The Ingredients of Happiness
“One is happy as a result of one’s own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain. By the proper use of experience and thought one can draw much from oneself, by determination and patience once can even restore one’s health… so let us live life as it is, and not be ungrateful.”
–George Sand (a.k.a. Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, French Writer, 1804-1876)
Health Is Harmony
“Health is harmony with the world view. Health is an intuitive perception of the universe and all its inhabitants as being of one fabric.”
–Jeanne Achterberg (American Writer, Lecturer and Patient Advocate, 1942-2012)
The Harmony of Health
The basic tenets of Integrated Health, and the road to unlocking your Innate Freedom:
“A healthy person is one with mind, heart and will in complete harmony – with light in the mind, an impulse and stimulus in the heart and energy in the will.”
–Peter Konstantinov Deunov (a.k.a. Master Beinsa Douno, Bulgarian Spiritual Master and Founder of a School of Esoteric Christianity, 1864-1944)
“Prophet for Our Times: The Life and Teachings of Peter Deunov” (Peter Duenov)
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)
Health and Purpose
“Give a man health and a course to steer, and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.”
–George Bernard Shaw (Irish Dramatist, Socialist and, in 1925, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)
Finding True Health
“Health is gained by the sick who follow the path of healing: health does not come through the acts of others.”
–Shankara (a.k.a. Adi Shankaracharya, Indian Sage, Spiritual Teacher and Author of the Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Dates Uncertain, but c.A.D. 686-718 or 788-821)
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)
Old But Sound Advice on Health
“A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.”
–Henry Home, Lord Kames (Scottish Judge and Philosopher, 1696-1782)
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)
