CHARITY AND HEALTH

Did universal charity prevail, the earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

Charles Caleb Colton

"No way! - some might retort. - Don't you compare apples to oranges.

Charity has nothing to do with health; ethics and physiology are worlds apart!"

We pay little attention to self-organization and self-control mechanisms that used to be known as vital force and vital energy.

Soul and body—separate or united? 

"Prana" is the Sanskrit word for "life," "breathing," or "constant motion.". 

In our "enlightened" era we tend to separate the body and the soul (or health and ethics), since science has presumably established that the soul does not exist at all. Crude materialism has taught us to think of the body as a house that gradually becomes dilapidated and needs medical intervention to avoid the ultimate collapse. Fascinated with the triumphs of surgery and pharmacology, we pay little attention to self-organization and self-control mechanisms that used to be known as "vital force" and "vital energy,” prana or chi. We threw the baby out with the bathwater.

As is well-known, however, nature abhors a vacuum. If mainstream science rejects the vital force, the soul, and religion, the vacant space is instantly occupied by shamans, hypnotists, “bio-energy therapists,” and other shrewd folks who cater to the public’s interest in mysterious laws that govern our health and wellness.

In the early 90s I was really fascinated with Sergey Lazarev’s books that established a connection between aggression, insults and diseases. Dr. Lazarev was arguably the first author who studied our routine aggressive reactions that are widely seen as innocuous and even necessary for an average person.

When we attack our loved ones with "justified" rage, we launch destruction programs and ask the supreme force to destroy our "adversaries."

The opposite is true. Each time we attack our loved ones with "justified" rage, nurse a grudge, or use passive aggression to prove our point, we subconsciously launch a sort of destruction program, asking the supreme force to destroy our "adversaries." This is spiritual reality, now often called the "information and energy" reality. Whether we want it or not, our anger, rage, and resentment turn into an invisible murder. Such programs launched against others also have a boomerang effect on their sender.

Speak harshly to no one,

or the words will be thrown

right back at you.

Contentious talk is painful.

for you get struck by rods in return,

says "Dhammapada," a collection of poetic aphorisms dating back from the 3rd century AD and attributed to Buddha himself

These metaphorical rods that strike us in return for anger gravely hurt the delicate mechanisms of self-control and self-healing that operate within the nervous and immune systems.

What is true charity?

Charity, the Biblical word for compassion, love, and benevolence, is not just the lack of resolve or the reluctance to punish an offender.  Charity means a capacity for safeguarding one's higher needs and long-term security rather than sacrificing them to defense reactions of the emotion-driven subcortex that we inherited from animals.  This wisdom is a rare gift of God if you were lucky enough to learn it from family and friends. More often, unfortunately, it comes at a price of major mistakes and dramas that have worked through by willpower, years of hard spiritual work, reading the right books and much more.

Beautiful are the lands where charity resides, and no wisdom can be learned without living in those lands. 

Confucius

When the charitable way becomes a norm, the internal spiritual space that may be called magnanimity unfolds within a person. Pain or bitterness penetrating this powerful field fail to ignite or compress it, they just die like flying sparks, leaving a faint smell of smoke and sorrow.  Those who possess this gift are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. As a Russian saying puts it, "no town would stand without a righteous man." These people activate self-healing power not only in their own bodies but also in those around them. Charity, humility and kindness can indeed transform a person as well as the world at large.  As St. Seraphim of Sarovo said in a famous aphorism: "Secure a spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved."

Some might say that spiritual (or, for that matter, religious) health does not guarantee its physical counterpart. But opposing the two is a glaring blunder since neither can thrive without the other.

The body nourishes the soul like the soil nourishes a plant. Yet the soul does not simply dwell in the body and use it as a garment. If agile and peaceful, it can support and protect physical health; if possessed with hatred or anger, it can make the body ail and suffer. This is why it is so important to keep an eye on its wellness, healing it with repentance and charity. Respect, tolerance and love for others are a perfect foundation of love for yourself, for your invisible but vital internal harmony.