Exploration on psychology in tibetan Medicine Exploration on psychology in tibetan Medicine

kLu byamsrgya·Bya mdo
Department of Tibetan Medicdine, Tibetan Medical College of Qinghai
1 The psychophysiological organs
The development of the nervous system has taken a long gradduational way before it reaches as high level as it is today, eventually the brain, especially the cerebral cortex has become the substantial basis of comscious-ness, the headquater of the nervous system, comprised of countless numbet of nervous cells.
There are parallel recognition of the relationship of the faculties and their funcion in Tibetan medicine, so it happens that the brain is the faculty which exercises cognizing, comprised of "ocean of rtdsa". This is very common way in Tibetan culture to describe tremendous number as "ocean". the concept of the "rtas" in Ti-betan medicine is correspondent to nervous cell in modern biology, and the five faculties faculties functioning is the pro-jec of the brain, which also are the habitat of psychological activities, These conclutions are congruent with those conclusion in modern biology, it is very admirable that Tibetan medicine achieved such accomplishment without advanced facilities as those which we are using now.
Anoter unique feature in Tibetan medicine regarding this aspect of the nervous system is that it gives high attention of heart. heart will ,acdcording to Tibetan medicine, affect the clearness of ones' menory and other psychological activities such as "rnam lnga tshogs drug" which are manipulated through the heart, too. Actu-ally the association between psychological phenomenen and the heart was derived from Tibetan Buddhism, which can't be physically demonstrated but could be manifested through meditation. It is stressed in Tibetan medicine that the psychological activities are directly and indirectly connected to the heart, this is also recog-nized by some of western philosolphist such as Aristotle and other scientists indicaing that life begins from the heart and ends in the heart, this comments does indicate the importance of the role of heart in psychological ac-tivities.The Switzwrlant modern psycholgist CarlJung thought that if we took the psychological sctivities as the excreta of the brain what we got was the soulless body. therefore it is worthwhile to revalue this as-pect of the psychology.
Although it is difficulty for modern scienct to confirm or refute many conclusions in tibetan medicine, such as the eight "channels" in heart, which ins elaborated in Tibetan medicine and firmly associated with all psychological activities, it will surely bring fruitfull academic achievement if we can put our energy in this di-trvyion.
2 Psychological rationale in Tibetan medivcne
1)three emotion-greed, hatred and iguorance
Grced, hatred and ignorance is three of the fifity-one emotional pschological activities defined in Tibetan medicine as the pschological process in which the characteristics of the stimulants are automatically grasped by the related mentality. The elborated analysis of whole psychological process in Tibetan buddhism goes to such extent that even the modern scientist couldnt't help giving admirable comments on it. One of them is You Zhibao, who thought that Buddhistic analysis of the psycological analysis much more detailed even than that of chemistry on the component of matter.
In Tibetan Buddhism, all the psychological phenomenon has different two opposed qualites such as rtogs bcas and rtogs med, mngon gyur and lkong gyur, sims and byung and so on.
The above mentioned three poisons, namely desire, tatred, and ignorance has the qualitity fo lkong gyur, these are the causes of rlung, mkris. and bad kan, which, according to Tibetan medicine, are the fundamental elemants directly cause all kinds of diseases, therefore these three poisons are the base of psycholoy in Tibetan medicine.
2)In the real life, different reaction hold by a person to different external objects, shch as likeness to beautiful ones, dislikeness of ugly ones, and the different feelings in different situations such as happiness in happy situation, fearing in threatening situation, can not give rise to many kinds of diseases but also exac-erbate the ailments as well. The driving forces behind these reactions and feegings are the three hidden, namely the three elements of grecd, hatred and ignorance, gherefore these three posions are the causes of the ailent- derived reactions and feelings, at the same time these reactions and the reelings caused all the aliments poisons and all the disease humanbeing suffers. whether these three poisons cause actuall external diseases depends on the balanace amongst these three poinsons. no disease is exceptionally derived from other causes but from these ones. even the most boastful Chinese medicine's pschological theory, namely(qi qing shuo)doesn't go beyond Tibetan psychological scope.
3)The definitions of these three poisons are like these: the greed is related to wind, which has the quality of mobility, the hatred is related to me, which has the quality of warmth-increasing, while the ignorance if related to the combination both sa and chu, which has quality of heaviness and unclearness of mind, while in the Tibetan medicine, human body is composed of three materials, namely the rlung, mkhris, and bad kan, which has respectively the nature of mobility, of warmth-increasing, heaviness and unclearness. Based on their sharing quality, the three poisons of and the three materials of human body constituents are in a cycle of cause and effects, the former three are causes and the latters are the effects, at root even the three poisons are derived from the four elemets, namely earth, water, fire, air, these have the similar definition as in other cul-ture.
