The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

Buddhist Hour Broadcast 302 on Hillside Radio 88.0 FM
for Sunday 9 November 2003


This script is entitled:
Health is the Greatest Gift

One day, King Pasenadi of Kosala went to the Jetavana monastery after having his full morning meal. It was said that the king had eaten one quarter basket (about half a bushel) of rice with meat curry on that day; so while listening to the Buddha's discourse he felt very sleepy and was nodding most of the time. Seeing him nodding, the Buddha advised him to take a little less rice everyday and to decrease the amount on a sliding scale to the minimum of one-sixteenth part of the original amount he was taking. The king did as he was told and found that by eating less he became thin, but he felt very much lighter and enjoyed much better health. When he told the Buddha about this, the Buddha said to him, "O king! Health is a great boon; contentment is a great wealth; a close and trusted friend is the best relative; Nibbana is the greatest bliss."

Currently on a Tibetan Medicine Tour of Australia is Dr. Nida Chenagtsang.

Dr Nida Chenagtsang was born in Amdo, Tibet in 1971. He entered the Lhasa Tibetan Medical College where he studied traditional Tibetan medicine. He has established the first International School of Tibetan Massage in the Medical Department of the Shang Shung International Institute for Tibetan Studies in Italy, under the direction of Chšgyal Namkhai Norbu.

On Friday 7 November he gave a public lecture titled "Mantra Healing" at the Monash City Centre, in Melbourne. Our Resident Practitioners John and Anita Hughes and several of our Members attended.

The emergence of a sophisticated medical system in Tibet dates to the 7th Century. Tibetan medical theory is encapsulated in the GyŸdzhi, the Four Tantras, and is presented as dialogues between emanations of the Medicine Buddha. These tantras were revised in the 12th century, consist of 5,900 verses and are still used today. They integrate medical knowledge gathered throughout Tibet, Asia and the Middle East.

"Tibetan Medicine is one of the greatest legacies of Tibetan Buddhist civilisation; Like the traditional Indian and Chinese systems, Tibetan medicine views health as a question of balance; [it] stresses the indivisible interdependence of mind body and vitality."

Dr. Nida (pronounced Nee-da) began by giving a background to the framework of Tibetan medicine.

Tibetan medicine uses three "trees":

General condition
Diagnostics
Treatment

Dr. Nida drew three trees to explain.

The first tree, for general condition, has two branches, the first for balance, and the second for pathology.

In Tibetan medicine, there are three factors that involved in health:

Mental
Energy
Physical

and health depends on a balance of these three.

Physical balance depends upon energy balance, and energy balance depends on mental balance.

The second branch of the first tree is the pathology, where the doctor looks at the pathology process to find the cause of any imbalance, the cause and effect, and the primary and secondary causes.

The second tree is the tree of diagnostics, which has three branches:

1.asking
2.looking
3.touching

The patient is asked, as it is the patient who knows best about his or own immediate past history of behaviour, or how they feel. A painful part of the body may be palpated. Touching includes pulse reading.

The third tree, the treatment, has four branches:

1.Diet
2.Lifestyle/behaviour
3.Medicine
4.External therapy

A cause can often be found in the first or second branches, that is, diet and lifestyle, or behaviour. The behaviour branch includes mental emotions, and breathing.

The present symptoms are considered, with attention to the five sense organs and the skin, and urine analysis (colour, smell, air bubbles, sediment) an important analysis tool.

In Tibetan medicine, diet and behaviour are considered the first two therapeutical approaches utilised to ensure good health and to prevent most disorders. According to Tibetan medicine, a simple change of habits and diet can cure diseases without taking any medicine.

If medicine, the third branch, is required, medicines will be made up that consist of herbs, animal parts and other ingredients 3,000 different medicinal remedies are available for use by the Tibetan medicine practitioner.

The fourth branch of treatment is external therapy, and may involve massage, baths, blood-letting, hot springs, shiatsu therapy, an so on.

The Tibetan medical system is a humoural one, based on the three fold division of energy into wind, bile and phlegm, dependent upon the Five Elements (earth, water, fire, air and space).

The energy aspect is based on the 5 elements.

The wind and space elements belong to the Wind humour.
Fire element belongs to the Bile humour.
Water and earth elements belong to the Phlegm humour.

Diagnosis is based on establishing the existing balance of wind, bile and phlegm. Each is given the result of a "+" sign, meaning that the humour exists in excess, a "-" sign, meaning that it is deficient, or a "x", meaning that it is in disorder.

If all three humours exist at 100%, then balance, and thus good health, is indicated.

An excess usually leads to disorder. The three humours must remain active in their own domains. For example, if bile is in excess and then goes to phlegm and interferes, they will both become imbalanced, and disorder will result.

Therapy works to address the imbalance between the three humours; if temperature is too low, then heat is added, if temperature is too high, then cold is added, or alternatively, extra heat is added, such as when a person has a fever.

The goal is change disorder, denoted by an "x" sign, to order, denoted by an "=" sign.

The doctor works with the last tree (treatment) to affect the first tree (general condition), by balancing mental, energy and physical.

Mantra belongs to number two of the third tree, that is, lifestyle treatment.

1. Mantra, or sound therapy, can be used in combination with other therapies, for example, it can be used to purify food. Undigested food is the cause of all internal disease. What is known in Western medicine as the immune system depends on digestion.

Mantra can be used to aid in the digestion of specific foods, such as meat, and so mantra is used in combination with lifestyle.

Mantra can also be chanted for protection from contagious diseases.

