What is Acupuncture?
In Eastern philosophy everything is seen to exist within the continuous circle of nature. Nature is a unified system. When the elements of nature are in balance, life is in harmony and flourishes. Humanity cannot be separated from nature – we are nature, manifest as people. Life in ancient China (and indeed many ancient cultures), was completely dependent on the earth, and life revolved around its processes. The people depended on the fruits of the land for survival. Agricultural societies experienced power through nature and aspired to be in harmony with the seasons, rhythms and patterns that connected all things to each other. Living in harmony with the world around you was the way to maintain health. If one was to live out of balance with nature, illness would develop. Doing activities or eating foods that did not coincide with the season, or living out of balance with your constitution would cause you to get sick. Everything in everyday existence was an integral part of not only the health of the individual, but their well being and peace of mind as well.
The ancient Chinese saw human beings as a macrocosm of the universe surrounding them. They saw themselves as part of an unbroken wholeness, the Tao. Taoism is a principal philosophy and system of religion that originated in China and is based on the teachings of Lao Tzu in the sixth century B.C. It advocates a simple honest life and noninterference with the course of natural events, preserving and restoring the Tao in the body and the cosmos. The Tao literally means “the Way”. The true physician teaches the Tao, or “how to live”.
“Maintaining order rather than correcting disorder is the ultimate principle of wisdom. To cure disease after it has appeared is like digging a well when one already feels thirsty or forging weapons after the war has already begun.”
Huang Di Nei Jing
In the Chinese philosophy there was a fusing of the mind and body and the people with their world. Everything was integrated and interrelated. This is something that Chinese medicine has never lost, as it is the basis of not only the medicine, but the culture as a whole. The reason that Chinese medicine has never severed the connection is because it would be impossible. It is the connection that is the basis of the medicine. The body is absolutely connected to the mind, and they both work in harmony to keep us alive and healthy. Any disease, or imbalance that causes disease, is thought to be an imbalance in the entire system and cannot be broken down to the disease of just one thing. One thing affects all, thus, the whole body, mind and spirit are kept in working order, the idea being that if we are in balance, illness will never develop.
It is a wonder that Chinese medicine, a medicine that is more than 4000 years old, is still able to diagnose and treat maladies that affect people that live in a civilization that is so vastly different from the one in which it was created. One of the most impressive things about Chinese medicine is how is has evolved over the centuries, so much so that it is still as relevant and capable of treating disease as it was 4000 years ago. Perhaps the most attractive, and ultimately most effective aspect of Chinese medical theory, is its simplicity. This is certainly one if its strongest points and the thing that makes it truly universal. Its theories are based on things like emotions, diet, stress and weather and it contains metaphors from nature like fire, earth, metal water, wood, hot, cold and wind. These fundamental qualities mean that it can be applied to any culture, in any time. The Chinese have a truly poetic way of describing the body and its processes. For example, a feeling of extreme anger and frustration causing high blood pressure may be seen as liver qi stagnation – the blockage of the body’s vital energy emanating from the liver, and an inability to sleep may be attributed to a disturbance of shen – the mental aspect of the heart.
The Chinese believe that everything has energy or a life force called qi. The concept of qi is absolutely at the heart of Chinese medicine. Every living thing has qi, and the Chinese accept this even though it is hard to define, invisible to the naked eye and almost impossible to prove. It is immaterial yet essential to life and all of its processes. Qi is an invisible force known by what it generates, fosters and protects. Matter is qi taking shape. Without it, life wouldn’t exist.