Gautama Buddha saw four sights which moved him to seek answers to the problem of public health and wellness: an old person suffering the ravages of age, a sick person suffering disease, a dead body and a Spartan looking for answers to human condition.
He was depressed seeing the first three sights of morbidity and mortality while the fourth motivated him to emulate the Spartan: he too would seek answers to the problem of health and mortality.
The Buddha contemplated long and hard rediscovering insights of ancient Vedic yoga system. He immediately started teaching these practices to create inner balance managing stressful kleshas that lead to morbidity. It was the genius of Buddha that revived these practices and set the stage to mainstream them with significant impact on the state of health and wellness.
Kleshas such as likes, dislike, fears and sense of helplessness lead to mere survival oriented living from the emotional limbic brain eliciting unhealthy and unhappy “fight or flight response[i]”. On the contrary, the practices that Buddha taught lead to thoughtful living from the considerate neocortex eliciting healthy and happy “relaxation response[ii]” which neutralises the former.
Shiv will present on how these ancient practices can cultivate wellness and oneness in modern lives.
“Fight or flight response” results in the production of stress hormone called cortisol and “relaxation response” in the production of DHEAS. An excess of cortisol relative to DHEAS in our bodies can result in personal morbidity and unhappiness and in the fetus if we are pregnant. Recent research[iii] proves what has been known from antiquity that healthy and happy mothers give birth to and raise healthy and happy children.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults. If they have peaceful and harmonious minds, we build a peaceful and harmonious world. Kumi Kaise will present her thoughts on the role of a mentor who also acts as a role model with his/her own life example in shaping the lives and minds of future generations through shaping the lives and minds of mothers to be.
Dr. Shiv Talwar’s professional life was spent in the academy teaching the building of bridges across spatial gaps, now his retirement is focused on building bridges across wide chasms across hearts and minds of diverse humanity. For this purpose, he founded Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. (SHEN) of which he is the president.
Born in Japan, Kumi Kaise worked as an editor for a PC magazine after graduating from college. After having a family with two children, Kumi started offering a leadership course based on Buddhism.
Highly experienced in lecturing internationally, Kumi is the president of CLOVER Co., Ltd in Japan with the goal of training resources that contribute to the development of the world, the community and the family.