TCM book recommendation for beginner/intermediate?

[Guest guest]

AAAOM (a small but very good school in Minnesota)

recommends these books:

http://www.aaaom.org/AAAOM%20Recommends%20Top%20100%20TCM%20Books.html

 

This link is to descriptions of a few of the classical

works:

http://www.aaaom.org/CHINESE%20MED%20CLASSICS.htm

 

-s

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

> instead of trying to memorize theories that seem to tend to the

> arbitrary side.

 

This is a subject I have written about several times in the past -

unfortunately there is really not a book that approaches these

issues from the perspective this poster needs. My experience is that

many people from western cultures have trouble understanding the

basic concepts of TCM simply because they do not have any foundation

model to place these concepts into. A student of medicine in China

does not confront these issues because they have heard of these

concepts -Yin/Yang, Qi, etc - since childhood - here in the west

these concepts are alien and even a little strange and often

illogical - I have actually met only a handful of western students

of Oriental culture who really understand the issues and most

importantly they do not understand how to practically apply what

they have learned - many students have memorized the rules from

books and are very good at repeating these rules but when asked to

explain these rules in non TCM terms they are not able to do so

because they have never really come to understand what these rules

apply to in ordinary human functioning. This becomes a terrible

obstacle in clinical practice since many try to apply these rules to

patients and end up applying therapeutic concepts in a rote way

without ever really understanding the patient at all. This is my

main complaint with some levels of western TCM practice - it is not

really the practice of medicine at all.

 

I often recommend Harriet Beinfield's work 'Between Heaven and

Earth' as this is a book by a true student of Chinese theory -

Harriet approaches the issues from both a physical and a

psychological perspective - many western people think in

psychological terms therefore it is more accessible to a wider range

of individuals - it is a book suited for anyone who has a smattering

of knowledge in TCM. One of the problems is that many books on TCM

are written for those who want to go into the practice of TCM as a

profession - most of these books are not suited for casual or real

beginners. A large percentage of people who study TCM simply want to

understand the basic ideas of Chinese culture concerning health and

disease and have no interest in becoming health care professionals -

such people need another type of book than the popular texts studied

by those pursuing a professional path in a totally different

type book is needed but is not really there yet.

 

The Oriental vision and model of reality is very different from the

western model - but since there is only one reality then there is no

reason why the various systems can not be understood through

correspondences - all of this work has been done and there are

thousands of authorities throughout the world who have correlated

and synthesized these systems but all of that information is

scattered here and there and is not easily accessible to a casual

student. Example for intermediate and advanced students I often

recommend Bob Flaws' book `The Treatment of Modern Western Diseases

With ' as an entry to understanding TCM patterns –

if one has a basic knowledge in western scientific physiology and

other scientific concepts then studying the correspondences that Bob

and Phillipe make between the western descriptions of disease

processes and the equivalent processes in TCM terminology gives one

an easy learning tool for studying pathology from both perspectives –

therefore getting a clearer picture of what these various terms

used in TCM refer to – everyone already knows these things (the

basics) but they do not know they know because a different language

is being used – translating from one language to the other is the

real secret to beginning to understand a new model of reality. I

know people who can quote chapter and verse from the classic texts

but who know little about the successful practice of medicine – this

problem also exists in Ayurveda because the classic texts are

written in Sanskrit yet few western people know Sanskrit or the

cultural context in which it exists – past and present. This also

applies to modern Indian students because many who go to medical

school are learning Sanskrit for the first time – it is difficult

enough to study medicine in a language you understand what to say of

learning medicine in a language you are just learning – I find a

large percentage of people fail in this attempt. The status of

Ayurveda in India is at a very low ebb because many doctors set up

in practice with no real qualifications to do so except a license

which gives them the right – meaning they memorized the answers to

the questions and remembered them well enough to pass an exam – this

in no way qualifies someone to see patients who are coming with

serious issues of life and disease.

 

> So I guess what would be good are some simple fairly

straightforward

> examples that are explained in detail according to TCM. A good

> example of this I read somewhere is it was talking about yin and

> yang. Overall water is yin and mountain is yang, generally

> speaking. If a person's overall being was personified in a

> portrait, and say the picture was a mountain-scape with a river

> running in the background. Overall this would follow the

pattern.

> On the other hand if the portrait was a seascape with a mountain

in

> the distance, the water would be mostly yang in the picture

compared

> to the yin mountain in the background. A book that had many

> examples like this in it would be very helpful for me. Has anyone

> read or know of a book like this?

>

 

You will have to learn the meaning of these terms in the language

that you already understand – speculation can only confuse. Remember

that Yin is cool or cold and Yang is warm or hot – these terms are

relative – so the analogy you proposed is not correct it refers to

relative states of Yin and Yang – meaning two entities can be more

or less Yin or Yang but this does not imply anything about its

ultimate status as either Yin or Yang – ice cube is Yin and boiling

water is also Yin but a more Yang form of water - which is always

Yin – a river is Yin - a mountain is also Yin but in this sense it

can be understood from it's relative state to a river as being more

or less Yin or more or less Yang . Another example - a river might

be more Yang than say a swimming pool but both are Yin. Come to the

understanding of the absolute nature of the opposites in reality and

the relative states of the opposites will become clear – maybe not

easily but surely – once one understands these concepts then one

will see the relative Yin and Yang in all `things' and `events'.