On Depression & Anxiety/Japan Acupuncture （日本鍼灸）

On Depression & Anxiety

When Prozac is the most prescribed drug in this country, there is definitely something wrong with this country!  One thing I was surprised after opening up my acupuncture clinic was that the number of clients coming in for depression and anxiety.  Most amazingly, there is no gender difference, and also, younger people are affected by them.  I believe there is no other country like ours today.

Why is this the trend?  I blame everything on American diet and drug culture.  Fast and frozen food industries and pharmaceutical companies are basically destroying our foundation of health.  They offer chemicals and  preservatives very unnatural to our body and drugs that have many side effects so that they are no longer cure.   For example, I do not call cheese made in this country cheese anymore.  It is basically an “imitation” with lots of chemical preservatives (not to mention its salt content).  Try this for yourself:  buy a Big Mac and place it in a car’s trunk for months and forget about it.  Then open the trunk to see if it has been decomposed or not*1.  Well, it does not decompose.  Do you really want this kind of foods?

What We Need To Do:

1)            Stop giving yourself a false excuse saying, “I don’t have time.”  Yes, you do.  It is a matter of how much you honor yourself.  If your health or issues with depression and anxiety are your priority, you will do something better.  Do not eat fast and junk foods or anything unhealthy.

2)            Do not excessively intake inflammatory and acidic foods (hopefully none), such as:  cheeses, white sugar, white flour, red meats, coffee, sodas, alcohol, etc.  Study online what foods are acidic and alkalizing.  On drugs, remember this:  all drugs have side effects, therefore they are not cure.

3)            Discipline yourself to do at least minimum exercises, such as daily 30 min walking, yoga, stretching, etc.  Get out of your room and breathe fresh air (it is totally free).

4)            If you are deeply into depression, you need to tell yourself that you need help.  Call someone and start talking:  asking for help is a beginning of friendship – do not hesitate.  If you cannot, then do the #5).

5)            Know what depression and anxiety are.  What are they to you if someone asks “depression is equal to what”?  Can you answer?  Become aware what they are and do not pay attention to depression/anxiety itself.  Not knowing what they are is ignorance.  You will forever in a depressive state, and that’s where suffering is (being ignorant).  For example, my definition of depression is:  creating a false statement and projecting it into the future.  Everyone has a different definition.  You must find it for yourself.  Know what is in your mind only and what is a true reality.  Depression and anxiety are 100% creations of the mind and nothing to do with reality that you are experiencing.  However, the sensation and symptoms you feel are real:  queasiness in the stomach, diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, heaviness, pain, etc.

6)            Seek out help.  Do not hesitate.  Acupuncture is great medium but there are others. 

7)            Be more spiritual.  Increase your awareness, and for the first time, find out who you truly are and more importantly what you are.  Good luck.

Namaste.

*1:  Did you know that Crest toothpaste would melt asphalt?  Try cleaning your drive way with the paste and a brush and see for yourself. 

Japan Acupuncture （日本鍼灸）

Many of my clients know that I often talk about spirituality. This is because the mind often leads us to unbalance of our body. Mind and body are not enough. There has to be spirituality to sustain the balance of the former two. As St John Perse, a French poet who won the Nobel Prize, said that in our modern time that the space between the finite and the infinity was getting far apart. Modern people are less capable today to be creative within our world of finite. We talk about conquering nature, for example, with drugs and surgeries as if they are cures.  This is the work of the mind. As long as we are limited in our mind, we will suffer forever mentally and physically. Next time you see a stone, don't break it to build a skyscraper but leave it as is and imagine upon the stone what it could be. Yes, it is the realm of poetry that leads us to the infinite possibilities and not limited in anything. Everything is possible, even getting rid of cancer, if we can imagine with the total freedom without constricts. As you know that I don't belong to any religion or church, but I can tell you that the realization of a poem is a religion, and for me it is religiously spiritual. 

Namaste.

