window of and to the sky

[Guest guest]

>

Sorry to ramble here, but it strikes into the heart of a thousand

conversations among friends over the years.

Interesting article... I believe it was John Pirog who made similar

comments. McDonald's comments point to much of what some would say

excitement of using CM in the West and others might say corruption or

co-optation. I asked my good friend, from Beijing TCM University,

this very question about Window of the Sky points several years ago

and I was surprised when he said, Look at all the names, of course,

they are psychological points.

Then perhaps we need to look at cultural concepts, perhaps

stereotypes, perhaps not. Psychological health in Asia may mean best

getting along with family first and (perhaps) secondly your (many)

neighbors and community relationships. Your actions now have

consequences for generations later for your family. One could

conclude that most actions would tend to be more conservative and

less individualistic. The Western individual is that, individual, and

every one yearns, at least in modern culture to be taken mentally and

culturally out of the group. American (popular) culture has been

defined at its root as African culture where the individual attempts

to move as far away from norms and still be able to pull back into

the good graces of the community. Which is as far from Asian " face "

as one can get.

So the question, becomes not if " Window of the Sky " points exist but

can they influence us in the way that proponents in the West claim.

Can the Western patient (i.e. Shirley McClaine) expect to reach

beyond the body, community and tradition of for

their own purposes? And then we ask, are psychology and spirituality

the same in CM? In America, at least, we are mandated the right to

" pursue happiness " . Often this is meant that the most spiritual

person is the one with the most obvious internal and external signs

of spirituality.

 

Of course, throughout Asia and the rest of the world, immigration,

global communications and economies make much categorizations less

the case for many. If any one is offended by such sweeping

generalizations please respond (in kind!).

 

 

 

Which brings me to a classic discussion from Trungpa, Chogyam,

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; (Shambhala

Publications, Inc.; Boston, Massachusetts; 1973)

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/cutting.htm

 

 

It is important to see that the main point of any spiritual

practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego. This means

stepping out of ego's constant desire for a higher, more spiritual,

more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue,

judgment, comfort or whatever it is that a particular ego is

seeking. One must step out of spiritual materialism. If we do not

step out of spiritual materialism, if we in fact practice it, then

we may eventually find ourselves possessed of a huge collection of

spiritual paths. We may feel these spiritual collections to be very

precious. We have studied so much. We may have studied Western

philosophy or Oriental philosophy, practiced yoga or perhaps studied

under dozens of great masters. We have achieved and we have

learned. We believe that we have accumulated a hoard of knowledge.

And yet, having gone through all this, there is still something to

give up. It is extremely mysterious! How could this happen?

Impossible! But unfortunately it is so. Our vast collections of

knowledge and experience are just part of ego's display, part of the

grandiose quality of ego. We display them to the world and, in so

doing, reassure ourselves that we exist, safe and secure, as

" spiritual " people.

 

But we have simply created a shop, an antique shop. We

could be specializing in oriental antiques or medieval Christian

antiques or antiques from some other civilization or time, but we

are, nonetheless, running a shop. Before we filled our shop with so

many things the room was beautiful: whitewashed walls and a very

simple floor with a bright lamp burning in the ceiling. There was

one object of art in the middle of the room and it was beautiful.

Everyone who came appreciated its beauty, including ourselves.

 

But we were not satisfied and we thought, " Since this one

object makes my room so beautiful, if I get more antiques, my room

will be even more beautiful. " So we began to collect, and the end

result was chaos.

 

We searched the world over for beautiful objects - India,

Japan, many different countries. And each time we found an antique,

because we were dealing with only one object at a time, we saw it as

beautiful and thought it would be beautiful in our shop. But when

we brought the object home and put it there, it became just another

addition to our junky collection. The beauty of the object did not

radiate out any more, because it was surrounded by so many other

beautiful things. It did not mean anything anymore. Instead of a

room full of beautiful antiques we created a junk shop!

 

Proper shopping does not entail collecting a lot of

information or beauty, but it involves fully appreciating each

individual object.

 

> ____________________

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>

> Message: 7

> Sun, 19 Jun 2005 15:09:31 +0100

> " " <

> Windows of the Sky Points

>

> Hi All,

>

> Will Morris [PulseDiagnosis List] alerted us to John McDonald's

> " Curtains for the Windows of the Sky " , a refutation of widely held

> belief

> in great spiritual action of " Windows of the Sky Points " . Thanks,

> Will!

>

> McDonald's conclusion is: " The APPEAL of a group of acupuncture

> points with deep spiritual and psychological significance is beyond

> dispute, and a widespread willingness to believe in such points on the

> basis of the slenderest of evidence has already been demonstrated.

> However this legitimate fascination with emotional, psychological and

> spiritual issues need not cause the acupuncture profession to innovate

> without any foundation. Designing the Emperor's new clothes has

> become a veritable fashion industry. One of the great values of

> acupuncture is the tremendous treasure of historical literature

> which is

> available to us all. When we access this literature, examine the

> evidence and apply the usual tests of academic rigour, the

> conclusion is

> inescapable - the Emperor has no clothes! "

>

> For full-text of the article, see:

> http://www.tcmcentral.com/articles/acu_window_sky.htm

>

>

> Best regards,

>

>

> Tel: (H): +353-(0) or (M): +353-(0)

>

>

>