Vessel Medicine

Fingers on the pulse(s)!

With more teaching engagements coming up in the second half of this year it will mean my practice will be getting booked solid for the months to come. New patients will be required to book a total of 3-6 consecutive sessions when arranging the initial consultation. Existing patients may be asked to book a number of weeks in advance in order to secure their preferred time. As it stands late bookings on 3 of the days a week are booked out for the next 12 months already.

See you in the clinic!

Often healing is simple - cultivate stillness and regeneration by doing less. Walk instead of run. Better yet, sit, lie down, sleep. Enable tranquility in the midst of daily chaos.

Acupuncture efficacy is often found in the quiet nothingness of time on the table. It’s not for everyone, but when it’s employed it can be pure meditative bliss.

We welcome Declan Sullivan to Classical Acupuncture Sydney / Vessel Medicine. Declan is new to clinical practice but has a wonderful drive and thirst for knowledge - undertaking post graduate training and, as of August, will be spending a few months in Nepal with the amazing . For more information on Declan and his travels be sure to check out our blog and about page.

Solo tea bowl silent session.

The Wood Dragon, growth, strength, ascendance of vitality of self.

Image by the magnificent dharma artist , follow him for more incredible art.

What are the channels in acupuncture?

They are not invisible energetic meridians as often discussed. Rather, they are patterned pathways of movement, concerted systems compromising vessels, tissues, fluids, bone, organs, and more. The ancients viewed these pathways, collated them, and studied them intently.

This is why we discuss river and watershed systems as being likened to that of the channels. They are one in the same, and the ancients observed this. It is observable in so many aspects of the natural and man-made world, from rivers, to trees, lightening, leaves and London. A pattern of primary trajectory, secondary separations, and intimate connection with central regions, and surrounding geography.

Books are filling up for the new year, next available session is February 2nd then a few scattered appointments remain for February.

Bookings are available online through the second link in description.

Vessel Medicine / Classical Acupuncture Sydney has re-opened for 2024 and January is already full booked. Appointment availability will be published on Mondays forthcoming.

We hope that everyone had a lovely holiday / new year break - now time to get back to what matters: health and happiness!

“If hell is not empty, I shall not attain Buddhahood” ~ Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

Ksitigarbha, the womb of the earth, one of the four principal bodhisattvas in Mayahana, here stands over my past Buddhist pilgrimage of Jiuhua mountains. Hopefully I will return again this coming year to further my meditations on the importance of servitude in medicine.

// Body as vessel //

Movement is such a vital part of self-care and is one of the pillars of preventative medicine, along with meditative practice and nutrition. Movement, like the others, is a daily practice - promoting and allowing free flow of substance within the channel and vessel pathways, establishing internal nourishment, and regeneration of qi, blood, and fluids. Daoyin 導引, guiding and pulling, is a very simple and preliminary practice with numerous techniques with deep, controlled, and even breathing methods. As the Zhubing yuanhou lun (諸病源候論) states: "the practice consists of drawing together in one's body all the bad, the pathogenic, and the malevolent qi. Then one follows them, pulls them in, and guides them to leave forever. This is why it is called daoyin." (Trans. Despeux, '89).

The true focus of Daoyin is, of course, longevity, and it acted as a self imposed health check for those that lived in solitude in the wilderness. One of the earliest references comes from the Zhuangzi of the 3rd century BCE "To repair to the thickets and ponds, living idly in the wilderness, angling for fish in solitary places, inaction his only concern - such is the life favoured by the scholar of the rivers and seas, the man who withdraws from the world, the unhurried idler. To pant, to puff, to hail, to sip, to spit out the breath and draw in the new, practicing bear-hangings and bird-stretchings, longevity his only concern - such is the life favoured by the scholar who practices induction (daoyin), the man who nourishes his body, who hopes to live to be as old as Pengcu" (Watson 2013).

For those interested I have been studying Daoyin for 27 years, and incorporating it into my clinical practice for 20 years. Feel free to reach out to learn more of this amazing self care tool.

📸 Daoyin Tu of the Mawangdui manuscripts.

Cloud-Hidden.

Every day I am testing new and old puerh and oolong tea, noting the meditative, yangsheng, and medicinal attributes of each one. This has been 14 years of research which is accumulating to my collection slowly being available to interested parties.

Today it is earth shou puerh, and initial thoughts are this is a very impressive tea: rich, deep, softening, and tranquil that will continue to improve with age. More to come.

What's that smell?

Why moxibustion (moxa) of course, the other half of acupuncture. In Chinese we say 針灸 "Zhēnjiǔ" meaning to "needle" and to "burn" - that burning is the use of mugwort (艾 ài) a dried herb with incredible warming capabilities. Used in a variety of ways, either raw in "cone" form (as pictured above), or rolled into a millet-grain sized piece, or often as a stick for heating various regions, moxa is used for deeply engaging the yang qi of the body and bringing substance to a particular area, whether at a particular "point", a bodily terrain region, or site of organ correspondence.

Classically, in the style of Neijing Functional Acupuncture (that practiced at the clinic), moxa is primarily used for channel and region supplementation, where needling would subsequently be damaging to those that are in a state of deficiency. It can be used to gently warm areas as well, in order to create the desired directional push your physiology needs.

Of course, moxa is hot - but when used appropriately by the right practitioner it will not burn or be painful. In fact, moxa is a very pleasant, albeit aromatic therapy that can be used for many debilitating conditions.

📸 Vessel Medicine / Classical Acupuncture Sydney

Sit & Breathe.

