Entering the Flow
Whither Sagely Living?
Across a divide of space spanning a continent, a partnership in exploration has opened whose wellsprings lie removed further still across a span of centuries and oceans. I am speaking, of course, of this latest project that Eric and I have conceived in the course of our conversations over the last few months and weeks. If this is the new development of the Year of Sagely Living, then I count that undertaking a success. I perceive a greater alignment with the operating principles of that concept becoming active in our new pursuit. Or, rather, we have awakened to its possibilities, and take seriously the precepts of the Classical view we hold dear. Above all we are entering a flow. Let me explain.
A Story
I’ve been inspired almost as much by the College of Mythic Cartography as I have been entranced by Deepest Health. Willem Larsen, who is the genius behind CoMC, and is another resident of Cascadia, articulates what he terms “invisible technologies” that underlie his practice of rewilding: that is, decolonizing the mind from the non-indigenous. Another way to put this, is that he recognizes that some of the most important aspects of indigenous cultures, critical components of any definition of sustainability, lie in the cultivation of relationships based on mutual trust and support, and in story as an expression of those relationships to one’s land-base and greater family. He writes eloquently, and if I may borrow a phrase, appears to “live deliberately,” or as I am wont to say, with rigor. His explication of associative reasoning, and t
he role of riddles and story in enlivening knowledge struck me as deeply resonant with the conversations that Eric and I have shared, and with my entire orientation to practicing Chinese medicine.
Further back it correlates with what I’ve learned through many years of association with Leon Hammer. I read his first book, Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies
The next insight, a thrill, to be honest, a thrumming indication of things to come, came at an interesting time. After years of practice I had decided to pursue further training in medical school, with the intention of seeking a psychiatric residency. The Baker Act places an acupuncturist in a unique bind. I’ve had patients whom I knew required 24-hour evaluation and supervision -in crisis- but was faced with the certainty that appropriate herbal medicine and acupuncture could resolve the condition more rapidly and with less trauma to the patient. So I conceived of enrollment in medical school as a means of surmounting institutional barriers. I enrolled in courses to prepare for the MCAT, and contemplated at length the options, when suddenly, in an intensely liberating flash of realization, I abandoned the plan resolutely. I felt renewed. I felt like I had been handed $200, 000 in cash and been given a reprieve that granted me 15 years of my life back. I went from being amongst the oldest of potential med students to being again among the youngest teachers in the Chinese Medicine field. Above all, I realized that the plan amounted to a digression that was perhaps the world’s greatest attempt at procrastination. In other words, my work had already begun and there was more to do.
Literally the first thing I did was sign up for the Associates program at Heiner Fruehauf’s site. And then it happened. The article and videos related to Wang Fengyi, the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century founder of a unique lineage of storytelling healers curing with their stories, chants and humble, ethical behavior gave me back the feeling that had enlivened me in Leon’s book, and in every subsequent, often wordless, intimation of the realities laid out before me. It also unleashed a period of intense creativity that led to new insights into everything from the underlying structures of Dr. John Shen’s herbal formulas, to aspects of Dr. Hammer’s methodology and model, and even provided the impetus for the Year of Sagely Living. I discovered Rewilding not long after that.
Rewilding is ultimately predicated on awareness, just like the others practices that inform my life. As a Muslim, I cannot endorse the animist beliefs, and according to some this would indicate that I do not understand the movement. Where awareness is the focus I am fully in accord. I would even argue that awareness is the crux of the critique of modern civilization.
Through a Dark Wood
So this is where our project unfolds: from these disparate elements, we intend to construct an experiment in awareness. Not in terms of normative practices, but in terms of opening ourselves to the symbolic fields articulated by Chinese medicine, and with a commitment to document our findings and chart our exploration. We are saying, “Yes! And…” to the implications a symbolism rooted in antiquity, as a method for creating new symbolic content that is appropriate to the times and places where we are. It is not enough to rehearse old mythologies. That is not to disparage the Classics in any way. Rather, it follows Basho’s admonition to seek what the master’s sought. Where else are these patterns to be articulated if not in our lives?
Another very significant element is our engagement with the concept together. We hypothesize that by allowing the conversation to publicly unfold, much as it has in private, and also to avoid setting arbitrary limits upon it, we will create a free-wheeling and unfettered mode of expression about Chinese medicine. I am the control group in this particular experiment; because like all-too-many clinicians I am not as steeped in the Han Dynasty symbolism that informs the pristine logic of NCNM’s program. And this with having studied Classical Chinese at UC Berkeley! And my estimation is that the conversation will enrich us. After all, dialogue is the form that the Classics assume, both in structure, and in the rich legacy of commentaries that exist. In fact, I’ve dubbed it: Han Dynasty 2.0.