In general the three poisons are roots of all diseases, especially the diseases of psychology, while the four elements are the fundamentals of Tibetan medicine, the three poisins are closely associated with four elements, the latter are the causal initiative of the former.
This theory has been proved not only in ling practise of more than 1000 years'histoy,but also clinically in many modern hospitals where Tibetan medicine are being practised.
2 The theory of four elements
The four elements are the most fundamental base of Tibetan medicine, developed from the observation and analysis of the external and internal entities and phenomenon, including the component of the matter ,qnality and movenent, and it is the base of natural sciences, too. Its evolution is like this, at the beginning, this theory rose from the observation of the macro world. then graddually, with the development of humanbeing in-erllect, penetrated into the micro world. The author thinks that even in the term of the modern chemistry, all the main differences lays between Tibetan medicine and the Western medicine is that tibetan medicine analyse anatomically human body in terms of function, while western medicine does it in terms of entity, this differ-ences is spontaneously from the differences of the two cultural development models, the former concentrated on internal mind, while the latter on the extrenl material.
Thbegan medicine explains all the physiological and pathological phenomena in the four elements theory as many other medical systems do, but it did develop three unique concepts, although based on the four elements, a ccording to its own experiences in the long history of medical practise. This is the most prominent feature of Tibetan medicine.
According to Tibetan medicine, even the nature, even the nature, body, its strength and the pschological condition are de-termined by the proportion of the four elements, the aim of the treatment is to resume the balance among the four elements. All disdeases are derived from the three piosons, which at the root are associated to the four ele-ments, and only through the four elements, the three piosons can manifest themselves, for example, when one becomes angry. which falls into the category of hatred, his/her body's temperaturs rises, and his/her face be-comes flush, due to the increase of mkhris-pa in his/her bloodd. In one word, the manipulation and manifesta-tion of the three piosons depend on the four elements.
And all the psychological diseases, dreams and kinds of human's nature can be explained according to the theories of three poinsons and the four elements. therefore the four elements and the related three poisons are the fundanental basis underlying all Tibetan medicine psychology.
kLu byamsrgya·Bya mdo
Department of Tibetan Medicdine, Tibetan Medical College of Qinghai

1 The psychophysiological organs
The development of the nervous system has taken a long gradduational way before it reaches as high level as it is today, eventually the brain, especially the cerebral cortex has become the substantial basis of comscious-ness, the headquater of the nervous system, comprised of countless number of nervous cells.
There are parallel recognition of the relationship of the faculties and their funcion in Tibetan medicine, so it happens that the brain is the faculty which exercises cognizing, comprised of "ocean of rtsa". This is very common way in Tibetan culture to describe tremendous number as "ocean". the concept of the "rtas" in Ti-betan medicine is correspondent to nervous cell in modern biology, and the five faculties faculties functioning is the pro-jec of the brain, which also are the habitat of psychological activities, These conclutions are congruent with those conclusion in modern biology, it is very admirable that Tibetan medicine achieved such accomplishment without advanced facilities as those which we are using now.
Anoter unique feature in Tibetan medicine regarding this aspect of the nervous system is that it gives high attention of heart. heart will ,according to Tibetan medicine, affect the clearness of ones' memory and other psychological activities such as "rnam lnga tshogs drug" which are manipulated through the heart, too. Actu-ally the association between psychological phenomenen and the heart was derived from Tibetan Buddhism, which can't be physically demonstrated but could be manifested through meditation. It is stressed in Tibetan medicine that the psychological activities are directly and indirectly connected to the heart, this is also recog-nized by some of western philosolphist such as Aristotle and other scientists indicaing that life begins from the heart and ends in the heart, this comments does indicate the importance of the role of heart in psychological ac-tivities.The Switzerlant modern psychologist Carl Jung thought that if we took the psychological sctivities as the excreta of the brain what we got was the soulless body. therefore it is worthwhile to revalue this as-pect of the psychology.
Although it is difficulty for modern scienct to confirm or refute many conclusions in Tibetan medicine, such as the eight "channels" in heart, which ins elaborated in Tibetan medicine and firmly associated with all psychological activities, it will surely bring fruitfull academic achievement if we can put our energy in this di-rection.
