Stress and Buddhist Wisdom

By Dr. Hoang Dinh Hai

Through Zen Buddhism and through modern medical and biological achievements, Dr. Hai seeks to formulate a science of the mind. Only such a science can help men and women to liberate themselves from the suffering of consciousness.

Faced with a hurried, hard, and needy lifestyle, it is rare to find women and men without stress. When dealing with a stressful situation, it is enough to implement the process of the triad of the spiritual shield to resist it and to retain the balance of the inner self. The balance of ones internal environment is the source of well-being and good health. If we train our inner life, we will achieve self-control, determination, optimism, and invincibility in the face of adversity or ill fate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543418262

Dr. Hoang Dinh Hai

Born on October 1, 1935 in Hanoi, Vietnam in a family rich in Buddhist tradition. Graduated as Doctor from Hanoi Medical University in 1961. Post-university graduate in 1969. Working in Nam Dinh and Hanoi hospitals. Dr. Hai experienced French and American Wars, the latter as physician during the bombing of Hanoi. In recent years Dr. Hai has traveled around the world and reflected on the relevance of Buddhism to physical and mental health, and to inner peace.

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Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Hoang Dinh Hai.

Library of Congress Control Number:                 2017906239

ISBN:                     Hardcover                  978-1-5434-1828-6

                               Softcover                    978-1-5434-1827-9

                               eBook                         978-1-5434-1826-2

All copyrights are reserved exclusively to Dr. Hoang Dinh Hai, author of this book. His email is: [e-mail].

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Rev. date: 04/29/2017

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Part One

The Fundamental Principles Of Buddhist

Wisdom To Prevent Stress

Chapter 1 To Live In Serenity, Disregard Anxiety Before Death Forever

1.    The Law Of Triggering Affinity

2.    The Strict Order Of The Creation Of The Universe

3.    We Are The Children Of The Universal Mother: As Long As She Exists, We Exist

Chapter 2 Joy Or Sadness—That Depends Completely On Oneself

1.    Nature Abhors A Vacuum

2.    Such Thought, Such Action

3.    Life Is In Us And Not In What Surrounds Us

4.    The Emotion Receptors Of The Body Cells

5.    The Art Of Living According To Buddhist Wisdom

Chapter 3 Cultivate Nonattachment To Self And Kindness

1.    The Magical Powers Of Electromagnetism

2.    Are The Worlds Of The Dead In Parallel Spaces With Ours?

3.    The Journey To Perfection

a.    The Consciousness Of Buddhist Enlightenment

b.    The Consciousness Of Common People

4.    Zen

a.    Sitting Zen Meditation

b.    Zen Action

5.    The Effect Of Zen In The Culture Of Nonattachment To Self And Kindness

Chapter 4 Well-Being Is To Live Fully In Each Present Moment

1.    The Law Of The Impermanence Of Things

2.    Personal Consciousness Would Have Its Independent Entity

3.    Time, Which Torments Man

4.    The Buddhist Attitude Toward Time

Part Two

Stress Under A New Perspective

Chapter 5 Stress: It Is The Mind That Suffers

1.    The Contemporary Lifestyle Is Very Stressful

2.    How Does Stress Manifest Itself?

3.    Stress Is The Imbalance Of The Internal Environment

4.    Stress: A Sickness Of The Mind, The Consequences Of Which Impact The Body

5.    The Triad Of The Mind Or The Spiritual Shield

A.    Let Us Firstly Examine The Forms Of Stress

B.    The Triad Of The Mind

Chapter 6 The Wonder Of The Spiritual Barrier Against Depression And Stress

I.    The Mechanism Of The Physiological Response Against Stress

1.    The Functioning Of The Physiological Response

2.    The Activities Of The Stress Hormones

3.    The Interactions Of The Intrinsic Elements Of The Stress Mechanism

4.    The Reciprocal Feedback Mechanism

Ii.    The Spiritual Barrier Against Stress

1.    The Triad Of The Spiritual Shield Against Acute Stress

2.    To Break The Vicious Circle Of Chronic Stress

Iii.    To Assert The Science Of The Mind

1.    The Existence Of Spiritual Science

2.    Scientific Achievements Relating To Zen

Chapter 7 Diagnose Stress Yourself And The Means To Combat Stress

1.    Stress Really Is A Scourge Of Our Society

2.    Let Us Try To Look At The Etiology And The Therapy

3.    Are You Affected By Stress?

4.    The Prevention Of Stress

5.    The Treatment Of Stress

6.    Medical Treatment

7.    The Role Of Zen Meditation In The Prevention And Treatment Of Stress

Conclusion

About The Author

To my par

ents,

To my wife,

To my children,

And my grandchildren.

