posting guidelines

[Guest guest]

All,

 

In case anyone is wondering what constitutes an acceptable post, the topics

have not changed, only the latitude I will give members to go off on

tangents of questionable relevance and interest to the group.

 

So issues of education, texts, teaching methods, translation terminology,

politics, etc are all still fair game. However, these topics were always

meant to contribute to the main focus of this forum, which is to improve

the clinical reasoning skills of the practicing herbalist and increase the

quality of patient care. The focus of this group is not to represent and

preserve the profession of TCM, whatever that is. That is for the AAOM and

the Alliance. It is not decide the " truth " of the finer points of chinese

medical history. That is for sinologists. Don't get me wrong. Many

times the only way to make a clinical point is with reference to history or

science or some other other specialized knowledge other than clinical

experience. So I won't stop asking for that " other " data. It is one thing

to ask for such data and state one's thoughts on the lack thereof. But

this data should be presented in the service of clinical practice.

 

This group should be about the issues that impact day to day patient care.

The speed of the internet allows one to query others on such issues and

get useful responses in a timely manner. People should not fear raising a

clinical issue lest they suffer brutal reprisals for some minor error. I

used to ask all the time what a character meant or to delve into meaning of

a concept or passage, but we were rarely able to sustain such a discussion

before it became something wholly other. However, I personally see little

value in moderating a group when I see so little interest and relevance in

so many posts. I know most of you are deleting the majority of posts

because you find them offensive or boring. I have heard this dozens of

times. That was not my intention in founding CHA. But I will not give up

the group because I know most of you are actually with me on this point.

Practitioners and educators have immediate needs and CHA was meant to

primarily serve those needs.

 

It has become very clear over the years that the differing positions

expressed by members of this group are quite entrenched. I think we all

know that if one could read chinese fluently, one would not have to ask

questions about what to do as often (but you would still have many

questions you could not answer on your own, anyway). However, my plan for

CHA was that we would all learn from each other every time such questions

were asked. That we could learn from those who read chinese and those who

did research and worked in labs and specialized in this or that. It was

not meant to be a place to launch recriminations at whoever did not meet

whatever criteria were thought to be most essential to practice by whoever

was onstage at the time (is it doing qi gong or feeling pulse or reading

chinese or knowing western medicine - all have been eloquently argued here,

but only the term issue has degenerated time and time again). We should

all stipulate that we are all inadequate in some way. This forum was to

shore that up for all of us, not knock down those who needed help.

 

So I hope everyone will ask freely now so that this goal can be realized.

You can expect that some answers will emphasize western medical knowledge

and others will emphasize classical study or correct translation in order

to reach the goal. But you should also expect to be treated courteously

regardless of what you ask or your level of knowledge. As long as you are

enrolled in an accredited TCM school, there is no question too simple

(laypersons or those with no training in herbology are typically not

allowed on this list). I assume that a student in herbs 1 is ready to

start asking questions here.

 

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds " --

Albert Einstein