Grateful for the journey!

“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!

You can check out the Clinical Training here:

Compassion: Our Human Inheritance

Compassion, when we sense, understand, and feel another’s suffering and are spontaneously compelled to act, should be an integral part of any conversation on our individual and collective human health and happiness. 

In Chinese medicine we have this very important concept of inherited essence. Inherited essence is the totality of the potential we come into the world with. Some aspects of our inherited essence are very personal and predispose us to particular physical, emotional, and character traits, our individual strengths and vulnerabilities. These we inherit from our parents. On a deeper level our inherited essence is the product of  the evolution of our entire human and planetary family. These are the more primordial aspects of our being. The powers that make us human. Our deepest human programming. These are our human inheritance. An integral part of our human inheritance is the capacity for compassion. 

“At our core, at our essence, we are programmed to be compassionate.”

At our core, at our essence, we are programmed to be compassionate. All of us are born wired with the capacity and the drive to sense and to connect with the embodied emotional responses of our fellow human beings. It is the force of this connection that compels us to act to alleviate discomfort or suffering when we become aware of it in other members of our human (or Earth ) family. It is who we are at our essence. 

If this is the case, and modern science and the ancient wisdom traditions now seem to concur on this point, why do so many individual human beings spend so much time not acting from this compassionate place? What is the source of this dissonance and disconnect to our connection to our deepest, most primordial, most compassionate self?

The answer appears to be in what happens to us AFTER we are born.  Our capacity to access that limitless space of inherited compassion relies on our ability to sense and feel our universal interconnectedness to all beings. Our oneness. 

What happens to us that creates this disconnect from our birthright? What happens is we are born into a world of others’ habituated dissonant patterns. This is why we seem so often to be on automatic. We are literally run by a collection of old habituated patterns. 

These ways of being in the world were programmed into us, after our birth, either intentionally or unintentionally. We were born into and live in a world filled with habituated thinking patterns, habituated imaginative patterns, habituated sensory patterns, habituated emotional patterns, and habituated patterns of the breath and spirit. This programming distorts our relationship to the world and to ourselves.  

This congestion, this dissonance, inhibits our access to our sense and our feeling of interconnectedness. It creates a context where we feel alone, separate from the world. When we feel separate from the world we can no longer sense and feel our connection to others. We can not connect to the universality of joy and fear and grief and worry and anger. We can not feel compassion. 

We can, however, dissolve these old habituated patterns. We can re-enliven our senses and liberate our bodies from their emotional prisons, We can reclaim our primordial connection to compassion. We can reclaim our rightful human inheritance of life lived in a  limitless sea of compassion. 

Next Up: Dissolving old habituated patterns 

To learn more check out: Entering the Vessels: 6 Week Introductory Course

Why I Love Entering The Vessels

I began teaching Entering the Vessels, as a weekend workshop, in 1992—twenty-eight years ago. Without knowing it, I had been enamored with the ancient wisdom traditions and world view that birthed the Extraordinary Vessels since early childhood. My first “meditation” practice was sitting in the bushes, under the full moon, singing love songs I had written to the hibiscus flowers.

As a young adult my meditation took a more formal turn and became a daily practice. During this time, I read and studied everything I could on Eastern and Western mysticism, Taoism, prehistoric wisdom traditions, natural healing, sacred spirituality, and the divine feminine. I also began my study and practice of Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

I first experienced the extraordinary vessels as a cultivation practice in 1983. I was in love. My yearning and search for anything and everything extraordinary vessel was on. There was very little in writing and so my quest included asking every acupuncture or meditation teacher I met what they knew of the extraordinary vessels. In 1986 I met a teacher with a family lineage of using the vessels as a cultivation and clinical tool. Over the course of a few brief meetings, I learned the basics of this system. These basics, these very brief interactions, form the foundation of what has become my life’s work. 

Ling- Spiritual Connection.

I call this course Entering the Vessels because you cannot truly know the vessels just by studying them. You must enter them! Entering the vessels requires a fully embodied exploration utilizing the entire spectrum of our human capacities, cognitive, imaginative, sensory, emotional, physical, breath, and spirit. 

The same way one could study the earth’s seas forever without really knowing them, until taking a swim, one can’t really know extraordinary vessels without diving in. We must swim in our primordial seas, our extraordinary vessels, to truly know them! 

