thoughts about acupuncture and macro-level social change

The study of Chinese medicine is a wonderful and privileged experience. Students are exposed to infinitely simple yet unthinkably profound concepts. Indeed, it would be both beautiful and useful to be able to introduce the teachings of Chinese medicine to communities across theUnited States. Through the study of this medicine we are exposed to the idea that true healing and change come only by getting to the roots ofproblems, and that the solutions to those problems are found through balance, harmony, and equality. When there is inequality, there is imbalance, and where there is imbalance, there is disease. The beauty of Chinese medicine is its approach – healing the whole while healing theparts. The same approach can be used when addressing social and economic problems, and is potentially a phenomenal way to bring Chinese medicine to the US at large.

It seems natural that in order to understand how to bring the medicine to the greater US population, all we need to do is listen to the medicine itself, to follow the guiding principles and philosophies, which are based on subtlety, beauty, depth, and tangible healing. The concept of empowerment has perhaps become a household word in the US since the civil rights movements, but the concept is actually quite ancient, and well articulated in the philosophies of Chinese medicine. That being said, the word empowerment is not found in any of the classical texts, and the modern understanding of the concept may appearto be quite foreign in the context of ancient China. However, as many ofthe ancient texts suggest even through their titles, they are “jing” –often translated as classic, but with a deeper meaning of eternal, or something that which applies regardless of time. The authors and thinkers of classic texts which we attempt to decipher today were tryingt o convey teachings which are eternal. Some interpretations of Chinese medicine suggest that a goal is to ultimately empower the person to be incontrol of their own health and life, through vitality, awareness, and confidence. A person can be in charge of their own tools for future maintenance and growth. The practitioner is simply a facilitator of that process, playing a small but important role in helping a person achieve liberation (of suffering or disease) and being allowed to express one’sself in one’s ultimate, liberated potential. That may take any form –artist or plumber, auto mechanic, farmer or writer, and so on. When aperson is truly healthy he or she will develop in a way that will not contradict nature or community. Looking at the nature of disease in Chinese medicine we can see that when we go against the natural flow ofthings that is when disease can arise.

The eternal quality of the teachings of Chinese medicine are simple, yetprofound. If one phrase can summarize the essence of Chinese medicine it very well may be “As above, so below.” We often see how energies/tendencies of different qualities resonate at different levels.The energy of east is the same as spring, as wood, as green, as well asthe Liver. When we take the essence of the practitioner/facilitator to its logical extension (micro to macro, individual to community) we can see the manifestation of a community center.

As in so many teachings, we can employ the use of metaphor to explain howit may be possible to bring this beautiful medicine to the general USpopulation. Let us look at a community of people as an organism (single patient) and the community center as the practitioner/facilitator. In order for a community to be healthy and for the members to have a highquality of life, several basic needs must be met. Housing, food, jobs,education, meaningful employment, and of course health care. Once these basic needs are met, communities and individuals can thrive without exploiting other members of the immediate community or individuals fromoutside communities. This community center will need to provide adequate health care (both preventive and curative) which is both affordable andeffective. It will also simultaneously need to provide mechanisms for local-based production and consumption of foods and other products, and a structure for education which is either free (ideally) or at the very least affordable to all members. The education provided will mirror the principles guiding the community, and will necessarily need to be based on pertinent sustainability of the community as well as the freedom ofall members to be able to express themselves as they see fit without causing harm to anyone else. The principles guiding the community are sustainability, harmony, self-sufficiency, and peace. Continuing with the metaphor, the community center is essentially the practitioner/facilitator which will be able to assist the community as a crutch or inspiration whenever necessary. What better way to bring Chinese medicine to the general public than by living and breathing theessentials of the philosophies?

By only offering Chinese medicine we would not be truly extending the idea of wholistic healing to the US community. It would be as if apatient went to see an acupuncturist and was only offered needles, and the practitioner failed to mention that the patient could (or, ideally, should) also be taking herbs, doing Qigong, eating a healthy diet, and paying attention to the seasons and local ecology and rhythms! By being able to have access to acupuncture along with other essentials, the profound beauty of Chinese medicine can be conveyed to the US public andincorporated in people’s every-day lives in a very real and deep way. Perhaps it sounds utopic, but if we believe in the essence of Chinese medicine that a harmony can be struck within the body, we must not beafraid to extend that, to strive to find that within our community. Indeed, one can not be found without the other.