The food definitely does taste bland. But little by little, I start to feel the subtle flavour of each individual raw ingredient in the dish in front of me. There is the mild pungency of the radish, the slight sourness of the tomatoes, and the sweet tinge of the pumpkin, all chopped and cut into fine morsels that can be gulped down in no time. Jipat Klajone, known as Mor Keaw, advises every participant at his alternative health camp to chew the food thoroughly before swallowing it. Take your time, he says, and observe the gradual transformation of the natural provisions into a liquefied mass, see how it is gurgled down to the stomach and eventually spread out to give energy to every cell in the body. And be thankful for this life-sustaining process that dates back to time immemorial.

Admittedly, I personally found even this very first requisite hard to digest initially. Living in a big city, where every day is a series of harried ventures, something as simple as chewing your food slowly does seem a luxury at times. But if it is for our own good, to minimise the chance of more complicated health problems later, then why not give it a try?

According to Jipat, every student of his “Buddhist medicine college” must pass four entrance exams which revolve around the mundane act of eating. Besides meticulous chewing, the other three are eating different types of food in the proper order, in moderate amounts, and being able to consume “healthy” foods even if they taste as bland as the bowl of soup in front of me.

“No matter how smart you are, if your health is in a bad shape, all your potential will come to a loss,” says Jipat, who is in his late thirties.

“The good news is you are the one who can create the best health for yourself. In this camp, we will learn how to be our own doctor. We will then have this ‘doctor’ with us wherever we go. We will have little need to rely on others. We will learn how to balance things.”

Indeed, the term “balance” has been repeated throughout the week-long health camp. Both Jipat and his colleague Pavaravun Chumkrom, a trained nurse and practitioner of Buddhist medicine, take turns stressing the importance of keeping oneself in balance, both physically and mentally.

“Once you are able to maintain this balance,” says Pavaravun, “you will realise the wonderful ability of the human body to heal itself.”

For Jipat, the modern lifestyle has become alarmingly unbalanced. The officer of the Ministry of Public Health said even his colleagues involved in promoting good health among the Thai populace have suffered varying degrees of illness. They keep munching on the very fatty, heavily seasoned fast foods that they try to tell people are unhealthy. Even he himself has not been spared, having developed all sorts of symptoms ranging from ulcers to chest and knee pain. Jipat said he became disillusioned by the ineffectual campaigns wherein both the health-care personnel and the so-called patients grow ever more sick, often with the same recurrent diseases, regardless of the resources being poured into the system.

Turning to traditional Thai medicine as well as other alternative schools (he has a bachelor’s degree in both public health science and administration), Jipat said he also found limitations along those avenues. Even when combining both modern and alternative medicines, only 40 percent of the target population showed signs of improvement, he maintains. Somehow, the answer dawned on him during his subsequent spiritual practice – that he developed and later referred to as the corpus of “Buddhist medicine

A follower of the Santi Asoke cult, which professes austere living and vegetarianism among other things, Jipat considers Buddha to be the world’s best physician. During his lectures, he would every now and then quote a set of Buddhist sutras that he says provide the clues to a healthy life: the importance of balancing “hot” and “cold” elements, of living a simple and carefree existence that consumes little and only those things easy to digest, of cultivating loving kindness, compassion and equanimity towards other beings, and last but not least, the awareness of the overarching influence of food and the mind over everything else.

Jipat’s health regimen, growing in popularity among people across a wide spectrum, is a shrewd combination of several alternative schools of medicine – yoga and body stretching, acu-pressure, the ancient Chinese art of removing toxins through skin rubbing called Gua Sha, detoxification of the large intestine, application of herbal mud, adjusting the diets to fit with one’s body and environment, and the promotion of so-called “chlorophyll drinks” (see sidebar “Mor Keaw’s Nine Pills” on page 3).

