Year of Sagely Living : Business and leadership in Chinese Medicine
Well February has simply FLOWN by. While I haven’t posted much about what I’m learning, it isn’t because I’m not learning. :) It’s because I’m learning so much and enjoying it so thoroughly that I simply don’t have much time to write. I feel that my overall education has accelerated a lot in the last 60 days or so, which is a great feeling. I wanted to start writing about the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far from engaging with the business and leadership material this month. I’ll follow this up with a couple more specific posts and, of course, some lead-up to March’s Year of Sagely Living commitment.
1. Business Seminar at NCNM : As part of our program we take a two part business seminar co-taught by two LAc’s in the Portland area. They both have different approaches to business and the medicine, and complement one another well. Much of the class has been taught through the five element model and through the archetypes associated with the 12 officials. This first part of the series has been focused on general business topics, the second part will present us with more detail. We have been asked to conceptualize what kind of practitioners we would like to be, to start thinking about what our space will look like and what kind of financial structure we expect to have. We’ve been asked to interview current practitioners, write mission statements and to grapple with our own relationship with money. It’s been a good class, overall. I have to admit I’ve been a little impatient with it, as I’ve done most of that work and I’m eager to get on to the nitty gritty details of opening and maintaining a practice. However, with each more general exercise I’ve learned something important about my future medical practice. In a sense, then, the greatest lesson I’ve learned from this class and my focus on it during February’s Year of Sagely Living is: You can never revisit the basics enough.
2. Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover : As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been working through Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. While I can’t say I agree with everything Dave says, I do think that his fundamental philosophy is sound. It works for someone as systems oriented as I am. I also have an appreciation for “tough love” approaches that encourage me to reach for my dreams while keeping me fully grounded in the reality of the situation. If you’re not like that, you won’t like Dave Ramsey. You also have to have a relatively high tolerance for evangelical Christian themes and statements, a sort of traditional American gender bias and lots of colloquial Texan phrases. Still with me? It’s a great program and has whipped my financial life into shape. I feel that I have a greater appreciation for the power and promise of money as well as its downfalls. Greatest lesson: grow up.
3. Tony Robbins - Personal Power II: As you can probably already tell, this month was very prolific for me. I find that while I need to spend a lot of time with material specific to Chinese medicine, my function as a Chinese medicine scholar is greatly enhanced by consuming material on personal productivity. That’s the lesson, really, of the whole month — Chinese medicine must be integrated into one’s life as a totality. Everything that I do to improve my life outside of Chinese medicine enhances my ability to understand Chinese medicine! Wonderfully - the converse is also true. I started listening to this book of Tony’s on my iPod and have really enjoyed what he has to say about the true power of a single human life. He has that classic wood-style “motivational speaker” voice and while that takes a little getting used to, I do find it gets me pretty psyched after a while. :) However, because of an error in loading my iPod, I ended up listening to another audiobook much more and that’s really what I want to talk about…
4. Steve Covey - The 7 Habits, Principle Centered Leadership : I’d like to write a few articles on the 7 Habits and how I see them meshing with the image of the Classical Chinese scholar gentleman. Steve Covey is simply brilliant. If I had more time, I would start a whole blog just to explore his ideas and how they intersect with other world philosophies. I’ve read several of his books, but this is the first time I’ve had an audiobook version. As you know, I’m a huge fan of the “Getting Things Done” system of personal organization as described by David Allen. I absolutely stand by my endorsement of his system, as nothing has enabled me to keep track of my various projects and ensure that I forget nothing like his system has. However, I find that I need something more. I need a way to overtly keep myself balanced amid the many competing interests, a way to take care of my responsibilities while still moving towards fulfillment of my highest purpose. It’s incredible how much listening to this audiobook has enhanced how I understand the basic philosophies Covey espouses. It’s difficult for me to think of just one lesson, but if I had to pick one it would be: You need to spend the most time doing the things that are most in line with your life’s purpose(s).
5. Blogging and my thinking process around future business strategies: I’ve learned so much than I’m revealing above. I think it will take a couple of weeks for me to integrate it all. It definitely has changed my vision for my practice as well as my idea of what kind of professional I want to be. It has made me re-evaluate my blogging as well. I now see that blogging is not just a hobby, it is an integral part of my life’s work. Hopefully this realization will produce results that all of you can enjoy. I realize that I haven’t put out too many blockbuster CM related posts lately and I’ve made a commitment to myself to reverse this trend.
