sharing my experience both inside and outside the Temple. Through my work, many patients have fully recovered and many depressed visitors have been cheered. In hopes of helping more people avoid illness and enable them to have a healthy, happy life, I have put together my reflections on life and my understanding of Buddhist wisdom, effective methods of Zen medicine, and proven recipes, recording them in this book. I sincerely hope that this book will be a gateway to a healthier, happier life.
Shi Xinggui
November 29, 2015
Chapter I
Curing Mental Anxiety to Prevent Physical Disease
In the early years of my medical practice, I was involved in the building of many rehabilitation centers in the US, Germany, and Canada. My pursuit of fame and wealth reached its peak when I was invited to give lectures there. My vanity grew immensely when I saw the large audiences that gathered.
Only after my gradual recovery from cancer did I begin to realize that position and wealth do not belong to us, no matter how much they seem to. When one’s life ends, what can he bring with him? We are but passing visitors in this world, and our journey lasts just dozens of years. There is no reason for stubbornness. We must let go. We can only have all these things when the heart is empty enough to hold all.
According to modern scientific research, one’s health is determined by many factors, such as heredity, food and drink, emotion, medical care, balance between work and rest, and one’s living environment. Among these, heredity makes up 15%, food 10%, emotion 60%, medical care 10%, and others 5%. Obviously, emotion, or state of mind, is key to our health.
This is in line with pulse-taking in traditional Chinese medicine, in which changes in one’s emotional state, however small, affect the vital energy and state of the blood, which is displayed in the condition of the pulse. This proves that human emotions and psychology are closely related to disease, as many diseases come from inside. Therefore, one who is mentally ill is physically ill as well. That’s why we often hear of someone who falls sick due to anger, anxiety, worry, or annoyance.
One’s state of mind affects his health as much as any medical treatment. All diseases are due to one’s mental state, and they will be cured once the mental state is properly aligned. According to traditional Chinese medicine, a disease is cured more through general healthcare than through medical treatment, and the key to general healthcare is adjusting the patient’s state of mind. In many people’s eyes, cancer is incurable. While it is true that many cancer patients die one to two months after a diagnosis is made, there are also many who continue to live a normal life. The moment I was diagnosed with cancer, I thought I should diligently fight it, but I later discovered that I was wrong. Instead of beating my brains out to kill the cancer cells in my body, I assumed a calm, fearless attitude toward the disease. I let it be and kept myself happy and carefree. In this way, my state of mind improved, and so did health.
1. Maintaining Good Spirits
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the essence of life, vital energy, and spirit represent the three aspects of life respectively, i.e. the principle and material basis, the dynamics and energy movement, and the dominator and external symptoms. Being closely linked, even indispensable, to life, they are invaluable to human beings, as they are the prime mover of one’s life, the basis for one’s health, and the prerequisite for one’s career development. Consider whether you have ever seen a successful person looking listless or sighing in despair in public. Of course not! When you are in good spirits, you naturally look sunny and positive, and this mental state will also affect others, such as your business partner, and will pave the way for fruitful conversation. By contrast, a lagging spirit is often associated with negativity, which will attract other negative things, including disease.
How then, can we maintain a good spirit? The most important thing is to present our best state of mind to others. When I was seriously ill, I was all skin and bones and had little physical strength. However, when there were visitors, I did not hold back when receiving them. Even though I often wept at the afflictions afterwards, I told myself not to impose my own pains and troubles on others.
The second thing one must do to maintain good spirits is to get moving. The human body consists of two kinds of energy, i.e. yin and yang. If we stay inert in the daytime, the yang energy will not be generated. How can we be strong and healthy then? If we keep active at night, the yang energy will not change into the yin energy, and how can we fall asleep that state? Look at the children around you. They scamper around in the day and sleep like a log at night, falling asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Some children don’t wake up even if they fall from the bed. This is a perfect example of the balance between yin and yang.
Receiving others with vigor and spirit benefits our body and soul. It also prepares us for a brighter future.
2. Not Enslaved by Material Gain
Mr. Liu, a wealthy lay Buddhist, was diagnosed with liver cancer. He asked me, “I’ve converted to Buddhism for five or six years now and have chanted Buddhist scriptures each day for about half an hour. How have I contracted cancer? Does Buddha really exist?”
I knew that he was walking the same path I once walked. What he felt was exactly what I felt. I believed that he might have pondered over these questions for some time. When I was in good condition, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to winning personal fame and material comforts everywhere I went, but when I came down with cancer and was confined to bed, I was awakened to the fact that money could not save my life, no matter how much of it I had.
Why are so many people today afflicted by depression, anxiety, and delusional disorders? Why do they sleep badly at night and lose interest in food? The reason is simple. Their hearts are fatigued and they persist too firmly in their pursuit of material gain. They feel jealous at others’ achievements, wishing to grab whatever they like for themselves. They are reluctant to give up smaller benefits, but never fail to chase after and compete for bigger benefits. They are highly emotional, allowing no mistakes on the part of their subordinates. Blinded by anger, they can hardly see their own true nature. According to the traditional Chinese medicine, anger impairs the liver, causing diseases.
Most of the people in this world have lost their true nature, abandoning themselves to the pursuit of fame and material gain. Some, even after converting to Buddhism for many years, remain sallow and emaciated, lacking in strength from a young age. This shows that their worldly nature has remained unchanged. What they worship and pursue are position, wealth, and fame, which are precisely the sources of disease. Only when they find their true selves and live a natural, clean life can they gain physical health.
3. Being Yourself
Su Shi (1037–1101), an important literary figure in the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), once held a post in Guazhou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which stood across from the Jinshan Temple, where his friend, the erudite Buddhist monk Foyin lived. One day, having achieved some new understanding of Buddhism through meditation, he composed the following verse to express what he felt:
I bow in worship to the mightiest of the mighty,
Whose light shines over the whole universe.
Against the winds from eight directions,
I sit undisturbed on the purple lotus.
Joyfully, he asked his servant to send the verse to his friend, expecting some praise from him.
Bold and unrestrained, the verse is indeed well-written. The first two lines indicate that one prostrates himself in worship to the Buddha, the most powerful existence in the universe, whose radiance is felt by all. “Winds from eight directions,” in the third line refers to the winds of praise, of ridicule, of slander, of extolment, of material gains, of poverty, of suffering, and of satisfaction, which can disturb the state of mind of Buddhist practitioners. The last two lines, therefore, indicate that one sits on the