聊聊信仰和文化

最近在哲学思辨讨论组里比较活跃：

说易经，有点难避开信仰这类话题。很容易自然地和其他的经对比分析。

是的，易经是中华先祖的生活经，从伏羲氏一画开天到她”建立”第一个人类”二进制”代码为特点的”天气预报站’（这个有点想像类比成分），创造”水”字…开始，咱祖先在漫长的时间里沉淀提炼出来的高级智慧逐渐从一横，两短横（有的是一撇，一撇一折…），携带着口头表述的发展，汇聚成书面的文字，并发展演化进步，成为我们现在在这里交流的汉语语言和文化，并和医学、天文学、哲学、社会学、农业学、文学….相互联系渗透影响和促进，成为一个易经文化系统。这个过程，是中国文化的发展史，社会进步史，也是世界一份极其珍贵的智慧发展科技史。说易经是中国文化的源头，与中国文字的这般多方位多角度齐头并进演化是一个问题的两个方面。而易经文化，重点是要通过生活提炼出我们生活的这个地球环境是如何决定和影响着人类的生存和发展。所以，围绕太阳，月亮，地球和人的研究是易经的主线，是人类生活生存能量的基本密码。

文化是什么？文化是天天渗透于我们的生活细节但没法用语言简单描述的东西。有文化的社会，人们的信仰就是这个文化。我们的文化既然是围绕日月人地球展开，怎么体现在我们的点滴生活里？

“天啊！我忘了”
“老天爷，快下点雨吧”
“上天作证，我…”
… 这些不需要人教，每个说中文的中国人都会说！！！！都会说！我们口里的老天爷，来自祖先心里的天地人合一，这恰恰是所有中国人的文化，所有中国人的信仰。试问每个中国人：你有信仰吗？

在没有文化沉淀或自身文化沉淀过程中因为社会结构和分配方式的走向而受影响的社会里，信仰可能沦为控制人们思想的工具，比如基督教，伊斯兰教，佛教。为什么这么说？他们不是都提倡忏悔自省关爱互助吗？佛家修身心语：心如莲花，不再恨人；基督教认为上帝是监察人心的神。古印度瑜珈(Yoga)、中国的气功、西藏密宗、或是印地安人的信仰里都提到心轮的打开— 这些对爱和心的认知为什么说其实是控制思想的武器？得看背后的目的。为了某个目的，基督教宣扬人去世后可以升入天堂，佛教说人归西后能进入西方极乐世界，伊斯兰教宣扬阿拉会在人去世后赋予人新的生命。

 
中国人骨子里是寄希望于来生呢？还是这一生能向天再借500年？？

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Heaven Earth and Human in Unity

What is “天人合一”, the so-called unity of the heaven, earth, and human”?

The “天” sky here stands for nature and the universe. “人” people stand for us, the whole human being. “一” one, means unity. The word “合” has many meanings.

In modern society, “合” has the meanings of “combination”, “cooperation”, “reasonable”, “conforming”, and so on. So, what is the most ancient meaning of the word “合”? In the original ancient Chinese culture, “合” means that in the solar system, when a planet moves in line with the sun and the earth, and when the earth is in the position between the sun and the planet, it is called “combination –合”.

Although these four characters are directly saying the unity between humans and heaven, ancestors regarded the earth as part of heaven. So, when we are talking about the unity of humans and heaven, it actually means the unity among heaven, earth, and people.

In today’s society, as well as in the old centuries, the most hegemonic view in the world is that: human beings are the most unique life on earth with self-awareness and innovative thinking capability. The talent is given to humans to use, develop, and even rule, conquer and expand their living space, and to empower their power to control earth lives, not only animals and plants but also other human races on the earth that are not of their own kind. It is not difficult to assume that when people express these arguments that they take for granted, they are full of exciting, upward, divergent, blatant, and fiery energy. Thus, it would be very reasonable that some people may ask: Heaven is heaven, and human is human. How can heaven and humans be brought together as one? How can heaven and humans be in a united relationship?

We admit that modern humans are very smart and talented, and their ability to understand and apply things is far beyond the reach of the ancients in the barbaric era. Therefore, for modern humans, it is just like spending a little leisure and relaxation time after a meal to give ourselves a little time and space to read and understand why the ancients proposed the theory of the unity of nature and humans…

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Sun and Moon in the Unity of Human and Heaven

The ancients were not entangled with trivial matters every day like modern people, nor did they have so many entertainments and daily distractions. In addition to solving their survival problem, their time and energy can be used to observe, record, and study the changes and movements of the world to find the most effective way for humans to adapt to further development.

The wisdom of the ancients is unimaginable, and the results of the magical accumulation effects over time of their long-term achievements are amazing.