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Tags: Blogging, commitment, Dave Ramsey, David Allen, habits, Learning, organization, Personal Development, productivity, Steve Covey, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
Questions for the ancients
I’m part of the student government association at NCNM in Portland, OR and I am currently working on creating a scholarship for Classical Chinese Medicine students at our institution. The SGA funded the scholarship and now I’m just working on logistics. Part of the scholarship application will involve students answering a question - with the best answer (as judged by a panel of students) getting the nod for the award. Anyway, as I was brainstorming potential questions I became lost in thought at my potential answer to one. I thought I would pose it to you, my readers.
If you could ask three questions of any ancient scholar of Chinese medicine, who would it be, why, and what would your three questions be?
For me, it would definitely be Zhang Zhong Jing. I know that in ten years time I will have much more insightful questions, but right now my questions would be:
1. To what extent did you base your work on the Neijing and Tang Ye Jing?
2. What’s up with Wu Zhu Yu Tang? I mean, seriously.
3. Are there any diseases you feel can’t be treated by what you present in the Shang Han Lun and Jin Gui? If so, what are they and why can’t they be treated by the formulas and procedures set out in those books?
As a bonus, I would ask him if he has an intact copy of the Tang Ye Jing and, if so, if I can have it. :D
Post your questions in the comments.
Eric
Tags: ancient scholars, books, chinese-herbs, Classical Texts (general), classical-chinese-medicine, formulas, Learning, ncnm, Portland, scholar, scholarship application, shang-han-lun, student government association, tang-ye-jing, Zhang Zhong JingRelated posts
The development of first professional doctorate degrees in Chinese medicine
I must confess that the issue of accreditation of programs, levels of education within the acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine profession(s) and all related issues sometimes evade my understanding. While the degree that I will get at the end of my training is a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine, I will obtain a certification that will give me the title of Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc). At this point, further education is possible in accredited DAOM (Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) but it brings with it no further licensure benefits. At this point, all Doctorate programs require the student to have their Masters degree and have some amount of clinical experience before they are considered for entry. The standards vary as to how much clinical experience is required. The Doctorate is clinically based and generally requires some amount of clinical research to be done.
NCNM, the school I attend in Portland, OR, has been working to create a first professional doctoral degree that focuses on Classical Chinese Medicine. I’m unclear as to whether other schools are seeking something similar. It’s been a long road, one that was started down long before I came to the school. Students, faculty, staff and community practitioners have been involved in the creation and refinement of the program. Most of the students currently in the MSOM program had high hopes that ACAOM (the Chinese medicine accreditation organization) would create a set of standards for first professional doctorates in time for us to complete our “first professional doctorates.” To that end, we have been taking the extra coursework necessary for our proposed Doctorate program. Some of us have been quite active in the process, attending committee meetings and submitting comments to the ACAOM in support of a certain set of standards.
On February 8, ACAOM released their recommendation - which is essentially that they feel they can make no recommendation because of lack of consensus in the community. If you would like to read the official document, read it at ACAOM’s website. I’m unclear what, exactly, this means for our program at NCNM. Almost certainly those of us in our third or fourth year that were hoping to graduate on time with our Doctorate will not be able to do so. That’s not my biggest concern - I’m simply interested in understanding what the essential disagreement is in the community.
So, I would like to hear from my readers. What is your stance on First Professional Doctorates? What do you feel needs to be in place before a program like that goes through? Do you have other thoughts about how education and licensing works in the Chinese medicine profession in the United States? Let us know in the comments.
Eric
Tags: acaom, Acupuncture, chinese-herb, classical-chinese-medicine, doctorate program, education, licensed acupuncturists, licensing, ncnm, organization, professional doctorates, studentsRelated posts
What do my personal finances have to do with Classical Chinese herbal formulas?
