Healing with words

In my last blog, I wrote about how a daily qigong practice can keep us in good health. However, regardless of the body's ability to defend against illness, one is still susceptible. No matter how well we eat, live and practice, the polluted environment we inhabit and the daily stresses of modern life still keep us deeply out of balance. These days even the animals, the plants and the weather are out of balance. Often we are under the illusion that we live in a bubble and that if our little world is put in order then we have everything under control and nothing "bad" can happen to us. But if we investigate further, we see that we are connected in ways that we do not yet recognize.

I have often thought of how we continue to pollute our planet: the oceans, the air, rivers, and food supply. We put our toxic waste, our wars, our strife "over there" and do not see that somewhere down the line it will come back to us, if not now, then eventually. We don't see that currents move and that no matter how we try to protect ourselves we are not isolated from all that surrounds us. The more sensitive and aware one becomes, the more one sees that the way one lives has an effect on everyone and everything, literally. The idea that "we are all connected" has been around the block a few times and it lies at the very heart of most spiritual traditions; but we don't really accept it—don't really know it, otherwise we would be living very differently than we do.

So we have to accept that in this time and place, sickness is a part of living and one day we will mostly likely have to face serious illness…that is…if we live long enough. Recently, both my father and step-mother have been seriously ill (at the same time). It has been tough for my whole family, but remarkably through illness, I have witnessed a healing of relationship take place between family members that I thought would never be possible. The flow of life from one generation to the next is another kind of current and in this case healing is more than an isolated event taking place within a single entity at a specific time. To heal means "to make whole", and the meaning of wholeness extends beyond this tiny notion that I call "me". This is a really large idea, and as I write this (what I hoped to be) short blog, I can only graze its surface.

Over the past year or so I have been editing a book by my Taoist friend and taiji teacher, Sat Hon on his experience with cancer. The book entitled Healing Cancer with Qigong is a memoir, a treatise on the underlying principles of Eastern medicine, and a guide book to treating cancer with both Eastern and Western medicine. The notion of complementary healing is introduced and the means Mr. Hon used to heal himself are explained including the healing walk of Master Gou Lin.

Sat Hon is a master storyteller and his ability to evoke his experience demonstrates his gift as a transmitter of his Taoist lineage. It is at once a very personal story (as most stories of illness and recovery are), but it transcends the genre as his own understanding of healing and knowledge of both modalities of medicine are woven into his account. As a Buddhist and Taoist, Sat describes how healing is not just about the health of a single individual but about families, peoples, communities, the world at large and even beyond. We all have to do our part as it is given to us, and in this time and place, our role often involves suffering. But this is not the end of the story, in fact it is only the beginning…

If you are interested in purchasing the book you can find it on Amazon in both paperback and kindle format. I am listed as its editor, but I am merely an "untangler" of sentences. Healing Cancer with Qigong