Kai-Igaku
(Comfortable Medicine)

The word "kai-Igaku" means comfortable medicine. The universe, nature, or God accords to us and every living being a natural term of life wherein we can live and die comfortably. Every living being is created to live in paradise, with the sole purpose of living happily in paradise together. The phenomena of life can be defined as a constant forward movement, always striving for comfort and avoiding discomfort.

The source of the universal law of comfort is not accessible to the present knowledge of humanity, and all we can do is to express our gratitude. The roots of all disease lie in breaking the universal law of comfort and living 'uncomfortably' or in an uncomfortable environment. Recovery from disease only means starting to move in the direction of comfort, which is what the body and mind really desire, and adapting ourselves to the simple but inescapable laws of comfort laid down over billions of years of evolution.

The profoundest strength of medicine (healing) is the patient's own vital power. All forms of medicine, including modern Western medicine and oriental medicine, must ultimately depend on this universal life power which is really nothing other than nature's power of healing. The role of the doctor or therapist is to tell the patient the origin of his or her illness, to stimulate the patient to turn towards comfort, and to aid very slightly in the natural process of recovery from disease.

There is nothing difficult about comfortable medicine. All we have to do is turn away from the false comforts of modern civilization in which the cerebral cortex is immersed, and think of what each and every one of your cells most wants for its comfort, and what food and drink make us feel best. Then, listening to the body, we should act on it.

The Laws of Comfortable Medicine:

The Law of Comfortable Breathing

The basic idea is to exhale more and more. Try to breathe out completely, any time during the day. As you exhale, inhalation will occur naturally. Whenever we make a sudden physical movement we either exhale or hold our breath. Try to exhale symbols of ego such as prestige, money and power.

The Law of Comfortable Eating

Our staple food should be unpolished cereals (brown rice, wheat, millet, farmyard millet) and a large variety and quantity of vegetables (500 grams per day), always including carrots and pumpkins. We also need a well-balanced intake of seaweed, small fish, eggs and milk with up to two meals a day. We should try to live in harmony with the micro-organisms of our intestines. Fermented foods such as miso (soybean paste), soy sauce and fermented soybeans are important foods. Eat happily, together with other people, and chew each mouthful 50 times, even when you are busy.

The Law of Comfortable Physical Movement

Human joints move in eight directions. Try each of the eight directions, then move slowly in the most comfortable direction while exhaling. When you reach the limits of the comfortable position, inhale. Then release all the tension in your body with a single exhalation. This wil remove the distortion in your body. The technique is known as "sotai".

Another law to be applied in everyday life is that of maintaining stability in the body by properly adjusting the centre of gravity. When bending, the body weight should be shifted to the opposite side from that on which you are bending. When twisting, the body weight should lean in the same direction as the twist. When extending, the body weight should remain on the side that is being extended.

The Law of Comfortable Mental Activity

Do what you want to do, comfortably. But while doing so, you should also give others the freedom to do what they want, otherwise your actions will be irrationial and unethical. "Others" means all other creatures. When you need to escape, escape in the most comfortable direction. Sometimes you have to run away fast, or your mind and body will be destroyed.

Thus we have to adapt ourselves to life's laws of comfort and keep our minds and bodies in their best condition. Then we can confront the most difficult of challenges like healing the environment and creating a heaven on earth, where all beings can enjoy life together in mutual respect.

The Law of Comfortable Environment

We should escape from any environment that is uncomfortable. This could mean taking time off work, changing jobs or moving house, leaving home, living apart, getting married or divorced. It could mean traveling or recuperating elsewhere. Of course, the greatest problem we are faced with is the ailing global environment -- which we cannot run away from.

Human beings have exhausted the earth and virtually destroyed it. What people can immediately do is reinvigorate themselves by following the five principles of comfort. This will give a base from which to find a way out of the crisis. The time has come for us to ask what is the "comfort" all of our cells are crying out for, and to set out on a path towards comfort.

Inclination to Disease

When the Laws of Comfort are violated, the body becomes fragile. Stress from outside, in the form of injury, germs and viruses, fatigue or mental pressure, then results in an inclination towards disease. If the five elements of life, the four activities and the environment, are out of balance, illness will arise.

The first symptoms of disease manifest as sensory abnormalities such as numbness and pain. If you work immediately to correct that imbalance, you can prevent deterioration and get back on the road to health. In many cases, we find illness is accompanied by physical distortion of the body and here "sotai" (involves moving the body slowly in a comfortable direction and removing physical distortions in the motor system), is very effective.

Many people, when they are ill, continue to claim they are healthy, and persevere through sensations of numbness and pain. People who do not recognize these danger signals in their bodies advance from the sensory stage of pain and numbness to the stage of functional disorder and abnormalities such as, for example, chronic constipation or diarrhea, frozen shoulder, poor eyesight, and skin complaints. Even at this stage, however, some people insist they are still healthy. And unfortunately, conventional medical diagnostic tests cannot detect these sensory or functional abnormalities.

The next stage of disease is structural abnormality such as, for example, stomach ulcers, cancer and hepatitis. By the time liver disease reaches the third stage, two thirds of the liver has already been damaged. The liver is a fantastic organ that can operate even when 70-80% of it has been destroyed. Some people still fail to recognize the danger signals in the third stage of disease, continuing to insist they are healthy while heading towards death.

We must control ourselves in such a way that sensory disorders do not arise and our body and mind function pleasantly and comfortably. At the least, we should notice any inclination to disease while it is still at the first stage of sensory abnormality, and make an effort to get back to normal by reorganizing our lives. "Effort" and "reorganizing" sound negative, seeming to involve coercion, but how fortunate we are because, here too, all we have to do is seek out the most comfortable direction and keep going ONLY in that direction!

The body has amazing powers of recuperation. There are cases of cancer patients whose tumors were discovered during surgery to have metastasized all over their bodies, but went on to make "miraculous" recoveries. As long as there is a breath of life in a patient, there is a possibility of reversing the process of disease. This must always be kept in mind.

Excerpted from "Healthy Mind, Healthy Body"
Author: Ryosuke Uryu
Available through Vedanta Press
E-mail: info@vedanta.org

Spirituality & Health

Be Still and Know - Jody Holly