The problem was that when I started working using this mindset – of killing or destroying the pathogen and saving my client from Jaki – it did not work as well as I would like. At the time my treatment results were good, but not as good as I wanted them to be.
And then one day I saw a picture in the newspaper of a war-torn country. What struck me most about the photo was the condition of the land. The land was devastated. Houses were torn down, crops were savaged, and everything was in ruin. It occurred to me that in going to war with evil pathogens, the landscape where the battle would rage was my client’s body.
I realized that no matter how well intentioned I was, the way in which I was working was not honoring my client’s body. When my intention was to destroy, that intention was Jaki for my client, and had to be processed and dealt with like any other Jaki. When I had this realization, I began to change the way I worked.
It is much more descriptive of the behavior of the pathogen to call it "Inappropriate," rather than "Evil" Qi. Pathogens and Upright Qi are both part of the landscape – part of the client. Pathogens are the voice of dissent and change in the body – some of the body’s Qi does not agree with the rest, and is not working in harmony with the Upright Qi.
One of the great strengths of America is that we tolerate dissent – heck, our whole country is founded on the idea of that toleration of dissent makes for a stronger, happier, and better place to live. As an American acupuncturist, I have to apply the idea of tolerance to dealing with the Inappropriate Qi of the body. If it is wrong to destroy people because they disagree with the direction in which our country is moving as a whole, how can I think it is right to try to destroy Inappropriate Qi because it disagrees with the direction in which the body is moving as a whole? After all, the goal of treatment is health, and that means making the body the strongest, happiest, and best place to live that it can be. What I want for my country, I want for my clients, too.
Dissent is resolved through dialogue and understanding. So here is my advice for today – the next time you find Jaki in your client, take a breath and calm the thoughts that rise to the surface that Jaki is something other, and to be despised. Open your heart instead, and look at it as a part of the whole – a dissenting voice of the client’s own body. Work to resolve the difference instead of punishing it. Coming from this place, the treatment will work better than you can imagine.
One of the great strengths of America is that we tolerate dissent – heck, our whole country is founded on the idea of that toleration of dissent makes for a stronger, happier, and better place to live. As an American acupuncturist, I have to apply the idea of tolerance to dealing with the Inappropriate Qi of the body. If it is wrong to destroy people because they disagree with the direction in which our country is moving as a whole, how can I think it is right to try to destroy Inappropriate Qi because it disagrees with the direction in which the body is moving as a whole? After all, the goal of treatment is health, and that means making the body the strongest, happiest, and best place to live that it can be. What I want for my country, I want for my clients, too.
Dissent is resolved through dialogue and understanding. So here is my advice for today – the next time you find Jaki in your client, take a breath and calm the thoughts that rise to the surface that Jaki is something other, and to be despised. Open your heart instead, and look at it as a part of the whole – a dissenting voice of the client’s own body. Work to resolve the difference instead of punishing it. Coming from this place, the treatment will work better than you can imagine.
