What’s The Point?
A quick Google search informs me that there are more than 15 million podcast episodes out there on the net. That’s a lot! Surely any topic you might be even faintly interested in must already have manifested several podcasts?
So, my question to myself is: “Why on earth should I start yet another podcast?” … Good question!
I know I certainly could start a podcast … but the more important question is: “Should I start another podcast?”
Whenever I come across the “should question” I recall a teaching I received from a young but very wise teacher – my son Mark at age 4. I was excited for us to watch together our first rugby game on television. Rugby has a special significance for me. As an under-sized 11 years-old kid, the rugby field was the one stage where I could earn the respect of my peers. A team player, courageous, self-sacrificing, and … a hero who could score the winning try.
After several days of excited buildup (on my part), Mark and I sat down to watch the game – a international test match between England and Wales.
Mark asked me: “Dad, what is the point of this game?”
I answered: “To get the ball over the try line.”
Mark: “And what is the point of that?”
Me: “To score points.”
Mark: “And what is the point of that?”
Me: “To score more points than the other side, and win the gain.”
Mark: “And what is the point of winning the game?”
You get the idea. The fact is that I had never really asked myself the question: “Why was I playing rugby. Breaking bones (literally)! … Mark motivated me to ask myself the question. The answer provided a deep insight into what was to become my life as a “modern healer”. As an under-sized 11 years-old kid, the rugby field was the one place I could earn the respect of my peers, and myself. That team player, courageous, self-sacrificing, dependable, and … a hero..
So, the answer I give Mark is the same one I give myself. Why we do things is more important than how we do them. The old saying: “It is not about winning or losing or winning the game. But how you play the game that matters” rings true.
I have spent more than forty years practicing modern medicine. I have trained and worked in some of the world’s finest medical centers. Published articles, edited textbooks, lectured at international conferences, obtained grants, and taught students, residents, fellows and faculty. And yes, provided medical care to tens of thousands of patients who came to me seeking some relief from their suffering. However, other than granting me an “heroic identity”, the tradition of allopathic medicine has failed to address the deeper questions that define my work as a healer. I have inhabited a professional world drowning facts, but starved for meaning.
The modern healer has been defined by our intellectual prowess and the scientific materialism that has spawned technologies that have medical marvels. However, we have now midwifed a technology that can move into a future beyond our own imagining. Our unbridled application of the scientific method has spawned an intellectual prodigy that now challenges our very understanding of who we are, and who we will become.
We are living on the razor’s edge of our evolutionary impulse that has may have run its course.
As Sherwin Nuland stated in a New York Times article: “There is genius enough in this brave new world of medicine. But what about the wisdom to contain it?”
So, the point of this podcast is to provide a safe space where we can explore the questions, and not simply the answers. Questions that define who we are, and not what we know. Questions that open our imagination beyond the cold horizon of our scientific materialism. Questions that open us into deeper and wider connections with ourselves, and the community of sentient beings who inhabit this remarkable planet.
Perhaps the most point for starting The Healers Council is that we are all pilgrims on this path we call life. The way of the hero has run its course. We are all in this together. No one has a monopoly on truth, and no one will be allowed to “capture the flag”. The time has come for us to gather in Council to share our experiences along the path – the Rainbow Path to Beauty.
We will be meeting remarkable healers who will inspire, surprise, and hopefully even confuse us. Although the particulars of their healing practices will be diverse, their intentions will be all be aligned. Compassion, their intention for the flourishing of self and others will be north star.
Mark recently became a father! His beautiful and bouncy little boy Owen has opened his heart to a new experience of who he is, and our place in this universe we call life. Perhaps little Owen has finally answered the question Mark challenged me with so many years ago. The point of all of it is that we are are all own this journey together bound together with an unshakable confidence in one another and trusting that we will all get across the finish line together, leaving no one behind.
“Gone, gone, gone way beyond until the last reaches the shore”
Om gate, gate, paragate, paramsagate, bodhi sowa
Here are just some of the questions will be exploring:
- What is the nature of healing?
- What is a healer?
- How do we heal?
- What is disease?
- What is the nature of suffering?
- What are the challenges facing a twenty-first century healer?
- How do we flourish as healers?
- How do we support our personal and spiritual development?
- What can we learn from one another and our healing traditions?
- How can we support one another?
- How can we foster the emergence of a more compassionate world community?