I know I'm a "living system" because . . .
If a living system is autopoietic by definition, then I am in no doubt a living system. I am not the same person today as I will be in a few hours, days, or years. My body's cells are constantly dying, and new cells are being created. If I did not have the ability to maintain my homeostatic balance, I would not live. It can be as simple as a wound healing or as complicated as a long recovery from a chronic illness. Regardless, as long as I am 'living', my body will continue to figure out a way to stay alive. And once I am no longer a living system, this action of continually becoming will cease.
Sondra Barrett
In traditional Chinese medicine, as well as other traditional forms of medicine, herbs and foods are considered to have different qualities. These qualities can be broken down into temperature, strength, and much more. In Ayurvedic medicine there are 20 gunas, or qualities, which make up 10 pairs of opposites. For example, mustard seed is hot, pungent (or acrid), light and dry. I have always involuntarily visualized herbs and foods as I've learned as looking a certain way as they act in the body. For instance, I imagine mustard seed as a somewhat forceful dispersion of bright yellow energy breaking up some congealed substance in the body like phlegm or joint swelling. It sure is fascinating that it turns out that the energetic action of a substance may indeed have a visual cellular image concurrent with said action. Sondra Barrett's photograph's demonstrate this amazing similarity. From Miller's article, Barrett says that "things look like what they do." I would love for Barrett to photograph the many herbs we use in Chinese medicine. Perhaps it would help us understand their mechanisms of action in a more tangible way.
If a living system is autopoietic by definition, then I am in no doubt a living system. I am not the same person today as I will be in a few hours, days, or years. My body's cells are constantly dying, and new cells are being created. If I did not have the ability to maintain my homeostatic balance, I would not live. It can be as simple as a wound healing or as complicated as a long recovery from a chronic illness. Regardless, as long as I am 'living', my body will continue to figure out a way to stay alive. And once I am no longer a living system, this action of continually becoming will cease.
Sondra Barrett
In traditional Chinese medicine, as well as other traditional forms of medicine, herbs and foods are considered to have different qualities. These qualities can be broken down into temperature, strength, and much more. In Ayurvedic medicine there are 20 gunas, or qualities, which make up 10 pairs of opposites. For example, mustard seed is hot, pungent (or acrid), light and dry. I have always involuntarily visualized herbs and foods as I've learned as looking a certain way as they act in the body. For instance, I imagine mustard seed as a somewhat forceful dispersion of bright yellow energy breaking up some congealed substance in the body like phlegm or joint swelling. It sure is fascinating that it turns out that the energetic action of a substance may indeed have a visual cellular image concurrent with said action. Sondra Barrett's photograph's demonstrate this amazing similarity. From Miller's article, Barrett says that "things look like what they do." I would love for Barrett to photograph the many herbs we use in Chinese medicine. Perhaps it would help us understand their mechanisms of action in a more tangible way.
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