“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. Tao Te Ching
Gratitude flows from my Lao Gong to yours!
On September 20th we will be launching our first online extraordinary vessel clinical training. Since 1996 I have been teaching these trainings in person, and now, for the first time, I will be teaching the clinical training online, over the course of 12 weeks.
Sharing my life’s work, in any context, is one of those “times” for me; a fairy tale time, a once upon a time time, an aeonic experience time. At moments like these, I can acutely feel and appreciate the interconnected web woven by my great good fortune to have lived and experienced so many inspiring teachers, inspired students, and trusting and wonderful patients. It has a somewhat magical quality, yet seems to be as natural as breathing or having a really nice meal.
1996..Our first clinical training finished with a working retreat in Rio Caliente, Mexico.
Although I’ll be alone in my office at home, I will be sharing with a global community of inspired and inspiring healthcare practitioners and cultivators. There is a wondrous familiarity that emerges quite quickly as we begin our journey together. Somewhat the same as meeting people from your city in a far away land, there is a comfort in the shared history and desire for a special time on your travels. This will be a three month journey, piloted by me, and we will navigate a primordial land of cultivation, wellness, and healthcare. In our travels we will visit and study closely the land of what it means to be human, how to live a more easeful and meaningful life, how to care for others, and how to care for ourselves while caring for others. We will dive deeply into each of the extraordinary vessels as primordial fields, as foundational functions, as moving cycles and patterns, as spheres of influence, and as embodied realities. We will discover and integrate a new, yet very old, worldview and a modern treatment model for chronic and acute pain, depression, anxiety and mood disorders, autoimmune disease, and many other “modern” maladies all the while recognizing all that we learn is infused and perfumed with the wisdom of our ancient healing ancestors.
This training emerged from an approach and style of acupuncture that I have refined, practiced, and studied over the last three and half decades. Inspired by Chinese traditional medicine and early Taoist and pre-Taoist peoples, its core philosophy has deeply influenced my worldview and the way I navigate the universe. It is for me a deeply personal and profound professional passion.
Cupping, especially cupping the Dai, is one of the many clinical tools experienced during the training.
Informed by a moral imperative born of deep awe of acupuncture and its philosophical roots, I engage this journey humbled by the task of coherently articulating ideas, information, and experiences that illuminate my personal and professional path but don’t lend themselves to communication through ordinary language. Yet I proceed, attempting to embrace the moment, utilizing all ways of communicating, now online and across time and space, in my attempt to take what is in my mind and heart and spirit and share it in the best ways I know how.
I will be part participant, part observer. I hear myself saying things in ways I have said them many times before and also in ways fresh and born of the moment.
After a while, a tenuous satisfaction emerges as the soliloquy gives way to the desired conversation (the birth of a genuine learning process after a period of gestation) and the journey is on!
After 12 weeks we will arrive at our destination, knowing full well that this ending is really just a beginning. Although we have shared this journey together, a truly collective experience, each traveler (students and instructor alike) has really started and ended at a different place; a starting place and ending point determined by their life story and experiences that created their current personal and professional context.
Our shared experience will simultaneously broaden the collective knowledge and deepen our personal knowing. The concurrent playing out of a community myth and personal dreams and stories is, to me, immensely fascinating and deeply satisfying. Every class, workshop, and training, as every journey, is unique. At its best, a community synergy forms that births moments that are memorable and well beyond what could be achieved individually.
Empty Vessel Elixir. We explore herbs and their role in cultivating and healing the extraordinary vessels.
A living, vibrant whole is greater than its parts. I am deeply fortunate to have been nourished and inspired by this vibrancy of this work and our beautiful NSEV Healing community for nearly 40 years.
With humbleness and gratitude, I thank each of the participants who are joining this training for sharing their time and experience with me and the beautiful NSEV Healing clinical community. I am so deeply touched by the attention, passion, vision, expertise, life experience, and wisdom each of you brings to our journey together.
Each of you is my blessing. Those of you who are reading this now. Those of you who will join us for our inaugural online clinical training. All of you who love to journey into the endless immensity of the sea!
For all of these blessings, I am deeply grateful!