Do you have a pulse?

Often people check the pulse to see if someone is still alive. In Chinese medicine, this is no different. In our medicine, however, we are checking for life, or health, in every aspect of one's being. We look to each and every organ system in isolation (on its organic or parenchymal level) and in relation to every other system, i.e., how it participates or contributes to the overall energy, blood and dynamic of the organism.

In Chinese medicine, it is not enough to take a snapshot of an organ or area of the body in order to assess its health or lack of disease. As no organ acts in isolation, the information that this would provide would be insufficient to understand the person's well-being. For example, a patient with fibroids is recommended by her doctor to remove her uterus based solely on the presence of a mass in that organ. But this completely ignores that there is an etiology behind the formation of this mass and ignores the fact that this etiology will remain despite the surgical removal of an organ. Was it caused by Liver stagnation and poor blood circulation in the tissues; maybe a weakness of the Kidneys and hormonal system, or a sexual trauma effecting the Heart and circulation to the pelvis, etc.?

One can never understand health without understanding relationships and interrelationships. Pulse diagnosis is the single best tool to see these relationships in a real-time precise and objective manner. One can determine the mechanisms behind the fibroid and virtually every other symptom in the body. Is there excess in the Liver from stagnant blood invading into the Stomach and causing reflux and indigestion? Is that Liver excess moving into the Heart and causing anger and anxiety? Is their a rough vibration over the pulse reflecting a serious trauma? Is alveoli function impaired in the Lung causing shortness of breath and asthma, or is it from a weakness of the Kidneys not grasping the Lung qi? Are the headaches caused by excess in the Gall Bladder, weakness in the digestive organs, or a trauma to the head reflected by a vibration and pounding in the neuropsychological position? Is the person's adrenal exhaustion a result of genetics and poor constitution, or lifestyle, drug use, excessive sex, or an obsessive personality reflected in the hesitant pulse wave and a constant firing of the sympathetic nervous system?

Without taking into consideration all the organ systems and the myriad relationships, one can never decipher the subtle signs the body is trying desperately to convey. It truly is the hallmark of the superior diagnostician.

Breaking Bad Habits

This is a response I wrote to a comment from a post in June on the Effects of Lifestyle. As comments from older posts are not as accessible, I thought I'd re-post it here. It was essentially a question on how to motivate oneself to make change in one's life:

Your question is significant and, of course, hard to answer. I can only discuss what motivates me and how I approach this subject, understanding that there are many roads to travel.

My first step is to come to the conclusion that I am not as healthy as I'd like to be. If you believe that you are healthy and feel great and can't benefit from changing your habits, then it is hard to make the change.

Secondly, you need to be confident that what you have learned about healthy living and eating, etc. can make the improvements you are seeking.

You see, it's not about sacrifices. We are not looking to deprive ourselves. We are looking to nourish ourselves. The difference is huge. One needs a shift in perspective. People think, oh, the ice cream tastes good, it makes me feel good, etc. and not having it feels like deprivation. A different perspective would suggest, what is the long-term (or even short-term, not immediate) effect of what I am doing? Knowledge would tell us that the ice cream which is filled with refined sugar, chemicals, empty calories, etc. is restricting our circulation in the stomach and intestines, draining out our adrenals, creating a mucus lining in out gut that prevents assimilation of vitamins and nutrients necessary for our well-being, etc. When I think of it that way, I don't feel deprived. I feel empowered.

Understanding the tremendous difference between pleasure and happiness is crucial. Yeah, ice cream tastes good to many, but it also leads to suffering/illness/imbalance in the future. Is it worth it?

These are the kinds of questions to ask oneself to help motivate change. But, yes, you are right. Change isn't easy. It's really difficult. And the best way to do it is to make small changes daily and commit to the process for one's own sake.

I hope this helps. Maybe it's too vague? Let me know. I'd love to continue the discussion.

Ross

The Disease as Part of the Treatment

Often in medicine, the tendency is to view illness as antagonistic. But, like everything else, a simple shift in perspective can point one in a whole new direction. If one thinks of their illness as part of themselves rather than something separate, one can view their illness as a way of getting to know oneself better. The Type A personality who has a heart attack may have an opportunity to slow down and "smell the roses;" the father who suddenly loses his job gets to spend time with his children; the cancer patient who comes to terms with her mortality and can fully appreciate the time that she has left, are just a few examples. I have had patients who later became very thankful for their illnesses and the lessons that they learned from them.

Illnesses, symptoms, etc. are a chance for us to purify ourselves; purify our negative karma, change faulty beliefs, let go of pain, sorrow, anger, etc. that no longer serves us. We need to view our symptoms as something that is trying to teach us something. Our job is to figure it out. We can't squash it with pain medication, or antibiotics, or chemotherapy. We need to face it head-on. To be a warrior and fight through the suffering to get to the other side. Be on a quest for truth, simplicity and finding one's inner nature.

And above all, don't be afraid to change. If you see your imbalances as rooted in your thought patterns, your past actions and your behaviors, without changing one can never heal. Your symptoms are your opportunity to make the necessary changes and adjustments. Failure to adapt and change breeds illness. Awareness is the first step.

