Healing From The Source: The Science And Lore Of Tibetan Medicine
Dhonden's introduction to Tibetan medicine originated as a series of lectures, and 15 percent of it consists of questions and answers. Dhonden stresses that the medicines of Tibet and China are radically different from Western medicine, and that after the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet, the conquerors began making and selling Tibetan remedies elsewhere in Asia as their own. The image of the tree of medicine, with manifold trunks, branches, and leaves, provides the conceptual skeleton for Tibetan medicine. Other major concepts are that the body contains three humors and five elements that affect its problems and their treatments, and that the three primary causes of disease are attachment, hatred, and delusion. The fourimmeasurables(i.e., the good guys) in the Tibetan system are loving kindness, compassion, empathic joy, and equanimity. In addition to such systematic explanation, Dhonden touches on Tibetan ideas about the proper conduct of life, medical education, and medical ethics.William Beatty