Quite some time ago, before the changes that are currently sweeping Deepest Health, I promised that I would discuss an “herb learning method” and eventually develop it into a course of some kind.  Well, those wheels are turning again.  You can already get a basic report about the first stages of the method by signing up for our newsletter.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll unpack some more advanced pieces of the method – including some application.  We’re getting closer to the point where I can release a fuller version of the method.

First, I want to refresh your memory with some basic background material.  I think about herbs in a similar way as I think about people.  They have names, faces, general personalities.  They have families, friends, favorite activities.  They like certain climates and not others.  They have jobs and hobbies.  If you really want to get to know a person – you are going to have to access a broad slice of their life.  The same is true of herbs.

What happens when we understand a person more deeply?

Well, for one, you reap great personal benefits from these kinds of relationships. It’s a personal benefit – close human friendships can be the difference between having a long, happy life and a shorter, more stressful one.  I honestly think the same is true of my relationships with herbs.  Certainly it’s a different kind of relationship, but it does have that kind of benefit.  It is, of course, also beneficial for your patients.  When you understand the herbs deeply – you prescribe with more accuracy and shooting for a deeper level of pathology.  You’re a better practitioner, in short.

In the Family

Those of you who have a significant other know that you learn quite a bit about that person by hanging out with their family.  The same is true of herbs, though certainly for different reasons.  I’m not talking ONLY about plant families from a Western botanical perspective, though I’m including that as well.  To learn the family life of an herb deeply you need to look into:

1. Western botanical herb family
2. TCM herb category
3. Shennong Bencao Jing herbal class
4. Related to #3, a family based on the broad “plant/animal/mineral” distinction and the specific part within it

Let’s look at these in turn, using an example – the seldom mentioned herb Xuan Fu Hua / Inula / 旋覆花.

Western botanical information

Inula (either japonica or brittanica) is a member of the Asteraceae family – a family it shares with sunflowers, goldenrod, dandelions among many others. It is a largely herbaceous family, without trees or significant  numbers of climbing and vining plants.  Now, I should note right now that I’m not a botanist, and while I do have a science background, this kind of information always sort of baffled me.  That’s why I’m so happy to be an herbalist – it gives me an excuse to learn this information as deeply as I please.

Now there is a ton of information we can find out about the species itself, and that’s definitely part of the method.  But here, we are largely concerned with the group that the plant is associated with – its family.  One interesting thing about this group of plants is that what looks like a single flower (the yellow mass in the middle) is actually a packed together bunch of little flowers – a composite flower head.

There is a ton of information we could get into with this family – but one of the most simple and common observations is how these flowers look much like a representation of the sun.  Sunflowers, dandelions and many of the members of this family all have a sunny disposition and thrive in sunny locales.

What does this tell us about Xuanfuhua?

Well – the association with the sun can certainly get us thinking.  There must be some kind 0f Yang affiliation, perhaps a Fire association.  Now, in some cases, the information we get from family is going to seem to contradict what we commonly know about the herb, or simply seem irrelevant.  I’m going to suggest that this is almost never the case.

In Xuanfuhua’s case, we don’t need to dig too far to help us find some confirmation for this information.  In the Tang Ye Jing, Xuanfuhua is considered to be the “fire herb of the fire class.”  In other words, it is the ultimate exemplar of fire within the 25 herbs mentioned in this text.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with this text, we’ll discuss it in more detail in the future.

So, in my opinion, we need to think about Xuanfuhua a little differently in light of this information.  While it is commonly thought of as an herb that deals with phlegm and counterflow, perhaps we understand this function in a slightly different way knowing of it’s strong sun, Yang and Fire associations.  Perhaps we even start to expand our understanding of the herb – can you think of some unique uses, or some more advanced understanding, that might transform the way you use this herb in clinical practice?

We don’t have space in this short article to go through the example with each of the four family categories above, but I will provide a brief description of each…

TCM herb category

This is a family of another kind – an affinity group bound by basic effect.  Now, there’s information to be gained by diving deeply into the TCM category, but here we’re looking at the similarities in herbs within that family.  It can also be instructive if we find differences.  That tells us something about the herb, but also something about the ultimate utility of this method of categorization.

Shennong Bencao Jing herbal class

Now, obviously, this is only going to work for herbs that are actually contained in this text.  However, I think it’s pretty interesting to look at which herbs are put together within the SNBCJ.  This goes both for the categorization of upper, middle and lower class herbs as well as the various plant, mineral and animal classifications.  As an early record, perhaps more influenced by the Shamanic traditions in use at the time, the SNBCJ categorizes herbs in a different way than, say, TCM categories.

