Chinese Medicine highlights Prevention, Maintenance & the Treatment of Disease
We live in an era where medicine only highlights sickness care. Detached third party purveyors might even dictate what is “covered” or “allowed” separate from your primary care provider, or even dictate what is specifically “treatable” according to some outdated rubric of science. Undoubtedly, there is so much Gratitude to germ theory and Western medicine in the treatment of acute and emergency disease. However, Chinese Medicine is not only the treatment of dis-ease or pathological states in the body-mind-Sprit complex of a human being (one term for this is Jing-Qi-Shen @ Chinese Medicine). Chinese Medicine emphatically supports the notion that the prevention of dis-ease is the pinnacle to an effective medical system. I am sure you have heard the astute saying by Benjamin Franklin that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” which aptly covers this ground. Prevention is not only more cost effective, but it nips things in the bud. By doing so, It becomes easier and quicker to implement the restoration of wholeness once integrated. In our culture, we often seek help only after a situation or condition reaches a disaster climax. And then we want a pill to quickly fix it pronto or else. Paternalistic and detached capitalistic programming runs rampant in our treatment of disease. Personal responsibility is rarely mentioned. Slowing down, paying attention and inserting ourselves into the core of our life is an integral precept of in Chinese Medicine.
The maintenance of good health is something that has become highlighted during the current COVID pandemic. Homeostasis might be another name for the maintenance of health or the return of health after a state of imbalance. We know now that a relative homeostasis might be more accurate term to reflect the range of possibilities that exist which underscore health. We all want guarantees and absolutes for health. If a lab report says my blood markers are in normal range, then I am healthy, and nothing should go wrong. This is mechanistic thinking and does reflect the deeply personal and profound nature of our health and the possible impacts.
Living in accordance with the Principles of Nature
According to Chinese Medicine, the Prevention of dis-ease is a deep teaching concerned with living in harmony with natural rhythms. When we are clear and unobstructed, intuition dawns and we can also tap into our highest potential in this lifetime. From this vantage point, medicine is an opportunity for deep healing, awareness, and conscious transcendence. It is also an opportunity to move beyond what might be incurable, indescribable, and immoveable. Deep Healing does not always mean Cure. and Cure does not always mean deep healing. At what level are we focused on? How deeply do want to know the answers?
The Maintenance of health in this idealized range of homeostasis commitment is also a worthy tenant of Chinese medicine so through its tenets we learn to understand our unique constitution and what it takes to create balance and flow in our corner of the Universe. Our unique constitution is made up of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual proclivities. From a western vantage point, are we nature or nurture? or Both?
Nature or Nurture?
Part Nature : “Pre-Natal” aspects in Chinese medicine relates to our JING and the Water Element
Part Nurture: “Post-Natal” aspects in Chinese medicine and relates to Qi and the Earth Element
Astrological or heavenly influences also govern us from afar and The Shen or Fire element guides us on this profound terrain. The lay lines that create the web of earthy bodily infrastructure bedazzle with Heavenly patterns of coherence effecting harmonic resonance when in alignment. The destiny of a life can be written in the Stars so to speak, but our Free Will has access to change the scenery and even occasionally propel us into the heavenly restructuring of deeply entrenched patterns that have withstood generations of repetitive enactment.
Indeed, Chinese medicine deals with severe imbalances and disease as many of the ancient medical classics were written by scholar-physicians during times of great epidemics, plagues or other severe upheavals affecting one’s acute health in the times of Great cold or Great heat. The yin- yang of healing is the dynamic understanding of the components of our bodily elements as they interface with ever changing environmental influences.
The only constant is Change
The Tao of Medicine could entail a deeper journey as to how one might resonate more fully with the Truth of Life. The Truth that underlies our illusory attempts at control, blame or the coercion of others, ourselves, and the environment. To boldly live the ever-deepening questions in the face of deep pain, stress, or change is one of the calling cards for those wishing to unlock some of lockets of enlightenment.
“The only constant is change” as the saying goes and this Truth takes on a golden hue the older (and hopefully wiser) we become. In our younger years, we might love change or be able to respond to more reflexively due to youthful abundant energy and a relative lack of worry.
