The teaching of Buddhist Medicine was first taught by the King of Medicine Buddha 50,000 aeons ago. Buddha Shakyamuni in this aeon, as the emanation of Medicine Buddha (Bhaishajya-Guru), also gave many transmissions of medical texts 2500 years ago. These texts contain thousands of chapters on causes, prevention and cure of diseases.

Lord Buddha taught that the root causes of all diseases are the three poisons - delusion (obscuration, ignorance, confusion), attachment (desire, pride, craving) and aversion (anger, hatred, aggression). It is due to these three poisons that 404 main types of psycho-physical disorders and their 84,000 types of manifestation come to exist in this world. These 404 main types of disease can be classified into four main categories of 101 types each.

The first category of diseases is caused by past karmic condition and cannot be cured. Attempts to bring cure to it by any conventional means will only increase its karmic weight and generate a further round of suffering for the patient in both the present life and future lives.

The second category is caused by the influence of harmful negative spirits. These can be eliminated by ritual practice performed for the patient by a qualified lama or tantric yogi.

The third category is caused by seasonal factors, improper conduct and improper diet. These can be rectified by proper conduct, proper diet and medicine.

The fourth category comes about due to superfluous causes. These minor diseases usually attain recovery without the need of medicine.

Buddhadharma explains that the universe with all its diversity of forms and appearances is composed of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. These same four elements are the constituents that influence the formation of blood, tissues, bodily fluids, bones, skin, sensory, breath, consciousness and physical form in a human body. When Nyipa (Lung, Khrispa, Badkan) - the three principle energies which govern the bio-physical and mental processes of the body are in harmony, so too is the well being of the body, mind and spirit of the person. When Nyipa is imbalanced as a result of the disruptive influence of wrong view, afflictive emotion, non-virtuous conduct, disorderly environment, improper diet, or harmful spirits - ill health naturally manifests.

How the world came into existence and how we come to be born in this world is the result of the inter-dependent dynamics of collective karma and individual karma. The multitude of phenomena we come to experience in the world is also the result of the cause-related sequence of events that has its beginning in both our individual and collective minds and which gives rise to the formation of karma. The lack of insight into the cause of karma and our inability to bring harmony to our relationship with ourself, with others, and with our environment in a manner that corresponds to the Law of Dharma that governs the functioning of the universe, increases the level of disharmony in our mind and gives rise to restlessness, agitation, self-absorption, and emotional dissatisfaction with life.

Disharmony of the mind has the power to obscure our view of the larger picture of reality and give rise to the surging of strong compulsive emotion such as desire-attachment when we find it pleasant; hatred-aversion if we dislike it; or total self-denial when we feel uncomfortable to acknowledge it.

While conventional medicine may bring relief to medical conditions through courses of treatment and surgery, they are merely dealing with the manifested symptoms and not the root cause of the problem, which is the result of the ripening of karmic imprints. When the root causes are not appropriately dealt with, it will simply return time and again from one life to the next. Only Buddhist Medicine with its profound insight into the true cause of suffering can remove the root cause of diseases permanently, through the application of Dharma practice which brings harmony to chaos and pacification to conflict. There is no single phenomenon in the world that does not come with its own means to liberation. If approached with the right understanding, then even the most challenging condition can become the means of liberation itself - this is the method of Buddhist Medicine.