Healing illness

An assistant ran over and handed the minister a phone: an urgent matter. After listening, the minister replied:

• I have heard about this herbal doctor, Nhạ. I ask you to apologise to him and withdraw. When I return from the conference on Alzheimer's disease, I will personally invite him to come and speak. As soon as you see a denunciation you make trouble for people. Often the denouncer has only a personal motive, and insulting the honour of a good person is very unfair. This time your inspection caused an uproar in the neighbourhood, and the residents protested a great deal.
  The minister hung up.
  After the minister returned to the country, he personally wrote a letter inviting Dr Nhạ to the Ministry of Health's office for an informal talk, and invited him the next day to present his views on his medical art to a council of doctors.
  Dr Nhạ addressed the council as follows:
• Honourable minister and the whole medical council, I am very grateful that you have given me the chance to present my approach to treating illness.
  Ladies and gentlemen, my family has a tradition of medicine; my ancestors were all physicians, so I inherited my ancestors' profession. I have three children who have all graduated as doctors, and one is a doctoral research student. Having my children study Western medicine gave me the chance to study further a large part of the world's medicine. Combining these two medical systems, I feel that treatment is more open and more effective, with a higher success rate. But I added a third system of treatment, which makes the success rate almost absolute.

At this sentence, the whole hall buzzed with discussion.

Dr Nhạ went on:

• When I say almost absolute, it means a few cases still fail.
  A question rang out:
• Could you tell us what the third system is?
  Dr Nhạ said:
• The third system is the patient's behaviour. Until now we have entrusted treatment to the physician while the patient waits passively. The theory of the third system returns a large part of the responsibility to the patient. Clearly their illness has its origin in their way of behaving in life, so they must be responsible for adjusting their behaviour alongside the medical intervention.
  For example, for someone with nervous exhaustion, insomnia, lack of concentration and thoughts pouring on without end, besides prescribing formulas to tonify yin, I require the patient to give out rice to the poor. When poor people have a little rice, their minds are happy. That behaviour of making others happy helps the patient's brain recover more easily.
  For example, for someone with gout whose swollen joints make it hard to walk, besides prescribing formulas to cleanse the blood and bones, I require the patient to pay for road-building and rural bridges so that everyone can travel safely. The behaviour of helping others travel safely supports correcting the past habit of consuming too much unnecessary animal protein.
  For example, for someone whose complexion is not fresh and bright, besides prescribing formulas to nourish blood and skin, I require the patient to praise others' good points sincerely and often. The behaviour of sincerely praising others has a great effect on a person's looks.
  For example, for a couple who have difficulty conceiving, besides prescribing formulas to regulate the reproductive system, I require the two to give many presents to the children around. That behaviour of cherishing children has a great effect on their reproductive systems.
  For example, for someone who is always thin and weak, besides the Ten Complete Great Tonic formula, I require the patient to plant a great many trees and forests. That behaviour of planting trees transforms the ecosystem of the whole body, so they gradually grow stronger...
  Dr Nhạ recounted case after case, what medicine was taken, what behaviour was carried out, how the result appeared... and the whole hall applauded excitedly for a long time.

At the end, the minister stood up to speak:

• Dr Nhạ's experiences are a basis for us to widen our view of medicine. Of course his understanding is intuitive and experiential; to bring it into mainstream science we need logical argument, measured data, and statistics to assess rates. I will support and fund any doctor who researches this subject. Based on that extremely high recovery rate, we hope this SUPPORTIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY will take an important place in the medicine of the future. ⛑️

Illness is a fault of the body. The body has a fault because another fault has acted upon it. That other fault may be a badly polluted environment, wrong eating, wrong thinking or wrong behaviour. We use medical therapies to correct those faults. Today medicine also sets out many human responsibilities in treating illness, such as encouraging exercise, encouraging healthy food and encouraging living in clean surroundings...
Medical intervention is only one part, and it makes the patient very passive. Now medicine also pays more attention to the patient's responsibility. But to push responsibility onto the patient as far as the doctor above does is very unusual. The patient must do things that are beneficial to the world, and then the illness is brought under control. A person's behaviour will cause illness or cure it.

Have we done some wrong behaviours that eventually caused a fault in the body?
And might we adjust by adding some behaviour so that the body recovers?

If we could answer this question, we would gain another great weapon in the fight against illness. First of all, even before any illness, let us look for chances to live kindly with everyone in order to limit wrong behaviour. Right behaviour will block wrong behaviour. With no wrong behaviour, the body will probably have fewer faults.