Buddhist doctrine and health

 　

    Although the purpose of Buddhism is to help sentient beings free from suffering and obtain happiness, and realize the truth, but, before reaching the goal, sentient beings can also get benefits in their daily lives because of practicing Buddhist doctrine. To keep in good health is one of them.

　

    “Meditation”, also known as zen practice, is a practice technique often used in Buddhist doctrine; its function is to calm the mind, make thinking clearer and more accurate, and further develop the wisdom of enlightenment. At the same time, modern scientific research has found that meditation can stabilize human blood pressure, increase immunity, and regulate autonomic nerves. But one thing to note is: meditation is not like taking medicine or exercising which can make the changes in our body in a short time. It is better to develop the habit of meditation for half an hour to an hour every day. In the long run, I believe it will definitely be helpful to health. However, don’t forget that no matter whether a person is healthy or not, he will eventually grow old and die. The main function of meditation is to enable sentient beings to obtain wisdom, free from the suffering of birth, aging, sickness and death, and not only to keep us healthy.

　

    “Giving” is a method of eliminating greed in Buddhism, and it can also cultivate blessings for practitioners; however, giving can not only cultivate “no greed” and blessings, but also make people feel happy. As the saying goes: "Helping others is the foundation of happiness." When we know that others can solve difficulties of living or get long-awaited things because of our charity, we will naturally feel happy. Being in such a relaxed mood is of course helpful to health. But we should also know that the highest state of giving is "not asking for anything in return." It is human nature that when we see other people's difficulties, we want to help others out of suffering; and the benefits we obtain are additional. In the view of Buddhism, it is a waste of Buddhist doctrine to “give” just for getting health.

　

    “Vegetarianism” is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist monks. They cultivate compassion by restricting themselves from eating the flesh of sentient beings. It is not reasonable to sacrifice the lives of other sentient beings in order to satisfy our own appetites. Modern medical research points out: Many diseases of civilization are caused by eating too much meat (including seafood and fish). In particular, many meats now contain antibiotics and various hormones and drugs injected for mass production. After eating these meats, we also eat these chemicals that can harm the human body. Eating vegetarian food can solve this problem and also reduce the environmental pollution caused by raising these animals.

　

    “Quitting anger” means “not being angry”. When things are different from what we expected, we get angry. In order to get a calm mind to help us practice, Buddhist doctrine requires practitioners to abstain from anger. At anytime and anywhere, we should be aware that we may possibly become angry and then use methods to eliminate anger at the right time. According to modern medical research: When people are angry, they will secrete many hormones that are not good for health. Therefore, frequent and extreme anger will damage our health. The best way to deal with anger is to cultivate compassion. Treat all living beings as our relatives, and wish to make them all be free from suffering and obtain happiness, and then anger will naturally be eliminated.

　

    The simple life advocated by Buddhism can help us make correct behaviors and judgments about health in our daily lives. After we get a healthy body, we should practice more diligently. When we are free from birth, old age, sickness and death, then we can be considered having obtained eternal happiness.