Epidemics, War, and Peace
Epidemics are a multi-faceted phenomenon that has occupied a central focus in traditional medicine. Epidemics destabilize the internal and external aspects of life, collectively and individually. We see this clearly with the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching consequences on individual health and externally on our collective well being.
Nothing arises independently. Epidemics are the outcome of a powerful conjunction of several causative factors, resulting in a large-scale distress signal. Epidemics are inextricably linked to medicine and to war–connections we will now explore.
In an essay published in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu Lihong reflected on the linguistic links between medicine, war, and epidemic disease. In doing so, he demonstrated the connection between these three realities and how this understanding is reflected in the pictographic language of classical Chinese. Lihong writes:
The Chinese character for epidemic (yi 疫) consists of the components 疒and 殳. According to the dictionary Definitions of Simple and Complex Pictograms, this character represents a combination of components that respectively indicate the meaning and sound of the word. The component 疒, pronounced ne by itself and signifying disease, expresses the general meaning of the word, while殳, an abbreviated version of the character 役 yi for war, primarily serves to express the phonetics of the word for epidemic, but also expresses more specific layers of the term’s meaning. We can see, therefore, that at least during the period preceding the Eastern Han, epidemic outbreaks were linked to war.
Lihong continues:
Since all good examples tend to come in pairs, the traditional version of the character 醫for medicine also includes the component 殳. The fact that the characters yi 醫for medicine and yi 疫for epidemic are pronounced the same, moreover, demonstrates that the business of dealing with epidemics has been front and center on the stage of medical activity since antiquity! We therefore should keep unpacking the reasons why in the light of present circumstances we find ourselves willing to learn from this historical playbook. While the component 彳has been abbreviated in both instances where the character 役 (yi) for war is included in the pictograms for medicine (yi) and epidemic disease (yi), and while modern reasons for high population density have changed, many relevant things remain for us to contemplate here.
Lihong’s insights are valuable for understanding the complex dynamics of epidemic disease. For one, we can see that epidemics are not novel occurrences, but have occupied medical thought for thousands of years. In addition, Lihong highlights the resonance and interdependent arising between epidemics, war, and medicine. Peter Perdue, a professor of history at Yale University, also penned an interesting article at the outset of the pandemic, noting the resonance between pandemics and war. In this brief essay, Perdue writes:
Empires are big and microbes small, but both have shaped history by conquering territories and bodies, leaving death, disease, and devastation in their wake. Yet humans have survived many such onslaughts and brought, at hard-won cost, peace, knowledge, and protection . . . Pandemics, like wars, are ruthless auditors that test the resilience of national and international orders. Some regimes use them for domination; others find in them an opportunity for collaboration.
What exactly is the connection between epidemic disease and war? This is a question to consider on many levels. On the most superficial level, we can see that epidemics and war are both widespread phenomena that devastate the populations they affect. On a deeper level, epidemics and war share the vector of rebellion and confrontation––invasive influences that foster a fight for survival. On the deepest level, epidemics and war are, in some sense, un-natural. That is to say, they are born of conditions that are imbalanced, or unrighteous, in nature. In fact, Tibetan medical tantras describe the etiology of epidemic disease in similar terms–the result of a decline in righteousness. The following passage in the Gyushi details the cause of epidemic diseases:
The causes and conditions that originated the disease called rim [infectious disease] occurred at the beginning of the final cycle of the ten five-hundred year cycles, whereby the desires of humankind led to much transgressive behavior; rampant murders of one’s own vajra siblings spread amongst ngakpa communities; monastics engaged in bitter quarrels within their sangha; extremists committing harm to others; and groups taking vows to war and slaughter many. At that time, the mamos and [wrathful and deceptive] dakinis were enraged and the breath of disease manifested immense variegated clouds and gave rise to epidemic infectious disease, dysenteric conditions, pulmonary infections, contagious ulcerative illnesses, smallpox and other pustule-forming diseases.”
This striking passage from the Gyushi describes a polarized world at conflict with itself, where even spiritual brethren fight among themselves. Spiritual practitioners and monastics are considered the keepers and exemplars of righteousness in the world. Yet, the passage states that they are committing “rampant murders” of their “own vajra siblings” and that monastics are “engaged in bitter quarrels”. Further, we see the description of an environment full of extremism and war. The passage describes that these dark conditions enrage the wrathful dakinis who then exhale the vapor of infectious disease. In the Tibetan worldview, the integrity of the natural world is animated by various spirits, guardians, and protectors. Therefore, the passage is saying that the ignorant and dark actions of human beings have disrupted the balance of the natural world, resulting in the formation of infectious disease.
