Welcome to the Chinese. Hi, welcome back to the Chinese medicine podcast. It's my pleasure today to interview Glenn Bowman. We've got some really great stuff to talk about when we talk about life purpose finding your purpose and particularly the character length. I'm very Hopkinson and welcome to the Chinese medicine podcast today. I'm interviewing Glenn Bowman and he's got special interest in linguistics and understanding Chinese medicine and actually Glenn is a student and that's how I got to know. And I've heard him talk about this topic before it was so intriguing to be and I think when you've got time, you've got to come and talk about this on the podcast because there's lots of people listening that I'm sure you're going to get something out of this and I really want to hear it a second time around and I'm we want to talk talk in more detail the first time around only heard it maybe 10 minutes. We had a minute time frame to do a talk and then we've got a lot more time now to get into the topic and we're going to talk about Ling which is purpose. Am I not pretty enough? Yeah. It's a First of all, it's a character from an ancient Chinese character. That means essentially spiritual or a spiritual Essence but also one's own sort of spiritual Essence and then that in a sense can be tied into one's purpose. Awesome. Awesome. Well before we get into that, so I'm super excited about about the topic. I'm going to ask you a little bit about how you got into Chinese medicine how because you're studying Chinese medicine now, right? Yes, how many years into what are you so I'm in third year now. Well, congratulations invited. Yeah, honestly, yeah. Okay. And so what made you want to study Chinese medicine? Well, it was a very long and winding path that actually led me to Chinese medicine after finishing High School. I sort of had a rejection of all forms of formal study. So I sort of I believe that I would never go to a university or anything like that just because of my own yes experiences with high school and things like that. So I didn't really want anything to do with it. And when I was 17 a left traveling and I basically traveled and lived around the world in different places for the next nine years or so at some point along the way. well, actually it can be said that as I was traveling and sort of to begin with it was to experience a world and sort of external experiences and events and traveling in strange places, but then it progressively became more and more an internal Journey for me and I became very interested in the I guess you could say spiritual or mystical or even magical side of life and existence and I was like Fortunately enough to certain experiences along the way which really opened my mind to these types of things. And then as that progressed when I was living in South America, I had an interest in the Indigenous Medical Systems of South America and a very influential person in my life who works in that field recommend that I actually studied Chinese medicine. And at the beginning of I couldn't really understand why I didn't know anything about Chinese medicine had never experienced anything to Chinese medicine, but then I intuitively decided to come home and study it and it was when I came home and I was in that first sort of foundations of Chinese medicine class that my jaw dropped and I realize this is almost like a customized career path for me. So I was very fortunate. So you've never had acupuncture before you started it nothing and Is particularly Chinese hurts or nothing and do nothing about it because that's how I did it as well. Oh my God, I didn't know I didn't have an 11 year Journey Lego discover. I just went straight from high school to that's what but I also had that aha moment in that first lecture going. This is exactly what I want is exactly what I want to do. Exactly. Yeah, so that's great. And so yeah, the the universe or whatever has led you yeah. Yeah. Yes, I would I feel so and maybe that's what we're going to talk about today. How did you get how do you how do you get to that? Well, like you said that's what we're gonna yeah, I think because I think it actually ties in perfectly with what we I guess going to talk about and as I see it this character Ling and what I was presenting in that speech in a class and this is also why I have such particular interest because I've been through my own sort of Confusion as to my who I am what my purpose is in life. What is if any might my life purpose and I think also just sorta interested it but it's something that our culture in a western sets like the English language doesn't Encompass these understanding life like I'm getting excited about we talk about today, but it doesn't Encompass that understanding of where as you can when you unpack the Chinese language you can see that It's embedded into the language to discover something like that. Right? Absolutely. Let's get into it. Okay, so so where do we begin? So talk about the character? First of all, yeah. Let's say that so well, this is my quite I apologize to all the great look he's look at various Chinese. It's it's like a font like times Roman for so this is Lee. And so basically Chinese works as Like a language of copies of of compounding Yankee different table is today different symbols. And so at the top here we have you which is means rain and in the middle we have coal which means a mouth or an opening and then at the bottom we have wool which signifies dancing shamans and specifically female shamans. So if we this is the character for Ling and this means little inj we'll put that at the bottom. That's it. You can understand. This is a very ancient character and it's in there's a great dictionary of classical Chinese dictionary medieval Chinese by Paul Kroll and he defines this word as numinous sacred spiritual power or efficacy life principle vital principle embodied realization of the numinous ones in a spirit. So essentially you could consider it as signifying inherent. Jake intrinsic to life the inner mysterious and ultimately ineffable nature of all things spiritual nourishment and sustenance provided by heaven. And actually this might be a good opportunity to explain why it's a bit we can think of this as a symbol. So here we have rain and it's raining down into these open-mouthed and we have the Shaman's at the bottom. So what this essentially and I'm no sinologist but a symbol is a symbol so So in one way, we can just extract the meaning for our own so and so what I get out of this is that you have these female shamans who female also signifies receptivity so and they're dancing. So it's a creative act which is this born from the shaman and the shamans role throughout history has been to provide these sort of creative acts whether it be through dancing or singing or music in these things and yet it's with a sense of Tivity and producing this creative act which is causing the rain to fall into these open mouths. And so that what the through this creativity they're bringing sustenance from heaven heaven. I've spoken to some people about heaven this concept of Heaven in terms of Chinese medicine and things like that and in a western culture, especially in the English language, we sometimes think of Heaven as in the biblical sense. But in this sense Heaven were referring to the Heavens to the sky it could also be and so then in Chinese you have TN and TN, they're both men sky and I and heaven and this is actually the same in other languages. So you have in Spanish you have Seattle Seattle means both sky and Heaven at the same time and this is in many different languages but in English with it anyway, so you're getting the