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Enlightened Medicine.
Tibetan medicine is one of the most ancient systems of healing in the world, but to begin to have some understanding of its development we have to look closely at the culture from which it evolved. To-day most people associate Tibet with Buddhism, but prior to the Buddhist Teachings reaching Tibet from India, the indigenous tradition of Bon had flourished for thousands of years. Bon originally a shamanistic tradition also had a fully enlightened system called Yungdrung Bon. In the words of the Dalai Lama “Bon is Tibet’s oldest spiritual tradition and, as the indigenous source of Tibetan culture, played a significant role in shaping Tibet’s unique culture.” And even Bon its self had derived from an even older culture called Zhang Zhung, a country that was made up of Western Tibet, and many other neighbouring countries such as China, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and included ancient Persia.
Developing over thousands of years in the vastness of the Himalayas, Tibetan medicine became a sophisticated and holistic system that encompassed all aspects of life. For example it is said that there are 84,000 different types of negative emotions that affect human beings, such as, hatred, desire, greed etc., and these have adverse corresponding effects producing 84,000 types of illness and disorder. Generally disorders are caused by an imbalance of wind (energy or chi), bile, and phlegm, but it is also said that all disorders have their origin in the mental stream of the past, and that these mental factors are ultimately responsible for all types of illness. Although it is impossible to determine all the specific causes, it is generally accepted that all disorder has its roots in ignorance (spiritual) attachment, and aversion. These are known as the three poisons. Ignorance refers to our lack of awareness of how things actually exist, and how we have very little understanding of the nature of phenomena. The activity of these negative states of mind produces the humoral disorders of wind, bile and phlegm.
In addressing the means of restoring health, a Tibetan doctor will not only take into consideration the factors of age, diet, environment and personality but also behaviour either negative or otherwise. Not only will the patient’s current life style be examined but also past patterns of conduct. For example some years ago a family living near the main Bon-po monastery in India asked the head of the Bon tradition for help, as the father of the family was dying, and neiiher Tibetan or Western medicine was making any difference. After being examined by the Lama, it was determined that the cause of
his illness was “karmic” (we would be most sceptical of this answer as, we would find it difficult to relate to in our culture) and instead of prescribing medicine the father of the family was told to do “pro strations” a physically demanding practice even for the fully fit. This entails standing with hands by the side, then bringing them together over the head, touching the throat and heart centres with the hands in a pray position and then touching the floor with the knees and head before prostrating the body out flat, this is repeated many times. After some weeks of this gruelling practice the family were begging the Lama to stop their father, as he was struggling to comply and looking near death. The Lama insisted that he continued, and slowly the man recovered his full health.
Enlightened spiritual traditions are based on complete and total liberation of the mind not only for one’s self but for all living beings, and is based on the premise that “How can we begin to understand ultimate reality unless we acknowledge that our minds are conditioned through experiences, society, parents, culture environment etc?” It teaches that all life is impermanent, and therefore life produces suffering. The exception is the very nature of our minds, which is beyond birth and death, and the realisation of which leads to liberation. Wisdom and compassion are the two cornerstones of these traditions, and doctors of Tibetan medicine had to have these qualities in abundance. Traditionally the training took at least eleven years. Doctors had to learn the Four Medical Tantras containing all the knowledge of causes, conditions diagnosis, and treatment, as well as the identification and preparation of herbs and minerals used treatment and well as the appropriate prays and mantras.
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