The Legacy of Ziyang June 14, 2007
Posted by Geoffrey Wilson in : Philosophy,Psychology , trackbackThe Brief
Several weeks ago, I received an email from a curious and recent TCM graduate. He informed me that he had stumbled across several of my books and that he would like to know more about the relationship that exists between oriental medicine and the Taoist healing arts. Naturally, I obliged. Before clinic one day, we had breakfast and talked it through. It occurred to me during our conversation that for the most part, students are rarely inspired by their teachers to investigate the spiritual roots of their profession. What a pity! There is a reason for saying that they are missing out on the truly good stuff.
Ultimately, the practice of oriental medicine is a spiritual journey for both practitioner and patient alike. Though this journey is experientially developmental, it is nonetheless governed by the aim to recover a meaningful relationship to spirit and of course, the ‘Tao’. Consequently, an investigation of the influences of Buddhism and Taoism cannot be avoided. Given that the sages (as masters of reality) understood the cause of all physical, mental, emotional and spiritual afflictions to be a disturbance of the ‘shen’ (spirit), one can appreciate the relevance of Buddhist and Taoist teachings. In fact, their influence on the evolution of the oriental healing arts is often hidden between the lines of every classic ever written on the subject of oriental spirituality, from ‘Huainanzi’ to ‘I-Ching’. There is more to the story, however.
Clinical Modus Operandi
The focus of my clinical experience as a practitioner of oriental medicine for more than 20 years has ultimately been on the recovery of a patient’s psycho-emotional and spiritual balance. In terms of the oriental healing arts, this can be equated to the transpersonal exploration of Taoism and Buddhism as primary sources of both diagnostic and treatment protocol. Unfortunately, few realise that one of the essential aims of diagnosis is to unveil the subtle nature of inner turmoil. Even fewer understand that the main objective of treatment is to nourish the abode of spirit. In the clinic, this can be successfully accomplished first and foremost, by providing contemplative reference points for the patient, as well as lifestyle strategies that are able to serve as substantial and practical resources for personal transformation.
Invariably, many patients do not tend to have a particularly strong relationship to inward honesty. Their habituated patterns of thinking and feeling are so deeply ingrained that it takes much soul-searching to penetrate the thick defensive shield that is denial. It is therefore of importance for practitioners to cultivate their observational skills in order to discern when and under what circumstances, their interrogations will be met with either hostility or capricious defiance. There are occasions when uncompromising firmness is the antidote for patient obstinacy. In some circumstances, flexible receptivity is the only approach capable of dealing with a stalemate! It all depends on the aggregate of yin and yang energies presenting in a patient at any given time. A seasoned practitioner will know what this means and direct proceedings accordingly. Newcomers will expose deficiencies in their inter-personal skills and either stand corrected, or learn through trial and error.
Diagnosis and Treatment
In identifying all disorders as ‘shen’ disorders (and certainly those of a chronic nature), I have discovered something of the truth behind the sage’s maxim that ‘the diagnosis is the treatment and the treatment is the diagnosis’. Unfortunately, this premise is difficult to understand, especially if one views sickness as an opportunity to excuse oneself from accepting responsibility for the part one plays in manifesting the law of cause and effect. After all, the present is a result of the past and the future is governed by it.
Furthermore, mulling over the past, while simultaneously entertaining wild imaginings about the future, guarantees disturbance. The practitioner who can shed light on this conflict of the mind is equipped with the skill to act as an agent of change. Those that cannot, drown in a sea of unfathomable variables destined to produce mediocre, if not unfavourable, results. Indeed, diagnostic skill is incredibly hard to cultivate because it relies upon personal development as much as the capacity to administer refined treatment depends on heightened sensitivity and a certain freedom from emotional interference. Diagnostic skill and treatment excellence are spiritual qualities that come into being when intelligence is awakened and humility is summoned.
In short, the greater the grip one has in coming to terms with the ‘book of life’ (a benefit of Buddhist and Taoist investigation), the greater the chance for discovering the secrets of balance and harmony. In as much as the heart is the abode of spirit, all efforts must be directed to affecting stabilisation of the ‘shen’.