sustenance of heaven. So this moisture of Heaven is falling down. I'm in response to this creative. And it's so I guess feeding or nourishing these open mouths that needed it. Doesn't that make sense? Yes. It's almost like this code participatory relationship that the shaman or that a person can have with heaven in order to bring a greater good in that sense. Yeah. Everyone's benefiting from that rain, right? Yes the shamans. And so I just have an interesting quote here from Lonnie Jarrett who's an very inspiring practitioner in the United States and in his book nourishing Destiny. He says an important part of the healing process often involves returning to our sense of potency empowered by the Ling Spirit. It is essential to help patients experience themselves once again as effective forces in the world and individual with a Art whose Ling spirit is unbalanced. Maybe unsynchronized in all Realms of lie. So yeah, so when I was essentially saying in that speech was that this patient was depressed and more than it just being sort of a stagnation of energy or anything like that. I sensed. It was almost like this lack of his own sense of you know, creativity and potency and purpose and just for the viewers that don't know what he's talking about. He gathered talk at College where that's how we come across this topic. Where you were making this about an actual patient like how you would apply this to a patient? Right? That's right. Yeah, because people don't know what you mean by that stage. It's like work there. Unfortunately. Yeah, so you were applying this house how this applies to a patient. And yeah, so this is really great and in theory like it's it makes total sense. But what about like in an actual person like and it dated dated a person that's struggling like they've clicked on this video or listening to this podcast because I like yeah, I thought so My purpose and how does this apply to them? Like what's this mean they need to dance around in the rain like a dog. Well in a sense. Yeah, actually it's interesting because when I originally presented this and the fact that I'm the it was about a patient who was experiencing some sort of depression, I guess and what I felt from it, was that rather than it just being merely Say stagnation of Qi or anything like that was actually a fundamental this connection with the magic of life. And this is very common. I think in modern society especially here in the west because we tend to live we get we can get trapped in a very sort of mundane existence of living a day-to-day working life. And so then that sort of sense of magic that is inherent within life itself gets sort of blocked from View and this person had seen to have been disconnected from the like Ronnie Garrett says they're real potency and then they're real efficacy in the world. So they didn't really believe in themselves. But also they'd sort of lost that sense of purpose and Magic now interestingly when we joke about becoming a dancing Charmin, but interestingly even this person went dancing then they would feel much better. And so it was this actually dancing in this creative act which awoke this sense of I guess joy and positivity and purpose in life. And then it was that act of going back to the sort of mundane existence in the frustrations of working and I'd get lost in that and then that would and so they would look for that Weekly dance session. Yeah to actually connect with those. I guess you could say heavenly energies. So it's actually quite fitting for that character. So yeah, because I think one I mean, I think that's It's not a surprise to anyone watching this I would I would say but it's so common now in our society that we work for money rather than working for because we want to do that thing. I mean, maybe we started out I see what's of patients like this that started out in a job that I loved because they wanted to do it and I went to that career because I wanted to do it and so there was a purpose and there was a desire for it, but then somewhere along the way it just became this mundane boring thing that they don't have lost connection with it. They don't want to do it anymore, but they can't get out of it because they don't want to lose their house or bit. The car they need to provide for their kids and their family and it's a trap because then they're like working or spending the majority of the time, you know, half the time sleeping half the time working in this thing. They hate and I knew Living For What like a few hours a week or the weekend to enjoy and what do they do? And they and yeah, it's like then the treatments that they do sort of don't cut it they might have helped a little bit. So they do acupuncture. They do herbs even Western medicine in my like antidepressants or medications. If people start taking and not saying don't take those medications, but they can help to a certain point. But then what where's that? What's that? What about that little Gap and maybe this is connecting going to connect with people about that little Gap that you know is missing that you could try everything physically till the cows come home. But if you don't fix that issue, if you don't connect with your purpose then it's maybe what is it all for? Hmm? Exactly and it's I'm fascinated by the The sudden the cosmology of the world view that we live in as a western society that Ike as he said to begin with that. We don't even have this idea embedded in our language has a Chinese dude. And so this is very interesting because in terms of medicine when you go to a GP mostly people would think it would be absurd to say that for that GP to say. Well actually your medicine would be to connect with the magic of life because that's what's missing. Life and so if I be struck off the rectal exam someone might report them for saying something like that it which is absurd as you said on one hand. Yes, I can see how that that's absurd in the medical field. But on the other hand after listening to that even a little bit of it is it seems like well isn't absurd that you don't mention that hmm exactly and it's and it actually can be explained by how we view the world as Western culture, and I'm very interested in these types of things. things and I've learned a bit on a course from Rickett honest who's a philosopher psychologist from the United States and he talks about shifting World Views and this is very influential to my thinking and also it ties in with Ling because previously in a more an older time periods human beings were I guess embedded in the Verse in a way in which they could nature was perceived to be in sold. And so that it wasn't just human beings that had a creative intelligence. But rather the entire all of Nature and all the universe had this sort of inner potency and this creative intelligence. I guess you could say and it was around the time of the so called Enlightenment and the copernican revolution of these things that That we that that outer world became they say disenchanted and so and this has led to the current worldview in which basically Consciousness is an epiphenomenon. They say of matter and material processes and that only human beings really have this intelligence. And so Ling that character coming from an ancient time period sort of speaks to that and meaning spiritual. And even magical sort of relates to that way in which all of nature is as a spiritual potency and that we can actually connect with that and so I was thinking about it and it's interesting because if you were to look at a Chinese medical classic probably they would never say that if in this disorder get them to connect with Ling because it didn't need to be said because