Inner Practice: I Speak for the Dead

I remember the words of my core mentor when I was conferred Doctorate right after going through the defense of my thesis. He said,

“When my generation of TCM doctors pass away, the real TCM and Acupuncture will rely on you and other Doctorates to carry on. Because you have seen how the authentic TCM and Acupuncture were done. Anything else not executed by teachers trained on lands where such healing arts were born or not learnt through in-person witness of such skills and mastery are not real TCM.”

Indeed, there are many courses offered in different countries for Traditional Chinese Medicine, some as short as a couple of months. Yet people boast that they are Certified Acupuncturists or TCM practitioners right after receiving that short term course cert. Not to exclude some Western Doctors who tried to advertise their expertise in Acupuncture when they had only been through the touch-and-go introductory courses offered by local institutions eyeing for short term gains.

Having soaked in the industry for near to 20 years, the in-person experience and hands on with my mentors in China and my own independent clinical practice showed me what real TCM and Acupuncture are. Because the superficial commercialized TCM and mutated versions are everywhere, it was easy to tell the vast difference when one has seen the real thing. But people who have not come in touch with the real thing are blinded, mistaking the fake for the real without an inkling that they have been taken for a ride.

Gold and treasures are in traditions.

When they fall into the wrong hands, it can twist the real thing into a hideous monster, tarnish the reputation and disintegrate the integrity of the entire lineage.

When they fall into wrong hands, it can become a money churning machine in the façade of empathy and drive the greed and ego of the being with the wrong hands. I have witnessed these two scenarios and naively helped one broken hypocrite in the latter spark off the whole chains of evil in the name of ‘good’.

Because of that I can now fully understand why the good teachers in TCM, in Fengshui, in Reiki, in Yoga and other ancient traditions practiced strict discernment of passing knowledges and skills to students. Because the power of the real thing is unimaginable and not to be abused. And they too know the power need a vessel that is clean and pure to hold and pass down.

That is also the reason why real good practitioners are rare and few in this world.

Because gold is precious and hard to find while trash is easily available and everywhere.

In one of my past newsletters I mentioned that I would sit in the hallway where all the late TCM doctors photos were hung in my mornings before clinicals in China. When this interview was in process, I could feel I am being watched over. Days after I would keep seeing flashes of the images of the hallway photos in my mind. When the story is finally out today online and tomorrow in hard copies of the Straits Times, I knew I really did it.