiving the knowledge that beef was in that soup for so many years, could it be all in the mind? The urge to vomit only took place when the mind received the information that beef had been consumed. Was it truly an allergy or was it a preconditioning of the mind and its reactions by the parents or someone else earlier in Ah B's life?

If we take a good look at some of the feelings and attitudes of people, we discover that some of these feelings are due to religious or cultural teachings. Some people in our society have been preconditioned to love, hate, like, dislike, incline or disincline towards all things and people.

Religions sometimes do that. They do it for various reasons. Hindus and Buddhist are taught not to eat beef while the Muslim have a distaste for pork. Similarly, a dislike for dogs exist among some Muslims.

Other factors other than religion, culture and parents could possibly be contributed through superstition or unfortunate experiences. Such traumatic experiences could cause fears and dislike for things and people.

Thus, it is important to try and understand others, to allow other to act according to their needs, empathise with others the fears and dislikes or whatever which we ourselves may find hard to comprehend.

Of course, many things are not easy to understand as we do not have the same experience that could have cause the other's behaviour. The behaviour comes about through the mind interpretation of the incidents in one's life. Well, sometimes, it is all in the mind. The mind and its thoughts made things real.

We may ridicule ah B's sudden allergic reaction but we ought to understand that for Ah B, the thoughts in his mind made all that happened real. And this understanding is necessary as it can happen to any one of us unless we control our thoughts.