The Metal Element- Autumn- The Lungs

with ROGER GREEN

Season: Autumn
Shapes: Circular shapes
Color: White
Taste: Pungent and Spicy
Energy: Strong, continued contraction as energy is drawn more strongly from the external
parts into the centre. Soft, leafy forms fall and are drawn down deep into the earth in the
form of minerals and nutrients. The harvest is completed, the fruits of the previous cycle
stored and consolidated.
Organs: Lungs and Large Intestine (Colon)
Emotion: The ability to experience grief, clinically: too much sadness, depression. Positive:
the ability to be positive and problem solve in life situations - on a 24 hr 7 days a week
basis!
In the Body: The blood needs to be thickened in preparation for the cold of winter, and a
more sober, reflective attitude stabilizes and supports the lungs and large intestines. Root
vegetables, reflecting the now dominant descending force, strengthen and tone the large
intestine, while the smaller, hardy leafy greens and pungent tastes like ginger help cleanse
the lungs from any excess yin taken in summer, usually expressed as mucous.
Cooking: Stewed, baking, long sauté, boiling, kimpira and nishime styles etc, with thicker
cuts, such as fat diagonals, roll cut etc. A little more salt/seasoning can be used now.
Emphasis on root vegetables.
Metal element vegetables: Carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede (and their greens), onion,
dandelion greens, leeks, brussels sprouts, broccoli, pumpkin, burdock (where available),
daikon, red radishes, apple and hard pears, raisins and other dried fruits, roasted nuts and
seeds.
Sound: Weeping
Smell: Rotten
Sense Organ: Nose
Sense: Smell
System: Respiration
Tissue: Skin and Teeth and hair of the body
Emotion: Grief
Climate: Dryness
Time of day: 3am-7pm LU and LI meridians
Planet Venus
Direction West
Development Concentration
Manifests the Po Po means instinct, and is one of the ‘spirits’ that is manifested
by the organs.
THE LUNG
• The Judge, in control of jurisdiction
• The master of chi (taken from Heaven)
• Moves things down, descends chi to kidney
• Healthy lung = smooth breathing
• Unhealthy lung = interrupted breathing
• Moves and adjusts water canals, readjusts fluid in the body
• Rules skin and hair on body (i.e. not head) Skin is related to Wei chi (protective
energy), keeps pores closed
• When lungs good, body has good resistance to colds
• The lungs open to the nose therefore the throat is the door to the lung.
• Ruled by the Heaven Trigram from the I Ching
• Zhen qi originates in the lungs
• Respiration
• Descending and Dispersing
• Descending function causes inhalation
• Dispersing function causes exhalation
• Controls the release of Wei qi on to the surface of the body
• Moves and adjusts the water channel
• Sends fluid down to the kidney
• Disperses fluid through sweat
• Welcomes damp from the spleen
• Rules the External Body
• Sheen of skin and hair
• Regulates opening and closing of the pores
• Controls release of Wei qi
• Rules the Voice
• Opens at the nose

The lung is the lid of the five organ networks. It produces the voice, and it provides proper
moisturization to the skin. As soon as there is either internal damage due to the seven
harmful emotions, or external injury due to the six climatic influences, the rhythmical
process of inhaling and exhaling and the general qi flow between the body's inside and
outside are disturbed; the lung metal then loses its clear quality. If we want to restore purity
in the metal, we must first strive to regulate the breath. Once the breath is regulated, erratic
movement will not occur and the heart fire will calm down all by itself.

Each flavor is beneficial to its corresponding organ

Wood SOUR LIVER, GALL BLADDER

Fire BITTER HEART, SMALL INTESTINE
Earth SWEET STOMACH, SPLEEN, PANCREAS
Metal PUNGENT LUNG, LARGE INTESTINE
Water SALTY BLADDER, KIDNEY

By the same token, too much of one taste will injure the corresponding organ, hence the
” Nei Ching' says: - "The sour taste nourishes the liver, and again, the sour flavor can injure
the liver" (in excess).”

Water produces wood, or vegetation

Floating energy ... beginning to expand in a horizontal direction.
Wood provides fuel of the fire
Upward energy ... more animated, rising and expanding (gaseous).
Fire generates soil or ash
Active energy ... moving in all directions (plasmic).
Soil condense into metal
Downward energy, beginning to condense.
Metal melts and rusts into water
Energy in its most condense state.
A TOUGH METAL GIVES YOU A LONG LIFE

John Robbins inherited much of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain wealth. He rejected this
and devoted himself to promoting natural health and other causes he believed in. Isn’t it
nice to see someone with character? He wrote a fine book called Healthy at 100 about diet,
lifestyle, health, and longevity. John covers four different cultures and what we can learn
from them. The first three are very poor, while the fourth (Okinawa) is more technological.

The Abkhasia people in the Russian Caucasus mountains are known for their long life and
excellent health. They work hard all their lives as they must just to survive. Family life is
close and old age is respected. They eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, and nuts. Their staple is
corn porridge. They do drink a fermented milk beverage called matzoni. They keep working
well into their eighties.

The Villacamba in Ecuador are very similar. They work hard just to survive. They eat
grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans. They have very little sickness such as cancer,
diabetes, and heart disease.

The Hunza of Pakistan eat quite a bit of local fruit along with vegetables, grains, and beans.
They work all their lives mostly growing food. Family life is strong and close. Their caloric
intake is very low.

What do these three cultures have in common? They eat small amounts of animal foods
and when they do- its wild. They eat whole grain, beans, vegetables, nuts, and fruits. About
70% of their diet is from complex and whole carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are
almost unknown. They all eat less than 20% fat calories and these come from vegetables
basically. They eat no desserts. Foods are not refined. They eat a very low calorie diet of
2,000 calories or less even though they work from childhood to old age in their agrarian
cultures. Obesity is unknown. Serious illness is like cancer and diabetes and heart disease
are far less common there. These people are poor, they all do physical labor, they lack
doctors (much less hospitals), and they lack central heating and plumbing. Contagious
disease is a problem due to sanitation. They walk everywhere they go.

Who are the longest-lived people in the world? The 1.4 million Okinawa’s in Japan. Even
though they comprise 1 in 5,000 of the world population, they have 15% of the super-old
that have reached 110 years of more. This is an overrepresentation of 75,000 times!!! Let‚s
say that again 75,000 times more people over 110. They eat more soy foods (12% of their
diet) than anyone else, which proves soy is good food. They eat grains, beans, vegetables,
fruits, and seafood. They eat almost no animal foods, less than 2,000 calories a day, and
less than 20% fat calories. The eat a lot of fish soup!

Let‚s look at the richest country in the world- America. One half of those over 65 have TWO
or more chronic illnesses. 95% of those over 65 have arthritis. One quarter of those over 65
are so sickly they are impaired. Half of Americans over 85 have Alzheimer’s (the senility
rate makes this much worse). We have some of the highest cancer, diabetes, and heart
disease rates in the world. We‚re overfed and undernourished. Our quality of life as we age
is generally terrible. We spend more on medical care per person than any other country,
but almost nothing on natural health and prevention. We eat twice the protein we need,
42% fat calories, 160 pounds of sugars, and almost no whole grains. Not only do we have
to eat more wholesome food, but also we need more exercise. Since few of us do physical
labor for a living that means walking, going to the gym, or whatever you have to do. You
must be physically active to be healthy. There is a lot we can learn from these cultures.
This is a fine book to read.
The basis to a long life without disease is simple- however it takes the average student 1
year to get it- that’s why our Academy Healing Nutrition training is 1 year- it takes a lot of
input to break your in-grained habits!

The basis is this- eat a mineral rich diet- minerals represent the
METAL ELEMENT

Avoid eating too many foods that take your METAL AWAY!

THE ACADEMY HEALING NUTRITION bases it’s training on time-tested traditions

of food and self-healing - we do not focus on new trendy diets. Our focus is
Traditional Chinese Medicine, Macrobiotics, and Ayurvedic, The Principles of the
Weston A Price Foundation and scientifically proven supplements and hormones.

Dr. Weston A. Price was one of the major nutritional pioneers of all time.

Notes on Dr Price with Ilanit Tof / Roger Green -Academy faculty members:
He was a dentist around 1900 who noticed something that health care practitioners still try
to deny today: that with the introduction of processed food, health started to decline.

Specifically, Dr. Price noticed an incredible increase in tooth decay when people began
eating processed foods. When he began his journey around the world, he found that, as he
suspected, native people who were still eating their traditional diets had nearly perfect teeth.

I am constantly amazed at how powerful a predictor of health your teeth are. When I have
seen chronically ill patients with nearly cavity-free teeth, I am encouraged that they will
likely get well quickly. If, on the other hand, their mouths are full of fillings and root canals,
the prognosis is not as good.

Dr. Price also used teeth as an indicator of overall health, and his classic book Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879838167/optimalwellnessc

Is full of wonderful pictures documenting the perfect teeth of the native tribes he visited
who were still eating their traditional diets.

The Price-Pottenger Foundation <http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/ppnf/>

Is one of the two primary organizations that promote the work of this great scientist.
Interestingly, they just converted thousands of Dr. Price's previously unpublished research
photos from around the world, and they plan on releasing that soon.

They also have an amazing archive of books that Dr. Price and many others wrote and hope
to have Google digitize them and make them available.

Dr. Price was a dentist so he focused on dental health, and he found that native people
eating native diets did not get tooth decay.
The Healthy Ingredients of Native Diets

What makes Dr. Price's work so incredible is that even though it was written in 1920, it is
still very true today. That is one of the signs of a health truth: it lasts for many years. If it
was true in 1907 in should be true in 2007.

Dr. Price noticed some similarities between the native diets that allowed the people to thrive.
Among them:

The foods were natural, unprocessed, and organic (and contained no sugar except for the
occasional bit of honey or maple syrup).

The people ate foods that grew in their native environment. In other words, they ate locally
grown, seasonal foods.

Many of the cultures ate unpasteurized dairy products, and all of them ate fermented foods.

The people ate a significant portion of their food raw, but there was always cooked food in
all of these peoples of longevity.

All of the cultures ate animal products, including animal fat and, often, full-fat butter and
organ meats.

When Dr. Price analyzed his findings, he found that the native diets contained ten times the
amount of fat-soluble vitamins, and at least four times the amount of calcium, other
minerals, and water-soluble vitamins as that of Western diets at that time.

Their diets were also rich in enzymes because they ate fermented and raw foods (enzymes
help you to digest cooked foods).

Another major factor that made the native diets so healthy was that their intake of omega-3
fats was at least ten times higher than in today’s diet. Regular readers of the newsletter
know that today most people’s ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats (from vegetable oils) is far
from the ideal 1:1 ratio of our ancestors.

Today, most people eat far too many omega-6 fats and far too few omega-3 fats, leading to
a ratio that's more like 20:1 or even 50:1!

How YOU Can Take Advantage of Dr. Price's Pioneering Work

Even though we live lives that are far different from those of our ancestors, you can still
benefit from their traditional diets by making some simple changes in your own life.
THE LUNGS

Chinese legend tells us that the ancient Taoist legendary emperor Fu Hsi studied the
patterns of change and interaction in all phenomena, and decided that they could be
resolved into two basic forces - yin and yang, the expansive and the contractive tendencies.

Looking at humanity on the earth, he discerned these two corresponding sets of influences -
the 'heavenly influence' or the effect of high frequency radiation coming to us from other
planets, stars, constellations, galaxies and even beyond, and the 'earthly influence' or the
force which moves generally in the opposite direction, originating in the centre of the earth
and appearing in more mundane forms such as weather conditions, temperature, wind,
humidity and so on. The first is more centripetal, also being evident as gravity, while the
second is generally centrifugal. However- each contains both tendencies. The two patterns
of energy meet near the earth's surface and act there on human beings. The five
transformations are merely subdivisions of the two basic yin and yang tendencies.

This is the qi structure of the body, the way it is made up of yin and yang energies. For
example, the lungs are located in the upper portion of the body. What force is predominant
in this pair of organs? Of course everything has been made by both Heaven's and Earth's
force, or as we say, yin and yang. There is nothing that is made by Heaven's force alone,
otherwise it would become bigger and bigger, expanding to the point where it was infinitely
large, and there was no phenomena at all, merged with infinity itself! And there can be
nothing that is made exclusively by Earths force. If there were, it would become smaller and
smaller until it was totally concentrated into a point, like a black whole sucking in all
vibrations and matter in its presence.

So, because there is phenomenon, we know that Heaven and Earth's forces exist together.
But the proportion of these forces varies in each thing. Some things have more Earth's force
and some things have more Heaven's force. The difference between things is a matter of
the degree in which these two forces exist. It is very interesting that nothing has the exact
same proportion of Heaven and Earth's force. So everything appears different and there is
nothing identical. Of course there are very similar things existing in this life. Human beings
appear very similar in comparison to cows or crocodiles, yet among human beings, there are
three or four billion now on this earth, and yet there are no two exactly the same. Already
there birth dates are different, their birth times are different, the places where they were
born are different, and their activity and so on are all different.

So obviously, no one is identical (have you noticed, that among all the different races from
all the different climatic and environmental/geographical and food pattern zones in the world
- humans have the same teeth structure, which forms the basis of the macrobiotic dietary
principles). Everyone is made up of a combination of Heaven and Earth's forces and the
difference between them is only in the proportion of these two universal tendencies.

Therefore, Heaven’s does not make the lungs or Earth's force alone. Both forces must be
there, but one force is more dominant and one is less dominant. Now, within the lungs
which force is stronger? Its location- higher up in the body is dominated by heavens force-
relative to the lower organs in the body. Of course the lungs are still called a yin organ i.e.
solid and blood filled.

It is interesting to note: Metal presents iron- because the lungs are full of iron and blood- we
can then attract oxygen and other gasses into our blood and body- from the universe-
creating our spirit and consciousness.
Earth's force enters the body through the feet (YIN PATHWAYS) and the area of the sexual
organs, meeting at the 'HARA' region (just below the navel) called the Tan-Den in the orient.
From there Earth's force travels up along the spiritual channel, which is deep within the
body. Of course it does not move in a straight line the Earth is rotating, so this force comes
up in a rotating pattern.

Then, towards the upper part of the chest and the body, we have the heart. What force
governs the heart? You know that the heart has two regions. So each region of the heart
must be a little different, although as a whole the heart is working as a unit. One side of the
heart is taking in or gathering blood from the body and sending it to the lungs: the other
side is sending blood out to the body after it comes from the lungs, where it receives
oxygen. Also, the heart is receiving a strong charge of Heaven and Earth's forces from the
spiritual channel, which it distributes through the blood to the trillions of body cells. So we
can see that, although the heart is one unit, each side is functioning differently. That means
that the side taking blood from the body is working which way, more yin or more yang?
Since it is more gathering, that means taking from the periphery toward the centre, it is a
yin function; but the heart must become yang, more expanded structurally to do this? And
the side that is sending blood from the heart to the body is functioning in a yang way, yet its
structure must be yin, or compacted to do this. So the heart is both Heaven's and Earth's
forces working. But as a whole, which force is stronger? Which force is a little bit larger?
Heaven's force is a little more, so the position of the heart is a little more up- and higher in
the body- receiving heavens charge more- and making the heart and lungs physically the
most active compact yin organs

The Heart and Lungs are considered the organs of the UPPER HEATER- in terms of the San
Cai- the three treasures

THE PATHWAYS

The lung meridian begins deep in the region of the solar plexus and runs down to the
transverse colon of the large intestine (the yang organ paired with the lung). It returns
upwards, divides, and enters the lungs, then re-unities at the throat. From the throat, it
goes in toward each shoulder where it surfaces in the hollow region near the front of the
shoulder. It then passes over the front of the shoulder and flows along the front outer
aspect of the arm to the base of the thumb, where it crosses the muscle of the thumb and
finishes at the outer corner of the base of the thumbnail.

The lungs rule Qi. They receive, transform and distribute Qi through the body. The Qi goes
to the surface of the body as a defense through the channels to nourish and energize
everything, to the kidneys where the surplus post-natal Qi is stored.

When the lungs are weak and are unable to supply adequate Qi for defense on the surface f
the body, external pathogens such as wind and cold can invade. This according to TCM is
how we catch a cold.

Chronic deficiency of the lungs usually leads to general tiredness, a pale complexion and
sometimes breathlessness. When the lungs are unable to circulate Qi, it accumulates
producing a tight, chest, cough and or asthma.
LUNGS

Functions

1. Ruling Qi.

2. Governing Respiration.

3. Dispersing and Descending

4. Moving and Adjusting the Water Channels

5. Ruling the Exterior of the Body.

6. Opening into the Nose.

7. Manifesting in the Body Hair.

The lungs are traditionally referred to as the "tender organ" or "delicate organ" as they are
the yin organs most vulnerable to invasion by external influences, because they are in direct
contact with the outside world. As the lungs form a lid on top of the thoracic cavity, the Nei
Jing refers to them as the "Lid on the Yin Organs".
The lung meridian begins deep in the region of the solar plexus and runs down to the
transverse colon of the large intestine (the yang organ paired with the lung). It returns
upwards, divides, and enters the lungs, then re-unities at the throat. From the throat, it
goes in toward each shoulder where it surfaces in the hollow region near the front of the
shoulder. It then passes over the front of the shoulder and flows along the front outer
aspect of the arm to the base of the thumb, where it crosses the muscle of the thumb and
finishes at the outer corner of the base of the thumbnail.
1. Ruling Qi

The lungs are responsible for taking Qi. from the air and for the energy state of Qi in the
body. Through their function of dispersing and descending, the lungs inhale clean Qi to
supply the body's functions, and exhale waste Qi. This process is known as "getting rid of
the stale and taking in the fresh." As the function of the lungs greatly influences the
functional activities of the whole body, the lungs are said to dominate the Qi of the entire
body. TCM maintains that the lungs can promote the diffusion of Qi (vital energy, air) blood
ad body fluid into every portion of the body internally and externally.

2. Governing Respiration

Zong Qi pushing Qi of the chest gathers in the chest to form the "Sea of Qi". This process is
responsible for the activities of respiration and heartbeat, and aids the lungs in the
circulation of Qi and the heart in the circulation of blood. If Zong Qi and lung functions are
good, then the respiration will be smooth ad regular. Dysfunction of the lung or Zong Qi can
lead to tightness of the chest, nasal obstruction, coughing and expectoration; and dispersing
and descending functions may be affected.

3. Dispersing and Descending

These two functions are primarily concerned with the movement of Qi and body fluids. The
effect of the dispersing, disseminating and circulating function of the lungs is to spread Qi
throughout the body. Zhen Qi -- true Qi formed in the lungs -- has two facets: Wei Qi,
which is protective Qi; and Ying Qi, which is Nutritive Qi. The lungs assist the dispersal of
Wei Qi through the muscles and skin, mainly outside the system of channels including the
system of channels carrying blood.

The dispersing action of the lungs also helps spread the body fluids throughout the body,
moistening and nourishing the skin and muscles when flowing with the Wei Qi, the organs,
joints, brain and orifices flowing with the Ying Qi.

As the lungs are the uppermost Yin organ in the body, the tendency would be for the
movement of lung Qi to travel downwards. As mentioned in lesson 4, the lungs send Qi
down to the kidneys, which hold it down. If the lungs are not sending down properly, or the
kidneys are not holding it, the Qi "rebels" upwards, which interferes with the dispersing
function of the lungs and the proper rhythm of respiration. The lungs take in Qi from the air
and send it down by their descending property -- inhalation. The discriminating property is
what allows the exhalation to occur, letting out the impure air. When an imbalance occurs,
or there is an obstruction within the lung's energy, impairing the descending or
dissemination functions, symptoms such as a cough, dyspnoea (breathing difficulty) asthma
or chest distension may result.

The lungs also liquefy the impure fluids and send them down to the kidneys for excretion.
The kidneys vaporize a part of the body fluids and send this part back to the lungs. Failure
by the lungs to send down the impure body fluids results in oedema.

4. Moving and Adjusting the Water Channels

The lungs circulate water through the body as they circulate Qi in a downward direction.
There are two pure parts, which circulate as vapor. The lighter portion goes to the skin and
muscles, the denser portion to the interior of the body, as discussed in Section 3 above on
dispersing. The impure portion is liquefied and sent down to the kidneys in the descending
function.

5. Ruling the Exterior of the Body

Because the lungs are the yin organ in most direct contact with the outside world, they are
the organ most easily affected by invading diseases. In addition, because they have the
function of dispersing Wei Qi through the muscles and nourishing the skin as mentioned
above, they regulate perspiration and the body's ability to resist disease from external
sources. For these reasons, if the lung energy is weak, the body becomes more susceptible
to external disease.

6. Opening into the Nose

If the lung energy is weak, there may be difficulty with speaking, as well as blockage or
inflammation in the nose or throat, the gateway to the lungs.

7. Manifesting in the Body Hair

The condition of the lungs is also apparent from the condition of the skin, body hair and
sweat glands, as these are all under the control of the lungs. If lung energy is low, the skin
may be rough, dry and unhealthy-looking, body hair may be dull and lack sheen, and there
may be insufficient or excess perspiration.

Lungs
Of all the organs, the lungs are most susceptible to outside evil.