Layperson family classification

Is the herb animal, plant or mineral?  Within that categorization, what part of the plant (or whatever) is the herb in question?  In the case of Xuanfuhua, we are discussing the flower of an herbaceous plant.  What can we say about flowers, in general?  These are the kind of questions we ask as we examine this “family.”

Join me next week as we unpack another piece of this relational herb learning method.  Thanks for reading.

The relational method of learning Chinese herbs : herb families

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Just a quick post to let you know about some changes on the site.  I’ll be updating you with a few more short posts in the coming days, and probably intermittently for several months.  Just showing you around the new digs!

I’ve done something that I was a bit frightened to do - I actually put some of my thoughts down on (electronic) paper and packaged it up for public consumption.  That may sound funny – obviously I do that all the time in blog entries.  But, there’s something very DIFFERENT about doing it as a PDF – something that someone can easily take away, share, and read in 20 years (!) if they so choose.

I’ve made this report free – with one caveat.  I want folks to sign up for our new, free Chinese medicine focused newsletter. To get the report, and sign up for our free newsletter – just fill out your name and email address in the form clearly visible in the sidebar.  If you read the blog via RSS or email, just navigate to our main page to check it out (http://deepesthealth.com).  We absolutely promise your information will never be shared with a third party, and you can unsubscribe easily at any time.

The newsletter will come out once or twice a month, maybe weekly during particularly productive times.  We’re working on making it as high value as possible – containing important site updates, round-ups of old posts and interesting links, as well as at least one high quality article about a topic in Chinese medicine that you won’t find anywhere else.  We’re focusing on LEARNING the medicine in our newsletter – so the articles will be helpful for those of you who are in school, or who are eternal students – like me.

I’m going to make the second part of this report sometime in June – the more advanced skill set with plenty of commentary and examples.  I’ll let you know when it’s ready for download.

The more advanced version will come with a (very reasonable) price tag. You’re going to see more and more of our own products coming out.  We’re still going to be providing plenty of free content, but we’re trying to find a model that can help us to fund further research and innovation that doesn’t rely on pitching tons of other companies’ products or plastering the site with advertising.

By the way – web visitors will notice we’ve taken down a bunch of the advertising from the site. We plan to phase out all of the Google advertising by the end of June.  From then on, the only products that will be presented on the site will be our own or those of people that we know and trust.  Hopefully, you will all enjoy that change.

There have been a number of cosmetic changes to the site (sorry it’s a bit boring at the moment), and those changes are going to continue.  We’re also going to expand the resources section, add a forum, and much more.  It’s probably going to take the whole summer and a chunk of the Fall for the major wave of improvements to be completed – but it will be worth it.

Onward! (And hey – sign up for the newsletter and get your free report – tell me what you think!)

Eric

The Essential Herb Learning report – and the Deepest Health newsletter

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Sure, we all do. I’ve talked about various business topics on Deepest Health. I’ve made some recommendations about books, websites and even courses that might get you closer to your goal of having a vital, abundant Chinese medicine practice. I’ve consumed at least twenty times more content than I’ve recommended – putting only the best and brightest out there for you all to see. I like to think some of these recommendations have been helpful!

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is take what I’ve learned so far about business and feed it into some kind of natural medicine specific business course. I like specialists – I like people who have experience in the particular field I find myself in. I’ve even got some pretty detailed outlines about what I’d like to see in a course like that. It’s just all about finding the time to build the infrastructure and polish the content, not to mention promote it, maintain it, and so on. Just thinking about all that work makes me a little tired, I must admit. :)

Fortunately, I can relax a bit. Someone has beat me to the punch, creating pretty much the same course I would like to have created! My friend Brooke Thomas is about to open enrollment on a practice building course that I believe will be well worth your time and money. I’ve read Brooke’s work and had numerous conversations with her about her experience and her strategies.

I think what she has to offer will be of great benefit to many of you – I’d say particularly to those of you in your final year of practice and those who are just getting their practices together. However, more education is always helpful – and I find that I always learn something from my conversations with Brooke – regardless of where I’ve been in my process. I really enjoyed her free ebook, for example – which is still available by following this link.

I want to offer her own words, first posted on her blog, about what drove her to create this course.