This is why exploring and learning the extraordinary vessels cannot be limited to the “written-centric” way.  There is of course, tremendous beauty, power, and wisdom in the written word.  The written word contains the experience of those who had travelled the vessels before us. But the written word is at least one step removed from the direct experience. I found myself increasingly engaged on a path of internal processing and discernment, letting go of what struck me as dogma while embracing the internal journey; what many would call, less than admiringly, magical thinking. What I call direct knowing.

This current online version of Entering the Vessels was birthed primarily from that personal process and vision and decades of clinical practice where I directly witnessed the extraordinary vessels in action.   

 In the early years I was hesitant to “go out on a limb,” relying primarily on textual references and the rudimentary oral teachings that I had been blessed to learn. As I grew older and much deeper in my process, I started taking more teaching risks, allowing my inner insights, realizations, and inspiration to lead the Way.

I believe, after all these years, the course we call Entering the Vessels and the “process” of entering the vessels, has evolved and developed and deepened into an experience that can transform lives, professionally and personally. 

 For me, and for many of my patients and students and colleagues, experiencing the extraordinary vessels directly has been profound beyond words. Navigating the experience of entering the vessels is simple. Simple, of course, is not necessarily easy. Simple as in breathing, thinking, and moving with awareness. Simple as developing a daily practice and relationship with the vessels. Simple as learning a few clinical tools that may very well change the way you practice acupuncture or whatever healing system you may practice. Simple as moving toward and dissolving all your habituated thinking and calcified embodied emotions so that you may assist others in doing so from a place of experience and direct knowing. Simple as in learning to move and help others move through the world with as much ease as possible.

I am extremely grateful and deeply humbled for the opportunity to share the extraordinary vessels in this online format with a truly global audience. I look forward to our journey together. 

 Check out Entering the Vessels here:

  https://www.nsevhealingacademy.com/courses/entering-the-vessels

My journey into telemedicine!

Many of you have asked me how my telemedicine practice is going and exactly what I am doing during these sessions. Moving the medicine online has been an interesting journey. It has involved integrating new tools (technology) but mostly using my old reliable tools (Chinese medicine), albeit in a new context. So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how effective the medicine I practice can be practiced online! 

I am happy to report that I’ve consulted online with many Covid-19 patients, and so far, they are all reporting benefits and improvement with our online care. This is enormously rewarding! 

It has also been my great pleasure to keep up to date and continue to care for many of my long term and ongoing patients who are dealing with their existing health issues and the new challenges these turbulent times are presenting. I am pleased to be able to offer this continuity of care.  

It has been very satisfying to assist so many folks with personalized immune protocols, personalized stress protocols, and strategies for just generally surviving as healthfully and as gracefully as possible in the time of Covid-19. 

I’ve also learned quite a bit in the last month of seeing and treating patients online. 

First and foremost, I have learned that I can still make a very good Chinese medicine and extraordinary vessel diagnosis online.There are four methods utilized in gathering the data to make a Chinese medicine diagnosis: palpation, listening, looking, and questioning. Of course, online I have a much greater emphasis on looking and listening and questioning. I am relying more than ever on tongue diagnosis, a foundation of Chinese medicine diagnosis. My new telemedicine technology even allows me to blow up the tongue and take a real good look!  

Treatment is a different story. I’ve gotten creative and am relying more on many of the home healthcare and cultivation skills I have acquired over the last thirty-seven years of practice. 

I can still effectively prescribe herbs and recommend supplements. Orion Herbs, our affiliated herb shop, is fully functional and making same day and next day deliveries. Personalized herbal prescriptions are a very important part of what Chinese medicine offers.

Of course I can’t needle you or treat you directly. But I can direct you in treatments that you can do yourself, at home, under my guidance, and with my diagnosis. This includes moxibustion (heating acupuncture points with herbs), self acupressure (massaging acupuncture points), cupping (we have home cupping sets), specific breath and movement exercises, and the foundation of our practice, home extraordinary vessel magnet treatments. I have used these home care magnet treatments as a powerful tool for cultivation and wellness for decades and now they are providing a way to “treat” my patients daily in their homes. 

These telemedicine sessions are offered in brief 15 minute (a brief check in and herbal review with basic home care suggestions), intermediate 30 minute (more time for more complex issues and additional recommendations), and extensive one hour sessions (time for more complex issues or longer guided treatment sessions).