Unlike several other expensive health camps booming in Thailand nowadays, Jipat’s version stresses affordability and self-reliance. He has turned his mother’s land in Mukdahan into a retreat centre, an offshoot of the Amnat Charoen state hospital (Jipat’s current affiliation), which is open to anyone seeking to learn self-healing techniques including how to make the greenish chlorophyll drink from local herbs in your backyard. The entrance fee is 0 baht. The health camp I am attending, organised by Sangdad Publishing House in collaboration with General Chamlong Srimuang’s Leadership Training Institute in Kanchanaburi, is also offered free of charge a couple of times a year. (Participants can make donations on a voluntary basis.)

“We just want this operation to go out of business so that we can stop it one day,” Jipat quips. “But so far people have made contributions [such] that it prospers even more. Whoever has the rice or vegetables would bring them to share with others at the centre. Some choose to foot the utilities bills and so on. … I have learned that the most secure job in the world is to be a volunteer. People will always make sure you won’t go starving.”

Interestingly, Jipat claims his health camp has so far produced dramatic results: 1,291 of the 1,397 who have been through the week-long retreat (92 percent) reported significant improvement in their body condition. Over 80 percent of patients who had diabetes (117 persons) and high blood pressure (158) said their level of sugar and blood pressure dropped. The statistics collected by Jipat’s team from Amnat Charoen Hospital also showed 90 percent of 111 people with cancer said they felt much better by the end of the camp; moreover, 22.5 percent who continued the practice rigorously for the next six months said their doctors could not locate the tumours, and 63 percent managed to live longer than the original timeframe speculated by their mainstream doctors.

In retrospect, several facets of Jipat’s Buddhist medicine philosophy do sound not unlike common sense heresay, perhaps what your grandmother might have told you years ago: eat fresh, natural foods, consume a variety of veggies and fruits, and the less chemical additives, the better. But how many of us would have the discipline and stamina to eat unseasoned foods, in which even a pinch of salt is deemed superfluous, over a long period of time? And to search for the still-rare and expensive organic foods in the market?

On closer scrutiny, Jipat’s approach does not fit exactly with conventional Thai or Chinese medicine. What has long been taken as healthy may not be necessarily good for certain individuals, he would argue. And this ranges from ginseng to seaweed to vitamins and food supplements.

Jipat’s best-selling book, titled Thod Rahad Sukkhaphab – Ron Yen Mai Somdool (Decoding Health Secrets – The Imbalance of Hot and Cold Elements), outlines what he claims to be the common cause of illnesses in modern times. Up to 80 percent of the Thai population, he reckons, has health problems caused by “overheating”, while only five percent could be identified as suffering from “over-cooling”. In between, about 15 percent of the population, are those who have overheating problems that evolve partly into over-cooling symptoms (see “Too hot versus too cold?”).

Here comes the delicate task of balancing one’s body with foods and other healing techniques. Jipat proposes dividing foods into two major camps depending on their heating or cooling effects on the body. A person who demonstrates symptoms of overheating should then try to take foods to cool them down, and avoid eating anything that would fan up the body’s temperature. Likewise, someone suffering from over-cooling bouts should eat so-called “hot” foods and scrimp on things that would aggravate their symptoms. Finally, those with semi-overheating and over-cooling problems should consume cooling foods that have been cooked with moderate temperature.

Thus Jipat has departed from the old and other alternative schools of medicine that prescribe more or less similar sets of herbs or medicines for every patient. He claims that such knowledge was formulated when and where climate conditions were cooler, before the onset of the global warming phenomenon. The heart of the matter lies in what would make the person feel comfortable in his or her environment. In a cold place, a warm feeling would be desirable, whereas the majority of people living in a hot country like Thailand would prefer staying cool, Jipat ventures.

Among the herbs promoted as offering a cooling effect is Ya Nang (Tiliacora triandra Diels), an indigenous plant popular in Isan where it has earned the nickname Muen Pee Bor Thao (staying young for 10,000 years). Jipat himself discovered its miraculous qualities when he treated his mother for a tumour in her womb a few years ago. His booklet on the subject became another instant best-seller – hundreds of thousands of copies have been printed so far – and the Ya Nang drink and its use in combination with other cooling plants has become more or less a trademark of Mor Keaw’s camp.