Without civilization written words, papers, neither talking about computers, telescopes, and without guaranteed three meals a day, even without a stable home, the ancients could accurately describe how the operation of solar system of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury, as well as the sun and moon impact on the earth’s human beings and the entire earth’s environment. Considering such circumstances, all the knowledge they left us is worthy of our serious and humble sitting at the desk, studying and thinking.

The ancients long discovered that the unique time period of the world is related to the specific position of the earth in the solar system, such as day and night, 24 solar terms, four seasons, and years.

Day and night are the cycles of the earth’s rotation.

A year is the period of the earth’s revolution around the sun.

A month is the period of the moon’s revolution around the earth.

The four seasons are because when the earth rotates and revolves around the sun, there is a rotation angle.

Behind these time rhythms of solar terms and four seasons is the displacement change of the solar energy radiation received by the earth, through day and night, and through the four seasons of a year. Therefore, the changes of the four seasons of heaven and earth have the characteristics of consistent movement, and the rhythm of human physiological functions also changes with the movement of the four seasons of heaven and earth.

Human body is said to have about 365 acupoints, while there are 365 days in a year.

Human body has 4 limbs, while there are 4 seasons in a year.

Human body has 12 meridians, 12 pairs of cranial nerves, while there are 12 months in a year, and 24 hours in a day for modern people, and there were 12 hours a day for our ancestors since their one hour was our two hours; and there are 24 solar terms in a year, 12 of them is about the earth’s rotation cycle and the other 12 of them are about the change processes of the earth’s energy absorption and radiation.

Human body has 7 orifices for the senses, while there are 7 days in a week…

People in the Middle of Heaven and Earth

Referring back to the above figure of a typical 3-Yao Hexagram, the unity between heaven, earth, and human, are well reflected on the human body through all these numerical studies related to time systems and geographic systems, and the sun and the moon are playing very important roles in all these systems.

“Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon” described the circadian rhythm, the 7-day rhythm, the seasonal rhythm, the annual rhythm, the 60-years rhythm of human physiology and pathology. And there is a very interesting point that animals and humans have pregnancy cycles multiples of 7 days:

• Chicken hatching eggs:  7×3 = 21 days
• Cat pregnancy:  7×9 = 63 days
• Rabbit pregnancy:  7×4 = 28 days
• Tiger pregnancy:  7×15 = 105 days
• Human pregnancy:  7×40 = 280 days

The ancient treatise stated that catching a cold, without treatment, as long as no complications, it can heal on its own in generally 7 days, otherwise extending to 7xn, 14 or 21 days, based on the body conditions and external conditions. They took the 7th day of a situation as a day for things to change into another complete situation. Does this have anything to do with the Six-Yao Hexagrams which defines the 7th stage of a situation as a new situation? Is it a coincidence that Christian Sunday is a rest day or an energy recovery day? Is it just a coincidence that both in the western and eastern cultures of human kind the 7^th day means the new start of a new situation?

But, how does this universal law of 7-day rhythm develop? It is developed by the interaction of the earth and the moon.

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar has 4×7=28 days per month. It reflects the 4 tides in a month. Human ancestors originated from the ocean, most of the human body is composed of water, so the 7-day rhythm of the human body can also be regarded as the tide rhythm.

Following the natural changes, everything has a tidal effect, but only water has the strongest tidal effect. An important way of the energy cycle on the earth, flourishing the whole world, is through the water cycle, that is, the sun’s irradiation, the transpiration of seawater, the transportation of clouds, the falling back of rain and snow, and the convergence of land, returning from the river to the sea.

From this, can we refer to water that can more strongly absorb natural energy? Do changes in the energy of nature also affect the earth mainly through the water’s acting on the earth? The answer should not be a complete no. But according to the “Yi Jing”, water has a wider descriptive meaning. It not only represents the water, but also represents the Yin energy that is carried by Kan.

In the middle of a Kan, there is the rising Yang energy… Read More

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Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon

Throughout the entire “Yi Jing”, four extremely important hexagrams reflect four phenomena in the natural world that play a decisive role in human life. These four Hexagrams are also the premise and basis for studying and analyzing all the other Three-Yao and Six-Yao Hexagrams.

In a brief description, these four phenomena are standing for the universe, the earth, the sun, and the moon.

1. Qian – The universe:

Image of “Qian”

It appears as an image of three lines, three Yang-Yao. It basically stands for the Yang energy for everything before it comes into being. In another explanation, the innate character, the destination of a thing. It symbolizes that all things are innately vigorous and have positive, upward, active, warm, and bright characteristics.

