The Dhamma and the Doctor.

The Dhamma and the Doctor.

The teachings of the Buddha, the Dhamma has inspired mankind for 2600 years. How has the Dhamma helped and touched medical practitioners? How can these teachings inspire a doctor to be a better person and in the process see the realities of life? 

The great medical educator Sir William Osler made it eminently clear that all medical practitioners must have “A love for Mankind”. 

Otherwise, the doctor would find his daily dealings with endless human suffering a near impossible task. In this he is echoing the Buddha. 

The Buddha taught that the common denominator of all life is Dukkha; in the First Noble Truth, He taught us that Aging, Sickness, Decay and Death is our common lot no matter what our station in life. It is this same reality that doctors see everyday. 

While the Buddha taught a permanent solution out of Dukkha, doctors are trained to relieve suffering and decay on a temporary basis. In order not to be “hardened” by the constant and ceaseless exposure to physical pain, doctors must have a high respect for all lives irrespective of station, status, religion, power and belief. While Osler proposed a “Love for Mankind”, the Buddha demanded Unconditional Love, METTA towards all. 

It is Metta which makes Life in a ceaselessly changing world tolerable. It differentiates us from lower forms. In all interactions, the Buddha advocated the 4 modes of Unconditional Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity. (DN13) For the doctor, all 4 modes are essential tools; Unconditional Love in facing the sick with heartfelt Compassion, Joy with every success big or small and Equanimity when one had tried his best and a poor outcome still resulted. 

Again Osler echoed the Buddha when he said that a doctor must develop “aequinimitas” -Equanimity! In his life far away from the Dhamma, he had discovered the Buddha’s methods. 

The Dhamma is however not just a means for the doctor to improve his medical skills, it is also a supreme way whereby a doctor armed with it can see with Insight the realities of life and the Truth of the Buddha’s teachings. 

The Mind of BOTH the patient and the doctor is equally important and the Dhamma has much to offer for both parties. The WHO belatedly recognised what the Buddha advocated 2600 years ago that Health means more than Physical Well being; Mental well being is far more important. 

The Buddha in the Nakulapita sutta SN22.1 taught that while the physical body will inevitably fall sick, the Mind need not be sick. 

Physical suffering and decay is inevitable but Mental pain is optional! Doctors will do well not to worsen a patient’s physical suffering by being callous or rude or simply “too busy” to bother. The Buddha urged all disciples to “abandon Dishonest Livelihood”; there is nothing wrong with earning a living by the sweat of our brows and the strength of our arms, but one must NOT be dishonest. The Art of Medicine similarly must NOT become the Business of Medicine driven only by greed for profits. 

With Right Speech, one is inspired to speak truthfully, respectfully and handle issues of confidentiality confidently. With Right Action, one is held safe from any Killing, Stealing or Sexual Misconduct with patients. For the Buddhist doctor, the Dhamma is the GPS of his life, guiding him in all moral and ethical decisions. 

In the canon, the Buddha is recorded as having personally nursed sick venerables, and he had encouraged us to attend to the sick. He had even provided Health providers with a Code of Conduct; our very own equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath! 

Associate Professor Wong Yin Onn Monash University, Malaysia 

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The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND Enlightenment - what is that?

The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment
YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND 
Enlightenment - what is that? 

I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering." There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering. But what's left when there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative definition so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain. 

Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime. 

What is the greatest obstacle to experiencing this reality? Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive. 

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. It also creates a false mind-made self that casts a shadow of fear and suffering. 

Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance. For example, there is nothing wrong with cells dividing and multiplying in the body, but when this process continues in disregard of the total organism, cells proliferate and we have disease. 

Note: The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly - you usually don't use it at all. It uses you. This is the disease. You believe that you are your mind. 

This is the delusion. The instrument has taken you over. 

I don't quite agree. It is true that I do a lot of aimless thinking, like most people, but I can still choose to use my mind to get and accomplish things, and I do that all the time. 

Just because you can solve a crossword puzzle or build an atom bomb doesn't mean that you use your mind. Just as dogs love to chew bones, the mind loves to get its teeth into problems. 

That's why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs. You have no interest in either. 

Let me ask you this: can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the "off" button? 

You mean stop thinking altogether? No, I can't, except maybe for a moment or two. 

Then the mind is using you. You are unconsciously identified with it, so you don't even know that you are its slave. It's almost as if you were possessed without knowing it, and so you take the possessing entity to be yourself. The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity - the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. 

You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter - beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken. 

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How a Camera Sees and how a Mind Sees by Dr Wong Yin Onn

How a 'Camera Sees' and how a 'Mind Sees'.

   The human eye can see a brightness- darkness ratio of up to 10 times (something like the earthquake Richter scale). The digital camera/handphone sensor like the old negative films can only cope with a brightness-darkness ratio of up to 5 times.

One need to decide which area to expose for, otherwise the too bright or too dark areas will be unable to record any details. The human eye can selectively focus on any specific area of interest and ignore other areas.

  The camera sensor or the old film is calibrated for exposure to give a 18% average grey. So whether one photographs a grey cat or a totally black cat or a pure white cat it will appear as a 'grey' cat. Hence one has to know what to expose for and do the right exposure compensation.

 A picture image depends on many factors, all interdependent. Mainly lighting conditions ( intensity, time of day, direction etc.), aperture, shutter speed, film sensitivity (ISO), lens coverage (normal, wide, telephoto), angle of view, etc.

  Similarly the photographer or the person seeing the view is seeing the world through his own 'tinted glasses' - his own perspective, prejudices, preferences, past experiences and expertise, etc. 'What the Mind does not 'Know' the eye cannot 'See'.

   The Camera and the Eye just capture 'raw data'. In the 'Seeing' only the 'Seeing' ( just like in the walking only the walking, in the eating only the eating, in the breathing only the breathing).

It is in the software embedded by the camera/ hand phone designers that interprets the raw data which than produces the image we see on the screen.

For example Panasonic designs and make identical cameras sold under the Panasonic and Leica brands. The Leica brand costs much more but however produces better images due only to the superior image converting software.

Fuji camera users have a choice of 9 types of image characteristics - standard, Velvia, Astia(soft), Classic Fujichrome, Monochrome, Across, Pro Negative ( slight high contrast or standard contrast) and Sepia.

  The 'True Reality' is just the Raw Image that is captured by the camera sensor/film. The 'Actual Reality' the image we see is the product of the software that converts the raw images and the photographer's choices of exposure, angle if view, timing of exposure, composition and many other factors like his preferences.

It is important to understand all these variable factors that go into making the final image.

Hopefully with this understanding one will not be so insistent in claiming that 'my picture' is the best and that 'my Right View' is the only View.

Do wait or hope to get the 'Prefect Picture'.

Use the 'Present Moment' to do your best to 'See' and produce the best that you can.

One can only take a 'Present Moment' photograph. It is impossible to take a photograph of a 'past moment' or a photograph of a 'future moment'.

  It is a long gradual learning process, a journey - so enjoy the Present Moment and journey. It is not a goal/destination of getting the 'Prefect Picture' ( or Enlightenment or whatever you call it).

Enjoy the journey and give your best shot.

     Be humble and be prepared to learn from others. See from other people viewpoints and interpretations.

GRATITUDE (check Mangala Sutta)

Be grateful for our human birth esp.  being born a Malaysian and a Singaporean.

  Be grateful for having Eyes to See,

Legs to Walk, Ears to Hear, Mouth to Communicate, Health to Travel,

Wealth to Travel and buy cameras and hand phones and having good travel and spiritual companions.

By Dr Wong Yin Onn