Health Through Balance: An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine
256
Health Through Balance: An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine
256Paperback(New Edition)
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780937938256 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Shambhala |
| Publication date: | 01/01/1986 |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
| Lexile: | 1220L (what's this?) |
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Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
Outline of Disease
In this world, all breathing creatures, all beings — whether human beings, animals, whatever — are exposed to different forms of suffering. In the Tibetan system we believe that whether we are physically healthy or not, basically all of us are sick. Even though disease might not be manifest, it is present in dormant form. This fact makes the scope of disease difficult to fathom.
THE ORIGINS OF ILLNESS
With respect to the origins of illness, Shakyamuni Buddha propounded that there are 84,000 different types of afflictive emotions, such as desire and hatred, which have corresponding effects on beings, thus producing 84,000 different types of disorders. These can be condensed into 1,016 types of disorders which can further be condensed into 404.
The factors giving rise to disorders are causes and conditions, the latter enabling the causes to ripen or manifest. Causes are of two different types — distant and proximate. The proximate causes are wind, bile, and phlegm. With regard to the distant ones, the distinct causes for each disorder are difficult to enumerate because basically all disorders have their origin in the mental environment of the past — prior afflictive emotions — and it is these mental factors that are ultimately responsible for all types of disorders. These afflictive emotions impel actions (karma) that establish potencies in the mind, ripening later as specific diseases. Hence, it is impossible to determine all the specific distant causes involved in a particular disease; however,the basic entities of those causes are the afflictive emotions of desire, hatred, and obscuration. These three, in turn, depend upon ignorance.
Ignorance refers to a state of mind that not only is not aware of how things actually exist, but also misconceives the nature of phenomena. Ignorance gives rise to desire which, in turn, leads to hatred, pride, jealousy, harsh speech, more obscuration, and so forth. In rough terms, from the activity of these negative states of mind arise the three types of humoral disorders of wind, bile, and phlegm. Forty-two types of wind disorders arise in dependence upon desire; twenty-six types of bile disorders arise in dependence upon factors of hatred such as pride and jealousy, and thirty-three types of phlegm disorders arise in dependence upon obscuration — making a total of one hundred and one diseases.
CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASE
Disorders can be classified by different methods in terms of location in the body, type, environmental factors, and so forth. Here, by considering four classes of these one hundred and one diseases, there come to be four hundred and four:
1. 101 disorders that are under the strong influence of actions (karma) in previous lifetimes
2. 101 disorders of this lifetime — which have their causes in an early period of the life and manifest later in this same lifetime
3. 101 disorders involving spirits
4. 101 superficial disorders, so called because by simply following proper diet and behavior patterns one can correct them without having to resort to medication and accessory therapy.
The last type, superficial disorders, may result from improper intake of food — imbalanced diet — or behavior patterns; thus, these are self-curing without resorting to any form of treatment if the temporary conditions of diet and behavior giving rise to them are corrected. However, disorders of one lifetime, which have their cause in an earlier part of your life and manifest at a later time and are related with karma, will usually prove to be fatal unless treated. Seeking treatment is vital in this type of disorder. Moreover, in some cases mere material medication may not suffice; you will have to resort to spiritual practices such as disclosing past ill-deeds (confession), lessening their force by engaging in virtuous practice, and developing an intention to refrain from such deeds in the future. In these cases, virtuous activity and medication work together.
With respect to diseases that involve interference by spirits, there are, according to the Buddhist explanation, unseen forces that can harm an individual, and thus, even if there may not be any visible cause for a disorder, the person can be afflicted with pain and different forms of disorders due to the influence of such spirits. Though treated for a long period of time with medicine, the person does not respond to treatment and continues to suffer. The reason for this is the spirit behind the disease, and unless it is subdued by spiritual methods, no form of therapy — external or otherwise — will be able to free the person from that disorder. When the spirit is exorcised, however, the disease is cured.
