What
is healing? What do we mean by healing? Do we mean healing
of the physical body, healing of the psyche/soul/mind,
or both of these. What is the connection between body and
mind?
Many modern healing techniques
regard successful healing as the cure of the presenting
physical problem, whether this be symptoms of cancer, AIDS,
chronic fatigue syndrome, or some other illness. If the
person does not recover from the presenting physical problem,
or if that problem recurs or another develops at a later
time, this may be regarded as failure. It is not uncommon
in these situations for the therapist or organisation that
has been helping the "sick" person to infer
or state that the person must have done something wrong, that
they haven't stuck strictly enough to the diet or meditated
enough or done whatever else it was that they were supposed
to do. In these situations the person can become very guilty,
depressed or angry. In many cases, they just give up hope.
To avoid these problems, it is necessary to consider a more
comprehensive view of healing that incorporates not only physical
healing but mental healing.
Mind Is The Creator
To understand
healing from the Buddhist perspective, a useful starting
point is to consider the Buddhist concept of mind. The
mind is non-physical. It is formless, shapeless, colourless,
genderless and has the ability to cognize or know. The
basic nature of mind is pure, limitless and pervasive,
like the sun shining unobstructedly in a clear sky. The
problems or sickness we experience are like clouds in the
sky obscuring the sun. Just as the clouds temporarily block
the sun but are not of the same nature as the sun, our
problems or sickness are temporary and the causes of them
can be removed from the mind. From the Buddhist perspective,
the mind is the creator of sickness and health. In fact,
the mind is believed to be the creator of all of our problems.
That is, the cause of disease is internal, not external.
Unlimited potential You are probably familiar with the
concept of karma, which literally means action. All of
our actions lay down imprints on our mindstream which have
the potential to ripen at some time in the future. These
actions can be positive, negative or neutral. These karmic
seeds are never lost. The negative ones can ripen at any
time in the form of problems or sickness; the positive
ones in the form of happiness, health or success.
To heal
present sickness, we have to engage in positive actions
now. To prevent sickness occurring again in the future, we
have to purify, or clear, the negative karmic imprints that
remain on our mindstream. Karma is the creator of all happiness
and suffering. If we don't have negative karma we will not
get sick or receive harm from others. Buddhism asserts that
everything that happens to us now is the result of our previous
actions, not only in this lifetime but in other lifetimes.
What we do now determines what will happen to us in the future.
In terms of present and future healing, the main objective
is to guard our own actions, or karma. This requires constant
mindfulness and awareness of all the actions of our body,
speech and mind. We should avoid carrying out any actions
that are harmful to ourselves and to others.
Buddhism is
therefore a philosophy of total personal responsibility.
We have the ability to control our destiny, including the
state of our body and mind. Each one of us has unlimited
potential - what we have to do is develop that potential.
Healthy mind, healthy body Why do some people get ill while
others remain in the best of health? Consider skin cancer.
Of all the people who spend many hours out in the sun,
some will develop skin cancer and others will not. The
external situation is the same for all of them, but only
some will be affected. The secondary cause of the skin
cancer - the sun - is external, but the primary cause -
the imprints laid down on the mindstream by previous actions
- is internal. Also, people with similar types of cancer
will often respond quite differently to the same treatment,
whether this be orthodox or alternative. Some will make a
complete recovery. Some will recover temporarily and then
develop a recurrence. Others will rapidly become worse
and die. Logically one has to look to the mind for the
cause of these differences. Buddhism asserts that for lasting
healing to occur, it is necessary to heal not only the
current disease with medicines and other forms of treatment,
but also the cause of the disease, which originates from
the mind. If we do not heal or purify the mind, the sickness
and problems will recur again and again.
This introduces
the notion of "ultimate healing". By ridding
the mind of all its accumulated "garbage", all of
the previously committed negative actions and thoughts, and
their imprints, we can be free of problems and sickness permanently.