Like everything else, however, there is no ready-made or universal recipe. Jipat often emphasizes sensitivity to one’s own conditions and creativity to adjust to changing circumstances. Even bland, healthy foods are not recommended as a long-term diet. Otherwise, he says, the person would not be able to develop an immunity to all the toxins prevalent in our society, he adds jokingly.

So take it as it feels best, comfortable, to you. Jipat’s Buddhist medicine is not a strict prescription to adopt verbatim, or to swing to either a self-torturing or -indulgence extreme. His week-long health camp feels more like an open university, where the students are both the patients and the doctors (it is indeed quite difficult to distinguish the gravely sick from the healthy ones around here), exposed to challenging ideas about how our own body and mind function and how best to treat them in times of crisis. Certain ideas, such as the merits of drinking one’s urine or the suggestion against taking operations or chemotherapy as in mainstream modern medicine, are of course debatable. A few still cringe at the idea of self-detoxifying or rubbing their back and front with the Gua Sha kit. Others complain of the placid, unexciting taste of Mor Keaw’s recipes. Shall we have to sacrifice the thrill of eating for the sake of staying in shape for the rest of our lives?

At the end of the day, you must check yourself to see if you feel more comfortable, independent and content with your condition. Indeed, of pivotal importance in Jipat’s Buddhist medicine is health of mind. The chaos in the world these days is, he says, closely linked with mental confusion, addiction to what is held to be pleasurable, and ignorance of the fleeting nature of things. In her lecture, Nidda Hongwiwat of Sangdad Publishing who co-sponsored the camp cited a piece of research reporting that on any given day, about 84,000 different thoughts run through our head, each time generating some kind of heat energy. Imagine how many of us have been unwittingly trapped in this cycle of heat, going about day after day with self-inflicting thoughts, hungry for things that will actually be harmful, endlessly suffering without realising when is enough.

Thus Jipat’s health camp is in fact a disguised dharma retreat of sorts, he admits laughingly in one of his last lectures. For years, he says, modern medicine has been monopolised by a few experts despite the fact that the process of treating oneself should be considered as a basic human right. And the consequences are neither healthy for the doctors nor the patients themselves. So Jipat’s Buddhist medicine is a return to the basic, the retraining of the mind and the body. While taking each bite of food, each of us is invited to meditate on the inter-relatedness between nature, the farmer, the cook and the person who is eating, and how what’s on our plate will affect us now and in the future.

Suddenly the bland dish on the table in front of me certainly contains a lot more than meets the eye.

For more information on the health camps led by Jipat Klajone at Suan Pa Na Boon in Mukdahan, call the Amnat Charoen Hospital on 04-5511-9419 ext 1221.

[1] Nam Keaw (aka chlorophyll beverage)

 Drink before every meal and throughout the day

One can mix one or more types of plants with the “cooling” effects to make the fresh drink at home. These include ya nang (Tiliacora triandra Diels), pandanus leaf, bua bok (Centella asiatica Urban), Beijing grass, om saeb or benjarong (Justicia Gangetica), morning glory, saled pangporn (Clinacanthus nutans Lindau), the inner core of the banana tree and wan ka-ab hoy (Tradescantia spathacea Stearn), to name a few.

The green chlorophyll beverage made from these recommended plants could go as a stand-alone drink or be mixed with coconut or tamarind juice or lemonade to make the taste more palatable for some. Others may prefer adding hot water or mixing it with drinks made of plants with “heating” effects, such as lemon grass, ginger, or turmeric. Some may even opt for the heating type of herbal drinks only.

[2]Gua Sha

Don’t be scared by the red rashes!

An age-old folk medicine practised among the Chinese and the highland peoples of Southeast Asia, Gua Sha is a simple technique of rubbing repeatedly the different parts of the human body with a smooth edged object (ceramic Chinese soup spoon, a well-worn coin, honed animal bones, or jade). It is believed that the colour of the subcutaneous blemishing (ecchymosis) in each particular area due to the repeated pressured strokes – from light pink to red and dark blue/black – will indicate the state of health of that person as well as help bring the toxin-disease in certain vital organs up to the skin level and thus dissipate it. The person receiving the Gua Sha treatment should therefore wait four to eight hours before taking a bath.

