Tibetan Medicine is an ancient and spiritual form of medicine known as "Gso-wa Rig-pa," ("The Knowledge of Healing"); derived from historical Buddha teachings. Highly valued in Tibet and central Asia, Tibetan medicine is a based on an ideology of that well-being is directly related to the mind, body and spirit's ability to achieve complete and whole healing.
Tibetan medicine utilizes three forms of therapeutic strategies: 1)"mantra," (repititious sounds), 2) medicinal entities, and 3) the power of meditation. Tibetan medicine enables healing through interrelative universal principles and earthly manifestations. In doing so, harmony and balance are brought back between the cosmic universe.
Tibetan medicine also involves medicines, diet modifications and practical advisement. Chants, mantra, music, Iconography (Iconography - religious imagery painted on small wooden panels), prayer wheels and many other symbolic objects are used in Tibetan medicine as well.
The theory behind Tibetan medicine is that diseases, (seated in past mental environments or past lives), are the mental factors that cause all illness. With a strong belief in Karma (the law of cause and effect), Tibetan medicine is based on the "Three Interior Poisons." The poisons are construed as the foundation of all disease (desire, hatred and ignorance). The views of Tibetan medicine are founded on emotional, physical and cognitive interactions in finding the "cause and effect" of illness. Thus, by using Tibetan medicine, freedom is gained from affliction and allows persons to live in total well-being.
According to Tibetan medicine, Bhaisajya-guru (Medicine Buddha from the 3rd century A.D.), is sometimes invoked as a spiritual force in order to heal disease. In closing, Tibetan medicine is moreover a spiritual and holistic therapy that is rooted in the belief that both personal suffering and suffering, in general, is a universal condition and must be treated in a metaphysical, spiritual and compassionate way.
Tibetan Medicine