Why alternative medicine works?

These days I read different texts speaking about the theme "Why alternative medicine works?" and decided to make a sort of summary of all thoughts i met there.

Many persons -if you dont want to say the most population of industrialized countries- prefere today alternative medicine if they want to heal something that don't needs the urgent treatment. In Italy there are regions where those methods have governative acknowledgment and people can receive these cures in hospitals together with classical treatments.

We don't believe medical doctors and we have right in part ( I hope, my friends-doctors forgive me this affirmation). I do it too. If I need to cure something not "mortal" I make teas with medical herbs or make yoga or in case of pains I try with the "Golden Light" healing -and in the last times I can even do that the pain pass forever (Tenzin Wangyal Rimpoche). And, sincerely, I have less humiliations and more curative effect with these methods.

I don't want to write here about the problems of the modern medicine ecc. I wanted only to tell you some curious stories about why the ALTERNATIVE medicine works.

trulkhor, yogic exercises


Yogical exercises and martial arts

Yogies passed many times in the meditation in the mountains, caverns ecc without appropriate food. They had to sit without movement hours and days. So,
1/ they could not have a doctor if they needed him -and in that conditions it's unpossible that they didn't need him from time to time.
2/ they had not so much time between the meditations to make physical exercises.
So, every real yogi has to know the ways of effective exercises to put his physical body quickly in good "working" conditions for meditation.

The temple of Shao-Lin is very popular for it's martial art and we know that this was needed to protect monks from the frequent medieval bandit robberies. It's true. But there is an other story told by Tai-Chi masters about it: This temple was build in III century. In 527 came there an indian Teacher Bodhidharma to teach monks. He found weak, ill persons there that could not even stand rituals and slept during the meditation.
The Teacher understood: it's unpossible to speak with monks in these conditions about high levels of spirit.
That is why buddhism says: the duty of every practitian is to maintain his body in working conditions.

Chinese Emperor

This story is really amazing. I laughed yesterday when I read it.
The doctors of Chinese Emperors received their pay ONLY if the Emperor felt good.
If he was ill it meant the doctors work bad and they don't deserve their salary.
Great, no?
So, the chinese "alternative" medicine had to be effevtive. If no, all chinese doctors were dead from hunger (or "bad" behaviour of their Empiror) many centuries ago.

Related posts:
Meditation practice
Category "Meditation" of this blog