I recently gave a paper at the annual conference of the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World. It was a bit of a stretch for me, as I’d not done work like this since, at least, my thesis in acupuncture school. Careful thinking is hard, and I can’t say I even did that wonderful a…
Chinese medicine and liberation
Many of us come to this medicine to contribute to deep wellness in our communities. We may want to do more than simply execute protocols that remove pain. We may feel in our hearts that we want to do more than help a person run that next marathon. To go beyond the noble goal of…
The importance of lineage in [Chinese] medicine
I set the word “Chinese” apart with brackets because I believe lineage is important in all medicine – indeed in all human endeavor. Unfortunately, lately the word has become something of a curse, something looked down upon as being too subjectively oriented, too privileged, too hierarchical. Of course, there are those, too, who put it…
Practice makes perfect – advice on learning Chinese herbs
As a student learning Chinese herbs, I was impatient. Already having been in higher education for 8 years straight, I was eager to get on with it. I didn’t understand the process, and I didn’t understand (nor respect) the ancient traditions of learning that, despite it all, still have something to teach us. I got…
In which I am reminded again that Chinese medicine theory can save my life
I’ve been reading a couple of interesting books. One, which I’ve read a couple of times before, is called The Diamond Cutter, which elaborates a Buddhist view on business and life management. I’m not done with it, yet, but it is subtly shifting my consciousness in a new direction. Actually, it is more accurate to…
Making the medicine our own
I teach about business to Chinese medicine students at NUNM. As is typical, I’m learning more from them than they likely learn from me. One of the things that continually inspires me about these students is the way they feel utterly free from the trappings and expectations of the received wisdom in the business world….
Mastery, striving for a goal, and the four S words
All my life, I have been trying to do my best at whatever I am doing. I am very interested in the way we humans learn, how we retain and recall information, and how we reach great heights in performance. In some way, that’s why Chinese Medicine Central exists. Certainly, it’s why all the posts…
Chinese medical symbolism: the organ clock
Alert : This is a reposted article from previous versions of the website. I’ve kept it up in mostly unmodified form as people have found it helpful. Newer content may be more complete, accurate, or may represent more matured theoretical and clinical understanding on my part. Proceed accordingly. Chinese language is symbolic – it uses…