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TWO

Blending East and West: Searching for Your Garden

"Taoists see man as a microcosm of the universe and the body as a reflection of one's attunement of the cycles, rhythms, and patterns of the larger universe."

—Tricia Yu, The T'ai-Chi Center, Madison, Wisconsin

Our bodies, much like gardens, need love, nourishment, tending, and rest, to flourish. We flow through the seasons year after year, winter to spring, summer to autumn, rarely giving thought to the natural course of things. The balance of the heavens, clouds, mountains, rains, and rivers are all part of nature's giving and taking, coming and going; much like the flow of blood, energy, and cell regeneration in our bodies. Our physical bodies, just as our lives, cycle through their own seasons. And with each new season comes a little dying, resting, rebirth, and growth. As a child, did you ever skin your knee and watch in wonder as the wound magically went through its healing cycle? Even more amazing was the seed that pushed its way through the moistened earth and turned into a tomato, or the tadpole that turned into a frog. It's all part of living, growing, and tending in nature's time and cycles. Rivers overflow their banks, sun bakes the ground dry, locusts or gypsy moths destroy the rich green leaves that form the brilliance of the tree's sturdy frame. In the natural world, disasters throw things out of balance, just like cancer, arthritis, or pneumonia can wreak havoc on our bodies. Did you ever notice how nature begins healing? It's much like when as children we watched in amazement as our skinned knee repaired itself. Healing is part of nature's design, and, although outside help sometimes moves the healing along, nature finds a way of regenerating life. Our bodies are much like this. It is our own inner ability to heal that does all the work, and we should look on practitioners, whether Eastern, Western, or a blended combination, as guides along the path, whether we are getting things back in balance so healing can take place, trying to improve our lifestyle, ridding our bodies of toxins, or resparking our internal energy. In the end, no matter what the approach, it is our individual healing ability that does the repair, the re-creating, and the healing.

THE EASTERN MODEL: YOUR BODY AS A LANDSCAPE

Twelve beautiful rivers flow along distinct meridians in the human body. Nourished by sun, wind, rain, earth, and fire, the seasons unfold as your lush internal landscape transforms with your seasonal changes. A cosmos of the two energies, yin and yang, dance the divine dance of night and day, heat and cold. And whether Traditional Chinese medicine, Five Element Chinese medicine, or Ayurveda, the healing of the body requires the rebalancing of the life force, taking into account a person's entire life—body, mind, and spirit.

The practice of traditional Oriental medicine is based on a highly sophisticated and complicated model of health care that has roots in the metaphysical worlds of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Having spread throughout East Asia more than 2,500 years ago, this philosophy of healing considers the whole person and his or her relationship to the universe and all living and spiritual things. Although Oriental medicine is grounded in Chinese culture, there are variations in methods and therapies throughout Asian countries. Many of these most ancient approaches to health—acupuncture, herbalism, acupressure, qigong, and Oriental massage—are widely used throughout the world today. Many of the world's healing practices borrow or refine on the traditions of Oriental practitioners.

By the beginning of the Han dynasty, Oriental medicine was already a well-documented and practiced form of medical care. As the Han era ended, Chinese medicine was promoting prevention, diet, and the concept that medical practices should be judged by patient results. Chinese thought and practice continued to evolve through the Middle Ages and Western Europe's Renaissance, but during the colonial times, contact with Westerners pushed Oriental medicine into folk and religious realms. And it wasn't until the Communist regime of the People's Republic of China gave Oriental medicine credence that Chinese medicine experienced a resurgence and renewed growth. Since 1949 medical training, research, and advances in Oriental medicine have been great.

There are currently about 6,500 acupuncture practitioners and 1,600 practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine and Chinese massage in the United States. As acceptance of these modes of treatment grows, so does the number of practitioners. At this time, licensing varies by state; New Mexico is the most progressive, in that acupuncturists have a legal scope to practice that is similar to that of a primary care physician.

THE CONVENTIONAL WESTERN MODEL:

YOUR BODY AS A FINELY TUNED MACHINE

The eclectic blend of Native American, African, Eastern, and European traditions, all of which claimed a piece of this country's soil in colonial and postcolonial America, eventually were all but replaced by Western biomedicine, which continues to dominate our health care options today. Although Hippocrates saw medicine as involving the whole person—including diet, lifestyle, and environment—the discovery of microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi led to the germ theory of disease which changed the way doctors looked at diagnosis. By the time of the American Industrial Revolution, Western doctors had developed new theories about the body and ways to repair it. Other medical traditions and modes were marginalized. Western medicine has evolved into a mechanistic discipline made up of doctors specializing in one bodily system or another and concentrating on using machines and drugs to treat symptoms, rather than seeing the disease as an imbalance in the whole organism. Just like factory managers, physicians began to value the importance of fixing parts and keeping our bodies working like finely oiled machines. From the late nineteenth century, biomedicine evolved quickly.