New to TCM/Book recommendation

[Guest guest]

I recommend Kaptchuk, ted . the web that has no weaver

Benfeild . between heaven and earth

just for starters....Skip

ps. _i love the potent quote about loving animals! (i do) thanks

[Guest guest]

I agree with Skip, these two books hooked me.

 

Shane

[Guest guest]

I'm lurking because I'm new and I'm lost. Can someone recommend a book

that would be good for a beginner to TCM to learn (and hopefully

understand) the way of Chinese healing?

 

Tamara and the Zoo

 

" Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains

unawakened. " -- Anatole France

 

" You, yourself, as much as anybody in the universe, deserve your love

and affection. " -- Buddha

[Guest guest]

I've always been a fan of The Web that Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuk.

 

daniel dormer wrote:

>

> I'm lurking because I'm new and I'm lost. Can someone recommend a book

> that would be good for a beginner to TCM to learn (and hopefully

> understand) the way of Chinese healing?

--

Al Stone L.Ac.

<AlStone

http://www.BeyondWellBeing.com

 

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

[Guest guest]

Hi Daniel,

 

If you hadn't already done so, go to the message section on the

Chinese Traditional Medicine website and start reading from message 1. The earliest posts

are a step-by-step intro into TCM concepts.

 

Feel free to ask questions about anything you don't understand, and please

don't worry if there is something you don't understand. It becomes clearer

as time goes by. Everyone on here was once new to TCM at one time. Most of

the list still are, and if one of you starts asking questions, that's going

to help everyone. It also will help teachers to understand what needs to be

covered better.

 

I like the book The Web That Has No Weaver. I also like Chinese Herbal

Cures by Henry C. Lu for beginners. It touches on some underlying TCM

concepts in the beginning of the book and then goes into folk tales

associated with herbs. The folk tales helps people remember the herbs and

what they do. Chinese Herbal Cures was the first TCM book I bought, and it

gave me plently to ask the herbalist I was seeing at the time.<G> For

example, I asked him if I shouldn't take an herb like dandelion because I

was so Cold and it is so Cold and I didn't need to be any colder than I

already was. That's when I learned that in cases where a person needs the

properties of a certain herb but not its thermal energy, what you do is to

mix the herb with other herbs whose thermal energy will cancel out the

thermal energy of the herb. As long as the mixture as a whole is of a

thermal energy that won't aggravate any Cold/Hot problems the person has,

it's safe to use (in most cases). If a person who is too Cold needs an herb

that also is Cold (and you can't find an herb with the same properties but

neutral or warm energy), you mix the Cold herb with herbs with warm or hot

energy to bring the overall thermal energy of the mixture up to neutral or

warm. Likewise, if a person who is too Hot needs an herb with Hot energy

and you can't find one with the desired properties with neutral or cool

energy, you add enough herbs with cool or cold thermal energy to bring the

mixture's thermal energy to neutral or cool.

 

This has some very practical applications. Some people can't take bulk

laxatives like psyllium because instead of Heat being the cause of their

constipation (the most common scenario), Cold is the cause. The Cold slows

things down and can even stop them. (A lack of peristalsis.) A cooling

herb like psyllium just adds more cold to an already too cold situation and

the bulk laxative just sits in them, causing them even more pain and

suffering. But, if the psyllium is mixed with ginger tea (made from dried

ginger) instead of mixed with water, the psyllium will act more like it

should in these people. The thermal energy of dried ginger is Hot. It

cancels out the Cold energy of the psyllium to a mixture which is neutral.

 

For more information on Hot/Cold see the earliest posts. Hot/Cold is one of

the 8 Principal Patterns of analysis. The 8 PP is the most basic approach

to analyzing what is wrong with a person. The other 8 PP are

Exterior/Interior, Excess/Deficiency, and Yang/Yin. Excess problems are

those caused by there being too much of something. The person gets too Hot

because s/he's been eating too many spicy foods or taking too many Hot

herbs. Deficiency problems arise because there's not enough of something

the person needs. For example, Yang warms and activates the body. If a

person is Yang Deficient, the person will feel cold a lot and have trouble

warming up. The pulse, speech, and movements of the person will be slow

because Cold slows things down. The person may need to sleep a lot. (Think

of a hibernating bear.)

 

Victoria

 

 

 

> " daniel dormer " <tedorm58

>Chinese Traditional Medicine

> " Chinese Traditional Medicine " <Chinese Traditional Medicine >

>[Chinese Traditional Medicine] New to TCM/Book recommendation

>Mon, 10 Sep 2001 14:38:04 -0400

>

>I'm lurking because I'm new and I'm lost. Can someone recommend a book

>that would be good for a beginner to TCM to learn (and hopefully

>understand) the way of Chinese healing?

>

>Tamara and the Zoo

>

> " Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains

>unawakened. " -- Anatole France

>

> " You, yourself, as much as anybody in the universe, deserve your love

>and affection. " -- Buddha

>

>

>

>

> Post message: Chinese Traditional Medicine

> Subscribe: Chinese Traditional Medicine-

> Un: Chinese Traditional Medicine-

> List owner: Chinese Traditional Medicine-owner

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