To begin the Gua Sha session, one should first lubricate the skin with pure water or balms made of herbs with either heating or cooling effects, depending on the person’s condition. The developed rashes will usually disappear within the next few days.

[3]Detoxification of the large intestines

Many people might feel awkward, but a few who have tried it say they enjoyed the experience. The detoxification process is believed to help cleanse the accumulated waste that might not be completely released from the body during regular bowel movements. Pick and choose among the variety of herbs to add to water that will be injected into the body. The process is actually quite simple – just follow the instructions inside the detox kit available at the market at an affordable price. However, those who had an operation in the intestine area within the past three months should avoid this detoxification method.

[4]Hot spa at home

 Soak your hands and feet in a warm herbal concoction

Boil the herb(s) of your choice in hot water first, then add water at room temperature until it’s warm enough to soak the hands and feet. Do it for three minutes at a time, with a one-minute gap in between, for a total of three such mini-sessions. It is believed that the toxins in the body will gradually be released through the hands and feet exposed to the warm herb-mixed water. But overexposure will backfire as the toxin will then seep back into the body’s system again.

[5]Herbal mud spa

Make your own mix of herb(s), water and clay or charcoal and apply the mud to any part of the body that does not feel well. There are also easy recipes for making home-grown balm, distilled herbal drops and massage balls by and for oneself.

[6]Regular Exercise

Jipat has developed exercise methods that combine body stretching, yoga and acupressure along the meridian lines, which will boost both the strength and elasticity of the bones and muscles, as well as one’s overall chi energy.

[7]Balanced diet

Observe how different food items affect the body – making it feel hotter or cooler, energetic or lethargic – and adjust the diet to keep the balance accordingly.

Examples of heat-inducing foods are sticky rice, highly sweetened or seasoned foods or those with high levels of fat, meat, milk, certain kinds of mushrooms and nuts. “Hot” vegetables and fruits include basil leaves, onions, ginger, pepper, carrot, ripe pumpkin, papaya, tamarind and mango; seaweed, durian, jackfruit, guava, passion fruit, grape, pomegranate and so on.

Examples of cool-inducing foods are vermicelli, soya and green bean, certain kinds of mushrooms, vegetables like cauliflower, corn, green papaya, and fruits such as tomato, mangosteen, melon, lemon and coconut.

The foods should be cooked at moderate temperature and with minimum seasoning and be eaten shortly after cooking. Jipat also recommends taking foods from local sources that are chemical-free and if possible, within a three-kilometre radius.

[8]De-stress yourself

Why kill yourself slowly with toxic thoughts and lead an ever-hectic life? Take time to practise meditation and you will become aware of how certain habits and cravings will affect your own health. Learn to let go and cultivate loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing with others and, last but not least, equanimity when faced with events that are not to one’s liking.

[9]Balance between work and rest

Check our some of Jipat Klajone’s books, especially ‘Ma Pen Mor Du-lae Tua-eng Kan Thoe’ (Let’s be our own doctor), priced at 150 baht. A booklet on the same subject published by Sangdad is also available. Call 02-934-4414 ext 208.

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Source of Content : http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisurescoop/32599/the-nine-pills-of-mor-keaw

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Despite the name, Earth Day is really about humanity.

Our planet has existed for billions of years and will continue to exist, no matter how much oil and coal we burn, no matter how much carbon pollution we dump into our atmosphere.

It’s the survival of human civilization as we know it that’s uncertain. Human consumption of fossil fuels threatens the conditions that we require to live on Earth — conditions that only occur thanks to a carefully balanced set of circumstances so delicate and rare that they are now shockingly vulnerable to the impact of our newly powerful civilization. These conditions can change, and our actions on this planet are changing them every day. That is a scientific fact that no amount of political rhetoric can alter.

