Academic Resources for Buddhist Medicine

Texts from across the Buddhist world list illness—along with birth, aging, and death—as one of the four great torments that inevitably accompany life in a human body. Since Buddhism at its very core is focused on the relief of all suffering (Ch. ku 苦; Skt. duḥkha), Buddhist doctrine and practice frequently address the question of how to cope with this particular tribulation. Buddhist philosophy confronts the suffering of illness by stressing the illusory nature of the physical body, the non-existence of the separate self, and the promise of universal salvation. At the same time, however, Buddhism has not been limited to a fatalistic, passive, or spiritual approach to dealing with corporeal disease. The sick and those who care for them have for over two millennia found practical, this-worldly advice for preventing and curing maladies within the context of this religion. In the East Asian context, devotees and scholars alike conventionally refer to such teachings as "Buddhist medicine" (foyi 佛醫).

Like Buddhism itself, Buddhist medicine originated in India in the last four centuries B.C.E. Embedded in Buddhist scriptures and practices, it spread along the Silk Road and maritime routes to the rest of the Asian continent in the first millennium of the Common Era. Buddhist medicine eventually became a transnational body of knowledge that transcended significant cultural and political boundaries. It became influential in lands as varied as India, China, Korea, Japan, and many kingdoms of Central and Southeast Asia. Buddhist medical doctrines and therapies are still widely accepted in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tibet, among other places, and are being researched in many parts of the world under the rubric of complementary-alternative" or "integrative" medicine.

In the same sense that scholars refer to Buddhism as the first "world religion,” Buddhist medicine might similarly be reckoned the first "world medicine." At the same time that it remained loosely based on a core set of ancient Indian medical ideas and practices, however, Buddhist medicine was no static, timeless tradition. Like Buddhism itself, it continually was adapted and reinterpreted in countless local contexts throughout its history.