External Lung Disharmony (Cold, Heat, Damp, Dryness, in combination with

Wind)

Tongue: Red tip

Pulse: On the surface/superficial

Symptoms: Coughing, plus the following symptoms, as applicable

o Heat: signs of heat

o Cold: signs of cold, tight pulse, watery tongue, clear watery

expectoration

Recommended Foods for Lung Wind Cold: Meat broths, Porridges, Soups, Strong broth
of fresh ginger to induce sweating

Internal Lung Disharmony

Tongue: Greasy thick

Pulse: Slippery

Etiology: Chronic dampness and mucous seriously affect the ability of the lungs to breathe.
This happens when patient has mucous stored in lungs (a cold condition).
Symptoms: Reoccurring cough, wheezing, chest feels full, symptoms are deeper in the
body and lungs, symptoms worsen when lying down, chronic bronchitis, asthma, Jin Ye (the
body fluids that the lungs control) suffers and results in dryness1.

Recommended Foods for Damp Lung Conditions Dried daikon, Garlic, String beans,
Jobs tears, Mustard greens, Strawberry kanten, Lotus root tea w/ ginger & cinnamon.

Lung Yin Deficient

Pulse: Thin, fast

Symptoms: Thin body, coughing, dry cracking mouth, similar to dryness but much more
chronic, related to old illnesses, low voice, afternoon fever, night-sweats, red cheeks. TB

Recommended Foods for Lung Yin Xu: Almond milk, Apple, Apricot, Avocado, Banana,
Barley malt, Bunya nut, Chicken broth, Chicken eggs, Clam, Cucumber, Dairy (i.e. yoghurt),
Fig, Flake, Irish Moss, Mulberry, Mutton, Octopus, Peach, Peanut, Pear and apple syrup,
Persimmon, Pine nut, Radish, Rice in congee form, Seaweed, Tangerine, Walnut,
Watercress, Watermelon, Yams, raw milk cheese, carp fish blood (traditional Japanese
folklore cure for TB)

Lung Qi Deficient

Pulse: Weak (no qi)

Tongue: Pale

Symptoms: Body weak, lack of qi (lungs moves the qi), low voice, doesn’t want to speak,
related to Wei qi—person is susceptible to cold and experiences spontaneous sweating.

Recommended Foods for Lung Qi Xu: Barley malt, Carrot, Celery seeds, Congee, Fresh
ginger, Garlic, Grapes, Rice, Jobs tears, Kohlrabi, Mango, Marjoram, Mushrooms, Mustard
greens, Olives, Papaya, Peaches, Peanut, Pork, Tuna, Pumpkin, Yams, Honey (if no sputum
present).

Colon/Large Intestine
The colon moves the dregs and makes feces.

Colon Damp Heat

Pulse: Slippery fast

Tongue: Yellow green

Symptoms: Urge to have bowel movement but feels worse after, stool may have pus or
fresh red blood, stool feels like it doesn’t come out, dysentery.

Colon Intestinal Abscess (Appendicitis)

Pulse: Fast

Tongue: Red, yellow moss

Symptoms: Urgent pain, patient resists touch, fever may or may not be present.

Colon Fluid Wasted (Deficient)

Pulse: Thin

Tongue: Red, body of tongue is dry

Symptoms: Chronic constipation with signs of dryness is related to empty blood and or yin
spleen. Exhausted fluids of the colon are basically translated as constipation.

Etiology: Deficient fluids are caused by the inability of the spleen to transform and
transport qi and blood to all of the organs. So the main underlying problem is
empty/deficient qi or empty/deficient yang affecting the spleen.

Empty Colon Qi

Pulse: Weak and slow

Tongue: Pale

Symptoms: No appetite (no power to transform), distention in abdomen, watery stool,

discomfort after food

Empty Colon Yang (Progressive State of Empty Spleen Qi)

Pulse: Slow

Tongue: Watery, edema, excess saliva

Symptoms: Limbs cold

AUTUMN AND ITS RECIPES
Notes on autumn recipes with Ilanit Tofs / Roger Green, faculty members AHN

Autumn is a time of harvesting and gathering of our energies for the colder months ahead.
This has always been a tradition of the ancients, as autumn is known as the season of
harvest. According /to traditional Chinese medicine we need to bring our energies inward
and moving it downward so as to prepare the body to /store, nourish, support and
Build our organs, fluids and blood.

This is the essence of our energy, so we must aim for balance. After summer, autumn is the
time to clear excess heat from the body and then, as the temperature becomes cooler, it is
time to start warming the body internally and externally from the changing weather.

So what to expect in autumn. Windy and cooling temperatures pushes our energies
downward / in much the same way as nature does to the deciduous trees which loose there
leaves because of the strong drying winds. According to TCM, Wind is a major cause of
disease as it can cause the body to become dry also wind can often lead other pathogens
such as heat and cold into the body. Any internal blockages can create internal wind that
disturbs the liver, which can further affect our energy and emotional wellbeing; such are the
effects of the changing seasons.

The function of the stomach and intestines often becomes deficient in autumn. Gastro-
intestinal diseases are common, we need to take care and eat well, and this will bring
balance so we avoid sickness.

Dryness
Dryness is common in autumn; the organs that are mostly affected are the lungs and large
intestines. Dry lips are a sign of internal dryness. Other symptoms include dry skin.
Itchiness, wrinkles, a dry throat, a dry cough and constipation. This of course will depend on
your body type and diet.

Foods that treat dryness in autumn are moistening foods such as:
Tofu, tempeh, soy milk, spinach, barley, pears, apples, millet, persimmons, loquat, seaweed,
mushrooms, almonds, pine nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, milk, eggs, clams, crab or pork.
Dairy is very nutritious for anyone dry, thin and weak. Moderation is the key, as too much
dairy can create damp and mucous in the body.

The lung and large intestines are most vunerable in autumn. If a cough is harsh and dry
accompanied by dry throat, the /remedy for cooling the lungs are stewed apples and pears
or warm apple and pear juice, duck, flake, persimmon, celery, nori seaweed, octopus

For a lingering cough. A weak dry cough, a slightly sore throat, night sweats, thirst or
symptoms that get worse at night, the lung yin needs supporting. To nourish and moisten
the yin of the lung, try pears with apple stewed, dairy products, mutton, tangerines, pine
nuts, clams, chicken broth, yams or eggs. As long as there is no sputum you can try a little
honey in warm water to soothe the throat.

Dry constipation needs a treatment that moistens and lubricates the intestines foods that do
this are apples, bananas, clams, cheese, honey, milk, peaches, peanut oil, pears, pine nuts,
sesame oil or walnuts.
A healthy balance between the lungs and the colon will bring emotional well being. And
example of this is a person’s ability to experience and let go of sadness, and our attachment
to things.

If our lungs are strong our immune system will be strong, and that means the body’s ability
to defend and protect us against all attacks from the weather and disease-causing elements
such as the external environment. The body’s defense system is called wei qi and is yang in
nature it’s main function is to protect the skin, nose and mouth (and therefore the lungs)
from external attack by pathogens.

While lungs control wei qi, the spleen working with the kidneys creates it. Eating well will
strengthen your wei qi. Fresh ginger is warming and encourages sweating, whereas dry
ginger is warming but doesn’t induce sweating. If your wei qi is weak, try eating fresh ginger
when you are sick, to let the illness escape from the body and dry ginger between colds, to
build the wei qi. If you are getting sick regularly, avoid very spicy foods because they are
likely to encourage the body to sweat.

NOTE: Astragalus (huang qi) mixed with dang-shen (Chinese herbs) cooked in a broth may
also be helpful to build wei qi between colds.

The emotion of grief is housed in the lungs. If grief is repressed, it festers in the body and,
over time, causes the lungs to contract, which means the lungs can’t extract sufficient qi
from the air or distribute that qi around the body. The undistributed qi clogs up the lungs.
Therefore weakening the wei qi (body’s defense) etc susceptibility to viruses and pathogens.
Symptoms of asthma or chronic coughing unrelated to a cold. The large intestine may also
be connected with unresolved grief. The foods that may help clear grief are of the pungent
flavor. As well as deep breathing, meditation, counseling and exercise all contribute to
nourishing and strengthening these organs.

The lungs’ connection to the skin and we qi means that the skin reflects the condition of the
lungs and, particularly during autumn it needs to be strong enough to keep the wind out.
Some times a little more oil with sauté (quick stir fry) cooking style to give the skin more
protection. If the lungs are strong, skin will be lustrous and firm.

The pungent flavor

The food and herbs that support the lung are the pungent flavor. Pungent are yang and
ascending which means they move up into the lungs to open and clear them. Pungent also
clear wind from the body as they encourage movement and flow, also removing other
pathogens that may appear in the body.

Pungent foods are bay leaves, capers, caraway seeds, cardamom, chives, cinnamon, cloves,
cumquats, dill, fennel, leek, oregano, nutmeg, rosemary, safflower, taro, thyme, turmeric,
watercress, wheat germ, cabbage, turnip, horseradish, black and white pepper, onions,
garlic chilies, coriander, ginger dried and fresh, mustard greens, kohlrabi, kumquat,
marjoram, nutmeg, peppermint, pumpkin, red/white radish and radish leaf, red or green
pepper, sesame oil, soybean oil, spearmint, star anise, sweet basil, tobacco, wine/

The sour flavor is also included in autumn.

The expansive nature of pungent food and herbs means that, while they are important to
strengthen the lungs, they shouldn’t be overused in autumn, as remember it is a yin and
contracting time. The flavor of sour foods should also be included in the diet to help protect
the skin against attack from the wind.
Sour foods include apple, apricot, crab apple, duck, grape, grapefruit, hawthorn fruit,
kumquat, lemon, beef liver, lotus (fruit, seed, root), mandarin, mango, olive, peach, pear,
pineapple, plum, umeboshi plum, raspberry, red small bean (adzuki), star fruit (carambola),
tangerine, tomato.

Heat and phlegm in the lungs

Heat in the lungs is common in autumn, because of the recent summer heat combined with
the windy drying effects of autumn. The symptoms can include fevers with chills, red tongue
with yellow coating, dry cough, rattling cough or coughing up thick sputum, sticky phlegm
with white or yellow greasy tongue, shortness of breath, sore throat and yellow nasal
discharge. If this is how you are feeling, you’ll need foods to cool the heat and clear the
mucus. Cooked apples and pears, peaches, citrus fruits, persimmons, seaweed, mushrooms,
daikon (white) radishes, watercress, carrots, radishes, pumpkin, cabbage, bok choy,
cauliflower, chard or papayas should help to cool and clear the lungs.

If you have heat signs in autumn, such as red face or a red tongue with a yellow coat, try
congee of millet, barley or rice with watercress. Avoid warming foods such as beef, lamb,
chicken (especially fried), cinnamon, fennel, ginger (except in small amounts) and especially
coffee, onions and garlic. Always choose foods based on the season. If you have these
symptoms in winter, use pumpkin, cabbage and bok choy

Pungent flavors can be used to clear mucous from the lungs – heat signs/ are present, make
sure you use /cooling pungent /such as peppermint or chamomile. For /hot phlegm (hot
phlegm is yellow/ or /green)/, use cooling damp removers such as watercress, radish,
daikon radish, and seaweed. For cold phlegm (white), use warming damp removers such as
fennel, cayenne, garlic, onions, mustard greens, horseradish and ginger. Several foods can
be used to clear either hot or cold phlegm in the lungs, /they are potato, pumpkin, linseed,
turnip, job’s tears, barley, tuna and mushrooms. If your cough or asthma persists, see your
health practitoner.

Deficient lung yin and blood

Weak lung yin can occur after a chronic infection that has run the body down, yin deficiency
in the lungs means kidney yin is also likely to need a boost. A dry cough that rarely produces
sputum, occasional fever, frequent thirst, red cheeks and tongue, night sweats and hot
palms and soles all indicate a yin deficiency. /Eat foods that strengthen yin, especially the
yin of the lungs and kidneys and use cooking methods such as steaming and boiling. Root
vegetables such as parsnip, potato and beetroot can help nourish the *Seaweed, oranges,
pears, peaches, watermelon, soy products, green beans, pork, dairy products, eggs, oysters
and clams are all autumn yin builders. Include foods that are easy on the digestive system.
Foods that nourish the blood include figs, pears and pumpkin. Root vegetables such as
parsnip, potato and beetroot can help nourish the blood for the cooler weather.

Weak lung and immunity

Lung qi flows downwards. When lung qi is weak, the lungs don’t draw in as much air from
the environment and then they are unable to push oxygen strongly throughout the body.
This affects how energetic we feel. The other consequence of a weak lung qi is that it
doesn’t apply the appropriate force on the large intestine to assist in pushing waste out. The
result can be constipation, because the colon isn’t encouraged to let go.

Most lung problems show up as a cough or shortness of breath. If you’ve been getting colds
and flu a lot, a good tonic to boost immunity is leek soup, as it strengthens both lung yang
and wei qi (immune system). You can also try making a broth out of white onions and
unrefined brown sugar. Make sure the broth isn’t too salty as salt pushes energy down,
whereas wei qi is and upward-moving energy. Remember, these are options when you are
not well, not after you’ve already got a cold_. If you try to strengthen wei qi while you have
a cold, it locks the body, trapping the cold and making recovery much more difficult. To fight
off a cold successfully, you need to take action on the first day. Use the spring onion and
sweating technique (spring remedy for the common cold – when a cold is just starting, it’s
possible – on the first day – to stop it in its tracks before it gains strength.

3 spring onions, white parts only, coarsely chopped

2 slices ginger, 20 cent piece size
2 sprigs mint

Use only the white part of the spring onions near the roots, crush the ginger and add both
to two cups of boiling water. Bring back to the boil and simmer uncovered until the liquid
content has halved. Add mint, re-boil briefly and drink as soon as it’s cool enough. Then hop
into bed covering you warmly to enhance sweating and sweat the cold out. As soon as the
sweating stops, change your bed-wear and bedding so that you don’t get sick from being
wet and cold. Rest and recuperate eat well and get enough sleep.)

Avoiding damp in the dry season

Since the spleen and stomach may be weak in autumn, t is necessary to eat foods to ease
the digestion process. As in every season, when the spleen is unable to cope with its
workload, the result is damp. This is an excess of damp caused by a deficiency in the spleen.
Well-cooked, warm foods with vegetables and plenty of grains, such as rice, (chewed well),
are the best foods to nurture the spleen*. Dampness within the spleen can cause a thick
greasy tongue coat, feelings of heaviness, poor appetite, abdominal distension and water
stools. In autumn drain damp with mushrooms. Foods that clear damp from the lungs in
autumn are the same as those that clear phlegm from the lungs.

Dampness can affect the joints, as arthritis, or the body’s energy pathways, which can cause
slow or difficult movement or numbness. Arthritis, rheumatism tennis elbow may be caused
by dampness* *blocking the energy paths in the body otherwise known as meridians.
Symptoms of damp related meridian blockages are often aggravated by dampness in the
weather. Foods that clear meridians of blockages include black sesame seed, black
soybeans, capers, dried ginger, job’s tears barley, turnips, mulberries and pine nuts.

Green tea can help remove damp from the body through urination many Chinese people
sip green tea when they eat very fatty, damp-causing meals. This is how they obtain the
nutrition from the foods without getting too much dampness. Sipping is better than gulping
as too much liquid will flood the spleen and cause more dampness.

If you have a runny nose or a cold, have eaten dairy products excessively for most of your
life, have lung problems (such as asthma) or colon problems and a thick coating on the
tongue, you will most likely benefit from the following tea to remove damp – especially in
autumn. To half a litre of water, add a pinch of fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds (if you have a
heat signs use less fenugreek), linseed (if the the brew is too sticky use less linseed, nettle
leaf and liquorice root. Simmer for 45 minutes in a covered pot, strain and allow cooling
sufficiently to drink.

Dampness in the body clouds your enthusiasm, especially in the early stages of changing the
way you eat, and look at food. This can make it difficult to remember why you are
bothering. Because of their clearing ability, pungent foods can quickly help people who are
lacking in the energy and motivation. Something else to consider is that warm pungents,
such as onions and garlic, can increase appetite. So if you have a tendency to overeat,
choose cooler pungents.

How the organs work together in autumn

The kidneys play an important role in the health of the lungs, so looking after the kidneys
should be part of a balanced diet in autumn. The kidney qi, which is upward moving,
reaches up within the body and grabs onto the downward moving lung qi, helping the lung
qi by pulling it down. If you find your to /breath feels shallow, try eating support the kidneys
as well as the lungs. In autumn, that includes fennel, fenugreek, walnuts, millet, black
beans, sardines, lamb and salmon.

Good health in autumn sets us up for good health in winter and spring. This is especially so
with the liver. Problems with the liver are difficult to live with. For example, stagnant liver qi
can lead to depression, pre-menstrual tension, irritability, impatience, confusion and
resistance to change. The physical symptoms can include distension, burping, sighing,
tiredness or irregular periods. The liver can be too sensitive in spring to strengthen it then,
however autumn can be the perfect time and then the liver will cope better in spring. So eat
plenty of spinach and other green leafy vegetables.

Several autumn foods benefit the liver. Dill calms the liver, plums and leeks remove
stagnation and chestnuts improve blood circulation and may ease menstrual clotting.
Hypertension, which affects the heart, but usually comes from the liver, may be reduced in
autumn with persimmons.

There are other flow-on effects for the health between seasons. For instance, diarrhea
(caused by a spleen/stomach weakness) in the late summer can lead to bronchitis (caused
by lung weakness) in the autumn *this is because nutrition that should have gone to build
and support the* lungs and create we qi was lost due to the diarrhea.

What to eat in autumn

Start with foods than moisten the lungs such as apples and pears, although people with
damp should use fruit and all moistening foods sparingly. Apples, persimmons and pears
contain a lot of water, so are very good for getting rid of fire in the heart and stomach that
may be left over from summer. Lima beans and navy beans/ are good for the lungs. Use
pungent foods and herbs to stimulate and clear the lungs. Try spearmint. If you have heat in
the lungs, you’ll need to choose cooling pungent such as peppermint.

Since the digestive system is often deficient in autumn, it is important to adjust what you eat
as soon as autumn arrives. Although it might still be hot on some days, it is important to
avoid excessive intake of cold drinks and summer fruits such as melons. Otherwise, there is
a risk of damage to the stomach and spleen. Eat dark green and orange vegetables to assist
digestion. Figs are great for strengthening the stomach and spleen too. Sour and sweet
foods for autumn include adzuki beans, apples, cheese, grapes, olives and sourdough bread.
These support the spleen, while encouraging energy downwards. As the spleen and stomach
can be deficient in autumn, foods that harmonies the middle burner are very useful. Try
millet, chestnuts, rice and carrots.

Warm foods protect the liver and the whole body against the symptoms of wind because
they encourage movement and leave no opening for wind. Cold food, on the other hand,
slows the digestive process and encourages wind. If you have flatulence, eat more cooked
vegetables with some pungent to encourage the bowel to loosen and expel the wind.
Sometimes cold foods damage the digestion process and cause diarrhea. In this case, you’ll
need to follow a gentle diet of cooked vegetables until the symptoms pass. Sweet foods also
encourage wind in the body. Sinking foods, such as most seafood, push wind down and out.

In autumn, there should be far fewer salads and more soups. Soups are good in autumn for
several reasons, including the longer cooking times that mean the ingredients are easier to
digest, and the watery medium that nurtures yin. Change the way food is prepared too.

Autumn is a good time for steaming, which supports yin. Cook at low temperatures for
longer periods of time than you would for a quick stir-fry in summer. Heavy foods, such as
thick stews and soups build energy reserves for the colder months. Salt helps to moisten
dryness and sends energy downwards, so use small amounts of salt in cooking – add a
splash of shoyu (soy sauce) or use a little seaweed.

Horseradish, white pepper, onions, garlic and chillies are examples of pungent foods that
should be used sparingly as they are quite strong. Sage, raw onion and hot peppers (all very
pungent) are too extreme for people with imbalances of wind or dryness, which can be
prevalent in gentler sources. Thin, nervous or weak people and people with heat should
always stick to gentler pungents. Try basil and coriander (early in the season), bay leaves,
cabbage, capers, caraway seed, cardamon, chives, cinnamon, cloves, cumquat, dill, fennel,
ginger, leek, oregano, nutmeg, rosemary, safflower, taro, thyme, tumeric, turnip, watercress
and wheatgerm.

Energy moves down in autumn, so as the season progresses, we can eat more foods that
have downward moving energy, such as root vegetables. Seaweed, which is sinking can be
used to clear thick mucous without causing drying. Bitter foods help by bringing energy into
the lower body too. Bitter strengthens the kidneys and lungs, and as bitter also drains damp
and is cooling, bitter foods are especially good for clearing up yellow phlegm in the lungs.
Examples of foods that are bitter and pungent include citrus peel, radish leaf, scallion, turnip
and white pepper.

Astringent and sour foods encourage contraction, which fits in with the seasonal direction
and stimulates the liver. In the liver, sour helps breakdown grease and fats. Sour
strengthens lungs and ‘grounds the heart’. Sour foods, such as the sour and pungent leek,
are appropriate for autumn which can be seen as a time of contraction. Other examples
include sourdough bread, sauerkraut, olives, pickles, adzuki beans, umeboshi plums, rose
hip tea, vinegar, yoghurt, lemons, limes, grapefruit, and sour plums and apples.

