Can a mental illness which severely impairs one's mind, such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease, damage or undo one's progress towards enlightenment?
Damage, yes.
Undo, potentially.
A person who has become a sotapanna will not fall back, will not un-become a sotapanna, sakitagami anagami.
A person who has seen nibbana
That isn't undone.
The realization, the attainment or the observation, the experience of nibbana is not something that, the effects of it don't ever wear off because it's not something that arises.
It's outside of samsara.
But apart from that, certainly, I think, I mean, I don't have any texts to go by, but based on my own experience.
There's a question in here someone asked about, commented on the fact that I'm always saying in the Buddhist tradition or according to the texts or so on.
and so they got the idea that somehow I'm just parroting back the tradition which I suppose you could say is true but I look at it the other way I look at it like I'm not Buddhism and anyone who thinks that I'm
what I think is the be-all end-all of what the Buddha taught is misled so for me to say well I think and I believe or to just say things say my own beliefs as truth I think that would be the travesty I think going by the tradition is much more useful beneficial for people because I
I won't say about myself, but anyway, I guess I can say I have faith in the tradition, or how to say it without sounding like I'm bragging, but have some...
No, for me, this is the truth.
And so, when I talk about the Buddhist texts, it's because of my appreciation and agreement with them.
If I don't agree, I'll try to say I don't.
Maybe just don't understand or something.
But if I don't agree, I'll say it.
So in this case, I don't have any text to go by, so I try to improvise.
But there definitely seems to be some leeway for the physical to affect the mental.
Now we always say how important the mental is, and that sometimes gives the impression that the physical can have no effect on the mental.
That's certainly not true.
As far as I understand, it's quite clear that the body can give rise, physical can give rise to mental.
So the body is often productive of certain mental states and can change mental states.
This is why drinking alcohol is actually a problem, even though it's physical, because it actually does affect the mind and actually causes problems for the mind.
So the idea that these states can get in the way and can actually be supportive in the creation of unwholesomeness, I think you have a strong case for that.
Now they aren't enough in and of themselves to give rise to unwholesomeness because that takes the mind, but they can certainly trigger unwholesomeness that is already present, what we call anusaya.
Anusaya means latent tendencies that are triggered by stimuli.
So schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, these would be triggers.
And for a person who's not already enlightened, they would be quite damaging to the person's practice or inhibiting.
They would definitely inhibit, impair one's practice.
Certainly it's not the case that everyone has the ability to practice.
That being said,
It doesn't mean that these people can't practice, it just means it will be harder for them and they shouldn't expect to have an easy go at it.
I don't know if someone with standard classic textbook schizophrenia can become enlightened, I don't know that.
I do believe that it's going to be more difficult for them.
They have positives on their side.
Many schizophrenics, I would say, are desperate.
Not desperate, but are looking for something, as are many of us.
Whereas an ordinary person might not and might be complacent in a way that a schizophrenic might not.
So there's something.
Same with a person who has Alzheimer's, a person who has the onset of Alzheimer's.
They might become incredibly agitated and cling quite strongly or seek out or pursue the meditation practice quite intensely, knowing that they only have so long before their mind is going to go.
that kind of thing.
But the actual disease itself is not likely to be, it's likely to be detrimental and to be an impediment in the practice.
How much?
I mean, it's an interesting thing.
It's something that we should experiment with.
Certainly these are the sort of people who could definitely, definitely benefit