Continuous Learning Refreshes Our Cognition and Heals Us

In daily practice I find many people trapped in mistaken beliefs all their lives without knowing it, truly blocked by one leaf so they cannot see the mountain. This occurs not only in patients with cognitive impairment but in normal people, and even in myself. How to solve it? Only by continuous learning.

I serve over 3,000 long-term patients and see about 150 visits a month—mainly because I strictly control my workload. I know my ability is limited; seeing more than five patients a day sharply lowers quality, leaving me no patience to listen. So I constantly control my WeChat friends, deleting twenty or thirty a day who are not seeking cancer treatment, to keep my contacts under 3,500; beyond that I feel pressured.

Also, I gradually no longer accept patients whose trust in me is not solid, or who only turn to me at the terminal stage—that final handoff places too much pressure on the doctor. If I take too many such patients, I will break down myself, which is unfair to other patients who come to me.

For these 3,000-plus people I keep encouraging learning and recommending worth-reading books, and I keep posting on Moments urging them to read. For patients with serious or chronic illness, relying only on the doctor while not actively learning is unrealistic; many want to pour their hearts out to a doctor, but doctors do not have that much time.

A single consultation is far from enough to solve deep-rooted problems like irritability, anxiety, depression, and insomnia, whose causes are tangled and complex. It is already good if a doctor can guide a patient in the right direction. Expecting 24-hour-a-day care is unrealistic, and most patients cannot afford the high fees; people must treat themselves by learning relevant knowledge.

Many of my patients are young and middle-aged; many can hope to survive long-term and may become cancer survivors decades hence. If they wish to survive long, learning is essential, because they will use this knowledge over the coming decades.

Human behavior is determined by cognition, and knowledge changes cognition; knowledge is, as far as I know, the thing that most affects human cognition. Only by learning can we refresh our cognition, correct our errors, and heal ourselves. Xunzi said: "I once thought all day, but it was not equal to a moment of learning." Learning inspires more useful thinking; the stubbornly opinionated are usually unlearned.

The Dutch brain scientist Professor Dick Swaab said the greatest difference between people lies in the brain; the brain determines our cognition, and cognition determines our behavior, which is why he titled his masterpiece *We Are Our Brains*. Buddhism has many practices, the key ones being the Six Perfections (precepts, patience, generosity, meditation, diligence, wisdom), but the Buddha said wisdom (prajna) is paramount—and by prajna he essentially meant cognition. When a person's cognition changes, the whole person is remade.

Not long ago a breast-cancer patient a few years younger than me told me that since she first came to me years ago, she has read every book I recommended in my articles, and these books remade her. Incidentally, she almost never takes my time asking for book lists; she simply reads whatever books I mention in my articles and looks them up. Many books I mention are available free on WeChat Read, so it costs little.

This patient now recovers very well: her breast cancer is well controlled and she is cancer-free, and the psychological obstacles caused by her family of origin have also been removed. She is clearly wiser than before, her ability to handle life has greatly improved, and even her work goes more smoothly than before.

She now does translation work and deliberately takes on medical translation, because it brings income and lets her learn medicine—killing two birds with one stone. I am gratified that she is not the only one to benefit from my years of writing; a number of patients have benefited, and many who never even treated with me have told me my articles gave them a new life. Their recovery greatly encouraged me, giving me the confidence and motivation to keep writing to this day.

An American cancer survivor named Louise Hay, in her eighties, wrote *You Can Heal Your Life*, describing how she rebuilt her psyche starting at 42; her method was learning and reflection. Many consider her method unscientific, but science could not cure her cancer, while her path of psychic rebuilding made her a cancer survivor—a mockery of those who worship science. Of course her success may have had an element of chance, but it cannot be denied that she succeeded. Not only did she escape cancer, she escaped the shadows her family of origin had cast, becoming a positive, optimistic person. Her spirit inspired many, and her books sold tens of millions worldwide.

Cancer is a chronic disease. Today, with ever-better early screening, many young and middle-aged cancer patients can be detected at early or middle stages; they have a high probability of long survival and enough time to correct bad thinking and behavioral habits. As the TCM classic *Huangdi Neijing* states in an important principle—"the disease is the root, the physician (gong) is the branch"—the patient is the key to recovery. Only when the patient exercises initiative, reading relevant books after work and growing mentally, can outcomes exceed mere medical treatment.

I regret to see that many patients are not humble learners. When others propose ideas differing from their old beliefs, their first thought is not to learn or consider whether the other has a point, but to argue to defend their views and even attack those who disagree. Such people rarely progress; their stale selves made them ill, yet they have no awareness, no will to change, no desire to learn, clinging only to their prejudices. Their mistaken cognition can hardly change, so how can their illness be cured?

A smart person's life is a process of constant self-negation and constant transformation into a new self. Biology on Earth must keep evolving; a person must also evolve through life. Only "unfilial descendants" advance civilization; those who fully trust ancestral rules stay put. Evolution is not some lofty, distant term: skills our fathers lacked but we now have are evolution relative to the previous generation. Correcting past erroneous behaviors and thoughts is also evolution.

For example, eating cured meat once caused cancer in many people; now we know nitrites in cured meat are carcinogenic and stop eating it—this is evolution. Evolution is the continuous correction of behavior to better adapt to the environment, raise skills, and extend life. A person once narrow-minded and prone to sulking, who through reading and learning becomes cultivated, broad-minded, and generous with others—this is also evolution. Human survival skills improve through such evolutionary processes.

I like recommending articles and books by reflective authors: partly because I am one myself, and partly because such authors help readers know themselves better, encouraging them to find their problems and correct their behavior. But one type of reader lacks humor and self-reflection; reading reflective writing, they do not examine themselves, only feel curious about the author's problems, never realizing the author is warning the world and inspiring readers to reflect and correct themselves.

Such people read but return empty-handed from a mountain of treasure. Confucius said: "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." That describes exactly this situation.