Later in autumn, cabbage supports the liver qi and relaxes the intestines, so it works with
the other ingredients to get rid of constipation without causing diarrhea. Interestingly, the
ancient Greeks thought cabbage could both prevent drunkenness and cure a hangover –
which in TCM terms are both related to the liver. Since it is always important to calm and
support the liver, nature has provided several liver supporters for autumn. To remove liver
stagnancy that is causing general frustration or blood clotting during menstruation, try
mustard greens, chestnuts, pine nuts, turmeric, cumin or ginger. Use sour foods such as
salted (umeboshi plums) or lime to reduce liver excess.

If you feel angry or have a poor appetite, it may be because the liver is heated. To cool and
detoxify the liver use plums, mushrooms or millet. Lamb, pork or beef liver congee is an
excellent way to rejuvenate your own neglected or abused liver. Chicken liver may also be
used but only if you have not signs of heat. Foods to reduce liver may also be used but only
if you have no signs of heat. Foods to reduce liver wind symptoms in autumn include celery
and pine nuts.
Pork is the most moistening meat and is very nutritious, so it’s perfect to eat in autumn.
After the yang of summer, pork enriches the yin, which in turn strengthens both blood
production and flow. Figs provide moisture to areas that tend to dry out in autumn such as
the throat. In fact all sweet-flavored foods moisten dryness to some degree. In autumn,
plums build yin and blood. It tends to balance the cooling properties of tempeh. Try tempeh
fried with mild European sausages and missed with stir-fried vegetables. In autumn and
spring, it can be cooked with ginger or other herbs to clear wind and damp.

Bok choy is helpful when the body is run-down, or when he body feels warm enough but the
hands and feet are cold. Improving circulation in early autumn will be much easier than
living with the consequences in the depths of winter. If the tongue is showing cold signs (if
it is pale or has a white coating), or you’re feeling very cold on the torso, make sure you add
ginger, garlic or meat to any meal with bok choy.

Autumn is the season for most nuts. As nuts can go rancid very easily, it is important to buy
only nuts still in their shells; however, in autumn, you shouldn’t have trouble getting fresh
nuts. Especially in the cooler months, cooked (usually roasted) nuts and seeds are easier to
digest. Nuts and seeds are a concentrated food source. They are best for people who are
weak or thin. If you are overweight or have signs of heat, such as red tongue or face, limit
the number of nuts you eat.

What's So Wild About Fermentation?

Wild fermentation is a way of incorporating the wild into your body, becoming one with the
natural world. Wild foods, microbial cultures included, possess a great, unmediated life
force, which can help us adapt to shifting conditions and lower our susceptibility to disease.
These microorganisms are everywhere, and the techniques for fermenting with them are
simple and flexible.

Wild fermentation involves creating conditions in which naturally occurring organisms thrive
and proliferate. Fermentation can be low-tech. These are ancient rituals that humans have
been performing for many generations. They are a powerful connection to the magic of the
natural world, and to our ancestors, whose clever observations enable us to enjoy the
benefits of these transformations.

By eating a variety of live fermented foods, you promote diversity among microbial cultures
in your body. Biodiversity, increasingly recognized as critical to the survival of larger-scale
ecosystems, is just as important at the micro level. Call it micro biodiversity. Your body is an
ecosystem that can function most effectively when populated by diverse species of
microorganisms. By fermenting foods and drinks with wild microorganisms present in your
home environment, you become more interconnected with the life forces of the world
around you. Your environment becomes you, as you invite the microbial populations you
share the earth with to enter your diet and your intestinal ecology.

Wild fermentation is the opposite of homogenization and uniformity, a small antidote you
can undertake in your home, using the extremely localized populations of microbial cultures
present there, to produce your own unique fermented foods. What you ferment with the
organisms around you is a manifestation of your specific environment, and it will always be a
little different. Do-it-yourself fermentation departs from the realm of the uniform commodity.
Rediscover and reinterpret the vast array of fermentation techniques used by our ancestors.
Build your body's cultural ecology as you engage and honor the life forces all around you.
The prized cultures of a San Francisco sourdough, or the finest Bleu cheese, have their roots
in wild fermentations that took place in someone's kitchen or farmhouse long ago. Who
knows what compelling healing flavors could be floating around in your kitchen?

Seasonal aspects
One of the most inspirational aspects of Chinese Medicine is discovering the connection
between the seasons and their influence on specific organ systems, emotions, and spiritual
qualities. As we begin to understand that the seasonal cycles of the Earth greatly impact our
physical and emotional lives, as well as encourage certain aspects of our healing process, we
are able to truly grasp the nuances and reflections of how our physical and emotional bodies
bring subtle, yet clear communications from our spirit.

Fall is a time of harvest; a time of gathering up in preparation for winter. Seeds are ready
for sowing and it is the beginning of a turning inward for reflection. Autumn is associated
with the “Metal Element”, which is represented by the Alchemist archetype, as it is the most
revolutionary of all of the five elements. It is characterized by expansion, contraction, and
transformation on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.

The Metal element within is the part of us that seeks perfection of form and function. It is
our inner disciplinarian and perfectionist. It is that which desires justice and is the defender
of virtue, honor, principle, and moral values as well as art and beauty. The metal element is
that which evokes inspiration, awe, and reverence; and hearing the voice of the metal
element is a calling of us back into sacredness. It brings forth a longing to find value and
meaning in what we do; to know our purpose and who we are. It is the seeker within. It is
the aspect of our being which possesses an unquenchable thirst for spirit and for true quality
of life.

In the physical body the metal element is associated with the lungs and the large intestine,
(as well as the pertaining sense organs of the nose, throat, and skin). The expansion and
contraction energy of these two organs is what joins them as a pair; both expanding and
contracting; but one in a receiving manner and the other in a releasing capacity. The two
united symbolize the action, function, and ability of “receiving, allowing, and letting go”
physically and emotionally.

The Lungs are considered to be the Priest archetype and are the in charge of “receiving the
pure Qi from the heavens”. They hold the rhythm of the body, allowing us to receive and let
go by way of the breath. Through their in-breath, they bring that which is pure into our
bodies, allowing life to be sustained. Through the gift of life, continued moment by moment,
the lungs symbolize our connection to the divine. Throughout ancient and modern times -
yoga, most meditation practices, and many healing and spiritual disciplines focus on the
breath as a means of entering ecstatic states of divine connection, healing, and
transformation. Thus, the lungs are our link between this realm and the spirit realm, and
symbolize the life-giving divine breath within us.

The lungs also rule the exterior and protective energies of the body, guarding against
invasion of the physical and energetic bodies, and playing a large part in the strength of our
Immune system. (The skin is also said to be the third lung and is a reflection of lung and
large intestine health and cleanliness. Likewise, the nose and throat are also considered
components of the lungs and problems with any of these areas often suggest the need to
work with the metal element.

The large Intestine is said to “leave us pure and brilliant”. Through its releasing nature it
allows us let go of what is un-needed physically, allowing us to rid our bodies of unwanted
waste materials and toxins. Yet, this organ is also connected to what we are able to let go of
emotionally. One of the positive emotions associated with the Large intestine is
forgiveness…in other words, are we able let go of our issues and move on with forgiveness?
This is the question and suggestion that the large intestine brings to the autumn table. If we
listen to the symbolic language that our body and soul communicate in, we can learn a great
deal about ourselves. Symbolically speaking, the large intestine holds onto our true essence
and releases impurities, helping us to let go of old, unnecessary habits, toxic emotions, and
resistances. Through it’s action of physically releasing wastes and toxins, it represents our
capacity to let go, release, forgive, and ‘move on’ to what is physically and emotionally more
pure.

The emotional qualities associated with this season and these two organ systems are
sadness, grief, self-righteousness, strength, courage, forgiveness, and purity. When sadness
is present in our lives it affects the health and strength of the lungs. Conversely, when our
lungs are compromised due to colds, flu’s, and chronic ailments and smoking habits, they
can also generate feelings of sadness and attachment. Similarly, when we have difficulty
letting go of things emotionally the large intestine can be affected and present with
symptoms such as constipation or pain in order to reflect the need for letting go on many
levels.

Possible emotional and physical signs of an imbalanced metal element are the following:
inability to shake grief; difficulty letting go of habits, belongings, suppressed emotions, old
relationships; blocked energies in the throat chakra and difficulty speaking one’s truth, not
wanting to open, reveal or talk; cold and cutting emotional responses, lack of inspiration,
asthma, smoking habits, skin problems, constipation, frequent colds, nasal and throat
disorders, allergies, dry skin, throat, intestines, emotions; pneumonia, sadness, depression,
attachment and addiction, crying a lot.

Fall is the perfect time to nourish the Metal element, as this is the time when it is most
vulnerable to the dryness and cold of the season. During autumn, the lungs are most easily
put out of balance, are susceptible to colds and immune system deficiencies; and the large
intestine can become dry easily, thus affecting the digestive aspect of the metal element.
Similarly, one notices the influence of autumn on the pertaining sense organs by the extra
dryness of the skin, nose, and throat that often accompany the change in season.
Emotionally, feelings of sadness and grief, depression, nostalgia, and un-processed emotions
often present themselves during this time of year in order to facilitate the harvesting of the
year’s fruits, lessons, and reflections.

These particular organs, emotions, spiritual aspects are most vulnerably influenced at this
time, and yet they also respond particularly well to this season with ability to alchemically
transform. All physical and emotional qualities that have been discussed above, while
possibly being exacerbated in autumn, are also best treated in the fall because the metal
element, while being easily put off balance, can also be well strengthened and deeply
cultivated in its autumn homeland. Fall weaves itself throughout all aspects of our physical
and spiritual beings. The health or disharmony of the lungs and large intestine; sad, weepy
days; reflections on what no longer serves us; the desire to find inspiration; yearning for
sacredness and meaning…. all of these are potentially aroused during the fall …all of these
are at home in the fall…and can be healed most deeply…and most alchemically - during the
fall.

During this season, support the lungs by incorporating more Yoga, Qi- Gong, or even just
taking a few extra deep breaths throughout the day. If you have an acupuncturist, this is a
great time of year to receive treatments to tonify the lungs or cleanse the large intestine.
Nutritionally, adding protective and purifying foods to the diet can do this. This includes
pungent foods, (especially white pungent, such as onion, garlic, chive,) turnip, ginger,
radish, daikon root; dark leafy greens, such as kale, broccoli, chard, and spinach; golden,
orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, yams; seaweeds and fiber; oats, rice,
amaranth, quinoa.

As the leaves turn dry and fall silently to the ground to await the depths of winter, so we can
learn from the Mother around us. It is a time of turning inward; a time to gather what is
good, healthy, abundant and pure to our centers; a time to let go of what no longer serves
us well and release what holds us back. It is a great time of year to check in with us
regarding forgiveness, boundaries, non-attachment, our purpose, letting go, and
transformation. It is a natural time to receive what is pure and sacred from the heavens
while giving up the heaviness to the earth through the dance of embracing two polar-
opposite energies - receiving and releasing. As we step onto the harvest field of this coming
season, may we acknowledge the voices from our spirits that we find in our emotions and
bodies? May we be inspired to reflect, cultivate discipline, and artistic expression; may we
contract into our depths and expand into the purity of our beings; may we exercise the
alchemy of transformation, by treasuring what is truly sacred in our lives and hearts.

Wang Yawei, 25, has a dry and slightly sore throat when she wakes up these days, and her
voice is husky until she drinks some water.

Like many other people, Wang is used to this kind of small discomfort when autumn arrives.

Other symptoms might include persistent coughing, constipation, fatigue, and heaviness of
limbs, headache or even liver pain.

The autumn harvest means gathering nature's bounty and preparing for the winter ahead.

It's also a natural time to focus on family, school, work and home activities.

But people should pay more attention to their health during the season, many doctors and
nutritionists have warned.

In traditional Chinese medicine the body is seen as a microcosm of the natural world, waxing
and waning with the movements of the seasons. And Chinese dietary tradition focuses on
eating foods that harmonize with the season.

"When it's cool out, we need to add more fuel to the furnace," said Li Zhong, a traditional
Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor at Beijing Dongzhimen Hospital and author of "Staying
Healthy with the Seasons" published by Liaoning Science and Technology Publishing House.

Ancient Chinese believed Earth has seasonal periods when certain organs of the body are
more vulnerable and need special attention.

"Autumn especially affects our lungs and large intestine. It is important to pay close
attention to those organs and make sure they are being nourished and cared for," said Chen
Zhilie, a TCM doctor from South China's Guangdong Province.

Weather quickly turns dry when summer ends. It is usually extremely hot at noon then cools
down quickly, which reduces moisture in the air, explained Chen.
The last cycle of dampness and warmth brings fruit and vegetable crops to their final
harvesting stage, "but for people, the dryness of autumn can do damage to the lungs and
spleen if the food is unsuitable," he added.

Traditional Chinese medicine has come up with a set of guidelines to balance aspects of the
seasons and keep people healthy all year round, according to Chen.

"It is all about balancing the heat and the dampness inside people's body and abiding by the
laws of nature which are different in each season. Otherwise you get ill," he said.

In his "Bencao Gangmu (Great Compendium of Herbs)," master Chinese herbalist Li Shizhen
(1518-93) stated, "in autumn, one should eat more sour and warm foods to stay in harmony
with the downward movement of the season."

Many experts argue the autumn diet regimen aims to reduce any accumulation of energy
from the summer and to prepare the body gently for the colder, harsher season of winter.
The diet should therefore consist of warm, well-lubricated foods with a greater emphasis on
those that are sweet and sour in taste.

"Nature provides the foods that keep our bodies in balance at certain times of the year," Li
said.

Many autumn foods are rich in vitamins A, C and E, which help to protect the body from the
damaging effects of free radicals, by-products of pollution and smoke. Antioxidants also help
maintain a healthy immune system and protect us against infections such as colds and flu.

Now that the chilly winter weather is not far away, experts suggest people should
incorporate some seasonal goodies in their diet to keep themselves in good health.

Walnuts, for instance, which are coming into season, now, provide a rich source of essential
fatty acids. These fatty acids and their derivatives are important for the structure and
healthy function of the body.

Chinese yam, which contains nutrients that help restore and enhance immune functions, is
suitable for people of all ages. It can help invigorate the spleen and stomach and ward off
chronic diarrhea. It can also invigorate the lungs, relieve chronic coughing and stimulate
endocrine secretions for immune deficiency.

In Chen's food solutions, food with moderate bitter, salty and sour flavors should be
increased and hot and spicy food reduced.

As for fruits, apples, pears and grapes are recommended. It is said that fruits harvested
during this season are good for constipation and respiratory conditions.

Peach is one of the most favorable fruits in this season especially for the elderly because it
can help prevent diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

All vegetables, plus seaweed and bean curd, are favored over meat, and raw seafood should
be reduced or eliminated altogether from the menu during this period, Chen said.

"This is the season of harvest and maturity with the emphasis on the spleen, making your
digestive system vulnerable, and laying you open to melancholy.
The spleen does not like damp and cool, so the key to health and happiness in autumn is to
combat the mixed effects of heat and dryness with the right food and exercise," Chen said.

Experts suggest people can also add some medicinal plants to their daily diet to stay healthy
in autumn.

Baihe or lily bulb, for instance, is highly recommended to stop coughing and calm and relieve
the mind in order to retain good energy within the body. And yirenmi, or seeds of Job's
tears, which is harvested at the end of autumn, promotes urination and removes dampness
for edema and urinary difficulty. It strengthens the spleen and stops diarrhea.

Chrysanthemum, which can be made in tea, dessert or porridge, clears the liver and eyes.

Yang Yuexin, vice-president of China Nutrition Society, which is based in Beijing, said people
should avoid fried food and beer, which are both said to interfere with the spleen, though a
moderate quantity of wine is beneficial.

She strongly recommends radish, a vegetable that nutritionists believe is best for people in
autumn and can reduce heat and improve the conditions of lungs as well as all other organs.

Yang said when life was not so easy and rich in China, people used to believe autumn was
the time for storage of energy in order to go through the hard winter.

"However, people can eat whatever they want in all four seasons nowadays so the autumn's
storage of energy becomes unnecessary.

"As many of us begin to realize the toll on our livers and waistbands of indulgent festival
feasts such as the Moon Festival and National Day, it might just be reassuring to have some
knowledge of how to handle the transition from summer in a proper way," she said.

Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food. --Hippocrates

Reference: Macrobiotics Today

Hippocrates was a Greek physician born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece. He became
known as the founder of medicine and was regarded as the greatest physician of his time.
He based his medical practice on observations and on the study of the human body. He held
the belief that illness had a physical and a rational explanation. He rejected the views of his
time that considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits
and disfavor of the gods.

Hippocrates held the belief that the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of
parts. He accurately described disease symptoms and was the first physician to accurately
describe the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as epilepsy in children. He believed in the
natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air and cleanliness. He noted that there
were individual differences in the severity of disease symptoms and that some individuals
were better able to cope with their disease and illness than others. He was also the first
physician that held the belief that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain and not
the heart as others of him time believed.

Hippocrates traveled throughout Greece practicing his medicine. He founded a medical

school on the island of Cos, Greece and began teaching his ideas. He soon developed an
Oath of Medical Ethics for physicians to follow. Physicians take this Oath today as they begin
their medical practice. He died in 377 BC. Today Hippocrates is known as the "Father of
Medicine".

RECOMMENDATIONS

(1.) SEA VEGETABLES

Most of the American population consumes sea vegetables daily without realizing it.
They are present in ice cream, puddings, bottled sauces, and even toothpaste.
They are used to thicken products and act as stabilizers.

Unprocessed sea vegetables are a wonderful food and should really be consumed by all.
They are rich in vitamins, minerals, and protein, yet low in calories. Sea vegetables are
delicious in soups, stews, salads, side dishes, or for making sushi.

Ones to try: agar, wakame, arame, hiziki, kombu, and dulse.

(2.) BERRIES

Berries are loaded with vitamin C, folate, fiber and phytonutrients.

Indeed, fresh berries are some of the most powerful disease fighting foods available.

Berries are easy to prepare; just rinse and lightly pat dry.
They are great as a dessert, a snack, or sprinkled on top of your morning porridge.

Ones to try: raspberries, blueberries, cherries, and blackberries.

(3.) LEAFY GREEN VEGETABLES

Green vegetables such as kale, chard, collard greens, watercress, arugula, bok choy, and
dandelion greens are packed with vitamins A and C, iron, folate, beta-carotene, calcium and
phytonutrients.

They are very filling, high in fiber and low in calories.

They are also alkalizing, and create strong blood and the chlorophyll in them helps the body
purify itself.

(4.) PICKLES

Pickles contribute to the protection of the body against infections, stimulate the immune
system, improve the digestion process, and act as anti-oxidants. In addition, they also
facilitate the synthesis of certain vitamins, such as vitamin C, and B12. Overall, they are a
valuable food for any diet, even for those who suffer from candida.

In fact many naturopaths recommend raw fermented vegetables to people with candida
because one of the main functions of lactic bacteria is to prevent the development of yeasts.

Ones to try: rice bran pickles (nuka), sauerkraut, and Kim chi.

(5.) UMEBOSHI PLUM

A tart salty plum, pickled with red shiso (Japanese basil) leaves. Often called 'the king of
alkaline foods', umeboshi plums are an ancient Japanese health food used to balance and
strengthen.

Highly valued for its antibacterial properties, a digestive aid, and also for hangovers or
whenever the body feels depleted. Ideal for sushi, dips, sauces, and salad dressings.

A more convenient way to consume it is to use umeboshi plum vinegar, which is not true
vinegar but a fuchsia hued brine.

(6.) DAIKON RADISH

Native to Asia, these are very large carrot-shaped radishes.

Also called Japanese radishes, they have a white flesh that is juicy and a bit hotter
than that of red radishes but milder than that of black ones. While radishes are
not nutritionally outstanding, they are a good source of vitamin C.

They make a perfect, very low calorie snack food.

(7.) FERMENTED SOY (MISO AND TEMPEH)

Tempeh is a fermented food made from soybeans, most popular in Indonesia. The
fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of
vitamins, phytochemicals, all of the essential amino acids, as well as firmer texture and
stronger flavor than tofu.

The soy protein in tempeh becomes more digestible as a result of the fermentation process.
Because tempeh is made from whole beans, it is also a good source of dietary fiber unlike
tofu which contains no fiber.
Miso (fermented bean paste) is a concentrated, savory paste made from soybeans--often
mixed with a grain such as rice, barley, or wheat--that is fermented with a yeast mold (koji)
and then combined with sea salt and water.

The mixture is aged from one month to three years. While it is a good source of protein and
carbohydrates, miso is, nonetheless, high in sodium and should be consumed sparingly if
you are salt-sensitive.

Ones to try: sweet white, mellow white, chickpea (safe for those with soy allergies), barley
(mugi), and red.

