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
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Tags: balance, Classical Texts (general), commitment, Cultivation, focus, January, Michael Givens, personal commitment, scholar, students, studyingRelated posts
Reviewing one’s progress in the realm of self cultivation
There is something inherently fishy about “evaluating” myself when it comes to a program of personal development. While goal setting is an important activity, and awareness of my strengths and weaknesses is essential to many things, there seems to be some way in which self cultivation stands exempt from my every attempt to measure it. How did January’s Year of Sagely Living goal go for me? Did I reach the benchmarks I laid out for myself? Well, yes and no.
I originally set out to study half an hour a day in each subject I’m studying in school. This turned out to be impossible given my many other responsibilities. But, this was not a failure. It gave me valuable information. It told me where my limits are and why they are there. It gave me an opportunity to evaluate those supposed limits and decide whether I wanted to accept them. It also helped me to be ok with where I am - pushing myself to my limit let me know that what I *am* able to do is *all* I’m able to do. That’s profoundly nourishing.
Falling short of my original mark, I set another one. I decided to study at least two hours in every subject every week. While this may seem laughable to some, for a variety of respects, it seemed about right to me. While I know I shorted a subject or two due to their lower weight in my overall academic scheme of things, I made up for that by studying a bunch more in my favorite class, Formulas. It turned out that two hours a week is just about right. It has been profoundly helpful and I think it has already increased my understanding of the medicine. As such, I plan to adopt it as a constant goal while I’m in school. After school, other scholarly goals will need to be set.
Several folks have joined on in the Year of Sagely Living - and they have had varying degrees of “success” with the program. I will include links to their sites at the end of this article, all definitely worth reading through. In the end, I think they have all discovered what I have. The simple act of focusing on a particular realm of life is transformative. Whether you can objectively evaluate “progress” is up for debate. So what does this mean for the rest of the Year of Sagely Living?
I still feel that the setting of specific goals, or the declaration of commitment to a certain practice or set of practices is very valuable. In that way, discussing whether one was able to fulfill that commitment makes sense. However, the benefit of these activities are more likely to be fractal in nature and difficult to put your finger on. While I am able to say that I have increased clarity and less stress as a result of my January YSL attempts, the true power is less measurable and more likely to develop over a long period of time. This, really, is the aim of the Year of Sagely Living. Not to set and meet goals. Not to yield some list of optimal practices that everyone could/should follow. Simply to articulate essential features of Chinese medicine and attempt to live by them in contemporary society.
I’m looking forward to February! February 1 happens to be my 31st birthday, so it will be an emergence into new things on more than one front. :)
Eric
Tags: commitment, Cultivation, focus, goal setting, January, Personal Development, scholar, study, studying, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
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