The flood of summer blessings

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Hey everyone,

I am basking in the resplendent blessings of the summer season. My thesis is completed, defended and turned in. 95% of my work is done for graduation (paperwork and the like). I passed all three of my board exams for licensure (yay!) My family is coming into town on Friday! I’m currently neck deep in a beautiful business course with Mark at the Heart of Business about money and one’s relationship to it. I’m positively exploding with ideas, inspiration and energy – so excited to move into this next phase.

I expect that several things will happen over the coming months concerning the blog. I thought I would provide some forewarning. Also : if anyone notices anything strange with the blog today, tomorrow or the next day – please email me (click on “About Eric Grey” along the top of the page, you will find my contact information there). I actually just accidentally deleted part of my database and the whole blog disappeared! I think I restored everything correctly, but there may be weirdnesses going on. Let me know.

So – the times they are a’changing

New theme and general design of the site
Integration of bits and pieces relating to social media, favorite websites, new writers and more
New content schedule and regularly updated content
Increased integration of audio, video and images
Offering of free resources for students and new practitioners
The integration of a Deepest Health forum
Possible changes in advertising viewable on the site
Increased opportunities for interaction

It’s going to take me some time to recover from these last grueling weeks, and I am taking the second week of July off to wander on the beach with my family and attend the Oregon Country Fair… but, I’m going to start working hard and getting back to one of my favorite things – interacting with people who are passionate about Chinese medicine from all over the planet (that’s you all!)

Thanks for your ongoing support and patience, everybody!

Eric

June 23, 2009 · Filed Under Blogging, Learning

1 Comment

The Lingshu and becoming a superior Chinese medicine practitioner

There is a very interesting discussion going on over at Richard Goodman’s blog – He explains…

“…Ling Shu Chapter 55

The superior physician treats that which is not yet ill. The inferior physician treats that which is already ill.

This is a fairly famous statement, which is often interpreted to be a call to preventative medicine. Modern physicians often complain that patients come in with specific complaints and it is impossible to treat what is not yet ill. I find this stance strange, as if we are to believe if someone has a disease which has already become manifest, the practitioner is prevented from treating what is not yet ill.

At any rate, the following quote from Nanjing has a completely different interpretation of the above passage:

Treating what is not yet ill means that when one sees illness in the liver (for example), this (can be) transmitted to the spleen. First fill (shi2) the spleen qi so that there is no way for it to accept the liver’s evil qi. This is what is called treating what is not yet ill.

June 16, 2009 · Filed Under Classical Texts (general), Learning, The profession

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Argument for a medical multiverse : Acknowledgements

When you write acknowledgements for a thesis at a small college in Portland, you can be reasonably assured that almost nobody will read them. This is a shame, for they are meant to be read – meant to shout your love, respect and admiration from the rooftops! So, I hope you will indulge me and read the below and give a silent round of applause to the people that made my thesis, indeed my entire success at school and on this blog and in my life in general, possible. I couldn’t possibly mention everyone who was a part of it – so if you’re not mentioned below and should be – know that my love goes to you as well.
In the coming weeks, I’ll release more of my thesis, though the very thought terrifies me. Anyone who’s written a thesis, dissertation or book will know what I mean.
———

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Amanda, the love of my life, without you life is bereft of meaning. I thank your for your persistence, your strength, your uncommon beauty and your belief that I’m not as crazy as I seem.
To Eden, without whom I would have had no reason to go to school at all, my Continue Reading…

June 14, 2009 · Filed Under Learning, Our Story, Student Life

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5 Things to Look forward to after graduation : Chinese medicine post-graduate education

Since the arrival of my friend Brandt Stickley, I have been unfortunately unable to devote the amount of time I would like to living out our wild Portland-area Awareness Project dreams. We had so many late night chat and Skype conversations, whipping one another into a sleepless frenzy about the power and possibility in symbolism. The symbolism of the Classical texts of Chinese medicine, the symbolism of the body, of acupuncture points and herbal formulas, of ancient poetry and contemporary culture – but most of all – the symbolism living all around us in lived experience.

Well, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I can TASTE the completion of this degree. I can FEEL the reality of my impending licensure. Our clinic is already running. We have meetings every week. I’m totally ready to see patients – and already have several ready to go. This deal is sealed, God willing things are now operating on the gravity created by hard work and not a little bit of Grace. Running a business takes time, lots of it. But, the fact is, I’ve been working hard on that all along. I set myself up precisely so I would actually experience Continue Reading…

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Cultivation, Student Life, The Project

2 Comments

Listening my way to success in the NCCAOM acupuncture board exam

As I said before, I’ve been spending a significant amount of time studying for and taking my NCCAOM board exams. As I said in my last post…
“…I’ve successfully completed the foundations and biomedicine exams already. I found them to be much different from what I was expecting. I know I am not allowed to share much about my experience – but I’ll just say that I don’t think any commercially available study aid helped me…”
This includes the much lauded TCMTests.com. Don’t get me wrong, I think they offer a great service. If nothing else, they allow you to have some degree of comfort with the format and general content of the test. However, the specific topics covered in the real test were not touched on much by the practice tests on that site or on the official NCCAOM site. Others may not share my experience, I know.

As an alternative, I recommend you go through the list offered by NCCAOM (content outline) and read through the texts they indicate as sources for question writing. I found that these outlines were quite accurate, and I would pay attention even to those topics that seem less important. While some of the more Continue Reading…

June 9, 2009 · Filed Under Acupuncture, Products & Materials, Student Life

5 Comments