I was surprised to find out a few months ago that the word buddha literally means "awake".... .........(interpreted... enlightened).
Of course through the years, as in all things, there has evolved a whole larger meaning to the word.
(think of how many different views of "Jesus" have existed through the years..... There was the...
"slaughter the Jews and Muslims"-Jesus...
-"Pro Southern Slavery"-Jesus......
Today there's the.... "God Hates Fags"-Jesus.. etc.)
But all "extra meaning" aside, one of the common problems of people is the problem of staying awake, or alert to real life.
I was walking through the halls at work the other day... the crazies yelling out at me down the hall. And as I came across a discussion between a nurse and a nurse aide I just stood nearby and listened in. The nurse was talking about a problem with one of the crazies.... about how this dude was constantly "crapping on the bed". (diarrhea.... Immobile..... stuck in his bed). And it was happening so often that his skin was getting excoriated (burned) from the bodily fluids. And so the nurse was telling the nurse aide they were gonna have to place a rectal tube in this dude to prevent him from burning his skin off.
Rectal Tube: moderately large draining tube placed (with loads and loads of lubricant) into the rectum to prevent the random drainage of feces onto the skin to prevent excoriation............
* The nursing world is real life, friends. Place a rectal tube into someone and you'll never see people (or life) the same way again.
Of course the problem for the poor guy was that he was living in another world entirely. Bugs all over the place.... People he used to know walking in and out of the room.... (not real)... There was no way to prepare the dude for the thing that was gonna save his ass (literally). And so you just had to go in. Turn him on his side. Lube it up... And then go to town.
(euphemism used to protect the reader from harsh details....)
One of the biggest problems for us (people) is that all reality is literally recreated in our heads. We receive sensations from the sense organs in our body (Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue, Skin), and then by way of nerves and neurotransmitters it all makes it's way up to the brain where it's processed.... filtered on some level.... and then totally reconstructed to recreate what you and I know as the real world. We take it for granted... But reality is just what a majority of people (on some subconscious.... unspoken level) agree on. The problem for the crazies is that they have the same types of sensations we do... But for them ... It happens randomly..... (unstimulated at times)... And so... The world they see and hear is very real to them... They recreate it just like we do.... But chaotic and unpredictable... based on sensations... some that are true... and some that aren't. Every once in a while with either the help of medications... or time... one of them will snap out of it. Wake up and come back to real life.
Sadly for the crazies... However... Everything's an act of faith for them... After all... If you were telling me yesterday that their's no spiders on the wall... Then how can I really know for sure today if the spider Im seeing is real?.....
After a few minutes in the hallway the nurse and nurse aide came from the room. They were talking about "the event", and I was imagining the physical process for this dude as they described it.
"We turned him over and started to insert the tube"....
Patient: -Received stimulus from the skin and surrounding areas....
-instantaneous transmission to the brain via nerves and neurotransmitters.
-crazy interpretation in the brain of stimulus and then attempted crazy response....
The nurse continued: "and the whole time we were placing the tube.... He was reaching back and swatting at it.... Saying... WHOA!!!..... BIG MOSQUITO!!! .......BIG MOSQUITO!!!!".
(True Story).