In another interesting passage on the cause of epidemics, the Gyushi appears to reference biological warfare:
The mamo and wrathful dakinis strike down with epidemics of vicious disease. Ill-intended extremists create compounded chemicals and substances. At this time, it is critical to protect oneself and others.
In recounting the history of epidemics in China, Lihong echoes the war-like nature of epidemics:
The waning years of the Eastern Han dynasty were the setting for repeated natural disasters and epidemics. Of the ten epidemic outbreaks recorded in the chapter “Record of the Five Phase Elements” (Wuxing zhi) in The Record of the Later Han (Hou Hanshu), most of them occurred after the year 119 CE and fall into Xu Shen’s lifetime. The duration and human death toll of the epidemic events that occurred during the Jian’an period (196-219) were especially severe. Chancellor Cao Cao (c.155-220) described the gravity of this situation in his prose poem “Passing the Dead” (Haoli xing): “The armor of marauding soldiers remains in place, unwashed and growing nits, while people lie dead by the tens of thousands. Skeletons litter the landscape, and no cock crows for a thousand miles. Only one in a hundred still lives—just thinking of this scene breaks my heart!” Although these lines describe the misery of warfare, the end result is no different than that caused by an epidemic.
Lihong discusses three causes of epidemics in Chinese medicine that mirror the Tibetan medical understanding: (1) the presence of a pathogen (2) unseasonal qi (3) constitutional deficiency. The first cause is well-understood in modern medicine as the infectious microbe causing the disease–in the case of COVID-19, the microbe is identified as “SARS-COV-2”. The second cause may seem obscure but is readily observed by us all, as we note the extremes of climate change concurrent with the pandemic. The third cause of constitutional deficiency is another way of describing susceptibility. The following passage from the Gyushi summarizes the latter two causes:
“Other causes also comprise changes in the seasons that are in excess, deficiency or adversity to the norm; exhaustion due to excess physical exertion; contagious transmission of illness; contact with toxins and poisons; extreme rage and fear; severe mental distress; and excess attachment and greed. It also includes consumption of unsuitable or contaminated foods that cause infectious disease (rim).”
I am not aware of any final conclusion regarding the specific origins of the coronavirus. The Gyushi’s statement regarding “consumption of unsuitable or contaminated foods” certainly speaks to this. Whether SARS-COV-2 came from a wild animal or a lab leak, the underlying cause is a disturbance of the natural order, or behavior that runs contrary to the righteous order of nature. In this regard, our individual and collective dietary and environmental practices deserve significant attention. Lihong notes:
. . . the World Meteorological Organization has reported that on February 9 of this year the record for temperatures measured on Seymour Island near the South Pole was broken by a thermal reading of 20.75 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit)—precisely the time when COVID-19 was spreading most rapidly throughout China. While we do not yet have enough data to understand how it all hangs together, we can say with certainty that climate change is causing the overall temperature on our planet to rise, thus contributing to the causation of “unseasonal energetics.”
“Unseasonal qi”, or “seasons that are in excess, deficiency, or adversity to the norm”, is an easily overlooked cause of infectious disease. Seasonal disturbances indicate an imbalance at a macrocosmic level that will invariably be reflected in the microcosm–a principal reason why the health of our planet has profound consequences for the health of all earthkind. We live in harmony with countless microbes in our environment and our bodies. In fact, these microbes are essential for our health and well-being. Therefore, the presence of microbes are not, in and of themselves, the issue. As with all things, it becomes a question of maintaining a delicate balance. Deficiency and excess of microbial activity in the body creates conditions of imbalance, and this is an area of health that is gaining traction in modern medicine’s understanding of the intestinal biome and the nature of the gut-brain axis. “Unseasonal qi” is one of the means whereby certain microbes proliferate and become pathogenic.
From the perspective of five-phase theory, the root of all disease is unseasonal qi, as the seasons represent the harmonious flow of the life-force in its natural order. Each phase-element is associated with a season and according to J.R. Worsley, there is one phase-element in particular which is the “causative factor” of disease in each individual case. This “causative factor” can be seen as a form of “unseasonal qi” in the microcosm. We can see this in people in whom there appears to be no Spring, no growth, no expansion, no vision. Similarly, there are those in whom Winter seems to prevail, never giving way to Spring or Summer.
Returning to our consideration of epidemics and war, we have to consider what the appropriate treatment strategy is in relationship to diseases of this kind. In modern times, the approach has been akin to a declaration of war upon pathogenic microbes, in which the pathogen is seen as the enemy to be exterminated at all cost. Upon successful extermination, health is supposedly restored. Yet, history has proven that fighting fire with fire has never yielded peace. The psychological orientation at the root of this clinical approach is perhaps best expressed in an aphorism from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da expounds upon:
In one of the Upanishads, it is said that wherever there is an “other”, fear arises. As soon as “difference” is presumed, as soon as separateness is presumed, as soon as an opponent is presumed, there is fear–or the disposition of separativeness, of self-protectiveness, of self-division. The non-presumption of an “other” is the essential principle that will liberate humankind. Wherever no “other” is presumed, Truth awakens.
