What is Real? Micro vs Macro
“The ancient Chinese had a unique understanding of the universe. They perceived numerous ways life functioned and developed models that expressed them. One of the most insightful discoveries of the ancient Chinese was these models are “systems of correspondences.” The ability to perceive or predict how one correspondence can influence another is the essence of the Chinese medical model.” - Dr. David Twicken
Traditional Chinese medicine and ancient Chinese philosophies operate from the belief that everything in life is connected. Their approach to health and happiness is holistic and integrated. In western terminology, TCM is a Microcosm-Macrocosm perspective of medicine. According to eastern traditional medicine, if you want to understand the human body, you must first understand nature.
The ancient Chinese had a Macro understanding of the universe. My favorite translation of the Yin-Yang symbol, or “Tai Ji,” is Supreme Ultimate, meaning the sum totality of all things. When you see the yin-yang sign, you are looking at the entire universe unfolding itself before you in an infinite fractal. It is the symbol of an atom becoming a molecule becoming an element becoming everything becoming nothing becoming an atom again. Yin-yang represents the dynamic flow of existence between both sides of the spectrum and all points in between. Yin and Yang give us the Ba Gua, the 8 fundamentals of change (pictured here). Similarly, TCM’s 5 Phases, or 5 Element Theory, represents all the stages of Earth’s manifestations — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These five elements are metaphors for the indispensable materials used to maintain life and production on earth. These metaphors translate to the stages of our own seasons in life and provide ways for us to diagnose and treat bodily disharmony. These systems of correspondences are in a state of constant motion and change. These materials depend on each other and are inseparable, like Yin and Yang. The ways that yin and yang interact with each other and the ways the 5 elements interact with each other are meant to mirror the processes and cycles of nature. By understanding the “macrocosm” of nature, we can understand how to diagnose and treat patterns of disease in the body, the “microcosm.”
Ancient Chinese medical theories are derived from observations of the natural world, making TCM an evidence based medicine, not a scientific one. While many facets of acupuncture and herbology have been scientifically proven effective, it is important to understand that this medicine is not born of the scientific method. Traditional Chinese medicine operates from the idea that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. This means that as we get closer and closer to understanding the way these materials interact (more and more “micro”), we get father and farther away from the language of these primitive models. It is important then to understand how dialectics, or the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions, plays an active role in developing Traditional Chinese Medicine. What is right today might not be right tomorrow, however, we should not throw away the baby with the bath water. After all, so much of what we are talking about here is semantics. What western doctors call “influenza” Chinese medicine doctors call a “Wind-Cold attack on the Exterior.” Which is more right? Does it matter? Perhaps all that matters is a reliable pattern of diagnoses and treatment.
I’m attempting to make the case that “macro” and “micro” are both equally true in their own way — YIN AND YANG. I am not saying that truth is relative. I am saying that there is more than one way to describe what is going on, that macro and micro are two ends of the same truth. To understand what something is, we must also understand what it is not. In Taoism, this is the process of One giving birth to Two, Yin and Yang. The rest of the universe unfolds from there. Yang and Yin represent Light and its Shadow (respectively), two parts of the same whole. One cannot exist without the other. Yin and yang are two poles of one force interacting with itself in an opposing, interdependent, mutual-consuming and inner-transforming way.
Truth is not an all or nothing type of thing. To any belief, there can be parts 100% true and parts 100% false. There is nothing in between. A partial truth is an interaction between parts entirely true and parts entirely not true. To transform a partial truth into a whole truth, we need to separate “pure from turbid,” much like how our stomach and digestive system do with food and our lungs do with air. As above, so below…
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