Filmmaker Heather Harlow/ Red Door Films presents her documentary in progress, Balancing the Elements: Tibetan Medicine in Exile. Tibet has a long continuous culture which was preserved by its monasteries. Their medical system is said to descend from the Buddha's medical teachings of about 500BC and is formalized in the rGyud-bzhi, books of 156 chapters and 5900 verses. The Tibetan system of medicine proposes an ideal balance of body elements. Imbalances caused by lifestyle, diet, the environment, spirits and negative thoughts lead to ill health. The root of all diseases are said to be the three mental poisons: desire, hatred and confusion. Tibetan practitioners diagnose patients by pulse (as in Chinese medicine), and examination of the tongue, skin, eyes, ears and gait. Though Tibetan physicians did not have access to the scientific method and the useful aspects of Descartes' reductionism, their emphasis on the impact of mental processes on the immune system is spot on. In the West, the most accessible book on Tibetan medicine (though ponderously encyclopedic) is Health Through Balance: An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine by Yeshi Donden, personal physician to the Dali Lama. No word on admission yet, but I'm sure if you have some extra cash they could use it to fininsh the film.
At Rake Art 325 NW 6th 7PM