“I recently received an email from an acupuncturist where she told me about how her school constantly repeated the mantra, “In 5 years, 50% of you won’t be working as acupuncturists anymore” to the students. That is all. They never followed that sentence with one that started, “so here’s how you can avoid being a part of that 50%…” Gee thanks guys, the future’s feeling pretty bright now! Here’s my tuition check- or shall I just flush it down the toilet!? To the schools I would like to respectfully say: Don’t take our money, put us through your schools, tell us how we’ll likely fail, and then send us out into the world with no attention paid at all to how we might avoid becoming the aforementioned statistic.

What is wrong with this picture? Why are they such defeatists? What do they think the awful statistics are about? That people who studied acupuncture don’t actually care about acupuncture? That acupuncture doesn’t actually have much to offer people? That they tend to have lazy or flaky graduates? Or could it maybe, just possibly, be because people who love what they do and are committed to sharing it with the world enter that whole private practice thing with little to no idea of how to do that successfully? Maybe? Ya think? Ok, rant over.

AND SO…

In general I find that complaining about what other people should be doing is an ineffective strategy for creating positive change. I can’t really think of many times that straight up complaining got anyone very far. Imagine if Rosa Parks only complained loudly and ceaselessly amongst her friends about how unjust sitting in the back of the bus was, without ever plopping herself in the front of that bus and thereby claiming her own power to make a change? The former strategy wasn’t likely to change history. The latter? Pretty effective.

Ok, so I’m no Rosa Parks. I think that’s fairly obvious. However, because of my own experience of struggling through my first three years in practice and then falling in love with practice building (no one is more surprised than me…) there does happen to be one thing I can do to make some change. I figure if I can pass on the tools and create a place for a supportive community of complementary and alternative medicine providers to gather, then maybe we’ve got a shot at changing the lame statistics. And if we change the lame statistics, then we’ll have a lot more practitioners around and a lot more people getting the help they need.

And so I built Practice Abundance. It’s the result of nearly ten years in practice, starting three practices from scratch, one ebook, one mega manuscript for a printed book, a year and a half blogging about practice building, and lots of conversations with practitioners who felt just as helpless and hopeless as I did when I was starting out. I designed it to be the FULL course that our schools left out, coupled with community warmth and support.”

It seems like Brooke has done all the work necessary to provide that basic, focused business (and marketing!) course that all of our schools should provide – but often don’t.

If any of this speaks to you, I suggest you head over to the early notification list sign-up page.  This won’t obligate you to any purchase, but just get you on the list so you can be informed when the course opens for enrollment (March 17-20th). It will also allow you the chance to learn more about the course over the coming days. The “sneak peek” page, linked to on that sign-up page, will show you the information she’s already sent out on the list. Lots of helpful information, including the complete course outline.

** The links to the sign up page are affiliate links – if you end up joining the course, I’ll get a little kick-back. I hope this won’t dissuade you from signing up if you are interested. These little drips of money help me keep Deepest Health running and I still don’t recommend anything I wouldn’t use myself. Seriously.

Do you need help building the practice of your dreams?

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I’ve been working with students explicitly for about a year now, teaching at NCNM. I think I will be continuing to do this, as the activity suits me and it also forces me to keep studying. I find that I want to teach about learning a lot, even though I do like teaching about herbs and other explicitly Chinese medicine related concepts. I think this is because while there are a lot of ways to get information about herbs and Chinese herbal traditions, there aren’t a lot of people talking about learning.

My students seem hungry for guidance, reassurance and anecdotes related to my path in learning Chinese medicine. When I look at the most popular posts on this blog, they are posts that point to that layer of experience. Thinking on this, I realize that there’s just not a lot of resources out there for people who want to learn about learning. In college, you may end up in some basic “study skills” course, and then are asked to seek out “tutoring” if you are having trouble absorbing the material. The same essential approach is in operation at NCNM, and likely at most schools around the country. While nobody ever teaches anyone how to learn most effectively, we’re all expected to know it, and if we don’t – we’re remedial.

So, we look for others’ stories. We listen to how people we admire learned things. When that information is not divulged readily, students will ask for it. But only if they get the sense that there is a willingness to discuss this all-important topic. I hope to make myself ready to take those questions, I hope to give stories that are helpful.

A student recently expressed frustration at their progress in learning Classical Chinese medicine. This is a first year student, very bright, with the world of Chinese medicine absolutely open and available to him. The problem he is having is similar to one I experienced as a first-year student. Simply, there’s just too much to learn. There is a seemingly endless field of modalities, philosophies, skills, bodies of knowledge – with a concurrently endless pit of internal work to be done. How to do this in four years? How to do this in a way that sets one up for future study, that opens one to a lifetime of deep, real Chinese medicine learning. It’s a painful question, and I empathized deeply with the student ask he spoke with me.

