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Great Turning

Below is an excerpt from the syllabus for the White Pine 2021 Graduate Mentorship Program. This excerpt explains the meaning of what I call Great Turning and its application for practitioners of Traditional East Asian Medicine:

The Graduate Mentorship Program has been running since 2003.  This upcoming course, starting this March, 2021, is the 9th time I have taught it. Since the start, my understanding has deepened through experience, both in the clinic, through study, with students, and in life. In this rendition of the program, not only have the principles become crystalized and embodied for me, but I also feel that my articulation of them has evolved.  Being a teacher is not only about knowing one’s material: unless there is a clear articulation that meets the student in a way that clarifies and open’s receptivity, the material cannot find a home within the student.  While teaching, I always have the question, “Am I making sense to you?” I want you to have a sense of “aha!” and “Yes! I SEE!” I want you to have the experience of the murky confusion coming clear. I’ve learned that this happens when the foundational principles are sound.  Only then does the material find its natural place in your mind and heart.  The Graduate Mentorship Program’s foundational […]

By |2021-01-26T12:19:01-08:00January 26th, 2021|Classic Formulas, Our Courses, Theory and Practice, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Reflective Learning Pathways

When the White Pine Circle launches on New Year’s Day, it will be like the starting up of an endless, ever-changing carousel of beautiful, useful, relevant-to-your-practice resources.  Every month new resources will be posted including video teaching, live roundtable discussions, ebooks, tea-time talks, translations, and more.  We are an open collective of nerdy colleagues, who love Traditional East Asian Medicine and can’t help ourselves but share what we love.

However, the REALLY cool thing the White Pine Circle is offering is TheReflective Learning Pathways.  These pathways are available to members (free!) as a way to progress through resources in a more structured way so that they become like a course.  For now, we have the following five pathways members can follow: Classical Formulas, Chinese Herbs, Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Going Deep with Zhang Zhongjing’s Lines.  More to come. Following a pathway is a way to engage in our resources that gives the practitioner structure and support as they move through the resources.  AND, at the completion of a pathway, the practitioner receives a certificate, a prestigious badge to show on your profile for referrals, support from a mentor, and a wonderful gift.  All of this is free with membership.

An important component of the learning pathways is the reflective part of them.  As the participant reads […]

By |2020-12-29T05:51:34-08:00December 29th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Gynecology, Individual Herbs, News, Newsletter, Our Courses, White Pine Circle|0 Comments
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Upcoming Wonderfulness

Oh, this past year!  Need I say more?

And now, what a special time, with the light turning toward the new and spectacular conjunctions.  I hope many of you had the chance to see the two huge planets aligned!

I look back at this past year as one of profound blessing as I’ve connected with so many in new and inspiring ways.  Thank you to all of my students, colleagues, friends, animals, and family for lighting up my heart in so many ways.  Now I turn to the future with tremendous excitement for what has been gestating and what is soon to be born!

On January 1, the White Pine Circle will launch.  This has been a beautifully collaborative effort on behalf of all of us who love and work with traditional East Asian medicine.  Please sign up to be notified of the launch here.  It’s only a week away!

Until then, I invite you all to a free talk by Sally Rappaport where she will delve into a most common herbal formula, Gui Zhi Tang.  I am sure you will be given a new appreciation of this formula!  Not only is it useful for chronic and acute conditions, but it is also the foundation for other important herbal formulas.  You can register for this talk here. […]

By |2020-12-24T10:05:46-08:00December 24th, 2020|Individual Herbs, Our Courses, Shang Han Lun Physiology, White Pine Circle|0 Comments
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What does 經 mean?

In the previous two posts, we discovered that these Six Thing-a-ma-jigs were first named as Jīng, 經 by Qí Bó in NèijīngSùwèn, chapter 6.  Therefore, the next step in understanding what these Six Things are is to explore the meaning of 經.

To decide what any character “means”, one must look at the way it is used in different contexts and discover the consistent thread of meaning between these uses.  It is virtually impossible to accurately translate 經 as one word, though we often must.  For the student/practitioner, a bit of understanding of these complex meanings may expand our relationship to our medicine.

Jīng 經 is made up of the thread radical on the left and the image of water streaming below the surface on the right.  A possible definition of 經 is “an underlying structure or constant flow of threads or information that is invisible or enigmatic[1], giving rise to rise to and influencing visible phenomenon.”

This broad definition covers the bases I think.  Let’s check. […]

By |2020-06-14T11:23:02-07:00June 14th, 2020|Books, Chinese Translation, Classic Formulas, Neijing, Our Courses, Shang Han Lun Physiology|0 Comments
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These Six Things are Circular Motions

In the previous post, we looked at how the Three Yīn and Three Yáng are described as great movements.  Like Russian Matryoshka dolls, we saw that these Six thing-a-ma-jigs are circular images within circular images.

Let’s now contemplate this a bit further.  I hope you are enjoying yourself as much as I am!