the worldview in which they were living was a more magical. Mythical worldview in which that was a given they were already work. They already were inside that and so it's interesting. Like if you look at the shin dong-bin sounding like an old Hubble classic though and you look up long ago where this the Luongo was where it was found. It says in on the banks of rivers and caves and Grottoes where dragons have lived and died. Mmm, and they and certain hubs will be used for ghosts and spectral entities. And this magical sort of thinking was within the Chinese culture for a very long time even son Samuel in the sort of medieval times would use incantations and almost like magical type. So do you think they had like this just by asking your opinion? I know you none of us can go back to those times. But in that chain on been surging reference, do you think that they actually there were dragons there were big creatures that they Dragons there or do you think they just had this mythical in thing that they thought that the dragons with her Uncle dragon, or was it a real dragon? Jerk? I'm not sure whether whether it comes from I just wanted I it's got its got no ferry to me. But the tourney dragons are real but not in a physical sense. They live in more of a Mythic part of the yeah, just yeah, which they were connected to. Yeah, and so then the dragon arrives Is also I mean, it's not a long kids distinct I guess but there is a dragon sort of creature that arises in the west as well. And so there is this lady must have been dragging archetypal but physical dragons at some point because they're so common in all cultures like mentioned right there were mentioned in them the bible stuff like that like that. There must have been I don't know. It must have been those giant dragon creatures that we that we like dinosaur killed off. Yeah, exactly. Looked like a flying saucer. Anyway, that's this is a sidebar. That was refreshing. So yeah, good. Okay, so people can connect with their like connecting with your purpose is important, right? And so what do you think is maybe you can give us an example from like the case that you presented or like you're just so people don't get misled or anything like Lanes what 30 years Chinese medicine student, so it's not like you're treating lots of patience. These theoretical ideas. Yes, but if you get to be a all philosophy and but that it's really good. And I think one part about just going back to what you were saying before about that. It was embedded into the culture and that's why it didn't need to be mentioned. There's there's been this push in Chinese medicine, especially in our country in Australia and there lots of people watching this from the US or the UK that's very similar there as well to to westernize. Seems like what they call modernize things and bring things into line with a more scientific a Western Scientific approach of how we talked about Chinese medicine and there's nothing wrong with understanding things from different paradigms. I think in using that Paradigm, but I almost feel like the this Paradigm of the Linguistics and the understanding of the true nature of Chinese medicine is being lost amongst the knee. Need to show the scientific Cruise know what works because it's hard to eat you could design a research trial you got people to discover their purpose and see what happened at but it's probably much more in line with psychology than what is in stocks and a Chinese medicine. So even like you're saying it would be hard to be hard-pressed to come to a doctor and for them to say. Hey, you're feeling depressed. Have you thought about a person's weight when you have you have you have you thought about how is that going? But even a Chinese medicine practitioner probably won't go that as a matter of just general conversation, right? Yes, and but I think it's a hugely important thing because I think part of almost evolution is modern human beings is to reconnect with what we have lost. Yeah, Rich, is that understanding of the intelligence of nature? Nature and to be able to connect with nature in the sense that these charms are connecting with the rain in that sense and to regain a bit of that notion that there is we are living within and then solve the universe and that things aren't just for dead in a yeah. Okay. So let's talk about that a little bit more because maybe people are thinking I'd like to reconnect with my purpose. What do I need to do? But how do they how do they connect how do they understand this interconnectiveness of nature? Well, actually It could be many different things that I remember. I was listening to a actually an interview with Lily and bridges who's a face reader and really wonderful woman. It's Avail Sansa and she was talking about Ling and she looked at some she had a patient and she looked at him and she said oh your link efficient or something like that and then he said, okay, and she and she said her prescription for him was to go outside every day lie on the grass and just look at the clouds. Mmm. And so and then just doing this then like he went back a few weeks later and he was feeling much better explain to her how much better he was feeling a real transformation. And now this may seem absurd to some people but really it's the simple Act of connecting with the magic of life that can be the greatest medicine and times. So for this person just laying down on the grass and looking at the clouds and reconnecting with that fundamental sense of Or and mystery and wonder at the fact that there are clouds existing at all. And so this is something that is sort of in born in us when we're children and we can look at all things and we can see the magic in it. But as we grow and priorities get diverted into education and these such things we will Lonnie Jarrett based on the work of a Taoist practitioner called Louis Ming calls it sort of the mundane accretions. So when we're living we build up these accretions, I guess yes an accretion a creation like a think of it as sort of like a solidification. So this isn't you in there is our true nature say is Young. Yeah, so it's like sediment building exactly exactly. That is an influence of the I guess the mundane material was set a bit of the Mondays. I'm sure lots of people camera like it's like, oh just another day instead of exactly here we go. Again. It's so true. It's so true. And I think the reason why maybe people do think oh that's absurd like they go to a doctor. I should've been prescribed and minutes in the in nature and I've seen some articles floating around. I'll see if I can pose some up here. I'll put the link below of doctors in Other it's more European countries. I've seen doing that prescribing people nature walks and stuff like that as part of their treatment and there's been some research on these areas because it's like well I could just I could have just got that myself. But you know, like I could have just I didn't come to you for the sunshine of Rainbow Oh Katie from medicated that like, it's like a doctor's of The Gatekeepers to this stuff. Whereas maybe they should be the facilitators or when I say doctors having healthcare Works including myself in those things. We should be the facilitators of this knowledge and helping people to work towards a path. It's not just necessarily. Well. I needed sell you this medication. I need a I need to give you something. You can't get anywhere else. Yeah, it's I think people maybe they don't value it as much like 10 minutes of sunshine or lying in the grass looking at the clouds because they think well, I could have just done that myself. Exactly. Well if you watch his podcast you might be able to but yeah, this is do it yourself. Yeah, but yeah, it's interesting because that leads to almost like a redefinition of what the practitioner is and what they do because really they should have the best interest of the patient. So whether that perhaps a patient needs weeks of acupuncture and herbs and yet another one might simply need like a to be, you know, LED down a path that leads them just to looking at Clouds for example or doing something of that nature. Yeah, and I think I'm practitioners who do prescribe they that They don't prescribe the sunshine and rainbows and they just prescribe what they that's what they doing the best they can with what they know and yeah, okay, maybe we could argue that they should know better and they could share they could expand their Consciousness so they could expand their ideas. But a lot of people are a lot of practitioners and doctors are doing it with the best. They think they've got the patient's best interests at heart. Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah always have the other side of the coin where people are, you know, doing it for money and find ourselves. So it's also used something. But yeah, let's not get into a debate. About the pharmaceutical industry on this today. Let's take it. Let's keep it Mars nor am I anyway, that's alright. But when you when you are you'll get your fair share of backlash anyway, so yeah, so okay people can connect with nature in some way. So it might be something that they might seem insignificant is what I'm picking up from what you're saying. It might seem just like a little thing but it is actually going to give you big returns if you're actually engaging in doing it and you'll absolutely I think If we say take that the character again is a symbol of what it means. So we have the creative act of the shamans that are done. So there's lots of applications for this right like it's not just dancing around or looking at clouds in to connect with nature. What else do you reckon? This like character could be implying and that creativity for shamans Dancing Yeah. Well, this is where I think the creativity and the symbol of the shaman also ties in with actually. You're saying before about one's life purpose. So acting out in the world creatively what one essentially is. And so if we think about a shaman their role as in especially in ancient days was to sort of some in the rain and to do those rain dances and this is sort of I guess Universal shamans around the world. So they have this creative act which express itself through dancing and it had the effect on nature. But whether we're a shaman or not and 99.9 percent of us are known then we we all have a creative act that can have a response from life itself and also comes about to benefit the others just as they were bringing down the rain to sort of Feed the community or the tribe and to help the Earth to grow so we can also have that and so I personally believe and it might not be the easiest thing to find and myself. I took a long time to actually find it but we certainly have our own unique gift to bring into the world and it could be through cooking. It could be through music. It could be through writing. It could be through coordinating groups. It could be through Public Communication and it could be through gardening. It could be through anything. But when we take that as the dance of the shaman as a creative act and we put our spirit into that then we find our place in the world. And then that way we're actually serving our community and serving life itself. Just as you can think of like a cell in the body might be a blood cell and its purpose is to be an individual blood cell but also to serve the common good of the organism of the body. So when we think consider ourselves as a organism of our family of our culture of the human race and of Earth as a whole then we Can feel much more fulfilled and we can creatively act out our purpose. Yes. It does. My it makes total sense. Yeah. Sure. I can't help but think like I think about this a lot like in our society think about that when you talk about worldviews and stuff how like most most people watching this are probably in dredged and entrenched in a capitalist society and even to the point where and I'm not having a go at these situations because that's just how we've got two things but even to the point where People get paid to care for a loved one. And if you if that's you you're getting paid to care for a loved one. I'm not having a go at you or just a comment I guess on where we've how we've because everything is so monitored monetize. Everything is so much as Harry about and that is that seems to be the value that we or if we don't get that monetary value from something we tend to not do it or not. We don't associate things. Maybe I put it another way like things that you don't get a monetary return from you tend to think of Them as failures or not as you don't associate them with a benefit whereas our society actually if you look at how will I don't want to stray Leah. There's a lot of things that are basically running in the background of the power of volunteers. Right most there's no money involved in paying those people for their time and you might everything takes money. So I'm not saying that's not have any money because we we think we need money, but it's just something to think about I think In terms of like how did we get to this point where everything is so value? And and so I guess what I'm saying is I see a lot of people in the Arts as well that they struggle to sort of see the benefit of their art their creative art because it doesn't have a monetary value and the capitalist in me says well, that means you are isn't very valuable that it's not very successful. It's terrible because no one wants to buy it, but on the other hand, there are deceive me says well you Should still do it and the practitioner May says that's it's a if you get that better for if that is your Ling if that is your creative purpose and your you're meant to be doing that. You should be done at no matter whether you get money or not. Yeah money from it and then the cycle continues the capital of survey says it. Well, if if you are meant to be doing it, then you would be good at it and then you get money from it. And so maybe just stop doing it long enough for you to monetize our or you might not be good at the business side of it to get the money from its make it. So my back I'm talking about people that want to make their creative Pursuit their living. Hmm. They want to be and they don't necessarily want to have a million dollar match and the you know, like a hip-hop style because With the CAT scan. I just want to like they just don't want to have to work in there during the 9 to 5 job anymore. They'd like to be able to monetize their art and their all their creative Pursuit. Let's say whatever it is so that they don't have to do that mundane thing. Yeah, it's just I know it's a conundrum is a conundrum. Yeah, and it's in a difficult thing because it's not about just abandoning your day job to go look at Clouds, but it's sort of finding the balance and accepting the reality that we Currently live in the situation. And so then I will do what I need to do within that but at the same time finding the space and the time to devote to your own creativity or to connecting with life and in a deeper sense, and so that actually when that happens you can then give to whatever it is, whatever job you maybe even if it's something that you don't particularly want to be working. If you can have that connection with something greater, which is that sort of I guess spiritual connection with