(8.) WHOLE GRAINS (ESPECIALLY GLUTEN FREE ONES)

Whole grains have some valuable antioxidants not found in fruits and vegetables.
They also contain B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, iron and fiber. To include more
servings of whole grains in your diet, use whole-wheat flour in your recipes instead of white
flour.
Look for the word "whole" when purchasing packaged foods such as cereals, biscuits, pasta
and breads. We all tend to consume too much wheat and other grains that contain gluten,
which can cause bloating, so try to eat more gluten free grains such as: quinoa, brown rice,
millet, teff, corn, and amaranth.

(9.) SARDINES
This slender fish is packed full of important nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, protein,
and calcium. Cold-water fish, such as sardines, contain the highest amounts of heart-healthy
omega-3 fatty acids. One of the world's first canned foods, the sardine is rich in phosphorus,
iron, potassium, vitamin B6, and niacin.

Try to get the ones packed in water only without salt added. Use other fatty fish.

(10.) EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

Olive oil, a nutritionally impressive fat derived from the olive fruit, is a principal source of
dietary fat in the Mediterranean region. Numerous studies have shown that those who
consume the traditional Mediterranean diet (compared with people who consume an
American style cuisine high in saturated fat) are at decreased risk of developing heart
disease and cancer. And epidemiological studies show that they also live longer. Recent data
suggests that olive oil has anti-inflammatory benefits.

I especially like Spanish and Italian extra virgin olive oil.

(11.) CHILE PEPPERS

In addition to their high capsaicin content, cayenne peppers are also an excellent source of
vitamin A, including beta-carotene. Beta-carotene may therefore be helpful in reducing the
symptoms of asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, its antioxidant
activity make it useful in preventing the free radical damage that can lead to arteriosclerosis,
colon cancer, and diabetic complications, like nerve damage and heart disease.

If one feels a cold coming one, indulge in some hot sauce because chilies help boost
immunity and clear congestion. Lastly, chile peppers can help one lose weight due to the
fact that they temporarily evaluate the metabolism.

(12.) GREEN TEA

Besides tasting great and counting towards your daily liquid intake, green tea has many
benefits. The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly
epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer
cells without harming healthy tissue.

There are many green teas on the market. I especially like genmaicha, green tea with brown
rice.

(13.) BEANS

Black beans especially are a very good source of cholesterol lowering fiber, as are most
other legumes. In addition to lowering cholesterol, black beans' high fiber content prevents
blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making these beans an especially
good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia.

When combined with whole grains such as brown rice, black beans provide virtually fat-free
high quality complete protein. Other good varieties include: aduki, chickpea, pinto, kidney,
and navy.
(14.) SHIITAKE & MAITAKE MUSHROOMS

Most mushrooms provide a wealth of protein, fiber, B vitamins, and vitamin C, as well as
calcium and other minerals. Two species have demonstrated phenomenal healing potential:
shiitake and maitake.

These medicinal mushrooms have been shown to boost heart health, lower the risk of
cancer, promote immune function, ward off viruses, bacteria, reduce inflammation, combat
allergies, help balance blood sugar levels, and support the body's detoxification mechanisms.

(15.) NUTS

Although nuts are high in fat, the fat is mostly unsaturated fat, which has a beneficial effect
on heart health. Studies with almonds and walnuts have both shown a beneficial effect on
blood cholesterol levels. Walnuts in particular, are high in omega-3 fatty acids that are
protective to the heart and circulation. Lastly, nuts are also good sources of dietary fiber,
magnesium, copper, folic acid, protein, potassium, and vitamin E.

Try to get unsalted raw nuts and toast them yourself and sprinkle with sea salt. The salted
nuts at the store are usually too high in sodium. Ones to try: cashews, macadamias, Brazil
nuts, and pistachios.

THE SAN BAO

Everything in traditional Chinese nutrition resolves around one central idea: preserving the
San Bao. The direct translation of these words is ‘the three treasures’ and, to me, these
words - the San Bao - sound like a collection of beautiful diamonds. The treasures that the
San Bao refers to are good health, a good social life, and joy and wisdom, in other words a
healthy mental/spiritual life. To understand the meaning of the San Bao, the example of a
house is often used: the foundation represents your health. Without good health, it is hard
to maintain good social contacts and joy or spiritual health. The walls and inside of the
house represent your social life and behavior. The roof represents your mental or spiritual
life.

Preserving the source

All branches of TCM aim to maintain the San Bao in order to live a Long, Happy and Healthy
life. If we maintain the San Bao we need not drain, or nibble from, our reserves, or Jing.
The Jing is likened to the ’source’ of our well being. When we neglect our source, we
diminish our chance of a Long, Healthy and Happy life.

Building our Reserves

In order to maintain optimal health, our daily diet and lifestyle should give us enough energy
and ‘more to spare’, to get us through each day. The ‘more to spare’ goes into our Jing, or
‘reserve bank’. A strong Jing has a dual action: it bolsters our immune system and helps us
through the more challenging days of our life. When our Jing, or reserves are well
maintained, we feel well. When we become lax and begin to dip into, rather than top up, on
our reserves, we undermine our immune system and we begin to feel unwell.
EMOTIONAL ASPECT

Grief
Chronic unexpressed grief depresses the circulation of qi and blood in the upper heater,
especially the lungs. The posture of a sad person is common knowledge: head down, eyes
focused on the ground, the back bent forward and the chest depressed. This bearing
gradually “kills” the circulation of qi in the chest. Since the lungs make qi, the driving force
that circulates energy and blood throughout the body, they have to work harder and are
slowly weakened.

Like any sudden emotion, sudden profound grief will affect the weakest part of the body,
whether it is weak constitutionally or from abuse. Suddenness also always impinges the
heart, whether it is weak or strong. The effect is usually stagnation.
A seemingly unrelated complication of lung weakness caused by chronic unexpressed grief
may show up as a form of epilepsy. In Chinese medicine the lungs are actually a part of the
digestive system; they digest the excess mucous produced by the stomach and small
intestine, especially when the spleen is weak or when the person has poor eating habits. If
the lungs are weak and cannot digest the mucous, it may go to the heart, which controls the
mind, or to the pericardium.

The Metal element encompasses a great deal of issues regarding giving and taking to and
from the environment. Frequently, this element winds up depressed when there is loss or
grief. Often these emotions can be repressed and manifest in unusual respiratory difficulties,
asthmas, and frequent upper respiratory infections. Commonly, when depressed, Metal
types sigh, cry and sob, and lack a sense of boundary between the "self' and others. They
are prone to the sufferance of the world, which is termed "weltschmerz'' This is a Freudian
term that depicts the person who takes the pains and suffering of the world onto their own
shoulders. Therefore, this type of a case may also involve a sense of grieving that seems
overwhelming and all encompassing. The Metal element types are environmentally sensitive,
but are also more easily influenced in a therapeutic setting with regards to their emotional
status. They often appear with soft weak voices, and pale complexions. They are generally
of thin stature and when depressed, appear meager and weak. In many cases, these
patients will have rather clear regrets over the past and feel that there is a significant desire
to wish things could only have gone differently. These people often feel plagued by
circumstance, and therefore grieve over past issues and losses that they hang on to.

ASPECT OF THE 5 SPIRITUAL ESSENCES:

THE PO

At the core of Chinese medicine is a nearly forgotten wisdom tradition based on the ancient
art of Taoist alchemy. According to this tradition, spirit — the invisible “yang” energy of the
divine —is not waiting to be discovered after death, high up and far away in Heaven. Rather,
this energy is present, here and now, in our lives on Earth! Spirit may be hidden, yet it can
be known and worked with through its manifestation in the cycles, movements and forms of
the natural world. An understanding of the Five Spirits is the key that opens the doorway to
the mysteries of Taoist psycho spiritual alchemy.

Reference for this paragraph: The Five Spirits by Lorie Eve Dechar

The po represents the yin, materialized aspect of the soul. The po is the animating agents of
vital life processes that take place beyond our conscious awareness and control. They are
closely related to the autonomic nervous system, the sensory receptors, especially the
primitive touch responses of the skin, and the interior sense receptors of the visceral organs.
Just as the shen and the hun can be correlated with the frontal lobe of the brain and the
conscious mind and imagination, the po and the zhi can be correlated with more primitive
aspects of the brain such as the limbic system and cerebellum.

The po are our embodied knowing, our animal wit, our street smarts, the part of us that can
sniff out what’s right or wrong, good or bad, safe or unsafe. Deep below the level of our
conscious ability to articulate in words what we think about a person, place, or situation, the
po spirits already know, and whether or not we realize it, our body has begun to respond by
contracting or expanding, hardening or softening.
The po spirit are related to:

* Element: metal
* Organ: lungs (and large intestine)
* Emotion: grief
* Psychological Functions: animal wit, embodied knowing, sensation
* Psycho spiritual Issue: letting go and moving on
* Cosmological Associations: stones, gems, minerals, caves, labyrinths
* Chakra: First/Second — Matter
* Virtue: appreciation of preciousness

Signs and Symptoms of Po Disturbance Common Symptoms:

* Obsessions, depression, anxiety
* Chronic tension and pain
* Eating disorders
* Lumps and benign tumors that cannot be diagnosed
* Impaired balance, movement, coordination
* Stress related skin problems
* Asthma
* Bowel disturbances
* Restlessness during the day
* Clouded mind

Spirit Level Signs:

* A vague feeling that “something isn’t right” but no clear sense of why
* Physical pain that takes over entire life yet seems to have no identifiable cause
* Extreme sensitivity to outer influences on a psychic level; for example, other people’s
negativity “gets in” without awareness and creates somatic disturbances such as digestive
upsets, headache, etc.
* Unexpressed emotional issues and “stuck destiny”; the person doesn’t ever seem to move
on in life

Possible Causes:
* Maternal vitamin and nutrient deficiencies during gestation
* Insufficient touch and tactile stimulation during infancy
* Restrictive child raising practices that did not allow freedom of bodily movement and
expression
* Ancestral and familial issues that have been “swept under the rug”
* Early childhood abuse forgotten by the conscious mind but “remembered” by the soma
resulting in disturbances of the po in later years
* Refusal to face one’s own shadow; trying to be all goodness and light while denying
deeper layers of emotions
* Resistance to life changes crucial to one’s karmic development and destiny
* A break between the upper and lower spirits, a split between what is consciously thought
should be done and the wisdom of the body

Ways to Cultivate the Po Spirit:

The po is responsible for the five senses, the limbs, and the somatic emotional responses. In
order to cultivate this spirit, all these areas need to be addressed.
Feed the senses

* Listen to beautiful music

* Eat fresh, beautifully prepared food
* Wear colors that nourish you and complement your mood
* Keep fragrant flowers in your home and if possible in a garden or window box
* Use aromatherapy; find scents that relax and calm your body
* Take walks in places where you can feast your eyes on the landscape
* Touch and be touched by people you feel close to
* Bring your body into contact with the natural world — air, water, sunlight, and earth

Spend time with animals. Let your pet teach you about the animal soul. Watch how your cat
or dog observes and reacts to the world. Notice the life around you. Watch fish swim and
birds fly. Watch foxes, deer, mice, and rabbits. Animals reflect a part of our own wild nature,
our unconscious visceral responses to the world around us.

Practice for Healing the Po

Next time you face a difficult situation, imagine how the animal part of you would react. Stay
in communication with that animal as you deal with the situation. Ask questions of your
animal. Should I sign this contract? Should I date this person? Notice your reactions on a
body level. Are your muscles tightening or relaxing? Are you sweating or feeling agitated? Is
your skin crawling? Do you feel a sense of well being or are you ill at ease?

You may discover that your po, your animal soul, wants very different things than your shen
or conscious mind. It is imperative for our health and for the successful completion of life
projects that these spirits come into some kind of alignment. Even if you cannot react to life
purely from your animal soul, make sure to pay attention to its messages, feelings, and
responses. Acknowledge its gifts. Be deeply respectful of the body’s wisdom and desires. If
you cannot immediately satisfy the needs of the somatic soul, let the po know that you are
listening and that you will try your best to respond to it as soon as possible. In this way,
there is less likelihood that the po spirits will turn to malcontented gui who produces
depression, stress-related illness, and psychosomatic pain.

Notice where strong emotions go in your body. Is your heart beating faster? Are you
beginning to tremble or feel warm? Is your stomach tight? The po governs all the
physiological responses to emotion. As you become familiar with your body’s reactions, you
are connecting to your po spirit. Rather than trying to do anything about these visceral
reactions, practice wuwei, doing by not doing. Don’t do anything. Just be. Just breathe. You
will find that the po usually responds to your gentle awareness by calming down. Once you
are calm, ask yourself what your body needs in this moment.
* Do I need to take a walk outside alone for a few minutes?
* Do I need a glass of water?
* Do I need to stretch?
If you create this space around your emotions, you may find that an image or message
emerges from your own body. You may be surprised by what comes up.
What to Expect as You Heal and Cultivate Your Po Spirit

As you heal your po spirit you will notice changes in your life, including:

* A sense of enlivenment and a zest for life as the energies of the lower body return
* A feeling of being “back on track,” as if your life force is aligned with your goals
* Increased desire to move and explore the world
* Increased sensory acuity: music sounds are clearer, colors brighter, textures more
pleasurable, scents more noticeable
* A feeling of relief as you let go of old patterns and moves on
* More awareness of body needs and messages
* Increased inner stability and sense of solidity, you cannot be pushed over, you have a
body!

Helping the PO- Are you A Mind-Control Candidate?

Does mind-control sound like a foreboding subject that people in dark, mysterious places
practice upon unsuspecting victims? Do you read about other people’s claims with interest,
while thinking that it really has nothing to do with you? Remember, if you are reading about
it, it is in your world. If it is in your world, it is a reflection of some part of yourself or it
could not exist. So, are you a mind-control candidate for sinister forces?

To fit the profile they are looking for, you must be controllable. Are you? What does your
mind-pattern look like? Are you in control of your own life, or is your life in control of you?

If anything, anywhere controls you, you have an established mind-pattern that any force can
use and manipulate. All the force has to do is enter your auric field through this hole in your
mind-pattern. To close the holes and correct the mind-pattern, it is important to find out
what in your life is controlling you so that you can stop it.

What controls you? Is it a person? Anyone who “pulls your strings” or “pushes your
buttons” is controlling you. Anyone who you allow putting you down, or who makes you feel
like less of a person is controlling you. When you react to their manipulation, you are not in
control. The other person controls you. This could be a parent, spouse, child, relative, co-
worker, or neighbor, for example.

Do your emotions control you? When emotions are out of balance, they can create their own
sub personalities. Each emotion has its own color, tone, and archetype within your auric
field. Anger is comprised of the color red, Fear is yellow, and Jealousy is green. Every time
you have experience these emotions without passing them up to you’re Over soul, the
energy of these specific sub personalities are fed. Anger gets stronger, Fear gets stronger,
and Jealousy gets stronger. Now, they are in control of you. You can make all the promises
you want, but what happens when your buttons get pushed? All of a sudden, Anger is
controlling you, or Fear, or Jealousy. You have lost the battle. Your emotions are in control.

Perhaps it is illness that controls you. Do you need that illness in order to feel important, or
as a way to get attention and/or love? Do you have chronic health issues that never seem to
go away? Or you just get rid of something and something else pops up to take its place?
What part of you needs and allows this type of control?
Do alcohol and drugs control you? How about tobacco? Sex? There are support groups for
alcoholism, drug, and sex addiction; for people who cannot stop shopping, gambling, and/or
shoplifting. There are support groups for people controlled by bulimia, anorexia, and
obsessive-compulsive disorder. You name it; it is out there controlling somebody,
somewhere. Is it controlling you?

Does food control you? Food controlling you does not imply that you are overweight. Could
you go a day without chocolate or sugar? Could you fast for 24 hours without anything but
water? Most likely you would not starve to death and die so could you??

How about fashion? Are you the first to get the latest clothing, hairstyles, home decor,
without thinking if you even like them or not? How about cars, motorcycles trucks, motor
vehicles, and boat the list is endless.

Or fads, be it body-piercing, tattoos, or acquiring all kinds of doodads and knickknacks that
will be useless practically before you even have them out of the box. Do you have to have
whatever everyone else has?

Plastic surgery controls people. They keep going back and redoing every part of the body
until there is nothing left to redo. Then they start over again.

Some people start exercising and cannot stop. They exercise continually and constantly,
sometimes building up muscle masses that would put Hercules to shame. Others exercise
until they do not have a drop of fat on their bodies, and then begin destroying their muscle
tissues, ligaments, and internal organs.

Do your experiences use and control you, or do you use and control your experiences? This
is the bottom line. If anything or anyone controls you in any way, shape, or form, you are a
prime candidate for mass and/or individual mind-control. When you are in control of your
own self, no one and no thing can control you. Everything in moderation is acceptable, but
when something takes over your life to the degree where it controls you, you create a mind-
pattern that says outside forces can and do control me.

This leaves holes in your mind-pattern and auric field that tells anyone who can understand
this information that you are a perfect candidate for mind-control. Learn to breathe yourself
into your centre. Identify the strong aspects of your mind-pattern and the ones that need
strengthening. Anchor yourself in the strength of your own Over soul and God-Mind. Take
control over absolutely anything that has control over you, remembering to keep the
balance. You can be pulled off-centre in every way imaginable, and you will be. These are
your tests.

Be the monitor of your own progress. The more you use internal monitors, the less chance
outside monitors can step in to do the job for you. Whenever you let your guard down, there
will be somebody or something that will knowingly and gladly push you out of your centre.

Part of your reason for existing in physical reality is to find out who and what you are. Being
pushed out of your centre tells you who you are not. Operating from outside of your centre
allows others to define you according to their terms. They can mould and bend you like clay
to create the person that they need for their own purposes. You are so busy moulding and
bending that you do not have time to recognize what is happening to you.

Only when you stand firm in your centre, in control of absolutely every aspect of your life,
are all the holes of your mind-pattern completely sealed shut. When this happens, no one or
no thing can control you. But even when the door is closed to outsiders, remember that they
will still come knocking. It is up to you to ensure that they do not enter.

The first and last sacred space we must all consecrate is our body.

For many of us, our personal and cultural history through many lives has made us
uncomfortable with this primal living place. Before we invite others to share it through
sacred sex, magic, channeling, and invocation and in other ways we must feel safe to come
home there and to live freely in it. Here's something for your consideration.

To use the Charkas:

1. The Base/Background. We must understand be prepared to defend body/self from those

that may harm us from outside, whether spiritual or physical.

2. The Sex/Motivator. We must be able and willing to express and explore our motivations,
intuitions and desires.

3. The Body or Form. We must enjoy and esteem our body's form, talents and skills, its
beauty and actions.

4. The Heart. We must love and act in fullness and passion on the above.

5. The Throat. We must be sensitive in the moment to the communications of those actions
both to us and our partners both physical and spiritual as sensuous experiences now.

6. The Third Eye. We must be aware of the larger affects and effect and meanings in the
story of our lives and those of our cultures, species and environments - psychic and natural.

7. The Crown. And finally... We must be aware in humility of our imitations and relationships
with the greater reality - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Being aware that change
is always and the only trusted reality.

Here's a simple daily exercise for your consideration. Anyone can do it with healthy
consequences I feel -

Active walking

You can do parts of these exercises sitting or lying until you feel comfortable with them then
bring them together in ritualizing this everyday activity.

1. Go for a walk with ear plugs in. Learn to walk without feeling the jolt of each step by
actively using the balls of your feet. This is not walking on your tip toes rather by leading
each step with the ball hitting the ground slightly ahead of your heel and slowing the impact
so that your leg muscles absorb it. Barefoot walking encourages this naturally. Modern
footwear design supports passive walking – setting your feet to forget them.

1a. Push gently with the foot behind as you pick it up to take a step. The idea is to feel you
actively involved in walking as a process.

2. When you can do this, flex the pelvic floor muscles in time the front foot contacting the
ground whilst walking this way. If you don't know what I mean: In women these are the
muscles of the anus, the vagina (inner and outer), the urethra and even the clitoris. In men
it is the anus, the area between the balls and anus, the circle around the base of the cock
and balls, the urethra at the head of the cock. The internal pelvic floor muscles are those
that you use to hold and control the flow of pissing, shitting and involved in the genital part
of orgasm (for both genders). You will find that good control, that is active use of them,
during both physical and psychic activities will deepen your experiences of both. Not to
mention making them serious fun. Later you can practice using each of these muscles
separately but in this exercise you use them as a group.

3. Imagine/feel the pulsation of the pelvic floor and the contact of your foot with the ground
passing through your spine stretching it up to the sky as you walk with your arms and
shoulders relaxing as if they are reaching out from your heart.

4. Breathe. Be aware of where and how you are breathing, without control, at first, as your
body moves. After a while let the breathing settle into a pattern similar to a singer’s pattern
using your diaphragm - that is feeling your abdomen expanding first then your lower ribs. A
good rhythm is to make the in-breath, holding full, the out-breath and the holding empty
equal lengths. you can use step or pulse counts as a measure.

5. Focus on the flow of air around you as you move start with your hands and face then
move to the rest of your body. Feeling that your feet open to the ground thru the centre
(the heart of the foot - Chinese medicine it is called kidney 1) that is at the curve under the
balls of your feet towards the heels. So that each step sends a pulse of earth energy up
through your spine to marry the sky. Given time you will naturally come to feel the parallel
downwards movement through the spine with the two energies marrying in your centre with
your hips warming. For we humanoid types letting the sky's gift come in its own time is a
discipline in trust for the Crown Chakra, allowing Goddess/God's Grace (known as Bhakti)
come when we are ready.

