The Book of Joy

integrative physician and was interested to know if this revered healer
might have helpful recommendations for the Archbishop, whose prostate
cancer was back.
In an amazing coincidence, Dr. Dhonden had helped cure my mother
of blood cancer while he was visiting New York many years ago, when I
was still in high school. When I was in Dharamsala in January preparing
for the visit, I was told that Dr. Dhonden had died, but I had just heard
that he was still alive at almost ninety. I was excited to meet him, to
thank him for helping to save my mother’s life, and to see if he might be
able to help the Archbishop.
He came into the Archbishop’s bedroom at the hotel, his bald head
and large ears making him look a little like an only slightly taller Yoda
from the Star Wars movies. His face was impassive, and his hands had a
powerful delicacy while they took the Archbishop’s pulse. The
Archbishop was lying on his king-sized bed. Through the windows, the
valleys of Dharamsala plunged down in steep hillsides of oaks and
evergreens, ending with a vista of the vast plains below.
Through a translator, Dr. Dhonden began to describe health issues that
the Archbishop had experienced decades ago and that had led to his
current prostate cancer. The Archbishop looked surprised as Rachel, who
was familiar with many traditional medical systems, explained what Dr.
Dhonden was saying in a way that made sense to a modern medical
understanding of the body.
After a fifteen- or twenty-minute exam, Dr. Dhonden pointed to the
can of Coke Zero on the bedside table. The Archbishop has given up the
rum and Cokes he used to favor, but he is still quite fond of his Coke
Zero, having agreed to the diet soda to cut down on his sugar
consumption. According to Dr. Dhonden, the Coke Zero was still not
helping his health and should be removed from his diet.
When this was translated to the Archbishop, he got out of his bed
rather spryly, and jokingly waved his hands, saying, “I think it’s time for
you to go.”
Rachel assured the Archbishop that while she had been trying to get
him to kick his Coke Zero habit for years, at eighty-four he was allowed