In two articles, Abdallah and I have begun to lay out the foundations for a project that is, in some ways, the extension of the Year of Sagely Living. There hasn’t been much discussion generated around those two articles. There are two possible reasons for this and they both come down to our failure to express the essence of the project appropriately. I will offer two articles – one today and one tomorrow – that attempt to explain the project clearly and also highlight its importance.
First, here, I’d like to just lay out in very clear prose what it is we are proposing and, briefly, why.
Record of a journey
Blogging is, at its best, the record of some person’s (or people’s) particular way through life. Even when the blog isn’t personal, it represents a particular take on some particular aspect of the experience of living. Deepest Health has always been mostly about exploring Classical Chinese medicine from the perspective of one student, myself. In this journey, I’ve revealed my own struggles and a-ha moments. I’ve also attempted to share the knowledge I’ve gained in my schooling in an effort to make good information about Chinese medicine more available. As I grow and change, so does the blog.
I’ve walked across a threshold in my study – the threshold from theory to practice. In doing so, I’ve learned deeply the importance of rock-solid theory. More than that, I’ve learned about the inseperability of theory and practice. They inform and shape one another. One of the places where theory and practice interpenetrate for me is in the realm of Chinese medical symbolism. What I’ve learned about the symbols of Chinese medicine from a few professors, most overtly Heiner Fruehauf, is the way that Chinese medicine is actually built on a system of symbols and a method of symbolic perception and thinking that is at least somewhat alien to contemporary Western consciousness. I’ve tried to make that way of thinking and perceiving less alien for myself and, through my blog, for you.
In clinic, I don’t think that much about the Chinese medicine organ clock. But, I do think a lot about symbols. I think about the symbolism of the pulse. About how to read it, how to match it up with patient experience. I think about how the pulses are written about in Classical texts and the deep symbolic meaning present in every character. I think about the symbol of the human face, a microcosmic representation of the whole body. I consider the symbolic diagnostic methods of Worsley style five element acupuncture. I wonder about the concise descriptions of symptoms patterns in the Shang Han Lun, and begin to understand the deep symbolic nature of the characters that make up those descriptions. I see how all of my professors seek to understand this way of thinking, seek to incorporate it into their practice, despite how they feel about more overt conversations about the subject.
There is no class that can teach me how to think symbolically. There is no seminar that can rearrange your mind so you think less analytically and more holistically. There is only lived experience. There is only gentle but persistent effort. Nature and patients as teachers.
Wait, didn’t I say this was going to be clear?
Yes, yes yes… To provide a “why” for the rambling “what” above, please accept the following. I believe that by teaching myself to think symbolically, to deeply perceive the infinite richness of patients and nature and the world at large, I will gain information that will make me a better clinician. There are lots of ways to teach myself these skills. There are lots of layers to be unfolded. The project that Abdallah and I are proposing is simply to record our journey to gain this particular way of thinking and perceiving. Just as everything it will grow and change, but here are the essential elements:
So what is this going to look like?
Records of our efforts in the form of text articles : This is more of the same as far as Deepest Health is concerned. You can expect frequent reports on how our efforts are progressing. Sometimes this will come in the form of an article about a formula or an herb, something like you’ve seen here before. But, it will attempt to go deeper by incorporating multi-sensory lived experience. Sometimes it might be a new type of article that reports back on a specific experience along the lines of what I’ve described above. For instance, if one week I find myself especially attracted to understanding the Chinese medicine concept of fire, I might write an article about all of my multifaceted research on the subject. This could incorporate lines and interpretation of those lines from various Classical texts. It could incorporate my own musings about patients and myself as related to fire. It might posit connections between lines in the Classical texts, formulas that I have recently prescribed and some aspect of popular culture that makes clear some important relationship. It could involve a series of photographs around Portland as well as a recording of some firedancers on a mountaintop. Which brings me to the next point…
Multimedia integration : What we are proposing is that only by laying open ALL of our senses are we able to really understand the wisdom of the ancients. How many of us really understand the five odors and colors used in diagnosis? How many of us really understand the five flavors of herbs? This understanding is important to have on an intellectual level, of course, and textual analysis is important for that. But equally important is our lived experience of these things. Now, while we would be hard pressed to offer scents and flavors on the Internet, we can certainly talk about scents and flavors. But, what will really set this project, and ultimately this blog, apart is the inclusion of audio and visual content to help illustrate concepts.
I have been experimenting with audio and have been very impressed with the medium. I recently purchased some new equipment that will help me deliver higher quality audio to Deepest Health readers/listeners. I would love to continue to offer record of conversations, as well as music and soundscapes that illustrate particular points. Imagine the impact of not only reading an article about Shaoyang fire, but hearing audio that is evocative of this primal force and seeing photographs and drawings that seek to explore the concept further! We will offer audio as well as pictures, artwork and video. Some of it will be strictly in service of elucidating particular concepts, but also just to continue to enrich the site’s content – as with interviews, video of my talking head, and so on.
Some of what we put forward may be pure folly! You may watch a particular video, hear an audio, or read an article and think : By jove, they’ve gone off the deep end! And that’s when audience participation comes in. We want lively conversation! We want response! Further, as we explore the project you may find that you hear, see, smell and feel things that go along with (or contradict) what we are putting forward. We’ll post it! Put it forward! Let us create a living database of information that goes beyond the simple recounting of TCM textbooks. The future of Chinese medicine on the Internet, no less! :) But, it is important to note that for me, the Classical texts are the ground from which all I think about springs and ultimately it is what I want to keep connected to at all times. I believe this will help us from going too far afield, proposing theories and ideas that are radically disconnected from the thousands of years of clinical experience that we are fortunate to have access to as students and practitioners.
