The rapid modernization of China has resulted in high levels of pollution that can contaminate the food and herbal supplies. Heiner and Laurie discuss why Chinese herbs still hold unique value in the world of medicine, and what safeguards are in place to ensure the quality of the herbs imported from the Asian mainland.
Having explored the Heart organ system and its integral role in health and disease, we now discuss the Small Intestine—the organ system charged with carrying out the mission of the Heart. The Small Intestine function is involved in making choices—what to eat, what to absorb of what we ate, what thoughts to entertain, what situations to engage in. When the Small Intestine function is healthy, we make choices that are true to our deeper nature, and therefore lead to real happiness and fulfillment.
JUDITH BOICE
HEINER FRUEHAUF
This interview was recorded for a clinical mentorship class that is part of the online doctorate completion program at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM). Judith Boice, ND, LAc, FABNO is an adjunct faculty member at ACTCM as well as an award-winning author and teacher.
ClassicalChineseMedicine.org is delighted to share this dialogue with you, and we extend our gratitude to Dr. Boice for making this recording available.
What do the stars and planets reveal about how humans can live in harmony with the rhythms of nature? Heiner and Laurie interview Carol Ferris, a western astrologer who has spent more than forty years studying the relationship between planetary movements and human potential. Over the past decade, she has expanded her interests to the ancient Chinese understanding of the heavens, and is particularly fascinated by what the stellar constellations can reveal about human health.
In this podcast, we discuss the ancient awareness that physical disease (dis-ease) arises when the natural flow of the Heart is restricted. This happens when we entertain false beliefs about ourselves or others, and let these prejudices dominate our inner wisdom. When our Heart is functioning freely, we experience ease and feel connected to the people and environment around us. Seen from this perspective, disease isn’t an enemy to be eradicated, but rather a sign in the material world pointing to opportunities to relax, open and live our life in a more whole and authentic way.
Contrary to common belief, Chinese medicine came to the west long before James Reston’s New York Times account of acupuncture following his trip to China with President Nixon in 1971. In fact, accounts of Chinese medicine practice in the Americas go back to at least the 1600’s. Heiner and Laurie interview expert Linda Barnes, PhD, who not only elucidates how, when and where Chinese medicine came to the west, but also provides insights about intercultural exchange that occurred. The discussion includes a consideration of how western understandings of medicine and the body were informed by interactions with Chinese medicine practitioners.
While Western medicine can be a life-saver, it also is much more likely than natural medicine to cause serious health problems for the patient. Heiner and Laurie discuss the issue of practitioner induced illness, and explain why this problem is much more likely to result from the practice of allopathic than natural medicine.
“As Above, So Below” isn’t just a lovely saying—there really is direct relationship between the human body and the natural world. In the realm of acupuncture, perhaps nobody knows this as experientially as this week’s guest, David Ford. Having spent more than forty years teaching acupuncture in wilderness settings, David has developed a deep understanding of how the properties of individual acupuncture points mirror actual phenomena in nature.
Health writer Denise Minger shares her insights about the meat-no meat debate. Denise Minger is exuberant and simply in search of the truth…about what the available data does and does not tell us about the nature of healthy nutrition. Following a raw food, vegan diet to become hearty and strong, Denise instead found herself becoming sicker and weaker. According to the conclusions in The China Study, she was on the diet that should prevent chronic disease. Puzzled by her experience, and a data wonk at heart, she obtained the original data upon which the book was based, and analyzed it herself. Join us for a discussion of what she found in that data, and in her subsequent quest for nutritional wisdom based in sound science rather than dogmatism or political agendas.
A skilled Chinese medicine practitioner can learn a tremendous amount about a patient’s history and current condition just by observing their tongue. What are they looking for? Heiner interviews internationally recognized expert Barbara Kirschbaum to find out. Listen as Barbara provides insights gained from her more than thirty years of experience using tongue analysis in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic disease, with a special focus on cancer and trauma. Barbara Kirschbaum is the author of the widely used textbooks The Atlas of Chinese Tongue Diagnosis, volumes 1 and 2, and is Director of the TCM Clinic within the Breast Cancer Center of the Jerusalem Hospital in Hamburg, Germany.
