THE MORE YOU LEARN TIBETAN MEDICINE, THE LESS YOU KNOW! Have you ever felt that the more you learn the less you think you know? Well, something similar happens to me with Tibetan medicine and the Kunye massage, and not because I know less now than a few years ago, because obviously if you study any subject you always add on to your knowledge, but this feeling is due to that the more you study, the more you realize the real dimension of the science. To study something so complex as Tibetan medicine makes me feel excited, but it is also a challenge, not only because of the complexity and amount of the subjects to study, but also because our cultures are so different and there are much more than purely medical theories to learn such as cultural, environmental and natural aspects. Quite a challenge, don´t you agree?
LEARNING FROM THE REAL SOURCES: THE NATURE
While sitting here, in my room in Dharamsala, watching the snowy peeks of the Himalayas, the falcons flying at a 3m distance
from my balcony, the monkeys jumping from tree to tree, listening to the sound of water from the river down the valley, and all this wonderful nature that in one way or another is constantly communicating with me, I can better understand the real meaning of the Tibetan medicine, that takes into consideration diverse factors of your surroundings and life style. The Tibetans have always been very close to nature, and logically therefore Tibetan medicine is also very connected to it.
Traditionally in Tibet, being a country of nomads, everything the people needed for their survival came from nature. Still nowadays you can feel how this tradition is part of the Tibetan culture. The Tibetans live in a very simple way, with few material things to be attached to, and very close to the family, community and spiritual life.
TIBETAN MEDICINE: DEEP INTO THE ROOT OF DISEASE
Tibetan medicine is based on the promotion of heath rather than the cure of sickness, and if there is an already existent sickness, what it tries to do is to discover the real cause of the sickness (the root cause) and cure it, instead of curing the symptoms of it. Due to the process of identifying the root cause you need to be more patient with the results, because it often takes longer to get them than in modern medicine that is mostly concerned with the immediate relief of pain and symptoms.
If you have a headache the modern medicine gives you an aspirin and the problem is resolved. Fast and effective, isn’t it? But this is not a real cure according to Tibetan medicine, as they believe that in this case, the aspirin only cures the symptoms but the root cause of the problem remain. The Tibetan doctor will take more time to make an extensive diagnosis, and probably the treatment will also take longer, but at the end the root cause will be cured and the headache will not return because the root problem disappears.
KEEP LEARNING FROM ANY SOURCE
I travel a lot for work partly because in my country there are no 100% authentic schools of Tibetan medicine. But apart from the few months that I spend with my Tibetan Master and my trips to India every second year, I have been trying to use as many different learning sources and tools as I can get my hands on; from books in Spanish, English and also Tibetan (even when I do not speak a word of Tibetan), to movies, documentaries, distance learning with my Master, digital books, short weekend courses, webinars, etc. What makes me feel frustrated sometimes is the rejection of these alternative learning methods in our society today. For example when I defend massage online courses and people say “no way, you need hands-on learning” etc., I always answer the same: “Do not be closed to learning, the manner in which you absorb the knowledge is secondary. The key is to learn and the more methods you use, the better and more complete your learning process will be”.
2 years ago, together with my Master and friend Dr. Tsultrim Kalsang (one of the top Tibetan doctors in the world), we wrote a book about the Tibetan medicine and the KuNye massage. Tomorrow, and during the next 6-8 weeks, we will meet again to continue with my education on different subjects of the Tibetan Medicine. Yes, now and after 2 years, I again have the chance to learn face to face from him, and also hands-on. But during these past 2 years, I did not stop learning because I did not have the chance to do hands-on training, what I did was learning from different sources, because I was open for it. So I encourage you to open your mind to new media, new stiles, new formats, because if knowledge has no limits, we also should not have any limits.
Blessings from Dharamsala, “Little Tibet”,
Massage Around the World
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