July 31, 2013 |
By admin
Steven Alpern,
Guest
Waking Times
The scroll of Zen Buddhist monk Sengai (1750-1838) entitled Circle,
Triangle, and Square is a concise symbolic expression of classical
(Neijing style) Chinese medical thinking. While this brush painting may
not be language in the conventional sense, it articulates Sengai’s
intention with clarity and power. Practitioners raised and educated in
the modern world can benefit from his creative inspiration. We liberate
ourselves most effectively from the confines of modern thought, when we
grow more conscious of the divergence between our scientific conceptual
models and classical oriental thinking.
Each of the three simple geometric figures represents a basic
orientation toward being and knowing. Their relation to each other on
the scroll presents Sengai’s observation concerning the relationships
among their respective modes of thought. Throughout eastern Asia the
square signifies Earth, the circle refers to Heaven, and the triangle is
the potential of Humankind to stand on the Earth and reach toward
Heaven – both physically and metaphorically.
The physical thinking represented by the square is static and
structured. The square is the most diffuse among the three figures, thus
the least invested as real by Sengai. Physical thinking is governed by
the naïve perception that objects displace each other in space. That is,
two objects do not occur in the same place at the same time. This
principle is then generalized to apply to all qualities and
characteristics. It becomes the “principle of the excluded middle” in
common logic (formally known as Aristotelian Logic), which creates a
world of objects with fixed attributes and qualities. This structured
thinking forms the basis of modern scientific thought, and its
investigation of nature. Scientific thinking provides a stable cognitive
structure (determined by the rules of material implication) that
individuals can use to project point of view, and control limited
aspects of their environment.
The circle represents the undifferentiated whole that abides either
before individuals establish separate points of view or after they
transcend them. While the undifferentiated embodied spirit is always
present, it is commonly covered over by the individual’s personality.
Living in the circle resolves the conflicts that are necessarily
engendered by individuality. The circle does not touch the square, and
has no stable base from which to project individual point of view.
Unconscious projection of interpretations and judgments leads
individuals to have attachments that obscure the subtle nature of the
world, and their interactions with it. The circle represents instead the
ideal of knowing the world separate from point of view, as a dynamic
flux of constantly evolving and transforming inter-dependent influences.
It allows every perspective because any assertion (or even expression)
is understood as merely the projection of individual point of view.
Within the “mind of Dao” (the circle) there is no point of view. There
is only being and presence.
The triangle represents the embodied spirit’s potential to
dynamically transcend the limitations of the square, and progressively
approximate the circle. Sengai presents the triangle as barely touching
the most diffuse side of the square – the less obvious implications of
physical thinking – indicating that it is not embedded within the point
of view expressed by the square. The horizontal side of the triangle
emerges from the square, and is parallel with its base. This side
represents the distilled veracity of the physical point of view
supporting the square. The other side touching the square departs in
another direction; it represents those aspects of experience not
expressed in the square, thus highlighting its limitations in
comprehending the fluid dynamic nature of life.
The third side of the triangle (not touching the square) represents
the resolution of these diverging points of view. Each is represented by
an equally bold stroke (strong investment), but when its extent is
realized and the corner is turned toward the other, Sengai withdrew the
brush somewhat from the scroll, leaving only a narrow meeting between
the two bold ends. His brush painting suggests that resolving diverging
points of view is accomplished through perspective – by distancing from
both in order to allow the common thread joining them to emerge. This
narrow bridge symbolically represents the capacity to resolve opposing
points of view by recognizing the contextual validity of each.
Individuals can approach knowledge of just what’s so about the point
touching the square, and consequently the square itself, by releasing
the limitations of individual point of view.
Much of the single stroke of the circle is the most bold and dark of
all three figures – to Sengai it is the most real. It begins at the base
of the triangle, then immediately includes this bridge within its arc.
The circle eventually returns to the base of the triangle, where the
stroke becomes somewhat more diffuse. While the loop closes into a
circle, it does so without being strictly defined for human perception.
The circle interlinks with the triangle around the narrow bridge, which
becomes the individual’s point of access into its holistic thinking. The
“mind of Dao” cannot reside in any fixed conceptual framework
concerning nature. It can only be pursued through an ongoing process of
resolving divergent points of view – working the triangle to approach
the circle.