yourself and with Life then even that fills the most mundane of tasks with a sense of wonder and purpose and so you can give fully to that. But if you're fully and completely just embedded in the encrustations or whatever you set up the of that sediment sediments of that of Lies, then it's difficult to get to see through that and find the Wonder in it and to see that Having a glass that's you know, it is crusty and it's all set of and T. It takes time to clean it. You can like soak it in something to get the most out of it to get all that said my offer a but then once it's clear, you can see through that glass, you know to two layers of glass you can see really clearly through it and it doesn't take much to keep it clean and to keep it clear. So I guess that's maybe where a practitioner would come in and might it might be a Chinese herbalist or an acupuncturist. It might be another maybe even psychology or some other practitioners that would be able to help you get your glass clear again and get rid of some of that sediment work out. I think psychology would probably be one of the better places you could go to or a practitioner that has a decent understanding of psychology. Mmm. Also meditation. There are some really great meditation courses. I've personally practice vipassana and that's an excellent technique but and there are other many techniques that have been sort of Devised and cultivated all around the world and spiritual traditions and things like that. But for sure I think like acupuncture hubs and these types of things have that potential because if we think about sort of the channels and the organs as they can as they flow through us, but then connect out into the world. They also they they mediate our connection with external and internal life and reality. So if so by treating that we can actually assist the patient To have a deeper connection with themselves and midlife also and in a very broad sense people that are sort of maybe not aware but acupuncture is the best at moving things around was herbes is probably the best at when it can still move things around it can still give you a good perjure. That's what hey, but it's really better at putting substance in your body because it does you're taking a substance in you and it's helping you replenish and rebuild and so when you go to see a practitioner, I mean, that's the difference between so I guess Watching watching a podcast or would look at trying to do it yourself on Google or something like that that a practitioner is going to be able to understand where you are in the spectrum of things. Like do you just need a little bit of a shift? Do you need a bit of a purge? Do you need like just substance put in you to help you rebuild yourself? And if you've watched our other videos, I've done like talk about five elements wood fire earth metal water and I would say this more relates to like the wood element of thought of life in a way, right? So like because what is about purpose? Said about doing new things and creativity and Springtime and the five elements cycle kind of lets us understand that like nothing nothing staying the same at any like you have five you have four seasons in a year. If you follow the Chinese way, they would say Five Seasons, but that's another video. It's that but the idea that okay. Nothing stays the same that's that's that's something to be thankful for I guess is that if you're going through a bad time nothing's going to stay in that you can It stay like that forever. It's there will be a change coming and even if you're in a good a good citizen of life, if you don't do the right things, if you neglect to do the right things you'll end up coming to a detriment. Yeah, so I don't want to get into another project. I think with a different ramble, but the other thing you mentioned I think is really important. I like to talk about that a bit more. It was the mystery right because I think again Western Society I was going to say communist Ed. Yeah bizarre that capitalism has kind of pushed us into this thing of like they have to know everything we have to know how and that I think that's one thing is why maybe in that in that pursuit of knowing and that knowledge and needing to know when scientific validation for things we because we couldn't understand there's lots of things now. We're okay so scientific understanding I'm not saying we throw that away, but there's things like you mentioned meditation that's having a massive Resurgence now, Mindfulness as well one is because our modern technology allows us to study the effects of it and so we can prove it and we can say oh look, like I'm they've even done studies with put people in an MRI machine and make them look at trees. They even looking at Dre's is you know, I say that like, it's like it confirms what we should why don't we one is why don't we just trust this ancient knowledge. We need more. We need an MRI machine to kind of confirm it now it is nice to have that confirmation on to know that but at the same time that pursuit of knowing Everything it's like you mentioned before about being a child. That wonder what do you think about that? Like how that's how do you think about how that's been lost to think? It's your well that's a very dear topic to me actually because I really love being a child and I remember being like three or four and crying and my birthday and I'm Sid way crying and I said, I don't want to be a year older. I like saying the same age. My mom said that's okay. Look at your father some men never grow up. And so but there is number that is but so to me, there's something extremely yeah precious about childhood and about imagination and as I grew up and I continue to like to imagine things. I personally found that I had to limit that and to restrict that and to stop the sense of play and Imagination because then suddenly I had to conform to education to you to wearing a uniform to standing in line to doing learning how to do division and learning how to spell my name when really I just wanted to The playing in a world of dinosaurs in these types of things and so that which I consider to be my authentic nature and that sort of imagine it and living in that imaginary realm was I guess in a sense deprived from me and I had to conform to what Society deems giving your child and thinking this is being deprived from me or is it something you look back on now and think know something I look back on now, but I can I still can feel this inside. Ation of what that meant for me at the time and so that topic of childhood and maintaining that in a sense of child is one of my biggest passions in life. So how many people do that people that are watching this now and I thinking yeah, that's me. I feel like they feel very disconnected from that sense. What would you suggest what's worked for you to reconnect with our well what's worked with me might not work for everybody because it took me a very long journey, but basically for me. It's just a lot of self-exploration and lots of the way it manifested in. My life was through traveling through lots of different countries for meeting all the different people through very strange and outlandish experiences, and it was just a very I put a lot of intense effort into my own image and he said and I was living in isolated places and that in the Amazon and in places like this and so Eventually over time I came to this sort of. Experience of myself and of life, but also managed to see that kind of this Center. I'm gonna ask you another question. How do you okay? So that's its I think that's amazing that you've done that and if like you don't have to necessarily spending 11 years