I hope this is of interest. It is useful for earthing/centring after intense experiences and
when preparing for ritual and intense experiences like healing, sacred sex, rituals of various
types. You can try it running as well. When you do it well you will able to travel long
distances without tiring even developing a different kind of trance-like state which connects
you with your Self and your environment rather than isolating you from it, that shortens
and/or lengthens time.

KINDALINI and the PO

Kundalini will permanently rewire the body mind to release the stored tension of the body
armor, but one has to be physically/mentally/emotionally and spiritually developed enough
to handle the kundalini. If there is a significant loosening of the armor without sustained
integral practice and intent, then the armor will reinstate itself and rubber band back into
place. Following are tools of self-recovery for the dispossessed self--for all we do to our self
in the form of contraction, denial, negation, abuse, shaming, neglect in an attempt to avoid
our True Nature. This set of kundalini coping skills is gleaned from spontaneous arising
solutions stemming from many years of process, and merely hints at what is possible.

This list of practices and tools is not meant to disempower you to find your own way through
the storm, for I think each of us can find whatever answers we need within ourselves. Thus
a kundalini awakening is its own solution if we listen deeply and trust. Since it is the energy
of individuation it is the source of creativity and gnosis. To find you we need not look
beyond our Selves. A sovereignty that comes through another or needs the confirmation of
another is not much of sovereignty is it? Hence to thine own Self be true. I think a combo of
strengthening, stretching, shaking, aerobic, listening, exploring, extending, feeling, fast and
slow, grounding and vocalizing practices to be the "best." Whatever we are called to do by
the energy itself, and you will find kundalini literally commands you to be out in nature.

If ones spiritual focus does not actually contribute to an expansion and deepening of ones
life and ones contribution to Life, then such a focus is a idle waste of time, consciousness
and energy, and indeed a waste of Life.

* Big Fun Practice— Big Fun is the transcendent condition of metanoia. It is actually
disembedded from body, mind, circumstance and conditions—it is a priori state or attitude—
it is an unconditional perspective of sublime humor. Emotional self-perpetuation determines
our experience of existence. Happiness fires up the prefrontal lobes and so “play” naturally
makes us more creative. Novelty is a permutation that allows reconstruction and refinement.
Thus because it increases consciousness in stream of daily life Big Fun is our growing edge
and our highest practice! I want to distinguish between the normal way we think of pleasure
and fun and Big Fun. Big Fun is an upheaval of our comfort zone, we are not just playing
around, and we are Really Playing in full originality and resourcefulness. That is we are
performing in perfect sync in the moment without hesitancy, ego blockage or shades of
depression that would pull us back from our edge. Big Fun is life in the raw. In Big Fun the
“content” of our lives finds a peaceful resting place in the spaciousness of Big Mind and we
have room to expand out to the totality of our lives periscoped into the moment. It is not the
normal myopic-fun we try to have from a sense of deprivation with our addictions, substitute
gratifications, entertainment, or social distractions. Big Fun is not of Thanatos, but of Eros so
it is not had by "trying" but by "being." By alignment of body, mind and soul to live the life
of the Spirit. And since Spirit is already complete Big Fun is a liberating radiance rather than
a coying need. Big Fun is transpersonal; it is transcendent of the life of the mind and body.
Big Fun is transcendent of work, duty, family and relationships...it is a cathartic
transmutation of daily life. It is the Grand Adventure...the dance of the Muse in the Eternal.
It is the integration of the soul in ones lived experience, in the engagement of Cosmic
Purpose...Big Fun is No mind, Flow, “I and the Father are one,” No self; and the only thing
standing in the way of Big Fun is fear. The Big Fun prerogative is to express ever more
genuine and higher fun—to take fun where no man has gone before—to bring serious fun
into the lives of others. To not just be pumped up on the hysterical pretend fun of Thanatos,
but to be engaged in the real thing—Spiritual Fun (Eros). Big Fun is redemption, release,
relief, purification, rarefaction, rebirth, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, sanctification,
validation, absolution, atonement, transubstantiation, rebirth, innovation and revolution. Big
Fun is the most strenuous practice demanding the most acute growth curve and pious effort
to remain on focus as to the next spontaneous Big Fun action. Our experience will evolve
over time to more genuine and deeper forms of Big Fun. How do ones Big Fun fits into the
larger scheme of things, will it be a force for social change and transformation? How much
Big Fun can we allow ourselves? What are the consequences of Big Fun? What am I doing
here if not to have Big Fun? What is Big Fun in the 21st Century?

* Solar Plexus Breathing--Breathing and Toning are the number one kundalini coping
skills. We can prevent morbid overextension of both the on and off sides of the nervous
system by conscious breathing into the largest plexus of the body--the solar plexus. If we
find ourselves either in a high or a slump then long walks focused on such solar plexus
breathing help to integrate and balance the energy. This is the major way to cope with panic
states, excess sex energy or excess energy in general when the sympathetic nervous system
is hyper activated. But also solar plexus breathing is especially important years after an
awakening to aid in the integration and establishment of the spiritual will and prevent a
morbid hyper-parasympathetic condition of stagnation and depression. The solar plexus is
the seat of shame and one of the greatest areas that propagate self-division.
* Vortex Zero-point Meditation—Spiritual myths and laws are “external” training in the ability
to act automatically. But we need “inner” training on the ability to act in Kairos...that is in
sync with the universe...in God's time.

I found one method we can do this; I call it Vortex Zero-point Meditation! First you go
watch some Schauberger clips at google video and look for the upward twisting
vortex...imprint that image on your mind. While lying in bed, deeply rested, visualize the
upward pulling vortex as you draw your body’s energies into it. You will find all thoughts and
concerns disappear and the body may go through a series of "sudden falls" into increasingly
relaxed zones as you do this. You may also find that your upward spinning vortex may take
some twists and turns and even go downwards. Just watch this deviation, and eventually
return once more to the powerful upward spinning tornado. Remember I said that toning
helps to restore a harmonious higher frequency to our psyche soma; in a similar way that
vortexing water helps to clear it from the memory of harmful pollutant frequencies. Well,
this vortex meditation operates in a similar fashion to "wipe the slate clean" through the
awesome power of the visual field and the inner kinesthetic sense of the mind’s eye.

* Full Already Breathing Meditation--Consider that the Golem in us is created out of

deprivation, fear and pain. We can directly approach this state rather than working through
the myriad of content within the Golem personality. You lie on you stomach in bed and
breathe into your belly. On the in breath you think "Full" and on the out breath you think
"Already." You keep doing this till the sense of need, Void and lack of Presence in the belly is
relieved. I think half hour sessions would be good for a start, tuning in nightly. By lying on
your belly you get a tactile sense of the "hole" in ones belly and by felt-sensing the words
"Full Already" it's like calling ones spirit home. The more you do this the more you get a
sense of what it is you are depriving yourself of, your "precious" Presence, and what being
Full Already means in all facets of ones life. Happiness comes down to our ability to generate
unconditional joy as our baseline state. The karma of our daily life reflects our capacity to
en-joy ourselves...that is to fill ourselves with joy simply through breathing and being alive. I
notice that if you are mindful of the air atoms hitting the nostrils, you can actually generate
en-joyment. Then once is the chemical state of en-joyment, then the duality/samsara is not
as convincing, we do not get "stuck" so much.

* Rejuvenating Breath--As you exhale: First you tone Saah, this empties the bottom of
the lungs, then Huum, this empties the middle of the lungs, then Ommm this empties the
top of the lungs. And you carry the ommm up into the head. The effect of this is quite
refreshing. Another type of regenerating breath that is good for energy integration during
panic attacks or heart expansions is Fish Breathing. The mouth is completely relaxed an
open, you breath in and out of the mouth without a pause between in and out breath. This
is especially effective while walking. The continuous, non-pause breathing can be done
through the nose also when needing more brain power during peak kundalini activity; make
the in breath nasally and the out breath throaty.

* Toning--Mantra is the main method of treating consciousness and is helpful for healing
all levels of the mind inner and outer. The sound and breath combination help move
cerebrospinal fluid, which cleanses the brain and spine. Lie in a deep hot bath and hum one
tone on the expiration of one breath. You will notice that your tone wavers, perhaps due to
the spasticity of the diaphragm. If one continues using this technique regularly perhaps with
both higher and lower tones, the diaphragm should strengthen and release its spasticity
through the vibration. Joe Alexander says toning works better than any other self-healing
tool. I cannot stress enough that toning and mantra are the most effective tools we have for
integrating energy during an awakening and helping the kundalini to clear through
blockages. Thus if you have any difficulty at all with kundalini I suggest half an hour of
toning a day...keep it simple, either Huuu, Mooo, Om or Eeee will do, or whatever sound you
are drawn to.

* Syncopated Toning--One day I found a neat affect when I was sitting down by the river
near a little waterfall/rapids...and started to Huuu. Then I toned vowel sounds very
loud...and I noticed that when the tone is directed toward the rapids, the air filled with the
sound of the rapids creates an interference pattern with the tone one is emitting and what
ends up happening is a staccato vibration in the diaphragm created by the interference
pattern of the merging sounds. In this way the effect of toning on the body is greatly
amplified when the tone is directed at the noise of the falling water.

When each tone finds Atonement with the river sound the staccato effect is "felt" and
heard. If the tone is slightly "off" in relationship to the river the syncopation effect doesn't
occur. However the sensitive body-voice naturally tunes to the correct tone...nature the
great tuning fork. The syncopated toning with the kundalini...I went down to the river and
found that staccato effect...I was so blown away, I thought I had discovered a new law of
the physical universe. Once the diaphragm learns how to do this you can retain the staccato
ability even without using a river when the kundalini light is highly active.

Need I say that sex will help reduce extra brain electric interference, but it also will increase
kundalini. Dancing would be good. Put some more green plants around your computer, and
if you are still having problems you might want to invest in an inexpensive negative ion
generator for your computer room or an indoor waterfall. Grounding exercises include lying
on ones back and pushing ones feet against a wall or tree. Standing in Haka position like a
Maori, which is kind of like a gorilla stance and stamping one leg at a time...actually doing
the Haka itself with facial expressions, vocals, hand and feet movements is a big
bonus...watch the All Blacks prior to a rugby game for how to do it. Of course there is the
traditional method of grounding...horse riding, gardening or farming. Drive around in cars
less, and spend more time outside of buildings. Move to Hawaii or vacation there, it's the
primary grounding place on the planet. Meditate at sunset on iron rich rocks. Hug a tree, or
go to sleep under trees. Any kind of bodywork swims or water therapy. Clay body pack. If
you have synthetic carpet in your computer room it might be best to tear it up and put
something more natural down, either a wool carpet or wood or something. Get a kitty or dog
to pet.

* War Haka—The haka is a Maori war chant that precedes battle, in order to motivate the
warriors psychologically. It is delivered with loud shouting and forceful flexing arm
movements, to invoke the god of war and to discourage and frighten the enemy. It involves
fierce facial expressions and grimaces, poking out of the tongue, eye bulging, grunts and
cries, waving of weapons and rhythmic thumping of ones thighs, biceps and chest. The
hands, arms, legs, feet, voice, eyes, tongue and the body as a whole combine to express
courage, annoyance or aggression. The haka is an excellent kundalini tool, both for raising
kundalini, freeing its movement and for grounding and integrating the energy. It will also
enhance confidence and improve the immune, lymphatic and circulation systems and clear
the lungs. Also will also eliminated stagnant energy from the nervous system and aids in the
liberation of pent-up or repressed emotions. www.newzealand.com/travel/about-
nz/features/haka-feature/haka.cfm

* Animal Yoga—To reinstate our connection with the planet and the deeper parts of
ourselves this practice of animal yoga is done in natural environments…in your back yard, a
park or wilderness. First ground the body by lying on both your back and your front on the
grass for a while. Then using the nature around you—the grass, the trees, the rocks—put
yourself into various animal postures while feel-sensing yourself as that animal. Some
possible animals to try are the dog, cat, frog, rabbit, seal, monkey, turtle and bear. Use the
full tactile impact of the environment around you to get deeply into the various postures to
become the spirit of the animal. Because it is an attempt to more fully enter the
electromagnetic sensorial environment, animal yoga is best done in the nude if possible. You
will find this deeply reviving, integrating and centering.

* Yoga--The evoking and yoking of Spirit via the Grand Alignment of body, mind and
soul--is the source of our muse, our noble destiny, our soul-work (Dharma), our security, our
financial integrity/right livelihood, our spiritual worth/inherent nobility and our happiness.

* Hanging--Hanging from the hips over a bar 10 minutes a day is the best place to “start”
our kundalini skills practice. I think it the most significant factor in “sustaining” a de-
contraction progress. It is a general pick-me-up and the more pick-me-up we do, the higher
our general operating mode. The higher our baseline level then the higher we ascend during
an expansion of consciousness, and the more likely we are to have the resources for
stabilizing, substantiating and gaining productivity from our excursions into deeper aspects
of ourselves. It opens the pelvis to energy from the earth bringing new life into the legs,
elongates my spine giving the nerves new life, and feeds the brain of course by being upside
down. It allows the sympathetic trunks and plexus to be fed better with the decompression
of the spine, and new blood/lymph/O2 entering the area. Hanging is a catalyst to
metabolism and consciousness in general, due to increased blood to the brain, but also
through extra lymphatic stimulation. The bar should be about 1.5"-2" wide; put a towel over
it for padding; hang from the hips with both the arms and legs hanging free off the ground.
Start off at 5 minutes in the morning, and 5 in the late afternoon or so. Do not do handing
during major heart expansion periods, or during times of high blood pressure in the head
associated with sympathetic nervous system hyper activation.

* Spinal Rebirthing-- This spinal compression/extension can be used at the bottom of the
spine by pushing up into therapist’s hands with the legs. In the middle of the spine by
pushing up on all fours and at the top of the spine by pushing with the arms. It is the most
cathartic and radical form of back release I have found. Theory being that the contraction
can be released by overextending already contracted muscles. When they are relaxed they
let go further than they were originally. Emotionally the burden is lifted once the tension is
acknowledged, rather than carrying the load around for years...making to body numb with
pain. With spinal rebirthing we "feel" into the numbness and recover what was lost to us due
to the freeze response.

* Presses--To assimilate kundalini some strengthening integrating exercises might be in

order. The upper-body wall press is perhaps the perfect exercise for integrating heart
expansions.

* Swan Pose--Stand like the Maiden on the Prow of a ship, arms back, chest radically
protruding and breath deeply into this pose. Breathe in through the crown chakra and out
through the solar plexus.

* Heart Entrainment of the Three Lower Chakras--We have to suspend reptilian reactivity
long enough for the higher order to come into play. If we are not radiating love from our
solar plexus then we are engaged in a power struggle with the world, fighting with fear for
our "own" survival. We CLEAR to let go of our reptilian clinging and aversion in order to
become increasingly human and increasingly divine. This is the alchemy of incarnation-
transubstantiation, Eros and Agape, Evolution and Involution, Immanence and Ascendancy.
 * Clearing Negative Attachments--One method of releasing negative, primitive defense
mechanisms is to CLEAR the solar plexus of its unhealthy attachments. Imagine you are
floating in space and you have an umbilical cord connected from your solar plexus to those
you are emotionally bonded to. One by one cut off the umbilical cord to each person and see
them float away from you. When all the cords are cut do all kinds of flips, cartwheels,
swimming movements and twists and turns to express your glee at being free and boundless
in space, with no gravity weighing you down. This is one way to give up the reptilian--
clinging/aversion level of bonding to elevate the relationship to the heart and higher
chakras. The lower unconscious bonds diminish US all.

* Affirmations—Affirmations can be used like pointing out instruction to corral

thought/emotion/state into more expansive directions. Often you might find yourself slipping
down in mood or thought and need to catch yourself with some well-remembered little catch
phrases that pull ones state up by the bootstraps. In the book...What to Say When You Talk
to Your Self by Shad Helmstetter, he suggests that such self-talk, used in reprogramming
more idealized behavior and states, can be recorded on tapes. If one listens to such self-talk
tapes the information tends to be absorbed by osmosis into the subconscious. Such a
technique will also help to keep at the ready and fresh in the mind the catch phrases that
will tune our being in the direction that we really want to go in.

* Integrative-Empowerment Meditation—This is simply focusing, first on the body, then

mind-temporals, the heart and the soul-prefrontals with the minds eye and saying to each
one: I empower my body...I empower my mind…I empower my heart...I empower my soul.
What happens is that the focused attention forces one to breath life energy into all these
aspect of ourselves one after the other. The meditation is to help empower prepare one to
"walk through the barrier" that separates one life era from another. That is to make
changes. You can lie down or sit during the meditation and envision a door, or gates that
one stands before while doing this...without relating to any "content" of the life journey.
Consciousness can be focused and the body-mind-soul-heart infused with consciousness is a
lot happier and whole than one in which amnesis is occurring.

* Active Imagination--The visual neurology plays a huge role in the integration of our
being. During the later stages of awakening it is important to exercise the visual faculty to
encourage neurological potency, plasticity, detoxification and to maintain psychic-ESP
function. Therefore at this time art, visualization, guided imagery, lucid dreaming and visual
forms of meditation are vitally important. During the peak however liability and suggestibility
are so extreme that active imagination should only be done with therapeutic assistance,
unless one has a very stable constitution. I emphasize that psychic capacities will drop off to
be less than they were prior to awakening if the visual neurology is not exercised. Psychic
level is a "higher" energy condition than normal consciousness, so anything that increases
energy/kundalini will increase psychic level activity. Such as fasting and letting Nature
restore your batteries; do some breathing, toning and exercising -and set yourself on a
profound adventure.

Like meditation visualization does take actually "practicing" it. You might want to note
what time of the day or night you find it most easily to focus on inner visualization. Warm up
first with a little exercise and stretching, hanging, meditation and breathing. Then take
yourself on various visual journeys, perhaps a quest to find certain answers you are seeking.
Visit relatives or loved ones or make new friends with strangers. Travel to interstellar space
and visit alien cultures, or go back in time to past eras that attract your interest. The ways in
which the imagination can be used are infinite. Any beautiful visual stimulus will help
activate the visual hardware, such as DVD's like Michael Dubois's Luminous Dimensions or
Art mind - The Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey. Alex specializes in visual
exercises for the artist, I strongly recommend attending his workshops, and he is based in
New York City, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Marie-Louise von Franz claims that active
imagination is the most powerful tool in Jungian psychology for achieving wholeness.

"[Jung] continued to explore the inner images and fantasies. In the course of the work
he would get so emotionally wrought up that he resorted to yoga breathing exercises to
calm himself. Then he would plunge in again and let the images and inner voices speak.
Actually, he was doing just the opposite of what yoga and certain forms of meditation strive
to achieve. Instead of seeking to let go of and eventually abolish all psychic contents and
images, he concentrated on the images and let them affect him emotionally. He found that
when he was able to translate the emotions into images--that is, to find the images that
were concealed within the emotions--he was calmed and reassured. He realized that it was
highly therapeutic to uncover the images buried within the emotions, and he incorporated
this discovery in the practice of active imagination."
- Page 122, ~ Gathering the Light, V. Walter Odajnyk

In his fabulous book Walter says that Jung thinks that active imagination is the most
appropriate form of meditation for westerners to further their psychological and spiritual
growth. His section 120-132 in Gathering the Light on active imagination is good. For
general readership there is The Old Wise Woman: A Study of Active Imagination by Rix
Weaver. Other works on the subject include Alchemical Active Imagination by Marie-Louise
von Franz and Jung on Active Imagination by C.G. Jung. And Encounters With The Soul:
Active Imagination, Barbara Hannah. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Creative Imagination
for Personal Growth and Integration by Robert A. Johnson

* Building a Self System--Although it is useful to use all the guided meditation materials
out there, we really need to build the sense that we are our own "tour director." That to
build the power to initiate and choose inner content is the first step in a deeper relationship
with ourselves. Active imagination and visualization work for all building a self-structure,
boundaries, wound healing, and creating trust, faith and openness. These are internal skills,
which are essentially not taught, and so we have to grow our own internal sense of self.

Note: Rebuilding the Garden, Healing the Spiritual Wounds of Childhood Sexual Assault by
Karla McLaren to be the best workbook for self-boundary. One doesn't need an abuse
background to benefit from this work for it basically is about the recovery from ignorance
and unconsciousness, and we have all suffered under this almightily hammer. Active
imagination work done while kundalini is active is probably twice as effective and potent as
done under normal chemistry.