In addition to the “clinical sessions,” I am offering hour-long counseling and cultivation sessions.  Utilizing the Three Womb Model I developed, we can discuss specific counseling issues and concerns and/or implement specific strategies for your cultivation and wellness practice.

I feel grateful that in this time of Covid-19 I am able to continue to serve and practice the medicine I love! 

Much healing and love to all, 

Dan 

To make an online appointment: Online Consults

Email me at  dannevel@nsevhealing.com with any questions. 

What is cultivation?

Dan discusses cultivation during our September 22, 2019 Cultivation Retreat at Fern Forest Nature Center. 

Question: Dan, you use the word cultivation a lot. Can you define for us or clarify what you mean when you use the word “cultivation” 

Dan: Yes, thank you for the question. It’s always good to clarify terms before we use them, as long as we understand that any term, any word, is not actually what is being discussed but rather a finger pointing at what is being discussed and that the word is subject to the context in which it is used and that words especially terms like “cultivation” also carries with it layers of meaning that play out and evolve in  ordinary language, deeper metaphoric meanings and symbolic meaning. The meaning of a word such as cultivation grows on all these levels along with the growth of the user or listener of the word. In simpler terms, the longer and deeper you cultivate the more levels of metaphoric and symbolic nuance and meaning the world, cultivation, will take on for you. 

“Cultivation... is the art and craft of cultivating cognition, imagination, the senses, the embodied emotional world, the breath and the spirit.”

That said, I might define cultivation in this context as the art and craft of cultivating cognition, imagination, the senses, the embodied emotional world, the breath and the spirit. Historically this has been done through a wide variety of meditation and contemplation practices, each of which engages and cultivates one of the factors: cognition, imagination, any or all of the senses, any or all of the emotions, the breath and the spirit.  

So again, we could say cultivation is comprised of meditative and contemplative practices that bring awareness to and develop the mind, cognition and imagination, the senses ,touch, vision, hearing, taste, smell, the embodied emotional experience, anger, grief, joy, fear, worry, the breath and the spirit for the purpose of living a more integrated and satisfying human life. 

Also when we talk about cultivation or cultivation practices we can talk about them in two primary contexts, two primary ways of understanding “cultivation” time. 

One context, one time,  we can name, “dedicated cultivation” when we dedicate a time and space for cultivation, a dedicated practice. This is what we commonly think of when we talk about a cultivation or meditation practice.The focus of this practice can be either inwardly or outwardly directed, but the emphasis or primary focus is inward cultivation, even as we “focus” some times outward. We have control over where and when we decide to practice “dedicated cultivation”, although it at times feels as if we have no control over what appears or happens during this dedicated cultivation time.

We also, of course, have the rest of our lives when we interact with the world or are at times doing tasks on our own, not necessarily dedicated to cultivation. We can decide, to view and experience any or all of this time as “cultivation” times as well. We simply integrate our cultivation practice into the ordinary times of our lives as we interact with the world. We can call this interactive practice, or integrative cultivation, when we  cultivate while stepping into what ever role we may be in at any time. In the integrative practice we are integrating with the world in a particular role. Cultivation, involves fully embracing these roles. When we are driving we are in the driver role. When we are cooking we are in the cooking role.When we are with our children we are in the parenting role.. When we are in our professional roles, for example as a doctor or acupuncturist,  we are in our doctor or acupuncturist role. When we engage these roles with awareness, wholly present in the moment, cultivating the experience as participant observer, we are integrating our cultivation practice into our daily lives. This is Integrative Cultivation.

These “two” cultivation contexts are, of course, two aspects of a single whole. Practicing cultivation in both of these contexts, with awareness, is holistic cultivation. 

As we develop our cultivation practice we will begin to know that the purpose of having a dedicated practice is not to become good at sitting still, mindfully meditating, or any contemplation practice or mastering a moving practice such as Tai Ji or Yoga or Qi Gong. We will also begin to know that the purpose of cultivation is certainly not to become a good driver, or good cook or the best at any thing. Not the best at your job, not the best parent or the best friend, or the best anything. 

“The purpose of a hoistic cultivation practice...is to become more competent at being human”

The purpose of a holistic cultivation practice, and I use the word purpose here closer to the word consequence as opposed to goal,  is to become more competent at being human. To become more alive and present to the mystery and magnificence of each moment. To become more able to experience ourselves, and every thing and every one who crosses our path, as part of a beautiful cosmic dance. To know every “thing” and every “one”  is unique and precious. To know our selves as the universe giving birth to her self through us. To experience our  selves as one with the cosmos. To experience our selves as love.  

