Heal Others and Heal Yourself
“If we open our hearts to the suffering of the world, the healer in each of us is called forth to manifest the qualities of love and compassion and relieve suffering wherever we find it. In our effort to heal others, we also heal ourselves.”
–Frances Vaughan (American Transpersonal Psychologist and Writer)
“Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions” (Frances Vaughan)
Opening to Love
“To recognize an inner source of love is to access a source of self-healing without which therapeutic techniques and medicines are of limited value. Healing hearts and minds depends on opening to love.”
—
Frances Vaughan (American Transpersonal Psychologist and Writer)
Help On The Path
“Like a good and loving physician, God heals with individual treatment each of those who are trying to make progress.”
–St. Maximos the Confessor (Christian, Monk, Theologian and Scholar, c.580-662)
Seek Wholeness Inside Yourself
“I am called to seek wholeness inside of myself. Healing begins here, in myself. Wholeness and unity begin inside of myself. If I am growing toward wholeness, then I’ll be an agent of wholeness. If our community is an agent of wholeness, then it will be a source of life for the world around it.”
–Jean Vanier (Canadian Catholic Philosopher, Humanitarian and the Founder of L’Arche, 1928-)
“Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life” (Frederic Brussat, Mary Ann Brussat)
How to Heal the Big Problems
“The broad sympathies and discerning insight needed for the healing of earthly woes cannot flow from a mere intellectual consideration of human diversities, but from knowledge of men’s deepest unity – kinship with God.”
–Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
Awareness Heals
Such an important, oft-forgotten truth:
“Awareness heals.”
–Stephen Levine (American Poet, Writer and Spiritual Teacher Best Known for His Work on Grief, Death and Dying, 1937-)
“Turning Toward the Mystery: A Seeker’s Journey” (Stephen Levine)
Solitude Good, Isolation Bad
We have talked before about the value of being comfortable with yourself: to find peace in solitude. But that is a very different from trying to live in total isolation.
Everything in the Universe lives in a relationship, and one of the keys to growth and healing is relationship. The establishment and maintenance of relationship is one of the crucial differences between treating and healing.
“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.”
–Pearl S. Buck (a.k.a. “John Sedges,” a.k.a. Sai Zhenzhu, American Missionary in China, Author and, in 1938, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1892-1973)
The Real Medicine of the Future
Those of us who have been pushing toward a more comprehensive model of health and healing have talked for years now about the importance of relationship as the key effective component of compassionate care. It’s true that many people still buy into the “Mechanic model” of health care, and are not much interested in anything except a quick fix. “Do something to me: a pill or surgery or whatever. I’m not interested in changing anything in my life, or trying to take control of my future…”
But for those of you interested in empowering yourselves, this is a simple – but beautiful – statement about one aspect of the model of Integrated Health.
“Medicine is not only a science, but also the art of letting our own individuality interact with the individuality of the patient.”
–Albert Schweitzer (Alsatian-born Theologian, Philosopher, Mission Doctor and, in 1952, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1875-1965)
Even Now, Medicine Remains Both Science and Art
“Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.”
–Paracelsus (a.k.a. Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, Swiss Physician and Alchemist, 1493-1541)
Medicine: Quo Vadis?
“We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is to remain a humanitarian and respected profession or a new but depersonalized science in the service of prolonging life rather than diminishing human suffering.”
–Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (Swiss-born American Psychologist, 1926-2004)