If we understand the true nature of epidemic disease, then we recognize that pathogenic microbes are not an “other”, but a disharmony in the natural system. Therefore, it is the system as a whole which is trying to correct itself, and that is what we need to address within ourselves, rather than seeking to merely exterminate a perceived external invader. This is not to imply that strong measures do not have relevance in acute situations, but rather to say that long-term resolution requires a more complete understanding and orientation. In Not-Two Is Peace, Adi Da writes:
Unless they are specifically prevented from doing so, all systems will spontaneously righten themselves. The universe is a self-organizing, self-correcting, and self-rightening process. All systems are self-organizing, self- correcting, and self-rightening—unless something interferes with the self-organizing, self-correcting, and self-rightening process.
Rather than declare war on disease, we should look to restore peace within the natural order which we are part of. Only in this way, can we collectively cut the roots of epidemic disease and prevent their future recurrence. Disease is not rightfully the enemy, but a distress signal from a holistic system that needs to self-righten.
In the Ling Shu, it says, “If righteous qi is strong on the inside pathogenic influences cannot invade from the outside”. Cultivating righteous qi, or natural order of the body system, is the very nature of resilience (or “immunity”), reducing our susceptibility to pathogenic invasions. This truth is potently illustrated in the current pandemic where we see that not everyone is infected equally upon exposure. There have been many scenarios where a husband or wife will contract the infection yet the partner will not. The righteous movement of life-energy is maintained through proper diet and lifestyle practices on the one hand, but even more importantly, by attending to our mental and spiritual health. The righteousness that moves within us is identical to the righteousness that moves in the environment.
Summarizing this point, Lihong offers the wise perspectives of Chinese medicine on the need for unitive rather than punitive measures in response to the pandemic:
If considered from the angle of unity consciousness versus the punishment of other, I have offered my thoughts on how Chinese medicine is an art that proffers unity enhancing measures (shangli) while Western medicine favors punitive strategies (shangxing) for quite some time now. The rectification of self, in this light, belongs to the way of promoting unity, while the rectification of others (i.e., the seeking of causal factors that lie outside of our self) belong to the way of retribution. Plans for the eradication of the virus, or vaccination against the virus, all belong to the way of retribution and punitive strategies, and rightfully so! A world in chaos needs to employ severe measures, indeed. However, if real peace and healing is our long-term goal, we must promote unity and apply punitive measures simultaneously, even adopt the way of unity as our main approach.
This perspective is echoed in the Ling Shu, where Huang Di and Qi Bo engage in an interesting dialogue on the nature of needles:
Huang Di:
For me the small needles are insignificant items. Now you say that above they are united with heaven, below they are united with the earth, and in the middle they are united with mankind. To me this seems to greatly exaggerate their significance! I wish to be informed of the underlying reason.
Qi Bo:
Is there anything bigger than heaven? Now, what is bigger than the needles? Only the five weapons. The five weapons are prepared to kill. They are not employed to keep [someone] alive. Furthermore now, mankind! The most precious item between heaven and earth. How could it be neglected? Now, to cure the [diseases] of humans, only the needles are to be applied. Now, when the needles are compared with the five weapons, which turns out to be less significant?
Medicine is traditionally a means for restoring peace and “doing no harm”. The dialogue between Huang Di and Qi Bo demonstrates how medicine transforms would-be-punitive measures into very means for unification. Such is the basis of healing–individually and globally. Epidemics are an urgent sign and signal that unrighteousness is prevailing and undermining the integrity of our systems. From here, unity is the only true progress beyond the dualisms of war and peace. Adi Da writes:
Unity cannot be achieved by combining opposites. Unity is the prior condition, the condition that is always already the case. Prior unity makes all opposites obsolete. Therefore, it is prior unity that must be enacted, rather than any continuation of the pattern of oppositions . . . The principle of prior unity applies to all human endeavor, even to the integrity of a human body or a human personality. Unity is not the result of a play of opposites. Unity is the prior condition . . . Wherever action is done in opposition to whatever force or entity is considered to be the opponent, wherever there is even a strategy relative to an opponent, the effort will fail. Some kinds of changes may be brought about–but, ultimately, everything stays the same, because the principle is one of division to begin with . . . Thus, it is oppositions that are preventing the self-organizing process from happening.