My interest in Acupuncture and holistic healing came as a revelation in a meditation practice.
At that time, I was living in a small village in the Andes mountains, about ninety minutes from Bogota, the capital of Colombia. That was the year 1985. I had returned from India, after staying as a resident sannyasin (renunciate) at the Satyananda Yoga ashram. A peasant family had provided me with a small room, where I was attempting to practice meditation and yogic energy techniques, a venture that eventually proved too demanding for my ability at the time. In exchange for boarding and food, I agreed to serve as a running coach for the kids and help them with their schoolwork.
I tried meditating for about an hour in the morning and at night. Pretty soon, I realized that meditation was hard work. After meditation, I walked to a nearby outdoor, semi-covered room, to get a shower. I still remember the icy, cold water coming out of a hose that served as the shower head. After my morning meditation session, I had to walk about 2 miles to another family to get breakfast. Then, I had the rest of the day free, not sure what to do with it. At the end of the day, no matter where you go, you have to deal with your own energy and mind.
The mother of one of the kids I was coaching, where they provided me breakfast, had advanced rheumatoid arthritis and was confined to a wheelchair. I started treating her, using very basic techniques of yoga therapy I had learned at the yoga ashram in India. Every morning, I guided her through a session of progressive relaxation, known as yoga nidra, and then proceeded to massage her spine. Also, I walked to the surrounding hills and collected mud, then dried it out, strained it, made it into a fine paste, and placed it on the affected joints.
Little by little, over the course of four months, she gained better mobility and the inflammation in her joints started to go down. After about six months, she was able to stand up and walked while being assisted. I think her improvement had more to do with the fact that she developed faith in what I was doing, than the actual therapy I was providing her. In any case, news about her improvement spread throughout the small mountain community.
After that event, people from the surrounding area started to come to my small quarters, looking for relief from their various chronic health issues. I really didn’t know how to support them. Two things happened during this period that changed the course of my quest. First, I realized I genuinely wanted to be able to assists people with their suffering and health concerns, and second that I needed to study and prepare myself adequately.
While on that frame of mind and focusing on what the next step would be on my journey, one night I sat down for my meditation session. I followed my usual kriya yoga breathing technique for a few minutes and managed to somehow quiet down my mind. Suddenly, in a flash, the word ‘Acupuncture’ appeared in front of my closed eyes. Literally, it was like if I was reading it in a book in front of me. At that moment, I knew that was what I wanted to learn.
The very next day, I left the village and went back to Bogota. I visited a bookstore and found a book on acupuncture written by Dr. Sussman, an Argentinian medical doctor that had studied the traditional teachings of acupuncture in China, before the Cultural revolution. Excited, I looked over the book pages, and remember I didn’t understand much about the content, but I loved it. I said to myself, this is exactly what I want to learn.
The following day, I called my brother Carlos, who was with my family living in Miami, and asked him to send me information about Acupuncture and Chinese medicine programs in the States. Three months later, I enrolled in the Acupuncture and Chinese medicine program at the Acupuncture and Massage College in Miami, Florida.
While studying Chinese medicine and especially the system of the acupuncture energy channels or meridians, I understood more clearly how the yoga techniques I was exposed at the ashram worked, and had the realization of the connection between the system of energy channels and vital energy points and the practices of yoga. At the yoga ashram they will show you the various practices, but there was not much explanation. The focus was on a life style and the practices had to be lived and realized through personal experience. Later on, I will synthesize these two millenary mind-body disciplines along with modern bioenergy therapies into an integrated system of holistic healing.
My interest in health and holistic healing grew up from my experiences in Yoga, Qigong, and meditation. The message of Acupuncture and Chinese medicine is that the body has the innate capacity for self-healing if provided with the proper conditions.
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