As we age; however, change can often become more fearful and daunting as bodies, finances or opportunities seem to dwindle, collapse, or coat themselves in furtive mind tricks.
The ability to shift with the tides of life might seem so easy for some and painful or traumatic to others. There are so many factors that might attribute to our ability to withstand change in our life. To some change is stress and to others it equals freedom and there is every shade in between. What was once true may flip around and people or situations that were once taken for granted might not be available as before. Where to go, What to do and how to respond in the face of fast accruing lemons. Lemonade is hopefully on the horizon but what if you are allergic?
Pernicious Qi and the Power to Invade
To understand the “pernicious” influences that would cause ill health both externally and internally and to make shifts to avoid their effects whenever possible is an enviable goalpost. In Chinese Medicine, a tenacious tenet emphasizes the protection of our body fortress from the foreign invaders of pathological influences like wind, cold, heat, dryness, fire & dampness that can enter the body and wreak havoc with our cultivated balanced state
With knowledge, wisdom, and discernment we have many tools to help maintain good health. I love that Chinese Medicine is a dynamic Medicine that address our dynamic being-ness in the constant ebb and flow of life. Invaders can be seen as “evil” enemy that warrants a torrent of lethal and brutal attacks to kill with reckless abandon. Or we can build the strongest fortress to withstand even the mightiest of attacks. How does the enemy play into our hands and how may we become outsmarted. Clarity in the midst of chaos is not always an easy answer. Immunity is an active process of engaging pernicious qi in a dialogue of unfolding awareness and understanding.
God Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change
the COURAGE to change the things I can,
and the WISDOM to the know the difference.
Education, integration, and understanding are vital in how I work with someone on an ongoing basis or even just for one visit. Things can dramatically shift in a moment. Understanding of disease, and the law of attraction and finding the peace underneath the suffering can become a quantum of solace in minefield of chaos.
Chinese Medicine treats the Person not the Disease
Patience and persistence might be called for at times in treating chronic disease or patterns that become heavily entrenched, e.g. Fibromyalgia, Auto-immunne disease or Long Covid. The spirals of requisite healing unfold in their own time and their own Divine plan within everyone. We are not the Disease. We are complex, whole individuals undergoing a process of dis-ease. Understanding ourselves, personal interactions, and environmental influences through the lens of Chinese medicine is a journey of self-discovery and Path to harmony and healing. Sometimes, the focus in more acute on disarming the symptoms that a causing chaos in our life and sometimes the underlying root cause of the imbalance is a work in progress that is revealed over time and in layers of unfoldment. Perhaps they are even the same thing and perhaps not.
The Tao is another name for The Path or The Way
The Tao de Ching by Lao Tze is Classic about living according to the Great Tao set by Divine Imprints we all live under. Medicine is also about change and how we respond to it. The Yi Jing is a great Classic about Change and how to maneuver the minefield in an artful manner. Medicine is also a pathway for peace, harmony, and contentment. Health is our greatest wealth. It affords us access to the of our bodies and minds for the means of survival but also to the means of thriving on all planes of existence. For me personally, medicine is a path of spiritual service and love in the service of others highest good and a way to keep pursuing my own self-realization. I learn so much from my patients and clients. The Medicine I have so intensely studied comes alive in them and thru our interaction together. We are in dance together where what is needed in the moment drops into the healing space so that both of us may benefit and the reservoir of wisdom deepens as the medical and healing principles of Chinese Medicine come alive only by unique examples exemplified by our imbalances. In Ayurvedic medicine, the Doshas are the elements which comprise our constitution and this term literally connotes “that which goes out of balance”. We strive for a Relative Balance that eludes us and changes again and again. Our external and internal world is constantly changing and in motion and mastery of the mind can seem like the most high-tech drone capable of evading our most advanced systems technology.
