Living Without Reference Points

What would your life be like if you could live each moment in the moment without judging it based upon your past experiences or projecting it into the future? Experiencing things as they truly are with no bias or duality or theoretical constructs......

Ben Shen

These two words have much import in my medicine (and in my personal life: it is the names of my first two children). Ben is the root or the source. Shen is the spirit (consciousness). They reflect an important principle in acupuncture therapy as recounted in Chapter 8 of the Nei Jing Ling Shu (one of the earliest texts on acupuncture dating back thousands of years ago) which is (and I'm paraphrasing) "above all, the most important thing is, with every needle not to miss the rooting of the spirits."

These words weigh on me daily. Ninety plus percent of all the patients that come through my doors have their roots in emotional and spiritual causes. The effects of the emotions on our physiology is complex and beyond the scope of this blog post, but excesses of the emotions have profound impact on our health. Without rooting the spirit, what kind of therapy are we actually giving? While I do see benefit in relieving the symptomatic discomforts of my patients, without getting to the root, we can affect no real lasting or meaningful change. If the spirits do not reside peacefully, one cannot be truly healed.

And while I am very mindful that to truly heal oneself is a life-long pursuit which entails significant exploration of our minds, the above titled post is a reminder of where our intentions should be while we treat each individual. Often, patients who seek care are unaware of the lack of rooting of their spirits and it is this disconnect which often perpetuates their imbalance. Whether it be the elderly patient suffering from depression regarding what he can no longer do, or the mid-life crisis as one begins to contemplate one's mortality, or the young adult who was the victim of an early life trauma, everyone needs the stability of a rooted spirit to maintain and ensure vitality and health.

Of course, as you can imagine, this puts a tremendous responsibility on the practitioner of eastern medicine. And I can attest, I have yet to live up to this ideal. I try daily, and fail often. But when the rooting of the spirits can be facilitated, it is as if a miracle has taken place. This keeps me on the path.

The Role of Intention

One of the least talked about aspects of medicine and healing is the role that our intention plays in this process. And healing most definitely is a process. Most healing takes place over a period of time (with the exception of instantaneous healing which is under the auspices of the Heart in it's ability to vaporize phlegm and obstructions by connecting our spirit to its unstained nature).

This process requires a certain will and dedication to seeing all the requisites to the healing take place. And most important during this time frame is the state of mind of the patient. I have found no other better determinant of the success of any given treatment than the patient's positive outlook and belief that he or she will heal. Consequently, I have had the largest successes of my medical career when my intention has been clear and focused. Intention on how to direct the qi with any given needle, on formulating herbal formulas, but most importantly, on my desire to see a patient heal.

Cartesian thought that is so heavily relied upon by western medicine separates the patient's body/illness from his mind. In so doing, it is deprived of the enormity of the healing powers that one's intention can ignite. Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine, and many other alternative modalities respect intention in the healing process. In fact, one of the reasons I am so moved to write this post now is after witnessing Lama Doctor Tsewang Ngodrup Rinpoche approach and communicate with his patients. Rinpoche's ability to diagnose fatal illnesses and chronic debilitating conditions via pulse and urine diagnosis was impressive. But his ability to explain these diagnoses while simultaneously instilling hope and security that they would be healed was even more interesting to witness. To actually witness a patient being diagnosed with early stage breast cancer for the first time and feel relief was an unusual experience! She knew (because Rinpoche expressed it to her) that she would be alright and hence the healing was sparked even before the herbs were prescribed!

Of course, intention can backfire on us if we spend our time worried, scared, feeling helpless, hopeless and completely wrapped up in our own despair. Our intention needs to be focused on healing. And what Rinpoche says, it should be focused on healing others. We should go through our treatments for the benefit of other beings who suffer as we do. The acupuncture, herbs, medicines are to be taken with the intention of healing those in similar and worse conditions than ourselves. By so doing, the power of our intention magnifies for our benefit and all those other beings we intend to heal. The purer one's intention, the bigger the benefits.

The will to change

In the previous post I mention how acupuncture and herbs spark the process of change by bringing awareness of the root of one's struggles. This awareness is a linking of our hearts with our kidneys (the storage house of our essence) to provide the impetus to change.

Often, without this connection/knowledge, we linger in samsara, creating an endless vicious cycle of making poor lifestyle decisions, or lack of good decisions. We struggle to find our way and lose perspective of the path. This taxes the liver and gallbladder, our planner and decision-maker. The liver and gallbladder sit between the heart and kidneys and is a mediator between our consciousness and our innate primordial self. When the connection is blocked, stagnation develops creating the sequelae of health problems that stem from stress, irritability, frustration, anger, and the like. Enhancing this connection is crucial to establishing a healthy bodymind. One of the many benefits of acupuncture and herbs is to regulate the smooth flow of qi and blood, a function typically under the auspices of the liver and gallbladder.

But there are many of us who despite this knowledge/awareness resulting from our linked heart and kidneys cannot make a fire of this spark. Why? The ability to tap into our essence depends on the health of our kidneys. In Chinese medicine, all of the organ systems have an inherent spirit motivating/animating it. For the kidneys, it is the zhi -- the willpower. Often what is required is to nourish the kidneys, thus bolstering the will to enact the changes that one seeks to make. This can be done in a multitude of ways, some of the best including: acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicines, qigong and taiji, proper rest and lifestyle modifications to prevent further depletion, etc.

What one is essentially looking to do is to provide the fuel for the alchemical process that must take place. Alchemy takes place in the kidneys and relies on the yang-fire to catalyze it. Stoking the fire of kidney yang provides the will with the power to see change through.

How does one change?

None of us is spared pain in our lives, whether it be the pain of being born, the pain of losing a loved one, the pain that comes from illness, injury, old age and eventual death, or the pain from a deep discontentment in our lives. Many of my patients will come suffering from at least one, if not more, type of pain, and as my job requires, I strive to figure out the major source of that pain.

All too often we see the pain rooted in improper (based on what causes imbalance/pain/suffering/illness, not a judgment) lifestyles, traumatic events, conditioned emotional responses and wrongviews. Without going into the particulars of these causes, the thrust of true healing begins with bringing awareness of these issues to those suffering from them. Of course, this is not as easy as it would seem as most of us don't want to be informed that our belief systems or thought processes are causing us pain. Acupuncture and herbal medicines have a unique capacity to break through those barriers and give us a glimpse of our true nature, a connection between our hearts and minds with our truest essence.

So trying to bring that awareness is step one. In so doing, one moves past the appearances and recognizes the deeper truths. For example, one recognizes that despite the facade of anger and hostility, one is masking a deeper sadness; or one is feigning aggressiveness to cover insecurity and fear. This understanding is key to the second step of motivating people to make changes. Otherwise, one simply controls the anger or aggressiveness, but never is able to correct the sadness or insecurities.

The outward manifestation is the yang expression. The inner catalyst for the emotion is the yin state. Trying to change the yin state is the more difficult challenge. To do this requires more than just self-control, it requires adopting a new paradigm. Swapping one state for another. One needs another option. One that is appealing. One that offers a better future. Acupuncture and herbal medicines, by giving one the awareness, sparks the search for a new paradigm and gives one the capacity to make the necessary changes. It provides a deeper perspective and allows one to make choices based on our internal knowledge and helps guide us along our path in life to achieve what we are meant to: our destiny.