On Transcendence

We often misunderstand the difference between transformation and transcendence.  We think transcendence is something that transforms, for example, the movie, Transcendence (incidentally, it is made by the same director, Christopher Nolan, who made Interstellar:  he was off the mark on Transcendence, and he nailed it on Interstellar).  In the movie, Johnny Depp character’s consciousness is transferred to computer.  This is a transformation and not the transcendence.  True transcendence is experiencing and realizing the True Nature of our Self and becoming THAT.  At the End (I mean really the End with a capital E) of all physics, mathematics, and sciences, there IS something that cannot be known by formulations and knowledge.  I suppose we can know everything in the universe up to 99.9%.  But there is always, 0.1% that cannot be explained.  As long as the 0.1% remains, then we are not knowing and experiencing the true fact.  Same with our existence.  If I say that we don’t exist, do you deny it and say it is not true?  It is ok to deny it, but can you really prove that you are right?  It is always that 0.1% needs to be answered.  The only way to reach the answer is by transcendence.  Namaste.

Japan Acupuncture, Phoenix, AZ （日本鍼灸アリゾナ）

How/Why Acupuncture Works:
In case if anyone wonders about how and why acupuncture works, the simplest answer is that because each one of us, no matter how sick we are, has the healing power within our body. Western medicine treats sicknesses and diseases and oriental medicine treats a human being.

About A Cicada:
Summer is to swimming, sunshine, etc. In Japan, cicada represents summer. In America, we call it a bug, but in Japan, it is more revered. Cicada spends 7 years in underground and when they metamorphosed to a cicada, it only lives for a few days (For Japanese, it is like cherry blossoms: its beauty only last few days and petals fall.) Therefore, cicada is a symbol of perseverance and reminder of how short the life is. Here is my translation of a Basho's haiku＊: "Soon death awaits, Not knowingly, The voice of a cicada." Cicada does not care how short the life is. It always sings with full voice. It does not hesitate, does not complain, and does not doubt. It simply passes on to the next generation what it has always been. So, next summer when you hear a cicada, please don't think as a bug. It is there to remind you what your true purpose is in your spiritual quest.  Namaste.

＊芭蕉：　やがて死ぬ気色も見えず蝉の声

Japanese Acupuncture (日本鍼灸) Newsletters

Volume 3, No. 4, August, 2014

Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions

Chapter Four

Lung:  Sadness, Courage, and Dissolution No. ４

樹葉凋落時如何

When leaves shrivel and fall, how do you feel?

大露金風

The Absolute Golden Wind

(Absolute:  purest, truest, clearest, none-other-than)

(Golden Wind:  autumn wind)

Perhaps, this simple conversation is one of the most famous of all Zen utterances made by Chinese masters.  A monk, obviously himself was old and an accomplished Zen-ist, asked his master Ummon (雲門), how he felt about looking at a tree in an autumn day.  Literal translation of the answer is:  totally naked (bare) golden wind (gold-metal/fall:  Five Element).  What Ummon said was that everything and everywhere was the Golden Wind.  There is no hesitation, no uncertainty, and confusion:  clear as the autumn sky and cool as the wind, for he is in the state of absolute “Nothingness.”

The monk who asked did not have any desire (the nakedness); void of a position, fame, and money.  Only thing he knew he had was his aliveness and livingness.  I believe that he wanted assurance from his master that his as-is-ness was as close as the master’s.  (In so doing, he tested his master’s awareness:  very gutsy thing to do).  His worry was answered by a spontaneous response by the master.  Their hearts met.  They understood each other, and they were one.  When we are ready to shed everything that we believe valuable and dear, even a god, and therefore, stand totally naked, the cool autumn wind permeates through us and makes us realize that it is the “Life” that “Is” everything and everywhere.

For most of us, fall is about the following.  Cool autumn air tightens our lungs.  Leaves fall and remind us of time passing, making us feel slightly sad.  It is the time to reflect and move inward.  Sensitivity comes back after summer of activities.  It is the time to defend ourselves from pathogens once again.  Yet, it is the time to be poetic and creative.  New ideas flourish.  Renewed desire once again burns within us. 