When mapping it to the universe, Qian also represents heaven, the sky. When we look up, the sky is always above us. When we get to the other side of the earth, or even into outer space, we still see the sky when we look up. The sky is always above us. From this original metaphor, Qian has the following extended meaning:

• When mapping it to human society, it represents the king, the president, the master, the God.
• When mapping it to humankind, it represents man, or the male, the husband.
• When mapping it to the human body, it represents the human spiritual soul, mind, and thoughts.

Qian is one of the most representative terms in Chinese culture. What’s special about it is that it represents the instinct of the universe and the source of everything. It represents a major feature of Chinese culture. Chinese culture does not have its own personalized God or Bodhisattva. It is neither materialistic nor idealistic, but talks about the instinct of the universe. The origin of Chinese culture is not religious, nor is it pure philosophy, but scientific.

2. Kun – The Earth:

Image of “Kun”

The Kun Hexagram appears as an image of three broken lines, three Yin-Yao. It basically stands for the Yin energy for everything after it comes into being, the acquired character of everything. It symbolizes that everything has a restrained, quiet, tolerant, downward, cold, dark, and soft side.

When mapping it to the universe, Kun represents the earth, the moon. Human beings are the culture of the earth. The earth is always trampled under the feet of human beings. Imagine this scenario, by analogy, we get:

• When mapping it to human society, it represents the queen, the people, and the team.
• When using it to analyze animals, it always represents the females, like the mare or the cow.
• When mapping it to humankind, it represents a woman or a female.

The greatest thing in the world is maternal love. Every religion, in the end, worships women. The Catholic Virgin and the Buddhist Guanyin Bodhisattva are all women; because maternal love is the most compassionate and greatest. The Chinese culture has always believed that “the mother is strong”. This is true not only for humans but also for animals.

Kun also represents the moon and the earth. The light of the moon comes from the sun, and the earth rotates in the opposite direction around the sun.

All further analysis and research related to the Kun Hexagrams will take its basic knowledge as the starting point.    

3. Li – The Sun:

Image of “Li”

Li is an image of the sun. The sun is the origin energy source for life and civilization on the earth, as well as the total driving force for human life and production to survive and develop. It carries all the characteristics of Qian Hexagram. The ancients respected the sky and took the universe as the greatest manifestos of the world.

But the ancient ancestors, with neither astronomical telescopes, nor computer processors and algorithms, discovered a black spot in the sun. We call those black spots sunspots now. Based on this characteristic, the ancestors replaced the middle Yang-Yao in the Qian Hexagram with a Yin-Yao to represent the black spots in the sun, thus obtaining the above three-painted hexagram of Li.

Take its energy and active characteristics from the universal Qian hexagram, and map the Li hexagram to the earth, it represents the fire.

4. Kan – The Moon:

Image of “Kan”

Kan is an image of the moon. The ancients discovered that the moon does not emit light, but absorbs sunlight and reflects it. The moon itself is just a dark and cold star, which is bright because it reflects sunlight.

So, the ancestors replaced the middle Yin-Yao in the Kan Hexagram with a Yang-Yao to represent the reflected sunlight by the dark and cold moon, thus obtaining this three-painted hexagram of Kan.       The moon reflects the sun’s rays and illuminates the dark areas of the earth. It is just like how the earth bears all the lives and creatures on it. Because of the moon’s feminine and low-profiled beauty, the ancients used the image of Kan to describe flowing water on the earth. This must be the reason how this Chinese character came into being. It not only contains philosophical meanings but also is a pictographic metaphor.

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Long Summer – Soil – Stomach and Spleen

When we use the earth soil element from the Five Essential Elements to analyze the earth’s structures and its related life systems, the soil means the crust and mantle layers of our Mother Earth.

Between Mother Earth’s core, the fire, and surface, the water and air, lays the soil, the crust and mantle layers. Use a metaphor to compare this to how human life’s fire cooks its life water, the soil plays a safeguard role as the container of water, prevents the fire from directly burning the water into vapor, and also prevents the water from directly extinguishing the fire. The better quality the container has, the longer and safer the cooking can last.

No matter in what season, no matter at what stage of energy cycle change, it has the same important role. Ever since Mother Earth’s acquired life started, the soil started its important role.

Since humans live in the middle of the sun and the earth, are they supposed to or are they playing the role of protecting the sun and the earth too?

Chinese medicine tells that spleen and stomach together are playing this soil role on a human body. They represent the foundation of a human’s acquired life.

Modern people’s living conditions are getting better and better, but their stomachs are getting worse and worse. From Chinese medicine point of view, the stomach cannot be separated from the spleen. The “spleen” in Chinese medicine has the function of digesting and transporting nutrients. Therefore, the spleen and stomach are collectively referred to as “the foundation of acquired nature”.