With regard to the one hundred and one types of disorders that are due to past actions, Buddhists believe in rebirth, that is, we believe that there are past lives; these types of disorders are attributed to negative actions committed in past lives. When that karma ripens and a disease manifests in the present lifetime, it is very powerful and thus is generally fatal. In Tibet, people with this type of disorder would often renounce all worldly activities and engage in spiritual practices; however, few survive this type of disorder because the disease is a ripening of a powerful action that has been committed in the past.
THE BASIC MEDICAL LITERATURE
The medical teachings of the Buddha are primarily four texts called the Four Tantras. The first is known as the Root Tantra. It is a very short text and mainly presents an outline of the whole medical teaching. The second is the Explanatory Tantra. It deals with formation of the human body (embryology), anatomy, signs of death, how conditions cause the manifestation of disorders, the characteristics of particular disorders, the functions of wind, bile, and phlegm when these operate properly and how they bring about diseases when imbalanced, and the corresponding medicines required to correct particular disorders. This second tantra also prescribes the diet and behavior patterns for maintaining health and for combatting disorders — for instance, the types of food one should refrain from, the quality and quantity of food that one should take, and different types of behavior — seasonal behavior, daily behavior, and temporary behavior.
The third, the Oral Tradition Tantra, is an extensive technical textbook that identifies the different types of disorders — their causation (etiology), nature (pathology), and therapy. It presents each of the major disorders individually and in great detail — discussing their causes, conditions, and symptoms as well as the methods of treatment to be used.
The fourth, called the Last Tantra, deals with methods of diagnosis such as urinalysis and pulse-taking as well as the manufacture of medicines.
CHRONIC DISORDERS
In particular, in the third text, the Oral Tradition Tantra, it is explained that this is a period of ruination, beings having coarse behavior, pride, desire, hatred, and obscuration — householders having no ethics and clergy not being without lust. Buddha mentioned that later during this period of degeneration, human beings would develop various types of chemicals that would lead to different types of disorders, called the eighteen malignant or critical disorders during the era of degeneration.
Types of cancer and so forth that are prevalent nowadays but were not so in the past are found among these eighteen types of critical, malignant disorders. These can be further classified in terms of wind, bile, and phlegm and combinations of these, each having eighteen types with individual subdivisions.
We can also categorize types of cancer, for instance, by referring to the four classifications outlined earlier. In those terms, there are tumors having superficial factors involved — caused by improper diet and behavior patterns; these are naturally curable by restoring good diet and behavior patterns. Then, there are types caused by factors within one lifetime which if treated can be cured but, if untreated, can prove fatal. Those caused by spirits are very difficult to treat and will generally prove fatal unless spiritual methods are employed. Then, there are cancers that have their origin in a negative action committed in a previous lifetime; this final type of cancer cannot be cured by any physician.
Another way in which these critical disorders are further classified is in terms of the area or location affected — the vital organs, reservoir organs, vessels, bone, flesh, the sense organs, and so forth. Tumors, also, are described separately from these eighteen critical disorders under a classification of eleven types — these being related with the five vital organs (heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys) and the six reservoir organs (stomach, small intestine, large intestine, gall bladder, seminal vesicle, and urinary bladder). Again, these are further treated in terms of tumors on the surface, inside, and inbetween; for instance, on the surface, inside, or inbetween the surface and the inner part of a lung, liver, or the stomach.
From my own experience I have found Tibetan medicine to be effective in certain cases of cancer. Several Indian patients who were considered terminal cases have been greatly helped by Tibetan medication over the past several years; some report this in person, others have written to this effect. I will not make claims that there have been a great many.
Other types of disorders for which I have found Tibetan medicine to be extremely effective are hepatitis, certain types of mental disorders, ulcers, paralysis, gallstones, kidney stones, and arthritis. Thus, from my own practice I have found that our system of medicine has proved to be effective for several chronic disorders.
This has been a general introduction or outline of the types of illness; they are described in great detail in the texts.