The concept of "life" in Tibetan medicine and Buddhism

藏医药学是在藏族社会文化背景下发展起来的，是了解藏族宗教文化和人生观的线索之一。我们目前的研究主要集中在藏医中的精油按摩理论和实践，以及西藏密宗传统中的yantrayoga，以及它们之间的关系。基于田野调查和文本研究，我们发现，这两个都牢牢植根于“精微体”的概念，即活生生的人体作为一个由物质，能量和精神组成的复合体。我们还发现它与神经科学的最新发现有惊人的相似之处，例如“神经可塑性”和大脑作为一个自组织系统。我们的研究，其中一部分已经在3年的任期内发表了9篇文章和1本书，清楚地表明，这一研究领域将被证明是对西藏宗教文化和我们人类本质的理解做出巨大贡献。

The study of traditional Tibetan medicine, which developed within the cultural context of Tibetan society, is one of the clues to understand their religious culture and their view on the human life. Our present research focused on the theory and practice of oil massage in Tibetan medicine, yantrayoga found in the Tibetan tantric tradition, and their relationships. Based on field work and textual studies, we found that both of them are firmly rooted in the concept of the"subtle body", the living human body as a complex consisting of the physical, energetic and the spiritual. We also found it has striking similarities to the most recent findings in neuroscience, such as "neuroplasticity" and the brain as a self-organizing system. Our study, part of which has been published in 9 articles and 1 book during the term of 3 years, clearly shows that this field of study will prove to be of immense contribution to the understanding of the Tibetan religious culture, and the nature of us humans.