Notes taken during the talk by Inga, one of the first Westerners to study Tibetan medicine following the official traditional Men-Tsee-Khang curriculum in Dharamshala.
Memory
If she failed the oral exam would have to wait for 5 years to repeat that course year, so it was vital for her to memorize while studying.
Memorize By Reading 1000 Times
Memorize it without thinking; Learn by heart without the cognitive load! I love her brave way of advancing through classical studies!
The traditional education involved Inga studying texts entirely (among them the རྒྱུད་བཞི། Four tantras). When she started studying she didn’t know Tibetan language. Furthermore those books were not like the spoken Tibetan at all, so memorizing based on meaning or mnemonics was inviable.
After experimenting she found a method that worked for her — muscle memory. When you have learnt a song on the piano you are not thinking of the notes anymore when you start playing it. The fingers move automatically because you have the muscle memory. She realized the same happened with the tongue as you pronounce text.
By reading the text 1000 times — counting on the mala — she would not have to study it!
Link to original
Elements
All 5 elements འབྱུང་བ་ལྔ། are required for everything to exist.
༄༅། །ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་ནམ་མཁའ།
| Element | Color | Attribute | Nature | Body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eearth | Yellow | Stability, support | Landscape, ground, mountain | Bones, muscles |
| Water | Green | Cohesion, connectivity | Rivers, streams, oceans, lakes | All fluids, circulatory dynamics |
| Fire | Red | Vitality, transformation | Solar radiation, thermal energy | Body heat, digestion, metabolism |
| Air | White | Movement | Sets phenomena in motion, produces the waves | Kinetic dynamics, breathing, moving blood, oxygen |
| Space | Blue | Medium for manifestation | Base where phenomena manifests on | Channels, pathways, without space = clogged |
We are not so different, not so disconnected, from our environment.
Faults
Apart from that we have 3 faults ཉེས་པ། (རླུང། མཁྲིས་པ། བད་ཀན།) — which she doesn’t like to be translated as faults, since it means more of a condition. They are also vital energies; without them we can’t exist! If they are balanced we are healthy, if they aren’t we are not. They are called faults because they arise from the 3 poisons (དུག་གསུམ།). They have an area associated with them and when they spread beyond them then that fault is disturbed.
| Fault | Arises from [poison] | Part ([poison] relies on [part]) | Elements that form it |
|---|---|---|---|
| རླུང་། | འདོད་ཆགས། (attachment, passion) | Secret area, genital area | རླུང་། |
| མཁྲིས་པ། | ཞེ་སྣང་། (aversion, anger) | Blood, aorta, middle part | མེ། |
| བད་ཀན། | གཏི་མུག (ignorance, delusion) | Brain, upper part | ས་ཆུ། |
Example: Delusion relies on brain. Delusion gives raise to delusion, in the brain.
IDEA
The brain related to water? It makes sense! it’s a soft tissue and mostly water. Without knowing the organ they got it right.
Similar to Embryo Development
Tibetan Medicine Faults Mapping to Embryo Development
Fascinating how Tibetan medicine did not contradict how modern science observed the development of the embryo (during the 6 weeks of pregnancy): the development of the centers associated with those Faults align with the major areas developed at the embryo stage:
- One channel goes upwards and forms brain.
- One channel goes to heart center, forming aorta, “life channel”.
- One channel goes to genital (secret) area.
The embryo forms the neural tube around week 3, simultaneously the heart and the urogenital region develop reaching formation in around week 4 and 4-6 respectively.
Link to original
Existence
We exist because there are three poisons, without them the faults can’t arise, thus no vital energies would makes us alive; we cannot have body without faults. (Nirvana is there! Without them!)*
* Question but you can achieve nirvana being alive? question
6 Seasons
In Tibetan Medicine 6 seasons are considered, which are also connected to our body.
| Season | Element Manifests | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Spring དཔྱིད་ཀ་ | བད་ཀན་ | Flu, mucus, allergies. Because phlegm, after being frozen in winter starts melting. |
| After-spring ཟོ་ཀ་ missing-spelling | རླུང་ | Hot and dry. Since there’s not water element, lung is abundant, but not manifested. |
| Summer དབྱར་ཀ་ | རླུང་ | Heavy rains. Cold wind comes. Lung was accumulating in the previous season, building up. And the light coldness of the wet season makes it manifest. |
| Autumn སྟོན་ཀ་ | འཁྲིས་པ་ | During summer, since lung is very high (think of blowing an ember to rebuild a fire). Now since it’s less wet, it gets warm. Fire manifests. |
| Lower winter དགུན་མེད་ missing-spelling | Fire is pacified. | |
| Upper winter དགུན་ཏོད་ missing-spelling | Water freezes so it can’t flow. Cold accumulates. བད་ཀན་ accumulates, but doesn’t manifest because it’s very cold, so no symptoms. |
Interesting observation: many religions, ages ago, do spring-time fasting — probably because they were low on food stock after winter. If having lots of phlegm (བད་ཀན་) in your system, if you fast you can balance them, preventing the diseases.
Ayurveda
When Tibetan medicine consolidated, in Lhasa, around 12th century, there was a big medical conference — First Council on Tibetan Medicine*1 —, inviting scholars from all around the world: Persia, China, Mongolia, Greece. In that conference they exchanged a lot of knowledge.
From then onwards Tibetan medicine implemented many elements from ayurveda — for example the faults and elements —and other systems. It’s influence — despite coming from many sources — is mostly from the Indian systems (others: Mongolian, Chinese, Islamic, …). Tibetan is 60% similar to ayurveda.
People who claim it’s not related to ayurveda how would then explain that in the texts some of the plant names are from India and not Tibet?
Footnotes
-
Second council happened in 2012! ↩