J.Yuan on 8-extra channels

[Guest guest]

Wed, 24 Mar 2004 22:51:35 " suecochrane36 " <suecochrane wrote

 

>Thanks Chris I will chase up the tapes. The seminar was held in

>London - the details are in a posting 6 months ago - I will check the

>venue to see if they recorded it. What is your area of study with

>Master Yuan?

>Sue

 

Hi Sue,

 

The book on the 8-Extra (BaMai QiJing)by Claude Larre and Elizabeth Rochat

de la Vallee together with Jeffery C. Yuen's recorded lecture (cited in

earlier message) constitute the most extended and in depth information (in

English) on this topic that I have found. Royston Low's book on the

Secondary Vessels has some interesting information. Way back ca. 1976, Dr.

Leon Hammer published a detailed article on the 8-Extraordinary channels in

a journal, with psychological aspects, and based, I think, on his study

with Dr. Van Buren in the UK. Kikko Matsumoto co-authored a book on the

8-Extra which I have but haven't studied.

 

All the information I have found in TCM sources is uniformly sketchy and

unenlightening. TCM gives some lip service to constitutional and

life-process issues (which is the level at which Larre/Rochat and Yuen

interpret this channel system), but in fact appears intent on obliterating

that part of tradition.

 

My study with Jeffery (as he's called most often by his students and

colleagues)is within the distance learning PhD program in Classical Chinese

Medicine at the American University of Complementary Medicine in LA,

California (http://www.aucm.org). The core of the program is studying the

sources and Jeffery's interpretations of the NeiJing (SuWen), ZhenJing

(LingShu), NanJing, ShangHanLun, and the " 4 great masters/schools " of the

Song-Jin-Yuan period. These are studied in terms of philosophy/theory, but

also in terms of clinical application (One of the amazing features of

Jeffery's teaching is that these two aspects are intimately

interconnected.). Other core areas are the Primary Channels, Sinew Channel,

Luo channel, Divergent channel, and 8-Extra channel systems -- also in

terms of theory and clinical application. Then there are electives, such as

classical needling, emergency CM, pediatrics, FuKe (Ob-Gyn) etc., also

considered in terms of viewpoints of the various classical schools of

thought. It's a rigorous PhD program, so there's required study of

statistics, research methodology, etc., and a full dissertation program.

 

I had been attending Jeffery's lectures often as CEU classes. The PhD

program provides me the opportunity to really go into the material in

depth, and be held responsible for assimilating and using it (unlike CEU

classes). Within a framework of understanding basic CM energetics

(Wei/Ying/Yuan levels, which Jeffery explains often in the course of the

available recorded lectures), he attempts to teach each particular system

(e.g. channel system, or historical school), " as if it were the only true

way " , i.e. to really immerse into and live it clinically. One result of

this study is getting to know where the bits and pieces, patched together

as " TCM " , originally came from, and in fact how they can be made to work by

understanding the context and viewpoint where they emerged. Perhaps more

importantly, one sees that there is significantly more knowledge/wisdom in

the classical traditions than in TCM, which, from this perspective, can be

seen as just another specific historical school of thought, actually

heavily focused on westernization ( " modernization " ).

 

Another important facet of Jeffery's teaching is that he attempts to

demonstrate the richness of interpreting the classical material on one's

own, and puts forth his own (rather brilliant) interpretations as examples

to show others how this can be done, rather than encouraging his ideas to

be taken literally as dogma.

 

, L.Ac.