Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Who am "I"?

Sri Ramana Maharshi invites us to meditate on the question, "Who am I?" ... ultimately "I" discover that "I" am nothing apart from God. Still "we" cling to "our" illusion of individuality, twisting and jumping from one concept of "self" to another like a fish on a line. Each time mind presents another rationalization for the belief that "I" am separate and unique, "I" must struggle to overcome and release such thoughts. Yet it is impossible to release them completely while living a secular life. "My" family, "my" friends, "my" job, "my" possessions, all seem to have meaning. "My" senses testify that other people also are unique individuals. Only when "I" take sanctuary in meditation can "I" approach the understanding of Oneness. Then dualities fade and "I" passes from awareness for a time in the presence of I am.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

How Should Disease Be Treated?

A discussion of an alternative or naturopathic cancer treatment led me to meditate on the choice between such therapies (which for want of a better term I will call "alternative" medicine) and conventional medicine (i.e., the medicine of Western science, doctors and hospitals).  The understanding that came to me is that physical illness -- by itself, clearly a phenomenon of the material universe -- may have many causes.  Some causes are themselves material (such as exposure to toxic substances, viruses and bacteria, or congenital physical defects). Other causes are energetic (arising in the aetheric boundary between the material and the spiritual), and still others are purely spiritual (such as karma).  Similarly, physical illness can be treated on a variety of levels, ranging from the purely material to the energetic to the purely spiritual.  In each case the treatment will not be considered "successful" unless the physical manifestation of the underlying cause is removed.  That is, the "cure" must manifest in the material universe, on the same plane as the condition being treated.  However, if the underlying cause is energetic or spiritual, it seems the physical condition (or another just as undesirable) is likely to recur unless the non-material cause is also dealt with in some fashion.  There appears to be a hierarchy of cause and effect in which events at the spiritual level have effects on the energetic and material universes; energetic practices affect the material plane, but not the spiritual; and material approaches affect only material manifestations. 

So, for example, some may treat cancer by seeking to modify or release its karmic causes on the spiritual plane.  Some may apply pranic healing, qi gong, or other energetic methods.  And of course, some may treat the condition purely on the material plane, by removing tumors, administering chemotherapy, or applying one of the available alternative remedies. 

An important fact, and one that needs to be stressed repeatedly until everyone understands it, is that none of these methods should be considered to exclude the others.  Far from detracting from the efficacy of conventional medicine, for example, energetic and spiritual treatments have been found to complement conventional approaches to the treatment of disease.  And the application of conventional methods should not be considered inconsistent with energetic and spiritual treatments, or with some alternative methods.  It has been said many times that sometimes God sends help in the form of a doctor.

Now, conventional and alternative medical treatments, in general, both operate solely on the material plane.  There may be some situations in which they are in fact mutually exclusive -- e.g., if a skin cancer lesion is removed by one method, it cannot also be removed by another.  What is not helpful to the patient is that practitioners of either kind often denigrate the practices of the other for non-scientific reasons, such as ego identification with their own specialty or the superstitious belief that only their chosen approach (be it conventional or alternative science) can be efficacious.  Medical science must forsake the illusion of its own infallibility, and acknowledge that some alternative treatments can be effective. Alternative practitioners must similarly respect the methods of conventional science.

Insofar as purely material approaches to the treatment of disease are concerned, I prefer the methods of conventional medicine.  The material universe is truly the domain of Western science, which is constantly expanding its understanding of the physical causes of physical events.  If conventional medicine rejects an alternative treatment on scientific grounds (rather than superstition or prejudice), I am prone to respect that position.  At the same time, I will not fall into the fallacy of supposing that physical disease can have only physical causes. If the cause is energetic or spiritual, then material procedures must be accompanied by an appropriate non-material treatment. I will continue to respect energetic and spiritual treatments in conjunction with the material approaches of conventional and alternative medicine, as the situation dictates.

The Christmas Promise

An early post in this blog was  A Hymn For The Season .  I reproduce the post here, and dedicate it to all who are facing life's challen...