Lonny Jarret’s book Nourishing destiny is a key work for those who recognize that their therapeutic work involves them on a path of understanding and inner development rather than merely the practice of a medical technique and for those who are interested in the broader potential of treatment. In his book it becomes clear how acupuncture can not only help with symptoms and harmonize health but have a part in aiding a person through life's passages helping them to realize their true nature and purpose in life
The book is based on the classical traditions of Chinese medicine, Daoist philosophical and spiritual thought , of which one of the major systems of thought is the five element theory and is presented in his book.
This style considers the more subtle psycho-spiritual-emotional dimensions of humanity and informs us of how one’s spirit and consciousness influence the physical substrate of the body.
It provides a strong context for consideration of the patient as a spiritual, emotional and social being, as well as a natural one. This enables the practitioner to treat the more subtle emotional-mental-spiritual bodies of the patient, as well as the physical body. In effect, the material body is seen as a gateway to the subtle bodies, and the acupuncture meridians and points linked to the organ systems can be used to access the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of the patient.
In his chapter the Inner Nature of acupuncture points Lonny Jarrett explains their broader cultural significance and energetics rather than merely listing the symptoms or usages they have been found to be valuable for. With this level of insight, acupuncture can better be used to treat body, mind and spirit as a complete therapeutic art.
The crux of this theory is that the human individual exists within the context of the natural world, and that illness in the individual arises from disorder. It is believed in this system that heaven wills a unique nature and destiny for each of us which constitutes our original nature. In each life there is a theme around which our life is organized until the moment of death. This theme reflects both the potential virtues and challenges inherent in our path. Acting in a way that is consistent with our innermost purpose/original nature leads to fulfillment of this destiny and is the embodiment of true health.
The following text is excerpted from Lonny Jarret's book "Nourishing Destiny- The Inner Tradition of Chinese Medicine"
How we reconnect with our true nature is defined by our constitutional type . In the five element system each individual is believed to have a constitutional tendency to emulate the quality of expression of one element more than others. The natural qualities of this element define an individual’s inherited weaknesses, virtues and strengths.
Constitutional type may be thought of as the tint of the window through which people observe life and their interpretation of the meaning of everything they see and experience is filtered through it and colored by it. It allows the practitioner to determine the specific way that each individual embodies the meaning her or she attributes to life. It both allows the practitioner to understand how the patient has lost touch with true self and what blocks its expression and gives a framework for determining the steps that need to be taken to restore original nature which is synonymous with health. To reach to the core of each patient’s dao is the aim with the placement of every acupuncture needle and the prescription of every herb .
However constitutional type becomes evident only later in life. When we are born all five elements are still in harmony. It is with the gaining of self-consciousness when we grow up that we lose our original nature.
As an infant we are still able to move through all changes in life spontaneously because our reactions to life are unblemished by the interpretations of our minds and the five elements therefore are still in a state of functional balance.
At some point generally between the ages of 4 and 12 a life event occurs of such magnitude that he or she cannot fully recover spontaneous function thus qi stops flowing in its natural progression and becomes fixed in its expression. At this moment the child makes its initial interpretations regarding its own nature (who I am) and the nature of life itself (Life is not safe in the case of the fire constitutional type.).
The interpretation is an expression of the constitutional element which is predominant in a person. Stuck predominantly in one of the five elements expressions, the individual begins to behave in habitual patterns consistent with the constitutional type.
Later in life the individual may have no memory of the event that triggered this reaction because it occurred at such a young age. It is between the ages 12 to 18 that habits take hold as young adults continue to build an imagined self, defining themselves and the world by what they believe to be true rather than by being true to their original nature.
Between the ages of 16 and 21 a second traumatic event often occurs that reinforces the effects of the initial trauma. Generally this event involves the death of a parent or grandparent, or some difficulty associated with emerging sexuality or an intimate relationship. Later in life the individual may think of this event (rather than the first, which happened too early to remember) as a defining moment that shaped who he or she is. Pushed deeper into habitual reaction the adult has now reached a stage where acquired conditioning now governs life.
At about 30 to 40 another life trauma often occurs. This has two possible results. It may reinforce the first two traumas, thus driving the individual more deeply into habitual dysfunction interpreting the event as further proof of one’s thesis of who one is and how life is. Or the pain caused by the event may offer a glimpse of the lost self. One may realize the falsehood one’s interpretations and question who one really is and then return to one’s original nature.
Example: Life seen through the eyes of a person with metal constitution
A young boy, those close to him would describe his character as openly receptive and inspired (metal). In an instant his father stands up, and declares he’s had enough and walks away, an incident culminating in the divorce of that child’s parents. This certainly would be an traumatic event in any young life. However, the meaning ascribed to this event, as well as any subsequent embodiment of pathology, will be unique in every single case depending on constitutional variables. Each person will see this event through a window colored by his or her constitutional predisposition.
In the scenario just described, a child whose constitution is metal would be flooded with grief as his father struck the table and left his family home. His interpretation of the event might lead him to believe that nothing in life of value can be held on to and that , if he had been sufficiently valued by his father, his parents would never have divorced. The quest to reestablish his self-worth becomes an unconscious motivation that presents itself in every aspect of life.
The moment the child or young adult compensates for the shock of the pain being felt by ascribing meaning to life is the moment the created self is born. Projecting the pain of the event both internally and externally, the individual comes to believe a fundamental truth about both his or her own nature and the nature of life itself.
