CSPH 5315
"Traditional Tibetan Medicine:
Ethics, Spirituality, and Healing"
10 week graduate course, Fall Semester, 2 credits
Medicine Buddha: Symbol of Tibetan Medicine Course
Time
Wednesdays, 4:40-7:30 p.m.
Dates
September 17 through November 19, 2008.
Place
Mayo Meditation Room, East Bank Campus, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Faculty
Miriam E. Cameron, Ph.D., M.S., M.A., R.N., teaches this course with assistance from Tashi Lhamo, a Tibetan Medicine practitioner; Ani Pema Tsultim, a Tibetan Buddhist nun; and Scott A. Banas, JD.
Credits
A student can earn 2 undergraduate or 2 graduate credits.
Students
This course is open to University of Minnesota juniors, seniors, graduate students, and the public. A student may take the course in person or as as distance student.
Course Description
This course will introduce students to ethics, spirituality, and healing from the perspective of traditional Tibetan medicine. Traditional Tibetan doctors believe that illness results from imbalance and that treating illness requires correcting the underlying imbalance. Students will learn how to apply these principles personally, integrate them into clinical practice, and consult with a traditional Tibetan doctor.
Required Textbooks (paperbacks)
Cameron , M.E. (2002). Karma & happiness: A Tibetan odyssey in ethics, spirituality, and healing. (Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama). Minneapolis : Fairview Press.
Dorjee, P., Jones, J., & Moore, T. (2005). Spiritual medicine of Tibet: Heal your spirit, heal yourself. (Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama). London : Watkins Publishing.
Recommended Textbook (paperbacks)
Gyal, Y., & Namdul, T (2006). Tibetan Medical Dietary Book: Vol. - I, Potency & Preparation of Vegetables. Dharamsala, India: Men-Tsee-Khang.
Post, S., & Neimark, J. (2007). Why good things happen to good people: The exciting new research that proves the link between doing good and living a longer, healthier, happier life. New York : Broadway Books.
Tibetan doctor taking Miriam Cameron's pulse in Lhasa, Tibet
Tibetan Medicine
Tibetan medicine is far more advanced in the understanding of the nature of mind than Western medicine. In matters of understanding the physical functioning of the human body, Tibetan medicine is less advanced than Western medicine. Without mixing the two approaches, and without saying one is better than the other, both schools should work together in order to find ways of understanding and thus boost the effectiveness of the two healing techniques.
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Men-Tsee-Khang. (2001). Fundamentals of Tibetan medicine. Dharamsala , India: Author.
Develop health through balance
Tibetan art: elephant, monkey, rabbit, and bird
Heal from the source
Healing from the source begins
when we discover within ourselves
that we are linked with each other, the environment,
and the larger forces o the universe.
Then our inner wisdom flows spontaneously
through all the cells in the body,
promoting optimal health,
creativity, peace, and joy.
Baker, I.A. (1997). The Tibetan art of healing. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Medicine Buddha Mandala
Tibetan Medicine and Science
Why does modern biology accept only competition to be the fundamental operating principle and aggression to be the only fundamental trait of human beings? Why does it reject cooperation as an operating principle, and why does it not see altruism as possible traits for the development of living beings as well? One can take science seriously and accept the validity of its empirical findings without subscribing to scientific materialism.
I have argued for the need for and possibility of a worldview grounded in science, yet one that does not deny the richness of human nature and the validity of modes of knowing other than the scientific. There is an intimate connection between one's conceptual understanding of the world, one's vision of human existence and its potential, and the ethical values that guide one's behavior.
Dalai Lama. (2005). The universe in a single atom: The convergence of science and spirituality. London : Little, Brown.
Information
http://www.csh.umn.edu
612.624.5166 |