Heiner and Laurie interview Dr. Paul Kalnins, a scholar practitioner with an unusually broad and deep perspective on how to truly integrate biomedical approaches with natural medicine approaches. After majoring in physics in his undergraduate studies, Dr. Kalnins attained degrees in Chinese and naturopathic medicine, and pursued additional study of the works of Goethe and Steiner. Dr. Kalnins discusses methods of cultivating one’s own perceptive abilities as a means to more directly understand what part of “the whole” is elucidated by different systems of medicine, and how these systems can be used together to optimize patient care.
In this two-part podcast, Laurie narrates and Heiner translates the biographical story of master Wang Qingyu. The story begins with Master Wang’s birth, literally on a battlefield during the Japanese invasion of China. Especially touching are his remembrances of his beloved Daoist teacher, Li Jie, a legendary Daoist hermit who taught young Wang the real value of cultivation practices–to know one’s own heart and become a truly good person.
BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
GERMAN TRANSLATION BY SEPP LEEB
This article is based on the conviction that the traditional art of Oriental medicine is dying—both in mainland China, home of the mother trunk of the field, and consequently overseas where branches of the tree are trying to grow. It may be an anachronistic piece, written at a time when TCM administrators around the world are celebrating major advances in the field, such as increasing numbers of students, practitioners, patients, colleges, universities, and hospitals, which all appear to reflect a booming state of Oriental medicine.
LIU LIHONG
Dr. Liu Lihong, pioneer of the classical Chinese medicine movement in China, lectures on the central position of the phase element 'earth' in Chinese medicine and the associated virtue of trust and belief.
LIU LIHONG
Part 1 of the presentation The Path of Transmission - Restoring the Art of Teaching Chinese Medicine
In this presentation, one of the primary proponents of the Classical Chinese Medicine movement in China offers one of the clearest analyses to date regarding the problems of Oriental Medicine in the modern educational environment. Furthermore, he asserts that the clinical efficacy of medicine has already declined and enumerates why this must change.
LIU LIHONG
Part 2 - a continuation of the presentation The Crisis of Modern TCM – An Analysis
In a continuation of the previous seminar, Prof. Liu suggests specific ways of how to immerse oneself in the classics and begin one’s cultivation toward the timeless ideal of the superior physician.
DENG ZHONGJA
In this video conversation, one of China’s most outspoken experts on the philosophy of teaching Chinese medicine issues a comprehensive analysis of the state of modern TCM. As a scholar and former university administrator, he pinpoints the problems of the present PRC model of TCM education. Furthermore, he gives us his own suggestions on how to productively face the challenge of learning, teaching, and practicing an ancient medicine in a modern world.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
TRANSLATED BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
This letter, which first appeared in Ziran liaofa (Traditional Chinese Medicine and Naturopathy), offers an account of a Chinese medicine student who was discouraged by his Chinese teachers' predilection for Western medicine over Chinese medicine.
BY LI ZHICHONG
TRANSLATED BY NATHAN GARRETTSON
The latter half of the 19th century up and through the 20th century has been a time of great political, economic, cultural, and scientific transformation in China. Chinese Medicine, as a shining gem of traditional science and culture has undergone many assaults, which has led to the field sinking into a sort of quagmire, and it has had to fight bitterly for its own survival. This course of events has come to be called the “Hundred Years of Perplexity.” In the last twenty years, through serious contemplation and reflection on its causes we have become more and more clear how the course of history has chained the study of Chinese Medicine to these complex shackles.
BY VARIOUS AUTHORS
TRANSLATED BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
Prior to the process of treating disease, the sage (superior doctor) must be able to distinguish the Yin and Yang of Heaven and Earth. S/he must know the rhythmic flow of the four seasons and the intricate relationships between the five organ networks and the six bowel systems. S/he must be able to distinguish the Yin/Yang and exterior/interior quality of the meridians, and know what kind of diseases to treat with acupuncture, what kind with moxibustion, and what kind with herbs. S/he must understand the relationship between health and social interaction, master the standard procedure of diagnosis and treatment, and discern the constitutional differences in rich and poor people.
FROM INNER CANON OF THE YELLOW EMPEROR (NEIJING SUWEN, CHAPTER 77: "ANALYZING THE FIVE MISTAKES IN DIAGNOSIS" (FL. 200 B.C.