In a time of uncertainty, I feel like I must give...

I have entered a world in acupuncture which is as rare, unique, and as unprecedented as it gets.

The background is the thousands of years of Oriental Medicine, and long standing lineages brought from China and Japan into the states and Europe, and primarily taught in its TCM and Five Element forms.

My desired experience is aligned with the Five Element approach to working with the spirit, and my circumstances are aligned with a TCM education currently, and the opportunity to be involved in the learning of and the development of a unique lineage of acupuncture only taught by one 73 year old Sensei in Kona.

According to Shen Nong Ben Cao China’s oldest herbal text also known as the
First Medicine Book, there are three approaches to healing:

"The first and the ‘upper class’ of healing corresponds to heaven and is to do with ones destiny or life purpose.

The ‘middle class’ of healing corresponds to the quality of our life, based on our
positive outlook and choosing to live in harmony with nature and others. The
emphasis here is on prevention of toxic substances as well as toxic
thoughts/emotions.

The ‘lower class’ of medicine corresponds to the treatment of illness itself, and
relates to the remedies from mother earth. The use of herbs and tinctures are
used to assist the body into alignment."

My heart is aligned with a new evolutionary vision for an integral Oriental Medicine practitioner - a model that seeks to unify the split between the Yin of the Five Element tradition, and the Yang of the 8 Principle TCM tradition into a unified modality of healing, and a way of life for a practitioner that defies the predictable former model and takes on the highest class of medicine - one that examines what it means to be dedicated to the freedom of each patient from the suffering imposed by their ego in this life.

In that context, the school I am in and the fledgling organization built around the lineage as taught by my Sensei is far behind the evolutionary impulse at the cutting edge of the transpersonal medicine and post-post-modern medicine (i.e., integral medicine) as envisioned by my generation's evolutionary thinkers and practitioners in this field.

The masters of old, and the masters of today who hold the secret knowledge of their honed skills and genius are no longer compelling enough on their own to be relevant in a world context of what integral medicine can offer in a time of global crisis of the health and bankruptcy of spirituality and conviction the western plague of post-darwinian democratic capitalism has left in its wake on the human soul.

This style of teaching is no longer relevant if it is touted as the 'one true way', or 'the only way', or if it is taught to specific people, in specific ways, to survive in a specific limited context of practice, nor is it enough to defy the establishment! That is not to say that the knowledge at its fullest depth is not important, nor do I seek to demean or discount the value of wisdom and method passed down from master to the student. There are fewer more exquisite opportunities than that - but this is not enough.

In prior times, where an apprentice style program was relevant in producing acupuncturists, it resulted in developing practitioners exceptionally trained to serve their immediate community to the depth necessary to address all illness to the deepest degree that context of practice would allow. The digging of 'one well' within one's training was enough to cure most things which developed in the context of the body in the context of the culture. In a global society where one modality isn't able to keep up with the degree of neurosis and disease in our culture and must compete with a world marketplace of problems and distractions to the redemption of each soul from their self-imposed prisons, a style of communication of secretly guarded knowledge from master to student is no longer relevant if the modality is to survive, let alone flourish and become effective in not only curing the body, but curing the mal-attachments of the soul.

In short, all these former medicines address the branch, and not the root. And where the medicines do address the root, they do so not as a result of a formalized method of detecting and dealing with illnesses that attach to the spirit, but through individual wisdom and insight gained purely as a result of decades of mastership and personal inquiry by each practitioner. It is because of this lack of integral context that I have felt so constrained by what I am being asked to learn in the narrow context of education aligned with its own agendas which concentrate on the middle and lower class of medicine. I realize standards must be maintained to maintain purity of a tradition - but given my hearts desire, these modalities do not speak to the heart. These all occur as standing in parallel to my full self-expression, and the expression of the evolutionary impulse towards wholeness that I am being called to. There must be a way to align together to the same goal, a goal that all these medicines were called to as written in the Sheng Nong Ben Cao.

