Lineage & the Heart-Mind
Classical Chinese medicine is a lineage-based medicine. I am so grateful that the school I attended to study acupuncture tries the best it can to preserve the heart of this lineage-based medicine and to center the teacher-student relationship inside of the bureaucracy of an educational institution.
I was able to attend a conference this past weekend hosted by my alma mater, National University of Natural Medicine, that brought together multiple generations of student-teacher relationships. I got to learn from my mentors’ mentors and witness the relationship between them.
I’m moved to honor and share about some of my teachers and lineages here.
As many of you know and have experienced yourself, taking the pulse is a big part of what I do with my patients. The pulse lineage that I practice is called Shen-Hammer Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis or Shen-Hammer for short. This pulse system has its origins in the pulse classic written by Li Shi Zhen and is part of a lineage of Chinese medicine called the Meng He current. Dr. John Shen learned this pulse system from Ding Gan Ren, a scholar physician at one of the prominent Chinese medicine colleges in Shanghai in 1916. Dr. Shen immigrated to the United States and met Dr. Leon Hammer. After Dr. Hammer followed Dr. Shen for many years, Dr. Shen began to teach Dr. Hammer the pulse system. Dr. Hammer is currently 97 years-old and retired but occasionally teaches and speaks. He has many students across the globe. At this conference, Dr. Hammer was interviewed by his student, Brandt Stickley, who was one of my main teachers and mentors.
One important thing that I have learned from my teachers Dr. Hammer and Brandt Stickley is that there are many ways of knowing. There are other ways of knowing than through the scientific method, through research, and through books. Dr. Hammer calls this other way of knowing the heart-mind. The heart-mind involves knowing with the senses and with the soma, seeing with the third eye, and listening with the third ear. I will add that this way of knowing involves slowing down enough so there can be curiosity, relationship, and exploration of being in the mystery of being alive. The heart-mind is like our intuition that is connected to something wider than our singular selves and at the same time emerges from deeply within us.
When asked how we learn how to know with the heart-mind, Dr. Hammer responds by saying, as unsatisfying of an answer it might be, that you already know how to know with the heart-mind. It’s already in you. No one person is more capable of it than the next. Most of us are encouraged to forget this way of knowing around the age of four, but it’s still there. It never goes away and it's always trying to reveal itself to you.
Dr. Hammer will also spend many endearing hours telling you remarkable stories about dogs, cats, and donkeys who know with their heart-minds. Our pets can be our best teachers. He’ll say if you’re having trouble, get an animal friend.
My acupuncture practice involves witnessing my patients with the heart-mind and I hold the intention of returning each of us back to this way of knowing and connection that we all inherently have.
This is one of many gems that I have received from my teachers and mentors, and I am excited to share more with you here in the future.