Modern science has developed very complex and sophisticated theories
of the physical world. Scientists delineate and measure myriad physical
parameters, especially with the aid of various sense-enhancing
technologies. While this socially agreed upon investigation provides a
measure of security, scientific investigations typically fail to discern
truths beyond the limits of their physical models. Perhaps Einstein is
so widely revered because he stepped outside the conceptual model of his
time, and explored genuinely new ways of seeing and understanding
phenomena. This is indeed rare in the scientific world!
Scientists
generally eliminate experiential phenomena as subjective, and give
precedence to “objective” measurements. They remain focused on
statements of physical status, rather than discerning the fluid dynamics
of evolving process, which is based in individual responsiveness rather
than uniform movements. The physical bias of scientific thinking seeks
direct, predictable, and reproducible relationships between causes and
effects. It reduces the complexity of systems by focusing only on
parameters that can be physically defined and measured. This process
results in mechanistic models of physical reality that prioritize single
(proximal) causes and the material implications they engender, rather
than exploring the variety of contributing causes that generate
individual variations.
The “experimental method” for investigating the world falls short of
being truly empirical, because it projects the physical perspective of
the square. Only the circle, which accepts all possibilities, is truly
empirical. Yet, the physical theories of the square appeal to many
because they provide conceptual models that explain (and can predict)
certain phenomena. While this may be an expedient method for controlling
a limited scope of the environment (in space and/or time), investment
in the mechanistic model blocks a deeper understanding of the complex
web of causation that characterizes individual situations.
Physical theories typically evolve in response to conflicting data.
Gradually, scientists recognize the limitations and/or inaccuracies
introduced by both their explicit assumptions and unconscious
projections. Integrating certain considerations from the other side of
the triangle can refine the conceptual model projected by the
individual’s point of view. But, a box remains a box. The increased
sensitivity of the model may help one control certain aspects of the
environment, but it does not capture the potential of individually
differentiating the blocks to vital process that create distress, and
the embodied spirit’s need to express symptoms.
The application of scientific thinking to issues of health has
pervasive implications. It impacts both how doctors understand the
nature of various diseases, and the practical (clinical) approaches
developed to address them. Scientific medicine absorbed its purpose from
the common emotional urge to see disease and suffering as afflictions,
rather than a natural result of life. This bias has created a theory of
external (physical) etiology, which relieves individuals of
responsibility for both the development and resolution of disease. The
clinical emphasis of modern medicine is controlling the expression of
disease, rather than resolving the roots of its dynamic process within
each individual’s life (which cannot be standardized into protocols).
Focus narrows to controlling symptoms (often through suppression),
rather than discerning and disentangling the factors creating and
sustaining the individual’s blocks.
There are many specific topics within the various scientific fields
related to health care that demonstrate the implications of physical
bias, especially in clinical implementation. Relative to:
* Nutrition and Herbs: There is far more emphasis
among most experts on the amounts of specific nutrients and “active
ingredients” (easily measurable and external), rather than on the
individual’s ability to utilize them (internal and not easily quantified
or measured). Within the scientific model, attempts to understand and
evaluate life as a vital process led to the refinement of overly
simplistic chemical models into more sensitive biochemical ones. This
led to the idea of “bio-available nutrients,” which represents a
significant improvement over the earlier standard. Yet, it remains a
uniform (external) measure rather than one that differentiates
individual (internal) capacity to utilize nutrients and “active
ingredients.” The Chinese medical ideas of food, qi and blood stagnation
address some of an individual’s specific blocks in resolving material
that has been internalized. Individuals may struggle with many different
blocks and/or insufficiencies that undermine their ability to process
physical and experiential inputs into smoothly flowing qi and blood.
They may need a wide variety of therapies to stimulate them to release,
transform, dissolve, or vaporize their impacted attachments. The effects
of neither foods nor herbs can be analyzed down to nutrients or “active
ingredients.” Rather, the impact of their qi on an individual person’s
qi is generally discussed in experiential terms: flavor, nature
(temperature), and channels resonance. Such metrics help practitioners
individualize treatments to stimulate and facilitate a patient’s
intrinsic responsiveness rather than attempting to generically control
disease expression.
* Infectious Disease: There is nearly exclusive
emphasis upon various microbes as the (proximal, physical, and
measurable) causative factors, and nearly none on the individual’s
internal ecology as a terrain for the particular microbes. This idea
includes but is not limited to the effectiveness of immune response.