The spleen and stomach are the key to the biochemistry of Qi and Blood in the human body. Deficiency of the spleen causes all kinds of diseases. Chinese medicine tells that the spleen and stomach have four fears:

1. They are afraid of cold food;
2. They are afraid of raw food;
3. They are afraid of overeating;
4. They are afraid of being angry.

Why do Chinese people think the stomach does not like cold food? Why Chinese people drink warm water even in summer? It is because they know how human life energy changes in the human body. And this human body life energy change process follows the same rule and pattern as our Mother Earth’s energy change processes.

Because they know, for example, in summer, when the outer environment is so hot and humid when people feel their body is so hot, deep inside their body, Yin Qi is rising quietly. Yin starts in the middle of extreme Yang! So, when people drink cold water, eating cold food, their body will very quickly absorb these cold Yin energies. Excessive Yin will either damage their body’s Yang Qi, or be stored in internal organs, joints, or in the belly. Once the Yin Qi is rooted inside the human body, it will be extremely difficult to move it out.

When the excessive Yin Qi is in internal organs, it blocks the organ functions. When it is in the joints, it disables people’s activity capabilities. When it is in the human abdomen, since our reproductive system is born to like to be supported and surrounded by warmth, our body will produce a lot of fats to surround the abdomen and waist to safeguard the reproductive function. Our body’s north, Kan water, in the abdominal area, always needs to be safeguarded in warmth while our body’s south, Li fire, head, is okay to be naked in winter.

When Yin energy quietly rises inside the human body, while the outside of the body is hot, people are having poor digestion, poor appetite, and easy diarrhea. This is why humans normally lose weight in summer. The root cause is because of the body Yin Qi and improper eating habits. In China, many people enjoy eating hot pot in the hot summer. It is not a bad choice.

In winter, while the internal body life Yang Qi is rising, humans also need a lot of heat to resist the cold winter, they naturally get a good appetite and good digestion. Winter is the season when the body gains weight unconsciously. What is the feeling of eating ice cream in winter? The ice cream in the malls is not selling well in winter.

Thinking it from another point of view:

The most suitable temperature for human stomach digestion is the body temperature 36.5°. In the hot summer, when Yin Qi sprouts in the body, and when large glasses of iced drinks and raw food are poured down to the stomach, the momentary psychological pleasure is satisfied, but all the problems are left to the stomach and spleen. Should they consume the body’s energy, Qi and Blood, to heat the food before digesting them? Or should the stomach and spleen change their original characteristics to work at a lower temperature? This refreshing choice of iced drink and raw food does not need to go through the brain, but the stomach needs to grow an effective brain, plus a fast temperature regulator, plus a quick powerful heater so it can barely complete its basic functions.

The same situation only happens once, not a problem; occasionally, small problems; frequently, big problems. What is the result of the big problem? Is it the stomach-ache? Ha! But the interesting result might be the human’s getting fat, a weak and unhealthy fat. Or, humans will get skinny and sickly, based on different people’s different Qi and Blood circulation weaknesses. Therefore, it is recommended by traditional Chinese medicine doctors to eat fewer fruits and raw salad, avoid icy drinks and eat more protein-rich cooked foods, grains, eggs, noodles, milk…

Take a further step, outside the nervous system, the stomach is the organ with the most nerve cells in the human body. It is very sensitive to external stimuli and is the largest “emotional organ” in the human body. “Anxiety hurts the heart and lungs, and depression hurts the stomach and intestines.” Once a person is depressed, it is easy to cause his loss of appetite, fullness, and nausea, or go to the other extreme and overeating. This is a huge harm to the stomach and intestines. Chinese medicine also believes that the liver grows the spleen. When the liver is not depressed, the spleen is not weak. Therefore, to nourish the spleen and stomach, you must control your emotions, do not get angry, and minimize your temper.

To have a healthy stomach, Chinese medicine tells us: every day at 7-9 am, the stomach meridian is on duty. With active Qi and Blood flowing through, it gives a good time to nourish the stomach. The best thing we should do is to eat a good breakfast on time. Although in real life, it is a busy time between 7- 9 am for people to rush to school and work and it is easy to neglect breakfast.

From traditional Chinese medicine’s point of view, human gastrointestinal activity is strongest during 7-9 am, and the support of food will make this gastrointestinal meridian compensated by Qi and Blood. On another hand, this is the time the sun rises, when the Yang Qi between heaven and earth occupies a dominant position, as well as in the human body. Eating breakfast during 7-9 am makes it easiest to digest and absorb, and strengthens the body Yang Qi.

