Does Religious Belief Help Cure Cancer?

People keep asking me this, and I have always felt such questions must be answered with great care, because many Chinese easily mistake religious faith for superstition. In reality, many religious believers are indeed superstitious, hoping that praying to gods and Buddhas will cure their disease—a hope that is basically impossible to fulfill.

But as someone who has benefited a great deal from religion—though I am not a religious believer, I have genuinely benefited. From age seven, my grandmother had me read out the characters in the scriptures to her and lead her in reciting them, because she was a devout Buddhist but illiterate.

So as a child I memorized all the scriptures she had copied from the temple. I did not understand their meaning then, but when I grew up and reread what I had memorized, it all made sense. Because I had memorized them as a child, I remember them vividly. These scriptures have, at many times, guided how I conduct myself.

The scriptures my grandmother had me recite with her included both Buddhist sutras like the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra, and popular ballads widely circulated among the common people, such as the "Song of a Hundred Patiences of Lord Zhang."

I can still recite the "Song of a Hundred Patiences" fluently: "The Song of a Hundred Patiences, the song of a hundred patience; patience is the breadth of the great person, the root of the noble man; the patient feel not summer's heat, nor winter's cold; the patient enjoy poverty, the patient live long; the proud fall, the rich who cannot bear lose; small matters impatience turns to great, good deeds impatience ends in regret; father and son lose their kindness and duty through impatience, brothers lose their love and respect; friends lose loyalty, spouses quarrel; Liu Ling ruined his name through impatience with wine; Duke Ling of Chen lost his state through impatience with lust; Shi Chong destroyed his family through impatience with wealth; Xiang Yu lost his life through impatience with pride. Today's criminals all knew not patience; throughout the ages, who among founders was not patient? The patient endure what others cannot, the wise endure what others think unendurable; think twice and endure; play deaf and dumb and endure. With patience one may walk the world, with patience one may make neighbors; endure plainness and nourish the spirit, endure hunger and cold and build character; endure toil and have surplus, endure excess and have no illness; endure and keep family bonds and human duty, endure appetite and spare creatures' lives; endure in speech and avoid dispute, endure strife and end enmity; endure being scolded and answer not, and the other's foul mouth settles of itself; endure being struck and strike not back, and the other's cruel hand tires of itself. Know that the patient is the true gentleman; call not patience folly. When enduring, men laugh you a fool; once endured, you yourself know reform. Laugh they may, yet endure; heed not their words and break patience. Fools of the world laugh at patience, but the gods above esteem it. If I, faulty as I am, must endure, how much more must others? When trouble comes, patience is most needed; when it has passed, endure again. Life fears not a hundred patiences; it fears a single impatience. Without patience, a hundred blessings melt like snow; with patience, ten thousand misfortunes turn to ash."

My present attitude to life, I would say, is deeply influenced by this song. The various sufferings of life, if we can bear them, cease to be sufferings. If one can bear poverty and be content in it, perhaps no days will make us anxious or panicky.

I remember years when my grandmother recited the "Song of a Hundred Patiences" almost daily. She had it copied for her by a literate man at our local temple. She cherished paper bearing written characters and kept them carefully; the sheets with scriptures and the song yellowed with age. She always recited them in a singing tone, which made them easier to remember. Her melodious chanting remains vivid in my memory.

I think these scriptures helped my grandmother greatly. Throughout her life she was shaped by the Buddhist sutras and the song; from my earliest memory to her death, I never once saw her quarrel with anyone—except, now and then, scolding my grandfather for killing living things.

I remember once my grandfather caught a swallow for us grandchildren to play with. My grandmother rebuked him for teaching the children to harm life, and he sheepishly let the bird go. In my memory she was always smiling; even at eighty she could climb hills to burn incense and worship, until one summer when it was too hot and she died of heatstroke. Though my father and his brothers disapproved of her faith, convinced the monks and Daoists had cheated her out of her money, they could do nothing about it.

Among my own patients are many devout Buddhists and Christians, as well as Daoists and believers of other faiths; a few have indeed achieved survival miracles. But these believers are not, as rumors would have it, refusing all Chinese and Western treatment. They also seek treatment actively; yet because of their faith they show better psychological health, steadier equanimity, more tolerance and reason in dealings with others, and less interpersonal friction—and so they recover well.

Of course, patients who achieve this without religion also recover well. So the role of religious faith lies in the spiritual support it offers that doctors and family cannot. From this angle, religious belief genuinely helps the sick. But patients who fall into money-making cults are the opposite: they may be egged on to reject medicine and trust in ghosts and gods; such patients are usually delayed, missing the best window for treatment.

Religious organizations offer spiritual support ordinary institutions and individuals cannot, and the atmosphere of a place of worship restrains behavior and releases psychological pressure in a way doctors and mental-health workers cannot. So I do not oppose patients finding peace of mind in religious faith; I merely caution against blind belief in ghosts and gods—though I must admit that such belief sometimes does calm some patients, so it cannot be dismissed as worthless.

Modern medicine acknowledges that recovery requires comprehensive means; a patient's education and religious belief both greatly influence their choice of treatment and the easing of mental burden.

Religious faith also shapes patients' relationships with those around them. All legitimate religions urge believers to be kind to others and to be tolerant and forbearing, so devout believers often handle interpersonal relationships more maturely than average.

People live in a dynamic environment; physical and mental health depend heavily on it. How a person interacts with the environment determines whether they adapt to it and draw support from it. Religious practice improves one's ability to adapt and to regulate the inner life, so I personally support cancer patients seeking help in faith.