* Fluctuating Temperature—During kundalini there are several factors operating on our

temperature regulation. First there is extra energy moving through the hypothalamus, which
controls body temperature. Then there is the fluxing back and forth of the parasympathetic
and sympathetic sides of the nervous system. And also there is the change in metabolic
energy generation in the mitochondria of nerve cells and other cells that can generate great
heat at times. Plus changes in neurotransmitters like serotonin and histamine, which
regulate heat, and also the sex hormones themselves increase basal heat generation. Thus
during kundalini we often fluctuate between being hot and cold with the activation of the
different sides of the nervous system. Sympathetic activation causes contraction of the blood
vessels and draws blood away from our body surface and into the skeletal muscles. While
parasympathetic activation opens out blood vessels and activates the fire in the digestive
system.
If you are too cold then avoid caffeine which contracts blood vessels; sugar and fruit
also can make you feel cold. Take warming herbs like calamus, cayenne, ginger and some
spicy foods. Focus on deep breathing into the solar plexus. Go for a run; take a hot bath,
sun bathe. Meditate and empty your mind of problems, worries or negativity. Imagine you
are lying on a tropical beach getting massaged. If you are too hot then drink plenty of cool
water spiked with Himalayan salt or/and mint. Sit or swim in rivers or the ocean. Drink lots
of green drinks with cucumber in them, lie in cold grass and put feet in an ice-cold footbath.
Avoid spicy foods. Use an icepack on your forehead, back of neck and base of the spine.
Imagine standing in an icy cold waterfall while drawing heat energy up and out. Freeze
some berries such as blueberries or strawberries and periodically pop one in your mouth and
suck on it.

* Eliminating stimulants, cut back on fruit %, increase greens and kelp for minerals, and
drink heaps of water. Preferable one has done ones major cleansing and fasting prior to the
onset of kundalini. Avoid energy sapping people, situations, and environments.

* Take Time for Rapture--At certain times of the year, often in April and July, the circuit
between the heart and brain amplifies and the bliss and symptoms of kundalini increase.
Give yourself permission to go into rapture at this time for this is what the body wants to do.
Lie in bed, listen to music, breathe, do CMR. Carry the hand positions down over the liver,
spleen and the belly, one hand on the belly and the other on the back of your neck. When
the body wants to go into rapture, follow nature and obey. If you try to keep going with
busy-work at this time, you will just do a half-pie job and experience dissonance and fatigue
because you are disobeying the highest organic directive.

* Healing the Heart Hole--This is a very direct way of addressing pain and deficiency in
the heart. You just turn your etheric field from your brainstem back into the heart area at
the back of your chest. Imagine lines of magnetic force turning out of your head &
brainstem. This works rapidly and is amplified when used in combination with walking; it can
probably used in panic and emotional trauma situations especially if assisted or encouraged
by a stable practitioner.

* Spinal Shower--The ultimate healing devise is a 3" column of warm (mineral) water
which falls about 4 feet onto the spine. It has radical effects in "unconditional meeting" and
eliminating stored pain and emotion. While sitting under this flow one goes into a deep
trance, facilitating healing of both the muscular and nervous system at the deepest level. I
also think a sensory-maximization-super-spa with hundreds of jets may work to release
fossilized tension. The great thing about water flow is that it is chaotic; this arrhythmic flow
helps to break up structure and resistance.

* Cold Showers--Or jumping into cold streams etc... is essential to wake up the immune
system, promote emotional strength and break victim-weakness mentality that perpetuates
the destructive behavioral patterns. Baths and cold-water dips are a lifesaver during
kundalini awakenings for emotional strengthening and integration of the energy.

* Hydrotherapy Baths—One thing you might try to grow-flow rapidly, or to metabolize

high kundalini and high revelatory chemistry—is to take long baths with 1/4 cup of Epsom
salts. During these baths I drink 2-3 quarts of sun water (water directly in the sun) spiked
with a drop of sea salt. Don't forget the breathing, candles, plus music or audio programs
while doing this. It really is the fastest way to both detox the body and to get consciousness
flowing at much deeper and faster levels. Leaving a glass bottle of filtered water out in the
rays of the sun and moon for about 24 hours makes the sun water. (Dan Winter does not
recommend using the moons energy). Although modern science might not be able to tell us
why at this point, this sun water does have a sweeter, less metallic and champagne-like
quality.
 * Foot Baths--Soaking feet in ice water when the kundalini heat or sex energy is high
gives great relief. Also taking herbal baths or footbaths is stabilizing and nurturing. To
energize use red clover, mint, peppermint or rosemary. To calm down use chamomile or
catnip. For pain use ginger root. For unblocking and cleansing use the leaves of burdock,
plantain, dock, yarrow and dandelion. Steep the chopped herbs in a big pot of water just off
the boil, as though you were making a tea.

* Sun meditation--I find most expedient for gathering the necessary energy, and creating
the greatest background sense of bliss and well-being. It is vital for continuing on this
difficult work of unveiling the inner self. Lie on your back on the bare ground naked, opening
legs and arms to the sun, like a solar collecting dish, turn closed eyes toward the sun and
draw energy up the spine. This is great while doing hot rock therapy and taking intermittent
dips in a cold stream. Obviously it's not good for the skin to do this too long in the midday
sun. Lying on the ground on ones back and exposing the genitals to the sun is the ultimate
way of repolarizing during the exhausting grounding phase of the Solar Heart initiation.

* Rock Meditation--Meditating at sunset or sunrise on rocks (especially iron rich rocks)

seems to have an amplifying effect on the meditation, such that it can help prompt an acute
phase of kundalini alchemy. Samadhi is more easily achieved this way. You might also notice
an intense grounding episode after doing this; if so lay the spine on the ground if necessary.

* Hot Rock Therapy--Collect various shapes and sizes of rocks that hold the heat from the
sun well. You can build a healing temple space in the wild or use the rocks at home. After
the sun has heated the rocks put them over your body, on your stomach, pelvis, chest, neck.
You can hold them to your jaw, temple and face or wherever there is congestion, pain and
contraction. Lie and meditate in the sun with the rocks on your body.

* Sex in Nature--Going nude in nature really helps to empower our full senses/sentience.
The Cosmic human starts returning as soon as the body is placed unclothed in a vibrant
natural ecosystem. This has something to do with the opening of the human energies fully
to the larger energies of earth and Cosmos. Also you might find that when you do go into
nature thus, and try immediately to have intercourse, the bodies are not receptive to sex in
the normal self-indulgent soft-bed style. The bodymind first is engaged in integrating on a
higher plane and needs time for "assimilation" of this super-sensory or aboriginal human
condition. So one has to go into nature many times in the nude to elevate oneself to these
higher energies, to make them conscious and to experience what full sensory intercourse is
all about. Being so used to ego-driven usury sex, one has to wait for nature's timing of these
higher experiences of autopoietic Soul-sex.

* Leg pushes--Immanence or Grounding is the other half of incarnation yet sometimes it

is hard to get into and stay in our bodies, and there are no lasting spiritual gains unless we
do. Lying on the ground and pushing ones legs against a tree or a wall helps to center, clear
and get us out of our head, into a more embodied existence. Pushing into a wall or against a
doorframe with ones arms is similarly helpful. It pays to remember we can only go up in
Spirit as far as we can go down into Matter...this is the process of incarnation/evolution.

* External Pressure--Also some sort of double layered pressurized suit that you climb into
and blow up with air. The idea is to put sustained force on the exterior of the body so the
most inner musculature thinks it can relax its grip because someone else is doing the work.
Even a pile of bodies on top of one would probably work.
 * Rosen--is a form of body mind work, which is essentially meeting contraction with
unconditionally loving hands and presence. This is excellent for addressing the gross and
current manifestations of primal contraction. No other bodywork seems to get the individual
to focus on the reality of their deep condition and to face their truth beyond the strenuous
ego-armor blocking that occurs. Rosen is the lightest of bodywork, but it was more
excruciating than Rolfing for me, because I began to feel the pressure of my own internal
contraction as prana (consciousness) was "allowed" to move through the tissue. (kriyas).

* Queen and King--I found that during meditation to direct ones eyeballs and ones
attention back into the brainstem that this profoundly increases ones steadiness,
centeredness and nobility. Brainstem mediation is good for centering, soul recovery,
boundary formation and general healing of the entire bodymind. Perhaps it focuses
consciousness in the occipital lobes which are serotonin based, contributing to integration
and harmony.

* Soul's Posture--If one walks along unconsciously, usually the shoulders are a little
hunched and forward and the chin is out. It is exhausting to the bodymind to be in this
posture-state. When one remembers the Self pulls the shoulders down and back, tucks in
the chin (neck-lock-posture) and walks being pulled by an imaginary string at the top of
one's head...one immediately enters the noble state. It is effortless to walk in this fashion,
there is infinite energy available...one just needs to be mindful enough to catch oneself
when one has slipped into the ego's walk. This shows how close the distance between
hopeless-deprivation and faithful-sufficiency. The Self embodies the body differently than the
ego does. Mindfulness helps us build the bridge of ego-Self in all our thoughts and actions.

* Belly love--During meditation if one turns the eyeballs directly down into the cheek area
the energy flow is directed down into the belly. The belly is then nurtured with energy and a
greater connection is achieved between the heart and the belly increasing digestive health
and emotional equilibrium and awareness.

* Visualization-- (Spontaneous Inner Visuals) and dreaming is good for transforming the
atomic memory level and as a diagnostic tool. Affirmation or positive mental outlook is
essential for improved immunity and the strength needed to change and grow. Substantial
visual stimulation and nature stimulates our inner visual cortex, as does spiritual relationship.
The body integrates/heals through the inner-visual cortex...or during healing images appear
in the visual cortex. Sun meditation is excellent for increasing inner visual healing.

* Mindfulness--must address our daily habitual responses; in a pervasive contraction

watch...The egos habits of mind rule the body so we must open and reveal the mind
differentiate from the mind to free the body. Naming each thought as it arises allows us to
differentiate from the reticulating mind: defense, justification, worry, blaming, avoidance
etc..

* Death phase--There is a senescence phase of spiritual metamorphosis after a solar

heart/kundalini movement. The main cycle of this death phase is 3-4 days in which staying
in bed and drinking water is all we are often able to do. It is important to go with this phase
and not try to fight it. The more we go into it in feeling and inquiry the more we will emerge
a larger being after the body mind has finished its radical catabolism of its former pupae
structures. Lying in the death pose in a warm tub of clay inside a cave for several days may
be an "advanced" form of this death work. I would say that juice fasting in combination with
this death cycle would be the deepest and fastest route to transformation. Its the type of
thing where if one could lie around in a spa for a couple of days one's whole life would
change...but we just don't give ourselves the chance to completely collapse, and collapse
again...as much as we need to, to be reborn.

The Toaist have a great saying… live you life like a dead person- as they are very relaxed
and un attached to things!

* Loving Self-talk--One has to reclaim one's full sexual power from unconscious social
fear-shame, in order to be a spiritual autonomous being. That is we have to rise above
Mummy's and Daddy's controlling (Superego/judge) impact on the body mind-soul, in order
to be reborn as the Self and be in communion with other Self’s. In this way we transcend
culture. Spirituality is the free-flow of conscious energy in the body such that there is no
division between the individual and the Cosmos. Even if we do not use our bodies for sex,
we must be fully sexually ignited in order to be whole. One way we can do this is self-talk.
To work against the gravity of contraction and the winding down of energy...throughout the
day we can say to ourselves: "You are so luscious, so beautiful, so sweet etc..." Just as
though we were our own Beloved. This counteracts the social forces that would seek to use
us as an object for the "machine". For a while it is counterintuitive to do this, however, this
is not self aggrandizement, but merely attending to the needs of the bodymind to grow in an
environment that is conducive to the fluid circulation of flows, hormonal production and
neuronal strength. Liberating our soma in this way, we free up our lives for depth, precision
and evolution. It must be done to overcome the cold claws of Thanatos that attempts to
make us infinitely smaller than we really are.

* Understanding Cycles—Perhaps the most important aspect to grasp in navigating the

evolutionary energy, is that it is hyperbolic in nature, as is all nature. After the grace of the
influx of Light, the darkness is entered. After tasting the stars one has to deal with the mud
of ones existence and convert that mud into the lotus. Spiritual mastery involves rising
equally to the challenge of both the light and the dark. After the light backs off there can be
depression, achy body, sense of emptiness and self-pity. And if you are not aware that this
is all just shifting cycles of chemistry there may be disillusionment, despair and self-hatred.
Working with the dark means breathing positivity into the feelings, rearranging beliefs to be
more empowering and giving the bodymind plenty of down time and resuscitation in nature.

* Cultivating Emotional Equilibrium--Since it is the degree of emotional tension we hold

which determines whether our emotional responses are healthy or hurtful to us, we should
cultivate emotional equilibrium. That is the absence of accumulated emotional tension, so
that we can experience equanimity. We reach this emotional equilibrium by "building energy
reserves," while "discharging tension." This is accomplished by diet, fasting, sports, martial
arts, intense vocalization, psycho-drama, addressing relationship problems, meditation,
toning etc.... A state of high emotional tension is a weak and vulnerable state in which
learning and Being is made impossible through discord.

* Outside in Nature--If you are "working with" your awakening you will probably find that
you are drawn to be outside in nature as much as possible during the day. This is a
compelling intuition which should be followed. One's life field is greatly expanded while
kundalini is active and being indoors, especially in steel framed and concrete buildings, we
notice that it feels like we are separate from ourselves or cutoff when inside buildings. The
energetic charge and metamorphic process works more profoundly, deeply and with greater
ease when the body is under an open sky, in touch with the bare earth, around moving
water and fields of green. "...the earth's natural field is severely distorted or altogether
eliminated while you are inside."
-P198, Subtle Energy, John Davidson.
 * Handling increased sexual energy--Of course kundalini awakenings mean radically
amplified sex energy, so how do we deal with this? This entire list of kundalini skills will help
strengthen our ability to handle sex energy. The irony is the more one works on integrating
ones sex/kundalini energy the more it can flow, but we just become less wimpish about
handling it. Once we "turn toward" it we can ask it to show us what is to be done; we
"allow" it to transmute us. Toning, the microcosmic orbit, (Taoist Meditation practice)
breathing and drawing the energy up the spine really helps...toning can be a lifesaver both
when we are under energized and over energized. Note especially the need to ground your
body through nature, lying on the ground, jumping into streams etc... It is most important to
ones energy toward some higher creative project or to assist others.

Good books to read on this:

Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy; Internal Alchemy and Chi Kung by Eric Yudelove
Tao & The Tree Of Life: Alchemical & Sexual Mysteries of the East & West by Eric Yudelove
Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy by Mantak Chia
Healing Love through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy by Mantak Chia
Sacred Sexuality: A Manual for Living Bliss by Michael Mirdad

* Working with Excalibur, the Silver Cord; Stand tall with shoulders back, chin up,
stomach pulled in, pelvis tucked under, with feet about a foot apart. Imagine a silver-white
lightening rod extending through your spine, shooting up into the sky from the crown of
your head, and extending deep into the ground from the coccyx. This lightening rod
connects heaven and earth. As you draw energy in the Silver Cord begins to glow and
pulsate dispersing energy through your body. Play with a ball of lighting between your
hands; this energy can be used for healing yourself or others.

* Self-care Shortlist for Dealing with Social Stress; The way through blockage, resistance
and opposition is to raise your energy level and presence till the miasma becomes
transparent, disappears and can be released. Know that you cannot change another, but you
can change yourself. Light a candle, put on some music (Koyasan - by Deuter) and take a
long path with Epsom salts. Do this at least every second day for a while. Drink extra water,
with a pinch of Himalayan salt in it...up to 5 qts a day. Do stretching daily, do spinal rolling
with the Fitball Rollar (www.balldynamics.com) and hang if you can find something to hang
on...lie on the grass 1/2 hour a day doing breathing, take long walks in nature if
possible...do some feet stomping, wall pushing and do boxing motions coordinating the
whole body...check out the Haka war chant videos on the web. Beat on your chest like a
gorilla while making gorilla sounds. Social tension (especially shock) tends to get caught in
the glut muscles, so bend your knees – stick your ass out and wiggle it like a bee; then while
still slightly bent jump from foot to foot real fast as though you were warming up for a game
of sports. Focus on rooting your energy into the ground through your feet, build the sense of
a cord going through you and extending out the top your head to infinity and generate
energy in your Hara. Eat extra greens and sprouts. Take 1/4 tsp of magnesium citrate with a
large glass of water prior to bed if you are constipated...which often happens when we are
under some form of persecution. Do drumming and go dancing, find someone to laugh with,
check out new environs, a new movie and get some new positive stimulation. To learn how
social stress is the most pernicious and pervasive form of stress watch Robert Sapolsky’s
lecture on google video. He is also doing a documentary with National Geographic.

* How to avoid a kundalini awakening: Eat a heavy cooked diet, do not exercise or spend
time in nature, waste your energy on alcohol and cigarettes, do not meditate, avoid
spiritually advanced people, do not get into stressful or challenging situations, do not sail
across the ocean or do anything remotely adventurous, breath shallow, avoid music, dance,
drumming and raw food. Do not fall in love. Do not feel any gratitude or mystical feelings.
Have no awe over creation, cultivate a mean, small and nasty nature, do not use your
intellect, and do not follow your muse or your heart.

* Why not to avoid a kundalini awakening: You can try to avoid kundalini if you are bent
on avoiding your soul and your edge, because kundalini is just the energy of life amplified.
It's the coil-essence of all the energy generating systems in the body at peak energy and
communication. It may be inconvenient, but I don't think one is truly alive without
experiencing a kundalini awakening. It's the beginning of the mystic journey. Whether one is
on an up-cycle or a down-cycle all kundalini activity occurs within a background of bliss.
There is nothing to fear with kundalini, but our ignorance of it.

* Further Reading on skills for awakening;

A useful set of exercises and coping strategies are in the books:

Pharmacy For The Soul: A Comprehensive Collection of Meditations, Relaxation and

Awareness Exercises & Other Practices for Physical and Emotional Well-Being, Osho.

Mending The Past And Healing The Future With Soul Retrieval, Alberto Villoldo.
Human Technology: A Toolkit For Authentic Living by Ilchi Lee and his Brain Respiration
Self-Training

Excellent books by Bruce Kumar Frantzis: Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body: Chi Gung
for Lifelong Health

Relaxing Into Your Being, The Water Method of Taoist Meditation Series, Vol. 1
The Great Stillness: The Water Method of Taoist Meditation Series, Vol. 2

Lifting The Veil, Practical Kabbalah with Kundalini Yoga by Joseph Michael Levry

THE CLASSICS

After the death of Chuang Tzu (in 295 B.C.) Taoism continued to grow in popularity although
as a philosophy it changed rather little for the next six hundred years or so. There were a
few philosophers, however, who made a contribution to its development.

1.Yang Hsiung
Yang Hsiung (53 B.C. to 18 A.D.) was an exponent of what he called Tai Hsuan (Great
Mystery). This philosophy combined classical Taoism with elements of Confucian ethics. He
is well known for his doctrine that human nature is a mixture of good and evil. He was also
noteworthy in rejecting the notion of immortality. This was significant because at that time a
large number of Taoist alchemists and the developing religious cult of Taoism, were deeply
immersed in doctrines and practices seeking immortality and an 'elixir of life.'

Yang Hsiung correctly pointed out that this practice was contrary to the Taoist philosophy of
indifference to life and death and the acceptance of the natural course of things.

Sounding like Lao Tzu, his classical Taoism emerges in formulations such as:

"The Supremely Profound Principal deeply permeates all species of things but its physical
form cannot be seen. It takes nourishment from emptiness and nothingness and derives its
life from Nature. It penetrates the past and present and originates the various species. It
operates yin and yang and starts the material force in motion. As yin and yang unite, all
things are complete on Heaven and on Earth. The sky and sun rotate and the weak and
strong interact. They return to their original position and thus the beginning and end are
determined. Life and death succeed each other and thus the nature and the destiny are
made clear. Looking up, we see the form of the heavens. Looking down, we see the
condition of the earth. We examine our nature and understand our destiny. We trace our
beginning and see our end. ... Therefore the Profound Principle is the perfection of utility.

"To see and understand is wisdom. To look and love is humanity. To determine and
decide is courage. To control things universally and to use them for all is impartiality. To be
able to match all things is penetration. To have or not to have the proper circumstance is
destiny. The way by which all things emerge from vacuity is the Way. To follow the
principles of the world without altering them and to attain one's end is virtue. To attend to
life, to be in society, and to love universally is humanity. To follow order and to evaluate
what is proper is righteousness. To get hold of the Way, virtue, humanity, and righteousness
and put them into application is called the business of life. To make clear the achievement of
nature and throw light on all things is called yang. To be hidden, without form, deep and
unfathomable, is called yin. Yang knows yang but does not know yin. Yin knows yin but does
not know yang. The Profound Principle alone knows both yin and yang, both going and
stopping, and both darkness and light."

--Tai Hsuan Ching (Classic of the Supremely Profound Principle) (9)7: 5a-9b

In this we can clearly see the application of Taoist metaphysics to a set of Confucian ethical
concerns.

2.Wang Ch'ung
Another important thinker of this era was Wang Ch'ung (27 to 100 A.D.). Like Yang Hsiung
he was a Taoist in terms of his metaphysics which he combined with certain Confucian
ideas. He was less interested in ethics and more concerned with human institutions,
however. His chief contribution was to try and clear the air of atmosphere of superstition
which was clouding both Taoism and Confucianism.

He declared that Heaven takes no direct action; that natural events occur spontaneously;
that there is no such thing as teleology; that fortune and misfortune come by chance; and
that man does not become a ghost at death. In all these beliefs is stood against a prevailing
current of superstition and divination.