As my readers know that fall belongs to the Metal Element and it is represented by the Lung and Sadness.   In Oriental Medicine, the contraction of the lungs is the sadness (Chinese character 悲:  the upper portion of the word characterizes the protracted lungs and the lower characterizes the heart or feeling.)  When the lungs are protracted and contracted, we cannot breathe well.  Pathogens come in and make the matter worse.  It is very important for us to strengthen the function of the lungs by drink less alcohol, less sweating, resting and sleeping well, and intake more vitamin C and phytoagents.  Some spices and plants open up the lungs such as peppers and peppermint.  Apple cider vinegar increases the immune system.  Physiologically, rubbing the sternum while taking shower, gargling with salt, keeping the neck and the feet warm help to keep the lung functions.  Acupuncture greatly helps the lung function.  I can stop coughing and a progress of cold and flu (especially caught early).  Four major acupuncture  immune points in the body system are:  the base of the neck, the navel, at the elbow where the line of crease folds, and UB-13 (at both sides, about 1 ½ inches away from the third thoracic vertebra).

Fall is the time of emotions.  Sadness prevails as it gets darker earlier in the day; colors of flowers and trees fade; and the temperature drops.  It is the time for yearning and belonging, but at the same time, it is the time to be aware of self, physically and spiritually.  The dissolution of sadness is to become a friend with the emotion.  If you feel profound sadness, go ahead and go deeper into the emotion and experience it.  From the experience, you will know how to become a friend with sadness.  Once this happens, a sensation of sadness will last only a few seconds and you will be able to put it aside in a proper place in your mind.  The ultimate dissolution happens when you can truly “experience” and understand the following poem by the same Zen master, Ummon.

The Cool Wind gently blows through my mind,

No matter what happens!

No matter what happens,

The Cool Wind gently blows through my mind.

                                                                        雲門 (Ummon)

Epilogue:

When you let go everything in your life, totally, then you understand that it is “Love*” that gives the Life

*Compassion

© 2014 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC

Happy New Year

Here is a thought for the New Year coming up.

The greatest tragedy about the human race is that we all think we are different.*1  About 3000 BC ago, something went wrong with the course of human race:   our ancestors started to invade other tribal communities and that has made what we are today, divided and conflicting.  However, no matter how different we “think” we are from others, we cannot avoid the inner feeling that we are one and the same as a human.  This is because we are intrinsically one.*2  When you become aware of the Awareness, you know it is to be true.  What we are is always the Experience experiencing itself. There are billions of consciousness on the Earth, and we are all experiencing what we feel.  Yet most of us do not realize what is feeling the feelings. 

In the realm of the Awareness, the self does not exist.  This means that you do not exist.  All senses are first memorized by the brain, and then the recognition comes in the mind.  But the brain is not trustworthy.  It is, as you know, notorious about memories.  We don’t remember all the details even from yesterday.  Our sense of smell, touch, vision, taste, and hearing are all in the faulty brain.  We cannot trust them.*3

What does this lead us to?  First drop your given names.  You did not choose them.  Let go your mind.*4  The worst case of the mind is either suicidal or homicidal.  Let it go.  Empty your mind.  Let go your self and ego.  Experience who you truly are.  Then the funny thing is that once you now who you are, you completely drop it and start address your self to be what you are.

So, I say this to all of you.  I am the evil and the good.  I am sorrow and happiness.  I am all the miseries on the Earth and I am love.  I am all these and beyond.  Kiss my forehead and you know it is to be true.

“Siddhartha silently looked at him with his still and unchanging smile.  Govinda stared into Siddhartha’s face with fear, with yearning.  Sorrow and eternal seeking were written in his gaze, eternal failure to find.  Siddhartha saw it and smiled. ‘Lean toward me!’ he whispered in Govinda’s ear.  ‘Lean toward me here!  Right, a bit closer!  Very close!  Kiss my forehead, Govinda.’  …He no longer saw his friend Siddhartha’s face; instead he saw other faces, many, a long row, a streaming river of faces, hundreds, thousands, ...He saw the face of a fish, a carp…he saw gods, saw Krishna, saw Agni…Govinda saw that his smile of the mask, this smile of the oneness…kind, perhaps, quizzical, wise, thousandfold smile of Gautama, the Buddha, as he himself…, no longer knowing whether a Siddhartha existed, or a Gautama, or I and Thou, …Govinda stood for a brief while, leaning over Siddhartha’s silent face, which he had just kissed, which had just been the setting of all formations, all Becoming, all Being…Govinda bowed low.  Tears ran over his old face, but he was unaware of them; the feeling of deepest love, of humblest veneration burned in his heart like a fire.  He bowed low, down to the ground, bowed to the motionless sitter, whose smile reminded him of everything that he had ever loved in his life, that had ever been valuable and holy to him in his life.”
                                                               Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse  

