On this particular page, our focus is general well-being, health, and healing. We're looking for examples of sustainable, effective, respectful health care practices that could serve as components of a sane and compassionate approach to health and healing.

The selection of health care practices highlighted here is not at all comprehensive. These are all outstanding examples, superb contributions to the alleviation of human suffering, but we've focused almost entirely on methods that are not widely known. 

For information about practices that are generally understood in the community of Western medical professionals, the Internet offers many health related sites. If you like, you could start with Dharma Haven's Net Quest Health Links.

patch adamsgaviotashildred schuelltibetan medicine

Tibetan Medicine: The Wisdom of Natural Healing

Imagine a medical tradition, highly effective, offering medicines that produce no lasting negative side effects, sustainably using resources of the natural environment, and fostering basic sanity and compassion as the essential basis of health and well being. It seems that several classical Asian cultures embodied such traditions, and elements of those medical traditions, in the form of Chinese herbal medicine, Indian Ayurvedic medicine and Tibetan medicine, are now beginning to gain respect in the West.

Through the link given above, Dharma Haven offers Web pages on many different aspects of Tibetan medicine, including its spiritual basis in Buddhism, generally, and in the Medicine Buddha, in particular.

Can medical care be provided in a way that is both sane and compassionate? Patch adams and his friends, with their Gesundheit! Institute, hope to show us one alternative by creating a hospital and health-care facility with some unusual guidelines:

Not charging any money, to eliminate the distorting effect of greed on health care in our society; Carrying no malpractice insurance; Staff and patients living together in an environment that is not only hospital but also home -- farm, theatre, crafts centre, recreational facility, in a beautiful material setting, with the hospital ae especially silly, playful place; Having respect for and working in cooperation with healers from all traditions; Holding to the fundamental goal of living healthy lives and not just conquering sickness.

Gaviotas: The Village Who Planted Trees

In Gaviotas, Colombia, and the surrounding region, the appropriate technology movement is thriving. An experimental community in the wastelands has accidentally restored a rainforest, along with the hearts of its people.

"Gaviotans live in peace surrounded by narcotics dealers and guerillas. They live without guns, without pesticides, willing to serve and teach all comers. They count their wealth in sun, water, and community."

Hildred Schuell's Aphasia Therapy

Although aphasia was (and still is) generally considered incurable, Dr. Hildred Schuell discovered how to gradually cure most cases, by removing the element of panic and struggle from therapy sessions.

Unfortunately, in our modern world of endless change and countless alternativs, deciding exactly what changes in diet and behavior would be appropriate can be a real challenge. Many conflicting sources of advice on these matters are now widely available. The best advice we've heard is to choose a system that appeals to you and stick with it for long enough to see if it really works for you.

On our Living Wisely, Living Well page we suggest three places to start -- systematic lifestyle counseling from a traditional Tibetan approach, one based on classical Chinese medicine, and a modern eclectic approach.

Living Wisely, Living Well Exploring The Many Facets of a Healthful Lifestyle

The Ancient Wisdom of Shambhala

Unbiased awareness of what is actually going on, within ones own being and in ones environment, automatically leads to appropriate action. When ones mind and body are synchronized, when what is actually happening is experienced on the spot, actions mesh with situations as they truly are. Developing such basic sanity, such authentic presence in the actual situation, is possible for all of us.

Hildred Schuell's Aphasia Therapy

Although aphasia was (and still is) generally considered incurable, Dr. Hildred Schuell discovered how to gradually cure most cases,  by removing the element of panic and struggle from therapy sessions.

Windhorse: An Experiment in Kindness -- "For decades, we who call ourselves consumer/survivors have demanded radical changes in the way mental illness is viewed and treated. We as a group always attribute our recovery to something other than force and pharmacology, the mainstays of the psychiatric system. We advocate for the human perspective in a way of life that has become increasingly cold and frenetic. We plead for treatment that is based on respect and kindness rather than judgment and pathology.

We have not gotten very far. Windhorse Associates is one of the few programs I know of that is translating the words of empowerment into the work of recovery. Kindness takes patience and humanness takes work."

Healing Lodge Final Operational Plan -- from the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women (Correctional Service Canada)

Working with psychological difficulties, our own or those we encounter in other people, should include careful consideration of the individual's diet. Many serious neurological and psychological disorders can be caused by chronic nutritional deficiencies. In fact, the 'B' vitamins were originally discovered as a result of efforts to ameliorate beri-beri, a disease characterized by lesions of nerves, general debility, and painful rigidity -- now known to be caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin b-1). 

Among the most common causes of "mental retardation" are maternal malnutrition and malnutrition during infancy.

Symptoms of psychotic illness and "dementia" can be caused by malnutrition in children and adults. This is especially common in cases of chronic alcohol and drug dependence, and in the elderly. For example, in Western countries, thiamine deficiency is encountered almost solely in cases of chronic alcoholism. 

The Seduction of Madness -- Ed Podvoll

How to be a Help Instead of a Nuisance: Practical Approaches to Giving Support, Service and Encouragement to Others
-- Karen Kissel Wegela

"Excessive fear of death distorts lives, and seems to be responsible for many of the more bizarre and inhumane excesses of our American medical system. In our search for sustainable, effective, respectful health care practices, ideas that could contribute to a sane and compassionate integrated health care system, we've found nothing as simple, basic, workable and cost effective as coming to terms with death and the process of dying -- something we can do as individuals, as families, as communities and as a culture."

Living and Dying: A Buddhist Perspective
by Carol S. Hyman

"Meditation is a practice in how to let go, first of our thoughts, emotions and opinions; later, as we settle down and are able to be simply present, we let go of each moment, constantly moving into the next. Paradoxically, such relaxation, rather than spacing us out,  brings us more directly in contact with what actually is, which might be called nowness or being awake in the eternal present.  For this reason, the symbol for meditation is an endless knot, also called the knot of eternity. Training in such a way is, in effect, training for the ultimate surrender human beings encounter, letting go of this body at the time of death."