Health & Buddhism & Hinduism

Spiritual Orientation and its Relationship to Health

As humanity has expanded its understanding of the physical world, a definitive relationship between relative physical health and the preceived character of existence has evolved. Given endemic geographic and climatological differences, the technological advances that are available to most peoples do not account for the differences in their health. Access to the essentials of life, which include adequate food, water, shelter, and a framework of reality, are needed to approach well-being. Hinduism and Buddhism are allied traditions, evolving in the same geographic and cultural spheres. An exploration of the metaphysical traditions of each will illuminate each people(s orientation toward health and well-being.

World View and Metaphysics in Hinduism

Hinduism views all of creation as a venue for change and transformation. The uniquely anthropomorphic aspect of this point of view is the concept of moksha. As the universe is not reservedly human, the concept of finding and liberating the highest good (moksha) is applied to all creatures. Whatever qualifies as life, or is imbued with life-like qualities, is animated by Atman. In this regard, all creatures are the same, existing within the collective consciousness of Brahman. The Hindu views all of creation as a balance between becoming and being (p. 105).

Within Hinduism, the human condition is perched somewhere between imperfecti

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lieved health to be a state of dynamic equilibrium of the bodily elements. The -yurvedic theory especially emphasizes the equilibrium of the three humors: wind, bile and phlegm. Illness occurs when any one of the three humors becomes excessively (agitated( and increases disproportionately in relation to the others. The restoration of the balance of bodily elements and thus of health depends on the consumption of environmental matter in the right form, proportion and combination, done at the right time. The -yervedic tradition integrated in a complex yet aesthetically elegant theory, physical health as an equilibrium of somatic and environmental elements (pp. 113, 115). A Hindu tends to view the causes of disease as complementary rather than exclusive and arranges them in a hierarchical order by identifying an immediate cause as well as others that are more peripheral and remote. The causes are arranged in concentric circles, with the outer circle including the inner ones. In accordance with -yurvedic theory, which provides the governing paradigm for the explanation of physiological processes in Hindu India, arthritic pain may be explained as an excess of wind, or humoral disequilibrium, which needs to be balanced through diet, dr

Category: Philosophy - H