As we talked, I was reminded of a number of students who have spoken with me about similar topics over the last year. There seems to be a basic confusion about the whole process of learning. I’ve read a lot of texts and had a lot of experiences that might help clarify the confusion, but I haven’t been able to distill a simple message that I can communicate to people asking these types of questions. I’m still working on it. However, re-reading one of my favorite books, Wake Up To Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention (Ken McLeod) I ran across a very useful distinction that, I think, speaks to this issue.

In the book (p 59), Ken is discussing the problems that arise when people are beginning a formal meditation practice. In instructing his own students, he tries to orient them around a fourfold understanding:

1. The purpose of the practice : this is why we do what we do
2. The method of the practice : this is what we do to to achieve that purpose
3. The effects of the practice : these are experiences that arise in the day to day effort of practicing the method
4. The results of the practice : these are the long-term achievements that come about through diligent practice of the method – despite some days of negative results

He uses the example of running for exercise to illustrate his point. But one could just as easily apply it to learning Chinese medicine. To be fair, the topic “learning Chinese medicine” is much too broad (and thus part of the frustration I’m seeing in students) so let’s restrict it a bit.

Let’s say I am an aspiring (and/or practicing) herbalist. Let’s say that I have discovered that the essence of learning herbalism is to take the time to deeply know herbs – using a method that my teacher has revealed to me. This method consists of walking through several levels of understanding, beginning with direct sensory perception, progressing through ascertaining “community data” as present in texts like Bensky, through coming to understand these herbs in relationship to other herbs (in formulas and combinations) and all the way to seeing the effects of these herbs on patients.

The purpose of this method is to become an excellent herbalist. To be an excellent herbalist means to be able to prescribe Chinese herbal formulas in a way that is efficient, effective and satisfies some internally derived standard of achievement. That is just one way of describing excellence, surely it has some variation from person to person – but being relatively efficient (thus not taking 10 hours to write a formulas) and definitely effective (the sky’s the limit here) must be present.

So, the purpose and the method are established. It’s the final two elements where things get sticky.

If you sit down to use this method, you’re going to have good days and bad days. Sometimes the Qi is going to flow, you’re going to effortlessly know an herb and feel naturally excited about herbalism and your ability to practice Chinese medicine. Other times it’s going to feel boring, contrived, pointless and you will feel insecure about your student loans, your family’s perception of what you’re doing and your impending entry into clinic. These are the effects of practicing the method – sometimes great effects, sometimes not so great. But one MUST NOT confuse these ups and downs for the RESULTS of practicing the method. You’re not as incredible as you think on your good days, and certainly not as hopeless as you think on the bad ones.

Look at your progress over time. The results are an increasing mastery of the various aspects of herbalism, increasing ability to place your attention on the study at hand and an overall rising in your confidence with regards to Chinese medicine. Being aware that this is a process, that the effects from day to day are not reflective of the overall RESULTS, will do a lot to help you maintain some level of sanity as you learn. Another thing I like about this model is that it places attention on the need for a clear purpose and an overt method. The former doesn’t need to be the same as someone else’s and the latter doesn’t need to be set in stone. But YOU need to be clear about YOUR purpose, YOUR method.

I guess, overall, I think all four elements are deficient in me and my students. I think they’re pretty deficient in our culture overall. So, spend some time thinking about this. With regards to your learning of Chinese medicine (whether you are a brand new student or a long-term practitioner or anything in between) ask yourself:

1. What is my purpose? It’s probably best to restrict this to specific areas of learning – but it may be helpful for some people to have one, overarching purpose. Probably you will have several nesting sets. Write them down.
2. What is my method? Perhaps it has been taught to you. Perhaps you have to build one yourself – just try something, test it out, and refine it. It could be as simple as “Memorize and recall 5 formulas a day,” or as complicated as the herbal learning method I hinted at above. Perhaps it relies on learning Chinese and slowly translating Classical texts. More than anything, I want to emphasize that your professors are PROBABLY NOT GIVING YOU A METHOD. So don’t rely on them to do so. It’s just not the way things are, now.
3. What are the effects I experience? It might be helpful to keep a practice diary. Note the good days, the bad days, and the variations. Be very careful not to become too attached to any one particular practice session. Do your practice, and go on with your life.
4. What are the expected and realized results of practice? If you don’t have a teacher to help you figure out the results, again, you may need to posit some yourself. Where do you expect to be in a year, in two? In four? In ten? Who are your models? As you go, be as objective as possible in assessing your progress. Are you seeing results? Why or why not?