*1:  Those of us who believe in individualism and the free will might want to ponder upon the fact we did not consciously choose our  birthday dates when we were fetuses.

*2:  That we all came from Africa, perhaps from the Lucy lineage.  That we are made out of cosmic dusts.  That we came from the Big Bang.

*3:  Like Rene Descartes did:  once deceived, cannot trust the deceiver.  Like the Heart Sutra correctly chants.

*4:  The mind and the body are not enough.  There has to be spirituality in between them.

Zen & Acupuncture

Japanese Acupuncture Newsletter, Phoenix, Arizona

By this time, many of my readers understand that all dualistic questions can only be answered by the silence and cannot be answered by any word.  Immediately after you utter yes or no, you are no longer a Zen master:  fallen to our ordinary life where all sufferings are.  Remember, the most important part of AUM or OM is the silence after the “M.”

Zen is everywhere and at any time.  For example, you face “a mute” person everyday.  Let me ask you that what is a good worker to you?  A good worker is the one who does a job before you even ask.  He or she already knows what you want or your habit:  “Oh, I already bought that for you.  It is coming next week.”  “Honey, here is your favorite breakfast.” etc., etc.  Spiritual level is the same.  When Buddha raises a flower, if you are at the same level as his, then you would say, “Ah, I get it, Buddha!”*  It is the empathy you attain.  A good disciple knows what a Zen master is truly asking (You must read his mind, behind his intention, not only one step back, but two, or three steps back).  Knowing that you cannot answer with any word but must answer, all Zen disciples are asked to break the dilemma.**

Here is an absolute dilemma for you.  What if a Zen master asks you to climb up a tree and asks you to hang from a tree branch by just biting.  Your hands and feet are dangling in the air.  Then, the master asks you what is the meaning of Dharma coming to the East? (What is Buddha?)  What would you do in this situation?  If you open your mouth and answer, you fall to your death.  If you mean the silence by keep on biting, soon or later, your jaw gets tired and would fall.  If you don’t answer, you go nowhere, and the master is waiting.  Remind you that you don’t have a flower in your hand.  Whoever can break through this gate is the next Buddha.

Namaste.

*Story is that only one disciple understood what Buddha meant with a flower.

**Quantum physic dilemma:  two different particles, say, A and B, are separating from each other to the opposite direction with the speed of light, yet when A turns to B, B turns to A at the same time.  We all know that this is impossible (with Einstein’s theory), yet it happens everyday (ask any physicist).  However, we are coming closer to answering (passing and communicating without a space).***  When we do, “Scotty, beam me up” could be possible.

***Quantum Leap, New York Times, Aug. 20, 2013
"Because the bits were 'entangled,' to use quantum physics term, what happened to one happened to the other.  So, when data was written to the sender side of the chip, it would leap to the receiving side without passing through the space between."

Why We Make Bad Decisions by Noreena Hertz

New York Times, October 20, 2013

“Physicians do get things wrong, remarkably often.  Studies have shown that up to one in five patients are misdiagnosed.  In the United States and Canada it is estimated that 50,000 hospital deaths each year could have been prevented if the real cause of illness had been correctly identified…Yet people are loath to challenge experts…When we find data that supports our hopes we appear to get a dopamine rush similar to the one we get if we eat chocolate, have sex or fall in love.  But it’s often information that challenges our existing opinions or wishful desires that yields the greatest insights.  I was lucky that my boyfriend alerted me to my most dopamined drugged moments.  The dangerous allure of the information we want to hear is something we need to be more vigilant about, in the medical consulting room and beyond…I chose a surgeon who wasn’t overly confident.  I’d learned in my research that the super-confident, doctor-as-god types did not always perform well.  One study of radiologists, for example, reveals that those who perform poorly on diagnostic tests are also those most confident in their diagnostic prowess.”

