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| The Sustainable Herbalist; The Sustainable Life - Page 6 |
THE TRUE HEALER
In an article from a Chinese medicine journal, the philosophic focus of the early Taoist system of Chinese medicine (pre- Mao Chinese medicine) was delineated. Some of the views expressed echoed my own feelings about healing and healers so well that I thought that I would paraphrase and expand on a couple of them.
First, a true healer, as stated in Taoist medicine is an "intermediary to the sacred, cultivating the dual roles of shaman, master of intuited knowledge, and sage, master of scholarly knowledge, connecting above and below, inside and outside, energy and matter. " This statement is profound and needs to be meditated upon by those who are nurturers, caregivers, and healers of all kinds.
When we study a subject such as herbs, for example, we can learn about the plants chemicals, its leaf formation and other various parts and constituents but by engaging the intuition we bring varied parts into unity and see everything as connected. It goes to a more fundamental place than what the scholarly knowledge alone can do.
In other words, we need to do the scholarly studies of a subject but we have to bring it back into the circle of wholeness. Living and thinking in a fragmented way never allows for the intuition to develop. We have to begin to see again that wholeness and unity is what underlies all the phenomena of life.
Here's an example of combining intuition and scholarly knowledge. When I approach an herb I observe what family it is in, where it grows, when it blossoms, when it seeds, how the seeds are spread, its colors, its tastes, and what parts are used. I may look at some current herbal texts to see how others have experienced the plant and I may even look at some ancient texts to see how it was historically used. Then with all this fragmented information, I begin to make a collage in my mind and the whole of the plant essence is put into a larger and interconnected picture. The plant essence/spirit begins to reveal itself to me and I can receive information as to how it may help in the healing process. I never think, " What herb do I give for such and such disease." This is fragmented thinking and not wholism. Even the clients I see, I put into the context of their whole life; their location, job, age, home, food, season, their history, family past, and so forth. The condition that they are complaining about is not separate from the whole.
The current medical paradigm that dominates our culture promotes more and more disconnection and fragmentation. It sees body organs as existing separately and not interconnected. It sees a person in mechanistic ways; it removes the offending parts without looking at the deeper causes and karmas involved and the concept of supporting and sustaining the Vital Life Force is for the most part completely non- existent.
The next statement that I thought was wonderful is the healer " aspires to the Tao of medicine, a process which requires the actualization of his/her individual path by working to become a self-realized being."
This is so beautiful. The healer is working on their own self-realization by aligning himself or herself with the Tao or the Deeper intelligence of life. Can you imagine going to a physician who practiced just these two philosophic statements? The sessions would take at least two hours as the physician really gets to know you and maybe even your family. He/she would discuss with you your lifestyle, aspirations, losses, fears and loves. He/she would help you to see the interconnectedness of life and how it moves in a beautiful and full circle. He/she would teach you to live in harmony with your own constitutional needs, with the seasons of the year and the seasons of your life. And he/she would teach you how life and death come from the same source. The physician would be practicing Body/mind/ spirit medicine.
Recently, a survey was taken and the physicians interviewed stated that it became "financially non- viable if they spent more that 8 minutes with a patient." I'll let the reader sit with this; I need to make no comment on it.
More and more the modern medicine is loosing its heart and connection to the Divine. Micro-medicine (looking at the blood, tissue etc with high powered instruments to find the "culprit" in an illness) is taking the place of the older, gentler, wholistic ways.
The healer who is humbly seeking her/his own self-realization will have a compassionate heart and become a transmitter of the healing energy. The patient is never seen as a commodity but as a Body/mind/spirit unit whose suffering is a reflection of the whole world's suffering and whose realizations will benefit all.
With this Taoist type of healing philosophy, health is not the absence of disease, but an active process of refining the Vital Life essence and maximizing physiological functions so that the patient can also be moved along the path of self realization and reintegration with the wholeness of existence. Trying to have a long life is not guaranteed to anyone nor should it be the goal of any healing system, but helping someone to gain some inner peace and helping them to be more whole is profound.
Also, a person who is teaching the healing way must not only transmit cerebral knowledge through words and terms but must transmit true understanding which can be defined as knowledge that has been fully digested and reflects the interconnectedness of all aspects of life. When a person is with a true teacher this transmission of the Vital Essence or Chi engenders a deep insight into the student.
It is time to embrace the ancient ideas of what the healer and healing entails and to allow them to take root in our culture. Herbalists who are embracing a path similar to what has been delineated in these words, need to not be afraid to state their position and to be willing to create a different paradigm of healing - not in opposition to what exists - but in a different tract all together.
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