Matthew Bauer, L.Ac. - Articles - ACUPUNCTURE, REST and TIME

The following article first appeared in Acupuncture Today May, 2006, Volume 07, Issue 05

The Role of Taoist Spirituality in Chinese Medicine: Indefinable Oneness

In my last article,¹ I introduced the Taoist concept of the "Gate of All Wonders," the mystical connection between differing realities that might have been the inspiration for China's ancient namesake ("The Middle Land") and is directly related to Chinese medicine's concept of a holistically interconnected universe. Holistic philosophy stresses that all creation is interconnected, comprising one great whole. This concept has become popular in the West, both with the general public and, to a surprising degree, within modern science.

The fact that modern science is now supplementing, if not replacing, the mechanical view of nature with a holistic view is really quite revolutionary. The concept of a mechanistic universe gained prominence with the theories put forth by such great scientists as Newton and Descartes in the 17th and 18th centuries. From that time on, it had been the dominant view of scientists and the general public. Beginning in the early 20th century, however, a new generation of scientists began promoting ideas that seemed closer to Taoist or Zen Buddhist philosophy than the clockwork determinism of Newton. The great pioneer of quantum physics, Niels Bohr, even incorporated the taiji (yin/yang) symbol into his family crest.

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us as the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical illusion in his consciousness."

- Albert Einstein

If Mr. Einstein and those Taoist philosophers were correct, and all creation is interconnected, then everything truly is "in between" everything else. Every bit of land is a middle land - a gate connecting it with the rest of the universe, leaving one to marvel at how it was that the ancient Chinese were a few thousand years ahead of 20th- and 21st-century scientists. In addition to pioneering the idea of a holistic universe, the ancient Taoists also discovered a crucial feature of those all-pervasive interconnecting gates: They are not entirely equal. Some gates connect things that are very similar to one another. Passing through this type of gate is barely noticeable. Other gates connect things that are dramatically different; passing through these special gates causes dramatic changes.

If you stop to think about it, one could say that the concept of special interconnecting gates is central to the theory of acupuncture. Qi circulates throughout every cell of the body, and thus has the potential to get stuck at any point; yet the most common or pivotal "stuck" spots have been singled out and termed "acupuncture points." While the human body has several thousand acupuncture points, only about 360 were designated as "regular" points (those most pivotal), with a few hundred others categorized as "extra" and "extraordinary." To carry out treatment, acupuncturists must select a limited number of points, and will sometimes choose the less common extra points over regular ones. Point selection, therefore, is based on the skill of being able to recognize the most pivotal of the pivotal points at any given time within a dynamic, fluctuating system. By finding and properly stimulating these special spots, an acupuncturist helps his or her patient to pass through the gate, connecting a state of imbalance to one of balance.

As important as the gates that lead to improved health might be, Taoist spiritual practices have long focused on searching for the most profound gates of all - those that connect the temporal material realm with the eternal spiritual realm. Passing through these gates results in a "through the looking glass" experience, bringing one into the realm of oneness by merging their individual being with the totality of creation. In chapter 14 of the Tao The Ching,² Lao Tzu describes this search:

Look at it, but you cannot see it.
Because it is formless, you call it Invisible.
Listen to it, but you cannot hear it.
Because it is soundless, you call it Inaudible.
Grasp it, but it is beyond your reach.
Because it is subtle, you call it Intangible.
These three are indescribable and imperceptible.
But, in the mystical moment you see it, hear it and grasp it,
The Unseen, the Unheard, and the Unreachable presents itself as indefinable Oneness.

While this first passage of the chapter tells us that the gate to Oneness can be found, Lao Tzu warns us that finding it can be quite elusive:

Confront this Oneness and you do not see its face.
Follow it and you do not see its back.
It does not appear bright when viewed at the zenith.
Nor does it appear dark when viewed at the nadir.
There is nothing which can make this Oneness distinct.
When you try to make it clear to yourself, it evasively reverts to Nothingness.
Perhaps you may call it the Form of the Formless, the Image of the Imageless.
Yet the elusive, subtle Oneness remains nameless.

Finally, Lao Tzu offers an important clue as to how one can find the most profound gates to Oneness - by observing nature and tracing it back to its source:

If you hope to meet it, it has no part you can call front.
If you hope to follow it, it has no place you can call behind.
Yet it can be observed in the constant regularity of the universe.
The constancy of the universe of antiquity is the constancy of the present time.
If one knows the Primal Beginning, one may thus know the truth of the eternal Tao.

1. Bauer M. The role of Taoist spirituality in Chinese medicine, part one: the gate of all wonders. Acupuncture Today, February 2006.