2 Psychological rationale in Tibetan medivcne
1)three emotion-greed, hatred and iguorance
Grced, hatred and ignorance is three of the fifity-one emotional pschological activities defined in Tibetan medicine as the pschological process in which the characteristics of the stimulants are automatically grasped by the related mentality. The elaborated analysis of whole psychological process in Tibetan buddhism goes to such extent that even the modern scientist couldnt't help giving admirable comments on it. One of them is You Zhibao, who thought that Buddhistic analysis of the psycological analysis much more detailed even than that of chemistry on the component of matter.
In Tibetan Buddhism, all the psychological phenomenon has different two opposed qualites such as rtogs bcas and rtogs med, mngon gyur and lkong gyur, sims and byung and so on.
The above mentioned three poisons, namely desire, tatred, and ignorance has the qualitity fo lkong gyur, these are the causes of rlung, mkris. and bad kan, which, according to Tibetan medicine, are the fundamental elemants directly cause all kinds of diseases, therefore these three poisons are the base of psycholoy in Tibetan medicine.
2)In the real life, different reaction hold by a person to different external objects, shch as likeness to beautiful ones, dislikeness of ugly ones, and the different feelings in different situations such as happiness in happy situation, fearing in threatening situation, can not give rise to many kinds of diseases but also exac-erbate the ailments as well. The driving forces behind these reactions and feegings are the three hidden, namely the three elements of grecd, hatred and ignorance, gherefore these three posions are the causes of the ailent- derived reactions and feelings, at the same time these reactions and the reelings caused all the aliments poisons and all the disease humanbeing suffers. whether these three poisons cause actually external diseases depends on the balanace amongst these three poinsons. no disease is exceptionally derived from other causes but from these ones. even the most boastful Chinese medicine's pschological theory, namely(qi qing shuo)doesn't go beyond Tibetan psychological scope.
3)The definitions of these three poisons are like these: the greed is related to wind, which has the quality of mobility, the hatred is related to me, which has the quality of warmth-increasing, while the ignorance if related to the combination both sa and chu, which has quality of heaviness and unclearness of mind, while in the Tibetan medicine, human body is composed of three materials, namely the rlung, mkhris, and bad kan, which has respectively the nature of mobility, of warmth-increasing, heaviness and unclearness. Based on their sharing quality, the three poisons of and the three materials of human body constituents are in a cycle of cause and effects, the former three are causes and the latters are the effects, at root even the three poisons are derived from the four elemets, namely earth, water, fire, air, these have the similar definition as in other cul-ture.
In general the three poisons are roots of all diseases, especially the diseases of psychology, while the four elements are the fundamentals of Tibetan medicine, the three poisins are closely associated with four elements, the latter are the causal initiative of the former.
This theory has been proved not only in ling practise of more than 1000 years'histoy, but also clinically in many modern hospitals where Tibetan medicine are being practised.
2 The theory of four elements
The four elements are the most fundamental base of Tibetan medicine, developed from the observation and analysis of the external and internal entities and phenomenon, including the component of the matter , qnality and movenent, and it is the base of natural sciences, too. Its evolution is like this, at the beginning, this theory rose from the observation of the macro world. then gradually, with the development of humanbeing in-tellect, penetrated into the micro world. The author thinks that even in the term of the modern chemistry, all the main differences lays between Tibetan medicine and the Western medicine is that Tibetan medicine analyse anatomically human body in terms of function, while western medicine does it in terms of entity, this differ-ences is spontaneously from the differences of the two cultural development models, the former concentrated on internal mind, while the latter on the externl material.
Tibetan medicine explains all the physiological and pathological phenomena in the four elements theory as many other medical systems do, but it did develop three unique concepts, although based on the four elements, a ccording to its own experiences in the long history of medical practise. This is the most prominent feature of Tibetan medicine.
According to Tibetan medicine, even the nature, even the nature, body, its strength and the pschological condition are de-termined by the proportion of the four elements, the aim of the treatment is to resume the balance among the four elements. All disdeases are derived from the three piosons, which at the root are associated to the four ele-ments, and only through the four elements, the three piosons can manifest themselves, for example, when one becomes angry. which falls into the category of hatred, his/her body's temperaturs rises, and his/her face be-comes flush, due to the increase of mkhris-pa in his/her blood. In one word, the manipulation and manifesta-tion of the three piosons depend on the four elements.
And all the psychological diseases, dreams and kinds of human's nature can be explained according to the theories of three poinsons and the four elements. therefore the four elements and the related three poisons are the fundamental basis underlying all Tibetan medicine psychology.