10 ideas for reconnecting your family to nature (while perhaps helping to save the planet)

We live in an increasingly technological world. Our children (all of us actually) are spending more and more time indoors interacting with “screens” and less and less time outdoors engaging the natural world. 

Today we experience fewer primary sensory experiences (touching, smelling, hearing, seeing, listening to the natural world, the world in it’s natural state) than at any time in human history. Terms such as nature deficit disorder and attention restoration theory & nature have become part of the health and wellness conversation! 

The science on the health benefits of nature time is becoming undeniable. Research is demonstrating that even small amounts of time in nature can decrease stress, improve mood, enhance immunity, improve cognition, imagination and creativity, foster healthy development, promote healthy vision, and increase focus and attention.

Check out the just some of the research: research  research  research research  research research research research

It’s really simple. We all need to put down our devices and get outdoors!!! (Finish reading this first and then put it down and get outdoors!)

Here’s my list of 10 ideas and resources for re-connecting your family to nature.

1. First and foremost, teach by example! Develop a personal daily practice of spending time outdoors. A good place to start is to match your personal screen time with equal amounts of time outdoors. Sound impossible? Begin by reducing screen time and increasing outdoor time.

2. Take walks (alone and with the family) around the neighborhood. Develop rituals along the way. Look for birds and listen for birdsong. See how many you can identify. Purchase or download a good local bird guide.

3. Create nature discovery hunts in your yard, neighborhood, or park. See how many plants, insects, trees, animals you can discover. It is amazing how many “weeds” can be discovered and are in fact wild flowers! Don’t know what they are? Learning what you’ve discovered is half the fun.

4. Plant something. Anything. If you are space limited plant a window box garden or create a miniature indoor greenhouse. Have more space? A vegetable garden, butterfly garden, or any garden using native plants is a wonderful nature experience. Finally, volunteer with local organization that plants trees or work restoring habitat in your area.

5. Spend time at the water’s edge or in the water. Ocean, river, creek, pond, bay — all will do. Go there at different times of the year and see and experience mother nature in all her seasons.

6. Get outdoors barefoot. Today’s modern child is shoed from an early age and children and adults alike rarely spends time outdoors barefoot. Research is showing that the benefits far outweigh any risks, especially in toddlers and young children.

7. Need a transition period? Bring the technology (your phone or camera) with you and begin a simple nature photography practice. Dedicate some time each day to photographing or filming nature. See what you can “discover” while looking for beautiful natural treasures to photograph.

8. Locate and attend events and performances that are happening outdoors in your area. Parks and botanical gardens frequently have festivals, concerts, and special events that happen outdoors. Support and attend your local gardens and parks on a regular basis as well.

9. One of my personal favorites, befriend a tree! Spend time with your tree friend as often as possible. Notice how it changes throughout the year and as the years pass! Sit with it. Hang out under it. Hug it! Talk to it! Learn from it!!!

10. Join and support organizations such as Sierra Club’s Inspiring Connection Outdoors ICO Program. They have programs throughout the country bringing local communities together to explore and experience the outdoors. Also check out the Children & Nature Network. The Children & Nature Network is connecting all children, their families and communities to nature through innovative ideas, evidence-based resources and tools, broad-based collaboration and support of grassroots leadership.

I welcome you to share your ideas and add to this list!!!

Especially share local organizations and resources that are doing the good work and getting children and individuals of all ages outdoors and interacting, protecting and falling in love again with nature!  

Daniel J. Atchison-Nevel is the founder of NSEV Healing & Acupuncture. On Sunday, September 22, 2019, Dan will be conducting a Cultivation Retreat at Fern Forest Nature Center, one of South Florida’s most beautiful natural settings.

