The Yin & Yang of Natural Health

The idea of Natural health is amusing to me.  I have heard people talking about natural health this and that, almost as if it has a universal meaning.  Yet, it probably has a totally different meaning to diverse people.  What is thought of as natural for one person may be totally unnatural for another.  So, whose definition do we accept?  Is it the definition of the aborigine, the American Indian, the Buddhist, the Christian Scientist or the Chinese?

Just what is natural health?  Is it healing only by the power of God?  Is it using only natural cures and preventative measures?  Is it using nothing man made?  Is it using only commodities that occur naturally without having to be synthesized by man?  Is it only certain things that have been developed by man, and not others?  If you really want to understand what natural health means, you must understand what constitutes natural and health?

When you get right down to it, can anything be more or less natural than anything else?  This reminds me of people who say they will take only natural substances.  Do you see the strangeness of this comment?  What are natural substances?  How is natural differentiated from the unnatural?  Some people have told me they only drink herbal drinks but would not touch coffee.  Yet, what is coffee, if not an herb?  The fact that something is an herb, does not make it good or bad, but just an herb.

When you look at natural health and say, “This is the way,” you imply there are other ways that are not natural.  What is an unnatural way?  If man-made items are defined as unnatural, what would you have left if you eliminate all those things?  There would be no clothing, homes, cars, computers, agriculture, science, medicine, tools and....  Do you get the point?  In order for man to be completely natural in all of his endeavors, he would have to go back to the days when he had absolutely nothing: no shelter, clothing and tools.  Even then, would he be, strictly speaking,  natural?

 

What about herbs, teas, vitamins and other health foods that you take?  Are they natural?  If man-made items are not natural, then these items can’t be natural.  In one way or another, they were processed by man.  Man has had to develop each of these items into their present form.  Without man’s intervention, these items would not exist.  You might still say that these items are natural, only their shape has been redefined and manufactured by man.  If this is the case, then what about steel, building materials, various medications, fuel, clothing and plastics?  Are they natural?  If you follow the definition that they have only changed their shape and are manufactured by man, then yes they are natural.  Therefore, knives, televisions, cars and medicines would also be natural.

Who is to have the last word in defining natural?  In this case, it is me, and I define everything as natural!  How else could things exist?  Yes, things are made by man, but what they are made from is natural, just redefined.  Moreover, if you accept God as all-powerful, then all of these things that have occurred without man’s intervention as well as those developed by man can only be a result of Him.  They are His gifts.  Are we to say that what we create isn’t a part of God's world?  If you do not accept God, but nature, then man must be a part of nature.  If man is a part of nature, how can he create anything that is not a part of nature and thus natural?

According to my definition of natural, people are natural.  Thus, whatever man creates is natural because man is natural.  Even things that are destructive are still part of the natural world.  The world of God does not discriminate between that which is natural and unnatural.  This issue doesn’t even arise.  There is simply that which is.  The issue only arises when man begins to theorize.  It only arises when man attempts to prove one way is right over other ways.  It only arises when man begins to imagine how the universe runs.  Yet, it is a theory developed by man for man, and does not have the foundation, the knowing or the scope of God.  Worse yet, man's theories become laws rather than hypothetical constructs.  These constructs become so engraved in the mind that they are considered truths rather than beliefs.  However, they are nothing more than beliefs that are limited by their own definition.  Bottom line, defining natural is as absurd as defining God!

Finally, we come to the question of what meant by healthy.  To some, it means the health of your body.  To others it means the health of your body and mind.  While others believe it means the health of your spirit.  Still others believe that it encompasses all three.  My definition of health begins with a belief system.  It is a belief about the way your mind, body and spirit should be operating.  It is a statement about norms, averages and what is considered standard.  These are all mind games.  Yes, there is such a thing as a body, a mind and spirit.  The only time that there is ill health is when one or more of the three parts of you is not functioning the way you, the sciences or the religious dogmas have specified.  Does this make it unhealthy, or simply different from what you think it should be?  Are not diseases, illnesses, mental disorders and spiritual upheavals all part of the natural flow of life?

Another very unsettling point is that when you say health, immediately, you have created ill health.  This really means that there can be no truly healthy person.  From the moment of birth, you begin dying.  In a world of health, does this not seem strange?  Our bodies begin dying from the very moment of birth, and we still say there is health.  Health is on a continuum.  It is not an absolute.  It goes from the imperceptible to the obvious.

A person who has HIV, cancer or tuberculosis is no longer considered healthy.  Medical science, society and even the individual will say that such a person is unhealthy.  Yes, there are organisms that may be eating other organisms, and one organism may eliminate the other, but is this not natural health?  I know this may sound absurd.  If another organism is destroying your body, how can this be natural health?  It is natural health simply because it is a part of the natural order of all things.  This does not mean you are to simply allow the other organism to win.  Whether you do something to stop or prevent the organism’s winning is up to you.  What is important is that whatever you do does not have to be a conflict, but an act of love for your being and the vessel housing it.  You don’t have to condemn that which you are fighting.  Fight with all your might, but remember that even your fighting is a part of nature and thus natural.

The ideas of healthy and unhealthy originate from man’s fear of death, and not what is natural or unnatural.  Man's fervent desire is not to die.  So, anything that impedes this desire becomes unhealthy and unnatural.  Yet, death is as natural as life.  Each can’t and doesn’t exist without the other.  The only relevant questions about death are when, where, how and how well you handle it.

Whether you consider yourself healthy is of no real significance.  What is significant is who you are in this moment.  When, in this moment, you are joyous, you are healthy.  If you are unhappy in this moment, and you do not fight this unhappiness, you then become happy with your unhappiness.  You just do not recognize it as such because of your belief that you should always be happy.  You are still healthy.  Unrestricted unhappiness is just a different form of healthy.  Only when you resist unhappiness do you become unhealthy. 

Whether you believe your body, mind or spirit is unhealthy is immaterial.  You are always experiencing that which is natural.  When you do what you can for your body, mind and spirit, and accept what is, then, and only then are you truly healthy.  Natural health only comes to the person who is beyond the body, mind and spirit, and is living in this moment, recognizing this moment to be eternal, and in total awe of all that is.