journey to do that was 11 years ago about nine years, so you don't necessarily have to spend a massive amount of time doing it and you can I think you did people should do what they want. They can like. Yeah that maybe the ten minutes in the clouds. It's better than nothing at all. Right, but what about coming back to society? Right? It seems like you have you know, like you've been in school what so now for like three years and you have to conform in a way like have to get money and and live and do you find that now? Yeah. Okay. Yes. You went on one hand, you're studying your your passion and your following the Park but do you find that there's a conflict there at times but I think more than anything going to agus to one extreme allowed me to then come back to an equilibrium so that when I come back into this this the society which I used to previously reject I can do it more willingly and I can sort of see what's it doing. Okay, what do you do now? Let's say a couple of Years, you haven't been living in the Amazon or anything like that have you know that you're slipping away from that childlike wonder and the Mystery what can people do in their day-to-day life? That would help them reconnect with that. Do you just imagine yourself back in the Amazon? Like what? No, I personally I find huge benefit in Yes, I meditate a couple of times a day. How long would you meditate for just about an hour a day like this when you just one block or in one block? Yeah, but that I've done quite a few quite a lot of meditation. So but even if it was five minutes or something like that, but that want to get started in meditation, but never done it before what would they do if they get involved? Well, a lot of people I think they just use Guided meditation or something like that you can download but also the way I Learned was through these the called vipassana VIP Asin a courses and they're all around the world, which is excellent. So no matter essentially what content here on and so they attend a courses, but therefore if you really want to learn because they attend a course is and you meditate 10 hours a day. Wow. It's in silence. You're not allowed to talk to anyone. But yeah. They give you food, they give you board everything and they give you the teaching and so you can do these courses. So I've done it does anyone so wait on day one and I already yeah. Well I was when I was living in Venezuela, I was assisting so I was like, I'm volunteering to work for the cause and I'm the yeah II morning someone came up to me and he said no, this is not my bag. I'm leaving it in anymore. So that's not for everyone. It's a good discipline though. I think it's it's good to try new experiences. Like you said and be open. I think one of the things with the mystery is like trying to get away from I have to know everything about this exactly just can some things just just can something's just be mystical and I think the other one that I want to mention for people is like just there's such a pressure on people to use social media and to be and when you when you are actively a part of social media use And to give away a lot of the mystery so I might go to a barbecue with friends and family and I know what's been going on everything. There's nothing to talk about in a way. I mean on one hand, it's good because you feel connected. So I'm not it's another conundrum. There's lots of conundrums in life, you know, you feel connected because you're saying I've had a baby you've done this you've had this blah blah blah, but on the other hand, there's no surprise. There's no mystery. I mean there might be maybe people don't put everything there, but I know some people it seems like You'd be surprised if there was anything else to talk about that they haven't provides exactly. Yeah, so, you know what type of pants they're wearing what size they are what the new shoes that they've got troubles that have happened and good things or bad things. I just think it's nice to have that mystery about people. It's absolutely something to all there's something I want to get to like. There's something about you. I want to know more I want to kind of and I think yeah, it's a conundrum for me as a person that runs. Several businesses like you want to you need to put stuff out there because you want people to purchase your product or look at, you know, watch other watch the video subscribe to the channel that kind of stuff but it but you don't want to give everything away and I think even in your business, you don't give everything away or once obviously because you need to keep people coming back to get more and more and that's what like we are attracted to that mystery want to know if I told a half a story now people be angry because they want to know the ending. Where's the end of that story? Yeah, and I think that childlike mystery is something that we need to get back in touch with more and more right just happening. Absolutely when I something that really struck me when I was first in the jungle in the Amazon was the profound mystery of the place because like you say, we live in a society where we think we know about everything and we can very deep in very minor detail explain the material world. We can't really say who we are why we're here and we don't really understand the inner dynamics of our self and of life and but living in this world we tend to think that there is no sort of magic or anything like that or mystery. So I remember being in the jungle and there it's just permeated by mystery because people talk to you completely seriously about what we would deem sort of mythical beings and and Situations that come and so whether it be the pink dolphins are the of the rivers that can turn into human beings and how their Uncle drowned because they were led into the water by one of these mythical one of these Dolphins. It turned into a human being and laid them in there or these enormous snakes and he's on this limp like spirits that people communicate with and things like that. And so and they talk about it in such a serious way that you can't help but believe them and then I So they had some sort of mind opening experiences of my own in relation to these types of things. And so it just showed me that one year in the heart of Nature. And in a sense there you're just surrounded by Jungle by trees by water and human beings no longer have this central place where they're surrounded by all of their own Creations their buildings and and you're in the bosom of the mystery and it's permeates through and you no longer a shore. What life is and you kind of lose your solid footing a little bit and it's interesting too because then when we that's an external level, but I personally think that we ourselves are very much like that once we get through initial to and this is my meditation is so great because when we dedicate ourselves to look inside and connect with what we really are, we start to move through the very structured sort of cities of our mind and our thoughts and our belief. And then when we get into that sort of more unconscious level we find that actually wear that mysterious jungle that is full of darkness and strange creatures and all these things. And so that mystery the most profound mystery lies within us but most of the time were dedicated to the outside world and so we're not actually in tuning ourselves to do that. Yeah get to that. He's like a drain exactly and I can't get rid of the dreamer. They're just like, oh they might have a strainer occurs. If you talk to my psychologist, they're like well, that means something that's your subconscious trying to tell you something and they end. Yeah, we just ignore