I’d love to hear from folks about their purpose, method, effects and results. This is a pretty raw blog post, I just pumped it out here after doing my daily reading. Do you see problems with what I’m saying? What are they? I always welcome opportunities to refine my own thinking!

Frustrations on the path to Chinese medicine mastery

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I have a feeling I’m going to get in trouble for my teaching. It’s not that I’m that revolutionary, or that I really even know that much more than my students. It’s just that my fundamental orientation towards the universe is to be always, always asking questions. I don’t always need to let those questions come out of my mouth (undergrad philosophy students, take notice!) but they are always in there. In particular, I tend to question fundamentals. Fundamentals, here, are those basic concepts that act as building blocks for entire edifices of knowledge. Fundamentals, here, are also those things that people most often tend to take for granted.  

It’s just the philosopher in me, some might say. But, I could just have easily learned the habit in my work in a microbiology lab in my undergrad years. Or in my work as a forest ranger. Or in my all-important work as a father. I think almost any situation can be helped by a willingness to ask very simple, very essential, very difficult questions with a willingness to be surprised. The clarity of thought that can emerge from such investigations is worth the effort. It is effort, though, there’s no doubt.

So, what are these trouble-making lectures I’m giving? Well, I probably inflate myself unnecessarily. Some of it is just introducing the students to interesting concepts at an early stage – such as the flavor/element combinations introduced in the “lost” Yiyin Tangye Jing (伊尹湯液經). I’m assuming that a number of you have already read the eye-opening article by Wang Shumin, found in the book Medieval Chinese Medicine: The Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts after her extensive research into the remnants of the text found in the Dunhuang caves. While it’s not instigating trouble as such, I do think that being forced to consider these things makes the students more inquisitive, and more likely to think deeply about what they are learning in other classes. But, again, maybe I am congratulating myself a little too quickly.

If not, and if you’re not familiar with the text at all, the essence is this : twenty five herbs are categorized according to the five elements. This would be cool enough, particularly given that the text was likely referenced by Zhang Zhongjing in his writing. What an insight into the construction of Han dynasty formulas! But the herbs are also given flavors, some contradictory to those we know in modern times and the flavors are in turn related to the five elements in a unique way.

• You know wood as being affiliated with sour. In the Tangye – it’s affiliated with pungent. Think of the spreading action of wood, its reaching and movement and activity.
• You know fire as being affiliated with bitter. In the Tangye – it’s affiliated with salty. What is softer than fire? And what better to soften than salt?
• You know earth as being affiliated with sweet. Ok, no changes there.
• You know metal as being affilated with pungent. Perhaps predictably, the Tangye talks about sour instead. Think about the condensing and gathering power of sour, and the condensed and gathered nature of metal.
• You know water as being affiliated with salty. Bitter anyone? Bitter is a downward draining flavor, one that is almost universally associated with cooling and making things more dense for their eventual expulsion. That is fitting for water, our “lower” (but Northern!) element, and while not condensed as such – is certainly the coolest of our elements.

Anyway – in class we have been making use of these flavors as we work with our senses to understand herbs. I’m learning, of course, just as much as they are – it’s a wonderful journey so far.

One thing I’ve noticed, and something I continually impress upon my students, is the importance of keeping within categories – at least at first. Let me explain, briefly. Consider a spectrum. On the left side, you have the world of ideas, of Form (in the Platonic sense) and of the Universal. Moving rightward you have the constellations, stars, planetary motions. Further finds you looking at the Earth, the weather patterns, moving on to flora and fauna. Getting still more focused we find the human being, but considered as a whole, and organ systems considered in their symbolic totality. Going further right, we have specific physiology of organ systems (generation of Qi and so forth) and even getting a little more narrow to consider biochemistry, genetics. Finally, we have pathology and the specifics of what goes wrong, when and why. It’s a kind of focusing down to the smallest thing, and represents for me my process of clinical focus (whether bottom up or top down).

When I’m trying to think through something, like the flavor/element relationships in the Tangye Jing, I try to stay in a narrow part on the spectrum. So, for instance, I tried to stay on a more symbolic level in my explanation above. I was talking about the elements as they show up on Earth, but not really within the human body. They’re still in the realm of ideas. I think I would be speaking less clearly if for wood and fire I talked about pathology, and for earth I talked about physiology, and for metal I talked about the world of Form and Idea and for water I discussed the Kidney. I see that kind of thing a lot, and it sort of confuses me.