INTRODUCTION

In the modern world, stress is a painful misery that traumatizes man. To survive, man has genuine needs that need to be met: to eat, to be clothed, to be housed, to be educated, to work. But to be better, he gets to move on and weighs up the for and the against. Many people endeavor to get richer and run for the highest position possible. They are fed on illusions. The same applies for greed, jealousy, rivalry, hatred, fraud, and vanity. Once failure and disillusion occur, despair and deceit follow. The individual pays a high price and goes adrift. He puts himself at the mercy of bad luck and risks corrupting his life. Consequently, mental illnesses (depression, dementia, alienation, etc.) abound nowadays.

As a result of my profession, I have met people from all four corners of the world. Some of them have dramatic stories.

A Belgian master mariner—white beard, stocky build, sixty-four years old—has circled the world twenty times during his career. Affected by the melancholy of a monotonous existence on the ocean, he drank whiskey. From day to day, he harmed himself more and more through alcohol. He succumbed to a serious nervous breakdown. The cost of this was to be very close to suicide.

A French yachtsman, sixty-six years old with a swarthy complexion, sailed from one country to another for six years. He stayed alone on his modern sailing boat. He got off the hook by demonstrating resourcefulness: sowing soya seeds to harvest plant shoots from them, cooking rice in total uproar, fishing by chance, and collecting drinking water when it rains. There were days of storms when he allowed his boat to be dragged by the wind. He huddled in a corner, living on a few pots of jam. There were also nights when his sailing boat risked colliding with vessels encountered on the way. He told me that he feels peaceful when he is alone with nature. He is even ready to brave mortal danger. But once he’s at home, he gives up in the face of family and social difficulties. He escapes from society to be alone and without a care. In fact, he has become the voluntary Robinson Crusoe of modern times.

Another man endured great suffering: his business went bust, and his wife died. He locked himself away in his house, avoiding all contact with the outside world. He felt he was completely disgusted with life. Prostration and premature aging occurred at great speed. His life was over!

We can relate many examples where stress dominates the human activities of our time. Open a daily newspaper; it abounds with tragic facts: scams, dishonesty, greed, divorce, suicides during the great crash.

Since my youth, I have had a tendency to cultivate inner strength. One of my bedside books, Le chemin du bonheur (The Way to Happiness, by Victor Pauchet), focuses on willingness—to want is to be able to. Another by Dale Carnegie, Comment se faire des amis pour réussir dans la vie (How to win friends and influence people), focuses on truthfulness. That has helped me enormously to overcome so many obstacles. But with time, the burden of life weighs you down. Anxiety before death remains continuous when the number of years is counting down. A vague melancholy persists.

Born into a family with a Buddhist tradition, I have sought to dig more deeply into the Buddhist philosophy. By disregarding the mysterious religious package, I have drawn on the sweet quintessence of it.

One day, in a conversation, one of my friends asked me a question: Tell me, Hai, what are you basing your current life on? Answer me briefly.

I answered him straightaway: Kindness, peacefulness without stress, and total freedom of thought.

In reality, over two decades, I have practiced Buddhist Zen daily. I have applied wisdom to it. Since then, I have led a serene life in harmony with my family, those closest to me, my neighbors, etc. I eat with a good appetite and sleep like a child. In the company of my wife, I walk between two to four kilometers a day. We exchange our points of view, resolve family problems, and remember with pleasure the highs and lows that we have come through together.

Indeed, life offers man so much. Nowadays, science and the high level of technology provide us with the comforts we need. We are only missing the science of the mind. If we appropriate these two areas, we will truly live in paradise on earth.

I have