these signals from inside even internally body signals. We just fob off as I will I must have eaten something bad. That's why I feel that feeling like physical feelings can happen to our body because our mind in Chinese medicine with the calipers are sharing is trying to contact with us and trying to let us know and we don't really You that much attention to it just dismiss those things exactly and the dream is a really good point because a dream like we connect with that sort of magical aspect of ourselves every single day every night when we go to sleep and yet if we have a profound experience in that then we'll over the side and say, oh it's just a dream and yet when we are experiencing it can actually see more real than when then when in Waking Life. Yeah, but can be very lucky Leaf you with a very lingering feeling like you're not Not you can't articulate it can't verbalize it properly but you've just got this feeling that you can't let go or something's something's different. And then you think oh, that's just a Java and you fob it off and get on with it get on with the day. Yeah, I think because it's comes back to society what Society values again money like you can't really make money out of you know, some of these things that you tweet that and then just in society before things office or they're not important. Yeah, but they are important to us and I think it's been Valuable having this conversation having this chat. And is there anything else you want to talk about? No, I think I just personally like as we've established. I'm not so experienced in practicing anything but just through my own experiences and through my own connections with life. I've come to realize that this what is I guess symbolized by Ling is such a profound form of healing and and in a large part requires the act of the individual so rather than generally we think when we're sick, then we can go to the doctor and they're going to treat us but when it comes to this type of healing it's a participatory thing so we can go I guess and we can get these treatments. But if we're not I guess putting our own work into it and I and our own intention into discovering this mystery of ourselves and the magic of life on Earth. Creative purpose then. I don't know if we'll ever really get there. Yeah, we only get so far you get to visit what and that's where I see patients. Just keep have to keep coming in for treatment and I don't turn those people away. But at the same time as a practitioner believe it or not. We don't want to have to keep coming in. We want you to get better and be discharged and be be on your way at some point, but it's like yeah, there's something so I can Chinese medicine I think of the cause of disease and one of those causes of diseases lifestyle. So and one of the lifestyle causes of disease is like like it is it should be probably better articulated as this like I think this purpose the sling should be part of it, but when just two diagnoses wipe it but when the Communists came in to put their flavor onto Chinese medicine so around the 1950s when China most likely what happened with Chinese medicine is all the different kinds of systems of Chinese medicine. What kind of accumulated into one traditional Chinese medicine and that's what they made they gave did a lot of formalization of things and one of the things they said in the in the stock standard. These are the causes of disease one was work goons or right so work as in like I think that well when I first learned it in back in as a seventeen-year-old I was like, oh, yeah that makes total sense here. Your work is your purpose right? And it is it is in a way, but I can see that now it's probably also part of a communist thing. You're bluffing are your work your work is your purpose and you will make it your phone because we gave you that job, but there is that your work as in what you do you could take that to me like what you do and what you do in your day-to-day life really like it's what you do in your day-to-day life that if you can structure your life towards that be more purposeful and that being more what you are designed to do. You will feel more happiness and a great resource that I give my patients is With each from a psychologist called Martin Seligman, he formulated the happiness movement or the happiness kind of psychology and he talks about discovering like your strengths and then looking at your strength. So for people that are watching this that are like at a level of like you feel like you're at Rock Bottom you feel like you're so depressed. You don't feel like there's any inkling of any purpose there. That would be a very good place to start is you can go on to I'll put the link below. It's called VI a strengths. It's a free thing. I'm not affiliated. Or anything with them or like in this isn't a paper ocean. It's just a resource that I use a lot and you can do this test for free and you can find out what your strengths are and then you can start from there and you can start to utilize the things that make like give you a sense of connection with what you're meant to be connecting with so like Fritz it's a might be if it's appreciation of beauty and then the way to go about it would be every day pick. Something a different way you could utilize appreciation of beauty. So it might be lying on the ground and looking up at the clouds. It might be going outside and finding some beautiful flowers or trees or something or appreciating Beauty even going around your own house and finding five beautiful things. Whereas if that's not a strength for you. You might have been listening back before your very eyes never lie down and look at the clouds like that sounds like a waste of time because there might be something else that you're more wide for and that would be your link. That would be your purpose right? Absolutely. Your Shaman dancing in to produce the rain, right? So not everyone's wide exactly the same and even Chinese medicine kind of recognizes that in other ways. So fantastic. It's been such a great talk. I'm something so happy to do this. Yeah, and so will put all the links Below in the description in the description. So if you want to find out any more information about what we've been talking about, and so thank you so much Glenn for being on the podcast and thank you very much for having me. All right. So if you're not a subscriber already and you like this content and make sure you click the Subscribe button below. The other things you can do is if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify, then you can go on there and leave a review that would really help to grow the channel. We've yeah, so if you really like this content and you want to see more of it, make sure you click the like and the Subscribe button you can share the videos with your friends and family, and I hope it's been useful and helpful to you and we look forward to well. I look forward to seeing you again soon and we might have gone back on to talk about. Or stuff because he's a wealth of knowledge and even though like actually I know some people with four degrees that can't articulate as good as you can let's fix your light and so it's not about having a degree or having a being a practitioner that's for qualified only thing I wanted to to talk today because you've got a wealth of knowledge and it's just that also that journey is important and so you I mean you could get tons of degrees. But if you didn't put that that nine years even you wouldn't be the same person, right? Absolutely. Yeah, and yeah if I could just share one last night. Yeah, it'd be that I myself I went to sort of to one extreme which is just in a