As part of my February Year of Sagely Living commitment, I am listening to Steven Covey’s Principle Centred Leadership
As I prepare for launching my professional career, I’ve been trying to clean up my personal finances. I have plenty of debt (mostly from school) and I haven’t always attended to my financial health. I’ve tried in the past to keep to a budget, to clean up my credit and to live frugally, but I haven’t always been particularly successful. It seems in this year of the Rat, full of energy for cutting away old habits and launching new ones, I have been given new life for this part of my life. Within the last month, I was introduced to the financial philosophy of Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover
Dave Ramsey offers old time advice. Save money for a rainy day. Don’t rely on others to take care of you! Look out for your future. Small sacrifices now reap huge benefits in the future. A penny saved is a penny earned (and then some, in certain cases!) Often simple thoughts are dismissed as sound in a time OTHER than the one we are living in. They are thought to be interesting, but antiquated. In the financial world, it seems that savvy modern people use credit to their advantage. They game the market. Sometimes it seems that there’s a latent idea that savvy, hip, and especially young people don’t worry about tomorrow - or at best, they employ some misunderstood principle of the “Law of Attraction” to bring them what they will need when their gambles don’t pay off. Dave Ramsey, with lots of huffing and puffing, brings a timely and easily understood message to all of the above - don’t be stupid. Take care of yourself.
For me, the philosophy resonates very strongly with what I’m learning about Chinese herbal formulas. Funny, right? The philosophy is, in essence - don’t try to get savvy and creative with things until you are absolutely certain you understand the principles. This is such an unpopular idea that it’s probably hard for many people to comprehend.
But, please, learn the principles! Learn them so thoroughly that you’re loathe to leave their stead. With Dave Ramsey you learn simple principles - no credit, pay cash, focus on debt payoff and preparation for the future first, delay gratification, focus on a simple and principle focused life. He teaches a program and that program, when lived, drives the principles very deep indeed. Eventually you will run into situations that the program didn’t give you specific practices to implement - and that’s ok. Because you know the principles so well that the creativity you spontaneously exhibit is absolutely in line with the wisdom you’ve received.
The same is true of formulas, at least how I am learning them from Dr. Versluys. For the next ten or fifteen years, I will have one focus with regards to Chinese herbalism. Learn, use and seek to understand the classical formulas. This does include original modifications, modification formulas, and the basic formula combination principles that are apparent within Zhang Zhong Jing’s writing. Sometimes these formulas will be applied to situations that aren’t exactly spelled out and that’s ok. As the formulas and their language become utterly embedded in my psyche - creativity will naturally emerge. That creativity will be absolutely rooted in undeniable wisdom, it will have grown naturally, with no attempt to rush, with no worry that the basics won’t suffice.
Eric
Tags: chinese-herb, commitment, habits, Leadership, Learning, money, philosophy, versluys, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
Why does Classical Chinese Medicine seem so complicated? A continuing conversation…
Here is the second part of the article by my colleague Michael Givens. You can read the first part here. I hope we will see more of him here on Deepest Health. Please be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, as he is a regular reader of the blog and will most certainly be interested in hearing what you have to say.
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In the broad view it is simply the nature of Yin and Yang, yet it is also because Chinese medicine has had such a long fermentation process; the classical texts as we’ve understood them, present the view that I’ve described above, one of functional dynamics, but as Chinese society grew and changed, and as the West’s materialism influenced them, the lens of the Chinese doctors went through a few very important changes. This is why it is so complicated. It is not “one medicine.” Like most things in China’s history, there has been a perpetual push to maintain an umbrella called “Chinese” for all things “Chinese” but this actually barely holds together. It is the same with the Chinese language: though there is a claim that the Chinese have had the same language for thousands of years, it is not completely true. What is true is that there is a continuous thread linking the oracle bones to modern Chinese, but that does not at all mean that it is the same language. The language meaning and usage within the context of culture and understanding could not possibly be the same.
With Chinese medicine, we could really isolate the different eras and dynasties and call these “Chinese medicine periods,” and there are some very real differences among them. Yet, the reason for our program is that there is a common root. There are the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the Neijing, the Shang Han Lun, the Zang Zhong Jing, the Nan Jing, the Jia Yi Jing and the Maijing, for starters. Within these classical texts, while there are some significant differences and disagreements (even within the Neijing there are important discrepancies) it does seem that there is a common perception and worldview amongst them, a common understanding of the functional dynamism of human physiology and its correspondence to the movement of nature. However, after these texts and times, Chinese medicine becomes confusing and complicated.