Therapeutic focus is directed toward immobilizing the reproduction of
microbes (physically measurable), without considering the vitality and
effectiveness of the individual mechanisms that expel them and/or impede
their penetration (not measurable). Therapy is directed toward
measurably controlling the external environment, and considered complete
when the proliferation of microbes is rendered inert. Little attention
is focused on the impact therapy has had upon the terrain – the
integrity of the individual’s physiological homeostasis (which is
difficult to measure), unless it has been sufficiently deranged to
support another infestation, such as candida in the gut. The Wen Bing
(Warm Diseases) School of Chinese medicine differentiates three
terrains, each with its distinctive nature, typical paths of development
within individuals, and characteristic paths of expulsion and
resolution. It provides guidance for therapeutic intervention in people
struggling with chronic or recurrent viral (wind-cold), bacterial
(wind-heat), or fungal (wind-damp) infections.
* Osteo-arthritis: There is nearly exclusive
emphasis upon inflammation as the (proximal) cause of pain and the
growth of osteophytes. There is little discourse concerning either
habituated muscle contractures, which provide a stable platform for the
growth of osteophytes, or as a contributing cause to strain, which
precipitates inflammation. Neither is there much discussion of
nutrition, and even emotional patterns, as contributing causes of a
biochemical terrain supporting the growth of osteophytes and/or a
particularly strong (or poorly controlled) inflammatory response. The
medical approach to clinical management of people with osteo-arthritis
is directed toward controlling the inflammation and pain, rather than
stimulating the individual to change his or her (internal and
individual) factors supporting habituated contractures. While many
physicians suggest exercise for patients with osteoarthritis, there is
little emphasis upon the quality of movement. Specifically, there is
little focus on devising and teaching movements to release the
individual’s habituated contractures, which precipitate and sustain the
development of osteophytes. There are many such systems of therapeutic
movement (Qigong, T’ai Chi, and Daoyin) inspired by Chinese medical
theories, which facilitate movement and can eliminate or dramatically
reduce pain and physical restrictions. There are several other systems
of exercise that are equally valuable in stimulating the flow of qi,
which derive from other medical traditions such as yoga from Ayurveda.
While the historical and philosophical roots of classical Chinese
medicine lay deep in the shadows of ancient China, the thinking process
of the triangle – working the triangle to approach the circle – remains
vitally important. One can work ideas rooted in modern science with that
thinking process to discover pervasive physical bias. Individuals can
learn to observe and discriminate the unconscious projection of point of
view, and release their rigid models for understanding the physical
world, which each person must develop to survive. We can learn to
release how we analyze what we know, and accept fluid interpretations of
what we sense. This can help practitioners develop true intuition,
which is based in calm and quiet acceptance of circumstances, events,
and reactions.
The language of modern science can make many subtle differentiations,
if those using it remain sensitive to its inherent physical bias.
People with any disease process can be examined with a focus on the
internal factors that generate and support dysfunction, rather than
simply focusing on precise physical descriptions. Patients who learn to
disentangle from the conflicts that generate their blocks can reduce
their dependence on reactive attempts to control symptomatic expression.
Some modern practitioners of Chinese medicine seek the certainty of a
fixed conceptual model. Rather than including the wide variety of
historical theories and having to “work the triangle” to differentiate
individual cases, modern Chinese medical doctrine provides a single
explanation for many symptoms and signs. Practitioners are taught to
classify the manifestations of dysfunction into symptom-sign complexes,
and develop therapeutic strategies aimed directly at managing them. This
clinical model is familiar to people trained in physical (scientific)
thinking.
Rather than classifying the manifestations of imbalanced function,
Neijing style practitioners seek to identify clearly the individual’s
specific blocks, and his or her struggle to maintain life. The classic
texts of Neijing (Suwen and Lingshu) use the dynamic interactions among
the five sets of channels and vessels (sinews, luo, primaries,
divergent/distinct, and extraordinary) to facilitate the embodied
spirit’s intrinsic process, rather than just classifying their
manifestations into syndromes of imbalance in the zangfu (vital and
hollow organs) and trying to manage them with the primary channels
alone.
For instance, modern TCM subscribes to the ideas of Chao Yuanfang
concerning the source and generation of phlegm. Chao was an Imperial
physician during the Sui Dynasty (581-618), who focused on the proximal
cause of phlegm as inadequate transformation and transportation of food
essence by the spleen/pancreas, which collects in the lungs according to
the “normal” physiology of generating post-natal qi. While this is an
important source of phlegm, many other ideas about it have been used and
validated during the long history of Chinese medicine:
Liver qi stagnation, which allows for the stagnation of fluids and
compresses them into phlegm; continued impulse (yang) generates heat
(hot-phlegm), and can degenerate into wind (wind-phlegm). The etiology
of these was first clearly delineated by Zhang Zihe (1150-1228).