Riding the Dragon

“The mythology of ancient China and many pre-historic wisdom traditions provide a different “way” to relate to our dragons. In this “way” we ride the dragon, instead of slaying the dragon. We embrace the dragon! ”

A dominant Western mythology that re-emerged and fully evolved in medieval times, is slaying the dragon. This myth is the essential component of the hero’s quest, which to this day deeply impacts our modern psyche and culture. It is said and believed, that  as we travel the world (inner or outer) we will meet dragons. When confronted with a dragon, to become a hero, we must slay it. If we flee the dragon we have some how failed or perhaps “survived” to fight another day. When we are immersed in this myth within our interior world, our emotional experiences  such as anger or fear are perceived as dragons to be defeated.                                                                                                                 

The mythology of ancient China and  many pre-historic  wisdom traditions provide a different "way" to relate to our dragons. In this “way” we ride the dragon,  instead of slaying the dragon. We embrace the dragon! This was in part due to the way time was embraced and experienced in these cultures. When we experience time  cyclically as opposed to linearly we must ask ourselves "what time is it when the dragon appears?'  Dragon time!  When the dragon shows up and the dragon is the anger dragon, it’s dragon time! It’s anger-dragon time. So we've got to get on and go for the ride. When we embrace time this way we qualitatively learn how to live in that time, as opposed to trying to slay it all the time. So here we all are with so much time spent in anger time, we should all be pretty damn good at it.  But we’ve been busy, utilizing tremendous amounts of energy,  trying to slay anger or flee anger, instead of learning to ride it.

When we  become fearful, we encounter the fear-dragon. We are taught to "overcome our fears" to metaphorically slay our fear dragons. If you lay this out in a linear time experience it plays out as  “now I’m fearful and I don’t want to be fearful, what can I do to overcome and defeat this fear so that  a half-hour from now or an hour from now or two days from now I may not be fearful.” As opposed to, “at this moment in time I’m in fearful-time.”  It would be a completely different kind of experience, a different "time". 

If you can embrace the fear,  express and process the fear, ride the fear-dragon,  dance with the fear , you will learn how to do fear-time. If you are constantly battling fear time, you never learned how to ride the fear-dragon. 

We tend to think about fear in its extreme pathological sense because we put it into this straight time line. Fear is not just about being excessively fearful or  terrified. Fear is a beautiful, wonderful thing. It’s a very, very important survival mechanism. Without fear we couldn’t survive. What you’re talking about is excess fear. And when we say excess we don’t necessarily mean quantitatively excess but qualitatively excess. Crude fear instead of misty, crystal fear. The kind of fear that’s delicious and nourishes us, that enables us to go deep within and contemplate and make good decisions. The fear that connects us deeply to the universal vibration. That can be fear time as well. But we’ve been living our lives with a superimposed and calcified linear timeframe. We’ve all ingested and manifest a worldview that tells us to "slay the fear dragon" or run from it as fast as possible.  But some thing else is possible. We can climb aboard this mythic dragon as well. We can ride the “slay the dragon” myth that lives within us and see where that beautiful ride will take us.  

The Yangwei: Meeting the world

““No one yet has made a list of places where the extraordinary happens. …It likes the outdoors. It likes the concentrating mind. It likes solitude. …It isn’t that it would disparage comforts, or the set routines of the world, but that its concern is directed to another place. Its concern is the edge, and the making of a form out of the formlessness that is beyond the edge.” Mary Oliver ”

Differentiating the undifferentiated. Fashioning form out of the formless.  Easing beyond the edge. Embodying the single cycle within the limitless swirl.  Creating some thing out of no thing.  Consciously creating context out of the contextless. Meeting the world!  

Such is the deep and holy work of the Yangwei. 

Existing boundaries are the pre-existing differentiating work of those who came before us. Moving beyond the existing boundary allows us to engage our own capacity for “boundary making”, our own capacity for the creation of context. 

An elegant and engaged and unpolluted Yangwei responds with innate intelligence to  all manifest contexts within time and space.  Our Yangwei allows us to navigate gracefully beyond the edge of our existing, comfortable contexts into the less familiar, less differentiated world.  A harmonious Yangwei moves confidently and quiescently into the undifferentiated wholeness that enfolds and embraces us all. 

The creative process (the process of creation) moves us and requires us to move from the direct experience of the world in its formless form of undifferentiated wholeness or less differentiated wholeness towards the making of form, the creation of context, of meaning. .

To an extent each “creating of form” is a re-creation of our original forming of ourselves. To an extent each “creating of context” is the re-creation of the original formation of our cosmos. It is a process of that must be expressed at its earliest stages symbolically, then metaphorically and finally, when at all possible, through the formation of structured language, structured process, structured institutions, and structured structures in the way of gates, roads, buildings and the world we “live” in.

Each structuring, each making of a form out of the formlessness, moves the edge and requires us to reach further into the depths of our undifferentiated space to move beyond the edge. The human capacity for doing so (stored in the Chong., Ren, Du)  has become less fluid, less graceful, as we “settle into” and “settle for”  the boundaries we have constructed. 

