RE: lonny/peter, points and spirit

[Guest guest]

I have been listening to both sides of this debate now for some time and as

it now appears that Peter Deadman is on board here, I feel moved to make a

few points.

The longer this debate continues, the more I get the sense that you guys are

not actually disagreeing on any meaningful level, but on a semantic one.

 

I was at the BAcC conference the other day and listened to Peter talking on

this question as to whether acupuncture can treat the spirit, and I can't

see, peter, that you would have an issue with many of the points that Lonny

is making. For instance, Lonny in his reply says:

 

" Hence, the spiritual practice of medicine does not

necessarily involve 'healing the spirit' per se, but rather removing all

impediments to

the spirit's manifestation in our lives as the soul source of healing " .

 

If I can paraphrase your comments peter, this seems to me exactly the point

you were making at the conference. Yes, we can treat liver qi stagnation by

needling Liv1 which, within the bounds of the patient's current potential /

wishes and the context of the treatment (which would include the

practitioner) may lead them to resolve e.g. specific issues with anger and

move them on spiritually as a result. I think the issue you have with

Lonny's comments is that Lonny appears to be saying that treating Liv1 in

itself will bring about this change, that there is something magic about

Liv1, over and about the fact that it moves liver qi in a specific way. I

actually don't believe there is and am firmly in Peter's camp in this

regard.

 

Lonny, you reply " generally we tend to have a very casual notion of what

spirit is, or of what constitutes a spiritual life, and it is best to be

humble " . I find this comment to be highly ironic. Throughout the entire

thread of your responses to people via your nourishing destiny chat group,

the one thing that is conspicuous by its absence is any sense of humility

whatsoever. Maybe you are modelling yourself on some idealised concept of a

guru / Zen master and feel that you are hierarchically privileged in some

way that permits you to assume the spiritual high ground.

To show strength of conviction and speak with certainty is very admirable,

and I genuinely respect your commitment to your work and believe you have

helped many people along their paths.

Castaneda's don Juan said there are 4 obstacles along the path to spirit,

the 2nd of which is certainty (his word is actually clarity). It is the very

thing that enables us to get beyond the 1st obstacle (fear), that stands in

our way and stops us progressing further. Certainty cuts through fear, but

it also blinds. I believe a lack of humility goes hand in hand with this.

Certainty also likes to cut its way through other things - things that are

perhaps impossible, in reality, to cut through. For instance, in your reply

Lonny, you go on to comment that:

" Ego constitutes the very stagnation that the highest medicine endeavours to

eliminate " . This is counterpoised to comments such as 'those of us that

understand the primacy of spirit'. I believe this to be, at heart, a

misunderstanding of both a holistic medicine and a true spiritual endeavour.

There is the One in many, and also many in the One. It is a dangerous path

in my estimation that talks of eliminating ego. Where will you find this

'ego'? it is none other than (an aspect of) your true self - albeit a little

confused and lost. Give it succour, give it comfort and understanding, but

don't try to tell us that we should eliminate it. The understanding that

ensues from knowing ones ego is our individual path to spirit - that's the

field of learning not the battle field with 'primacy of spirit' pitted

against 'ego'.

 

To return to 'can acupuncture treat the spirit', I thought I would relate my

personal experience with this in a field which unites nicely the areas

covered by this debate. I was a Zen Buddhist monk for 7 years. During that

time I learnt, amongst other things, a system of 'healing' that employed an

application of acupressure, and was my first introduction to Chinese

medicine. The technique is based upon series of mudras where a set pattern

of points are held / stimulated, 2 at a time - one point with the left hand,

another with the right, until a sense of balance was felt between the 2

points. One or both of the points were then changed for the next in the

sequence. This system can still be found in use in Chan and Zen temples in

the east and has also been adapted and developed by some practitioners in

the west. The releases were known to us as the mudras of harmonisation and

the specific patterns were such as 'discovery mudra', 'faith-doubt mudra',

'joy-sadness mudra', 'cleansing-stagnation mudra', 'abdominal tension

mudra', 'spiritual cleansing mudra', and so on.

It is my experience from this and my ongoing work, that certain patterns of

points do have specific energetic effects on the spirit, with certain

individual points located in prime energy centres, such as yintang. Touching

somebody else, whether that's with a finger or a needle or anything else for

that matter, anywhere on their body is going to have an effect. Simple cause

and effect. I have come to appreciate that the Chinese are extremely acute

observationalists and have, over the millennia said to themselves 'what sort

of effect does this sort of stimulation have on this point', and out of that

has grown the use and understanding of points that we have today. I know

that that's a gross oversimplification of history of the development of

acupuncture, but the point I am making is that it is observable that some

points, or combinations of points do seem to point both the body, in terms

of its symptoms, and the spirit, in terms of its symptoms, in specific

directions.

I do not think that this is evidence for the argument the acupuncture treats

the spirit (I am largely with peter deadman on that one), but I do think it

supports the notion that, as lonny has said, certain points and

combinations, within an appropriate context (which is crucial) are useful

for " removing all impediments to the spirit's manifestation in our lives " .

 

Jason