Taking on climate change is a huge challenge — for America and the world. But the solutions are within our reach. We have the technology. We know the way forward. Now we have to get started on a scale that will matter.

As with so many global crises, the world is looking to America for leadership. In this case, leadership means action from the United States Congress — and I am pleased to say that we are far closer than we have ever been. Since Earth Day last year, a landmark clean energy and climate bill has passed the House of Representatives, and as I write this, key Senators are reaching across the aisle to finish the job.

If the Senate steps up and passes strong legislation, success will be within reach.

But the forces of opposition are very powerful. And if we did nothing, we would fail – by falling prey to the cynicism of corporate lobbyists and the misinformation of self-serving politicians and pundits whose blatant disregard for scientific fact endangers us all.

So this Earth Day, I ask all of you to join together to take action to address climate change. Call your Senator at the number below and tell him or her to support comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

Just call our toll-free Repower America hotline at 1-877-55-REPOWER (1-877-557-3769), and enter your zip code. You’ll be connected to one of your Senators. When you’ve finished your call, click here to report it.

Over the past 40 years, Earth Day has helped strengthen our awareness, sense of urgency and will to preserve the environment we rely on. It has served as a national reminder to reduce pollution, celebrate nature and make our air and water cleaner.

But today our task is even greater. Beyond careful stewardship of our natural resources, we must act to prevent a potential global catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude. We must aggressively respond to the threat of global climate change.

We created this crisis — and we can solve it. That starts with strong action from Congress. This is a fight that we must not lose — for the sake of every human being on the planet and for the generations to come.

Remember, Earth Day is about people — and our future on this planet.

Thank you,

Al Gore

Founder

The Climate Protection Action Fund

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11. Change the World

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The world has been arguing harder and harder nowadays that how and how much we should change ourselves to make a balance; some races that still lead their primitive lives depending on the variation of nature find that they have a very tough live comparing with the convenience the modern technology could leads to. 

But in the same time on the opposite side, the far developed countries find their deterioration and constantly warn the remaining old world to reserve themselves.  This example was very clear when we compare the countries in the eastern world such as Japan and Mongol. 

The similarity between Mongol and Japan was the image of the cruel mankind in the sight of neighboring countries.  In the period Genghis Khan ruling Mongol almost ten years ago, the daring cavalries and archers killed, robbed and totally devastated เผาทำลาย each city. Many cities that used to be marvelous in the past became only legend with vague evidences in the history.  While Japan had done the unforgettable tragedies to the Korean and the Chinese people in Nanking also.  

 

[To be continued]

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10. Like the Slave

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In colonial hunting age, human was a kind of readily salable goods in the western country. Therefore, the servants who work in the white man house at that time had no salary like the servants in our period. The employers paid them once only at the first time and used them to work for all their lives. These mankind goods was the living thing called “slave.”

Nowadays, most countries throughout the world had abolished slavery, except only some well-to-do in the developed countries who still possessed slaves. But if we considered the word “slave” in the mean of “taking advantages of humanity,” we may find the word “slave” scattering everywhere from the country that people oppose their fellow countrymen by a kind of social discrimination called “caste” such as India to the land of freedom and human right as America. So, in these days, we still find “slave” everywhere human are selfish and too greedy to be feel sympathetic with their fellow man.

In India, lots of children under 10 were sold by their parents for only 1,500 baht each. These children were beaten and forced to overwork unlimitedly without any comment allowed. Most workers scattered along the highway through the orchards zone in the central area of Florida in America, where was the 80% of orange juice productive area, were the immigrants. Many of them had no identification documents. All of them were poor, gaining 315,000 baht a year in average (that was at the bottom of the charge comparing with the average cost of living in America) barter for the hard work that give bad effects on their health. So, these low-price workers often resigned and the employers had to find the bound-to-dept workers to work in the orchard instead. In 2001, the court of America passed the sentence on Ramos family, the orchard owner, to be jailed for 34 years for the slave trading allegation when the police detected that they hind the bound-to-dept workers in the strong guarded detention camp to work in their orchard.

[To be continued]

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