We can achieve ultimate healing - a state of permanent health
and happiness. In order to heal the mind and hence the body,
we have to eliminate negative thoughts and their imprints,
and replace them with positive thoughts and imprints. The inner
enemy The basic root of our problems and sickness is selfishness,
what we can call the inner enemy. Selfishness causes us to
engage in negative actions, which place negative imprints on
the mindstream. These negative actions can be of body, speech
or mind, such as thoughts of jealousy, anger and greed. Selfish
thoughts also increase pride, which results in feelings of
jealousy towards those higher than us, superiority towards
those lower than us and competitiveness towards equals. These
feelings in turn result in an unhappy mind, a mind that is
without peace. On the other hand, thoughts and actions directed
to the well-being of others bring happiness and peace to the
mind.
Conscious Living, Conscious
Dying
It is important to consider what
happens to us when we die. The Buddhist view is that at
the time of death the subtle consciousness, which carries
with it all the karmic imprints from previous lives, separates
from the body. After spending up to forty-nine days in
an intermediate state between lives, the consciousness
enters the fertilised egg of its future mother at or near
the moment of conception. New life then begins. We bring
into our new life a long history of previous actions with
the potential to ripen at any time or in any of a myriad
ways.
The state of mind at the time
of death is vitally important and can have a considerable
effect on the situation into which we are reborn. Hence
the need to prepare well for death and to be able to approach
our death with a peaceful, calm and controlled mind. Death
itself can be natural, due to exhaustion of the lifespan,
or untimely, due to certain obstacles. These obstacles
arise from the mind and can be counteracted in different
ways. One method commonly employed in Tibetan Buddhism
to remove life obstacles is to save the lives of animals
that would otherwise have been killed. For example, animals
can be rescued from being slaughtered or live bait can
be purchased and released.
For those with a life threatening
illness, it is important to understand that being free
of that illness doesn't mean that you will have a long
life. There are many causes of death and death can happen
to anybody at any time. Not just pills and potions Tibetan
medicine is popular and effective. It is mostly herbal
medicine, but its uniqueness lies in the fact that in the
course of its preparation it is blessed extensively with
prayers and mantras, giving it more power. It is said that
taking such medicine will either result in recovery, or,
if the person is close to death, they will die quickly
and painlessly. (Another theory, based on personal experience,
is that it tastes so bad you want to recover quickly so
that you can stop taking the medicine!)
Blessed pills and
blessed water are also used extensively. The more spiritually
developed the person carrying out the blessings or the
healing practices, the more powerful is the healing result
or potential. These pills often contain the relics of previous
great meditators and saints, bestowing much power on the
pills. Many Tibetan lamas actually blow on the affected
part of the body to effect healing or pain relief. I have
seen a person with AIDS with intense leg pain have his
pain disappear after a lama meditated intensely and blew
on his leg for twenty minutes.
Compassion Is The Power
That Heals.
Visualisation can also be very
powerful healing. One method is to visualise a ball of
white light above your head, with the light spreading in
all directions. Imagine the light spreading through your
body, completely dissolving away all sickness and problems.
Concentrate on the image of your body as completely healed and in the
nature of light. This type of meditation is even more powerful
when combined with visualising holy images and reciting mantras.
I often tell my Christian patients
to visualise the light as Jesus, with the light emanating
from him. In the Tibetan tradition, there are many Buddha
figures (deities) which can be visualised while reciting
their mantra. The Medicine Buddha; Chenrezig, or Avalokiteshvara
(the Buddha of Compassion); or one of the long-life deities
such as Amitabha are commonly used. Deities can be in peaceful
or wrathful aspects. The wrathful ones are often used to
cure heavy disease such as AIDS. If you are not comfortable
with these images, you can use other objects such as crystals,
or simply visualise all the universal healing energy absorbing
into you, transforming your body into light, and imagine
yourself as totally healed.
Over the centuries many people
have used these methods and have recovered from their illnesses,
even from conditions such as leprosy, paralysis and cancer.