A Glut of Antidepressants:  Overdiagnosis of Depression Is A Factor In Rise Of Prescriptions by Roni Caryn Rabin

New York Times, Aug 13, 2013

“Over the past two-decades, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed.  One in ten Americans now takes an antidepressant medication; among women in their 40s and 50s, the figure is one in four.  Experts have offered numerous reasons…But a recent study suggests another explanation:  that the condition is being overdiagnosed on a remarkable scale…The study, published in April in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, found that nearly two-thirds of a sample of more than 5,000 patients who had been given a diagnosis of depression within the previous 12 months did not meet the criteria for major depressive episode as described by the psychiatrists’ bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or D.S.M.)…Most people stay on the drugs, which can have a variety of side effects, for at least two years.  Some take them for a decade or more…But Americans have become more and more willing to use medication…Ironically…many who actually have it suffer without treatment…it takes Americans eight years on average to seek care…According to the D.S.M., a diagnosis of major depressive episode is appropriate if the patient has been in a depressed mood and felt no interest in activities for at least two weeks, and also has at least five symptoms that impair function almost everyday.  These include unintentional weight gain or loss, problems sleeping, agitation or slowed reactions noticed by others, fatigue and low energy, feeling of excessive guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating and recurrent thoughts of death…Many doctors have long prescribed antidepressant soon after the death of a family member, even though the D.S.M. urges clinicians to differentiate between normal grief and pathological bereavement…Doctors need to improve their diagnostic skills, Dr. Mojtabai said, and must resist the temptation 'to take out the prescription pad and write down an antidepressant and hand it to the patient.'”

Volume 3, No. 4, November, 2013

Oriental Medicine & On Human Conditions

Chapter Four

Lung:  Sadness, Courage, and Dissolution No. 4

In my last newsletter, I pointed out the importance of Ren-4, Ren-6, Ren-12 and Ren-17 acupuncture points, all on the abdomen, for treatment and diagnosis.  Sadness (the Lung element) does not turn to courage as long as the lung functions are weak.  Courage is the mother of the Will (the Kidney element:  please read my last newsletter.  If you have not received them, they are all in my website under “newsletter.”).  I also mention that the Ren-4 (about an inch above the pubic symphysis, on the centerline) is my chosen point for between the Spleem/Earth and the Lung/Metal elements.  For between the Lung/Metal and the Kid/Water is Ren-9, just a quarter inch above the navel on the centerline.  This point has a simple name:  the Water Point.  It relates to all fluid related symptoms such as ascites (accumulation of fluid – water bloated-ness), toxic body fluid, urination problems, etc.  This point connects with Du-4 (Ming Men:  the Gate of Life:  on the centerline of the spine, at the second lumber vertebrae).  Du-4 is one of the most important points, for it is the Gate of Life.  The point is exactly opposite in location to the Tantien (on the centerline of the abdomen, about an inch below the navel).  Marshal artists know that the Tantien is the power source.  The physical power comes from here.  Without the stability and firmness in the area, the legs feel wobbly, cannot control the upper torso because the pelvis is unstable, and feel weak and not focused.  Once Ren-9 is restored, it sends the energy downward to Ren-6 (about an inch below the navel on the centerline).  This is the true connecting point to the Gate of Life (Du-4).  When Ren-6 is firm and has good energy, my treatment is over. 

Once all pains on the abdomen are gone, a seed of the Will starts to spring up: a sense of wellbeing is increased, self-awareness kicks in, and a person is on the road to recovery.  No other medicines can compete with our own Will to live, and this is what acupuncture is all about.  Just like a Zen master asks to search for the ultimate affirmation (drop all illusions and know what is truly real), acupuncture asks you to find your will.  The harmony of the Five Elements, along with the mind, the body, and the spirituality, can take you there.

So, can you convert sadness to courage at “this moment”, here and now?

Namaste

© 2013 Dr. Y. Frank Aoi (NM State)/Japanese Acupuncture, LLC