Part 2
The second part of the story of my experience with traditional Chinese doctor and meditation expert Amy Tseng Ballon
After my first encounter with Amy and Bruce I changed my diet for six months and strengthened my body enough so that I could receive treatment from her. I had been bitten by a Brown Recluse spider on a channel and very near an important acupuncture point. I had received western treatment for this infection but I had side effects that made my case complicated.
When she took my pulse this time it started out just like before but then my pulse felt to me like it did a drum roll when she touched my wrist and Amy cried "Aha!" Now she really became interested in my case. She said I had a rare syndrome that she had only seen once before. Now she felt sure that I had been sent to her so she could ”save me” as she put it. Amy told me I would get worse before I got better and I had to promise not to stop in the middle of the treatment. She started giving me needles everyday and she got a note book and kept detailed records of my treatment. This went on for the next year. I went to her house each afternoon and was immersed in the culture, the food, the language, and the medicine.
Amy made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone else I was getting treatment during the 3/4 of a year that I went to her house almost everyday. She told me it was her destiny to treat me. She said to me "If I treat you I will help a lot of people I will never meet.”
[From that day in 1984 I have tried to live up to this by helping people help themselves with Amy’s basic information on diet and lifestyle.]
She said it was not her destiny to treat other people and not to bring anyone to her house. She would take my pulse and then get the needles out of the tin they were stored in. I had two sets of needles just for me. One went to the hospital each day with Bruce to be sterilized; the other set was used on me. These were the old fashioned Chinese needles which are bigger than the Japanese made disposable needles acupuncturists use now. The more they were used the duller the tips became and the more painful the treatment became. Some days after treatment all I could do was go home and sleep.
After I had gotten needles everyday for three weeks on the same points over and over they had multicolored bruises over them and I felt like a pin cushion. I had to talk myself into going back for each treatment. Finally one day I told Amy I didn’t think I could stand it again today. She looked at me in a funny way and said, “Finally! I have been waiting for this for some time. You some kinda tough guy huh?” We laughed and laughed. I wasn’t tough, just ignorant! After this she would take my pulse every day and give me needles most days, but not always.
One weekend I went to Washington DC with Amy and Bruce and we got back late so I slept on the couch at their house. That night I dreamed about a past life as a Chinese man and heard Chinese spoken in my dreams. When I told Amy about this dream the next morning over shi fan and tea she didn’t seem surprised. She told me as a matter of fact that I was remembering my past life.
That morning Amy said she had a special treatment for me. I remember my response was "Oh no!" because the needles had been so painful. Amy laughed at me and assured me that it was "first class entertainment" and wouldn't hurt. She did acupressure to my back and neck. I was a massage therapist at the time but I had never experienced anything like what she did.
Amy did this wonderful technique where she pushed the energy gently up with her thumbs and it almost felt like liquid. Using the HuaT’o special points she pushed the energy up and out of any stuck points on the spine. Later she marked the points of Du Mai and some Bladder channel points on my back with a felt tipped pen. [This was when I really began to try to learn her point location information and style of acupressure and energy work.]
Eventually Amy asked to see what I had been taught about acupressure points in martial arts. I demonstrated on her 12 year old son Steve some basic points on the arms. I only knew a few points and what l knew about them was how to grab and hit them. She watched and told me that what I had been taught was very good location, or “spotting,” and seizing skills. She also noted that it was first level and none of the points were lethal, they were only used to weaken an opponent's arm and control a violent person. Then she said she would agree to teach me the first level of positive or healing knowledge using non-lethal points. First she frowned and gave me a “small speech” which I have never forgotten. She said, "We are not here to hurt anyone, and you must never use any of this information for the wrong reasons. We are here to make this a better planet for everyone to live on!" She said I had a big heart and this was why she agreed to teach me some of what she knew.
She spoke to me about the chi liang, the spirit of benevolence, and how this was the basis of Chinese medicine and all higher gung fu. This chi glowed in a person’s aura and was strengthened by being of service to mankind. The reason the ancient holy men were said to glow was because everything they did was in service to others. She talked about how the ancient Chinese traditions of the goddess such as Tou mu, the goddess of the North Star in ancient times, evolved into the Buddhist Bodhisattva Kuan Yin pusa and became the patron saint of Chinese medicine. Kuan Yin vowed to be the last to ascend to heaven and this is the pledge of the traditional doctor as well. There is a statue of Kuan Yin in Amy and Bruce’s house today.
To be continued
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