Ziyang
For those of us somewhat perplexed by the deeper meaning of the aforementioned riddle, and at the risk of ignoring Ziyang’s lament when he said, ‘I am yet to meet a single perceptive person’, the inner teachings of Taoism nonetheless remain as a pivotal guide to clarify the matter. Diagnosis is as much a spiritual transaction as treatment is a vehicle through which to facilitate the exchange.
Ziyang (a.k.a. Chang Po-Tuan) holds a special place in the annals of oriental spirituality. Not a great deal of anecdotal reference exists to either assert or deny his legendary status, but we do know that he wrote the classic of spiritual alchemy ‘Wu Chen Pi’en’ (‘Understanding Reality’) while in his 90s and then disappeared leaving behind a remarkable book of instruction on the cultivation and refinement of spiritual balance and harmony. To this day, luminaries and esteemed practitioners of the Taoist healing arts salute his concise rendering of the process of spiritual transcendence. Those yet to be enchanted by Ziyang’s recondite lyricism, should put their skates on immediately! The ride will not be a disappointment and nor will discovery abate.
One can also appreciate the fact that history is always a revelation in so far as it has the capacity to reveal the many extremes implied by the human condition. As Harold of England was capitulating in his Battle of Hastings to the wiles of William the Conqueror in 1066 and lost an eye for his trouble, Ziyang, on the other side of the globe, opened his. He had just about put the finishing touches to his masterpiece and had also arranged for the dissemination of its wisdom through various branches of the Complete Reality School of Taoism, both in southern and northern China. One branch served the needs of younger students. The other accommodated the requirements of the elderly.
Liu I-Ming
Approximately 800 years later, a Taoist adept by the name of Liu I-Ming settled down in his cliff-top hermitage with a dozen disciples. There in an austere environment, he wrote commentaries on many of Ziyang’s works, and methodically composed explanatory notes on the hexagrams of the I-Ching, in order to demystify not only the symbols and language, but to expound on the psycho-emotional qualities inherently embodied in the original text.
Liu I-Ming established that without immersing oneself in the symbols used by the sages to extrapolate the essence of their teachings, the meanings are obscure. Without clarification, interpretation is at best hopeful and at worst, spurious. He clearly understood that the human condition is generally subject to three insidious but nonetheless metaphysically challenging, diseases. The first of these is an inability to escape from the labyrinth of endless births and deaths. The second is a failure to resolve the conflict of the mind. The third is our struggle with mundanity! Liu I-Ming therefore devoted his old age to explaining Ziyang’s modus operandi, step-by-step, knowing that by doing so, he would perhaps contribute to the evolution of spiritual development for serious minded students and secure for them, an introduction to the mechanism of the Tao.
The modern practitioner can only be grateful for such a demonstration of compassion. Liu I-Ming may well have practiced concealment of illumination as evidenced by the humble nature of his lifestyle and his obvious attempts to be freed from the constraints of vanity. But his extraordinarily lucid commentaries, especially the beautifully simple ‘Awakening to the Tao’, leave no doubt as to the value of Taoist teachings and their potential impact on the development of oriental medicine as it applies to the provision of spiritual succour for those seeking a connection to spirit.
The Dilemma
Not surprisingly, the move towards standardising TCM across the board has come at a price. For the most part, the glaringly obvious consequence of choosing to ignore the spiritual traditions at the root of oriental medicine has rendered it virtually helpless to deal with the kinds of spiritual problems presenting as shen disturbance in the average patient.
Regardless of pathological identification, the pathogenesis of frequently manifested disease states in the clinic will tend to indicate the severance of a connection to spirit and with it, a lurking anguish and despair that eventually culminates in the kind of sorrow not even a mask can hide. Is the modern graduate capable of seeing this? It would seem that the push for institutionalised TCM education at the tertiary level has failed to impress upon the budding graduate that intellectualism is a poor substitute for understanding. That human beings competing for market share in the work place struggle to keep it together at the best of times, suggests they also might need more than a weekly fix to deal with their spiritual crisis!
