Compassion as Remedy in Tibetan Medicine
Healing through Limitless Compassion
Dr. Jampa Yonten with Kyle Weaner
Foreword by H.H. The Dalai Lama
Paperback
ISBN 9781948626927
$18.99 US
eBook available
May 16, 2023
This translation and commentary on an ancient Tibetan Buddhist text helps readers grasp the essence of healing and teaches healthcare practitioners how to develop limitless compassion, a quality that is essential—as our current healthcare situation makes starkly clear.
Compassion as Remedy is a quietly revolutionary book about healthcare, ethics, and spiritual practice delivered as a commentary on a 2,500-year-old Tibetan text—the rGyud-bZhi (The Four Tantras), which is the guiding treatise for Traditional Tibetan Medicine. This book, which is a translation of “The Physician Chapter” of rGyud-bZhi, helps readers grasp the essence of healing and teaches healthcare practitioners how to develop limitless compassion, a quality that is essential—as our current healthcare situation makes starkly clear.
Moral development and the practice of compassion should be of great importance to all medical practitioners and “The Physician Chapter” provides detailed instructions, drawn from a millennia-old culture and tradition that is attracting increased attention. Although many books have been written about Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and more, there are very few approachable books regarding the unique features of Tibetan medicine and spiritual and meditation practice.
By integrating healthcare with spiritual practice, Compassion as Remedy provides guidelines for ethics, along with suggestions for developing wisdom and compassion. Throughout the world today, both medical practitioners and their patients are increasingly curious about holistic healing traditions, seeking to find natural, organic, and noninvasive remedies with few side effects. This book shows that compassion itself is a source for the alleviation of suffering.
Dr. Yonten includes examples from his clinical practice, drawn from cross-cultural perspectives and neuroscience, giving readers a rare view of compassion as remedy. In the words of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, one of Dr. Yonten’s teachers, “The ideal physician is one who combines sound medical understanding with compassion and wisdom.”
Dr. Jampa Yonten is the medical director of the Tibetan Healing and Wellness Center in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He is a graduate of Chagpori Tibetan Medical Institute in Darjeeling, India; he has worked under the guidance of the late Dr. Trogawa Rinpoche and studied privately with the late Dr. Lobsang Chophel. He completed the Menrampa course and examination at Men Tse Khang Tibetan Medicine and Astrologic Institute at Dharamsala in 2009. Dr. Yonten received transmission and empowerment of the Yuthog Nyingthig from renowned masters, including His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and has received the Gold Medal from the Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine. He treats all conditions with a focus on illnesses related to the kidneys, liver, heart, joints, psychosomatic conditions, and cancer. He lives in Bangalore, India, and, since 2007, has taught in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain.
Kyle Weaner (Tenzin Samdrup) is a student of Dr. Jampa Yonten. He is a Tibetan medical practitioner, massage therapist, and yoga teacher. Kyle studied Traditional Tibetan Medicine under Dr. Yonten as an apprentice from 2004 to 2012. He received the Medicine Buddha initiation from His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in 2009 at Sera Jey Monastery in Bylakuppe, India, and from His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa in 2008 at KTC in New Jersey, USA. He is the founder and director of the Jivaka Wellness Center in West Virginia, USA
“Compassion as Remedy in Tibetan Medicine, is a beautiful work that stands on its own in the field of medicine and should inspire countless physicians throughout the world to set their practice within the sphere of compassionate heart, combined with intelligence, pure intention, skillfulness, diligence, and social ethics. It might be considered as a Buddhist equivalent to the Hippocratic Oath, albeit much vaster and deeper in its scope, since it describes various kinds of physicians from the superior ones who give us the means to free ourselves from the causes of suffering, to the ordinary ones who focus only on addressing immediate illnesses. In doing so, Dr. Jampa Yonten, who has himself centered his medical practice around compassion, has made a beautiful gift to our modern world, which is much in need of the “good heart” advocated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” — Matthieu Ricard, author of Altruism, The Power of Compassion to Transform Ourselves and the World
“This book will benefit all readers including physicians, healthcare practitioners, patients and those who are interested in maintaining good health, which is based on practice of compassion along with neuroscience.” — Dr. Tsewang Tamding. Visiting Physician of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
“In this book, many personal anecdotes bear testimony to the power of healing when the motivation of the doctor is that of genuine compassion towards the sick. I highly recommend this book to doctors of all persuasions, both modern and traditional.” — Geshe Dorji Damdul, Director, Tibet House, New Delhi
“In this context, Dr. Jampa Yonten with his stint dealing with various types of patients, in a very experiential manner interspersed with many moving anecdotes has brought out all Compassionate aspects of healing and The Healer in this book. A must read book for all health practitioners worth his and her compassion.” — Dr. Dorjee Rabten Nyeshar, CMO, Mentseekhang, Banglore
“In this book, Dr. Yonten highlights the “unconditional love” and “unbiased compassion” two most important inner ingredients in Traditional Tibetan Medicine practitioners toolbox. Therefore, all healthcare professionals must integrate to their practice to benefit both themselves and their patients.” — Sonam Dorjee (Science Pala)