Response vs Reaction
Despite our best efforts, accidents, tragedies, and misfortunes of life most definitely occur and with discernment, deeper intuitive awareness, or just plain luck, we can avert many calamities and difficulties. Yet at other times, it seems like nothing we do, think or say could prevent an event or effect from occurring. Our reaction is always a choice and opportunity to heal. Our focus through these times lies completely in our realm, if even just by prayer or surrender. Yes, surrendering is a choice and sometimes as we face deeper wisdom, higher Self or GOD, we make the most life affirming choice to step out of our way. It has been my personal and professional experience, that disease can also be a pathway to deeper transformation and stairway towards enlightenment. This path or “Tao” is not just for spiritual adepts but even Maslow talked about in the Classic hierarchy of needs. Yes, survival needs must come first and then we can look to the others as we move to self-realization. But at any place of our existence, the Spark of Divine Change can be implemented and ignited even when we least expect us and despite our attempts to self-sabotage. Keep your heart open and Love will indeed find a way to break through. The Graces of life are always available to us. Responding implies being grounded and making choices based on all relevant and pertinent information; Reacting often involves an impulsive, emotional reaction that has not had time to appreciate a full panoply of reckoning. Responding to life instead of reacting can empower us to take responsibility and let the rest of it go.
“Be Like Water”
“Be Like Water” and going with the flow is such a wonderful teaching from Lao Tze, author of the Tao de Ching and famous and influential Chinese philosopher. To move through, around, over and /or under obstacles. To learn to adjust, respond and integrate rather than react, control, demand, or blame. To become humbler as we progress. In the Spirit of Prevention and learning about yourself, your Nature, and how to build stronger Qi resilience with greater immune adaptability, the embarkment of healing with Chinese Medicine can became an opening of internal dialogue that might seem overwhelming at first. Stick with it. There is no rush.
Chinese Medicine is an art and a science
Chinese Medicine takes you wherever you are at on your path to healing.
It is both a science and an art. There is no judgment or blame ultimately.
The science has been forged over thousands of years of evidence based on a plethora of Classics of medicine, philosophy, and art written compiled and annotated by great physicians of The Way.
The art has also been forged over thousands of years in a living medicine that has survived great change, and virtual potential for destruction or decapitation of use. The living spirit of the adherents who have been committed to the common and esoteric practice of digesting the incredible vast database of Chinese Medicine. Medicine includes poetry, art, philosophy, religion, nature and the aspects of human consciousness.
As you awaken to a greater vision for your life and understand your health and patterns more acutely, life takes on greater meaning and purpose and contentment emerges spontaneously.
Life is Short. Don’t forget to enjoy the process
Medicine does not have to only reflect disease.
Chinese Medicine embraces you as multi-dimensional Being: both simple, complex, and evolving.
I am honored and grateful to serve others using the amazing tools of East Asian Medicine that have been forged over millennia.
Come ask me questions, begin a healing dialogue. Open up to new possibilities for yourself. I am not Anti-Western medicine. I am an integrator with an eye towards your Greatest Good.
As you heal, waves of positive transformation ripple out and touch everyone in your web of interaction.
As you learn to balance your Jing-Qi-Shen or Body-Mind-Spirit complex, you will find yourself following the Tao of Medicine that has always lived inside you.
Medicine is about Wholeness. The path of healing reflects a personal commitment to creating harmony within ourselves, and then finding that wholeness radiated outside of us. Of course, if we see wholeness outside of us we can also begin to integrate and see it within ourselves as well. The Truth of Oneness beats like a beloved pulse underneath the currents of a shattered ego Self.
The Tao of Medicine is learning to become One within a this dynamic of ever-changing puzzle pieces in a puzzle that is always Complete and Whole from afar. With expanded awareness, anything in the Universe can become available for our personal healing and wellness. Medicine is awakening to a deeper conscious connection to all that is and all that ever will be. Our commitment to seek and be Truthful with its unfolding journey is living according to the Tao of Medicine.
Finding our own relative sense of Balance is an ongoing journey on this Tao. By understanding how we go off the path and can also make choices to move back on it humbles us so that we become truer versions of ourselves and can help others around us. What if we are already perfect in this body at this very moment. What if there was nothing really to fix per se but everything to align to. As we balance energies that have gone astray, we learn more about ourselves and our unique place in the world. With balance comes peace and then energy to interact.
I am committed to its evolution for you and for me. I wish you peace, joy and contentment.
