Tibetan Healing

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Healing: A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective - Ven. Pende Hawter

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 organization 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, colorless, genderless and has the ability to cognize or

know. The basic nature of mind is pure, limitless and pervasive, like

the sun shining unobstructed 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 midstream 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 midstream. 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 midstream 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 enemyThe

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 midstream. 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 mediators 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. Visualization 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 visualizing holy

images and reciting mantras. I often tell my Christian

patients to visualize the light as Jesus, with the light emanating from

him. In the Tibetan tradition, there are many Buddha figures (deities)

which can be visualized 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 visualize 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 practices 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 color 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 realized 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, visualize taking the

suffering and the causes of suffering from all living beings, in the

form of black smoke. When breathing in the black smoke, visualize

smashing the black rock of selfishness at your heart, allowing

compassion to manifest freely. As you breathe out, visualize 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 realization 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. "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.