Furthermore, why is there more and more Gastric Ulcer? Scientists had one experiment: by hanging a monkey and stimulating it to keep it in constant anxiety, soon the monkey has a gastric ulcer. Scientific experiments, electroencephalography, X-ray, and biochemistry were used to study the cause of this disease on this monkey and scientists found that the occurrence of gastric disease is closely related to the overexcitation of the cerebral cortex and autonomic dysfunction.

Why do humans get a gastric ulcer? It is because of no fresh blood in the stomach! And fresh blood is the best “cure” containing antibodies, phagocyte cells, and nutrition. But why is there not enough fresh blood in the stomach? “The Emperor’s Yellow Canon” says: anger hurts the liver. If a person is constantly angry and complaining, the liver slowly accumulates turbid gas. As the liver and gallbladder are connected, the turbid gas will be transmitted to the gallbladder, then to the stomach.

Excessive thinking and unsuccessful thinking will affect the normal operation of Qi, and the Qi will be out of balance, resulting in Qi stagnation. This leads to abdominal distension, nausea, loss of appetite, and dizziness. When people think endlessly, they inhibit gastric acid secretion. When they are angry, it stimulates gastric acid secretion. That’s why “anger” prevails over “over-thinking” and “missing”.

Think about everything in the world, each has its own laws and walks in its own way. We should be happy when we live between heaven and earth. Grateful for the world, give us life; grateful for all things, provide us with the necessities of life, and give us happiness. Always think about the good of others, be grateful, kind, and happy, so that the mood will naturally open, the liver will naturally be smooth, and the spleen will be healthy. This is also the way to nourish the spleen.

The mouth is the organ that the spleen expresses in the five senses. People with spleen disease will have yellow lips or yellow around the lips, peeling lips, bleeding and other symptoms, which are caused by excessive Yang Qi and dry fire.

The thinner part of saliva protects and cleans the mouth. There is more salivation when eating, and it can also moisturize and dissolve food, making it easy to swallow and digest. If the spleen and stomach are not in harmony, it often leads to a sharp increase in salivary secretion.

Do we ever care about Mother Earth’s stomach? Does Mother Earth get angry too? Does she have a digestive problem?

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The Universal Energy Frequency

Because Mother Earth rotates at a certain oblique angle while revolving around the sun, day and night are produced; spring, summer, autumn, and winter are produced.

The ancestors discovered this secret a long time ago and derived from this the law of movement of heaven, the earth, the sun, the moon, and everything in the universe. They had mastered the secrets of the absorption and divergence of the earth’s energy and thus revealed the laws of human energy changes and the natural laws of birth, old age, sickness, and death. They have an in-depth analysis and description of the rotation angle and tilt angle of Mother Earth.

They believed that the earth is an organism, and she is surrounded by a circle of energy. We know from modern physics that the energy field surrounding the earth outside is called the geomagnetic field. There are different opinions about the reasons for the earth’s magnetic field today, but there is no one that can be the broad convincing argument.

As discussed here, the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere of the earth have a mutual energy change pattern difference due to the seasonal changes of the earth’s energy. This energy difference makes the northern and southern hemispheres like the positive and negative poles of a huge battery. With such a large energy difference, when the earth rotates at a very fast speed, as revealed by the electromagnetic induction effect in physics, it will produce a strong magnetic field. Can this explain the source of the earth’s magnetic field at some point?

The rotation of the Great Mother Earth provides the electromagnetic field foundation for the development of human culture on earth and is the source of all modern technologies. What is the frequency of this energy field of Mother Earth?

When human beings enter the state of meditation, when all the connections between the human body and the material world are closed, when only the energy interaction between the water of life and the fire of life is allowed, the entire human body is completely connected to the universe.

Is the human frequency generated at this moment consistent with the frequency of Mother Earth? Is it consistent with the frequency of the universe? Humans are only a small part of nature.

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From Qi Monism to Yin and Yang

Ancient Chinese culture is the long-term precipitation and development of monistic system thought. Its fundamental theory is always about the change of the energy of Qi.

“Yi Jing” and “Tao Te Ching” both tell us: Everything is inseparable from Yin and Yang, and it must have both Yin Qi and Yang Qi. Changes in the four seasons, birth, old age, sickness, and death in life are the result of the growth and decline of Yin and Yang.

Qi is invisible and untouchable energy that runs through the whole universe. The world‘s change is all about the Qi energy flow between Yin and Yang. Chinese medicine is cosmic medicine; Qi is a kind of cosmic energy. This energy produces everything. Where there is life or no life, it exists.

“气聚则生, 气散则亡” tells when Qi gathers, life is produced, and when Qi is dispersed, life dies. The Buddha said: when the 5 elements of Qi: Wood, Fire, Earth, Gold, and Water come together under certain conditions, a life is born. Without Qi supporting humans, life is over.

