Tibetan Medicine: An Introduction
In Tibet the Medicine Buddha is revered as the source of the
healing arts for it is through him that the teachings embodied
in the Four Medical Tantras, the basis of Tibetan medicine, came
into being.
As explained in the first of these Four Tantras, the Lapis Lazuli
Healing Master was once seated in meditation surrounded by an
assembly of four circles of disciples including divine physicians,
great sages, non-Buddhist gods and bodhisattvas, all of whom wished
to learn
the art of healing. Rendered speechless by the radiant glory of
his countenance, they were unable to request the desired teachings.
To accommodate their unspoken wishes, the Medicine Buddha manifested
two emanations, one to request the teachings and the other to
deliver them. In this way, then, the Buddhist explanation of the
various mental and physical ailments, their causes, diagnoses
and treatment and the maintenance of health is said to have originated.
According to the Four Tantras, the fundamental cause of every
disease is to be found in the three poisonous delusions _ ignorant
bewilderment, attachment and hatred _ occupying the hub of the
wheel of samsaric existence. These three root delusions lead to
imbalances in three so-called humors (phlegm, wind and bile),
the various bodily constituents (blood, flesh, bone, etc.) and
waste products, or impurities (excrement, urine and perspiration),
all of which are analyzed in twenty-five divisions. The Root Tantra
says:
Thus if all these twenty-five are in balance and the three factors
of the (1) tastes and (2) inherent qualities of one's food and
(3) one's behavior are wholesome, one's health and life will flourish.
If they are not, one's health and life will be harmed. And further
on:
Attachment, hatred and bewilderment are the three causes producing
imbalances of wind, bile and phlegm. Along with these, the four
contributing circumstances of time, spirits, food and behavior
cause the humors to increase and decrease. The imbalance then
spreads over the skin, increases in the flesh, moves along the
vessels, meets the bones and descends upon the solid and hollow
organs.
Treatment of disease and the maintenance of health are therefore
primarily a matter of bringing the various elements of the body
back into balance and this is accomplished through four progressive
types of treatment. The first two involve changes in the type
of food we eat and behavior we engage in. Only when these prove
ineffective is the physician advised to prescribe medicine and
only when this also fails is he or she to resort to external forms
of treatment such as cauterization and the like. However, none
of these types of treatment will have a lasting effect unless
they are accompanied by spiritual transformation. If ignorance
and its associated delusions remain festering inside, sooner or
later they will give rise to disease and the recurring miseries
of cyclic existence. Thus Buddhas such as Shakyamuni and the Lapis
Healing Master are referred to as great physicians not because
of their medical abilities _ as great as these are _ but because
they have the compassion, wisdom and skillful means to diagnose
and treat the root delusions underlying all mental and physical
malaise.
(Excerpted from the website of Men
Tsi Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute)
Tibetan Medicine: Books
and Resources
About Dr. Yeshi Dhonden
The 77 Medical Thangkas of the Blue Beryl
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