When she was 15, Emily Levin began meditating with her mom. That was around the time they learned that her mother had colon cancer. She died when Levin was 16. “After my mom passed away, I held onto [my meditation practice],” Levin says.

She went on to graduate from Boston University and lived at the Cambridge Zen Center (of the Kwan Um School of Zen) for two years before getting a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University. She’s now a second-year med student at Pitt.

“My Zen practice really helps me feel grounded—more than grounded, present. That’s helped so much in medical school. Often, we have an idea in our minds, and we just hold onto that idea, that opinion, and we’re not really listening to the patient or other person in front of us.”

Levin volunteers for the Guerrilla Eye Service (GES), a nonprofit that provides free eye care to people who are underserved and underinsured. One day at the clinic, through a translator, she learned that a patient she was seeing, a young woman with diabetes, hadn’t checked her blood sugar. Levin, who herself has type 1 diabetes, wondered: Why would the woman, who was suffering vision loss related to her diabetes, not take care of herself? Had Levin not had her Zen practice, and had this woman not been diagnosed recently, Levin might have rushed to judge her.

Yet, Levin says, “I was able to focus on my role, which was to do the exam and history with a clear mind before seeing the next patient.”

Although Levin and her colleagues had a number of appointments to get through, she eventually went back to the patient to ask her why she hadn’t been testing her blood sugar. That’s when Levin learned that the woman did not have a glucometer or testing strips, nor did she know how to use them. “My God,” Levin thought to herself. “Let’s get her some help.”

Levin has since worked with GES partner clinic directors to assess how widespread the problem might be, as well as with kit manufacturers to get glucometers and testing strips to GES patients in need. And soon, GES clinic volunteers will offer diabetes maintenance and care tutorials to those who can benefit. “After the patient’s [eyes have] been dilated, we can sit with them and show them how to do the test.”

THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

Emily Levin shared this technique for gaining clarity and staying in the present moment:

The mystery of her Guerilla Eye Service patient was easy to solve, Levin points out. But sometimes there aren’t straightforward answers to the questions that nag us. She refers to the teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn, who encouraged people to adopt what’s called “don’t know mind.” Levin finds it helpful for the big questions in her life like, why did her mom die when she was 16? And, why does she have diabetes? “Or, ‘Who am I really?’” says Levin. “And the only answer to that is, ‘Don’t know.’ It’s a mantra you can use—asking yourself, for instance, ‘Who am I?’ on the inhale. And then answering ‘Don’t know,’ on the exhale. It allows you to really see what’s in front of you. And then to help with that first.”

Read more about Pitt Med's efforts to help med students attend to their minds so they can better attend to patients in our cover story. 

Read more from the Fall 2023 issue.