What do you think? Am I being unnecessarily narrow? I think it’s, at least, been a useful teaching tool. Maybe one of my students will speak up and debunk me. Have no fear, dear students! In the true Socratic spirit, I encourage you to assassinate me!

Eric

These symbols are meant to be questioned (they just don’t often give clear answers)

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Hey everyone,

Well, the winter holidays are upon us here in the Northern hemisphere. For those of you in school, that means you’ve probably got some free time coming up. Why not use some of that to get going on the honorable project of learning to read classical texts of Chinese medicine? Sounds like fun to me. I wrote recently about a special deal for Deepest Health readers on a bundle of two books – Richard Goodman’s Classical Chinese Medicine Texts. These are great books for learners, ideally set up to take complete newbies through the steps of picking up critical language skills.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will be heading up an online study group around the texts. We will work through a Google Group and have weekly “assignments” and discussions, and even try to put together a hosted chat every now and again. The hope is that by going through the books as a group, we will be better able to commit to learning, and have a group of people to help us work through particular challenges. Goodman has even offered to be a part of the group, in whatever capacity the group wants him to be. If you are interested in joining up with the group, please send an email through the contact form letting me know. You will need both books and a willingness to participate on at least a weekly basis. It should be a wonderful experience.

Now, I have a treat for everyone. Richard Goodman agreed to a short interview about his books, learning Classical Chinese and even some tips for aspiring writers in our field. Hopefully, this information will be useful, but will also convince you that learning Classical Chinese is worth doing, and worth doing now! Get the books, and join the group!

—-

Deepest Health (DH): What is the biggest impediment for English speakers in learning to read Classical chinese?

Richard Goodman (RG): “Every aspect of Chinese, and especially classical Chinese, is different from English. From learning and memorizing characters to grappling with a grammar that has no tense, much of what we encounter in Chinese is difficult to understand. When I was finally at the stage that I could start approaching classical Chinese medical texts, I was overwhelmed-where does one begin? The vast number of medical books written before the 20^th century is alone enough to scare people away. This combination of learning a language that is different in every way from English with the sheer volume of classical texts available overwhelms people and even the most well intentioned people never begin.”

DH: How do your books help folks with that?

“My overall goal was to address as many of the frustrations I had in my own studies as I could in one series of books. The two I mentioned were two of my biggest frustrations and I addressed this first by just selecting texts that are fairly easy for beginners. Volume One starts out very slowly and builds very purposefully on the characters and grammar already taught. In both Volumes One and Two, 95% of the characters will be found in every medical text. I didn’t want any “filler” or terms that were rarely found. I was never trying to “wow” readers with impressive texts, but instead made language learning the priority. This does not take away all of the difficulty in learning Chinese, but learning slowly and building upon an ever increasing vocabulary makes the task seem a bit less daunting.”

“One thing I have heard from people over and over is that they did not feel overwhelmed by these books, and that is satisfying to hear because that was definitely one of my goals. Learners need confidence and they need it quickly.”

DH: Have you seen real clinical impact when people learn to read the classical Chinese medical texts? Why do you think this is?

“I think this very much depends on the type of practitioner one is when they begin to study classical texts. If one practices in a way that relies upon starting with a disease, moving on to its standardized differentiation, and then giving the formula and point prescriptions based upon that, that type of practitioner will not find classical texts clinically useful. There are virtually no classical texts that proceed in that way, which is why I suspect most people read translations of the classics and then decide learning to read classical texts is no longer relevant to modern day practice.”

“For practitioners who rely on understanding the underlying theories of Chinese medicine to treat patients, the classics are a treasure trove of information. Even rudimentary concepts like Qi, yin and yang, and the five phases are used to describe healthy and ill states with a depth that is quite astounding and much more refined than anything I have seen in English. I personally never had a really firm grasp on these basic ideas until I began reading them in the context they were originally discussed.”

“A lot of practical information also exists in the classics. For example, my views on pulse examination have transformed many times over by reading classical authors’ methods. Just one practical example is the relationship between the breath and the pulse. Most modern books teach us to use a watch, but rapid and slow pulses are determined in relationship to the number of times the pulse moves per breath. This changes the pulse dynamic considerably, leaving the focus entirely on the patient. Additionally, the terms for the pulses make much more sense to me in Chinese and the translations, such as slippery or choppy, do not really capture the image. Having access to all of the more detailed information on virtually every aspect of Chinese medicine, from prescriptions to diagnosis, will most certainly create a more refined practitioner.”

