Customer Reviews

The Tibetan Art of Healing

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Age, behavior, diet, personality, physical environment, and season all have a part in health: all disease is caused by jarring the flow between body and world and by not understanding that a self-identity is not fixed or lasting. Good health balances diet, lifestyle, and mental and seasonal conditions. A good diet is the particular basis of all Tibetan medical treatment, with the emphasis on butter, milk, roasted barley flour, and tea. Tibetan medicine wants health kept or restored by internally balancing body and mind: aging shows up with mental and physical stress, and we are poisoned by attachment, aversion, dullness, envy and pride. However, a good doctor has the advantage when strong on compassion, medical understanding, and wisdom: THE TIBETAN ART OF HEALING draws heavily on being sensitive to internal energy flow and knowing plants. Ian Baker's book of 79 medical paintings by Nepalese artist Romio Shrestha backtracks to the Blue Beryl commentary on Tibetan Buddhist health, which is also a concern of John F. Avedon's equally impressive BUDDHA'S ART OF HEALING. I find it helpful to have two other books by the same author: CELESTIAL GALLERY, with the same illustrator, and THE DALAI LAMA'S SECRET TEMPLE, with all the special meditative artwork.

The art of healing is achieved when all our actions are inspired by a higher reality in which our individual identity is inseparable from the creative forces of the Cosmos. It is my profound belief that great art can initiate the healing response within us, and urge us beyond all limited self-identifications, beyond time and boundaries. This is the liberated state of the Buddhas, the awakened ones, towards which these paintings guide us. May these images of human potential help beings everywhere to rediscover the state of perfect health and spiritual well-being! - From the Preface by Deepak Chopra.

the illustrations in this book give the western reader a spectacular glimpse at some of the visual spendor of Tibet. the actual writing only gives a basic analysis of tibetan medicine, but this book is a must have for both well-studied practicioners and people with a passing interest.

wonderful purchase, better than described, arrived quickly and i am so happy to have this book back in my small collection again - after having the other one stolen.

Combining the unmasking of Tibetan and Buddhist art with a text that explores the healing information found in the images would be enough for any book. But this one is also beautifully written, designed, and illustrated--a treasure of information in a gorgeous package!