Wallowing in Words
Yes! There are paths that can be followed as paths
But! These are not the paths that last.
Ming: Names
Yes! There are names that can be employed as names
But! These are not the names that last.
Suwen 5 and Seeking the Root
…the lesson here is that we all need to stay open to learning and being corrected. That none of our knowledge is ever enough, that we all make mistakes, and that we all must create and maintain and nurture a learning environment that facilitates this sort of mutual collaboration. And that we must hold each other accountable, and that that our goal must be not to make ourselves right and the other person wrong but to learn from and with and for each other, for the benefit of the greater good.
Acting on my “Coronified” Values
I wanted to share the story of this book with you because it fills me with hope for a new post-pandemic way of life, and because, ultimately, these are all simple things to do. Most of you, the readers of my blog, are healers and as such are involved with physical medicine, with alleviating the suffering of the physical bodies in the community around you. I invite you, through this little story, to contemplate what each of us can do to try and embody the lofty ideal of classical Chinese medicine in harmonizing Heaven and Earth, in cultivating the virtue-power 德 dé that comes from being in alignment with the Dào 道, the cosmic Way.
Feeding in the Grey Zone
A year and half a million deaths (in my chosen home country) into this pandemic, seems like a good time for me to reflect.
Crying Over Spilled Milk
There is no point in crying over spilled milk, right? But how many of us truly know, deep in our hearts, the challenge posed by this casual saying? I don’t know its history, how old it is, who coined it, and under what circumstances and with what intentions it was first uttered. Was it a compassionate consolation from an admirably chill mom on a lazy Sunday morning, to a young child crying after dropping a cup of their favorite chocolate milk at the breakfast table? A stern and judgmental word of warning from the family patriarch in the 50s, home after a long day at the office, when the supposedly happy housewife got upset about the mess on the kitchen floor and lost it? Or a kind-hearted response by a good farmer when a clumsy milkmaid of old dropped a pail on her way from the milking parlor to the creamery?
Sun Simiao on Yangxing
Now, it is difficult for humans to nurture but easy to imperil, as it is difficult for Qì to be clear but easy to be turbid. Only when we are able to fully know our awe-inspiring virtue-power in order to protect the spirits of the earth and of the grain, and when we are able to sever our desires in order to secure the blood and Qì, only then will the True One be preserved therein, will the Three Ones[2] be safeguarded therein, will the hundred diseases turned back therein, and will longevity be extended therein…
Chao Yuanfang on Epidemics
The following is my translation of Cháo Yuánfāng’s 巢元方 three essays on Epidemics, found as Volume 10 of the Zhūbìng yuánhòu lùn《諸病源候論》(“Discussion of the Origins and Signs of the Various Diseases,” from 610 CE)
From Extraction Beyond Sustainability To Regeneration
…This is a pivotal time, a giant hinge moment that calls on us all to replace the currently still dominant model of EXTRACTION not just with the goal of SUSTAINABILITY, as has been advocated up to now by many progressive people, but with the ideal of RESTORATION or REGENERATION. And by “restoration” I don’t mean a return to the “normal” that may have worked for some people in the age before the coronavirus, but a return to the source, to ancient ways of being and knowing, in harmony with our plant and animal relations. We can see the need for this change in perspective in the three main areas of Chinese thought that I like to fall back on: Politics/economics, agriculture, and medicine. …
Accessing Knowing
My daughter is my hero! A radical shining activist studying political science and all sorts of fancy-worded things I don’t understand. She sends me the greatest book recommendations, including as one of the last books I was able to check out from the library before they closed due to Covid-19, this title: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, "As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance. Besides giving great hope and inspiration, this fascinating book also contains a chapter on “Land as Pedagogy,” which contains a discussion of indigenous Nishnaabeg education. There I found the following quote, which strikes me as extremely relevant to my own search for sources of knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy, both in general, in the context of climate change, and especially in this current pandemic when the complete failure and inadequacy of biomedicine and other modern systems of knowing has become more obvious than ever before
Making Bread
This blog post is a bit different, written in response to years of requests from friends and neighbors. It is something like a recipe for my infamous “Brick Bread,” but with the caveat that I consider bread baking most definitely an art and not a science that you can replicate. Too much of it depends on the stars, your ingredients, your menstrual status (I am not kidding, don’t try and make bread rise when you are on our moon time!), the humidity and temperature in your kitchen, your oven, your pans, the quality and nature and vitality of your starter culture etc etc. So take it all with a nice coarse chunk of Himalayan sea salt!