DH: Do you plan to write more books on the topic?

“There will be one final volume in this series which will focus more on herbal texts and their theories. I have already selected all of the texts and I expect that book to be available by early 2010.

I have already started working on what I am currently calling “learners’ editions” of the classics. That seems to me to be the next logical step so that people can continue studying while also tackling entire books. These will not be translations per se, but people who are not interested in learning the language could still use them as such. All together, I have about 10 books planned to come out over the next two years and all of them are related to Chinese classics and language.”

DH: What advice do you have for people in the field looking to write books? Any sagely advice? Tips and tricks? Things to avoid?

“I think the best advice I can give is simply do not try to force a book out of yourself. Everyone is different and I can really only share my own experience. I never really had the intention of writing books at this stage of my life and I just kind of fell into it. I found work as an editor at a publishing company to support myself while I studied Chinese. As my Chinese got better, I was moved to their Chinese language department and started translating Chinese language textbooks.”

“After editing what was probably hundreds of language teaching books, I got a real sense for what worked and what didn’t. My life circumstances were such that this series was just a natural extension of what I had been doing for the past five years. This is not to say that there weren’t times I struggled with the writing, but the idea and outline was very easy to come up with. Just write what you know and ask for help from others once you have something written—no one can write a book alone. “

Let’s learn Classical Chinese together : encouragement and an interview with Richard Goodman

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I have to admit to some weirdness around the concept of “constitution.” This is absolutely unfounded, I have no clinical or theoretical information to back up my feeling. I think I’ve just seen this concept be misused. Once you get an idea in your head that a patient is a “Chaihu person,” or a “Bladder CF,” or a “Shaoyang patient,” it seems to be a little difficult to think outside that box. It offends my desire to meet the patient where they are without preconceptions.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I realize that this is part of what WE DO in Chinese medicine in particular and natural medicine in general. We look at the gestalt of the patient, and we make a helpful generalization about their condition and the treatment that is likely to rectify it. We look into past and future and consider how the patient came to be where they are and where they might be going, and treat them based on all of this information. I have no problem with that. But, I find myself a little worried when I persistently think about a person as, say, a “Chaihu” person, even before they come in – and use that lens to view whatever it is they might be presenting with in the current moment.

Before you click on the comment button prematurely – know that this is an attitude that is changing for me. The more patients I see, the more I see really weird cases. These cases involve patients who present with a certain picture that so strongly speaks to a particular treatment strategy but for whom that treatment strategy does not work. Searching for a remedy usually guides me in a very unexpected direction. In retrospect, looking through the patient’s case, I usually see a certain pattern emerge.

Here’s an example from my time in the student clinic.

A patient presenting with very serious symptoms (serious blood stasis, ongoing memory loss, digestive chaos, emotional instability and more) also had a *very* excess pulse – pounding, tight and wiry at all depths with some choppiness throughout. A dong (flicking bean) pulse was found on both sides between the first and second positions. A lot of stasis in the tongue. The supervising doctor and I discussed the case for a while, trying to seek out the best formula. For the next six or eight weeks, we used some variation of Taohe Chengqi Tang + Zhishi Xiebai Guizhi Tang with some incorporation of Guizhi Fuling Wan. We wanted to treat the most excess, the most “outward” of the symptom picture first.

As the treatment progressed, however, it… uh, didn’t. The patient’s symptoms didn’t lessen much, the pulse picture didn’t change. We decided to work from another direction. Following the recommendation from one of my mentors, I used a modification of Shenqi Wan with some additional blood movement incorporated. The patient found almost immediate improvement and continued to improve for the next several months. Later acute episodes found us changing our formula strategy a bit, but Fuzi has always been involved and when the Fuzi is removed, the patient worsens.

Now part of this is just my clinical immaturity and maybe my inability to see signs that, for a more experienced practitioner, would seem obvious. I’m sure there are several of you in the audience shaking your heads sagely – ah yes, of course, Fuzi. But, one could easily see something about “constitution” in this case. I’ve had similar experiences otherwise. It’s not always obvious in the pulse, it’s not always clear in the history, but when you go with it – improvement is found on all levels.

