"
In this age made totally dark By the five great degenarations, The
sentient being constantly tossed In waves of disease, sorrow and
pain.
Thus Buddha, out of great compassion Emanates at
bendurya, the Medicine guru, To shine as a sun in the skies of the
world, And dry up the waters giving birth to all ills."
A
Benediction to the medicine Buddha.
By Gyalwa Kalzang Gyatso.
The Seventh Dalai Lama
Originally,
Tibetan medicine dates back to the pre-Buddhist era. During the
Bon-period, various healing techniques were devised and practiced. With
the coming of Buddhism, medical knowledge became an integral part of
religious doctrines and monastic discipline. Buddha's key teaching of the
middle way between worldly indulgence and self-denial gave wondering
physicians of the period a radically different view of the world and of
humankind's place in it; this was further fostered by their intensely
meditative discipline. Medicine thus became a part of Buddhism - Providing
the means to maintain a healthy bodily state of equilibrium.
Some
have suggested that the Buddha's key teaching of the four Noble Truths was
based on a medical paradigm, whereby suffering, its cause, its elimination
find a parallel in medicine to disease, its cause , health and the remedy.
But actually the four-fold division that occurs in Caraka Samhita is
different from the four Noble Truths. "The best physician, one fits
to treat a king, is he whose knowledge is four fold: (he knows) the Cause
(hetu), symptom (linga), cure (prasamana), and non-recurrence
(apunarbhava) of diseases. Knowledge of medical theory and practice among
the sramanic Buddhist However, is indisputable, and Buddhist sangha, or
monastic community where wandering intellectuals would gather and exchange
information, soon became the principal vehicle for the preservation,
advancement and transmission of medical lore.
Some of this
repository of medical lore was confied at these sanghas, thereby giving
rise to a Buddhist medical monastic tradition. In the early sangha,
membership was quite unrestricted and wanderers joined and left at will.
These comings and going increased the volume of new information available.
Debates among the temporary residents were common and luckily included
topics related to medicine. As fixed Sangha establishment with permanent
resident monks became more common, the knowledge discussed and exchanged
was gradually accumulated, filtered and codified, eventually becoming
Buddhist doctrine. The symbolic relationship between Buddhism and medicine
led to the large conglomerate monasteries or viharas.
However,
even after the establishment of settled monasteries, medicines requisite
in sickness remained among the monk's necessities and constituted one of
his four possessions along with a robe, a begging bowl, and a bed.
Tibetan medicine continued to progress due to the efforts of Buddhist
monks and emphasis laid on it by religion. In the process, it derived
influences from various external sources. In the second century A.D., it
was further influenced by the arrival of two Physician Bijay and Gazay.
The Brahmin physician Bijay was given the princess Cham-sing-yekyireoja as
his bride by King Lha-tho-thori-nyebtsen. Their son, named
Thung-ki-thorchok, too became a famous physician.
The
development of the Tibetan system got an impetus during the 7th and 8th
centuries when physicians from Persia, Greece, India, Nepal, China,
Sinking and other neighboring state were invited to Tibet by the king
Songster Gampa and Trosogn Detsen, to exchange knowledge with Tibetan
scholars and [physicians. Many young Tibetans were enrolled as medical
students and nine among them became learned physicians. At this period the
great Tibetan translator and scholar, Beru Tsana (vaircana) translated the
" Ghyushi" (Four Tantras) teaching given by the Kashmiri scholar
Chandranandna (Panchen Dawa Ngoenpa), into the Tibetan language and
presented the work to the king.
Besides Beru Tsana, the renowned
Tibetan physician,Elder Youthong Youtan Gompo (708-833 A.D.) too received
the "Ghyu-shi" teaching from India. It is said that spread of "Ghyu-shi"
teaching was not ripe for revelation at that period and Guru Padmasambhava
hid the works, until Dapa Ngoenshay revealed this hidden work from top of
the Samey Monestery in the eleventh Century.
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In this age made totally dark