Lauren Lau ♥ The Meowist

Lauren Lau ♥ The Meowist

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Acupuncture, in modern biophysical terms, may be described quite benignly as a healthcare modality that uses very thin, sterile needles to stimulate the circulation of blood and energy, engage hormones and neurotransmitters, relax muscles, and tone nerves, all for the purpose of healing the body.  

 

In our modern time and understanding, this is a useful way to consider it.

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Yet, the practice of acupuncture derives from a non-modern, powerfully spiritual source.  Its purpose is to support the integrity of an individual's body, psyche, and spirit.  All of these levels of a person's being inform each other. 

 

An injury to your identity or psyche can manifest symptoms in your body like pain or inflammation or congestion or, surprisingly, even predispose you to traumatic injury.  An injury to your physical wellness can manifest in your mental landscape like absentmindedness or obsessive thoughts.

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Acupuncture is one of many branches of yi yao, or Chinese medicine.  Yi yao was developed by dedicated and enlightened daoist physicians who progressively refined their consciousness to the degree where they could clearly perceive a network of energetic patterns that co-exist with the physical body.

 

In current days, we call this network 'acupuncture channels' (or 'meridians').  Strongly vital sections along this network are our acupuncture points.  Modern acupuncture practice uses the acupuncture maps created by our daoist ancestors to access this body-based energetic system.  Without developing the same high cultivation of consciousness as the ancestors who saw and mapped, we are not able to perceive it outright.

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Each acupuncture point has a resource.  Call it a quintessence, a template, an archetype, a resonance, a blueprint, a beacon, a matrix, a song -- call it what you will.  The purpose of needling an acupuncture point is to call on that resource, to bring it to bear for an individual, here and now.

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The resource is something like the pure bell tone from a perfectly cast instrument.  It's the clean, refreshing, naturally purified water from a clear, deeply filtered well.  It's the invitation to instantly know, align, and saturate your reality with a particular quality that completes the whole.

 

Acupuncture is resonance medicine.  It influences the body, mind, and spirit by being unwavering in its invitation to instill wholeness.  In this system, approach via any one direction (or frequency of resonance) has the potential transform the whole, in addition to resetting whatever particular aspect of the whole that it calls.

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This manner -- of evoking the 'bearing' of an acupuncture point -- is the most respectful way to work with this system.  The transmission (of resonance) is a reminder of what is possible. 

 

So, when the message is sounded for you, you may move toward the integrity of it, or you may perhaps resist it.  Neither is good nor bad.  The importance lies in being reminded of what is possible, finding that orientation to bear, and making the iterative decisions to be as aligned with the offering as you can truly honor in the moment.  Yes, small decisions contribute to your integrity.

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When acupuncture points are evoked just a few at a time, their expression has freedom to smoothly sing together.  Harmony (good!) comes at the sacrifice of noise (bad!).  Noise is the interference that arises from too many simultaneously messages.  This noisy cacophony is, sadly, how many California practitioners, in the style of TCM, practice today (such as a dozen or more points needled together, oh my!).

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The goal of an Eastern medicine practitioner is very different than that of a Western medicine practitioner.  There's a role in modern life for each, and we can shift how much weight we allow them to have.  Does living a healthy life just mean you live in absence of sickness and pain?  What about living with the presence of happiness, thriving, and vitality?  Is that when your life is healthy? 

 

We're fully entrenched in a world where one of these attitudes might never come up.  Reducing the symptoms that contribute to suffering is very important.  However, don't bury other gorgeous aspects of life from your awareness by focusing too narrowly on physical health.

 

In the practice of acupuncture, a very cultivated practitioner doesn't need to use needles to impel the spirit of the point or present the transmission of resonance toward wholeness.  They use their qi.  This is the traditional goal of Chinese medicine physicians.

 

Remeowkably, this means that acupuncture is a beginner's tool -- one that needs to be practiced for decades with particular intention just to approach the next level.

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Daoists were a subset of ancient people whose pre-occupation was to consider the interexistence of earthly seasons, humanity, and the starry heavens.  Their work and service in yi yao, or healing, arose from and was incidental to this.

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Visit my Timely Acupuncture page to learn about Chinese Astrology acupuncture.

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