Bill Clinton Turns to Buddhism to Improve His Health
Former U.S. president and environmental activist Bill Clinton, raised a Southern Baptist, has turned his spiritual focus to the religion of Buddhism for the sake of his health and "hectic life," according to reports.
"Ever since his heart scare, Bill has looked for ways to help him relax," a source told RadarOnline in an exclusive report.
"He has a hectic life, he travels a lot on business as an ambassador for the U.S. and needs something to keep him sane," the person presumably close to Clinton added. "Meditation offers him that, he has a mantra that he likes to chant and after every session he feels transformed and full of positive energy."
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"It's definitely doing him the world of good – he feels fitter and stronger than ever," the source concluded.
According to the Times of India, Clinton has even hired a Buddhist monk to aid him in his spiritual studies.
Clinton reportedly has sought to improve himself both spiritually and physically after surviving a wave of health scares, relating mostly to his poor diet and weight, in the mid-2000s.
The former president also has become an advocate for veganism after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 to unblock four clogged arteries. He also received two stents, or mesh scaffolds, in a fifth artery in 2010 at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
"I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette," Clinton told CNN's Sanjay Gupta regarding his previous poor health in an Aug. 2011 interview.
"I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," the 42nd president added.
Clinton's current diet consists primarily of fresh fruit and vegetables, although he reportedly occasionally eats fish.
The former president, 65, currently travels the world speaking on the importance of international diplomacy and environmental responsibility through the Clinton Foundation, established with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence."
Clinton was raised a Southern Baptist, and many critics claim that he ebbed and flowed in his religious beliefs throughout his terms as president.
"You know, Bill Clinton knew the language. Bill Clinton could talk like a Southern Baptist evangelist when he wanted to. But they hated what he was doing with it, because they were in fundamental disagreement with him about so many very important social issues," Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, has told PBS Frontline.
