Customer Reviews

Healing from the Source: The Science and Lore of Tibetan Medicine

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Dr. Yeshi Dhonden's Healing From The Source provides a fine presentation of the theory of Tibetan medicine, using over fifty years of the author's teachings in the field to impart the basics of holistic Tibetan medicine. This blends a spiritual perspective with a view of Tibetan healing processes.

This book is a complete masterpiece. Dr. Yeshe Dhonden will explain to you the nature of Health and all that name implies. He is the father of Tibetan Medicine. He was His Holiness the Dalai Lama's personal physician. His incredible insights are easy to understand and make this book a "Must Buy" for anyone who wants their family and themselves to remain happy, healthy, and wise! The man is incredible.

You will need to buy and study the book. But I will give you a brief "run down". Phlegm, bile, and wind are the three Tibetan humors in us which regulate our health. If they are perfectly balanced, one is in super-human health. The primary factors in governing the humors are behavior and nutrition. Good behavior is the most important and consists of following the ten positive actions and avoiding the ten negative actions. I can't go into these in a review, but they are "non-killing", "non-stealing", and so forth. By hurting others, we crack our own heads. The humors become imbalanced, and then bugs or small organisms invade the body and cause cancer and other diseases. These bugs are the primary cause of diseases. But not the sole cause. My mother had these bugs popping out of her (six out of seven can be seen with the naked eye). Half-a-dozen doctors believed her mad. As did all of her loved ones. Dr. Dhonden suggests to physicians that they do not go immediately to surgery because these bugs might spread and cause mastasis.

Without knowing anything about Tibetan Medicine, my mother would give herself a self-massage. These bugs would pop out of all pores of her skin. Dr. Yeshe Dhondon, in this book, gives a more thorough analysis. The seven kinds of organisms are in the air. We ingest them with the lungs. They go into the bloodstream and then inhabit in our bodies. Then they spread to all areas. It is not these organisms or "bugs" which cause the disease. It is if these organisms are sick. And they are frequently sick because of pollution and the impure foods that we eat. So "sick bugs" are the cause of both cancer and AIDS. Good behavior and pure foods can help us to prevent many horrible diseases. This is why this book is such a gem. If you are a Seven-Day Advantist Christian, you are probably during pretty good prevention! The ten commandments and vegetarianism come pretty close to a comprehensive "health plan". So this book is simply an incredible introduction of Tibetan

Medicine for everyone! No one is excluded. If I get angry right now, the humor of "bile" will increase. This will increase the habitation of these organisms. That is, making a safe refuge for them to multiply. Impure foods (the Tibteans do not prohibit beer or even meat in our diets) will increase their number. They will spread throughout the body. A tumor may result. This is why good behavior is so well-emphasized. Because of the physical-mental changes that result in the body which are "emotionally charged" by doing certain actions. This is not a "moral judgement". If you slap your spouse with a blank mind, the imbalance might not occur (or occur very little!). But if you slap your wife with a mind full of rage, then the imbalance will occur. Dr. Dhonden will explain to you these ten unskillful actions. So buy this book. And get and stay well. Take care.

This is a great book for someone who knows very little about Eastern Medicine, like myself. This was an introductory book for me and I have gained invaluable insight towards a Buddhist Healer's viewpoint of medicine and disease. His viewpoint's are definitely an eye opener, and give a very different perspective towards illness than Western Medicine provides. I am not in the medical field, but I have gained much knowledge as a result from reading this book. Highly recommended if you are into Tibetan Buddhism or just Medicine in general.

With utmost respect for Tibet's medical tradition, I found this book to be somewhat lacking. The book is a mix somewhere between textbook and narrative, owing to the fact that some of it was directly derived from talks the author gave. While the question/response portions of the book that come from these talks were definitely interesting, to say the least, I found the author's reliance on Tibetan terminology, without concurrent translation, an impediment to better understanding of Tibetan medicine. While the book might be a good primer for a Westerner with a foundation of knowledge about Tibetan medicine, I found it difficult to penetrate the author's technical descriptions of bodily functioning according to the Tibetan understanding.

For example, the author references several categories and subsets of bodily humors (bile, phlegm, wind), but never describes these substances or analogizes them. He does talk about how they function within the body (this increases, that decreases, etc.), but it is otherwise difficult to comprehend what the author means by these rather obtuse terms, and consequently it is difficult to interrelate them with a Western understanding of the body.

Dondhen's writing on the nature of being a physician I found enlightening; I felt like this chapter fulfilled the author's intent as named in the title. Otherwise, at least for a novitiate to Eastern medicine, I might choose another text with which to start.

A great introduction to this complex medical system. In addition to sharing many details, Dr. Dhonden relates many stories from his life about his highly skilled and dedicated teachers. I appreciated reading about the history and context of Tibetan Medicine in relationship to both Chinese and Indian medicine.

While this book is obviously not a textbook of Tibetan Medicine, it is an inspiration to those of us with Western heritages trying to comprehend Eastern methods. I found Dr. Dhonden's stories to be an inspiration as they are "real life" experiences of thought and healing from a totally different perspective than that of allopathic medicine.

Knowing, from his expertise and experiences, that health can be supported within a framework of Spirituality and herbal medicine helps me to pursue my own investigations and studies into holistic medical traditions. In a society dominated by medicine that completely negates a person's Spirit, it is refreshing to read and re-read courageous, authentic offerings such as "Healing From the Source".

the book simplify the laws of traditional tibetan medicine. all points of the author are very clearly written and explained. i would recommend it to anyone who is intrested in traditional medicine!

The truth about dis ease from the stand point of man' nature and how he deviates from purity of intention and purity of environment