Principle of Harmony in Healing
Unity in the Mystery and History of Medicine
by
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One of the biggest criticisms of conventional western medical care, is that it doesn’t feel very caring. The fundamental attitude of compassion is one thing that seems to have remained more alive in traditional indigenous medicine, than perhaps ever existed in conventional medicine. Conventional modern medical doctors afirm that they are giving care. They ask the question – “aren’t we helping the people with most of their sicknesses?” Regardless of the help given, on the receiving end of allopathic medicine it often feels like compassionate care is lacking. The lack of appreciation of the doctors’ help has not gone unnoticed by allopathic medical professionals. For more than a decade it has now been part of many medical schools’ curriculum to offer classes on caring, empathy, and on understanding the feelings of patients in an effort to establish in the patients trust, relief, and the perception of true care. There are also independent workshops to help doctors empathize with their patients. Due to the huge workload, and demand for eficiency, time with patients are limited, and giving of too much time is seen as a hindrance to accomplishing the goal of modern medical care. Paradoxically the generally accepted view of the established modern medical clinic is that caring for the patient too much, having too much “compassion”( a word not used in medical textbooks because it means to “share the suffering”)is seen as being counter productive to caring for the patient medically. Burnout of the doctors often happens, and the doctors are left in a kind of stupor, in response to the big gap in why the practice of medicine doesn’t feel more fulfilling. If they care too much, they fear, they will be negatively effected by the unending sad stories, and devastating events that take place in the lives and deaths of those in the hospital setting. Yet the result, which is being perceived as a lack of helpfulness, is devastating at times to the doctor, especially when real measurable help has been successfully given to the patient. This gap is exactly what indigenous and traditional medical systems, that have kept unbroken spiritually in2luenced medical traditions alive, have to offer the West in its noble attempt to relieve suffering. Even though the modernization of many traditional practices have occurred, the understandings exist there, within the ancient systems, as to the root of the suffering, and the way to help most people get out of that suffering. Whether those understandings are utilized today in the practice of traditional healing or not, is another question, but the wisdom is there. With many of these similar issues of quick non-personal care arising now, even within traditional medical practices, the wisdom that lies dormant therein must be remembered, and reconsidered.
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About the Book
"The Principle of Harmony in Healing is a pioneering work that reveals many surprising links between the indigenous medical traditions of antiquity, suggesting that the world’s oldest medical systems were likely conjoined or coordinated across the planet in ancient times. This captivating book not only unearths the forgotten role of harmony between patient and healer, but also exposes innumerable other startling connections among the ancient cultures that emphasized such a harmony in their medicine. How is the Hindu god Brahma, and his consort Saraswati, linked with the Hebrew luminary Abrahm, and his wife Sara? How is the Hindu Kush mountain range related to the Land of Kush along the Blue Nile in Ethiopia? Sowa Rigpa—the indigenous medicine of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Siberia, Mongolia, and Himalayan regions of India—fused many ancient medical traditions together in a unified system that has not only benefited countless patients throughout history, but also exhibits many key characteristics of the other medical traditions that thrived in distant parts of the world in past millennia, including Mesoamerica and Indonesia. How and why did these traditions come to have such an uncanny resemblance in an era when they are not believed to have developed any contact with each other? Is there a connection between the Amchi shamans of the Himalayas and the Hampchi healers of the Andes? These are just a few of the alluring questions covered in deBecker’s ground-breaking work, The Principle of Harmony in Healing."
About the Author
Gunasilan has travelled and studied with a variety of indigenous healers, and classically trained doctors of different indigenous traditions throughout Asia and America. He discovered along the way that the elders who had no interest in a performing modern "doctor" image upheld bedisde manner that was more effective than the younger doctors of their tradition. He has been a practitioner of various alternative and traditional medical fields and continues his study and practice in Tibetan Medicine. The relationship of doctor and patient has been an inquiry that has brought him experiences of traditional cosmology that is unique. His message is that the relationship was a significant aspect of indigenous medicine, and now is being threatened by desires of young doctors to look like and act like modern allopathic physicians. In addition to practicing Sowa Rigpa, he currently teaches and supports the preservation and education of these ancient systems.