00:52:38 - Topics Discussed: Nature, Sustainability, Organic farming, Environmental issues, City vs Nature, Science & NatureJan Kuśmirek is a medical he...
The section reports on top news stories concerning China in 2018. Topics and issues discussed include the reelection of Xi Jinping as president and chairman of the Central Military Commission at the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) on March 17, 2018; the adoption of the Amendment to the Constitution on March 11, 2018; and details of the Rural Vitalization Strategic Plan (2018-2022). Also reported is the creation of two new holidays in China in 2018.
In Tibetan Buddhist traditions, a distinction is made between the practice of medicine (sowa rigpa, i. e., the “science of healing”) and a broad range of nonmedical practices—including rituals, contemplative practices, and alchemy—that may be undertaken to promote health and long life, or to eliminate and impede conditions that cause disease.¹ The subject of this chapter is one such technique: a tantric meditation focusing on a popu lar trinity, the “three deities of longevity.” The meditation, which involves the visualization of consecration by the deities and the absorption of their life-sustaining forces, is introduced within the context of
Precious Pills, also called Jewel Pills because of their precious stone and jewel content, are among the most popu lar and well-known Tibetan medicines today. We know very little about their origins and the development of their recipes, however, as most of the related lit er a ture is only available in Tibetan .. and has not yet been translated or deeply studied by scholars working in European languages. Precious Pills are compounds that contain between twenty-five and 160 plants and minerals, as well as precious ingredients such as gold, silver, rubies, diamonds, corals, turquoise, pearls, sapphires, anddzibeads
The last of the 156 chapters of theFour Treatises, which is presented here, is a fitting conclusion to this poetic root text of Tibetan medicine said to date back to the twelfth century. It is not called “Conclusion” (as the chapter before it), however. Instead, it is titled “Entrustment,”¹ and it begins with a fundamental question of doubt. The following question prob ably arises in the mind of any medical practitioner at some point:What is the purpose of possessing the knowledge of healing and being a physician if treatments can fail and people still die? This core question of
There were numerous traditions of healing in Tibet. Many centered on ritual puri-fication or the ingestion of sacralized substances. Many invoked Buddhist deities, and some were connected to Indian Buddhist texts on healing. But the mainstream practice of the “science of healing”(sowa rigpa)in Tibet depended instead on physical means of healing. These were adapted from Indian Ayurveda, East Asian diagnostics, Central Asian medicine, and knowledge from Greco-Arabic medicine. They involved medicinal herbs, balance of the bodily humors, moxibustion, bloodletting, massage, splints, purgatives, and surgery. These are described in the classic text of Tibetan medicine,the Four Treatises (Gyushi;see
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and mindfulness meditation teacher. Kabat-Zinn developed the formal mindfulness practices. Jon Kabat-Zinn brought mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), into the mainstream of medicine and society.
<p>This is a compilation of short abstracts of each article of the special issue of <em>Contributions to Nepalese Studies</em> based on the conference on "Fertility Transition in Nepal: Changing Context and Dynamics."</p>
How is Adaptation Practice different from Mindfulness and CBT? Over recent years a lot of people have asked me about Mindfulness, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). What do I think of them? Is
This doctoral dissertation forges and explores connections, flows and frictions between two seemingly unrelated manufacturers of Tibetan medicines: Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh, India), and PADMA AG in Wetzikon (Zürich, Switzerland). Adopting a translocal, multispecies approach by positioning plant-medicines as the central actors in this ethnography, I trace how four plants - aru, ruta, tserngön and bongnak - become part of medicine in and between these two establishments of Sowa Rigpa of similar age and output volume, situated in highly diverse contexts at a stereotypical 'periphery' and 'core' of Western technoscience respectively. Inspired by Science and Technology Studies and by Pordié and Gaudillière's (2014a) 'reformulation regime' of industrial Ayurvedic proprietary products, I analyse the on-going material, technoscientific, and regulatory reformulations of Tibetan materia medica as they are actualised in contemporary recipes based on classical texts. In this thesis, I describe how both PADMA and Men-Tsee-Khang refer to Tibetan medical texts yet also rely on botanical taxonomy for plant identification. Both face the uncertainties of sourcing raw materials in bulk from growers and traders on the Indian market, skilfully mass-produce pills by means of machines for grinding, mixing, sieving and packaging, and depend on in-house laboratory analyses and each-other's expertise in the construction of hybrid 'qualities'. They are also forced to interact with technomedical conceptions of drug safety and toxicity, and with European medicine and food registration legislation to varying degrees. I argue that in performing this series of technoscientific reformulations, Tibetan medicines are becoming 'alternative pharmaceuticals': liminal, paradoxical yet politically subversive things oscillating betwixt and between tradition and modernity, orthodoxy and innovation, East and West. Men-Tsee-Khang and PADMA
The benefits of mindfulness meditation in the workplace, for students or in primary schools are numerous, both for the brain and body. Research shows...
Documents the state of traditional Tibetan medicine, practiced by the Amchis, in Zanskar, a village in the Himalayas. Traces the history of Tibetan medicine based on Buddhist teaching and natural elements used for healing. Addresses the changes that have taken place in that society, evident in the younger generation's rejection of traditional practices. Interviews a number of Amchis to illustrate their healing methods, the preparation of their medicine, and their simple, altruistic way of life. Mentions the Amchi Association and its efforts to build a school in order to continue the ancient profession
Hepatic fibrosis is the end-stage consequence of chronic liver disease, affecting many people worldwide. Unlike the anti-fibrotic effect of natural killer (NK) cells, CD8 and NK T subsets are considered as profibrogenic subsets. Padma Hepaten is a multi-compound herbal preparation derived from Tibetan medicine and has proven efficacy in some clinical trials and tests at the cellular level. In this study, we evaluate the immune efficacy of Padma Hepaten administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) and/or orally in a mice model of hepatic fibrosis. Hepatic fibrosis was induced by 6 weeks of biweekly i.p. carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) injections in male C57Bl6 mice. There were four groups, including naive mice, non-treated fibrotic mice and fibrotic mice treated by Padma Hepaten at weeks 5–6 of fibrosis induction either orally or by i.p. injections. Padma Hepaten was prepared at 10 mg/ml in saline and 250 µl (2·5 mg) were administered four times per week. After week 6, animals were killed. To isolate a Padma Hepaten-associated effect on lymphocytes, splenocytes were harvested from either naive or Padma Hepaten-treated non-fibrotic donors. Isolated splenocytes were therefore reconstituted into two groups of irradiated recipients. Recipients were then administered the same CCl4 regimen. Hepatic fibrosis was determined by sirius red staining of liver sections and by assessment of alpha smooth muscle actin expression compared with β-actin (both by mRNA as well as the protein liver extract western blotting). Hepatic fibrosis and alanine aminotransferase serum levels were decreased significantly in both Padma Hepaten-treated groups compared with the non-treated fibrotic group. Padma Hepaten treatment was associated with attenuation of lymphocyte subsets in both treated groups. Using a chemiluminescence technique to assess total anti-oxidant capacities (TAC), it was found that both the plasmas and livers of mice treated by CCl4 had significantly higher TAC compared with controls. Howe
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