Our capacity to meet and creatively define and construct our world has become calcified, rigid, tamed, more civilized.  We “know” what we “like” in advance of the experience. Our ideas are constructed and rigidly adhered to no matter the reality of the world as if flows at us. We export our expertise to navigate the world to outside “experts”.  There is a comfort to be found in all of this to be sure. There is a sense of security, or order. The Way is mapped and therefore safer and more predictable.

But the Map is not the territory. Our ever increasing reliance on Pre-Existing & Pre-Constructed maps of the Way have deeply constrained and contacted our capacity for expanding out into world and navigating our Way with grace and ease.  We are embodying this hyper-contraction and it manifests in our lives and bodies as deep sense of isolation, depression, stress, stiffness, pains, headaches and a loss of connection with the world in which we live. 

We can, and we must, return and reconnect with that part of our selves that sees and knows the extraordinary in the ordinary. That part of us that knows we are not separate and meets the world with wonder and grace. The part of us that knows that where we meet the world is holy and that we are holy too.

Tao, You, Me, Us & the Extraordinary Vessels

The Tao is experienced as undifferentiated wholeness: oneness. It is simultaneously present in all phenomena and the interconnected matrix that contains all phenomena. Early Taoists and the wisdom traditions that gave birth to Taoism were primarily engaged in directly experiencing, not expressing, the Tao.  Expressing the direct experience of the Tao is not the direct experience of the Tao. Expressing the direct experience of the Tao, if done with awareness and an "empty vessel" is an important and worthwhile cultivation process.  It's expression manifests  as prose meeting poetry meeting art meeting movement meeting music meeting whole spirit ... moving...slightly refined...out into the world. It is spirit becoming mater. It is mater becoming spirit. It is the "becoming". 

The Tao as cosmic dance or play is one Way of expressing the Tao as it manifests the world. The interplay between the descending Yang fields from above intermingling with the ascending Yin fields from below and every  manifest "thing' a part of this play. The "10,000 things" and the "No Thing" existing as one in the cosmic womb of time and space. 

The extraordinary vessels are much more than the most primordial pathways that traverse the acupuncture body. They were recognized, shared and cultivated in ancient Wisdom Traditions, in Shamanism,  an in Qi Gong  long before they appeared in acupuncture texts.  They are the manifestations of the individual and universal  fields that engulf us and create us. They are the  source and essence of our primordial abilities to relate to the world outside of our self and to the world that is our self. They form the play of the energetic matrix in which we exist. They are the Tao at play!  As we explore and enter the vessels through breath, movement, meditation, acupressure, poetry, sound, touch, and of course acupuncture our knowing of the extraordinary vessels, our most profound selves and our world, dives and soars beyond the cognitive mind allowing for a fuller understanding.

It is the world of imagination, the senses, the emotions, the heart and the breath.  It is a learning experience saturated with metaphor, symbolism and spirit. It is an exploration that goes well beyond clinical indications and pathology, well beyond the separated soma, well beyond our emotional selves and well beyond the ‘ordinary” world. There is immense joy in exploring and cultivating the extraordinary vessels.  In doing so, we engage conscious awareness and the navigation of our timeless immersion in Tao.

It is joy born in both deeply personal internal experiences and the power of community and the collective’s experience of the universal and timeless, the Tao. 

A Comprehensive & Holistic Approach to Chronic Pain

“A person’s relationship to pain is made up of complex perceptions that are unique in each individual. Any comprehensive pain program must first understand and then address each of these influences that are at the “root” of the chronic pain.”

A commonly used medical definition of pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. I appreciate this definition because it understands pain as a sensory and emotional experience. This definition requires any authentically comprehensive approach to pain to include both the sensory and emotional components and understand it as a human experience. 

Acute pain is short lived & primarily associated with tissue damage from injury or illness before healing is complete.  Acute pain is a symptom of an illness or threat . Acute pain is seen as having value as a normal warning system. 

Chronic pain, on the other hand, is pain that lasts long enough or is intense enough to affect a person’s normal activities and well‐being. To be considered chronic,  the pain must last for at least 1 to 3 months. Chronic pain can be the result of an injury or illness but continues after expected recovery time. It is not necessarily related to tissue damage. Chronic pain can be intermittent or constant but usually involves some baseline of pain. Chronic pain is no longer viewed as a symptom of an illness but as a discrete illness in and of itself. Medically speaking, chronic pain has no value or benefit as a warning system although, on a deeper level,  it may reflect and be the manifestation of ongoing functional and psycho-spiritual imbalances.