Qi is not only reflected in the breath but in all things. Its energy is immensely large. Imagine how heavy the heaviest thing around us is, Qi can move it. Mountain is very heavy. Qi can definitely move it because the mountain is no heavier than the moon, the earth, and the sun. The ancients said: the atmosphere lifted the earth and the earth is nothing more than a table tennis ball floating in the sky. Universe Qi can hold up the earth, so can it the mountains. Not only can the earth, but the Qi can also move the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the whole universe. It is everywhere.

Wherever Qi goes, it controls everything. Without Qi, there is no agriculture, no medicine … no life.

How does this energy manifest a human life? Parents give birth, energy gives life. It is Qi that continuously supplies life. A person is constantly absorbing energy and growing. It is the same for humans, plants, and animals.

As the essence of ancient Chinese culture, the Yin and Yang theory covers all aspects of the universe. It explains: Why do we have four seasons? It is because of the conversion of Yin and Yang between the universe, the sun, and the earth. Why do people get sick? It is the imbalance between Yin and Yang in the human body.

Yin and Yang are two opposite sides of the same thing: up and down, left and right, north and south, white and black… Yin and Yang have a distinct character of the opposition. There is Yin in Yang and there is Yang in Yin. They are interdependent to each other, support each other, contain each other, transform into each other, and complement each other. Their relationship is best described in the image of Taiji. Refer to figure 2 below.

Observe them by eyes: Anything that is upward, sporty, warm, and positive belongs to Yang. Conversely, down, static, cold, and negative belong to Yin. The largest representative of Yin and Yang: Heaven and Earth. There are others like sun and moon, day and night, man and woman, male and female…

Taiji

Modern philosophy tells us that things are relative, not absolute. Although the sky, the heaven, is Yang, divided by how the sky presents to humans through a day, it is Yang during daytime and Yin at nighttime. Although it is Yang during the daytime, it can be further divided into Yang in the morning and Yin in the afternoon.

Yin and Yang can be divided indefinitely. Eventually, it reaches the atomic level. An atom is very small. Inside it, the nucleus is Yin due to its static, and the electrons surrounding the core are Yang due to the movements. Can atoms be divided again into smaller Yang and Yin? YES. Nobody knows if there is a world inside a cell of our human body, just like our universe is like a cell of a huge person, or, a huge creature.

Take a human as an example: a man is Yang, a woman is Yin; on a person, the front is Yang, the back is Yin; the upper is Yang, the lower is Yin. On one hand, the thumb is Yang, and the other four fingers are Yin. The palm of the hand is Yang and the back of the hand is Yin. From a mathematical point of view, odd numbers are Yang, even numbers are Yin.

From traditional Chinese Medicine’s point of view, in the human body, Yang meridians are active, warm, and fast; Yin meridians tend to be still, cold, and slow. So, the meridian that runs on the inner side is called the Yin channel, and that on the outer side is called the Yang channel. With this principle in mind, let us raise the arm: the inner side of the arm is Yin with extraneous fat accumulated and the outer side is Yang of mostly muscles.

The function that runs the human body is Yang, and the food and drink are Yin. Food and drink can produce the essence of energy that maintains the function of the Yang of the body through biochemical actions and nourish the body Yin through gasification.

Very importantly, for a person, the spirit is Yang, the body is Yin. Why? The human spirit embodied through the human heart and brain exudes human vitality upward and outward. The introverted, precise, and stable human body is the carrier and material foundation of the human spirit.

Yin and Yang in the human body are relatively balanced. This means: human spirit and body are balanced; human functions and basic food and water energies are balanced.

When Yin and Yang are biased in the human body, excess of Yang energy or excess of Yin energy causes hyperactive or weak Qi and Blood, and causes meridians to go abnormal. Then, people are sick.

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Moxibustion Qi is Like a Mother’s Love

In the old society thousands of years ago, there was no modern communication, no sufficient material supply, neither any good nor enough life supplies during the war years. The mere problem of water resources for survival in the wild for armies was a matter of the survival of not only the army but also the country.

But, in those ancient times, Taoists understood the breathing and circulatory system of Mother Earth, and they had very clever ways to determine the source of groundwater in those wild areas.

In ancient China, when marching and fighting, thousands of troops traveled long distances and carried large amounts of wormwood. Especially when they were in the northwest plateau and desert, they would first dig a huge deep hole, burn wormwood at the bottom of the hole, and observe the distant surroundings. After a while, they could see smoke coming out of other places. Then they dug deep at that smoking place, they knew they would definitely get water.

Why is it wormwood? How did the ancestors discover this? It is related to the knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine.

In ancient times, some great sorcerers had magical powers. Shen Nong tasted over a hundred grasses and picked out wormwood for some special body disease and pain treatment.

Taoism and Chinese pharmacology describe wormwood as ventilating. After the mugwort ignited, it sends out the warmth and penetrating. This warmth does not hurt, it is like a mother’s love.

This is the reason why moxibustion uses wormwood wool. Ancestors also discovered that the heat generated by the burning air of wormwood has the ability to travel through “spaces” both in the body of Mother Earth and in the body of humans. In the human body, it can carry heat energy to the “space” blocked by Yin Qi, and slowly dissolve the blockage. As a result, the Qi is ventilated, and the blood circulation is smoothened.

In Mother Earth’s body, they know the Qi and water circulation are inseparable like twin brothers, where the Qi reaches, where the water circulation arrives. Like mother, like children, because the human body has exactly the same energy Qi and Blood system as our Mother Earth.

Now, modern science is able to experiment that after the mugwort is ignited, its Qi can resonate harmonically with the human’s Qi, and its wavelength is the closest to the human body so that the human body can easily accept it, allowing the moxibustion Qi to penetrate deeper.

Why do we always call Qi and Blood together? It is because they are inseparable from each other. Where should this bring us to if we try to understand our Mother Earth’s Qi and Blood, our Mother Earth’s air breath, and water circulation? How this is related to climate change and environmental issues?

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Winter – Water – Kidney

On the day of the winter solstice, the sun almost hits the Tropic of Capricorn. It is the day the northern hemisphere has the shortest day and the longest night. Astronomy stipulates that this day is the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. After the winter solstice, the direct sunlight position gradually moves northward, and the daylight in the northern hemisphere gradually increases.

The winter solstice time for the northern hemisphere for the year 2020 was 17:55, Dec 21, 2020.

If someone intends to discuss the homology of Eastern and Western cultures, this may be another supporting viewpoint: No matter how the lunar calendar of China is different from the solar calendar, no matter how the intercalary months of the lunar calendar alternately change, the winter solstice of the 24 solar terms is always around December 21-22, which is of hourly difference because of the earth’s rotation angle year to year. This is about the Chinese Yin and Yang calendar’s long and complicated history that the New Year began on the winter solstice day in the Xia Dynasty, 21th century BC – 16th century BC.

Why did ancestors use this day as the first day of a new year?

The First Yang Rises inside Mother Earth

Because it is the day Mother Earth starts to emit her thermal energy outward from her core in a year. Before this day, she was absorbing and restoring her energy. It is the day Mother Earth’s body starts to get warmer and warmer from internal to external. It means before this day, Mother Earth is completely in a Kun energy status. Starting this day, her Yang Qi starts to rise inside although her surface is entering the coldest days. It is also the day plants are completely restoring energy back into their roots; animals are in their complete deep hibernating sleep in their dens, birds are in the south…

 The figure above also shows how “Yi Jing” Six-Yao Hexagrams explain this energy change. Out of the cold body, Yang Qi is arising from the bottom.

How about the Yang Qi in human body?

Noticing or most probably not noticing, starting this day, the human body Yang Qi energy automatically rises inside, just as what is happening in their Mother Earth’s body. Like mother, like son.

How important is this Yang energy? It is the most important energy in the human body for self-heal. It is invisible, but it is originated from the universe, from the sun.

Where does it rise from in the human body? It arises from the deep northern ocean in the body’s abdominal area.

Where does it rise to? Normally it rises up alongside the back spine… It can be conducted to the places wherever the body needs it.

It is the best time to use this Yang energy to replenish the Yin energy, because there is Yang in Yin and there is Yin in Yang.

Remember when Mother Earth’s northern hemisphere starts her Yang energy to rise outward, her southern hemisphere is starting to absorb and restore the thermal energy inside, meaning Yin energy arises over there. Only through that Yin replenishment should the Yang rise in the northern hemisphere. Suppose both hemispheres emit the core energy at the same time, losing a balanced energy pattern over time, it could be dangerous for Mother Earth.

On the human body, although it is time for Yang Qi to rise automatically, it must have a healthy Kan to support this Yang’s rising up. The body needs a healthy water system to support Yang Qi’s rising from its deep sea.

This leads us to the topics on the kidney. Generally, from the perspective of modern medicine, the kidneys excrete metabolites and regulate the endocrine. However, the kidney in TCM’s point of view is not simply this single organ, the left kidney and the right kidney, but also includes the water, blood, salt metabolic systems they control, as well as the endocrine function and hormones they generate.

In Chinese medicine’s eyes, the kidney is:

• The innate root and driving force of life
• The innate foundation of the human body
• It plays a vital role in warming, moisturizing, nourishing, and stimulating the internal organs
• Kidney deficiency will weaken vitality, and various diseases will follow
• The treatment of many visceral diseases should start with the kidney

Here follows some detailed information:

1. The kidney is the main switch of the human body’s water and fluid. If the function of the kidney is weakened, symptoms such as edema, or excessive nocturia, enuresis, urinary incontinence, or oliguria, or urinary obstruction may occur.
2. Kidney deficiency leads to empty bone marrow. Empty bone marrow leads to soft bones. Soft bones lead to numbness of the waist and knees, tooth loss, bone hyperplasia, intervertebral disc herniation, arthritis, cervical neuralgia, and even dizziness, tinnitus, forgetfulness, slow response, wrinkles, loss of energy, and loss of hair.
3. The life activities of the human body cannot do without breathing. According to common senses, breathing is done through the lungs, but is it only through the lungs? In fact, in breathing activities, the kidney also plays a vital role, “the lung is the master of Qi, and the kidney is the root of Qi”. If the essence and Qi in the kidneys are insufficient, there will be no depth of breathing and symptoms such as coughing and wheezing, shortness of breathing, or breathlessness will occur.
4. The essence of the kidney is closely related to human reproductive function. Entering puberty, the essence and Qi in the kidney are filled to a certain extent, and the fine substances that promote and maintain reproductive functions are produced to promote the development of puberty. With the deficiency of kidney Yang Qi, it manifests as impotence, premature ejaculation, and nocturnal emission in men; women suffer from irregular menstruation, dysmenorrheal, infertility, etc.

It would be easy for us to understand these descriptive words now concerning its importance in stimulating the life Yang energy. Kidney, to some degree, represents the deep see in the north abdomen Kan, which innately has the Yang in its middle to nourish all the organs and the whole body.

The “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon” says that the “Kidney corresponds to winter Qi”. The focus of health preservation in winter is to focus on nourishing the kidney.

Chinese medicine believes that black food has the effect of nourishing the essence of the kidney. Eating more black food can firstly enhance physical fitness, secondly prevent disease, and thirdly delay aging, so eating black food is recommended. “Black five categories” of five foods includes black rice, black beans, black sesame seeds, black dates, and walnuts.

Starting from the basic theory of “life lies in exercise”, nourishing the kidney and correcting deficiency through exercise is a positive measure worth promoting.

The ear is the organ that the kidney expresses in the five senses. The ear diseases are all related to the kidney. There is a saying in the “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon” that people with kidney disease have symptoms of deafness and tinnitus. Why is aging people‘s hearing getting weaker? Because they are having weakening kidneys, they are having weakening water energy and fluid-related functionalities. As a result, they are having less Yang energy.

As part of the north of the body, the human reproductive system has a very close relationship with the kidney. This reproductive system is the true deep sea for the Yang Qi energy. When Yang Qi is getting stronger, human reproductive capacity gets flourished. The adequate Yang energy of young adults can be reflected in their vigorous sexual abilities.

How important it is to allocate the amount of Yang energy from the fountain of the vitality of human life! How much is allocated to the heart and brain? How much is allocated to the health? How much is allocated for the leisure life? How much is allocated to personal lust? And how much is allocated for the reproduction of a healthy and excellent new generation? What the new generation can inherit is the mind, the thoughts, the wisdom and the health.

The fluid of the kidneys is the thicker part of saliva. In addition to moisturizing and dissolving food, making it easy to swallow, and cleaning and protecting the mouth, the thicker part of saliva also nourishes the kidney essence, because it is transformed by the kidney essence. It is part of the most essential water that our life fire is boiling. The golden water comes out from the middle of the Li. Qi Gong and Yoga practitioners often emphasize swallowing body saliva to nourish kidney essence, to nourish the whole body.

Panic is a person’s emergency response to sudden external stimuli. When people are frightened, urinary incontinence might occur. Because of panic, the physiological functions of the kidney produce urine, and various water-soluble substances that need to be eliminated are eliminated from the urine.

“Thinking over fear”: In a panic state, there will be spasms, uneven breathing or deepening and speeding up, blood pressure rising, and heart rate speeding up. When people are thinking, they can reduce gastric blood flow and inhibit gastric acid secretion. This is a natural reason why people will try to calm themselves down when they are in panic if they have a good sense of self-control and a wise mind. With knowledge on how their water energy works and how panic damages their kidney functions, they can gather more self-control when they encounter shocking situations.

Here it is talking about winter and kidney, how about spring, summer, and autumn? How about the other important organs? How does the human water and life energy work through all the seasons for human health? What do all these have to do with the human mind and spirits?

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