A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want. Moshe Feldenkrais The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Martha Beck
In 1995 as I entered Chinese Medicine college I did not realize that in pursuing acupuncture, I was entering a career that would directly tie in with my longstanding interest in meditation, which is to say that I did not know Chinese Medicine could be pursued as a dao, a way. The 23 years since those early student days have clearly revealed to me over and over again that, if one is to get anywhere worth getting in acupuncture, it needs to be approached in this manner. Acupuncture is a path with no end, and we progress by elevating our perception abilities and our manual skills.
This concept of following a dao is well developed in Japan (in Japanese a dao is a do, as in Judo or Aikido), and their culture seems to have a particular appreciation for how this impacts the study and practice of acupuncture. There the importance of the cultivation of one’s touch is emphasized. The refined needle techniques developed in Japan can take years to master. I still recall watching Miyawaki Sensei, the famous Japanese master of the eight extraordinary vessels, demonstrate his tonifying technique in NM some years ago. I had seen other Toyohari teachers show the same ho-ho technique, but what I saw him do was on a different level altogether. I swear the birds outside stopped singing, and all of nature around us paused for a moment and held its breath until he suddenly released his technique and removed the needle. Wow! That was someone who had spent years mastering the technique. He said in fact that it took him 16 years to master this tonifying technique. I don’t know many Americans who will practice that long and wait that long to get good at something. It’s just not in our culture (with a few exceptions).
In 2007 I stayed four days with a shonishin practitioner on the outskirts of Tokyo. He was a student of Tanioka Masanori Sensei, the most famous of all shonishin practitioners in Japan. My host explained that when he graduated from acupuncture college, he asked and was allowed to observe Ikeda Masakazu practice in his clinic for a few days. Ikeda Sensei is a genuine master whose needling skill is a wonder to behold. This was quite an opportunity for a new graduate. At the end of the observation period he asked one question of Ikeda about a particular needle technique he had observed. Ikeda Sensei gave him a stern lecture, and said that it would have been enough of a goal for the observer to simply notice how Ikeda spoke with yang deficient patients differently from yin deficient patients, that it was far too early in his career for him to be asking for details of advanced needling techniques. In essence Ikeda was saying what the quote above from Martha Beck says: Everything—including how we stand at the table and how we address our patients, the language we use— matters. Everything.
I only went to two acupuncturists before I enrolled in acupuncture college. One I visited four times and was impressed with everything about him. He helped me quickly recover from a running injury. The other acupuncturist removed my needles with hands that reeked of tobacco (he had left the room for a smoke) and was talking on the phone with his wife as he removed the needles. Clearly this was someone who needed to be shown the Beck quote above. He evidently felt that the only thing important was choosing the right points and putting them in with reasonable technique. Everything else seemed in his mind insignificant in comparison. Contrast that with Ikeda’s view that we have to change how we speak to patients based on their constitution and deficiencies. Big difference. Ikeda understands acupuncture as dao, but the other guy did not. Of course I never returned for another appointment with the second guy.
The Feldenkrais quote above brings in a different element. It should be pointed out that Moshe Feldenkrais was a student of judo; in fact he was the first black belt in Europe and its first teacher. He was a brilliant scientist who turned his mind to the study of human movement and human learning when he severely injured his knee. He was a pioneer of neuroplasticity before the word even existed. From studying his work I have come to understand that how I do what I do is much more important than what I do. It matters, for example, how I stand at the table as I do my needle techniques. My use of my self is perhaps the key factor in how the treatment will go.
It has taken me a long time to fully embrace this idea, but I believe it to be true. If I am aware in my self (written this way as two words deliberately) when I am with a patient, I am better able to accomplish in the treatment what I want. The more I am stuck in habituated movement patterns (and thought patterns as well), the more limited my treatment will be. I have this particular quote framed and on my clinic wall. It was a gift from a student whose parents were both accomplished Feldenkrais practitioners. It is a valuable daily reminder for me.
I hope I have stimulated some thoughts and encouraged some of you to start to shift your focus in your AOM career to where it is embraced as a dao. We owe it to our patients to approach it this way.
Kind regards all around,
Bob Quinn