26/12/2018

“The Silent Of ‘The Silent Night’”

It’s the 2018 Christmas Eve message at the St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Tokyo.

Whenever my husband and I are the out-of-towners to spend the Christmas holiday here in Tokyo, we would make a point to participate the midnight Mass on the Christmas Eve.

This year, Christmas 2018 marked the most meaningful Christmas ever for us. First, on 23rd December, the 4th Sunday in Avent, we were blessed to listen to Pastor Symington’s (Tokyo Union Church) sermon that expounded scriptures from Psalms 111 as the Psalms for the lowly, and in line with the scripture reading on the gospel of Luke 1:39-55 to explain that we, as Christians also need to have room in our hearts to reverent Mary.

In the afternoon, my husband was led to read and meditate on Luke chapter one again concurrently with the Revelation chapter 12 that prepared our hearts for Midnight Mass the next day.

Christmas Eve is the real ‘Holy Night’ for the season. The church structure has had a very high ceiling but with a small mezzanine floor for the choir team; the welcoming but not the suffering Christ was before the huge Cross on the wall.

When the altar boys are holding candles leading all Catholic priests clothed in white walking toward the platform, the entire sanctuary was filled with strong sense and spirit of reverence.

When the choir team led the sing of the Christmas Carols from the mezzanine floor, it was like the real ‘Angel Sings.’ After the opening prayers, scripture reading and the responsorial Psalm 95 was the message for the night.

The Catholic priest gave a brief history from its first performance in the Christmas Eve 1818 and the popularity of the Christmas Carol, ‘The Silent Night.’

I was a bit disappointed as the message was more factual than spiritual. However, I was blessed to be able to experience the silent in my spirit when I start to sing the carol, then I was able to be still inside the Catholic church and know that my High Priest is the LORD of my life.

The closing Hymn of ‘St Thomas,” has always brought me tears at the Christmas Eve Mass.

Blessings.

13/12/2018

Diabetics  – 消渴(Xiāo kě)  In TCM

Proverb 28:5b  …”but those who seek the LORD discern all things” – the Jewish Study Bible 

According to the National Diabetes Fact Sheet, the Statistics Report on Diabetes and its burden in the USA on July 2014 that there are 21.0 million people diagnosed with Diabetes and 8.1 million people with it that are undiagnosed. And 29.1 million is 9.3% of the total population in the US. The publicly available data from Singapore Diabetic Society,  1  out of   9 people aged 18 to 69  has diabetes. That’s about 11.3% of the total population. 

Singapore government has declared its war against Diabetics in the past two years, and an article with the title ‘Diabetes Must Be Fought On Multiple Frons: Tharman,’  on ‘Straits Times,’ a  local newspaper dated 27/Nov/2018 states that the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr.Tharman Shanmugaratnam  drums up employers, public and the entire government to grapple the disease in one accord that is ‘prevention, prevention and prevention.’

I was led to redraft my old work and hope that others would have access to understand Diabetics in the lens of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Ancient China was the first to bring about the awareness of the set of symptoms that relate to the modern Diabetics of today, but with a totally different the name.  The first record of naming the illness was on an open dialogue between the mystical Yellow  Emperor(黄帝) and  Qíbó (Chinese: 岐伯), the physician that documented in the Emperor’s Internal Classics, 《黄帝内经》Huángdì Nèijīng.   

帝曰：有病口甘者，病名为何？何以得之？奇病论_百度百科One day, the Emperor asked Qibe, his physician,  saying “what is the name of the syndrome that a person whose has had the sweet taste in his mouth.? And what would be the cause of it? 

岐伯曰：此五气之溢也，名曰脾痹。夫五味入口，藏于胃，脾为之行其精气津液在脾，故令人口甘也，此肥美之所发也，此人必数食甘美而多肥也。肥者令人内热，甘者令人中满，故其气上溢，转为消渴。治之以兰，除陈气也。(baike.baidu).

In Qibe’s answer, it is the incapacity or impairment of the Spleen Qi that names it 脾痹(Pi Bi), he further expounds that as the food goes into our mouth, usually has five-tastes,  stores into our stomach – and for the Spleen Qi to digest and emit nutrients to our entire body.   If the Spleen Qi is unable to process the food that is what it called 脾痹 (Pi Bi). If only the sweet taste remains in the mouth that is the result of eating too much fatty or caloric food. 