Spreading Abundance in a Pandemic
What follows is the text of a Happy Goat Productions newsletter that I sent out yesterday. To those of you who missed it, here it is….
Embracing the Middle
Mengzi: “Yangzi chooses acting on his own behalf, which means that if he could benefit all Under Heaven by pulling out even a single hair, he still would not do it. Mozi practices universal love, which means that if he had to rub himself raw from the top of the head to the heel of the foot to benefit Under Heaven, he would still do it. Zimo embraces the middle, which brings him closer. However, embracing the middle without expediently adapting to circumstances is still a form of embracing a single position. The reason why I dislike embracing a single position is because it strong-arms the Dao and because it elevates a single position and dismisses a hundred others.”
Establishing Life Through Water and Fire
My translation of ̌Shuǐ huǒ lìmìng lùn 水火立命論 (Treatise on Establishing Life Through Water and Fire), by Cài Yíjì 蔡貽績 from the Qing dynasty: “How are humans created? Humans are created in fire. They are created in the [third earthly branch] Yīn, which is fire. Fire is the substance of Yáng. Creation takes Yáng as the root of life. Human life takes fire as the gate of the lifespan (mingmen). Scholars say that heaven opens in [the first heavenly branch] Zǐ, and that Zǐ is the origin. Doctors say that humans are created from water, and that the kidney is the origin. Who is aware that Zǐ is the beginning of Yáng and that the kidney constitutes a fire organ/storage?…
Losing the Gift of Bafflement
"Speaking of fakery, one of the great temptations of being a writer is to absorb the projections of readers who think you're an expert on some subject just because you have written a book about it... When my ego becomes bloated with the illusions of expertise, I risk losing the gift of bafflement that has always animated my best writing. I stop asking questions and start believing I have answers." (Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything)
A Heart Full of Great Compassion
Known in China and abroad as the “King of Medicinals,” Sun Simiao 孫思邈 is one of the most celebrated figures in the long history of Chinese medicine. He is also the author of China’s first – and still relevant – essay on medical ethics and professional cultivation, which is included in countless oaths of TCM schools worldwide. Despite Master Sun’s elevated status in both China and the West as one of its greatest practitioners, however, an official biography composed several centuries after his death and other historical documents offer not a single hard fact about his professional practice as a physician. To appreciate the significance of this fact, we need to look both at the context of medical practice in early China and the content of Sun Simiao’s teachings. With this understanding, we shall be prepared to read his famous essay “On the Sublime Sincerity of the Eminent Physician,” which I have translated below.
Tinier than Autumn Down
In honor of the transition to the New Year of the Metal Rat and my final writing efforts of the Pig Earth year, here is little taste from the Introduction to my forthcoming Channeling the Moon, Part Two: A Translation and Discussion of Qí Zhòngfǔ’s Hundred Questions on Gynecology, Questions 15-50, which addresses miscellaneous conditions of gynecology. The following is the literal translation of a quotation from Chén Zìmíng’s 陳自明 introductory essay of the Fùrén dàquán liángfāng 《婦人大全良方》 (Compendium of Excellent Formulas for Women) composed in 1237
The Yin and Yang of Education
Being an educator in the field of classical Chinese history, culture, and medicine, it is impossible for me to avoid a critical engagement with the topic of education spanning three areas: as envisioned in classical Chinese philosophy and politics, as practiced in various forms throughout the history of Chinese medicine, and as enacted today in both institutional and private educational settings…