De-vitalization of kidney essence (Kidney yang deficiency), which
directly degenerates into phlegm. Blocking or withdrawal of impulse
allows cold-phlegm to collect, and the individual’s failure to control
fluids (generally exacerbated by diet) generates damp-phlegm. While
these names would not be developed for several hundred years until Tang
era (618-907) doctors focused on fluids and phlegm as primary pathogenic
factors, Zhang Zhongjing certainly recognized the basic dynamic of
these etiologies in herbal formulas such as Xiao Qing Long Tang (Minor
Blue Dragon Decoction) in Shang Han Lun. Later authors, such as Zhang
Jingyue (1563-1640), developed further the idea that “life is yang,” and
focused on preserving it.
Exhaustion of kidney essence (Kidney yin deficiency), which generates
phlegm as a distorted attempt to preserve essential yin – phlegm as a
response. Zhu Danxi (1281-1358) focused on essential yin as the
foundation of life.
Lack of willingness by the embodied spirit to see (Heart qi) its
experience as it is, which the cognitive basis of denial. Denial is
somatized into phlegm by the embodied spirit – to make it dormant. This
allows the individual to internalize “new” inputs to process and thereby
continue generating post-natal qi.
The clinical ideal of classical Chinese medicine considers each
treatment a unique creative response to an individual patient. The
immediate focus stimulates his or her intrinsic responsiveness (wei)
and/or capacity to internalize experience (ying). The purpose of
acupuncture (and other Chinese medical therapies) is facilitating the
individual’s release of habituated holding patterns, which accumulate to
restrict movement and create various distortions of the individual’s
interaction with the environment. Eventually, these distorted
interactions derange physiological process and create disease. Resolving
these disturbances to vital process (qi) allows disease resolution,
rather than having to settle for its management.
Instead of releasing their points of view and resolving recurrent
conflicts and struggles, many individuals develop various adaptive and
compensatory strategies to accommodate them. These can be probed with
therapies, but regardless of how insightful the conception and
implementation of a therapeutic strategy, the patient must be willing to
release habituated patterns of interpretation and reaction. Therapy
does not directly create healing, but it can stimulate profound
transformations of vital process (qi), allowing individuals to grow out
of the disease(s) they host through distorted physiological process.
A practitioner who uses the wide variety of historical ideas of
Chinese medicine can enrich his or her contemporary practice with a rich
framework for making differentiations, and determining therapeutic
strategies. There is no limit to the variety of disease manifestations
that have been discussed and treated during the history of Chinese
medicine. While the modern world presents new stressors to challenge the
embodied spirit, there are not new ways for it to be overwhelmed and
fail to sustain individual life.
Therapeutic results beyond those predicted (or even accounted for) by
the physical theories of “scientific medicine” are available when both
the practitioner and “patient” are willing to go “outside the box” – the
square – to engage the intrinsic wisdom of the embodied spirit. Many
treatments stimulate the individual’s intrinsic responsiveness to expel
stagnating factors, and thus liberate the “patient’s” vitality to focus
on supporting life process. Treatment strategies are found by the
practitioner listening to the embodied spirit’s expression of distress,
and facilitating its intrinsic movement to live.
Therapeutic work inspired by the profound mysteries of life cannot be
standardized into protocols. It arises from identifying and stimulating
release of an individual’s blocks and impacted struggles. Healing
ensues when “patients” allow their whole beings to engage experience in
an open and focused way to support vital function. There is no limit to
the awesome potential of the embodied spirit!
About the Author
Steven Alpern, LAc practices acupuncture and Chinese
medicine as applied clinical philosophy. He has followed the inspired
teachings of Jeffrey Yuen for more than fifteen years. Steven seeks to
identify and locate blocks to flourishing health and stimulate their
release, rather than classifying symptoms and signs as the
manifestations of distress. His efforts to discern the nature and
dynamics of an individual’s health struggles draw upon the classics of
Chinese medicine and several historical traditions and specialties.
He focuses on discerning the various contributing causes of disease,
rather than simply classifying manifest symptoms and signs according to a
single clinical doctrine. Instead of trying to control the expression
of pathologies, Steven seeks treatment strategies that stimulate
profound and transformational healing by supporting the individual’s
intrinsic process to expel stagnations. That quest has led Steven to
focus on the Neijing (Inner Classic [of Medicine]) theory of the five
systems of channels and vessels.
For more information and writings visit the
www.ccmforheaaling.com.
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