Barbara Gould bows her head in a demonstration of healing meditation. Teacher Geshe Sopa observes. (Glenn Hartong photos) | ZOOM |

        Barbara Gould has learned that the car wreck that brought her to the monks at the Gaden Samdup-ling Monastery was not an unfortunate accident. It was an auspicious event.

        Comprehending the difference between the two, she says, has helped heal a painful neck injury and brought her mental and emotional clarity for the first time in her life.

        With instruction from the monks, Ms. Gould, 61, has begun learning Tong-len, a Tibetan Buddhist healing meditation technique. The combination of meditation with acupuncture, massage and Healing Touch therapy has helped heal the ruptured disk that brought her so much pain, Ms. Gould says.

        Since the Clifton monastery opened in November, interest has been growing in Buddhist teachings and healing techniques, says Jamyang Lama, one of four monks who staff the small monastery set up in a sturdy brick house. It is an outgrowth from a Tibetan Buddhist monastery established in Bloomington, Ind., about four years ago, Jamyang says.

The healing ceremony

        One of the practices gaining the most interest is Tong-len, a form of healing meditation based on the same principles as many other forms of energy healing. Followers believe that clearing negative impulses or vibrations from the body's energy field can help heal illness.

Geshe Sopa lays hthe vajra, a Tibetan Buddhist of protection, on Mrs. Gould's head. | ZOOM |

        Practitioners believe the ceremony teaches devotees to help heal themselves and purify negative energies that contribute to physical and emotional ailments. Consultations in Tong-len are available from the monks through the monastery or through the Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine in Sycamore Township.

        A healing ceremony has three stages, Jamyang says, translating for Geshe Sopa, one of the monastery's respected teachers. A geshe has studied Buddhism for more than 20 years and holds the highest degree in Tibetan Buddhist studies.

        The first stage of healing is purification. Through meditation and visualization, the seeker removes negative thoughts and emotions from his or her being. The stage is water-based, and the healer pours water over the seeker, Jamyang says.

        During the second stage, called brooming or sweeping, the healer uses a peacock feather to sweep away any remaining negative energies from the seeker, “totally taking away the impurities in your field,” says Jamyang.

ON THE WEB

For more information on Tong-len or Buddhist teachings, check their Web site at www.ganden.org or call the Gaden Samdup-ling Monastery, (513) 961-7110.

        During the final protection phase, the healer places a bell bearing the vajra, an emblem of an imperishable diamond that symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism, on the seeker's head.

        “It's like putting a fence around your house to protect. In the same way, you visualize dressing yourself in armor for protection from harm,” Jamyang says.

        Monks routinely visit patients in hospitals and hospices to counsel them or practice Tong-len techniques, Jamyang says. And monks from the local monastery work one-on-one with many clients suffering from a variety of physical and emotional ailments.

Miraculous cures

        Jamyang and other followers tell stories of miraculous cures that have resulted from Tong-len healings. Jamyang mentions a woman whose breast cancer was cured through Tong-len at the Bloomington monastery.

        Western practitioners are skeptical of such claims, pointing out there's little hard evidence and less data to support them.

        Dr. Steve Amoils, medical director of the Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine, says he doesn't endorse the monks' claims that Tong-len can cure cancer, and he certainly wouldn't recommend that a patient abandon chemotherapy or other medical options in favor of the meditation.

        But such techniques, used in combination with medical approaches, can be very helpful for patients, Dr. Amoils says, and he advocates greater study of mind-body medicine to objectively determine whether or not it's effective.

        He describes himself as “open but skeptical of many claims in alternative therapies.”

        On the one hand, he's seen patients recover through the use of complementary therapies when conventional medicine said recovery was impossible. On the other hand, Dr. Amoils says, it's important not to give patients false hope about nonmedical therapies or encourage them to try something that might make them sicker.

        “If someone said to me, "I am doing chemotherapy and I would like to go to these monks to try this and it will not interfere with the chemo,” then I would say, let's go ahead and see. And I would monitor the patient to see whether we had good results,” he says.

        Ms. Gould is less skeptical: The monks, she says, healed the ruptured disk that physicians told her would require surgery. The pain is gone, thanks to the meditations she has learned, and she has full use of her arm again.

        The meditations have helped in other areas, as well, she says. “They have taught me not to be afraid because fear comes from not being able to handle the obstacles in your life,” Ms. Gould says. “If you are able to feel good about yourself and you are able to handle the obstacles, then you can handle whatever happens to you. What I used to think of as bad things happening to me all the time were just things happening.

        “They've taught me that things happen; how do we know what's good or bad? From what point of view is it good or bad? We don't have the future to know. We don't own the future. And the past is gone. And perhaps what we learned in the past that would allow us to qualify something as good or bad was not good teaching.”

        Even the monks rely on medicine: Jamyang had to cancel a meditation event to have surgery.

Managing stress

        Meditation does help manage stress — changes in blood pressure and heart rate have been documented during meditative states — and stress management can go a long way toward easing many ailments. And any good doctor knows a positive outlook can be the best medicine for many patients, even those facing terminal illnesses.

        The findings of three recent studies, all released this monthattest to the power of positive thinking:

        • A nine-year study from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on the effects of attitude and personality on HIV progression in men has found that men who experience very stressful events developed AIDS twice as fast as men without such stress. Related studies show that aggression weakens the immune systems in HIV-positive patients, and some researchers believe stress may hamper the ability of AIDS medications to fight the virus.

        • Unhappy marriages put women at higher risk for factors that contribute to heart disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and weight gain, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh.

        • Researchers at George Washington University Medical Center found that women with moderately serious breast cancer and a large network of supportive friends and family have a 60 percent lower chance of death and recurrence over a seven-year period. Conversely, breast cancer patients with a small core of supporters outside the home have a 60 percent greater chance of recurrence and death. Related studies show that natural killer cells, part of the body's immune system that attack tumors, are very responsive to stress levels.

        The monks at Gaden Samdup-ling aren't trying to win converts to Buddhism, but they do like to share information and insights from their culture, and interest is growing in their beliefs. From 40 to 60 people attend the weekly classes in Buddhist philosophy, Jamyang says. The monks also offer one-on-one counseling and consultation for healings, meditation and spiritual support, and visit schools, universities and other groups interested in learning about Tibetan culture.

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