HEALING: Synergy through Meaning and Service

摘要

Healing is the essence of medical arts and one possible outcome of spiritual endeavor,rnproducing fruits in terms of healthier bodies and environments. Thoughtful scientificrnresearch and religious practice help us humans to achieve direction in our lives, thusrngiving deeper meaning to all our actions. Action toward the goals of other persons,rntoward improving our common living environment (deep ecology a la Naess et al), andrnfor the betterment of humanity, helps us to achieve deeper meaning for self and other, andrnof course is another word for service (which also is one of the core values of the SpiritualrnExercises of Ignatius of Loyola, c. 1540). When all of these viewpoints, namely,rnmeaningful action, spiritual direction, and service to others, come together in arnsynergistic wheel integrating elements of divergent and convergent variety, collective andrnpersonal healing of bodies and souls and of joint living space is more likely to result, forrnindividual selves, for society, and for the human species. Several social scientists have inrnrecent years demonstrated that those who more explicitly practice a spiritual disciplinernare more likely to be happy and healthy. Taking the results of such research and thernaccumulated wisdom of most major world religions, these synthetic spiritual andrnscientific practitioners may also be or become wiser than those not plugged into thernwheel of life in such a meaningful way.