It’s really that simple, yet we love to contemplate such practices with guides and more so, unrealistic aspirations. “Meditation” is not the practice, it’s the possible outcome. Sitting, maintaining posture, embracing silence, breathing deep, and subsequently clearing the mind is the practice. Self-realisation, emptiness, and enlightenment are possibilities. Training to meditate is equal to training or learning any other skill set. It’s a progressive means to an infrequently obtained goal. Daily practice with a simple approach is key.

坐禪 Zuochan, or better known as zazen: seated meditation, Dogen’s method of “just sitting” (只管打坐) is a common practice and is so highly praised for its clarity in approach. Here it is beautifully presented by Kodo Sawaki of Soto Zen.

Qi, blood, and a pathway: all that is needed for the study of physiology. Water and a pathway: all that is needed for the study of hydrology. Written around the 3rd century BCE, the Guanzi Shuidi gives us the earliest extant look at the importance of mai-vessels as conduits for qi (translated by Harper here as “vapour”).

This inter-relationship between the water, qi, blood, and vessels (amongst the surrounding tissue and terrain) is vital to developing a classical lens of the bodily and environmental form, their health and diseases.

This connection between being, earth, and heavenly (natural, cosmic or 天) endowment permeates all aspects of one’s well-being.

Clinic space. Tea space. Your space.

Sitting with a wonderful Jingmai Shan Puerh.

A beautiful antique Shakuhachi, the latest edition to our clinic collection.

The clinic will be closed until the 3rd April 2023 as I will be teaching in London. Bookings for late April and May are available online. See you when I return!

Happy Lunar New Year!

“The Master said, “There are those who hide themselves away and practice their esoteric arts to win a reputation from later ages. I am not willing to do this. There are exemplary persons who set out to live by walking the proper way (道) but who quit halfway. I am not able to stop. And then there are exemplary persons who are given to focusing the familiar affairs of the day (中庸), and who withdraw from the world to live out their lives in obscurity without the least regret - only the sages are able to do this.”

子曰: 素隱行怪, 後世有述焉, 吾弗為之矣. 君子遵道而行, 半涂而廢, 吾弗能已矣. 君子依乎中庸, 遁世不見知而不悔, 唯聖者能之.

Zhongyong, “focusing the familiar” trans. Ames and Hall.

Image: Tibetan pilgrims walking, Western China. Carlos Barria.

"The mind that thinks about removing what is within it will by the very act be occupied. If one will not think about it, the mind will remove these thoughts by itself and of itself become No-Mind.

If one always approaches their mind in this way, at a later date it will suddenly come to this condition by itself. If one tries to achieve this suddenly, it will never get there.

An old poem says:

"To think, "I will not think" -
This, too, is something in one's thoughts.
Simply do not think
About not thinking at all.""

Takuan Oshu Zenshu, Trans. William Scott Wilson.

Image: Eka Danpi 慧可断臂 (Lit. = Eka cutting off his elbow). Hanging scroll, 1498. By Sesshū 雪舟 (1420-1506). Sainenji Temple 斎年寺, Aichi Pref., Japan

A brief little blog on the importance and philosophy of movement is now live. This will be a part of an ongoing series titled: Move, Sit, Stand, Breathe.

Link in bio.

Travelling medicine, Beijing, 1871. A wonderful image of some street therapy captured by John Thomson.

As the winter winds dance through the Sydney streets it’s time to settle our inner chaos with good warming tea.

Todays choice is a very high grade Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, or smoked tea. Served in a purple clay pourer and antique chawan.

https://www.classicalacupuncturesydney.com.au/blog/2022/5/31/move-sit-stand-and-breathe

Move - Sit - Stand - Breathe — Acupuncture Crows Nest | Dr. David White Daily cultivation and health practices for everyday people. Neigong, Qigong, Zazen, Daoism, and other methods discusses and practiced.

“Zazen is first and foremost an holistic body posture, not a state of mind” Issho Fujita.

This has resonated more and more with my own practice, both in zazen (seated meditation) and zhanzhuang (standing stance). Posture comes first. Thought shouldn’t come at all. It is not mind training in a strict sense. Nor is it breathwork. It’s sitting. It’s standing. Integrating this concept into my practice has been paramount to clinical success. Teaching my patients through individual methods to:

1. Move properly.
2. Sit properly.
3. Stand properly.
4. Breathe properly.

Most vital has been to not combine all of these as one until each has been practiced as individual entities. Once practiced then they can start true no-form methods of cultivation. This takes time.

Neijing Acumoxa: acupuncture as it was meant to be. New website coming along piece by piece.

Understanding what it is to truly be healthy, free of stress, and conscious of self, takes great determination and discipline. It’s a practice, something that needs to be honed every day of the week. The most difficult step in any path to health is the first one, however, once that first step is made you will never want to turn back.

The three masters of old adorn one of the treatment rooms. Drawn for my clinic by a student many years ago. Hua Tuo 華佗 of Anhui, the province where I studied and worked nearly two decades ago. A masterful physician of the Eastern Han. Zhang Zhongjing 張仲景 of Nanyang, the greatest contributor to herbal medicine in the history of all medicine, author of the Shanghanlun, a treatise on cold damage. And finally, Sunsimiao 孫思邈, the king of medicine, a Tang Dynasty physician, dietician, specialist, and author.

Having these three in the practice is a constant reminder that to truly know Chinese medicine we must constantly look to the past. As I often say: realisation over innovation.