(Clearwisdom.net, June 1 News) SARS is a very contagious disease. Western medicine considers it to be caused by a crown-shaped virus. Since no available medicine can treat it and no vaccine has been developed, the only method to prevent it is a complete quarantine of the infected people and rigorous sterilization. Physical exercises, better nutrition, peptide injections and some hormone injections can boost the function of the body's immune system, but all of the preventive measures cannot guarantee complete immunization from infection. Furthermore, many cases cannot show a history of obvious contact with infected patients.
Chinese medicine considers it to be caused by unhealthy and poisonous environmental factors. The patient is caught by the unhealthy factors. Because of a weak physical system, his positive energy fails to resist the invasion by pathogenic factors. The treatment would be case-dependent. The simplest treatment and preventive method would be taking herbal medicines with detoxifying properties.
People who cultivate consider it to be caused by karma. They consider what Chinese medicine calls "unhealthy environmental factors," and what we call viruses and bacteria in everyday life, to be karma. A tranquil and unburdened mind will enhance the positive vital energy and result in the harmony of the internal organs, which, in turn, will prevent the unhealthy factors from invading the body. This is the key to a long and healthy life.
No infectious diseases infect all the people who come into contact with them; and not every infected person dies. Western medicine recognizes that different people have different resistance to disease.
When viewed from the perspective of cause and effect, and of repaying debts according to one's karma, people who cultivate believe that each individual's fortune and misfortune are not simply accidental. Everything happens for a reason. In human history, people who had accomplishments in cultivation directly perceived these cause-and-effect relationships, and the prophets and sages also benevolently taught people these relationships. These relationships have also been proven over thousands of years of human history. People who cultivate consider that the key to resolving the fundamental puzzles of human life is found in the issue of morality. People who follow the way of the nature and follow the way of morality will not create karma for themselves, and will not lose virtue; they will naturally have long lives with good fortune.
As a matter of fact, the most direct, simplest and the most fundamental method to follow the way of nature and to cultivate high moral character is to follow the characteristics of the universe. If a person can follow the characteristic of the universe, he will not go against the way of nature. Automatically, it will be easy for him to achieve physical health and to have good fortune. The basic characteristic of the universe is "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Tolerance." To understand from this perspective also helps one to realize why practicing Falun Gong can improve one's health and elevate one's moral character.
Actually, it has already been proven through social surveys and scientific experiments that practicing Falun Gong has miraculous effects on improving physical health. That is why Falun Gong practitioners will not panic because of SARS.
May 31, 2003
Category: Perspective
