Physician Heal Thyself

by Dr. Geo Poland

This paper was originally presented as an address to the participants in the Vipassana Seminar on Health, held at Dhamma Giri in 1990. The audience had completed a ten-day course just prior to the presentation of the papers.

It is indeed a pleasure to see so many fellow phy-
sicians and healing professionals assembled here to discuss and practise Dhamma. Certainly we need more and more such Dhamma doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, etc., in this world. It is all the more a pleasure to see such a wide spectrum of various "pathies" [allopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, etc.] represented here today, and to realize that for all the differences which may appear to exist between such "pathies," as regards etiology of disease, diagnosis and treatment, there is a common thread which binds us all together - the desire to help others come out of their suffering. We may disagree as to the "how," but the goal remains the same.

I feel it is an occupational hazard that as one works more and more with sick people (facing so much suffering day after day, patient after patient), that slowly, almost imperceptibly one becomes more and more distanced from the patient as a suffering human being. Naturally one has to maintain an objective outlook in order to come to the right diagnosis and treatment of the patient's disease. However, in the process one must not lose sight of the fact that this patient is not only an interesting case, a diagnostic challenge, a therapeutic triumph, but also a vulnerable, suffering human being - someone needing not only treatment of their disease process, but also compassion and understand ing of the suffering they are undergoing as a result of their illness. This becomes all the more important when one is treating someone suffering from a chronic illness, or a terminally ill patient for whom there is no "cure." Naturally it is frustrating for the medical personnel to be unable to cure the patient; one feels that one has failed somehow and often one tends to avoid interacting with such patients. It seems to me that this stems from our own inability to come to terms with all the suffering we see around us because we have not been able to deal with our own suffering.

Through the practice of Vipassana meditation one comes face to face with one's own suffering deep inside, and by understanding its impermanent nature one gradually develops equanimity. Thus little by little one is able to eliminate this suffering. The result of this self-purification or self-healing process is a deep sense of relief and resultant compassion for others who are likewise suffering. One realizes that one suffers because one keeps reacting to the sensations deep inside. Similarly our patients not only suffer from their disease but also from their mental reactions to it. This understanding and compassion goes a long way in practising the art of medicine, which is a combination of not only the learned skills of diagnosis and treatment, but also a heavy dose of loving-kindness or mett±, as we all learned here at the end of the course.

Many years ago, after returning to Canada from India, I struck up a deep friendship with an eighty-five year old, crippled farmer patient of mine. We would while away the hours in his kitchen drinking tea and swapping stories. He was a very practical man who had been successful at almost everything he did. He told me that he only went to school for one day and learned all he needed to know. The teacher wrote on the board "Never Be Idle;" so he went back to the farm and started working!

He also told me that in the good old days he had had a doctor who was a real doctor. He said the moment you entered his office you started feeling better, and by the time you left his office you felt even more relieved although you hadn't yet taken any medicine. He then explained that it is very easy to be a good doctor - all you have to do is give the patient lots of "TLC" (tender loving care). Certainly this is not all there is to the practice of medicine, but it is a part which is gradually being replaced by our dependence on investigations, tests and so on to make the diagnosis.

Through Vipassana and the development of mett± we can rekindle this TLC. "Physician Heal Thyself" is a well-known phrase. We of the healing profession should take this to heart if we really want to help ourselves and likewise our patients.

Love which is alone the means for the unity of mankind, must be supreme, and it cannot be so unless the mind is transcendently pure.

- Sayagyi U Ba Khin