Compassion meets wisdom: An emerging medical paradigm

By Nancy Gahles

Compassion and Wisdom are the two wings of a bird Flying to Enlightenment —The Buddhah

This year began with top industry contenders parlaying prevailing medical paradigm into enlightenment through wisdom.

The 2018 Integrative Healthcare Symposium Annual Conference in New York City, a bastion in the vanguard of education for integrative medicine, led the way in February.

Wisdom traditions were widely represented and their well worn paths to enlightenment were revealed. Among those were homeopathic medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic, herbs, nutrition, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, breath and body work, music, and Shin Jyutsu. Such traditions represent mankind’s deepest source of knowledge about universal principles that govern harmonious, prosperous, and sustainable existence. These principles are being revealed to us in a more consistent and meaningful way in this new age of consciousness that is born of compassion, compassionate listening, and compassionate presence.

These traditions provide a conceptual framework for the development of the inner self, living a spiritual, that is, a meaningful and purposeful life and the realization of enlightenment.

The Integrative Healthcare Symposium began building the bridge to enlightenment of the healthcare profession by highlighting the concept of how healing works from a consciousness perspective incorporating compassion, wisdom, and the power of self-care in an evolving universe.

“How Healing Works” was the topic of notable author and long-time integrative health advocate, Wayne Jonas, MD. The principle he evoked to shift the medical paradigm to one of compassion, wisdom, and enlightenment was stunningly simple and intuitive.

”Only 20 percent of healing comes from the “treatment agent” that the doctor applies to you, whether that is surgery, drugs, acupuncture needles, herbs and supplements, diet, or anything else external to you,” he said. “A full 80 percent of healing comes from constructing a meaningful treatment response, unique to you, which is highly personal, using simple principles and components.”

Indeed, wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. It is considered a virtue and as a virtue, it is a habit or disposition to perform an action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance.

The construct of the meaningful treatment response that Jonas espouses requires deep listening and compassion. It also requires an educational component that fosters this philosophy, which is presently absent in medical training.

Eighteenth century philosophers, such as Benjamin Franklin, advocated for this training in public schools as an approach to character education. Franklin referred to this as training wisdom and virtue. According to an article published by the U.S. Department of Education, character education is a shared responsibility. “In schools, character education must be approached comprehensively to include the emotional, intellectual and moral qualities of a person,” they say. 

When we are training persons to administer healing agents, some as potent and life-altering as surgery and pharmaceutical drugs, it is incumbent upon the institutions of higher learning to revisit this educational component and re-frame it in accordance with the principles of healing.

In a 2006 article, Nicholas Maxwell, MD, a contemporary philosopher in the United Kingdom, calls for “a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry, so that the basic aim becomes to promote wisdom by rational means, instead of just to acquire knowledge.”

He goes on to say that “acquiring knowledge dissociated from a more basic concern for wisdom leads, via technology and industry, to an enormous increase in the power to act…All our modern global crises are the outcome of science without wisdom. If we are to avoid in this century the horrors of the last one-wars, death camps, dictatorships, poverty, environmental damage- we urgently need to learn how to acquire more wisdom, which, in turn means that our institutions of learning become devoted to that end.”

The revolution in academia that Maxwell advocated for seemed to be obfuscated by the self-proclaimed “revolutionary new plan” brought forth by the pre-eminent expert in the field of integrative medicine, the keynote speaker at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium, Deepak Chopra, MD. His plan, similar to that of Jonas, was also straightforward. It highlights the ineptitude of the medical world, as we know it, to be the change that we need to see.

 “In the face of environmental toxins, potential epidemics, superbugs and the accelerated aging process, the significance of achieving optimum health has never been more crucial-and the burden to achieve it now rests on individuals making right lifestyle choices every day,” Chopra said during his keynote. “That means you. You, not doctors [and] not pharmaceutical companies, are ultimately responsible for your own health.”

Essentially, Chopra’s view of an emerging paradigm shift to wisdom and compassion does eliminate the current reductionist thinking-based model to one of consciousness. Consciousness and conscious awareness implies compassion and self-compassion. In this way, you are responsible for yourself.

Chopra introduced the concept of a new possibility to consider, the higher self. This concept is integral to the emerging paradigm and goes hand-in-hand with the revolution in academia. The illustrative path to healing appears to be an inside job with your own highest self leading the charge.

That said, we must heed the words of the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets, John Donne:

No man is an island

Entire of Itself

Every man is a piece of the Continent

A part of the Main…

Health, wellness, and wellbeing are ultimately all about relationships. There does exist, and always will exist, a healer-mentor relationship at some point in your journey. The cultivation of a consciousness steeped in compassion and wisdom is a must for us, as a whole, to move forward on our evolutionary path to a higher state where, in fact, true health reigns in the form of peace.

“The Culture of Peace and Healing for Humanity” was the keynote given by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury at the recent World Congress of Integrative Medicines, presented by the Global Foundation for Integrative Medicines (GFIM). His participation in writing the United Nations Declaration and Programme of Action on a culture of peace is a testament to the prevailing action plan already in progress. This declaration affirms that peace as a culture is, in and of itself, the end result of healing. 

The “emerging” paradigm of the integration of compassion and wisdom that is needed in the U.S. is already firmly entrenched in the medicines of our global healthcare community. Linda Lancaster, ND, PhD, founder of the GFIM, emphasized the “s” on medicines because there are many valid subtle medicines and healing elements for humanity. Lancaster is a visionary woman with the depth and breadth of knowledge of all of these. She practices her art of healing in Sante Fe and New York City and teaches worldwide. She holds the vision that the integration of all medicines can be a unifying force to promote a stronger foundation for world peace.

The game is on. Shifts can appear slow as in adaptation of species, climate change, and tectonic plates. There comes a time, however, when the subtle movements begun a long time ago, make their appearance in a dramatic way. A shift in consciousness, appearance, and action is before us. We, as a culture, have reached a tipping point. We have emerged into a culture of awareness. We are wiser and more compassionate as a result of the decades of trauma where the prevailing culture was all but devoid of wisdom and compassion and a higher consciousness. We are called to cultivation of those virtues. To practice them for our own healing and for the healing of us all in relationship. We are called to a new medical/social interconnected paradigm.

Compassion breeds goodness and light.

Compassion makes a heart merry and bright.

Wisdom is born

Of Knowing.

Wisdom is the Mother of Insight.

Insight knows when to act

with Compassion.

Love is compassion and Wisdom in Action.

The Flight to Enlightenment.

—Nancy Gahles