What is The Koan Of Illness

In Zen Buddhism, a koan is a question designed to put you in touch with the limitations of your thinking mind and provoke a deeper awareness. You cannot solve a koan using your usual methods. Instead, you must allow it to solve you.

Living with chronic illness, no matter if it is yours or a loved one’s, is a unique koan, one that is not understood by the rest of the world – a world that often feels uncaring and unsupportive and moving far too quickly to notice what you’re living, day-to-day. 

On the illness journey, you are forced to deal with different perceptions of the illness experience and the meaning of suffering and to navigate many difficult feelings such as sadness, anger, and guilt. You have little to no assistance to guide you through the unique stresses and trauma that chronic illness brings into your relationship with yourself, the people in your life, and the rest of the world. 

However, managing a life within the constraints that illness brings can be: 

• A growth path instead of something to endure 

• A healing journey instead of a series of losses

• An opportunity for awakening beyond the confines of body and mind 

None of this happens magically or spontaneously. You need frameworks, practice, and support.

In the Koan of Illness, you will find support, guidance, and community. Using the Integral Model – a comprehensive, holistic, practical, philosophical, and spiritual map – we will help you to: 

Increase your capacity to manage illness:

• Heal from the trauma it causes

• Improve the quality of your relationships

• Use illness as a springboard to personal growth

• Deepen your spirituality 

• Find a community of depth and support 

Illness may be a tragedy, but it also holds gifts for those who are willing to look for them.

 “I learned so much about how I have needlessly struggled; how I have learned to overcome the challenges and how there are new and exciting possibilities for where to go from here.”  – Imago Inocente