There doesn’t seem to be something that binds these cases together in every case. For instance, I am in no way convinced that if a different person with a similar presentation as above were to come to the clinic that I would be able to resolve their situation in the same way. But, I may be able to look at this person and – over time – learn some basic characteristics that help me to identify patients who might need this approach… this is, to me, constitution.
I’ve been reading the Classicalformulas.com blog over the last couple of months, though I have not yet read the book “10 Formula Families.” I’ve recently requested it on Interlibrary Loan and will review it as soon as I am able. Anyway – a recent post got me thinking about the constitution question again : http://classicformulas.com/constitutin-formula-scope/ . Has anyone read this book yet? Find it valuable? Definitely leave your impressions in the comments.

I’m wondering about others’ experience with constitution, or similar concepts. Have you seen a constitutional approach be crucial in your success with patients? Have you seen problems with the approach? If so, what were they? How did you resolve them? Where is the classical support for this method? What have you been learning in your classes and seminars about constitution? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

—–

Site updates : Please notice the “Follow Me” tab on the left side of your screen. If you’re on Twitter and don’t already follow me – you can click that button to read my tweets. You can also check out the Twitter feed for my clinic, which is in some ways more tightly focused on Chinese medicine, but intended primarily for patients. Finally, please consider joining the burgeoning Classical Chinese language online study group, mentioned in my prior post about Richard Goodman’s fine texts. If you are interested, please contact me sooner rather than later. It should be a good time!

By the way – If you’re confused about Twitter and Social media in general, I’ve got some excellent beginners information for you. Links to some incredible, simple instructional videos. Definitely watch these in a place where you can listen to the audio.

• About social media in general : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE
• About Twitter in particular : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

The concept of constitution in Chinese herbal medicine

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I’ve been a little slow out of the gate with this one, folks, and I’m sorry about that. Richard Goodman, author of the excellent Classical Chinese Medical Texts: Learning to Read the Classics of Chinese Medicine Vol I has released Volume II of the series! I have to say that I have never encountered a clearer, more enriching text about Chinese language anywhere. For those of us who don’t have easy access to someone to teach us classical Chinese in person, this text is a great resource. Even if you are already learning Chinese (modern or classical) you will find tremendous benefit in the book.   

As I’ve discussed in many places, I believe that learning to read the Classical texts of Chinese medicine is one of the most important, and least appreciated, skills for the contemporary Chinese medicine practitioner. While nothing can replace clinical experience and the one-on-one education one receives in discipleship, delving into the roots of our medicine is not only intellectually stimulating but often directly applicable with patients. While this is not a simple task, it is well worth the effort. Texts like what Rick has written are a master key in acquiring this important skill.

A review of the newest volume on Amazon.com says:

“Since reading the first volume, I can now get through medical texts at a much faster rate and find that I need to rely less on the software I was using. Both volumes are mind opening due to the fact that the author uses texts that provide information that is now rarely taught. Most importantly, this series has given me the language skills that have allowed me to access the classics-I have learned more about Chinese medicine in the last 6 months than I had in the previous 5 years. I hope that eventually this series is used as required reading for Chinese medicine students.”

You can read many more reviews on Goodman’s site at Windstone Press.

The texts are further enhanced by the fact that Goodman is now teaching a free online class to accompany the text – the six lessons already out will be an incredible addition to your Chinese language learning. I’m sure there will be more to come. You can check out the class by clicking this link. You can also get free MP3 files and PLECO flashcards to enhance your learning experience. What more do you need, really?

Only one more thing is needed – the commitment to make Chinese language learning a central part of your study going forward. If you plan to make this commitment, why not announce it in the comments of this post? If enough people express interest, either in the comments or by private email, perhaps we could go through it as a group. I’d gladly start over in exchange for some company in the journey.

If all of this wasn’t enough, Rick has offered a special deal for Deepest Health readers. By using the link below, you can get both volumes of Classical Chinese Medical Texts : Learning to Read the Classics of Chinese Medicine for 55.95 with free shipping. On Amazon.com right now you could by both texts for just over $58. However, by purchasing using my link, a small portion of the sales will go to support ongoing writing on Deepest Health. Further, as I said, if enough people buy through my link and commit to going through the books, I’ll put together a special part of the site just for our collaborative learning process. More details on that if it becomes reality.

To take advantage of this offer, and help support Deepest Health by doing so, click on this link to purchase *special deal has now expired – thanks to everyone who participated* Richard Goodman’s texts, both Volume I and Volume II.

You can also, of course, buy the texts through Amazon or another outlet. That’s the option you’ll want to choose if you only want one of the books, as well.

Thanks for reading!

Eric

Learn to read classical Chinese medical texts – special deal for Deepest Health readers

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