Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Lonny Jarrett in person, when he visited Chicago for a workshop. For those of you who missed him last May, do not despair! He is returning, with a two weekend seminar on five element constitutional diagnosis.
From Shen Ming Seminars –
How lamentable is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose this heart and not know to seek it again! . . . The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost heart.- Mengzi
The author of the Shen Nong Ben Cao, China’s oldest herbal text, stated that the highest type of medicine helped humans fulfill their destiny, the middle type helped them nourish original nature, and the lowest type treated physical illness. Today, treating people for the nourishment of original nature and the fulfillment of destiny represents an important inner tradition which has been all but lost in the modern practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
A basic premise of Chinese medicine is to move stagnation before tonifying and there is no greater source of stagnation in life than having forgotten true self. Thus we recognize that nourishing the fulfillment of destiny is the heart and soul of our medicine. Yet how often do we realize this goal in our lives or in clinical practice?
Five-element constitutional diagnosis will be presented as a rigorous science of the human condition. This class will impart a deep appreciation for how constitution and culture can condition the life impulse in a way that causes separation and perpetuates dysfunction. We will examine the spirit, virtue, and potential distortions of each official and element. Diagnosis by color, sound, odor, and emotion will be taught and demonstrated.
*For more information on the upcoming seminar click here.