Improvisational Classical Scholarship
This is also not to suggest a mere modernization or even urbanization of an alien cosmology. Every patient encounter is an opportunity to approach the unknown. What mysteries are in each of us? What stories? Riddles? In the meeting of microcosm and macrocosm, there is a grain of sand. If there’s a universe in a grain of sand, then what of the pearl produced by its slow gestation?
As Eric quoted earlier: “it’s a way of effortlessly being with awareness and allowing Chinese philosophical and medical concepts to shape the perspective.”
Sapere Aude
How can this become a practice that is effortless and yet produces insights that will carry over into our clinical work? It is quite simple. In my estimation, the most integral question is a simple one: why? But that does not obviate the need for us to likewise attend to the what’s of our experience. In other words, our answers will be as good as our questions. Everything has its voice, and it may speak to us in a way that we can understand. One way that I describe pulse diagnosis is as a way of listening to the ever-communicating body. So, we will take the rich world of symbolism and metaphor that we’ve inherited from Chinese medicine, and simply frame our questions according to what we want to investigate. In the process we will learn to apply this method to anything that strikes us, and also begin to see the webs of meaning that inhere in the very messages that are being communicated in multivalent means by the body. And we can use all of our senses to seek our answers, and in so doing we will begin to inhabit our bodies and experience our lives in wholly new ways.
Abdallah
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Tags: abdallah stickley, classical-chinese-medicine, commitment, content, creativity, Cultivation, heiner fruehauf, imagination, patterns, scholar, symbolism, The Project, visionRelated posts
Symbolism, Chinese medicine and the birth of a new project
I’ve been working on a series about the Chinese medicine organ systems for the past few weeks. We’ve already covered the Lung, and then the Large Intestine in two parts. During that time, my understanding of the symbolism (including what’s available through the Chinese medicine organ clock) that is shot through Chinese medical literature has changed, deepened, opened up.
When I first started studying with Heiner Fruehauf, I was entranced by all the symbolism he introduced in his lectures at NCNM. I wasn’t sure if what he was talking about would bear clinical fruit, but I knew the ring of truth was there and I was resolved to understand it. Doctors that I worked with later put more or less emphasis on the symbolism, but regardless, the kind of imaginative and symbolic thinking was always a part of what they taught - because this kind of thinking is at the root of the development and practice of Chinese medicine.
What is a symbol? A symbol is something used to represent something else. It POINTS at something else. Generally, we use material representations to represent immaterial things - like how a religious symbol can be used to represent God, or human beings’ relationship to God. When I talk about symbolic thinking, I take it a bit farther. Everything can be a symbol. The human body is in resonance with the universe, in resonance with nature, and all of these things create a symbol field that points at something immaterial - the unifying concept behind all of those symbols. This is, of course, a quite Platonic concept. There is a perfect concept/idea of metal-ness, of which all METAL symbols here on Earth are only an imperfect representation. The fact is that the symbol field creates a kind of embodied conversation about this “concept/idea.” I want to point out that I’m not even sure that the Platonic idealist view of reality applies in the particular situation I’m describing, but many people will say that it does. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just say that all of the symbols I discuss are part of an overall embodied conversation that is attempting to describe a particular concept that may, or may not, be perfectly present anywhere in the world.
Confusing? Yeah, when I describe it that way it probably is pretty confusing. But, it’s important to understand. When I talk about the Stomach on the Chinese organ clock, you’ll hear me discuss the Dragon, Yangming, Earth, various acupuncture points and formulas, herbs and Classical passages, constellations, Earthly branches. What does all of this mean? It is part of a multi-sensory conversation attempting to define the Chinese medicine concept of the organ Stomach. But, it can go so far beyond that. Every time I walk out my door, I see Stomach. I see it in the muscle cars roaring past, I see it in the gourmet restaurants that dot my beloved city of Portland. I see it in the Earth yellow faces and wild smiles of friends and family, I see it in the high and dry Earth in mounds around the bike path. I hear it in certain songs, certain lines in movies. I hear about it in world news event reports. I smell it on the breath of my dog (gross!) and in my compost pile. Sometimes, the universe practically SCREAMS Stomach. It is a multi-sensory experience, a lived experience. Ultimately, all of this feeds back into me as a practitioner, my understanding of the human being and the universe, and bears important clinical results.
This is why it is so disturbing how some contemporary Chinese medicine practitioners have reduced “Stomach” to the Western medical organ. Of course, we can use that idea as part of the symbol field. How rich it is to include the information from Western medicine, but what a tiny little drop in the bucket it is - and how misunderstood. But, that little gripe is not what this post is about.
This post is about nothing less than the rebirth of Deepest Health. I am happy to say that Deepest Health is about to undergo a revolution in order to begin a revolution. A revolution of thought and feeling around Chinese medicine. You will still see the same great information that you’ve come to expect - but so much more. We want to create something that can’t be described in a sentence, but here are some half attempts by the project’s creators:
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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.