"When material forces (chi) of Heaven and Earth come together, all things are
spontaneously produced, just as when the vital forces (chi) of husband and wife unite,
children are naturally born. Among the things thus produced, blood creatures are conscious
of hunger and cold. Seeing that the five grains are edible, they obtain and eat them. And
seeing that silk and hemp can be worn, they obtain and wear them. Some say that Heaven
produces the five grains in order to feed man and produces silk and hemp in order to clothe
man. This is to say that Heaven becomes a farmer or a mulberry girl for the sake of man.
This is contrary to spontaneity. Therefore their ideas are suspect and should not be
followed."

--Lun-heng (Balanced Inquiries) (54)

Talisman of the Sacred Mountain of the North.

3.Huai-Nan Tzu
Huai-Nan Tzu (died 122 B.C.) [born Liu An] was a prince of Huai-Nan and a fervent Taoist.
He was not original in his writings but gave Taoism further prominence. He came to a tragic
end as he plotted a rebellion, failed and committed suicide.

"Tao covers heaven and supports Earth. It is the extent of the four quarters of the
universe and the dimensions of the eight points of firmament. There is no limit to its height ,
and its depth is unfathomable. It encloses Heaven and Earth and endows things [with their
nature] before they have been formed. ... Compressed, it can expand. Hidden, it can be
manifest. Weak, it can be strong. Soft, it can be firm. ...

"With it the mountain becomes high and the abyss becomes deep. Because of it, animals
run and birds fly. Sun and moon shine and the planets revolve by it. The unicorn emerges
and the phoenix soars. ...

"After having been polished and cut, it returns to simplicity. It acts without action and is
in accord with the Tao. It does not speak and is identified with virtue. Perfectly without
leisure and without pride, it is at home with harmony. The myriad things are all different but
each suits its own nature. Its spirit may be set on the tip of an autumn hair, but its
greatness combines the entire universe. Its virtue softens Heaven and Earth and harmonizes
yin and yang. It regulates the four seasons and harmonizes the five Elements. ..."

Therefore those who understand the Tao return to tranquility and those who have
investigated things ultimately rest with non-action.

--Huai-nan Tzu (1): 1a-2a, 6b

4. Lieh Tzu & Yang Chu

One final chapter in the development of Taoism is the hedonism of Yang Chu (440 to 360
B.C. and the pessimism of Lieh Tzu (5th century B.C.) [there is some debate by scholars
whether the texts attributed to these two philosophers were, in fact, written by them or
compiled later by followers]. This so-called 'Negative' School of Taoism takes the Taoist idea
of inaction (that is undertaking to artificial action) and interprets it as complete abandon.
Spontaneity was replaced with resignation, and hedonism took the place of selflessness.

The Empty Tao Develops into the World. The Empty Tao Develops into the World.

Yang Chu

"One hundred years is the limit of a long life. Not one in a thousand ever attains it.
Suppose there is one such person. Infancy and feeble old age take almost half of his time.
Rest during sleep at night and what is wasted during the waking hours in the daytime take
almost half of that. Pain and sickness, sorrow and suffering, death (of relatives) and worry
and fear take almost half of the rest. In the ten and some years that is left, I reckon, there
is not one moment in which we can be happy, at ease without worry. This being the case,
what is life for? What pleasure is there?"

Lieh Tzu

"Those who maintain that heaven and earth are destructible are wrong and those who
maintain that they are indestructible are also wrong. Whether they are destructible or
indestructible, I do not know. However, it is the same in one case and also the same in the
other. The living does not know the dead and the dead do not know the living. What is gone
does not know what is to come and what is to come does not know what is gone. Why
should I be concerned whether they are destructible or indestructible?"

The small part of history where we had Tao Politics

Particularly important to the development of Taoism in China was the rein of the Emperor Li
Lung-chi (a.k.a. Hsuan Tsung) who ruled for 44 years and was a fervent adherent of
Taoism. Deeply absorbed in its study he tried to create a Taoist state in which capital
punishment would be abolished and animals would be treated humanely. He established
hospitals for the sick and poor and was an accomplished musician, equestrian, calligrapher
and astronomer.

He set up a series of hotel/guest houses across his state- as Taoist love to travel!

A true mystic Li Lung-chi once had a vision of Lao Tzu who told him where to find a true
likeness of him. The image was, in fact, discovered and replicas of it were made and
installed in temples across the realm. He also told his ministers that once while burning
incense in a shrine he had been wafted up to Heaven.

Although ascetics and hermits such as Shen Tao (who advocated that one 'abandon
knowledge and discard self') first wrote of the 'Tao' it is with the sixth century B.C.
philosopher Lao Tzu (or 'Old Sage' -- born Li Erh) that the philosophy of Taoism really
began. Some scholars believe was a slightly older contemporary of Confucius (Kung-Fu Tzu,
born Chiu Chung-Ni). Other scholars feel that the Tao Te Ching, is really a compilation of
paradoxical poems written by several Taoists using the pen-name, Lao Tzu. There is also a
close association between Lao Tzu and the legendary Yellow Emperor, Huang-ti.

According to legend Lao Tzu was keeper of the archives at the imperial court. When he was
eighty years old he set out for the western border of China, toward what is now Tibet,
saddened and disillusioned that men were unwilling to follow the path to natural goodness.
At the border (Hank Pass), a guard, Yin Xi (Yin Hsi), asked Lao Tsu to record his teachings
before he left. He then composed in 5,000 characters the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its
Power).

Confucius.

Whatever the truth, Taoism and Confucianism have to be seen side-by-side as two distinct
responses to the social, political and philosophical conditions of life two and a half millennia
ago in China. Whereas Confucianism is greatly concerned with social relations, conduct and
human society, Taoism has a much more individualistic and mystical character, greatly
influenced by nature.

In Lao Tzu's view things were said to create "unnatural" action (wei) by shaping desires
(yu). The process of learning the names (ming) used in the doctrines helped one to make
distinctions between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and low, and "being" (yu) and
"non- being" (wu), thereby shaping desires. To abandon knowledge was to abandon names,
distinctions, tastes and desires. Thus spontaneous behavior (wu-wei) resulted.

The Taoist philosophy can perhaps best be summed up in a quote from Chuang Tzu:

"To regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard
accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent --
herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients."
One element of Taoism is a kind of existential skepticism, something which can already be
seen in the philosophy of Yang Chu (4th century B.C.) who wrote:

"What is man's life for? What pleasure is there in it? Is it for beauty and riches? Is it for
sound and color? But there comes a time when beauty and riches no longer answer the
needs of the heart, and when a surfeit of sound and color becomes weariness to the eyes
and a ringing in the ears.

"The men of old knew that life comes without warning, and as suddenly goes. They
denied none of their natural inclinations, and repressed none of their bodily desires. They
never felt the spur of fame. They sauntered through life gathering its pleasures as the
impulse moved them. Since they cared nothing for fame after death, they were beyond the
law. For name and praise, sooner or later, a long life or short one, they cared not at all."

Contemplating the remarkable natural world Lao Tzu felt that it was man and his activities,
which constituted blight on the otherwise perfect order of things. Thus he counseled people
to turn away from the folly of human pursuits and to return to one's natural wellspring.
The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.

Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this.

The central vehicle of achieving tranquility was the Tao, a term which has been translated as
'the way' or 'the path.' Te in this context refers to virtue and Ching refers to laws. Thus the
Tao Te Ching could be translated as The Law (or Canon) of Virtue and it's Way. The Tao
was the central mystical term of the Lao Tzu and the Taoists, a formless, unfathomable
source of all things.

Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.

Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.
These three are indefinable, they are one.

From above it is not bright;

From below it is not dark:
Unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
Form of the formless,
Image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it - there is no beginning.

Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the Tao, Move with the present.

Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

Lao Tzu has Yin Xi appear to the Barbarian as the Buddha.

Lao Tzu taught that all straining, all striving are not only vain but also counterproductive.
One should endeavor to do nothing (wu-wei). But what does this mean? It means not to
literally do nothing, but to discern and follow the natural forces -- to follow and shape the
flow of events and not to pit oneself against the natural order of things. First and foremost
to be spontaneous in ones actions.

In this sense the Taoist doctrine of wu-wei can be understood as a way of mastering
circumstances by understanding their nature or principal, and then shaping ones actions in
accordance with these. This understanding has also infused the approach to movement as it
is developed in Tai Chi Chuan.

Understanding this, Taoist philosophy followed a very interesting circle. On the one hand the
Taoists, rejected the Confucian attempts to regulate life and society and counseled instead
to turn away from it to a solitary contemplation of nature. On the other hand they believed
that by doing so one could ultimately harness the powers of the universe. By 'doing nothing'
one could 'accomplish everything.' Lao Tzu writes:

The Tao abides in non-action,

Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.
Without form there is no desire.
Without desire there is tranquility.
In this way all things would be at peace.

In this way Taoist philosophy reached out to council rulers and advise them of how to
govern their domains. Thus Taoism, in a peculiar and roundabout way, became a political
philosophy. The formulation follows these lines:

The Taoist sage has no ambitions, therefore he can never fail. He who never fails always
succeeds. And he who always succeeds is all- powerful.

From a solitary contemplation of nature, far removed from the affairs of men, can emerge a
philosophy that has, both in a critical as well a constructive sense -- a direct and practical
political message. Lao Tzu writes:

Why are people starving?

Because the rulers eat up the money in taxes.
Therefore the people are starving.

Why are the people rebellious?

Because the rulers interfere too much.
Therefore they are rebellious.

Why do people think so little of death?

Because the rulers demand too much of life.
Therefore the people take life lightly.

Having to live on, one knows better than to value life too much.
THE CLASSICS and TCM on the METAL ELEMENT

From Shen Jin'ao, Doctor Shen's Compendium of Honoring Life (Shen Shi Zunsheng Shu),
1773:

The lung is the master of qi. Above, it connects to the throat; below, it connects to the
orifices of the heart and the liver. It is in charge of inhalation and exhalation, and, in more
general terms, the flux of coming in and going out.

It is situated atop the other organs, so that it can keep them in check and push the body's
waste materials downward, all the way into the large intestine. In other words, it takes in
clear qi and gives off murky refuse; it absorbs the yin within taiyang to sustain the body's
yang qi [it absorbs the material essence of universal qi to sustain the body's functions], and
it commands the yang within taiyin to propel the body's yin substances [it commands the
descending force to move out the waste]. In cooperation with the foot taiyin spleen
network, it transports qi and provides it to all the other organs; it is for this reason that both
the lung and the spleen are both called taiyin.

The lung is associated with the phase element metal, the direction west, and the season of
autumn. In autumn, the seasonal qi turns crisp and clear, and all living things rely on its
force to become ripe and complete. Metal is the mother of water. Lung qi, therefore,
generally moves downwards. When our bodies rest, it descends into the kidney palace and
combines with water, a process the Neijing refers to as 'the mother concealing herself inside
the newly conceived offspring.'

Only the kidney is 'true water,' conceived in the heavenly spheres where the state of
oneness prevails. It is thus only appropriate that the kidney's mother, the lung, resides at
the very top of the dome that is formed by the body's main cavity. In a cosmic context, this
would be like being situated at the upper source of the stream of heavenly energy, flowing
downwards through the head, and finally entering the [kidney's] Dragon Gate below to
combine [with true water] to form the ocean [of bodily qi]. Since the lung thus functions by
transporting essence to the other organs, its main action could also be compared to the
climatic process of sprinkling morning dew, a heavenly substance which is dispensed
generously every morning to nourish all living creatures [below] on earth.

Typically, the lung is sensitive to dryness as well as to cold and heat. This means that the
lung's function of lubricating the other organs with essence has a tendency to deviate from
its mode of smooth operation by providing either not enough or too much lubrication. Or, if
invaded by evil qi, it will be unable to assume its commanding role among the organ
networks, and will instead produce diseases of a dry or a hot or a cold nature. This is the
reason why the ancient books all refer to the lung as 'the delicate organ.'

From Ye Tianshi, A Handbook of Clinical Case Histories (Linzheng Zhinan Yian) , 1746:

The lung is the main pump behind the action of inhalation and exhalation. It is located at the
highest point of the body, and thus is in a position to receive the clear qi that ascends from
the other organ networks. Its nature is to be clear and aloft, and its functional quality is to
expand downwards-be in charge of all descending movement within the body. Also, the lung
is known as the delicate organ, which is extremely sensitive to the influence of evil qi. Each
of the six influences [liuyin], therefore, can easily cause a state of imbalance in the lung.
The lung has an innate aversion to cold, to heat, to dryness, to dampness, and most of all,
to fire and wind. In the presence of these kinds of pernicious influences the lung easily loses
its clear and crisp equilibrium; it will be inhibited in its function to descend and command,
and as a result of this, normally free flowing qi will become obstructed and stagnate.

From Yu Chang, The Statutes of Medicine (Yimen Falü) , 1658:

All bodily qi has its physical origin in the lung. If the lung's qi is clear and straightforward,
then there is not a single type of qi in the body that will not obey and flow along smoothly.
However, if the lung qi becomes obstructed and turns murky, then the qi dynamics of the
entire body will start to go against their natural flow and start to move upwards instead of
downwards.

From Yang Jizhou, The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Zhenjiu
Dacheng) , ca. 1590. This paragraph appears in the chapter on the lung channel, and is
marked as a quote from an older Daoist source, The Original Classic of Guiding the Breath
(Daoyin Benjing) :

The lung is the lid of the five organ networks. It produces the voice, and it provides proper
moisturization to the skin. As soon as there is either internal damage due to the seven
harmful emotions, or external injury due to the six climatic influences, the rhythmical
process of inhaling and exhaling and the general qi flow between the body's inside and
outside are disturbed; the lung metal then loses its clear quality. If we want to restore purity
in the metal, we must first strive to regulate the breath. Once the breath is regulated, erratic
movement will not occur and the heart fire will calm down all by itself. The process is as
follows: first, we must concentrate on the dantian, this will quiet the heart; then, we must
relax and broaden the center of our torso; and finally, we must visualize that the qi comes
and goes freely through every single pore of our body. Soon, there will be no obstruction,
and if we focus diligently enough our actual breath will become very fine and subtle. This,
then, can be called the true breath [as achieved during meditation]. The breath, therefore,
has its origin in the heart. When the heart is at peace, the qi is in a state of harmony and
can return to its root in the lower abdomen with every breath we take. In this fashion, the
lung and its breath can truly fulfill their assigned role as the mother of the [lower] dantian.

From The Hidden Tao: A Collection (Daozang); Ming Dynasty compilation of esoteric Taoist
texts (ca. 1600), some of them dating back to 600 B.C.:

Qi disorders of the lung manifest as coughing. The secretion [ye] associated with the lung is
nasal discharge. The lung qi connects with the brain above and the spleen below. In
general, all types of bodily qi are governed by the lung. Laying down for too long harms the
lung. The lung is the source of inhaling and exhaling. It is the officer in charge of qi. If
noxious kidney qi enters the lung, there will be lots of nasal discharge.

The large intestine is the bowel associated with the lung. If it is in harmony with the lung,
the hair of the body and head will be lustrous. If the hair becomes dry and falls off, the lung
is exhausted.

The Central Juncture Classic (Huangting Jing) states: 'The lung palace can be compared to a
lid. In its innermost part reside the seven lads in charge of regulating the qi. In the outside
world, it corresponds to Mt. Song [the highest of China's Five Holy Mountains]. The nose is
its surface site. 'Shang' is its sound, pungent is its flavor, tart is its smell. If noxious heart qi
enters the lung, the person will experience an aversion to tart, putrid smells. Its disposition
is righteousness, its humor is anger, its fluid [jin] is saliva. If a patient suffers from lung
consumption, there will be lots of saliva. During the three months of autumn, the Metal King
carries out his chore of termination, and everything withers. The wise person who wants to
put his po spirits to rest and thus preserve his material body, must restrain his seed [avoid
ejaculation of sperm], nourish things, be merciful, and not be too exuberant in his
expressions.'

The lung makes a pair with the large intestine. On the body surface, it assumes form in the
nose. If lung wind is present, the nose will be congested. If the face appears withered, the
lung is dry. If the nose itches, there is a worm in the lung. If a person is panicky and
constantly frightened, the po spirits are leaving the lung. If white and black spots appear all
over the body, the lung is weak. If somebody has a powerful voice, the lung is strong. If
somebody cannot bear exposure to cold, the lung is in shambles. If somebody craves
pungent food, the lung is deficient. If somebody experiences constipation, the lung is
obstructed. If somebody has a glossy white face color, the lungs are healthy.

If the lung is diseased, there will be frequent coughing, symptoms of upward qi movement,
a puffy face, an excessive desire to lay down, blemishes in the face, a yellow-white face
color, a cold nose, a headache, pain and distention in chest and back, restless extremities,
itching of the skin, obstruction in the throat, dreams of beautiful ladies clad in silken fabrics
and fancy jewelry-oneself wearing scaled armor-or of speckled banners and lofty heroes. We
can remove these conditions by working with the mantra "ssssssssssssssssssss" and by
clicking our teeth at sunrise nine times: first, pull in fresh air through your nostrils, then
gently "sssssssssss" thirty-six times to expel lung heat and all other kinds of noxious qi
which may lodge there.

According to the traditional Chinese world view, every process and every thing represents a
transformation of one and the same qi. Yin (matter) and yang (function) are the two most
basic differentiations of this-ONE-universal Qi.

According to various references in the Neijing, the term qi, when used in the context of the
human body, has essentially two meanings:

1. material building blocks that are essential for the maintenance of physical life, as in yuan
qi (original qi), da qi (breath), or gu qi (food qi);
2. functional aspects of specific organ networks, such as stomach qi, liver qi, taiyang channel
qi, etc.

Qi in the body is produced and maintained by two basic sources: prenatal jing qi (essence)
of the kidney and postnatal air and food qi that is processed in the lung and spleen/stomach
systems.

Qi, by definition, moves. It is the uninhibited movement of bodily qi, which facilitates health.
The basic movements of qi are ascending (sheng), descending (jiang), going out (chu), and
coming in (ru).

The basic functions of bodily qi are:

1. Moving and circulating structural body substances (blood circulation, distribution of fluids,
growth process, function of organ/channel networks).
2. Warming the various layers of the body (if skin and muscles are not warmed due to qi
deficiency, there will be aversion to cold, cold hands and feet, etc.).
3. Creating a protective shield effect against external pathogens such as wind or cold as well
as, in modern terms, viruses and bacteria.
4. Stabilizing and holding the structural parts of the body in place (otherwise bleeding,
sweating, enuresis, prolapse of organs may occur).
5. Driving metabolism (e.g., in the process of blood production, or in the functioning of
certain organs, such as qi transformation facilitating water metabolism in the bladder).

There are many different layers of bodily qi which are referred to by the following terms:

Yuan Qi (original qi), also called jing qi (essence qi) or shenjian dong qi (qi that spirals out
from between the kidneys). It is created by the interaction of the body's yuan yang (original
yang) and yuan yin (original yin). It is considered to be the most fundamental qi of the
human body, the root source of metabolism. The Qing dynasty medical scholar Xu Lingtai
states in his influential treatise, Discussing the Origins and the Development of Medicine
(Yixue Yuanliu Lun, 1757): "And where, then, is this so called original qi located? All five-
organ networks possess their own true jing, which is their piece of the original qi. However,
the true home of this substance is what the Daoist classics call the dantian, or what the
Nanjing (Classic of Difficulties) calls mingmen (gate of life), and what the Neijing calls 'the
little heart next to the seventh vertebrae.'"

Da Qi (great qi), also called tian qi (heavenly qi): the breath.

Gu Qi (grain qi), also called di qi (earthly qi): qi distilled from food.

Zhen Qi (true qi): the body's total energy, being the combination of prenatal original qi and
postnatal air/food qi.

Zong Qi (ancestral qi): combination of the two aspects of postnatal qi, the breath, and
distilled food essence. It gathers in the middle dantian that is located between the nipples,
and surfaces in the throat to support the breath and the voice. It also enters the heart
channel to promote circulation of qi and blood.

Ying Qi (nutritive qi): manufactured from the denser portion of food essence; circulates
inside the blood vessels; can combine with fluids to produce blood; helps blood to circulate.
Ying (nutritive qi) and xue (blood) can therefore be differentiated only theoretically-in
physical form they are always one.

Wei Qi (protective qi): made from the more ethereal portion of food essence; circulates
outside the vessels; warms the muscles, moistens the skin, is in charge of opening and
closing the pores. This is why it can protect the body against the invasion of pernicious qi
invading from the outside.

Zheng Qi (righteous qi), Xie Qi (pernicious qi): righteous qi can be understood as the
traditional equivalent to the immune system, responding to the invasion of external
pathogens. The scholar Xie Liheng once made the following remark about the origins of
righteous qi: "zheng qi (righteous qi) is actually a manifestation of the power of yuan qi
(original qi)." His colleague Li Zhongzhai elaborated on the meaning of its antagonist,
pernicious qi: "xie qi (pernicious qi, evil qi) is nothing else but the six pathogenic influences
of wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, and fire."

