Dharma Lecture: Tibetan Medicine Ethics - The Connection Between Medicine and Religion

Friday, November 6
Time: 7:30p.m.
Location: Sakya Monastery Cultural HallShrine Room
Instructor: Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen
Suggested Contribution per lecture: $25 Public, $20 Members
All are welcome

This lecture will introduce the concepts of ethics and morality in Tibetan medicine. Ethics in Tibetan medicine are interconnected with Tibetan Buddhism, which provides the framework for the training of health practitioners. This lecture will focus on the nature and function of both the body and the mind, based on the combined wisdom and traditions of Tibetan Medicine and Tibetan Buddhism. This unity of Buddhist beliefs and medical practice in Tibetan medicine has resulted in one of the most compassionate and human-centered approaches to health care in the world.

Dr. Kunchok Gyaltsen is one of a new generation of outstanding Tibetan medical doctors. Having spent his life gaining expertise in both Tibetan Buddhist studies and Tibetan medicine, Dr. Gyaltsen's proficiency in clinical treatment (specializing in digestive disorders), his many public teachings and scholarly writings on the approaches of Tibetan medicine, combined with 27 years of training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, offer exceptional and rare knowledge in ways to keep the body, mind, and spirit healthy. Dr. Gyaltsen studied and practiced both Buddhism and Tibetan Medicine under the guidance of knowledgeable teachers at Kumbum Monastery and skilled doctors at Kumbum Tibetan Medical Hospital. Dr. Gyaltsen was instructed in both the Tibetan Medicine Teaching Lineage and the Medicine Buddha Initiation Lineage under the founder of Kumbum Tibetan Medical Hospital, Tashi Rinpoche, and two of Tibet’s most senior physicians at that time, Aku Ngakwan Tenzin and Kanpo Toru Tsenam. Currently, Dr. Gyaltsen is a PhD candidate and completing his dissertation at UCLA School of Public Health in Los Angeles.