Science does not have a complete understanding of pain although it has observed some of the mechanisms of pain. The understanding of the exact nature of the processes within the body that lead to the unpleasant sensation of pain is still evolving.

Here is one very simple and useful view of how we experience pain.  For the purpose of our discussion, let’s say we puncture our finger: 

1. The pain receptors ( nociceptors) in our finger are activated by tissue damage (trauma)

2. A signal then travels the peripheral nerve to the spinal cord.

3. Within the spinal cord, chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) are
released & activate other nerves that pass the signal to the brain. 

4. Within the brain, the signal gets to  the thalamus (inner chamber). The thalamus then sorts and sends signals  to the somatosensory cortex (sensation) frontal cortex (thinking) and limbic system (emotions). 

It is very important to understand that the experience of pain can be modified or intensified anywhere along this pathway!

Science & the types of pain

Based in part on where the distortion occurs in this pathway, medical science has identified four basic “types” of pain: Nociceptive Pain, Neuropathic Pain Pyshcogenic Pain and Idiopathic Pain 

Nociceptive pain is when the normal process of stimuli damages normal tissues or has the potential to do so if prolonged. It can affect the bones, joints, muscles, skin, connective tissue and the internal organs.

Neuropathic pain is the abnormal processing of sensory input by the peripheral or central nervous system. It can be centrally generated or peripherally generated.  

Psychogenic pain is pain that results from a psychological disorder, such as depression or anxiety. In this case the psychological issues are not as a result of the pain. 

Idiopathic pain is pain that exists with no known physical or psychological cause. The cause of  the pain is not detectable with  our current medical knowledge. 

Developing Chronic Pain

There are many influences that lead to a person developing chronic pain. Three areas that can be of great benefit to focus on are the relationship to pain, underlying mechanisms & existing pathologies and environmental factors. 

A person’s relationship to pain is made up of complex perceptions that are unique in each individual. This is influenced by personal history, family culture and environmental factors. 

There may also be underlying mechanisms & existing pathologies that contribute to developing chronic pain. These can include pathogens such as chronic viruses or mold, imbalances in the gut microbiome or functional disturbances in any of the organ systems.  

Chronic activation of pain pathways include structural or functional changes in the the peripheral nerves, spinal cord or changes in the structure and chemistry of the brain.

Any comprehensive pain program must first understand and then address each of these influences that are at the “root” of the chronic pain.  

Chronic pain and the issues that arise

When a person develops chronic pain there are many issues that may arise for them to deal with. These may include social factors (changes in family and work) , flare ups,(bad days)  pain modulation,(dealing with the pain daily)  inaccurate conceptualization, (how they view themselves and others) avoidance,(extreme fear) expression disharmony (changes in affect) and catastrophising.(exaggerated negative response to pain) . It is extremely important to note these issues are a result of the chronic pain and the unique history and physical/emotional/spiritual make up of the person. Unfortunately, chronic pain sufferers, especially those experiencing these issues, are often blamed for their condition rather than understood and supported. I have found this “ blaming the victim” manifesting with the family members, friends,  work associates and healthcare providers working with chronic pain sufferers. A comprehensive approach to pain must address these issues as an integral part of the healing process. 

The Extraordinary Vessel Model for understanding and treating pain

The Extraordinary Vessels  are one of the world’s oldest systems for understanding and positively influencing the human experience. Evolving originally in ancient China, the Extraordinary Vessels were used in cultivation practices (Shamanism, Alchemy, Qi  Gong, Meditation, Breath and Movement) long before they appeared as part of acupuncture. As a style of acupuncture the vessels  are the most primordial pathways. They  influence on the deepest level the must fundamental functional and structural aspects of the body. The vessels treat the patient as a unified whole of mind, body and spirit. Generalized stress patterns, chronic habituated movement and emotional patterns, and generalized areas of contraction and inflammation  are identified and addressed in a simple, global and effective manner. 

The extraordinary vessels  also address the deepest levels of the sensory, emotional, spiritual and social experience allowing them to effectively address all levels and aspects of the chronic pain experience.

Extraordinary Vessel paintings by James Hanlon

End of Part 1: Coming Next: Treating Chronic Pain!