People proceed through life gathering evidence to support their thesis that they, and life are a certain way. The nature of this thesis is determined entirely by the associations of their constitutional type. The thesis represents a distortion of one or more inborn virtues that are constitutionally determined and now lie dormant in their heart of hearts.
In the preceding scenario the person’s thesis that nothing of value can be held on to in life is an external projection of his own inner loss of the virtue of self-worth (the virtue of the metal element). Would he be for example wood constitution the emotion of anger about his father’s behavior would be predominant and feelings of resentment and injustice would arise (all emotions associated with the wood element and distortions of the virtue of benevolence). Had he been fire constitutionally, he might have viewed the very same events as proving a life thesis that intimacy is not safe. So as we can see the meaning of life is not implicit in any event, but rather in the person who is experiencing it.
As he grows older, life provides our traveler with ample evidence that everything he has ever valued has been lost. Increasingly driven in life, he has grown apart from his lover and sacrificed both his relationship and health, struggling in vain to establish his self-worth through accomplishment in his profession. Each successive loss substantiates his thesis and fuels his habitual drive to find value externally in the world. The reality, however, is that the has appended the meaning of loss to the significant events of his life as he has unconsciously followed the dictated of his internal programming.
Constitutional type defines both our weakest characteristics and greatest strengths. By definition our constitutional official is the weakest link in our dynamic chain of functioning. As a compensation for this underlying weakness, a corresponding strength is developed in certain domains of life. However, behaviors based on both the weakness and strength are displayed inappropriately because they are fueled by motivations that are habitually driven. For example the traveler in our story suffers from a lack of self-worth. This inability to find value within himself may be compensated for by habitually trying to find the best in everything and everyone externally in life.
Internally as he struggles to grasp the best from the past and future, however, the habitual emotions of grief and longing become manifest. His actions in life, dictated by a habitual response to the presence of these emotions, manifest as excess or deficient behaviors such as vanity or self-deprecation.
As we can see each of the five elements is associated with the habitual presence or absence of specific emotions. In health individuals are able to feel each emotion without habitually reacting to its presence. It is not that for example healthy water constitutional types do not feel fear (the emotion of water), but rather that they do not unconsciously react to the presence of that emotion. Fear does not dictate their actions in their world. When we habitually respond to the presence of a given emotion with that same emotion itself, then over time the emotions feed on each other and transform into their toxic counterparts. Therefore fear of fear becomes paranoia (water), anger over our anger becomes resentment (wood), sadness as a reaction to our sadness becomes bitterness (fire), grief over our grief lead to disdain (metal). Needing sympathy because we have so much sympathy leads to disgust (earth).
In time, the direction of our patterns of dysfunction influence the body the way a wind bends a tree at the beach. If a patient comes to treatment early enough, acupuncture my, in effect, be used to change the direction and quality of that Wind (qi). Hence the tree may bend back to a straight and upright position. However, eventually the tree may have bent so far, there is not time in that tree’s life to bend back the other way no matter how hard we try. Functional pathology may eventually become embodied to a degree that physical symptomatology cannot be compensated for or corrected. But the direction of the wind may be changed in a moment. That is, although physical embodiment of illness can no longer be altered, a person’s experience of life and relationship to pain can change in an instant.
Lonny Jarrett believes that people can gain insight even moments before death that may lead them to fulfill their destiny. Hence the inner tradition of Chinese medicine is greatly effective in conditions that cannot be reversed clinically, such as terminal illnesses and insulin dependent diabetes. Regardless of the physical severity of a disease the quality of an individual’s life is always capable of improvement.
Ultimately healing must be concerned with the evolution of the individual rather than solely with his or her survival the domain of modern medicine. The practitioner of the inner tradition is always assisting patients in their return to original nature. This is done by breaking habitual patterns leading the patient toward the forgotten truth of original nature which lies in one’s heart of hearts. The origin of habitual patterns is the fact that our definition of self is based on the past which means we habitually respond to every new situation based on past expierence. However personal freedom exists only when we possess the awareness to respond to present circumstances, unencumbered by past experience based on our commitment to manifesting virtue, synonymous with health.
In the Five Element Theory of TCM, acupuncture is used as a bridge between the physical and psychological aspects of the human body, in order to assist the mind-nervous system complex in processing traumatic experiences and break patterns of emotional distress such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. While TCM maps out the physiological factors attributing to anxiety, depresssion etc. , the Five Elements system examines the personal experiential aspects of above mentioned disorders.
Quite brilliantly, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the experience of personal emotions was mapped as an overlay to the physical organ system: organs were not only assigned physiological functions but were seen as responsible for producing emotions in the body-mind organism. Patterns were noted that linked organ function with psychological function, from stress patterns to sleep disorders. Unlike Western medicine, which maps all psychological function to the brain, Chinese medicine attributed intelligence to all of the organs and mapped specific emotions and psychological functions to each of them.For this reason, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, anxiety and depression have a variety of root causes, centered in physiological areas other than just the brain.In essence, there are a number of organs in the body whose physiological function can drop due to external or internal stressors, leading to pathologies that give rise to not only physical symptoms, but psychological symptoms as well. In Western medicine, most of these symptoms would appear unrelated, whereas in Chinese medicine, complex maps of physiological, emotional and mental symptoms have been detailed.
Jarrett, Lonny: Nourisihing Destiny. The Inner Tradition of Chinese Medicine. Spirit Path Press, Stockbridge, Massachusettes, 1998