I hope this helps explain what we’re after. More to come.
Tags: content, study, video, patterns, The Project, Blogging, nature, internet
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Eric, You and Abdallah have challenged me to think about my own writing about Chinese Medicine. I am essentially story-telling, and I use some of the same techniques as fiction writers to bring the reader into a sensed and emotional experience. This genre has a name. It’s called Creative Nonfiction. I see my world through a meridian lens, thus my creative nonfiction is steeped in the symbolism of meridian medicine. But the symbolism itself is not the point of the story. If there is a point perhaps I have been too simplistic. All of which is to say, if I start with an idea of what I am going to say, I will have to follow a reasonable path to get there, which I can’t pull off without boring myself silly and sounding like a pedantic talking head. On the other hand, if I start with some experience, something small and real and precise–like the red dots on my tongue in my last post–then the connections tease themselves out as I go, sometimes quite slowly.
I think you and Abdallah have been clear in this and other posts that you want your writing about CM to reflect the deep, multilayered, contextual intelligence which characterizes the fabric of Chinese medical thinking, and that you want to integrate life and work and symbolism into a written text that reflects all these interlacing aspects of experience. That’s a very rational intention. I wonder if the craft of writing in that way is as rational as your intention to do it.
You mentioned here that the lack of discussion could be related to a lack of clarity, but I don’t think so. You’ve laid out your intentions, and charted the territory you hope to cover on your journey. Now we’re like the kids in the back seat waiting for their parents to pull out of the driveway and embark on an adventure that has been planned carefully and now simply must begin! I am really looking forward to what emerges for you. You are refreshingly earnest.
Julie
Yes Julie you have said what I was thinking, just waiting to start the journey and see where we go. Barbara
Julie,
I have not thought of this as a type of creative nonfiction. That’s an interesting point. But I do know that I am more alive today than yesterday. My senses are keener, my feelings are clearer, I am more perspicacious. The writing is incidental; the sensory awareness is the objective for me. About a month ago, while lecturing for the third time in two weeks on the subject of Dr. Shen’s herbal formulas, they were suddenly laid open for my understanding. Words failed. But there I was talking, and reaching, and every utterance took me deeper. From that time, almost everything has been spherical for me. So I am not seeing symptoms, but stories. There is no dichotomy between the symbol and the reality. I think that is what we often miss: direct apprehension of the unity of the sign and the signified. Does that make any sense? For example, Unschuld has coined this term “system of correspondences” but my contention is that it’s beyond a system and a correspondence: but what is required is as direct as possible an apprehension of reality on multiple levels simultaneously, and to make moving into that mode of perception as natural as a baby crawling into his mother’s lap. I’m not claiming to be there. And I am further from the ability to articulate it.
Abdallah
Hi Abdallah, Wow! That makes a lot of sense and I find it extremely unfortunate that I wasn’t sitting in that lecture in which your perception became spherical and your understanding crossed the not-really-there-chasm between reality and symbol! That sort of transcendent moment is most definitely more to the point than the writing itself. For me, however, the craft of writing can put me in that spherically enhanced state of awareness and compassion.
So does full sensory engagement in the craft of acupuncture–feeling the pulses and meridians, meeting Qi with a needle and having a conversation with it… .
As for Unschuld’s system of correspondences, I agree that the term implies an organization of the world based on rationally related categories (correspondences). It is a good way to think about things rationally, but it doesn’t kick-start a change in my consciousness by which I resonate with, see, feel and comprehend the spherical, sensory, multilayered tonality of a manifested symbol. I often use the term “field of resonance” when interpreting to my clients the 5-phase correspondences that ties their particular symptoms, signs and energetic habits into a manifest symbol. Different symbols resonate differently. If one can access the vibrational frequency of a particular symbol, that resonance (symbol) becomes the door through which we walk towards healing. In this way symbols are archetypal energies which have the power to move us in precise directions. Does that make sense? Thank you for initiating this discussion! Julie
Julie
Yes! Resonance works for me as a description. We’re searching for ways to say, and do, the same thing. I know it. And so are many others out there lucky enough to do the work that we do. Symbols as energies that move us articulates it well. Thanks go to you for initiating this dialogue. And in fact, the posts are almost just the draw to get us to this point, God willing.
Abdallah
Hey! I found this site using a Google search and I’m so glad I did. I have always been fascinated with Chinese culture and medicine. Your site is so informative and I’ll be sure to check back.
Hello everyone,
I concur with everyone. the holistic nature of chinese medicine allows for many interpretations because of its symbolism, which is good. otherwise without its dynamic qualities, it would not last the influences of time. methods and medium for interpretations are unique to the observer, and therefore shall reflect the lens of the observer, be it chaotic or structured. as far as i’m concerned, i’m truly enjoying the experience of Sagely Living, the guidelines prove effective, concise and clear.
my salty take home message: let it be. let it become. we are the fruits of your labor, oh, great Eric Grey and Abdallah, allow us to grow weedy and strong… you’ve embodied us with profound principles.
:-)
Kimberly Ann
… a humble thank you at that.
KA,
You are too kind – I’m happy to see your continued walk along the YSL path. Your articles are always a delight to read. See you soon,
e
So a new life has been infused into Deepest Health all of a sudden, and I am re-reading old posts, more alive to the Awareness Project, more aware of the implications, and more embraced by the culture that will make it a reality. Portland is the epicenter of a movement, and long may Deepest Health be at the leading edge.
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