rLung

[deanmw]

Has anyone come across a medical condition known to Tibetan Buddhists & doctors as rLung, pronounced as "Loong" with an "oo" sound?

On the advice of my Chi Kung teacher, last week I saw a Tibetan doctor (Tsewang Tamdin) and after several minutes of examining my pulses on both arms, he diagnosed me as having rLung, and gave me 3 different types of herbal pills to take before breakfast, after lunch and after dinner. They look like miniature chocolate Maltesers, but they taste like gritty soap. Yuk!

Apparently it is caused by too much worry, too much concentration, too much mind activity, and he advised me to cut down my carbohydrate intake.

My partner said she has heard of rLung in relation to people who meditate too much, too soon. Indeed I have commented before on this forum that I have read that sometimes too much meditation can over-energize some people (sometimes making them temporarily psychotic), and indeed this seems to be the case for me at the moment.

Has anyone come across rLung / loong?

[humanoid]

I never heard of "rlung",
but it sounds strange to use chemical substances to fix mentally created problems.

All you said so far is that you've been diagnosed by some eastern doctor to have "rlung"
and that it is caused by "too much stress etc",

but what exactly are your symptoms?
Maybe you have a medical problem which it's cause needs to be corrected,
instead of it's symptoms be tried to be covered up.

Or maybe your problems are only mental indeed,
and in that case i would not advise you to take herbal pills for that...

but rather just eat the healthy food and supplements which you think are best for your body.
I use OMEGA-3  




On the other hand,
if you are indeed psychotic and you feel your herbal pills help you,
then they probably have less potential side-effects than the chemicals psychiatrists prescribe to people.

If you do need western psychiatric chemicals, don't sweat it... because these days they're not THAT harmful anymore,
but at the end of the day you're still probably way better off them IF YOU CAN.

It's not because emotions such as fear, desire, insecurity are rising up to the surface,
and that your ego is becoming a little unstable;.. that you are becoming psychotic though.
I would recommend you just proceed with bringing awareness into your life,
into your mind, and all will sort it self out.




Whatever happens happens though,
so never need to worry and always go with the flow...  

[deanmw]

Thanks for the reply humanoid. I may have given the wrong impression in my post - I am over-energized, not psychotic!

My problem is a long standing one which I've discussed on this site before - a constant background of uncomfortable energetic sensations (at various times pressure, burning, tingling, tension) in the torso, throat and head which move and respond to my focus of awareness and which are generally intensified by meditation (e.g. breath awareness) and other practices such as Chi Kung.

I've been to see doctors and alternative therapists on and off over the last 9 years, with little result. Health scans and blood tests have revealed nothing. I have been prescribed psychoactive pharmaceuticals in the past - and have screwed up my metabolism - I put on 2 stones in weight in a matter of weeks, and only now 5 years later am I starting to get back to my original body mass.

It doesn't seem strange to me really to treat problems of the mind with herbs or chemicals - doctors of all persuasions have been prescribing such things for thousands of years. They have their place. Although I would say pharmaceuticals are overused in the West.

No I'm just trying another avenue, with no particular expectation of a result. Just interested if anyone else had heard of the term rLung.

[Matthew]

Dean,

There is plenty about rLung on the internet.

My guess is your problem is that your mind always was running. Meditation may be making this more obvious if you are not balancing it well with other aspects of health and wholesomeness. There is also the aspect of sticking to a practice and breaking through barriers. It's just over a year sice you joined the site and your practice has flowed through a few changes over this period. This could be a sign that as soon as practice starts to breach your defences you suffer strong reactions and an itch to move on - manifesting as unbearably high energy levels.

In part this could reflect an over-active mind being applied to the path. Too much thinking about the path or it's goals takes you right away from the path. The path is the goal, the quality of the journey matters more than the destination. In fact the quality of the journey is the destination.

There are body and mind solutions to your issue I believe.

I would recommend you take up things to relax. Things you may have denied yourself - some pampering and care of the body. Regular message with soothing oils - including deep tissue massage to work out the knots in your body. If you have any natural hot springs near you I would try that - failing that a floatation tank is incredible for the body and in modern facilities you have lights, music etc, though I recommend the dark and silence if this does not increase your stress levels. If you can't get to one then get some bath salts and load up the bath at home.

The other aspect of this is to start examining your attitude to suffering and the path and see if you are stuck somewhere in a wrong view and fighting or struggling against some particular aspect that you must do the opposite with - and relax and let go of. This could easily lead to the kind of mental inner struggle that could result in the mental over-active manifestations of rLung, as could unresolved trauma from the past as the defences to this are threatened by vipassana practice, especially if you are stressing about the practice and not relaxing into it.

In the Dhamma,

Matthew

[deanmw]

Matthew,

Thanks you have some good points there.

I did find a few useful references to rLung on the internet before I made my original post, both as a medical condition as well as a subtle flow of energy. I just wondered if anyone here had heard of this term.

My mind is running more than it should, and my day job is a big part of that. I don't think the intense concentration required as a software developer suits me any more, and doing this part time has not really helped - although I value the shift in work/life balance.

Massage and floatation are treatments I have tried in the past, with some temporary benefits. I used to have floatation sessions at a beauty salon in Kingston. There were options for lights & music but I preferred the dark and silence, and found it relaxing - although I would sometimes get neck ache - with or without the floating cushion. I suspect I would find these sessions counter-productive at the moment however. Massage on the other hand I think would be worth pursuing again - I just need to persuade my partner - she used to be a massage therapist - in fact that's how I met her! Perhaps the offer of an exchange treatment or two...  :-)

Being stuck in wrong view is also an interesting point - I think I am still struggling with some issues related to my self-image and how I relate to other people - of the same and opposite sex. I may be deluding myself that those concerns are just mind chatter and stories I tell myself, and can be observed and released. It seems the easy option not to take the chatter seriously, but maybe something deeper needs to honoured...

Kind Regards,
Dean.

[Matthew]

Dean,

Normally mind chatter is indeed manifesting something deeper. You merely see the ripples on the surface of the pond - the mind chatter.

The aspect of thinking in circular patterns is one to become very aware of. Usually these knots are undone by simple observation once you come fully into contact with them, however, as they are habitual this can take time. And as I have said before any conceptualising about the goal of enlightenment is an ego activity. Better to go and wash the dishes clean.

Now let's get serious ... where did you meet your partner exactly?



Matthew

[deanmw]

 

I met her back in 2001 about 6 months after my nervous system went haywire. I was trying different alternative therapies, and was interested in trying out reflexology, so I contacted a local natural therapy clinic. The lady who answered said they didn't have a reflexologist, but had I considered massage (turns out I was speaking to the massage therapist). It seemed like a good alternative and after a few sessions we got to know each other, and soon started dating. It interesting, because the moment I let go of finding a partner (which I think was a big part of why I had the breakdown 6 months earlier), I met someone interested in a relationship. Eight years on and we're still together.

[Matthew]

So .. letting go is where it's at

That's very cool.