Spiritual Alchemy
The teachings of spiritual alchemy, otherwise known as ‘Hsing Ming Hsueh’ (the science of essence and life), maintain that the aim of practice is to unite the true qualities of yin and yang. In many respects, Liu I-Ming’s commentaries, especially those that accompany his responses to Ziyang’s ‘400 Words on the Gold Pill’ (a condensed version of ‘Wu Chen Pi’en’), elucidate the principles upon which the true energies of the male and female, heaven and earth, are to be modelled.
Philosophically, this serves to enlighten us as to the subtle roles that might otherwise be played out by men and women to nurture their daily life experience. Spiritually, his contribution defines our aspirations and suggests something of the possibilities at our disposal to change and transform belief systems caught in the net of stagnation.
Thieves and Virtues
According to the teachings, this is achieved by governing the ‘five thieves’ (anger, excitement, worry, sorrow and fear) through the diligent application of the ‘five virtues’ (benevolence, compassion, sincerity, true justice and wisdom). When yin and yang divide and are no longer in complementary relationship, the five elements separate. To recover balance, the five elements must be properly assembled again. The restoration of yin and yang involves making use of what is called ‘the firing process’ – the elimination of negative, harmful and destructive behaviour in order to cultivate stability and calm.
In a clinical context, a patient’s psycho-emotional demeanour predicates not only the nature of dysfunction within the organ systems, but the kinds of devices required to be employed in the salvage operation. To the extent that ‘sadness and worry move the heart and the organs tremble’, lifestyle modifications are mandatory and within them, behavioural adjustments of a kind that significantly alter the way a challenge is approached.
Without a holistic orientation to both diagnosis and treatment, most approaches to finding solutions to health problems are summarily reduced to fragmentation and this can oftentimes lead to the calamity that is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’! In other words, superficial solutions can never eliminate the rot that has set in! A woman suffering from a complex of spleen and liver disorders that have produced massive yin deficiency, cannot move forward until her relationship to the feminine principle has been addressed and steps have been taken to adjust not only her attitude towards being a woman, but also the lifestyle practices embodied by it.
To prevent a wound from festering, the poison must be extracted from the depths. Psychologically, conditioned emotions cannot be ignored and they most certainly contribute to mischief that will eventually give rise to profound disorder.
Where Mind wanders, Qi follows.
When Shen is homeless, Mind hallucinates.
Case in Point
An exhausted and adrenaline compromised male of 45 with a wife and kids, an angry leg sporting the ravages of psoriasis and a hefty mortgage on the family home, is at the cross roads. Getting out of bed in the morning may marginally nullify his fear of insecurity, but it won’t do much to settle the deeper disturbances of the ‘shen’ he experiences as an insomniac. Nor will the herbal formula designed to shift the dampness and eliminate the heat, necessarily be effective in tandem with his regular acupuncture, unless the core of the problem is identified and appropriate strategies implemented.
The consummate practitioner will address the patient’s disorder as a spiritual phenomenon. This is not to suggest that the patient is doing anything wrong, but rather that his lifestyle approach is infected by a destructive strain of emotionalism. How can the patient discover equilibrium if the mind is burdened by the excesses of emotional unrest?
Psycho-emotional stability can only be truly recovered when self-knowledge is used to flesh out and expose whatever leaks may exist in the proverbial hull. This usually requires a comprehensive investigation of the patient’s motives, pursuits, intentions, fears, cravings and desires. Such investigation demands the patience of a saint and the tolerance of a sage. It also must be accompanied by attentiveness and a capacity to accurately listen that is supported by the ability to concentrate for long periods of time.
The art of restoration for the practitioner offering treatment then, is to precisely identify the source of the presenting problems and then design strategies to correct them. The diagnosis will have confirmed the dangers implied by the pursuit of specific lifestyle practices that injure the organs and the treatment plan must necessarily focus on eliminating these dangers. Regardless of whether or not a practitioner strictly adheres to following either Taoist or Buddhist protocol, the patient must be able to walk away from a clinical session having experienced a shift in perspective. This includes engaging in some kind of transformational process whereby awareness of the problem and its challenges is heightened and the means to achieve it is thoroughly addressed.
However, the recovery of a connection to spirit is the only real catalyst for change and students of oriental medicine and the healing arts would do well to contemplate this. Therein is to be found the key to success. Health is not a result, but a process.
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