As I entered the waiting room and called her name, I was shocked by the person who stood up to greet me. She couldn’t be much beyond my thirty odd years of age. Laura* was tall, beautiful and impeccably dressed. She beamed a welcoming smile like she was seeing an old friend despite the association she had with acupuncture, an adjunct therapy as she underwent chemotherapy and radiation for one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer. Immediately upon greeting her she spoke of how acupuncture ‘was the thing that got her through the chemotherapy and radiation treatments.’ Both believers and skeptics of acupuncture alike can easily equate tremendous value to any practice that provides a person with the internal strength to face life’s greatest obstacles, equivalent in nature to Buddhist chanting of Nam-Myo-Renge-Kyo to fortify one’s resolve.
As she laid the on the table with needles emerging across the outline of her body, a needle was inserted in the mid-abdominal region, a point that influences the qi, or energy, of the entire body, and she burst into uncontrollable tears. Immediately, the apologies began to flow from her mouth, “I am so sorry. I don’t know why this is happening. It is so weird.” In the chanting of Nam-Myo-Renge-Kyo in Nichrien Buddhism, the word renge symbolizes the lotus flower, representing the simultaneity of cause and effect. With every cause, whether it is created by our thoughts, words or actions, it creates an effect that reverberates throughout the deepest levels of life. No apology necessary Laura. Just like the natural process of cause and effect that occurs throughout life, this process naturally occurs within the human body. Sometimes we keep a tight lock on the inner effects created by our thoughts and experiences. And then sometimes the conditions are just right for us to release them.
*All patients’ names have been changed.
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