2. Mantra can be used with voice; people can be taught how to use voice and breathing exercises for calming the mind.

3. Mantras are also used with the actual medicine. The doctor should put the medicines onto a mandala to chant over them and empower them before giving them to the patient. Patients can also do mantra before taking them to make them work in a more profound way, to reinforce and protect their organs.

4. Mantra can also be chanted in combination with moxibustion. The practitioner chants the fire mantra: "RAM, RAM, RAM", which is the root syllable of fire, to give more heat as the moxibustion is applied to specific points.

The process of mantra healing comes from the Bon tradition, which is shamanic, and also exists in Mongolian, Indian and Chinese shamanism.

Mantras are from Bon, Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

There are two types of mantras.

The first is the "common mantra" which is for healing of the individual, and is not limited to any particular culture or tradition. It can be used by anyone, and is very simple, without visualization. Everyone can use it, but we need instructions. We need to get transmission from the doctor.

The second kind is the "uncommon mantra". These are the Buddhist Vajrayana, or Mantrayana, Tantra mantras, and you must be Buddhist to do these. These mantras are for healing of the universe through emptiness and compassion, healing for self and others, including non-humans, for all sentient beings.

Dr. Nida gave the example of a woman who was given a mantra to recite to eliminate kidney stones. After repeating the mantra solidly over 3-4 days, her body eliminated the kidney stones by passing them out through her urine.

How do mantras work?

They work in two ways.

The first way is easy to explain: the way they work is connected with breathing, and with the sound vibration.

The second way has no easy-to-understand physical explanation.

For example, in Tibet, butter is placed on the head of the mother who is giving birth, and a mantra chanted over it. When the baby is born, the butter appears on the head of the baby. We do not know how to explain this, but it happens.

This type of mantra is connected with mental function, and the power of the mind, and so visualization is used. Mind is the best healer, and so if used in a positive way, it can right the body energy balance.

Mantra syllables and colors can be used for different points on the body to re-balance energies.

Using the mind for healing is deep and profound, but it does not work in just one day or immediately as is sometimes said in New Age therapies.

Dr. Nida gave another example, this time of a woman who healed her vision by doing 1/2 to one hour of visualization or mantra for one year, after which time her sight was fully restored. Her "treatment" involved visualised holes in her two eyes, and then removing her negative energies through her eyes.

This type of healing is connected with the 5 elements with different visualisations, as the 5 elements have different forms.

The five elements also have different colors, shapes, and sounds, as follows:

The five elements also have their own smells and tastes two, and so the five sense contact is also connected with the five elements.

Everything is connected with the five elements.

This is the most profound part of healing, using sound, colour and so on.

As mentioned earlier, balance must be achieved in the mental, the energy and the physical domains.

With mental, there are five emotions that are again connected with the five elements, such as fire or water. Unstable emotions are associated with wind.

We can treat the physical, which then has an effect on the energy, which in turn affects the mental balance.

If treatment at the physical level does not work, then we can try the energy, and then the mental, which means the five elements, or mantra.

Working with energy affects both mental and physical, so if treatment works well on energy, it cures the physical and mental too.

Energy is in the middle, and thus represents the Middle Path.

Purification practises are all connected with the mantra.

For the prevention aspect, we must also work with the five elements.

We work with the subject, in order that the subject may not be affected by external influences.

This is also a way of understanding ourselves. We have a physical anatomy, and we have light, or colour, anatomy. If we know ourselves, and develop strong confidence, to be unaffected by external influences, then all will be OK.

Dr. Nida then gave an example of a mantra to help with stress and depression. It is the mantra HA, unvoiced, and accompanied by a strong expiration of air from the lungs.

Another example he gave was BHAT, which when repeated gets the whole body moving, and is thus good for rousing energy.

During question time, Master John Hughes asked about the syllable HA used in the Vajrasattva mantra, and if it is the same as the mantra demonstrated by Dr. Nida for relieving stress and depression, as he had only seen the mantra written in books, and not actually heard it pronounced.

Dr. Nida said that it is not, that the syllable HA used to relieve stress and depression is used in isolation, not like the HA in the Vajrasattva mantra, which is used in combination with other sounds, and is voiced.

In response to a question about the importance of the pronunciation of the syllables, Dr. Nida used the example of VAJRA, which in Tibetan is pronounced BENZA. He cited a historical incidence in which a person using the pronunciation VAJRA questioned the validity of the BENZA pronunciation of a great master. The great master using the BENZA pronunciation then demonstrated the power that he had acquired using the BENZA pronunciation, leaving no doubt about the efficacy of the Tibetan version, and showing the importance of intention in saying the mantra as being of prime importance.

The syllable HRI is used when preparing for death, as it is the symbolic mantra of Amitabha.

Dr. Nida then mentioned the mantra for rendering alcohol harmless, in which one syllable changes the colour of alcohol, another removes its capacity to intoxicate, and the third removes the smell.

John D. Hughes offered Dr. Nida a Tibetan blessing scarf, some pink roses and his own Akubra hat.

Dr. Nida is running a two-day workshop in Melbourne this weekend, Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9, on mantra healing.

Detailed explanations will be given about:
- explanation of the origin of this spiritual healing practice
- main fundamental principles of Tibetan medicine
- mantras used to cure specific disorders and their actions
- mantras and their transmission
- explanations on how to use the mala (rosary beads), different types of malas, the recitation of mantras, the posture to assume and many other necessary details
- therapeutical properties of some precious stones.

For more information go to website: www.dzogchen.org.au

For photos from the evening 7 November talk will soon be available in our online Buddha Dhyana Dana Review at: www.bddronline.net.au

May you have good health.

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by Leanne Eames.



References

http://www.dzogchen.org.au/medicine1.htm

http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=204


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