sense just to pursue the mental the psychic the spiritual and all these types of things and But ultimately it was the biggest lesson was that true if you insist spirituality spirituality is to Bring your findings of the internal into the external so that you actually participate in the greater whole of humanity and of of the earth Community, I guess you could say and so in a sense that there's a huge value and benefit saying staying in a cave and meditating say and being a complete ascetic. But especially in this time of life. What we really need is for people to then share that Once the community and to help other people so in a sense, it's that moving towards a greater sense of wholeness not just within oneself but within the external so then that sort of balances the called the ascending and descending or internally external individual with the collective. And so that was a big lesson for me was that to return to the body and this is such a blessing of Chinese medicine to that all of this is found in the body and to come to a tangible sense of Of that magic rather than the Escape is tendency to just yeah, that's a big lost in my mind. Yeah Skype is we can have another conversation about that. Yeah. I know that quite well, I mean, I think that's why people do the things that they do like they get we get trapped in these habits of doing stuff to escape the fact that we don't have a purpose. I really like on and off, you know, Russell Brand's stuff online. He's got he's got heaps of he's got this under the skin podcast as well. And so a couple of other just just--hey just--hey stuff that he's been doing recently. It's very much in touch with that and something you mentioned before we started which we never talked about was like why you think this is important now or why it's popular now is because there's is it because it's just this massive need for it now, I think yeah, I think this is personally I find it's really a fascinating thing. I think if we look back saying the Chinese medical text most probably you're not going to find any Option to connect with link because as we spoke about that was sort of a given that we're living. It's like if you can imagine a fish swimming in water, they're swimming already within that water but since the time of the Enlightenment and the sort of disenchantment of the cosmos, we all of that has been condensed within us and now we look out in a material world in which there is no magic and we've also lost that sort of a sense of purpose which is great because it's made us more individuals or autonomous beings, but I think for the Evolution of our planet if we are to survive with all the current prices in that we need to connect with nature itself. Not just on a material Level with Statistics and all these things which are hugely important but connect with it on an internal level and that involves like connecting with with what sling in a sense represents. So I was thinking about that the other day that although you probably won't find it as a medicinal remedy. In the past it perhaps could be yeah in the presence of a prescribed prescribed in the sense to the whole of humanity so that we can get through the current predicament that were in. Yeah. Yeah, and so that we can work with nature just as the shamans are working with nature to do the creative act and be in sync with the movements of nature with the rain so that we can achieve in ourselves to Nature not just on an external level of intellectual knowledge. Actually in a deep level of finding the meaning within life. Yeah, so that we can a tune ourselves to the cosmos in that sense that we can live as one with. I think it's also like because of Technology, it's allowed us not to be at the mercy of nature em anymore. And so like let's say, you know because of electricity for one, we don't have to, you know, Turn the Lights we can have the lights on all night and be up all night if we want whereas if you didn't have electricity You wouldn't be able to do all the things you can do. So we were at one point. We were at the mercy and we've gone to this point if I owe now, we can control nature in a way that we can we can have ultimate control or do like air conditioning right? You don't have to go. Oh, it's so hot and that's a whole nother thing. I did a podcast episode just me talking the a few weeks ago on that on that topic that it says you got to find the where you fit in that spectrum of being at the mercy of Nature and controlling that you're in if you could if you Control it to the point where you don't respect it anymore. You're not in tune with it anymore because you're like right I own this far as I'm going to cut down all these trees to make a hundred tables and sell them whatever you going to do with it. Like that's that's the one end of the spectrum versus the other end of this spectrum of you know, not having not having a sore big enough meal big enough to do that, which is what we had before we had. You know, we just didn't have the technology to destroy nature as we do now, but there's got to be a balance there right somewhere in between there. Yeah, like an equilibrium between the two and I think yeah and I think it's that same balance of connecting the inner with the external because and the the move towards, you know, living in physical reality with the living in sort of a more intangible reality so that all of these things need to be combined and brought into balance and like you said now that there's such a movement towards Meditating or seeking out Chinese medicine and all these things seems to be a sign that human beings are searching for this. What what has been lost. Yeah. And so yeah, it's good. It starts with the searching. So thank if in fact thanks for thanks for searching and finding us here. And so I'm probably just going to leave it there today. But yeah, we will have another chat about this stuff. So so it's so interesting and if you like this content, you've got other questions or you'd like Learn to ask at see your other questions. Why don't you put them in the comments below and we'll have him back on again, and we'll chat about your other questions about your existential being and your life purpose and Wing. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, no problem. It's my pleasure and we look forward to seeing you again on the next episode.
Today’s guest is Glenn Bowman, a student and scholar of Chinese Medicine. First we talk about his journey into Chinese medicine and his 9 year journey toward finding greater meaning in life, connection and exactly what we are discussing today Ling. Glenn shares his wealth of knowledge about the importance of meditation from his own life experience and now as a student of Acupuncture. I realise this is alot longer than our regular content. Please grab a coffee or a tea and enjoy the converstation. . While Marie may answer your questions, all answers are not of a professional consultation level - it is impossible to check your pulse through the internet, hence Chinese medicine cannot be practiced properly through the internet. If you have any undiagnosed symptoms, or changes in your health condition The Chinese Medicine Podcast urges you to see your own doctor, GP, Chinese medicine practitioner, acupuncturist or other health professional as appropriate. If it is an emergency call 000 in Australia. If you are unsure if this advice is appropriate for your individual situation ask your own practitioner before applying any diet or lifestyle techniques /concepts discussed in this video. Marie Hopkinson and The Chinese Medicine Podcast wishes you the best of health and improvement in your own health journey. 