The fledgling organization has had 9 graduates since its inception, and many a dream to grow the organization to a foundation which bridges East and West in bringing the very best of Japanese acupuncture modalities into the West. Despite this vision, I seen noone take up the challenge of truly bringing this vision into reality. Each graduate has their secrets, their own private ways of doing things, and their own knowledge. The apprenticeship method employed by the master in the past swore these graduates to the practice of this particular modality to ensure its survival and its eventual dissemination into all corners of the globe. I believe that the organization has been ill-equipped thus far to carry out that mission in light of how few graduates the organization has had, and its lack of evolutionary leadership in the past, either out of necessity, lack of time, lack of interest, or lack of readiness, or lack of group talent. The master herself has changed her teaching style over the years, and is now no longer as strict as she was in the training of her prior 9 disciples. She is hoping that a few will have the will, the follow through, and the genius to take this modality and spread the gospel throughout the world. I believe that this will happen, and that it is destiny for it to happen. This modality creates miracles in the human body, and through the personal wisdom of the master, it provides healing to the spirit as well.

The organization has some written collateral in various stages of organization, but mostly this collateral exists in hand written notes, and word of mouth knowledge, passed on between teacher and student, and student to student. The full context, a growth strategy, is either non-existent, underdeveloped, secret, or simply unpublished.

The story of that organization resembles that of Hawayo Takata - the bringer of Usui Reiki to the west. Her direct lineage-holders were few, and were sworn to various acts of secrecy. The students were charged huge training fees so as to value the gift they were being given and to ensure its survival in the purest form possible. Several splinter groups originated from the student body - some who swore to keep the lineage pure and secret, and some who thought the knowledge should be passed on and made available to the widest audience possible. Many disagreements continue to this day regarding the true Reiki, its true mode of practice, and its true potential for healing. It is inevitable that in spreading of this knowledge, the potential for loss of depth existed, and no doubt resulted in a failure to fully communicate the lineage, even as individual practitioners made the practice their own, yet passed on their version as 'the original'.

This is apparent in some of the practitioners of Reiki who I come across who have a very poor understanding of the nature of Reiki (as taught to me), its uses, the depth of its symbolic system of energy manipulation, and the power that the practitioners hold in their hands. Reiki was passed on to me by someone who I know respects the Reiki lineage greatly and makes his whole living on Reiki alone, while running an office, and a training center built purely based on a full time Reiki practice. My Reiki teacher is aware of all of these off shoots and has integrated many of the splinters back into the modality that he practices - a modality that rendered him an exceptionally powerful healer. And what little of the depth I know myself, I can still sense its presence.

What is happening now is that there is a movement to regain the roots of original Reiki, and many practitioners are seeking that which was lost - that which was never written down, that which was kept secret and never published. And who's to believe whom? There are too many people claiming to have the truth as passed down from Hawayo Takata.

Hopefully this same mistake can be avoided with Seitai Shinpo, and the modality can take its place within a master's true set of tools which if utilized with original depth, and original integrity can help create a truly integral approach to practice.

In last Thursday's annual business meeting of Seitai Shinpo acupuncturists, I presented a challenge in the next evolutionary phase of the organization by unveiling a new community website. The purpose of this private website is the digitization of, categorization, and standardization of years of notes, documents, and brain trust that has been passed down from the Sensei to her students over the years. The goal of which is to eventually create a standardized training text as well as provide student and practitioner resources.

Amongst the many cries of excitement from current students and former graduates at a shared vision rising out of the void into a tangible first effort, I have already met with some resistance from the chief knowledge holder of the group - but the resistance is well justified and encouraging. It means that there is a true interest in preserving intellectual property, and therefore there is a true interest in developing a strategic vision, principles, guidelines, and standards for Seitai Shinpo and its dissemination into the world.

Perhaps out of these shadows will come a light. As for me, my heart isn't at rest. I will dedicate my time and energy to the creation of this vision and the standardization of this modality into a practice the world can get to know, but my heart will not be satisfied there, my heart lies in the elements, and it is to the elements I must return if I am to realize my personal destiny.