457 Apprentice to Curiosity • Arnie Lade

Points don’t really have a number, they have a name. They are not just a function, they embody characteristics and relationships.

In this episode I get to sit for a conversation with Arnie Lade. He’s the author of a book I spent a lot of time with in the library when I was in acupuncture school. Acupuncture Points: Images and Functions wasn’t a book I read to pass exams, it was one I read to get a feeling for points.

We explore how the work of Moshe Feldenkrais has influenced his work. And how both learning and healing often enough requires an element of unlearning. How ‘not-knowing’ is the beginning of fruitful inquiry. That even good diagnostic models can become a box if you cling too tightly.

One of the things we touch on that is not often discussed in our trade is the later years of a career and what it’s like to step away from a lifetime of practice. I used to hold a romantic notion of practicing until the end of my days. I'm glad there are people like Arnie a few steps ahead to point out the landscape that I’ve imagined, but not accurately mapped.

Finally, we touch on his latest book Zen and the Mystic Impulse, it’s a reflection on the time spent with his teacher, his own experience of practice, and the intimacy of not-knowing. Which, curiously enough, is the polar opposite of this first book I read all those years ago on the intimacy of ‘knowing’ a point, instead of relying on memorized function.