How do our thoughts affect our health ?

How do our thoughts  affect our health ?

 Interview with Dashi-Nima, Emchi Lama of Ivolginsky datsan, Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Ulan-Ude

 

-As far as we know, in the Buryat tradition it was forbidden to  laugh or to cry too much. How do our emotions affect our health? 

– They do affect a lot. Recently there was a member of North Korean national football team who had a  heart attack on the field, his heart stopped after the joy of victory. Excessive joy has an impact on the physical body. The reason is the  attachment to the result, fanaticism which is in fact an unconscious aggression. You have to be humble and quiet. "There are many high and  intelligent but  the truth is revealed to humble ones."

- Well, lets’ remember the tradition. The Buryats didn’t mourn for the dead, it was necessary to restrain any manifestation of grief and be reserved, while it was accepted to grieve and mourn the passed away relatives loudly among Russians. Which way is accepted more?

- There is a tale, in which the Sultan sent three tax collectors to the poor. The first time the poor ones were crying inconsolably, second time they cried even louder, and third time they were laughing ... And then the Sultan said: "Enough is enough, they have nothing else." When all is lost, and there is nothing to be attached to, the man finds freedom and independence. Crying helps to relieve stress, but the extremes should be avoided.

According to Buddhist tradition, people do not cry in order to release the passed away person, to let him quietly go away into another world. But a good cry and then letting it go also helps. Because "keeping" the dead person and reminding yourself of how good it used to be when he or she was alive is selfishness. There are people around you that need more of your attention. Tradition is not bad and is not good. It's just a tradition.

- What happens to those who suppress their emotions too much?

- Diabetes, for example, occurs to those who keep themselves in tension. In Tibetan medicine book “Chzhud-shi" it says that all diseases come from the root of ignorance. When people are attached to something too much, at first glance, even to positive things: to work, to the result and even to spirituality, honesty and generosity, it can be dangerous. When a person is too honest, he begins at some point to oppose himself to the rest of people - dishonest, low, from his point of view. And this is pride.

When a person hates the dishonest and unjust it is an aggression which transforms into a program of self-destruction. When a person gets very angry and agitated, his blood, liver, pancreas produces a huge amount of bile and hormones are disturbed. Islets of Langerhans, responsible for the production of insulin, begin to break down. Accordingly, blood sugar gets increased. Glaucoma is also the case with those who excessively accumulate the anger and tension. Eyes are associated with the liver; you can even say that the eyes are the windows of the liver.

- It means that only the people who are "ignorant" get affected by diseases. So we can now declare that all sick patients are to blame for their own illnesses.

- No. If you think arrogantly about those who are sick, that they are ignorant, that they are not wise enough, or intelligent enough, and so on, it’s a straight path for yourself to become sick. Shakyamuni Buddha predicted that there will be times when people will get infections and will suffer tumors. Everyone is exposed to the root of ignorance, we are all humans. Sometimes, people say, what a good person! In this evaluation there is an error: good for who? For you and, let’s say for your relatives?

But for others maybe he was not that good, maybe even bad. All is relative. The way a person looks and talks does not always correspond to his inner spirit, his fate. Maybe a person is too attached to the mind, the intellect. These people, by the way, often suffer sugar jumps. They begin to despise the dumb, stupid. But in that "stupidity" in simplicity there is sometimes more wisdom. This "stupid" in some ways is much wiser than "smart", who collects all the negativity in himself.

- What is a disease from your point of view?

- Disease is a block. When we start to get attached to something too much we begin self-destruct program. The disease prevents us from rapid decay.

Theoretically a person without disease would have, simply, quickly fall apart. But the disease blocks it, gives him warning signs. My teacher told the patient: "Those who have the blood sugar high, need to get angry a bit, to cry, let emotions to get out." And the patient was a very intelligent man, he liked to hold everything in himself. No wonder people say : Speak it all out , Cry it all out. In this sense the crying is useful.

- And why there is such a growing number of diseases?

- "Chzhud-shi" explains where the diseases, infections, epidemics, cancer are coming from. We often talk about the environment. We chop trees; violate the laws of the universe. In the old times there was a saying: Do not cut trees near water. It is very dangerous, it's a disaster. Water begins to change its structure and to deteriorate.  "Chzhud-shi" says people will start to pollute the Earth, and the spirits of Earth and Water will start to take revenge. Universe is a whole organism. We are all in some way connected. And he, who does not cut the trees, is still responsible. Our life is a chain of causes and effects.

- So we are in inevitable trouble? For the people, some antibiotics do not help already ...

- One doctor urologist told me that sometimes very expensive antibiotics do not help to cure the infection. But Tibetan medicine has a wide range of natural remedies to fight infections. Just it takes longer time. Medications are attributed according to the type of constitution of man: wind, bile, phlegm. There are women's diseases caused by dangerous winds, there are those that are caused by the danger of blood.

Dangers of wind are various and severe endometriosis with chronic diseases of the pelvic organs. Dangers of Blood are endometritis, with arterial hypertension. Everything is determined by pulse. Cinnamon, cardamom, asparagus, mustard, Paeonia root in the right proportions increase the body heat. Chung, aconite, musk and other herbal remedies fight infections.

-It is autumn now. What we should be aware of in autumn?

- Reduced activity of kidney heat or "cold in the kidney," arises from the fact that people are wrong about their clothing, things they put on. To this also contributes the consumption of beer. And then we have requests to cure prostatitis, because people do not know that it is associated with the consumption of beer.

Beer is cold by its properties. If you drink it when it is chilled, it begins to oppress the heat of the stomach, the kidneys. This provokes male and female diseases. Pregnancy problems, infertility arise from the lack of heat in the body by the kidneys. Excessive consumption of beer triggers these diseases.

- What you should drink to stay healthy during the cold season?

- It is better to drink warm boiled water. To think that boiled water is dead is prejudice. Contrary to Western trends Tibetologists do not believe that people should drink two liters of clean water a day. Drinking norms depend on the season, the constitution of man, the nature of his work and eating habits.

 Drinking cold water cools the stomach, pancreas, liver and colon. Sipping cold water from a bottle like in American tradition, you can "earn" diabetes. Excess of water reduces function of the pancreas, which leads to a special type of diabetes. People with constitution type "bile” that always feel hot, can drink water more. But it is better, if it is warm.

- Going back to the emotions. What is the impact on our health when we get upset on somebody and keep the hurt inside?

- Even the smallest hurt has a destructive force. Most often it affects the kidneys. Women often get upset on men, to fathers and thus disturb the harmony of yin and yang-, the unity of opposites. Getting upset on somebody means a subconscious hatred, wishing a death to the offender. When it accumulates, it inhibits the kidneys and affects women's health. The same way for men. Those who get upset on women begin to suffer male problem. These are very simple examples. Consequences of injuries are very diverse and heavy.

- What other emotions harm health?

- Regretting. Ignorance breeds desire, the desire turns into addiction, attachment, which always generates aggression. For example, young couple fell in love, they love and desire each other. Attachment obscures true love. One of them makes this feeling as an end result which leads to increased jealousy, suspicion, desire to subjugate.

Regretting is also an aggression to time. Person begins to reproach himself why did I do that? Repentance is a way to put an end to regret. Do not reproach yourself again, and take a vow that from now on it will never happen again. You should not regret also about what has not yet been done. On a more subtle level, there is no past and no future.

D. Batudaeva