Fat would build up heat inside the system, and in excessive of sugar would cause people feeling ballooned inside of the stomach. And the pathogenesis of 脾痹 (Pi Bi) is 消 渴 (Xiāo kě). ‘治之以兰 (Zhìzhī yǐ lán)’ means to look up the Classical prescription in “兰《兰室秘藏》“Lán shì mì cáng” for treatment to war off the congestion of Qi. It is not literally to treat the condition with “兰 (means Orchid).

Evidently, Classics are linguistically tricky to understand. To start, it’s vitally important to know that although the Chinese word to name each of the orangs is same as in TCM but the function of it has been remotely related to the anatomical organ in our body. Take,  for example, Kidney in TCM  is about the Kidney Qi or Kidney system; stomach is the stomach Qi or the stomach system. Further, in the digestion system, the Spleen Qi and the Stomach Qi are inseparable.  

The etymology of the Chinese word of 痹 (Bi) in English is ‘paralysis or numbness (http://www.zdic.net/z/).Therefore, that’s why the incapacity of Spleen Qi would be the etiologic and pathogenesis to expound the condition of 脾痹 (Pi Bi). If a person overeating  too much of high caloric food without having vigorous exercise to burn off the unbalanced energy, then the excess energy would store up and translate into body fat, and the  fat would turn into heats (not about the temperature) that’s the prognosis of the 消 渴 (Xiāo kě) also known as Diabetes more than two thousand years later. 

消 Xiāo literally means ‘wasting’ or ‘disappear;’ 渴 ( kě) means ’thirsty.’ 消 渴 (Xiāo kě) as a phrase is talking about the symptom of the condition. With the water as the radical in the dictionary, 消 Xiāo and 渴 ( kě) actually share the same meaning of ‘exhausted.’ The inner heats are the contributing factor for what it has been the saying of 三多一少（san Dao yi shoo) that’s too much urination (多尿-DuoNiao) constantly thirsty（多饮-DuoYin）hungry（多食-Duo shi）and weight lost（消 瘦-xiao shou).  

消 渴 (Xiāo kě) had been written off as one of the many Odd diseases that was recorded in the discussion of 奇病论_百度百科,《黄帝内经·素问》中第四十七篇文章, (Qíbìng lùn -https://baike.baidu.com/item/奇病论/7857943?fr=aladdin), Chapter 47 of Huángdì Nèijīng around 400 BC. Footnotes after footnotes; commentaries upon commentaries by many renown TCM masters for more than two thousands year, and modern scientists have also done more than their shares of researches. Diabetes should no more be the  Odd illness, but why we still have the alarming data on the diseases that shock the world? 

It says profoundly in the Neijing that “上功治未病 (Shàng gōng zhì wèibìng), “ which means that any competent practitioner should be, or should at least, aim to be able to treat undiagnosed illness. I did put in more than 10,000 hours to finish the basic course study and practical training. How can anyone be a competent TCM practitioner and be able to treat any undiagnosed illness without relying on aids of any of the latest medical equipment, or screen a blood test?  That’s the depth and richness of TCM.

People usually would turn to the TCM doctor as their last resort, after trying all sorts of medication and treatments, but in vain. Take, for example, most of my patients who suffer from chronic pain and yet not go well with their painkiller drugs. I wouldn’t take offence but welcome it as a challenge.  I have been in practice for more than 8-years. I like my patients. As a born-again Christian,  knowing that I have my dear Lord of God, Jesus as my High Priest to provide me with His wisdom and His healing virtue to touch the sick through me as His instrument. 

Evidently, Diabetes is an ancient disease that has no cure still, but it is treatable and definitely preventable. I assume that many people are more health conscious than ever, normally they would have believed in early detection but some demurred to do anything and chose to live in self-denial. If you found out that a sweet taste on and off remains in your mouth, even you didn’t have any sweet, then you need to do all necessary check-ups without being tarry. 

As for me, I just need to learn how to rely on my dear Lord of God, Jesus to claim His promise, for His faithful, as it says in:

James 1:5 

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

p.s. 

I will expound on Diabetics – 糖尿病 （Tángniàobìng）in TCM soon.