Well, if I still have any readers, I’m back! It’s been a long time, and all I have is crummy excuses. I went to Portland, OR last summer for the first annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Classical Acupuncture. I enjoyed the communion with other Chinese medicine practitioners who are trying … Continue reading “Exploring the Channel Systems”
- All
- Re-framing Health Care for Society
- The Art of Acupuncture (and CM)
- The Spirit of the Neijing
- The Theory and Practice of Disease Reversion (Accumulation Theory)
On behalf of Steve’s healing community, we regret to inform you that Steven Alpern, L.Ac., DNBAO, of the Neijing Institute passed away on March 16, 2018. Steve’s life work with Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM), which is contained on this website in part, lives on through his many students, colleagues, and patients whose lives and careers … Continue reading “Steven Alpern has passed away”
Twenty-five centuries ago, the authors of the Great Commentary of Yìjīng (Xìcí (繫辭)) identified one key idea at the root of the natural philosophy investigations during the classical period of ancient China. They framed two ways to relate with and understand the world, which exhibit a clear yin-yang polarity: The qì (器)-frame focuses on how … Continue reading “Framing the Arts (術) of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine”
Nearly six years ago, I was ask to develop a short series of seminars to introduce the five systems of channels and vessels of acupuncture. I tried in good faith to organize such a series, and the plan ended up including eighteen weekends, most of which were conceived as three day meetings. My continuing education … Continue reading “Teaching Nèijīng (內經) Acupuncture”
One challenge modern people face in studying classical Chinese medicine is recognizing, appreciating, and eventually participating in the peculiar nature of classical Chinese scholarship. While modern scholarship has contributed substantially to our understanding of Nèijīng (內經) by establishing the ‘provenance’ of the received texts, its value wanes substantially beyond that. Literary reading of classic texts like Nèijīng … Continue reading “Two Kinds of Scholarship”
A few weeks ago, a friend wrote an email to me after reading my initial posting on studying Nèijīng (內經) in Chinese. He was concerned that I might undermine my attempt to educate our profession by ‘picking fights with luminaries,’ before I was ready to make my case. I assured him that I’ve done my ‘homework,’ … Continue reading “Picking Fights with Luminaries?”
Sometimes it’s hard to keep your feet firmly on the ground, especially when you’re a student approaching a Master, and think you know your stuff. Certainly, that is true for the ‘physical’ martial arts. It is no less true for martial art of the spirit. What is “martial arts of the spirit?” Martial artists of … Continue reading “Martial Arts Training with a Master”
There are MANY ways to study Chinese medicine. The practical desire to assure adequate training in China early in the Song (960-279) led to the standardization of the basic modern clinical doctrine. Many clinical differentiations had already been ‘worked out’ by that time, and they were organized into the familiar syndromes of the zàngfǔ (藏府). … Continue reading “Whatever Happened to Nèijīng (內經)?”
The classical language of Nèijīng (內經) presents many complications. I wrote a blog piece recently about the challenge of determining if a particular phrase refers to the macrocosm or microcosm. Another ubiquitous challenge is that classical Chinese has no punctuation — that’s a big one, and I’ll write about it more in the future. Yet, in … Continue reading “Challenges of Studying Nèijīng (內經)”
Classical Chinese is a difficult language, and I’ve been lucky enough to find the perfect person to help me undertake direct study of Nèijīng (內經) with all its beauty and challenges in classical Chinese. I wrote a little about Sabine and her background in a previous posting, but that brief review focused primarily on her external qualifications. … Continue reading “Working with Sabine to Decipher Nèijīng (內經)”
The good news about life is that our bodies are made to HEAL. The bad news is that sometimes they get overwhelmed, confused, or just distracted from doing so. Indeed, one of the nearly universal features of all diseases and injuries is that they SLOW US DOWN. If we can’t project nearly as much intention … Continue reading “Three Types of Health Care”