Buddha in the Waiting Room

by Paul Brenner

From his perspective of forty years in the medical profession, Dr. Paul Brenner redefines what health is: no more and no less than the acceptance and appreciation of life. Health is not simply the absence of illness. As the author comes to realize that we all have an innate wisdom of what's right for our bodies, he crystallizes the discontent with the medical profession and the hope that there is a better alternative to our definition of heath.

When, in 1976, Dr. Brenner left his traditional medical practice and began counseling individuals with life-threatening illnesses, he began to realize that, contrary to his medical training, he did not have all the answers. He finds, in the individuals he treats, a "Buddha in the waiting room"—and that there is wisdom inherent in each one of them—which he shares in this book.

The book is written from the often humorous perspective of a logic-driven realist who is reluctantly transformed by the wisdom of alternative therapies, by his acceptance of his own intuition, and by the lessons on health and illness he learns from his patients—patients, who, it turns out, were healing him. It is a tribute to patients everywhere who want their own wisdom and self-knowledge to be used by their practitioners in a partnership of life and health.