Western Medicine Vs Eastern Medicine

East versus West, who will win in the battle of the paradigms? Will it be the ‘mysterious Orient’ with its dark origins in Taoism or will the West draw a path of Newtonian destruction around the east leaving it helpless in a sea of logic?

This kind of thinking is ridiculous and reminds me of a quote from the Buddhist text, The Harmony of Equality and Difference which says “the way has no Northern or Southern ancestors”. Here, Sekito Kisen (700-790) is referring to the ‘sudden enlightenment’ or ‘gradual enlightenment’ or the two schools which appeared at that time.

Actually, the question of whether Western Medicine or Eastern Medicine is better is a very interesting one, but not one which I tend to engage much in. The reason for this is that I believe equally in both styles and in neither style at the same time. It might come off as sitting on the fence, but I believe that medicine is an incredibly broad field, there are many many aspects to it, from emergency response medicine that our ambulance staff are expert at, all the way through to the less tangible spiritual health provided by our spiritual leaders.

We can surmise that the truth has no definitive affiliation to any one particular way or perspective; indeed, both viewpoints are neither entirely correct nor entirely incorrect. Each offers its own merits and insights.

So Western medicine has its place, Eastern medicine has its place and that’s not to say that one is better than the other in my opinion, Actually whats most important is the person, the medical provider who is applying their medical knowledge and prowess unto you. This is whats really important.

Medicine is people, people helping other people, helping themselves and others. Its very easy to get caught up in the window dressing of the time, like what medicine was used, but if medicine was only about the tool and not the person utilizing it, then doctors would be as replaceable as any machine part.