In Sùwèn Chapter 6, Treatise on the separation and unity of the Three Yang, after describing the placement of the Six in heaven and earth as well as in our bodies, Qi Bo states “Hence, this is the separation and unity of the Three Yang.”  The three Yáng are one Yang.  This is the unity. We divide them into three, Tàiyáng, Yángmíng, and Shàoyáng. This is the separation.  He then goes on to say that “Tàiyáng opens, Yángmíng and Shàoyáng pivots.”  This description is followed by, “These three Jīng 經,  they must not lose each other.  They come together in a circular fashion, instead of floating away.  This is named the One Yáng.”

He is saying that we divide them into three but they are actually one circle.  What are these three divisions?  In this chapter, he tells us they are actions.  They are the actions of opening, closing, and pivoting.  These are movements he is talking about.  If we imagine a […]

By |2020-06-11T08:12:53-07:00June 11th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Neijing, Theory and Practice|0 Comments
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What are These Six Things?

Translation of Chinese into English must be a conversation, not a conclusion.  This is something I learned from my friend Sabine Wilms.  Her book, Humming with Elephants, is a 340-page book on a single, short chapter five of the Huángdì Nèijīng which models this translation-as-conversation.  In this text, she discusses her word choices and the context of her word choices.  She also translates historic commentary on the lines in the chapter.  In this way, the text invites the reader into the contemplation of the text rather than just telling us what it means.  I love this!  A translation is a conversation between readers past and present and the text itself.

In this spirit, soon, Sabine and I will be offering a short, four-part class on Chapter 1 of the Huángdì Nèijīng Sùwèn. This class will be a live discussion between the two of us as well as with participants as a way to, not just translate the chapter, but to bring it alive for practitioners.  If all goes well, we will continue on in the text together.  This way, the text is illuminated through a conversation between the two of us and the text as well as between all of us and the text.  Stay tuned!

It is in the spirit of this conversation I […]

By |2020-06-10T09:07:32-07:00June 10th, 2020|Books, Classic Formulas, Neijing, Shang Han Lun Physiology|1 Comment
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Hu Xi-Shu, Jing Fang Doctor, on Wen Bing

Recently I was speaking to my friend and teacher, Andy Ellis about Wen Bing.  He told me about a book I had not heard of.  This text is by the late Dr. Hu Xi-Shu called

Understanding Warm Disease through Six Channel Differentiation of Patterns

Below is my translation of his introduction to the text with commentary. (Thank you to Sabine Wilms for helping me with the translation). This is also meant to give an introduction to two talks that are happening today in regard to working with people who are suffering from The Virus:  Caroline Radice is teaching on Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Tang.(12:00 pm EST) I am speaking on San Ren Tang and Huo Po Xia Ling Tang.  (3pm EST)

Dr. Hu writes:

For the purpose of elucidating the rules of transformation and the diagnostic principles of “10,000 diseases, one origin” Zhang Zhong-Jing wrote the Shang Han Lun.  Thereby making clear the range of tools.  (showing us our options) Therefore, I often say, “The treatment method of 10,000 diseases is already exhaustively covered in the single book, the Shang Han Lun; and yet, the treatment formulas for the 10,000 diseases , verily are not complete within this single text.

Dr. Hu is telling us plainly that, […]

By |2020-04-30T12:24:59-07:00April 21st, 2020|Books, Classic Formulas, Corona Virus, Hu Xi Shu, Shang Han Lun Physiology|0 Comments
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Ma Huang and Gui Zhi in the time of Covid

I am now introducing Sally Rappaport’s Talk: which will be on Monday, April 6 at 12 noon, EST.  As a follow-up to my lecture from last Friday, April 3, White Pine Institute and the Shen Nong Society, with the generous help of Healthy Seminars, are offering a series of classes on the formulas mentioned in the original lecture. This free series is taught by a group of classical herbalists who are all approaching the crisis with similar foundational principles as discussed in the lecture.  These talks are free and are designed to help Chinese herbal practitioners hone their skills in working with the ill patients that come to you.  This is the point of view and methods we are using and having great results with.  Our group is in the process of gathering our clinical results.  We will keep you posted!

Sally will be giving a foundational talk on Ma Huang Tang and Gui Zhi Tang, As You’ve Never Heard Before.  Though these particular formulas will not be appropriate for most presentations of Covid-19, understanding them as Sally is teaching them, is key to understanding the logic behind other very key formulas.  I encourage all practitioners who are facing patients with coronavirus to register for this free lecture.  

There is […]

By |2020-04-05T11:59:46-07:00April 5th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Corona Virus, Individual Herbs, Shang Han Lun Physiology|0 Comments
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Classical Chinese Herbal Principles in Action in Response to Covid-19: Free Talk

Good Morning!

Today, at 12:30 EST (9:30 am PST) I’ll be giving a free, online talk called Classical Chinese Herbal Principles in Action in Response to Covid-19.  You can register free at this link:

https://healthyseminars.com/sharon

This lecture discusses the foundational principles a group of us are grounding ourselves in as we work with patients with the coronavirus.  The treatments that follow from these principles are proving to be very helpful for those who are quite ill.  This talk will be followed by a series of talks that go into the specifics about the formulas we are using, when and why.

After the talk, the recording will be available for 48 hours.

I hope you can make it!

 

By |2020-04-03T04:04:40-07:00April 3rd, 2020|Classic Formulas, Corona Virus, Individual Herbs, Opening Through, Shang Han Lun Physiology, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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