Rangnang Ogminling Bendirya Kunphen Ling

I wanted to inform everyone of the above-referenced monastery and medical school/clinic that Rinpoche has asked me to create on His behalf. I am in the process of forming a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation in this name. This is a project that I am hoping will keep Rinpoche here in NJ for a good part of each year. He has expressed to me that He would like to spend the majority of His time here, and this monastery/school/clinic is the first step in ensuring this happens. Upon Rinpoche's request, the location of the monastery will be my home and office for the time being. When Rinpoche returns from Tibet in October, He will be bringing back all the silks and throne materials to make everything formal and official!

As with all ventures of this nature, help from as many interested parties is welcomed and necessary. The areas of help include:
1. Initial Fundraising: to set this monastery up properly and professionally we need to raise approximately $1,000 for the incorporation fees, filing of 501(c)(3) status, lawyer fees, articles of incorporation and bylaw drafting.
2. Website: I have begun putting up a temporary website. The address is http://rangnangogminling.blogspot.com . I am hoping for the assistance of those of you sangha members with web design experience to create a professional website for us. Anyone who can help with this please contact me as soon as possible.
3. On-going Fundraising: to keep the business running, there are a number of on-going fees, including: (a) website maintenance, hosting, design; (b) state and federal corporation and registration fees; (c) raising monies for the eventuality of a separate location (ownership, rental, etc.); (d) funding the workshops, lectures and other Buddhist teachings that will take place at the monastery, etc.
4. Executive Board: We will need to appoint/elect an executive board, so those of you who are interested in being an on-going part of this venture, please contact me.
I am very much determined to have this completed by the time Rinpoche returns from Tibet in October. Thus, time is of the essence!

To make a donation, or to help in any way, please contact me as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone for their anticipated support. And PLEASE pass this information on to everyone that you know who may be interested in this project and all members of the sangha (as I do not have email addresses for most of them). We will need as much support as possible.

Recent Vaccine Study

For some reason, the debate regarding vaccines still goes on. I'll let you guess my opinions on this subject :-) As this subject is immense, as I have mentioned in the past, I choose not to post much on it due to time constraints to do it justice. However, my friend and colleague, Dr. Stickley links to a recent study on vaccines and the strong correlation with neurological diseases, ADHD and autism. You can check it out here.

State of Mind

There is no more important determinant of one's health than the state of mind. Of course, genetics, constitution, lifestyle habits, etc. have a large impact, but the power of our minds has the most pivotal of roles. In Chinese medicine we differentiate causes of disease into multiple categories: (1) internal: emotions and state of mind (including, anger, fear, grief, overthinking, etc.); (2) external: climactic factors (wind, cold, damp, heat/fire, etc.); and (3) miscellaneous (which is not meant to minimize its importance): habits, trauma, toxins, etc.

Of these three categories, the emotions make up the largest percentage of the etiology of disease. Controlling one's emotions, therefore, would seem to have a tremendous impact on our health and the prevention of disease (or treatment thereof). Listening yesterday (again) to a series of lectures that Taoist priest Jeffrey Yuen gave on cancer and Chinese medicine, I couldn't help but notice the correlation between what Jeffrey states and Dharmakirti's psychological law (see previous post). Essentially, Jeffrey was mentioning how the diagnosis of cancer is viewed as a death sentence by most of us and that it is, in fact, how one handles this diagnosis that has tremendous influence on whether or not someone will heal. So often, people get so overwhelmed by the fear of death that they are constantly focused on death. This reinforcement perpetuates negative states of mind and set a vicious cycle in which the disease grows stronger and the patient's health deteriorates (mentally and physically). Jeffrey even goes to say that cancer support groups are for the most part detrimental in that they give credence and power to this deadly disease. He advocates for support groups which foster hope and the desire to heal.

As always, our minds have the greatest power and potential to either bring us towards happiness and health or towards undesirable states of mind and illness. It all depends on how much attention we give positive thoughts and emotions or negative thoughts and states of mind. On a website I visited recently, I read the following tale:

One evening an old Martial Arts Master told his young students about a “Great Battle of life and death” that goes on inside all Human Beings.
The wise man said, "The battle is between "Two Dragons" … They are battling for dominance inside us all.
One is Dark, it represents Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Light, it represents Good. It is joy, love, peace, hope, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, serenity, compassion and faith."
The students thought about it for a while and then asked the Master: "Which Dragon wins?"
The old wise man simply replied, "The one you feed."
Unknown Author

Battle of the Emotions

HH The Dalai Lama's book The Universe in a Single Atom: the convergence of science and spirituality has a wealth of interesting discussions on the nature of consciousness, the origin of the universe, and on scientific exploration in general into the truth of reality. A relevant passage to achieving happiness mentions Dharmakirti's "psychological law" which posits psychological states and emotions as a field of opposing forces in constant flux. One family of emotion may consist of hate, anger and hostility, while the other consists of love, compassion and empathy. The argument is that if any one side of this polarity gains strength, the other weakens. Thus, the goal is to practice and reinforce the desired states of mind, effectively weakening the undesirable and transforming one's thoughts and emotions. Just as turning on a light dispels darkness, cultivating love and compassion can eliminate hate and anger over time with dedicated practice and intention.