This does not mean that anything written or practiced after Wangshu He in the second century CE is wrong by any means; it means that all of the formulas and treatments after this have to be carefully examined to gain any sort of understanding of the perceptions of those who created them. All Chinese scholars of all periods had a very deep and profound understanding of the classics, so in some ways we could say that what TCM (the Chinese medicine practiced and taught everywhere that has the approval of contemporary Chinese medical scholars of today) has to offer is the best of two thousand years of practice and scholarship. But, I believe we are in a better position today than that. We are in the position to broadly see how human consciousness has traversed from immaterialism to materialism, from conceptualization of process and movement, to a conceptualization of matter and physical (Western) physiology, and today, we can see how we are now reaching about as far as a materialist view can go. This allows us to move forward to a new, yet much less material understanding. Western science is also running up to this point and it appears that a subtle, yet great paradigm shift is underway. I believe classical Chinese medicine can be at the forefront of this shift.
Thus, I am advocating for the importance of not acquiring too many useful tools of TCM, but rather to push Chinese medicine further by doing what the scholars of all times have had to do. It should be each one of our responsibilities to read, study, examine, practice and experiment with what the classical texts have to offer, before we try to see what others have done with them. We should do this so that we can at the very least, understand why for instance, one scholar in Chinese history decided to modify Li Zhong Wan (a formula from the Shang Han Lun, Han Dynasty, 1st century, designed to “rectify” the spleen and “center” using the herbs: dried ginger, ginseng, atractylodes, and honey-fried licorice) and turn it into Bai Zhu Tang or the later more well known name, Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen’s Decoction: Song Dynasty, 11th century, designed to strengthen the Spleen, using the herbs: ginseng, atractylodes, poria and honey-fried licorice), which is so widely used today.
Was it because he was more evolved in his understanding? Did he have a better grasp of the human body and human diseases, or did he simply have a different understanding of it; was he, perhaps more materialistic and narrow in his understanding? The only way for us to know, despite the fact that our teachers will advocate for one or the other, is to have a specific frame of reference. Otherwise, we just have to choose one or the other and see what happens. But, I believe that we will at some point, have to define for ourselves our own understanding of what medicine does and how the body works.
Of course, this is what we have been learning while at school, but it has not been consistent. The holistic view of classical Chinese medicine is not the holistic view of TCM, though TCM claims it is. The holistic view of one teacher, for that matter is not always the holistic view of another. Yet, based on what we have learned from the classical texts, classical holism is a dynamic interplay between function and matter, internal and external, time and space. It is based on the concept that matter follows energy, and energy follows consciousness; this is what we have been taught, yet is easy to neglect. It is also essential to recall that, like (classical) Naturopathic medicine, classical Chinese medicine works primarily through helping the body (functionally, not materially) to regain balance rather than doing something to the body (supplementing materially) to re-establish balance.
The holistic view of TCM is simply that internal and external are mutually related, and that the laws of yin and yang and the five elements apply to both humans and to nature, that’s it. There certainly is the concept of functionality in TCM, but it is clear that material concepts are much more predominant, and this is seen in the way disease is treated. For us to be able to effectively evaluate the various treatments and protocols from the thousand years of fermentation, we must be able to know when they are doing something to the body and when they are communicating a functional shift within the dynamic of the whole person. We can only know this by knowing the classical understanding of physiology. We really can only know classical physiology by understanding deeply the classical theoretical principles of nature and the cosmos.
I believe that we can only foster a growth and evolution of the future of Chinese medicine through deeply assimilating our perceptions and understandings to the perceptions and understandings of the ancient scholars. We must understand our medicine from a physiological, dynamic, functional perspective that takes in to consideration space (physical and relational), time (seasonal breath and astrological changes) and direction (momentum, flow, and interrelation) to begin to understand what was intended in the Chinese medical classics. With this kind of an understanding, we can then easily evaluate classical and traditional Chinese formulas and treatments; more importantly, we will be able to develop new, yet classical methods of treating diseases, for we will be protecting the functions and warmth of life, flowing with the processes of nature, and never working against either.
Michael Givens - National College of Natural Medicine - 3rd year in Classical Chinese Medicine program
Tags: Classical Texts (general), classical-chinese-medicine, Learning, materialism, Michael Givens, scholar, study, traditional-chinese-medicine
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