Chinese Medicine is nothing more than the Science of Integrity

A quote from Meditations on Meridians by Avi Magidoff:

Metal: The Lung represents our ability to take in the world (air), spread it out to the whole body, and let go of the world (exhalation). Sadness and grief can result in letting go of things we thought we owned, which we thought we took from the world and made an integral part of ourselves. If we have no attachments, we could let go of our emotions, states of mind, possessions just as naturally as we exhale.

The dissolution of a former life, when held on to, and the dissolution of a fantasy or dream which fails to meet expectations, is nothing more than a process of shedding layers of self-definition - self-defined structures, self-imposed authorities, self-imposed beliefs, customs, repertoire, and routines. The crumbling of one's castle of meanings, if deeply held in one's body, and in one's mind can create terrible stasis - longing, sadness, grief, and disappointment, which dissolves the very energy that drives the machine we construct around those patterns. Grief an sadness literally slows down the whole organism. This stasis renders a person powerless, immobile, and frail.

The subject line of this post was a quote from Lonny Jarrett. Chinese Medicine is the Science of Integrity - the analysis of what makes physical and psychological integrity fall apart, and the study of what brings it back together into a unified whole. I really love this description.

Thanks to that single quote - the taking on of where I have been out of integrity, and inauthentic is now, once again, represenced to me as my full time job. Integrity must be the foundation of who I am in and out of the treatment room. Standing in my own integrity, and standing for the integrity of others, so that my treatment room doesn't become a shrine for where I pay homage to what integrity might look like, even while my own life is out of integrity and completely misaligned with who I am committed to being.

Today, I got great advice from Lonny on the forum:

"I will give you the same advice I give everyone who comes to me dissatisfied with the level of depth in their school.

1. Change schools OR
2. Learn everything they are teaching you in your school as theory and technique is very important in the beginning.
3. Find a mentor who you respect.
4. Don’t ever look to CM for spirituality! An authentically spiritual person will bring that value to the medicine whatever tradition he or she is practicing. But the medicine will not make one spiritual. It is a great vehicle to promote the evolution of spirit in the right hands. But, in the 21’st century the medicine itself can only form part of the integral context that spiritual integrity demands.
5. Don’t be a victim. Engage with those who share your interest. Give everything and stop complaining about what you’re not getting.
6. Put things in perspective. When I went to school listening to the pointer sisters and talking about how the music made us feel passed for spirituality! (Even then I couldn’t stand it)."

It was number 5 that confronted my ego. I was getting lots of mileage out of whining! "No fair" my ego seemed to say ;) After writhing with that, I'm letting go of whining and letting whining fall into the void.

The reality is that I chose this, and have been attached to a very specific result. Integrity and discipline, and not letting myself off the hook is a new game I'm gonna play!