Being a Chinese in Hong Kong nowadays is very fortunate. We are privileged to enjoy the best of both worlds, to know both Western medicine and Chinese traditional medicine. When we are sick, we can choose treatments from Western general practitioners or Chinese herbalists. Both of them work, though the two systems are based on totally different philosophies.
Western medicine is reductionistic. The human body is built up of different systems: respiratory, circulatory and nervous etc. Each system is made up of different organs and tissues which in turn comprise of cells and, whichever micro-level you are comfortable with, molecular structures such as DNA. If you are sick, Western medical practitioners will diagnose the causes of ailments: tear and wear, micro-organisms or molecular biological level of DNA defects etc. People are X-rayed and surgeons will remove the failing parts of the body. In short, everything can be physically seen and touched. There is nothing metaphysical or mythical.
Not so is the traditional Chinese medicine. The human body is thought of as a holistic unit which is governed by the principles of Yin/Yang and the 5 elements. If you are healthy, these principles and elements are in harmony. If you are sick, this internal harmony must have been disrupted. Your symptoms are explained in terms of heat-chill, wetness-dryness or such pairs of polarities. The human body is wrapped by a kind of air-flow, which circulates along different meridians which parallel but are not identical with the blood vessels of the circulatory system in the West. In short, things are explained in metaphysical terms which you can neither see nor touch. Yet, it works. If you insist on truths which are based on physical evidence, you will rule out and miss out a whole lot of Chinese treasures.
Similarly, the success of science and technology in the Western civilization has numbed us of the existence of the spiritual dimension of human life. Advances in physical sciences and technologies have been so successful and provided us with so much convenience that we shy away from spiritual explanations of the phenomena of human life. We are conditioned to believe in what can be seen. Anything else doesn't count. We are made empiricists. Luckily, the traditional Chinese medicine says loud and clear that there is an alternative to this physical world. There is another possibility, another dimension.
In the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that he would be leaving them behind but there was no reason to panic because after he left them physically, God the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you (John 14:15-17).
This Counsellor, this Advocate is the Spirit of truth and the world cannot receive it because the world neither sees this Spirit nor knows it. This world is very narrow-minded and does not allow dissidents to speak their minds. Even if they speak, this world does not listen because this world thinks that it is in the right and the dissidents are in the wrong. This world has closed itself to the spiritual dimension of human life and thus is unable to receive the Holy Spirit.
The Acts of the Apostles is sometimes called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. All Christians should spend time studying this book in order to know the Holy Spirit better. Jesus said that we know the Holy Spirit. Do you?
If you find the Spirit of Truth too rational, perhaps you should know that the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Love. It inspired the believers in the Church of Jerusalem to share all they had. That is why love is such an effective binding force which is able to bind us together, as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as sibling, friends, colleagues and countrymen. When we have love, we know that we possess the Holy Spirit who is God. If for some reasons we hate, we find faults, we punish and persecute, we will lose the Holy Spirit. To love is more an art than a science. It enriches our life and makes it more fulfilled. Mere survival without love would be nightmarish, would be hell broken loose.
Dear Lord, forgive us for not loving You and our neighbour enough. Send us the Holy Spirit to make our hearts aglow. Help us remember to find You among the needy. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment