Author: Katherine Campbell

I’ll be presenting in a lecture series hosted by MLS and Dr. Karen Vrchota, MD on Friday, February 23 at 1:30 pm central time. Hope to see you there!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89348235779?pwd=Tm5UMUtaMCtUK1ZHKzR6dDJRQTUxdz09

Happy Year of the Yang Wood Dragon! I’m sending you wishes for much happiness, prosperity, and health, and to that last end, please accept this little lunar new year gift (late, as is my wont) in the form of some basics to care for yourself when you’re down with a cold or flu or covid or whatever is going around these days.

There are lots of things I’d like to change about the world, but not many of those are likely to happen in my lifetime. Here’s one that is: if you’re reading this, you might never again have to go through another week+ of acute onset respiratory or GI infections tearing through your system. Most people come down with something at least once a year that makes them absolutely miserable for at least a week. Some viruses leave aftereffects that can linger for months after the initial infection. It doesn’t have to be like this! Chinese herbal medicine is a powerful practice to aid in treating contagious diseases, and I have always wished that more people knew about it and how to access and work with it. As it is, we’ve lost as a society much of even the scattered knowledge that earlier generations had before the marketing campaigns for cold medicines told us that every fever is bad and all symptoms must be suppressed so we can Get Back To Work.

I’m not sure why I love treating respiratory viruses so much. It’s super challenging in 21st century North America, and that was before a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime catastrophic pandemic. I love the practice of working with Chinese herbs: the diagnostic precision that’s required, the intricacy of the formulas which match the intricacy of each person’s presentation from moment to moment. But I also love that they WORK. Like, you really don’t ever have to have a week or more of viral misery ever again, as long as we’re on the same page! (This goes for acute GI problems, too, but this article focuses on respiratory infections of all kinds.)

Not that you won’t need special treatment for a few days. You are fighting an infection, and it matters to do it well and completely. So:

Bookmark these basics and refer back to them whenever you start feeling something coming on.

1. The first piece of advice is the hardest for most people. You have to admit you’re not feeling well. Yes, this can happen to you and yes, it has, and yes, now is not a good time, and no, you can’t just ignore it and it will go away. Just admit that the funny feeling in your throat isn’t an isolated incident. That the new fatigue and chilliness or feverishness have a different quality that needs attention. And now you’re going to know what kind of attention to give! Admit often, admit early. If you know you’ve been exposed, catch that very first little question mark in the back of your throat. Ideally, you reach out and start a formula within the first 24 hours of the very first symptom. Imagine someone invading your home, spraying paint everywhere. You want to stop them as soon as possible – preferably when they’re on the street and there are just a few droplets of paint on the sidewalk. The further in they get, the more damage they can do. If we get too far past that first 24 hours, there’s not much I can do except help mitigate the harm and build back after. This is the difference between using herbs and resting for a couple days and feeling fine afterward vs the rest of this post. (And I know it feels strange to keep texting a healthcare provider, but we are pushing upstream toward a better way of fighting infections, so here we are! We have to push back on both cultural pressure to be “normal” and on cultural pressure to be isolated and self-sufficient. Just text me. Questions? Updates? Strange new sensations? It’s all helpful information for me to give you the best care, and I know it probably sounds strange, but I love this work, it’s really fun for me, so just text me.)
2. Whether you’ve caught it early or not, the next most important thing is to stay Very Warm and hydrated. A fever is your body’s healthy response to push out invaders. (That’s the biggest reason to avoid most over-the-counter cold and flu medications, including painkillers and anti-inflammatories. They have a time and place, but not in the first days of fighting a virus, when the last thing you want to do is suppress a fever.) So wear a hoodie and a jacket and a scarf and five other things: keep your head, neck, shoulders, and feet warm. You are going for a full-body sweat – not necessarily drenching, but all-over heat. Hide under your blankets and sleep and cook. When you get that sweat, and then your body cools naturally to a comfortable temperature, that’s what I mean when I say your fever has broken. Sometimes you’ll get a sweat but still feel cold. STAY WARM. Your fever hasn’t finished its work yet. Keep checking in with me – we’ll get the timing right together. 
3. So you’re keeping me updated, at least once a day please, staying Very Warm and hydrated, and being aggressive with pushing this thing out. Being aggressive means hitting it hard before it has a foothold. It means taking the formulas at the maximum dose and frequency until you start to feel better, then slowly reducing dose and frequency while maintaining the sense of improvement. We’ll be in close touch, so we’ll work that part out together. Eventually, you’ll get a sense for when to scale back on your own, but you don’t need to have that in the beginning. I write the frequency with a big range on purpose. You’ll start with very often, every two hours. If you’re sleeping, there’s no need to wake up for a dose – just take a dose when you wake up and re-establish the schedule. When you start noticing that you’re feeling fine at two hours, then push it back to three, and so on until you’re just taking it a few times a day. When you notice you’re feeling really great, like 100% and happy, calculate out three more doses from that time over the next 24 hours. 
4. Have I mentioned resting yet? REST. Even though you’re feeling better! Even though it’s been a few days and it’s dumb and annoying and someone is tapping their foot about you getting back to “normal!” Rest is how you pull all the way through and make a full recovery. Pushing too fast to not rest is how people end up with longterm complications that will, in the end, absolutely win the contest of making you rest. 
5. A few other important pieces: soup is your friend. Some people don’t like soup, so it’s not their friend, but mostly, any kind of soup is hydrating and warming (see #2), has important proteins to support your immune system, and is overall a balanced, easy meal that you can eat and go back to resting. I particularly recommend Tom Kha soup from your favorite Thai restaurant. The coconut milk soothes and moistens irritated and inflamed tissues and the gentle spices help clear out phlegm. Avoid sugar and dairy as much as possible. Supplementing Vitamin C daily hasn’t been shown to help prevent colds, but adding 500 mg daily when you’re fighting a virus, or when you’ve been exposed, or when you’ve had extra physical exertion or exposure to cold temperatures falls into the Can’t Hurt, Might Help category.

Some final thoughts: depending on when we catch it, treating a virus can be expensive, and the process of taking not-delicious herbs all day while being uncomfortable and sweaty, plus sending me a strange amount (>0) of photos of your tongue is something that isn’t for everyone. While it’s possible to catch on the first day and avoid anything but a couple days rest, it’s more common to catch it late and play a game of minimizing symptoms and restoring health as quickly as possible, so it’s a week of being sick but less miserable than you would be, except you’re avoiding painkillers, so it’s not sunshine and flowers: you have to decide if you want to go through all that. But despite the assumption that it’s fine to just let a virus rip through your body, suppressing symptoms and carrying on, there is evidence to suggest that some viruses can cause a lot of longterm damage (and an absence of evidence about many “common cold” viruses). Aside from the obvious ones that can develop into life-threatening conditions, Epstein-Barr and HPV are two that have historically not been treated and have been connected with poor outcomes later in life. Supporting the immune system to mount a strong and vigorous defense, and make sure the infection is fully cleared from the body, is worth the effort, in my opinion. Your health matters. Whatever you decide, there are practical steps you can take in this article to care for yourself best.

I’m happy to discuss this more if you have questions! I’m happy to help you put together your own personal medicine cabinet. It’s a good idea to have a few formulas on hand so you can start taking something immediately as a response to the onset of symptoms, until you can get the tailored formulas I will make as you need them. And I’m happy when you make the not-so-subtle shift from feeling like you have to go through this alone, to knowing there’s someone on the other end of the phone who doesn’t always respond immediately, but genuinely cares and will fight to help you feel as good as you can, as soon as you can, every time.

Bunny lovers of the world, it’s your time to shine! Well, if you’ve been paying attention at all, you would have known this was going to be a big celebration over here.  I mean, BUNNIES! The Lunar New Year begins January 22, with the full moon on February 5. 

I’ve been diving into the deep reflection that this time of year invites, and I’m excited to share how my work is coming into clearer focus. 

Here’s the first thing: we are our stories. Every detail and twist from flourishing to surviving and back again, the ways you’ve grown and the parts that have fallen away, and all your reasons and innate orientations for pushing in those directions – those contribute to the truth of who you are.

Some days it’s easier to like the truth than other days. Some truths are easier to own. What if you liked your life a little more? It’s yours for all the time you’re here! I’d like for us all to be on the friendliest terms possible with our lives.

Here’s another thing: acupuncture and gua sha and Chinese herbs and Somatic Experiencing are such helpful tools, and I’m so grateful to have them, but real healing comes down to embracing the essence of our stories. Stories contain time. We need more time to let good things sink in. All the rest is mutable, and from that truth we can build comfort for your essential self to shine forth. 

Based on these thoughts, and on my ongoing inclination to pay closer attention, I’m making some adjustments to my practice. I’m bringing stories into sharper focus, and holding more space for stories to take shape and find their wonderful, shape-shifting wholeness. 

Given the state of public health here, I’m looking forward to meeting with our whole faces, without masks for those who are comfortable. (I’m always happy to wear a mask if you prefer. You’re always welcome to text ahead of an appointment and let me know. And in my office and everywhere, Please Please wear a mask if you’ve been exposed to or have even the earliest possible symptoms of any potential respiratory virus!) 

And, in addition to the current one-hour appointments, I’m adding longer appointment options: 2.5 and 3.5 hours. I see the need for nervous systems to expand and breathe into more curiosity, more tracking, and more resting. This is my attempt to meet that need, to create experiences that can be lived into for multiple weeks, which some people need more than weekly hour-long appointments. I’m grateful I can follow my own heart and offer what feels right for the world, including more conventional appointments that work really well for many people! 

It will be a delight to play with more options, and to explore the spaciousness that longer visits and released expectations will afford. What will it be like to feel seen and heard in more openness? What new facets of a story might become visible within that softening toward time? You, your life, your legacy are worth that time and attention. 

You are enough, and the only way I’ve found to access that sufficiency – the goodness beyond the story – is through patient, careful, faithful conversation with the body, mind, heart and spirit. Not perfect conversation! Because I’m not perfect and we may sometimes stumble around before we weave the way forward. My work is about collaborating to create the conditions for the best possible to happen. 

With the new session options, my pricing structure is changing, too. 
1 hour: $160
2.5 hours: $390
3.5 hours: $550

As always, I will open some slots every week for sliding fee one-hour visits. And now through February 5, you can purchase packages at the current or slightly discounted price:
3 one-hour visits: $405 
6 one-hour visits: $800
9 one-hour visits: $1200

I hope this is the year for you to engage more with the magic and wonder of your life. I would be so honored to create with you that experience, that softening into yourself. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll embody some rabbit-level mischief and sweetness along the way! 

The effort by which every thing strives to persevere in existing, is nothing but the actual essence of that thing.
-Spinoza

Fall is traditionally a time of change as the world around us inexorably transitions from a steamer to a freezer. But I’m ready for some steadiness and stability after a summer packed over the top. 

How can we invite stillness into a season of transformation? What has the frantic pace of your summer delivered that you’d like to keep around, sit with, leisurely explore?

It’s maybe a little ironic that I’ve recently (re?)discovered for myself the health benefits of — wait for it — regular appointments with an acupuncturist who genuinely cares about my wellbeing!!! Those of you who have incorporated that into your lives: why didn’t you tell me???

Seriously, try it if you haven’t lately, and spread the word — acupuncture is a game changer.

All of that is truth mixed with playfulness, and that might be the best way to describe the other new steadinesses I want to share with you: 

I’m practicing in a beautiful new space, at the Darling Den in St. Paul. The address is 882 Seventh St. W, Suite 3. It’s designed to be a respite, luxurious with both space and coziness. If you haven’t been in yet, I’m looking forward to welcoming you there. 

Online booking is once again available! You can use this link: or, as always, by texting 720-612-9788 or responding to this email to schedule.

Good friends, of course, can be a source of constancy over time, and it was a delight to see the photos my friend Tejas made recently. They mark the office move as well as a moment of shifting understanding about who I am and how I’ve always been, so I’m sharing a few. 

If you’ve read this far in another of my long letters, I’m holding space for you to define restfulness within the stream of changing seasons that is your life. May the best of who you are be welcomed with love and comfort into its fullness not just once, but ongoingly, along with time. 

From the perfect power or infinite nature of God… all things… have necessarily flowed, or are always following from the same necessity; just as from eternity to eternity it follows from the nature of a triangle that its three angles are equal to two right angles.

– Spinoza

First, the most photogenic news: Our little family has expanded to include two bunny brothers! Luca says they’re sweeties from heaven and I don’t disagree. If you need more cuteness in your life, you can follow them on instagram @bunnies_breaking_rules.

Then, the most clinically relevant news: I’m adding Thursday hours at a beautiful location in St. Paul! Seriously, make an appointment with me there just to check out the waiting room, which feels like you’re inside an encaustic painting. The walls! are coated! with beeswax!! It’s like wrapping all your senses in luxury, and I want that for each of you. And the space in Minneapolis continues to be wonderful – what fortune to be able to offer both locations!

Finally, if you have followed along with my philosophy notes and ever thought you might be interested in something similar, I have something for you! I’m organizing a group to read and discuss the Ethics by Benedict Spinoza. This is a beautiful and highly original and not easy work, and I’m so delighted to explore and discuss it! We will meet Fridays at 1pm Central starting July 8. Please email if you’re interested in joining.

I’ve been especially happy with my work lately, and grateful for the connections and conversations we can make together. My hope for the future rests in deepening understanding that’s rooted in our bodies which are part of the world. Cultivating this is moving toward wholeness, which is healing. Let’s embrace each opportunity to understand more deeply with open arms – expansive! 

There is a place where the flow of your environment and your inner impulses converge, and this is where you’ll find the next right step for you. 

I’m just writing to encourage you all to listen a little more to your inner impulses, open your senses a little more intentionally to the space around you, and respond to that information today.

Without overthinking it, this is my working model for developing wisdom, or the capacity to use what you know to live well. 

Whatever capacity we have for clear thinking and agency can be expanded or contracted by where we choose to place our attention. 

And if you’re going to attend to any question at all, what is more beneficial than to examine how to identify and realize a good life?

Choosing to avoid this question has negative consequences for your body/mind/heart/spirit system and for the world, as well. So please, orient carefully to your surroundings, listen a little more to your inner impulses, and let your movements be informed by something truer than destructive social expectations. 

Imagine childlike trust in your own body — your home! — but with the grounded wisdom of a caring adult. A return which is more valuable than what was lost.

Reach out for support if that feels right. Imagine asking the kinds of questions that result in more peace, from the inside out.

News! I finished Repetition by Kierkegaard and the Apology by Plato (major inspirations for these thoughts today), and I’m working my way through the Meno and, as always, MORE George Eliot and Søren. Newsletter frequency will probably decrease, but who knows? I enjoy connecting with you all, after all. 

I am stocked up on herbs for GI upset, which is the latest unhappy set of symptoms going around, with and without a covid diagnosis. Get some to keep in your medicine cabinet to fend off what the ancient Chinese physicians poetically dubbed Sudden Turmoil (!).

Part Ten – Final Segment

As we close out this series on Confucian and Daoist philosophy, there’s one question that keeps scratching at the edges of each reading for me: What happens when we try to apply any of this to our complicated, fragmented, 21st century lives? Does it hold up, and what does it hold, especially at scale? As a very incidental observer of global politics, it’s helpful for me to compare the functionality of China and Taiwan through this lens.

In China, President Xi Jinping’s expressed admiration for Confucius’ teachings has been well-documented, and the influence can be seen in his emphasis on morality and each citizen’s indebtedness to society. Confucian values are evident in his apparent intentions to rule with both benevolence and absolute, undiluted power. The corresponding questions around human rights mirror the disconnect I’ve noted in both The Analects and Mengzi: Are some people somehow more capable or deserving of making good choices for themselves and others? To what do we attribute that supposed capacity, when there are so many circumstances and influences in our lives that are beyond our control? 

Confucian thought simply doesn’t allow for any measure of personal agency beyond just doing your best within the strict confines of whatever your lot happens to be, and it tends to reinforce stratifications among social positions. To be clear, the idea that the opportunity to live comfortably should be privatized is a utopian vision held by those in power: it is clearly not liveable for the majority of people, and requires government monopolies on violence while clinging desperately to the hope that those in power will provide for those who aren’t, with little to no recourse if (when) rulers choose to be tyrants instead. On the other hand, when a nation is lucky enough to have benevolent rule, the superficial circumstances of its people as a whole do improve substantially, and “socialism with Chinese characteristics” has improved the lives of billions of people. The levels of censorship and constraint that accompany these improvements don’t seem sustainable, though, because “In all things, the Way does not want to be obstructed, for if there is obstruction, there is choking; if the choking does not cease, there is disorder; and disorder harms the life of all creatures.” (Zhuangzi 140)

But reading The Daodejing and Zhuangzi (especially the outer chapters, which may not have been written by Zhuangzi) can feel unrealistic, too. At one point, “The Perfect Man” is said to be able to “walk under water without choking, can tread on fire without being burned, and can travel above the ten thousand things without being frightened…[because he has grasped that] things have their creation in what has no form, and their conclusion in what has no change.” (Zhuangzi 122) This sounds great – who doesn’t want to be superpowered? – but it doesn’t match the reality most of us experience.  

Similarly, just the thought of choosing to rest and work less (a central tenet of Daoism) is met with fear and accusations of privilege in a world where the false and even paradoxical connection between success (aka financial wellbeing aka getting to choose how you spend your time) and hard work and even just earning the right to live is reinforced with increasing intensity from the time we’re babies being evaluated for developmental milestones while our parents scurry around playing Mozart and buying toys to turn us into perfect preschool geniuses. “It’s not realistic to just play and explore and enjoy being a human with this other tiny human,” people will half-scream while they schedule 19.5 minutes for Creativity Fostering Activities followed by Relaxation On Command.

That description sounds so sarcastic, but it comes from a place of deep compassion for anyone who might recognize part of themselves there. It comes from my training in classical Chinese medicine (rooted in Daoism) and my knowledge about the way trauma and stress are held -and healed!- in the body. How can I care as much as I do about the pain others are experiencing and not want to address the root causes in our society as I understand them? 

It’s disorienting and maybe even terrifying to believe that all one has to do is “Hold on to the great image and the whole world will come to you./ They will come and suffer no harm;/ They will be peaceful, secure, and prosperous.” (Daodejing 35) We can live up to that truth.

So it was with true amazement and relief that just this week I learned about Audrey Tang and her incredible success with digital democracy in Taiwan. Her emphasis on transparency and fun in public spaces has returned real-world results, such as one of the most successful responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, and ongoing expansion of trust among citizens and government officials in a country that ranks among the highest in the world for being bombarded with misinformation from outside its borders. 

In explaining her approach to creating effective internet spaces for democratic participation, she has quoted Chapter 11 from the Daodejing: “By adding and removing clay we form a vessel./ But only by relying on what is not there, do we have use of the vessel…/ And so, what is there is the basis for profit;/ What is not there is the basis for use.” 

I don’t know whether Audrey Tang can walk under water or atop fire, but her unconventional life and work are tangible proof that the world benefits from people who are more interested in empowering others than hoarding recognition and power for themselves. We don’t have to be perfect, as long as we’re continually moving toward better alignment with the way things really work (and therefore away from misguided attempts to control what we can’t control). If you’re interested, here are a few interviews/ talks she’s given – I hope they anchor you with hope and possibility as much as they have for me.

https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/digital-democracy-is-within-reach-rerun

https://www.wired.com/story/how-taiwans-unlikely-digital-minister-hacked-the-pandemic/

Part Nine – The Zhuangzi

In the Zhuangzi, there’s a story of a great oak tree who speaks to the carpenter in a dream. “As for me, I’ve been trying a long time to be of no use… how do you know I’m a worthless tree?” (60) The message is profoundly pro-life and anti-instrumentalist. What if we don’t need to be useful in this world? What if the fundamental fact of being alive – of existing – is enough? What if existence alone is enough to confer absolute value on anyone and anything?  

That’s a terrifying thought to entertain because it requires us to let go of so many categories we’ve established over time to know what is good and what isn’t. Moving in this direction is a step into darkness, where even the penetrating descriptiveness of language can’t always penetrate. Some things resist being known. Contrary to superstitions, these too are valuable – even crucial to living a good life (but are best explored with safe people). If it’s sunshine all the time, when do we rest and cool our minds, which tend to be overheated with thinking and explaining? Our unquestioning faith in the power of language to protect us from the darkness is part of what feeds our fear of the unknown, and Zhuangzi finds ways to undermine and play with language in every chapter. “I’m going to try speaking some reckless words and I want you to listen to them recklessly,” (42) he says, and also, “understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest. Who can understand discriminations that are not spoken, the Way that is not a way?” (40) “Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, then do they really say something? Or do they say nothing? People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn’t there?” (34)

He feels the same way about institutionalized morality. “The way I see it, the rules of benevolence and righteousness and the paths of right and wrong are all hopelessly snarled and jumbled. How could I know anything about such discriminations?” (41) One thing I love about Zhuangzi is the gentleness with which he introduces these possibilities. He seems to understand how disorienting it can be to let go of all our boxes and analyses, so he uses playfulness and soothing imagery to soften the impact. “There is a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is being. There is nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. Suddenly there is being and nonbeing. But between this being and nonbeing, I don’t really know which is being and which is nonbeing. Now I have just said something. But I don’t know whether what I have said has really said something or whether it hasn’t said something.” (38)

According to him, this world isn’t just a binary of subjects and objects, acting on each other or being acted upon. There is subjectiveness in everything, and when we lean into that collaborative attitude, life gets much easier. This is illustrated in the story of the cook who has carved up thousands of oxen and hasn’t needed to sharpen his knife for nineteen years.  “What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began carving up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now – now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.” (46, italics mine) 

It’s not that our hero doesn’t think at all: “whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until – flop! The whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground.” (46) It’s just that there is a recognition that thinking and reason only take us so far in our experience of the world and in our being virtuous in the world. There’s an emphasis on intuition and pre-rational knowing. 

Similarly, he’s not against feelings and emotions, but he recommends a way of being that isn’t ruled by emotions. “When I talk about having no feelings, I mean that a man doesn’t allow likes or dislikes to get in and do him harm. He just lets things be the way they are and doesn’t try to help life along.” (71) “And to serve your own mind so that sadness or joy do not sway or move it; to understand what you can do nothing about and to be content with it as with fate – this is the perfection of virtue.” (55)

So if we’re not ruled by thought and reason and we’re not ruled by emotions, what should be our primary source of information for decision making? It is the moment. “So he has no use [for categories], but relegates all to the constant. The constant is the useful; the useful is the passable; the passable is the successful; and with success, all is accomplished.” (36) Zhuangzi tells us to follow the moment, to not try to avoid what is real, but to accept it. This is hard work, but not necessarily the hard work of an ascetic who denies or mutilates themselves in order to chase goodness – that is falling back on the fragmented view that there is something other – an object – to be achieved. Instead this is the middle way which requires ongoing focus and openness and ongoing opening and ongoing becoming. 

I think the fundamental project and shift that Zhuangzi is advocating for is a turn back to the recognition of absolute subjectivity outside ourselves. This takes an ongoing awareness that Kierkegaard would argue requires something like religious fervor – whatever you’re willing to check out from is whatever you’re willing to use instead of relating to with more integrity. Obeying rules and lists of expectations allows a person to check out from the work of truly being with the world, but it is a fragmented way to live. It is easier in the short term, but disconnects you from the world in the long term. In the same way that each of us has the choice to respond to the limitations of our bodies as they are now or be even more limited in the future by the results of ignoring those messages, we have that same choice in our relationships with the people and situations we encounter every day.   

Another thing I love about this book and this attitude toward life is the sense that it’s available to everyone. Each person has their own Way and will interpret the words differently (Zhuangzi is using language to point at the inadequacy of language, after all!), but the more each one of us can consciously respond to outer limitations with our inherent freedom and respect for the freedom of others, the less friction we will experience in relationships, and the safer the world will be for everyone. “[The tiger trainer] gauges the state of the tiger’s appetite and thoroughly understands its fierce disposition. Tigers are a different breed from men, and yet you can train them to be gentle with their keepers by following along with them. The men who get killed are the ones who go against them.” (58) 

If a man follows the mind given him and makes it his teacher, then who can be without a teacher?

Part Eight

Well, I finished the Mengzi book and started reading The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. It’s helped me clarify (again) that my whole project as a clinician and as a student of philosophy is about liberation. Where are the places within your mind-body-heart-spirit complex that feel stuck and frustrating, where you’d choose differently if you could? It’s an endlessly satisfying experience to help open up new options of thought, movement, experience, and – maybe most importantly – imagination.

Mengzi distinguishes between fate as an excuse for giving up or wrongdoing, and “proper fate,” which is beyond human control. “…someone who understands fate does not stand beneath a crumbling wall.” (Book 7A2.2)

We exist in a world with many limitations. Some of these are outside our control, but maybe not as many as we’ve been led to believe. My wish for you today and everyday is that you’ll give yourself some time to just imagine the kind of world you’d love to live in. Use all your senses and play with world-building. “The function of the heart is to reflect.” (Book 6A15.2) You’ve been generously loaned your magical heart for such a short time – how will you honor that gift?

The Dawn of Everything is a survey of the latest archaeological science, what it might mean, and a gentle inquiry into why it’s so hard for historians and social scientists to talk about those findings. There is strong evidence against the conventional story we’ve learned, that all humans everywhere are inexorably drawn on a linear path from primitive foraging to complex hierarchical systems. It’s a myth that centralized, cereal-based agriculture is the necessary foundation of any thriving society. There is strong evidence, instead, that for at least half of the 12,000 years that humans have existed on this planet, we have moved in and out of complex cities and federations, rich with art and knowledge, trying various modes of governance and living for centuries at a time in something that looks like sustainable, egalitarian peace and prosperity more than anything else. There’s evidence that the story of humanity can be playful and kinda boring and I’m here for it. 

Graeber and Wengrow talk about the basic forms of social liberty which one may actually put into practice: 1) the freedom to move away or relocate from one surroundings, 2) the freedom to ignore or disobey commands issued by others, and 3) the freedom to shape entirely new social realities or shift back-and-forth between different ones. We live in a world that has been shaped to keep us from even knowing these freedoms are possible. What would change if we stepped out from under those crumbling walls and reclaimed them? 

“To fully fathom one’s heart is to understand one’s nature. To understand one’s nature is to understand Heaven. To preserve one’s heart and nourish one’s nature is the way to serve Heaven. To not become conflicted over the length of one’s life but to cultivate oneself and await one’s fate is the way to take one’s stand on fate.” (Book 7A1.1-3)

“Benevolence is the human heart and righteousness is the human path. To leave one’s path and not follow it, or to lose one’s heart and not know to seek for it – these are tragedies! If people lose their chickens or dogs, they know to seek for them. But if they lose their hearts, they do not know to seek for them. The Way of learning and inquiry is no other than to seek for one’s lost heart.” (Book 6A11.1-4)

Most of us need help seeking our lost hearts, looking at our snarls of conflicting beliefs, narratives, and survival impulses, and carefully disentangling ourselves. It can be done, and it’s essential work. I’m so grateful to be taking a stand on fate with many of you! 

We have no limits to our world. We’re only limited by our imagination.

-Bob Ross

Part Seven

Two-thirds of the way through this book, the example of moxa (4A9.5) is so helpful for me as an opening into Mengzi and his project. “Those today who desire to become King are like people who have been ill for seven years and seek three-year moxa. If they don’t start preparing it, they won’t get it before the end of their lives. If one does not set one’s will upon benevolence, to the end of one’s life one will have worries and shame, until one sinks into death and destruction.” 

I absolutely love moxa, which you probably already know. It’s true that if you have someone present with a seven-year illness, you can’t start curing and refining a three-year moxa for that patient now. And if you don’t have any already prepared, then you need to find other, perhaps less effective ways to mitigate the illness or slow it or bring comfort to that person who may not live to find the cure. Maybe some of what Mengzi advised was more about mitigation than about cure. Maybe he didn’t even realize or articulate that difference himself. And so we see this vacillation between putting bandages on a society beyond reform while yearning for something truly better. 
As he points out in 3A4.18, there are important differences in value between things made with skill and time, and things thrown together. “Things are inherently unequal. One thing is twice or five times more than another, another ten or a hundred times more, another a thousand or ten thousand times more. If you line them up and treat them as identical, this will bring chaos to the world. If a fine shoe and a shoddy shoe are the same price, will anyone make the former?” 

The same is true with relationships and social structures. Unfortunately, not all of Mengzi’s advice is of the quality to build a society where everyone flourishes, but of a palliative quality, helping to introduce some comfort into a system that is built for only a few to truly thrive. 

This is how I understand his unfavorable characterization of Shen Nong and Xu Xing in comparison to a Confucian teacher, Chen Liang. Shen Nong was a legendary emperor known also as the Divine Farmer, who is considered to be the father of classical Chinese medicine. He tested and introduced hundreds of substances into the materia medica. And he also discovered tea! Seriously, with that history, how can I agree with anyone who would argue with a follower of Shen Nong. Xu Xing promoted his teachings, which sound more in line with Daoism, saying a ruler shouldn’t store up treasures and food that the people might need, and that “the worthy plow with their subjects and then eat, having breakfast and dinner with them, and then ruling.” (3A4.3)
Mengzi’s response to Chen Xiang, who has chosen Xu Xing’s way over his Confucian father, Chen Ling, is to say, “Some labor with their hearts; some labor with their strength. Those who labor with their hearts rule others; those who labor with their strength are governed by others. Those who are governed by others feed others; those who govern others are fed by others. This is the righteousness common to the world.” (3A4.6) He goes on to describe the work of Yu under emperor Shun, channeling the Nine Rivers over the course of eight years. “Even if he wanted to farm, would he have been able to?” (3A4.7) With these changes and the cultivation of grain, “the people were nourished. The Way of the people is this: if they are full of food, have warm clothes, and live in comfort but are without instruction, then they come close to being animals.” (3A4.8) Later, Van Norden points out the paternalism rampant in Confucian thought, and this is a prime example.  

It is true that visionary leaders and planners have a place in society. It is possible that when people have been deprived not only of basic needs but also access to education and self-actualizing support, they might initially respond to comfort in antisocial ways. But rather than addressing the root causes of that behavior – namely poverty and unequal access to both education and leisure time – Mengzi’s solution is to slap on a surface-level treatment, and teach benevolence within an unequal system. His Way is very different from the Way of Daoism. It’s about maintaining outdated social norms and stratifications, rather than releasing those things in favor of a more natural social order.  

He never stops to answer why the work of an agricultural minister is more valuable than that of a farmer. Among clothing makers, we can see the difference in time and skill between garments made from silk vs hemp. One has more value than the other by weight perhaps, but if both types of clothing have their place in society, then both kinds of weavers are equally valuable. My main issue with Mengzi is that he really believes that some people possess more inherent value than others. His bigotry is laid bare as he couples the Central States of the north with genuine Chinese culture, and calls Chen Xiang, who is from the south, a “twittering southern uncivilized person.” (3A4.14)
At the same time, he’s right that in his society (and in ours), there are people at all levels who can’t be trusted with the wellbeing of others. And since there are more people in the lower classes, there are more lower class people who can’t be trusted (even if the percentages of representation among classes aren’t equal). We cannot live with absolute idealistic purity in such a society. His example of this is Chen Zhongzi, who, “in order to avoid eating anything obtained illicitly, he did not eat for three days, until his ears did not hear, and his eyes did not see… To fill out what Zhongzi is trying to maintain, one would have to be an earthworm.” (3B10.1,6)  

So maybe we tolerate a classist society with benevolent reforms temporarily, as in the poetic (and also condescending) line: “People turn toward benevolence like water flowing downward or animals running toward the wilds.” (4A9.3) Perhaps it’s the first step in a multi-generational project, but it shouldn’t be presented as the curative answer. 

Mengzi believes that “there is a Way for making oneself Genuine. If one is not enlightened about goodness, one will not make oneself Genuine. For this reason, Genuineness is Heaven’s Way. Reflecting upon Genuineness is the human Way.” (4A12.1) It’s a start toward the refinement of the three-year moxa, but just barely. I’m not sure exactly what that more curative medicine is – I think it’s a project that requires our collective education and imagination and, somehow, nonaction. 

Fancying nothing, learning not to know, electing not to interfere, [the sage] helps all beings become themselves.
–Daodejing, Chapter 64