The aim of these practises is to heal the mind as well
as the body, so that the diseases or problems will not
recur in the future. Also, many diseases are associated
with spirit harm. Lamas and other practitioners will often
recite certain prayers and mantras or engage in ceremonies
to stop the spirit harm and allow the person to recover.
A seven year old girl I knew had petit-mal epilepsy as
the result of spirit harm; the epilepsy disappeared after
various rituals and prayers had been performed. Whenever
she had an epileptic attack, the girl would see a frightening
apparition coming towards her. After the initial prayers
had been performed, however, her attacks lessened and she
would see a brick wall between her and the frightening figure.
This wall was the colour of a monk's robes. Eventually the
attacks and visions disappeared altogether. In summary, we
can say that the essential ingredients in the healing process,
for both the person doing the healing and the person being
healed, are compassion, faith, and pure morality.
Changing
Our Minds
Another powerful method of healing
in Tibetan Buddhism is to meditate on the teachings known
as thought transformation. These methods allow a person
to see the problem or sickness as something positive rather
than negative. A problem is only a problem if we label
it a problem. If we look at a problem differently, we can
see it as an opportunity to grow or to practice, and regard
it as something positive. We can think that having this
problem now ripens our previous karma, which does not then
have to be experienced in the future. If someone gets angry
at us, we can choose to be angry in return or to be thankful
to them for giving us the chance to practice patience and
purify this particular karma. It takes a lot of practice
to master these methods, but it can be done. It is our
concepts which often bring the greatest suffering and fear.
For example, due to a set of signs and symptoms, the doctor
gives the label 'AIDS' or 'cancer'. This can cause great
distress in a person's mind, because they forget that it
is only a label, that there is no truly existent, permanent
AIDS or cancer.
'Death' is another label that
can generate a lot of fear. But in reality 'death' is only
a label for what happens when the consciousness separates
from the body, and there is no real death from its own
side. This also relates to our concept of 'I' and of all
other phenomena. They are all just labels and have no true,
independent existence.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a highly
realised Tibetan Lama, says that the most powerful healing
methods of all are those based on compassion, the wish
to free other beings from their suffering. The compassionate
mind - calm, peaceful, joyful and stress-free - is the
ideal mental environment for healing. A mind of compassion
stops our being totally wrapped up in our own suffering
situations. By reaching out to others we become aware of
not just my pain but the pain
(that is, the pain of all beings).
Many people find the following
technique powerful and effective: think "By me experiencing
this disease or pain or problem, may all the other beings
in the world be free of this disease, pain or problem" or "I
am experiencing this pain/sickness/problem on behalf of all
living beings." One voluntarily takes on suffering
in order for others to be free of it. This is similar to
the Christian concept of regarding one's suffering as sharing
the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Even death can be used
in this way: "By me experiencing death, may all other
beings be freed from the fears and difficulties of the death
process." We
have to ask ourselves "What is the purpose of my life?
Why do I want to have good health and a long life?".
The ultimate purpose of our life is to be of benefit to others.
If we live longer and just create more negative karma, it
is a waste of time.
Giving and taking is another
powerful meditation. As you breathe in, visualise taking
the suffering and the causes of suffering from all living
beings, in the form of black smoke. When breathing in the
black smoke, visualise smashing the black rock of selfishness
at your heart, allowing compassion to manifest freely.
As you breathe out, visualise breathing out white light
that brings them happiness, enjoyment and wisdom. Developing
compassion is more important than having friends, wealth,
education. Why? Because it is only compassion that guarantees
a happy and peaceful mind, and it is the best thing to
help us at the time of death We can use our sickness and
problems in a very powerful way for spiritual growth, resulting
in the development of compassion and wisdom.
The highest
development of these qualities is the full realisation
of our potential, the state of full enlightenment. Enlightenment
brings great benefit to ourselves and allows us to work
extensively for others. This is the state of ultimate healing.
