What is Holistic Health???

[Guest guest]

Our modern civilisation claims to be very productive, creative, and

resourceful-but a hundred years ago we did not have many of the diseases that

exist today. Every day more diseases are being created. Although we are alive,

majority of us experience only the art of existing. Very few of us have really

cultivated that technique which is called the art of living. And the reason for

this is that life today has become very artificial. Man never stops to consider

that he may have gone too far by ignoring his natural resources and by depending

on artificial means. Living by artificial means gradually decreases natural

resistances, and this obsession makes modern man suffer more and more. Man's

whole life seems to be kept busy in trying to get rid of self-created suffering.

Is there nothing higher for human beings to obtain than freedom from these

ailments?

 

There is no remedy in any system of medicine for such a self-created condition

except to be aware of the fact that it is the individual who creates these

miseries for himself and that only he can learn how to prevent them. With the

bounty of nature outside and the centre of consciousness within, we should be

living in health and harmony-but having built boundaries, both externally and

internally, we have lost direct contact with these forces. All human beings have

the inner potential and skill to be completely healthy, but in today's world,

because of the social and economic pressures, human beings have forgotten that

all things happen deep within before they appear on the physical and mental

levels. We must understand our inner skills and resources, and use them as much

as possible in order to ensure perfect health.

 

By paying attention to the physical being, we become aware that all our actions,

emotions, and feelings are governed from within by the conscious and unconscious

mind. Finally, we realise that the mental aspect of health is more important

than the physical, and that the spiritual aspect of health is of greater

importance than either of these. When we start paying attention to the various

zones of our being and learn to transcend them, the most subtle level of

existence comes into consciousness. Ultimately we become aware of the centre of

consciousness within; that which flows outward in various degrees and grades.

This particular level is called spiritual health. Those who understand this are

practicing the art of living and being. One who remains constantly aware of this

centre enjoys all the gifts of life.

 

Excerpt from A Practical Guide to Holistic Health by Swami Rama