Tags: Blogging, commitment, Dave Ramsey, David Allen, habits, Learning, organization, Personal Development, productivity, Steve Covey, Year of Sagely LivingRelated 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
Another scholar reviews his first month of Sagely Living
This is an article that Michael Givens, author of the recent article “Why does Chinese Medicine seem so complicated?” sent to me last night. He was one of the first on board for the Year of Sagely Living, but doesn’t have an online home - so he’s posting his insights here.
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Since this is the last day of January and near the new moon (and new seasonal node), I thought it would be fitting to write up a review of the month for me in this “Year of Sagely Living.” I have been participating, but have not shared my experience in the discussion, so perhaps I’ll try to continue to after this with more monthly reviews. I am very appreciative of all of your efforts, Eric, and inspiration. This project could not have come at a better time.
At the beginning of the month I made the following personal commitment:
1. School work
I committed myself to study for each class on one day a week for two hours, as well as a 30 minute formulas review each day. I also choose one other subject each day to research further and deeper than was taught to me. I have 8 classes, so I needed to combine two classes to one day (one hour for each). This may seem like not a lot of studying for classes, but I have to keep in balance a family (I have two children) and my wife is also a Naturopathic Physician who is beginning to open her own practice. So, I have to keep my study time focused and efficient.
2. Classical Texts Personal Study
I am enrolled in two classical texts courses at NCNM (one on the Shanghan Lun and the other on the 19 lines of Pathology in the Neijing), but they are focused on exploring the texts in Chinese, so much of the work is in improving my continuous study of classical Chinese as well as deeply engaging specific aspects of the essential classical texts. In my personal study, I am committed to not only familiarize myself with the classical cannon of Chinese medicine, but to know as much of it by heart as I can. So, I practice memorizing lines or specific information from the texts. In this project, I committed my self to continue to study the Ling Shu (of the Neijing), the Shanghan Lun, the NanJing, the Jia YiJing and the Shennong Bencao Jing. I have been studying these texts for a while now, so I chose specific chapters to focus on, or specific texts to complete (if I hadn’t read it through completely yet). I committed myself to focusing on this study at least two hours a day, two days a week. This is as much as I am able to fit into my schedule.
3. Writing
I also committed myself to writing for a half an hour a day, every day. I wanted to choose a topic and explore it in depth. I also committed myself to writing one article per week to be submitted somewhere or saved for a later submission.
So, how successful was I with this project?
Terribly unsuccessful, I’m sad to say. Yet, it has been a great lesson for me, and by continuing to simply view it as a lesson and an experiment, I did not beat myself up about it, but rather, kept reminding myself of my goal. In the first week (prior to school beginning) I was very successful in my study and classical text reading, yet could not get myself to sit down to write. By the time school began, I was able to maintain only my classical text study. This may seem strange, for it means that I neglected my school studies and chose my personal studies, but it shows me that when I do not have my life in balance, I uphold only what I truly want and put off what I need to do, but can do later.
I feel that I put a lot of intention into my plan that was really quite intense and in doing so I believe that I sabotaged myself. It was as if since I couldn’t wait to get started, I jumped in too quickly, planning on doing too much, and the energy I put into my plan carried too much weight; I simply couldn’t find a rhythm with it. By the third week though, I felt much more detached from the outcome and the plan itself, and simply tried every day to participate as much as I could in my commitment, and soon I found myself much more on track than the weeks before. This last week, I have even written an article which Eric graciously posted. Thus, I’ve greatly benefited from this project already, but I have also learned to return to following more of a middle path in life, to keep the extremes and the intensity to a more harmonious central rhythmic flow.
I enjoyed focusing on the Scholar aspect of this time, though I see that it is the time of the Gall Bladder moving toward the Liver. Though I think this has been a perfect time of year (especially for students) to focus on strengthening the Scholar, another perspective of the twelve archetypes of the seasons is that it is the Ram who is the true scholar, the Small Intestine (the sixth month), the King Wen archetype, who, locked away, worked out the scholarly mapping of the energy of the Bagua. The Gall Bladder, who is the Rat (this first month), is much more of the King Wu archetype, who, seeing the eclipse at noon (much like transition from the old year to the new year) initiated the great battle and marched his troops to attack the Shang by “crossing the great water.”
Thus, perhaps I was more taken away with my Gall Bladder intensity of initiating this project, and unable to maintain the scholar’s rhythm and cultivation. I am hoping that as the Wood energy rises in this node of “Li Chun” or “Spring Standing Up” time of the Liver, I will be able to sustain my plan and continue to flow with it. In harmonizing with the Qi of the seasons, I believe I will be able to do so. I’ll let you know how it went.
Michael Givens
Tags: balance, Classical Texts (general), commitment, Cultivation, focus, January, Michael Givens, personal commitment, scholar, students, studying
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