All medical and healing systems are belief systems first (Part 2)
In Communist China during the 1950’s a select committee of experts set out to standardize all the various traditions of Chinese medicine and unify them into a single system. This resulted in the creation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, or ‘TCM’, which is what most people associate with Chinese medicine today.
In contrast to this, the last three decades have seen a revival of what is called Classical Chinese Medicine or ‘CCM’, which seeks to honor and acknowledge all the different levels and strands of this ancient healing tradition.
To my mind, TCM and CCM are not at all in opposition to each other, since both offer effective forms of medicine. But CCM offers an exciting opportunity to enjoy the rich heritage of all the practices that fall under the umbrella of Chinese medicine.
Acupuncture can be understood as an ‘applied philosophy’ in the sense that it is based upon the worldview of Chinese medicine - which is essentially Daoist in nature. In what follows, I’d like to discuss that Daoist picture of reality in order to provide a fuller picture of what acupuncture authentically sets out to achieve.
Daoism is notoriously difficult to define, and there is no one way of practicing it. But as a broad philosophical system it nevertheless had a major influence in shaping Chinese medicine.
According to Jeffery Yuen, an 88th Generation Daoist priest and physician, and the source of the transmission of the tradition of Chinese medicine that I practice, the Chinese character Dao (道) can be interpreted as a ‘process of self-reflection’ through which an individual ‘comes to fully appreciate who they are, and understand the purpose of what they're seeking.’
The early scholar-sage-physicians paid careful observation to nature and to the relationship between all that is above (Heaven) and all that is below (Earth). Through this they arrived at a special understanding of ‘the Dao’ which is essentially a transformative experience of (human) Being.
The Daoist sage-physicians intuitively delineated the channel systems of acupuncture as a blueprint of sacred geometry mapped onto the human body.
Humanity is understood as an outcome of the mediation of heaven and earth - that we are interconnected with and subject to universal processes. The philosophical underpinning here is that acupuncture pathways have the potential to lead us back to being at one with heaven and earth. And thereby to achieve a unity with our own divinity - which in a practical sense is equated with sound physical health, but on a deeper level is associated with spiritual development.
That deeper spiritual dimension is therefore shared with all spiritual traditions. All religions seek a transformative experience of Being and merely express that objective in different ways. How do you enter the kingdom of god? How do you return to the source? How do you enter a state of oneness with all things?
Most importantly, the Daoist philosophy saw the channels of acupuncture as inner pathways that held the key to personal liberation and transcendence - meaning that we each hold the key to our own freedom. All we need to do is realize that and then seize our opportunity in the here and now.
Acupuncture therefore can be understood to transfer wisdom - in the sense that it invites us to enter this inner landscape and discover its true riches for ourselves. Whereas other healing modalities are based on the idea of acquiring knowledge of things outside of ourselves, acupuncture encourages us to go inwards - to access, survey, and enjoy that profound inner landscape.
This sentiment is beautifully expressed in chapter 11 of the 2nd century text ‘Ling Shu’ (Spiritual Axis):
Healing comes from within. If the patient does not believe in his or her healing, then no matter what the clinician does, the patient will not be able to heal.
And to conclude, consider also these words from a modern voice - the Irish poet and writer, John O’Donohue:
