Qi and Blood – 1 Green Planet

Water and Fire in the Unity of Human and Heaven

From the Taoist’s rigorous and rich description of Qi, Yin and Yang: In the vast universe, tens of billions of years ago, some forms of huge air current slowly liquefied and accumulated under the impetus of a huge energy force. As the energy density flows further, the liquefied matter was mutually absorbed and condensed. This huge liquid mass slowly solidified and wrapped together, and a three-dimensional structure began to appear, as the measurement of the space, and evolving into a sphere. Under the interaction of various internal and external energies, with its own energy density flow internally and externally, its movement started its rotating, and then very slowly a fixed structure with the east, the west, the north, and the south, the inside, and the outside began to periodically and physically appear in a certain way, accompany its rotations and its energy fields.

While the thermal energy in the center of the earth gradually stabilized, the surface became a relatively low-temperature structure. Under the action of energy flow, the liquid matter differentiated into a variety of different energy elements, the sprouting Five Essential Elements of the very young earth started to merge.

As a new life in the universe, although alternatively, it might be just one little cell on a huge body, the earth started to “breath”. It started to absorb and release its own energy between its internal and external. The essential elements moved and formed into new objects and new lives following the earth’s energy flow.

This was about the time plants started to exist on a very young liquidized earth while some of the Five Essential Elements formed into the mountains, mantle, and oceans. Over billions of years, the young earth not only can breathe between internal and external through its energy absorbing and releasing, but it also has its circulatory system and muscles, the rivers, and underground air and fluids. The geological layers of the earth began to form. While the earth was growing, deep in its water, some new kinds of lives started their existence.

Taoism thinks that the original innate energy that forced the bulk forms of liquid to gather together was Qian, which is infinite and everlasting, also called Tao. And the liquid was like Kan, which carries the energy from Qian and formed into the early liquid earth Kun. Baby earth stored the Qian Yang in the deep center of it. This Yang energy was earth’s essential acquired energy Li. This gives us a very easy way to understand that Kan means the water, Li means the fire.

What about human embryonic development? Is it following the same development process as how Mother Earth got her birth and growth? Just like how a generation inherites life codes through DNA from the older generations? It’s similar as described in how a new life could be generated in Taoism books. But today, with modern medicine and life sciences, we can tie them together.

Father’s sperm, carrying Yang energy from the universe, active and strong, swims in a liquid environment to meet mother’s egg, still and soft, with its Yin characters. Only when a force of strong innate Qian merged with the active sperm shall the sperm and egg be fertilized into a new life. This new life starts from the mother’s abdomen, the north, the Kan, gets nurtured by the mother’s Qi and Blood. The new life is like a vigorous, tempting, and thriving force of up-forward growing new energy, and has all the characters of Yang Qi energy. The new life first appears as a group of cells in a liquid environment, then the head and heart started to appear, which belong to Li. With life’s fire started from water, Kan, the other organs follow to appear as well as the four limbs, finally the skin. Once the birth is given, it starts its full acquired Kun life.

According to modern science, the human body is a microcosm of the earth. Water occupies 70% of the earth’s surface and 70% of the human body, and their chemical compositions are similar. By analogy to humans, we know that natural changes mainly affect the human body through water that acts on the human body. The many physiological cycles of a person are a microcosm of the natural cycle in the human body.

The meridian theory of Chinese medicine describes channels based on water circulation. And the ancestor’s highest wisdom is in categorizing human moral spirits as the same as the innate natural energy force, the fire energy.

Now, can we say that the universe is the greatest magician, and humans are in incredible perfect harmonized unity with nature?

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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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Static Is A Big Move

Einstein’s theory of “Relativity” has a point: the speed of light is the limit speed of the three-dimensional world. The Scale Reduction and Clock Slowness effects show that as long as anything reaches the speed of light, it slows down the time to a speed of 0. It can be assumed that things moving at the speed of light are relatively static for all surrounding objects that also move at the speed of light.

Stillness is relative.

When a bus runs on the street, we feel it is too fast to catch. But if we are on the bus, we cannot feel it’s moving at a steady speed if we do not look outside.

When a flower blooms quietly, the time of a universe of flowers is used up.

We live on the earth, although our Mother Earth rotates at a speed of four hundred and sixty-six meters per second at its equator, we cannot feel it, neither talk about the orbital speed of the earth around the sun of approximately 107,000 kilometers per hour.

All important processes of life happen slowly in a quiet status. Humans come into this world, bringing their own spirit to combine with the fertilized egg, and then returning back to the universe, it is all in the same quiet. All the processes of human growth happen slowly and silently. No one can go from one year old to twenty years old quickly and soundly…

In the long river of time, in the vast universe, individuals are humbled as dust in this time and space. What one can decide is how to use his time.

Everything in the universe is moving. Static is a quiet movement, a prolonged state of life function, a rare thing that carries infinite power.

Fruit, grain, flowers, plants grow statically;
Deep sleep heals the human body;
Rests relieve the human mind;

Where does Earth’s energy come from? It comes from long term static accumulation of sunlight and the slow chemical/physical effects inside the earth.

Lao Tzu said: Root is the source of life; root represents stillness. When a human calms down like a young baby, the brain is clear, and he can feel more happiness.

There are comparisons between people:

A person with a weak liver has a big temper, is irritable, and hard to be quiet; A person with a soft gentle personality is calm with healthy liver function.

Bloody sticky people are suspicious, lack judgment, carry an uneasy mood; but a steady and calm person is decisive with smooth blood circulation…….

For people who are getting puzzled in handling complex and difficult matters, most of the time it is due to loud noise inside and being self-annoyed. But in a static state, the mind, and body are completely calm with a reflection on the inner self, and people may suddenly become cheerful.

In absolute health can people be quiet and calm; being quiet and calm, can people gain health.

Mr. Nan Huaijin said: “No matter what kind of disaster you encounter, you just need to be calm. And quietly observe it change.”

This “observe” means “观” in Chinese. It neither contains an eye “目”, nor a heart “心”, nor a mouth “口”. It means: close our eyes and mouth, do not judge by heart, but reflect and communicate to the inner consciousness, and regain the awareness.

Mr. Nan Huaijin also said: “When a person can be quiet, it is a great movement, and it is the body and energy of a person sitting there quietly for a sports meeting.”

No matter when, our best secret weapon is being calm: not leaking energy through negative emotions, but reserving it for all good outcomings.

The root cause of many diseases is the lack of “slowness” which caused the lack of energy. For example, neurasthenia, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and some others are common mental illnesses caught by people in a state of mental and psychological life that is too fast and excessively anxious.

Why do Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity… attach so much importance to “reflection” and “confession”? They are calling for looking and listening inward.

In a fast-developing hustle and bustle society, everyone has their own private journey to be completed independently by themselves step by step. Solitude is a life course that everyone must go through. About this “solitude”, there is a short story:

A boat traveling across the river and suddenly hit by a boat, a grumpy man on the ark immediately shouted to the hitting boat, a call wasn’t listened to, then another not listened to, when about to bristle, he found that the hit ship was empty. The scolding stopped, he burst into laughers!

With others, we are always in a social state; only in solitude, we are close to the natural state.

To be alone is to walk towards ourselves. When we are not forced to talk to others, we have time to talk to ourselves.

Society can reflect one’s external value, but solitude can shape one’s internal value. It is the most essential and most expensive freedom.

Enjoying solitude is a gesture. It is the attitude of walking through the complex world, not in a hurry, but quietly enjoy the season of bright flowers or wait for the purity of the snow. It is humble and gentle, standing aloof from worldly affairs, but has pride and sharpened edges and corners.

As soon as the mind turns its direction, the spirit turns, and the direction of the life train turns. When a person’s body is seriously ill, its life train has been in the wrong direction for a long time.

BUT, the mind can be turned to a new direction at any time, starting from the heart and head.

Stretch the Body, Stretch the Mind

From TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine)’s point of view, meridians and Qi and Blood circulation are complementary. Healthy meridians lead Qi and Blood to be smooth, and the internal organs will become healthy. Good Qi and Blood circulation promote meridian functionalities.

Stretching is a method of independent health management besides meditation.

With proper stretching, people can dredge meridians and strengthen the circulation of Qi and Blood, thereby improving various acute and chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, gynecological disease, heart disease, prostate disease, bone misalignment, and pain due to contraction of the muscles.

Taoism has a saying: “For every inch of tendon extension, the life can be extended for ten years”, Longevity usually has soft tendons and bones.

If you often feel pain in the waist and neck, numbness in the hands and feet, and minor physical problems, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, this is probably due to contraction of the muscles and tendon. Facts have proved that after long-term adherence to stretching exercises, the pains are reduced or even disappeared and the body gets flexible.

There are many things in life that require tender wisdom from a gentle body and a gentle heart. There are a lot of words, a lot of anger, a lot of suffering, a lot of desires, many emotions in life which require tenderness and gentleness, to bring people balanced energy.

Soft and gentleness are a kind of mind, a kind of comprehension, a kind of life, and a kind of wisdom of rules. The beginning of yoga practice in meditation and stretch requires gentle wisdom. If the human heart is not gentle, then the body exercise will be rigid and hard. In yoga, the mind is to connect and command the breath and the body.

Human life is about energy. This energy’s open switch is at the heart, a gentle open heart. Understand the wisdom of a gentle heart, it is easy:

To walk around in life, be able to bow down, work diligently, and show quality speechlessly;
To appreciate the beauty, texture, and connotation of yoga practice;
To accompany human health and mental growth from the beginning to the end;
To help human regain strength and increase self-confidence and they will take better care of their health, physically and mentally;
To make them master of regulating emotions, and the master of their own life.

Maintain a warm and gentle heart, focus the soft mind on the breath, the human breath will guide the Qi and Blood flow through their body. Through Yoga meditation, deep, slow, and soft breath, and stretching practices, humans will gain a soft body, soft breath, and a softer heart.

The Hollow Spine

Since humans began to walk upright, their bodily functions started to change, their vision started to change, and their relationship with the world also started to change. The human spine had evolved from being parallel to the ground to being perpendicular to the ground, marking a new milestone in the history of human civilization.

It took a long time for the human spine to evolve into an upright state. If it can only take some people a few decades of a lifetime to degenerate their spine back into a curved state that cannot naturally extend upward, it strongly announces the degeneration of their personal life, their healthy disappearance, and sicknesses.

On the contrary, a person with an upright flexible spine, regardless of age, is bound to sufficient Yang Qi, fast hands and feet, a flexible mind, and unlimited vitality.

Let’s observe the spine from the energy perspective. The spine is strong, firm, upright, and is a representative of Yang energy. According to the Yin and Yang theory, since there is Yin in Yang, is there Yin in the spine? The masculine spine, born hollow, is a passage and container for nerves, Qi meridians, and spinal cords. They are as hollow as the long bones of the human limbs that bear the weight and strength. The center of the masculine bone is hollow to accommodate the bone marrow with hematopoietic function. Blood, nerves, serving as the human body’s Yin-water energy system, nourish and regulate all the balance and development of the body, and develop the growth of the Yang energy out from the middle of the human abdomen area.

Empty space, be able to hold everything, is filled with the mysterious code of life.

From YiJing’s perspective, the spine connects to the deep sea of the north of the human body at its bottom and connects to the very south of the human brain at the top. As human life lies on the life water energy and the life fire energy, life quality is reflected in the spine’s health status.

For an elder, with his spine flexible in turning sideways, flexible in bending sideways, flexible in bending forwards and backwards, he could be like a newborn baby, be able to hold his feet to bite his toes at any time, and he must be a benevolent person, a kind person, and a longevity too.

The human bones are connected by ligaments and other tissues from the sacrum, coccyx, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical vertebrae. The health of the spine is largely determined by the flexibility of these tissues. Newborn babies are soft and moisturized, and elders have lost a big part of their water at the end of their lives and their bodies are no longer flexible. The process of keeping the body healthy is actually the process of keeping the body flexible.

The connection between the spines is like the connecting shaft between the animal and the cart in ancient times. This is the original intent and purpose of ancient Yoga. If Yoga is regarded as an exercise to train the bone and muscle systems, it is not what Yoga originally meant to be.

Traditional Chinese medicine has an old saying, “下医身体，中医气血，上医心” – ordinary doctors treat the body, medium doctors treat Qi and Blood, and first level doctors treat the heart. While in our daily life, we are the first-level doctor of ourselves who can treat our own body, treat our own Qi and Blood, and treat our own heart, unaffected by time, space, status, power, and wealth, equipped with knowledge and wisdom. And we are our only doctors who can determine to what level we can treat our health. Taking good care of our spine’s health is a secret shortcut in maintaining our body’s physical health.

After Yang Qi rises at the bottom of the spine, in the deep of the north sea of the human body, from the abdomen area and the reproductive systems, it will first reach the low back waist. Low back waist pain is an invisible attacker that has a wide and long-term impact on human health. There are different reasons for low back waist pain. An intuitive conclusion from the perspective of Chinese medicine is that the circulation of Qi and Blood around the lumbar spine has been obstructed for a long time, some Yin Qi stuck at the waist, and the meridians are not smooth.

For people in chronic waist pains, when meditation practice brings up their Qi and Blood energy, the energy will naturally climb up through the meridians along the back spine and it first reaches the waist area. When it is trying to break through the blocked Qi and Blood in the waist area, there will be some waist pain coming out first. This is a very good sign. Sensitive people can feel it and should conduct it positively through continuous meditation and back spine stretch.

Blocked Qi and Blood cause chronic pains, and to kill these chronic pains, it has to take some pains.

The waist, kidney, and the belly button where the human life connects with its mother’s before birth, are at the same area on the body, which is related to the vitality and creativity of life. The solar energy in the water of human life represents the natural vitality and creativity of human beings. Taking care of our waist, kidneys and reproductive system is related to personal health and human development. Taking care of our waist, kidneys and reproductive system is the foundation of taking good care of our water of life and fire of life energies.

The Yang Qi climbing up along the back spine, after passing the lumbar, above the belly button, it arrives at the bottom of the thoracic where the stomach, spleen, and liver are. This is the area where body Qi connects directly to the external energy supplies that come from nature to supplement the human body’s needs at the material level. Maintaining a good digestive system means having good materialized connections between the human body and nature.

Then the Yang Qi energy continues to rise and begins to touch the perceptual side of the world. At this stage, love from the heart becomes an unconditional link between self and the world. Through perceptual contact with the world, humans begin to experience the diversity and complexity of the world with their hearts, through love, or on the contrary, hatred.

As there is love, there must be hatred. The relationship between love and hatred is like Yin gives birth to Yang, and Yang will produce Yin. Neither of them can exist without the other’s existence.

In a world full of love, mankind is full of joy, gratitude, happiness, and meaningful true self-love. The heartbeat is consistent and resonates with the frequency of the world, and the positive energy of love emits a warm light brightening the world. It fires more love.

And at the same stage in this perceptual world, negative energy as the inseparable opposite of love also begins to emerge. With the appearance of hatred, humans have a series of complex feelings, such as sadness, anger, jealousy, betrayal, fear, loneliness, etc.

How does Mother Earth deal with her energy at heart? Mother Earth loves her children unconditionally.

Humans eat her, use her, dig her deep to obtain coal, extract her body oil, use her essence stores and natural gas Qi, destroy her soil, pollute her water resources, harvest from her but excrete to her, dump the garbage to her, consume, pollute and destroy her air… maybe also think of “leaving” her by collecting energies and resources from her which in fact is destroying her…

She accepts everything humans do to her with a broad heart. She provides her air for human’s breath; she provides her skin soil to grow food and green forests; she provides her water, oil, and blood for human to drink and live… She washes pollution with clean water, digests garbage with soil, filters and reproduces air with plants… She gives her core energy to support human society’s development; she gives her resourse for human’s dream of immigrating to other planets. After endlessly giving and accumulating too much negative damages in her body, will Mother Earth get sick too?

Read More on spine health and Mother Earth…

Meditation Postures and Energy

Yoga meditation is an effective way to awaken the vitality of the fire energy of life deep under the body’s north sea. According to legend, there are about 84,000 different Yoga postures. Enlightened and became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree, Shakyamuni maintained in only one posture, meditation. Meditation is also a basic Taoist practice. The perfect pose, the diamond pose, and the lotus pose are the most practical meditation postures.

The Sanskrit of the perfect pose is siddhadasana. Siddha means “mastery” and “expert” and also refers to demigods. In their culture, Siddha possesses supreme purity and sacredness. And Siddha also possesses supernatural powers, the magical power of Yoga. Siddha also refers to respected saints, prophets, and sages.

This perfect asana is one of the most relaxing meditation postures in Yoga. It requires the opening pubic area and places the Qi and Blood of the lower limbs in a semi-locked state. The locked Qi and Blood are concentrated in the abdomen so that the Qi and Blood circulation in the abdomen and waist is strengthened, and the reproductive system and digestive system are nourished.

The diamond pose, also called the knee sitting pose, means Vajrasana in Sanskrit. Vajra stands for diamond or thunder and lightning. The diamond pose almost locks all the Qi and Blood of the lower limbs and puts pressure on the thighs, knees, calves, ankles, and insteps. With almost half of the body’s nerve, Qi and Blood locked and centered in the abdominal area, this posture can do a lot benefits to the human body:

Stimulates the stomach meridian, liver meridian, lung meridian in the lower limbs, so that it strengthens the spleen, promotes food digestion, nourishes the stomach, and smoothes the liver Qi.
Nourishes the waist, treats waist pains, and strengthens the control of the spine.
Relieves knee pain, prevents knee arthritis, and increases the elasticity and flexibility of knees and ankles.
Opens up the meridians of the lower limbs, and opens the microcirculation of the feet, and expels the Yin stasis in the lower limbs and feet.
Locks the Qi and Blood deep in the abdomen, nourishes the reproductive system deeply, and mobilizes the body’s Yang Qi energy.
Drives away the devil in the heart and calms the mind.

People with knee and ankle problems are not recommended to practice the diamond pose. They can try the easier perfect pose.

The lotus pose, also called the Padmasana, is more than the combination of perfect pose and diamond pose. It not only locks the whole lower limbs’ nerves, Blood, and Qi, opens the pubic area, but also twists the lower limbs muscles, tendons and ligaments. It greatly slows down the blood flow in the legs, and a large amount of blood will be supplied to all the organs of the abdomen and chest. The nerves in the lumbar spine, sacrum, and hip bone are the first to benefit so that the central nerve is nourished and the entire nervous system is rejuvenated. It enables people to sit for a long time but staying still and alert. It relieves muscle tension and lower blood pressure. It can improve the flexibility of the legs, ankles, and hips, make the legs and the hips soft, and the entire lower limbs Qi and Blood flow very smoothly.

Not all the poses are practical to all people. Start with the simplest posture and the ones that suit the body is the best strategy.

A simple meditation posture can improve the body’s Qi and Blood, smooth the meridians, refresh the brain, and nourish body Yang energy. Just like the “Yi Jing” states: there are great principles in simplicity.

According to the philosophy of Yoga, there are 72,000 meridians (Sanskrit nadi, meaning meridians, and channels) in the body, and the Qi of life (Sanskrit Prana) circulates in these meridians. The meditation postures help clear these meridians and make them unobstructed.

Some scholars have verified that the term pyramid originated from ancient Greek, meaning “the fire of the center.” There is a saying in ancient Greeks that a geometric pyramid can gather cosmic energy and is an energy harvester. Modern science uses different terms to describe it: energy resonator and amplifier.

More secrets of the pyramid are to be revealed. But, when we meditate, with the whole body shaped like a Pyramid, we set our body as a static energy collector that stimulates the source of life and gathers cosmic energy. We “block” mouth and ears, “close” eyes and nose, focus all attention on the slow breath, adjust the energy frequency of the body to be similar or consistent with the frequency of the universe.

Centered on the belly button, our innate opening to the universe, are the internal organs, the abdominal area, and the waist, harvesting energy stimulated and collected through meditation.