Hi

Welcome to the inaugural entry to the NCoA blog, or ‘Thought for the te’.  This is written for the benefit of students – potential, current and recently qualified – a window into the world of Qi deficiency and stagnation!

Let me introduce myself – I’m a graduate of the NCoA and have been asked to write this as, apparently, I’m never short of an opinion (on everything) with little reluctance to express it; I’m writing under a pseudonym (of ‘Metta’) for obvious reasons.

With some of you enrolling and others taking exams or shortly leaving the warm embrace of the College, I have been thinking that we’re all undergoing considerable CHANGE.  When I arrived at the College, I was told “this course is life-changing” – never was said a truer word.  Yet, the apparent paradox is that although we are often afraid of change, we’re entering into a world where that is what it’s all about.   As Ted Kaptchuk put it “Our job is to change the Qi and the blood of the patient to help them deal with the problem they are experiencing”.

I Ching, the “Book of Change”, gives us a 5000 year-old lesson in the inevitability of change, and the natural order which drives it.  Chinese Emperors pulling on plants to make then grow, or English kings trying to stop the tide, stand as much chance as we do of influencing natural change – and yet we live in a society where we are increasingly trying to change our very being.  The Tao te Ching, in Chapter 48, had it that:

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering

So my advice to you all is to exercise a little Wu Wei, and allow things to happen naturally; the chances are that things will work themselves out far better than if you tried to shoehorn them, and you’ll be saved the stress into the bargain.  If you must try to influence events, then remember François Jullien’s interpretation of Chinese thinking, in his “The Propensity of Things – Towards a History of Efficacy in China”, that change is brought about by the combination of tendency and circumstance – get those two things right and change is inevitable.  As stated in Ecclesiastes III (c.900 BC) “To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven ….”

The Universe throws up unexpected events and we can only receive them gratefully and smile – a client of mine came in recently and said, “you’re used to poking around with needles, can you take this splinter out?”.  Hmmm, I thought, four years of training and it’s come to this!  But it does make one expect the unexpected.

So I look forward to continuing with similar themes in the future and likewise look forward to hearing your comments – which I’ll read gratefully and smile.

Metta