Zangfu Jingluo Zhi Qi (organ and channel network qi): organ qi (liver qi, spleen qi, etc.)
refers to the respective functions of different organ networks. Channel network qi refers to
the qi flowing through the meridians that produces the feeling of local distention during
needling or acupressure.
Zhong Qi (central qi): qi of spleen and stomach. Mostly refers to the transporting function of
the spleen, specifically referring to its rising action. When the central qi collapses, there will
be signs of downward leakage such as diarrhea, profuse urination, prolapse of anus, etc.

It is important to note that all of these different types or layers of qi are governed by the
lung, and can be coordinated in a fruitful way only by the lung. In other words, the lung
influences all four of the basic qi movements of ascending, descending, going out, and
coming in. This governing of the qi includes influence on the spleen qi raising food essence
to the lung, from where it is distributed over the entire body; stomach qi descending,
passing waste to the intestines to be discarded; kidney yang "steaming" vital fluids (jing)
upwards; liver qi rising; lung qi descending. Etc.

THE PO
Po is an ancient astronomical term designating the material body of the moon, while its
counterpart, hun, is used to specify the light of the moon. In nature, the term po is thus
used to represent the visceral life force that lies latent in the earth, and in medicine it is
used to describe both measurable physiological functions and development. The scholar
Kong Yingda explains: "The spirit of form is called po. When human beings are first born,
they can see and hear, their hands and feet can move; these actions are due to the
workings of po." Zhang Jingyue, the master physician of the Ming Dynasty, further
elaborated: "The effect of po is that we can move and do things, that there is itching and
pain." In sum, po entails the basic instincts that we possess from birth, enabling us to see
and hear and eat and cry, even with the early state of awareness and activity of a baby.
Since breathing is the most fundamental of all instincts, the lung is the residence of the po
spirits.

According to the classic definition in the Neijing, "Po follows jing." In Chinese colloquial
language, people with a voluminous voice, intense eyes, or reflexes suited to the
performance of martial arts are said "to have a lot of qi po."

The lung is closely associated with the heart, just as the qi is closely associated with the
blood. The administrating aspect of the lung mostly refers to its controlling and harmonizing
function in regard to the flow of blood. As the Neijing definition reads: "The lung opens the
one hundred vessels." Concerning the intimate relationship of qi and blood, the classic
further states: "Qi is the commander of blood; if qi moves, blood moves."

Just like a metal object absorbs the temperature of its environment in an instant, the metal
organ (lung) is most easily influenced by external influences of pernicious heat or cold.

Lung qi constantly descends, moving water downwards: it thus provides the rest of the
organ networks with fluids, and even regulates urination. The defining Neijing line reads:
"The lung is the upper source of water." If it loses its crucial descending function, there may
be symptoms of stuffy chest, cough, asthma, or signs of water stagnation such as phlegm,
urinary problems, edema, etc.

The lung qi is in charge of propelling the protective qi (wei qi), the fluids, and the food
essence over the entire body. It thus warms the muscles and the surface, harmonizes the
opening and closing action of the surface pores, and moistens the body hair and the skin. If
lung qi is weak, the protective qi (wei qi) cannot nourish the body hair properly, causing it to
become brittle. Similar to the pores on the surface of the lung, moreover, the pores on the
surface of the skin are qi gates in charge of "body breathing." If the protective qi is too weak
to properly close the pores, sweat pours out. If there is an excess of pernicious qi in the
lung, on the other hand, the opening mechanism of the pores easily gets jammed; then the
ventilating function of the pores gets disturbed, and there may be symptoms of inhibited
sweating, such as no sweating during a fever.

A branch of the lung channel connects with the large intestine below, thus forming a pair.
The lung is known as yin (structural, essence storing) metal, the large intestine as yang
(hollow, transmitting) metal. Lung qi is the pushing power behind the large intestine's action
of transporting and discarding waste materials. From a more general perspective, it could be
said that the large intestine acts in accordance with the qi from the five organ networks,
which reaches it via the lung. Constipation may be due to a deficiency or stagnation of
propelling power, or a fluid problem (dryness) related to the lung. The anus, because of the
large intestine's intimate relationship with the lung, is called the po gate.

The nose is in charge of breathing and smelling; functions that depend entirely on a healthy
lung. Also, the nose is one possible gateway through which external pernicious qi can invade
the lung. If the lung is invaded by pernicious qi, there may be nasal symptoms such as
stuffy nose, nasal discharge, or loss of smell. If there is an acute obstruction of qi due to
lung heat, there will be asthmatic breathing, in which case the nose may quiver.

The throat is in charge of the voice, which can be compared to the sound emanating from a
metal bell. When the metal organ (lung) is afflicted by disease, the voice may appear
changed, muffled, or even lost as in the case of sore or hoarse throat.

Abnormal Up bearing and Down bearing of Lung Qi: If the body surface is invaded by cold,
or if there is internal heat obstructing the lung, the smooth process of dissipating qi, as
governed by the lung, will be disturbed. This disturbance of outwardly flowing qi typically
results in sensations of chills, drafts, fever, spontaneous sweating, or inhibited sweating-a
symptom complex that is generally labeled as a "disharmony between the body's ying
(nutritive) and wei (protective) layers."

If lung qi is deficient, and thus falls short in fulfilling its physiological duties of "misting"
postnatal essence over the organ networks or disseminating wei qi and essence to the skin
and body hair, then dry skin, spontaneous sweating, or a propensity to catch frequent colds
may result. Every disturbance of outward qi flow, moreover, will necessarily involve
disruption of the downward distribution of qi. Coughing, asthmatic breathing, and a stuffy
sensation in the chest are typical indications for a reversal of the lung's downward qi flow.

Lung Imbalance Affecting Its Opening and Regulating Affect on the Water Pathways: The
lung is situated in the upper burner and referred to as the upper source of water. If lung qi
fails to descend, it cannot open and regulate the water pathways and ensure the
unobstructed transportation of fluids to the bladder. Signs of water stagnation will inevitably
ensue, such as phlegm buildup, a puffy face, edema, or inhibited urination. As the Neijing
points out: "Lung qi disperses jing; in the upper part of the body, it is rooted in the lung;
below, it feeds into the bladder." The lung disseminates essential fluids: physiological jing
(essence), jin (body fluids), and ye (body humors). At the same time, it feeds into and
excretes superfluous fluids from the body via the bladder. Lung malfunction therefore can
easily cause pathological changes in water metabolism, particularly bladder function.

Dryness Affecting the Lung Causing a Depletion of Liquids and Humors: External conditions
like environmental cold, heat, and dryness, or internal dryness of the lung or large intestine
all have the potential to injure the fluid supply of the body and cause dryness symptoms in
the nose, throat, lungs, skin, body hair, or intestines. The Neijing comments: "The lung has
a natural aversion to dryness." In addition to being easily harmed by dryness, it passes on
the condition as symptoms of dryness elsewhere.
Grief and Sadness Harming the Lung: Grief, sadness, and melancholy are associated with
the lung. If one indulges in these emotional states, harm to the lung network will result and
symptoms of emaciation, lack of energy, or dry skin may occur. The other way around, a low
supply of lung qi can cause a gloomy state of mind. A particularly sad experience, moreover,
may cause a person to adopt a pessimistic attitude toward life (which is really a state of
dampened qi). "If a person is sad," it is said in the Neijing, "his qi will dissipate."

Lung Disease Influencing the Nose, Throat, and Large Intestine: If external pathogens
invade the lung, its orifice, the nose, will manifest symptoms of stuffiness, nasal discharge,
inability to distinguish smell, or quivering nostrils (in asthma patients). Since the throat is
governed by lung qi, an invasion of external pathogens can easily cause a loss of voice. Both
external (excess) and internal (deficiency) conditions, moreover, can be the cause of
swelling and pain in the throat, including enlargement and suppuration of the tonsils. If the
lung is unable to disseminate enough fluids to its associated fu organ below, the large
intestine, or if the fluids are scorched by lung heat, there will be constipation. As the primary
text of the fever school, Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases (Wenbing Tiaobian),
describes: "If somebody suffers from invasion of pernicious dry metal qi that is prominent
during the fall, it will gradually lead to intestinal coagulation that will become harder and
harder, and that must be purged." Heat accumulation in the large intestine, in turn, can
interrupt the proper up/down dynamics of lung qi, and become a potential cause of
coughing or asthmatic breathing.

HERBAL MEDICINE for the LUNGS

Dissipate lung qi (xuan fei): platycodon (jiegeng), scallions (congbai), fermented soy (dan
douchi), lotus leaf (heye).

Open up the surface (fa biao): ma-huang (mahuang), perilla leaf (zisuye), schizonepeta
(jingjie), mentha (bohe), angelica (baizhi).

Clear lung heat (qing fei): scute (huangqin), morus leaf (sangye), phragmites (lugen),
anemarrhena (zhimu), gypsum (shigao).

Moisten lung yin (run fei): lily (baihe), ophiopogon (maimendong), scrophularia
(xuanshen), polygonatum (yuzhu), trichosanthes root (tianhuafen).

Astringe the lung (lian fei): schizandra (wuweizi), mume (wumei), (yingsuke), terminalia
(hezi).

Stop coughing (zhi ke): stemona (baibu), aster (ziwan), (madouling), tussilago
(kuandonghua).

Calm asthmatic breathing (ping chuan): ma-huang (mahuang), apricot seed (xingren),
perilla seed (zisuzi), honey baked eriobotrya (zhi pipaye).

Disinhibit phlegm (li tan): pinellia (banxia), peucedanum (qianhu), fritillaria (beimu),
bamboo skin (zhuru), bile treated arisaema (dan nanxing).

Purge lung qi (xie fei): lepidium (tinglizi), morus bark (sangbaipi), water melon rind
(xiguapi), (baiqiangen)

Raise lung qi (sheng fei qi) :platycodon (jiegeng), cimicifuga (shengma).

Tonify lung qi (bu fei qi): ginseng (renshen), astragalus (huangqi), gecko (gejie).

Clear heat in the large intestine (qing chang): phellodendron (huangbai), coptis
(huanglian), rhubarb (dahuang), sterculia (pangdahai).

Moisten the large intestine (run chang): linum (huoma ren), trichosanthes seeds (gualou
ren), apricot seed (xingren), cistanche (roucongrong), tang-kuei (danggui).

Since the lung is primarily in charge of qi, lung therapy should mostly utilize medicinal
substances that affect the qi, not the blood. It is the particular function of lung qi to
dissipate outwards, and to descend and dispense downwards. If these functions are
compromised, they need to be rectified by restoring the outwardly dissipating function of the
lung (primarily by opening up the surface with diaphoretics), and/or restoring the downward
flow of lung qi (by calming coughing and asthmatic breathing, or opening up the water
passages, or purging lung qi).

Since the lung is located in the highest position of the organ networks, it is accustomed to a
clear and pure environment comparable to the crisp and fresh air on a mountain top. It is
most appropriate, therefore, to treat lung disorders with light and purifying herbs (consisting
mostly of the leaf and blossom parts of plants). The lung, moreover, is known as the "fragile
organ," and thus should not be treated with methods that are extreme. Ideal herbs are
pungent (but not too hot or too cold), and sweet and moistening.

If phlegm or heat accumulation obstructs the downward flow of lung qi (primarily

manifesting in coughing or asthmatic breathing), the lung should be purged by the
application of bitter herbs that initiate downward movement, such as apricot seeds
(xingren), scute (huangqin), or lepidium (tinglizi).

Lung tonification, in addition to using qi tonics with a specific affinity to the metal system
(like ginseng or astragalus), entails astringing the patient's surface energy. In order to
achieve this astringing affect, sour and moisturizing herbs (particularly schizandra) are often
included in therapeutic approaches to chronic lung disorders.

Pungent flavors have a particular affinity for the lung network. It is a characteristic of spicy
substances that they generally have a dispersing effect. In a healthy individual, pungent
food assists the lung's outwardly dissipating function which is involved in nourishing and
regulating the pores on the body surface. In a person suffering from a common cold,
pungent substances can help to relieve the blocked surface by inducing diaphoresis. Chinese
peasants often take a pungent decoction of ginger, garlic, and scallions to fight off wind cold
disorders. Horseradish, garlic, onions, ginger, mustard, and other pungent foods and spices
are deemed beneficial to the lung if used in moderation. "Pungent flavors generate the
lung," states the Neijing. The Classic warns immediately, however, that if used
inappropriately or excessively, they will cause harm to the lung, the skin, and the body hair.
Eating too much pungent food disperses the lung's physiological qi and dries its yin.

If there is excess heat in the lung network, the large intestine can be purged to relieve lung
heat and restore the descending dynamic of the lung system. If there is constipation due to
lack of fluids in the large intestine, consider possible causes in its zang organ pair: nourish
lung yin to moisturize the zang and fu metal organs (e.g., use trichosanthes root), and/or
fortify lung qi (e.g., use astragalus) so that physiological fluids can be properly distributed to
the large intestine.
LUNG QI DEFICIENCY (fei qi xu): primary symptoms include a pale face; shortness of
breath during physical activity; a low voice; a general aversion to cold temperatures;
cough/asthma without force; and spontaneous or inhibited sweating. Lung qi deficiency
usually entails surface deficiency, manifesting either in a proneness to colds and flus; or a
general sense of "being invaded" or overwhelmed by people or events. Secondary symptoms
may be fatigue; disinclination to talk; chronic presence of clear and watery phlegm. The
tongue typically presents with a pale body and a thin white coating; the pulse tends to be
weak.

Representative Herbs: astragalus (huangqi), ginseng (renshen), atractylodes (baizhu),

dioscorea (shanyao), schizandra (wuweizi), jujube (dazao), licorice (gancao), siler
(fangfeng).

Representative Formulas: Ginseng and Astragalus Combination (Buzhong Yiqi Tang);

Jade Screen Formula (Yuping Feng San); Decoction for Replenishing Original Qi (Baoyuan
Tang) minus cinnamon bark (rougui) plus schizandra (wuweizi).

LUNG YIN DEFICIENCY (fei yin xu): primary symptoms include a dry cough with no
phlegm or small amounts of sticky phlegm (possibly with traces of impacted blood); dry nose
and throat; and hoarseness or loss of voice. Secondary symptoms include a skinny
constitution; chronic sore throat; hot flashes; flushed cheeks in the afternoon; a burning
sensation in the palms or soles of the feet; and night sweats. The tongue typically presents
with a dry body and little or no coating; the pulse tends to be fine and rapid.

Representative Herbs: lily (baihe), ophiopogon (maimendong), glehnia (bei shashen),

scrophularia (xuanshen), polygonatum (yuzhu), white tree fungus (yin'er), cordyceps
(dongchong xiacao), raw rehmannia (sheng dihuang), asparagus (tianmendong), fritillaria
(beimu), platycodon (jiegeng).

Representative Formulas: Lily Combination (Baihe Gujin Tang); Nourish the Yin and Clear
Heat in the Lung Decoction (Yangyin Qingfei Tang).

LUNG YANG DEFICIENCY (fei yang xu): symptoms similar to lung qi deficiency, with
emphasis on cold symptoms that require warming.

Representative Herbs: dry ginger (ganjiang), asarum (xixin).

Representative Formulas: Licorice and Ginger Decoction (Gancao Ganjiang Tang);

Hoelen, Licorice, Schizandra, and Asarum Decoction (Ling Gan Wuwei Jiang Xin Tang).

LUNG QI AND YIN DEFICIENCY (fei qi yin liang xu zheng): primary symptoms are
chronic cough without force; shortness of breath when physically active; spontaneous
sweating and/or night sweats; dry mouth and throat. Secondary symptoms may include
mental and physical fatigue; low voice; pale face; flushed cheeks; little but sticky phlegm;
traces of blood in the phlegm; low grade afternoon fevers; and skinny constitution. The
tongue is typically pale with a gloss of tender redness; and the pulse tends to be fine and
weak.

Representative Herbs: ginseng (renshen), ophiopogon (maimendong), astragalus

(huangqi), schizandra (wuweizi), dioscorea (shanyao), raw rehmannia (sheng dihuang), lily
(baihe), anemarrhena (zhimu), fritillaria (beimu), peony (baishao), licorice (gancao).
Representative Formulas: Generate the Pulse Powder; Ginseng and Ophiopogon Formula
(Shengmai San); Lily Combination (Baihe Gujin Tang).

WIND COLD INVADING THE LUNG (feng han fan fei): primary symptoms are chills;
stuffy nose; clear and copious discharge, and/or cough. Secondary symptoms may include
headache; sneezing; obstructed voice; fever; and body pain. The tongue is typically covered
with a thin white coating; the pulse is floating.

Representative Herbs: ephedra (mahuang), apricot seeds (xingren), cinnamon twig

(guizhi), asarum (xixin), fresh ginger (shengjiang), citrus (chenpi), pinellia (banxia),
platycodon (jiegeng), aster (ziwan).

Representative Formulas: Ma-huang Combination (Mahuang Tang); Apricot Seed and

Perilla Formula (Xing Su San).

WIND HEAT INVADING THE LUNG: primary symptoms are fever with slight aversion to
wind and cold, and sore throat or cough with possibly some sticky or yellow phlegm.
Secondary symptoms may include nasal discharge; thirst; asthma; red and itchy skin rashes;
and restlessness. The tongue typically presents with a red tip, is covered with a thin white or
yellow coating; the pulse is floating and rapid.

Representative Herbs: morus leaves (sangye), platycodon (jiegeng), forsythia (lianqiao),

lonicera (yinhua), ma-huang in combination with gypsum (shigao), apricot seeds (xingren),
phragmites (lugen), houttuynia (yuxingcao).

Representative Formulas: Morus and Chrysanthemum Combination (Sang Ju Yin);

Lonicera and Forsythia Formula (Yin Qiao San).

DRYNESS INVADING THE LUNG (zao xie fan fei): primary symptoms are dry cough
without phlegm; dry nose and throat. Possibly small amounts of sticky phlegm that is hard to
expectorate or causes pain when coughing; traces of blood in the phlegm; headache. The
tongue is typically red and covered with a thin; dry yellow coating; and the pulse is floating;
fine; and rapid.

Representative Herbs: glehnia (bei shashen), eriobotrya (pipaye), fritillaria (beimu),

trichosanthes root (gualou), phragmites (lugen).

Representative Formulas: Eriobotrya and Ophiopogon Combination (Qingzao Jiufei

Tang); Morus Leaf and Apricot Seed Decoction (Sang Xing Tang).

COLD PHLEGM OBSTRUCTING THE LUNG (han tan zu fei): primary symptoms are
expectoration of runny white phlegm, or asthmatic breathing accompanied by an inability to
lay down on the back. Secondary symptoms include profuse amounts of phlegm that is easy
to cough up; rattling phlegm sound in throat; aversion to cold; stuffy sensation in chest;
white and greasy tongue coating; and a deep and slow pulse that is often slippery in the first
pulse positions.

Representative Herbs: perilla seed (zi suzi), sinapis (baijiezi), raphanus (laifuzi), asarum
(xixin), citrus (chenpi), pinellia (banxia), hoelen (fuling); ma-huang (mahuang), apricot seed
(xingren), belamcanda (shegan).

Representative Formulas: Belamcanda and Ma-huang Combination (Shegan Mahuang

Tang); Atractylodes and Hoelen Combination (Ling Gui Zhu Gan Tang).
HEAT PHLEGM OBSTRUCTING THE LUNG (tan re yong fei): primary symptoms are
coughing or asthmatic breathing accompanied by phlegm sounds in the chest or throat; and
expectoration of thick, yellow phlegm. Secondary symptoms include fever and choppy
breathing; coagulation of phlegm into rubbery clots that are difficult to expectorate; traces
of blood in phlegm; stuffiness and distention in the chest. Patient typically presents with red
tongue with yellow and greasy coating, and a slippery and possibly rapid pulse.

Representative Herbs: trichosanthes fruit (gualou), fritillaria (beimu), bamboo skin

(zhuru), scute (huangqin), houttuynia (yuxingcao), morus bark (digupi), peucedanum
(qianhu), eriobotrya (pipaye), apricot seed (xingren), lepidium (tinglizi).

Representative Formulas: Minor Trichosanthes Combination (Xiao Xianxiong Tang);

Phragmites Combination (Weijing Tang).

WATER AND COLD AFFLICTING THE LUNG (shui han she fei): primary symptoms are
coughing; asthmatic breathing accompanied by an inability to lay down on one's back; and
edema or swelling in the lower extremities. Secondary symptoms include copious amounts of
phlegm; stuffiness and fullness in sides of chest; distention and fullness in the lower
abdomen; cold pain in the lower back; cold knees; inhibited urination; or chills and fever
with body pain and no sweat. Patient typically presents with a thin white and moist (or
greasy) tongue coating; and a floating and tight pulse.

Representative Herbs: ma-huang (mahuang), cinnamon twig (guizhi), asarum (xixin), dry
ginger (ganjiang), aster (ziwan), apricot seed (xingren), perilla seed (zi suzi), aconite (fuzi),
hoelen (fuling), alisma (zexie), atractylodes (baizhu).

Representative Formula: Minor Blue Dragon Combination (Xiao Qinglong Tang).

THE LARGE INTESTINE

The Large Intestine meridian begins at the outside corner of the fingernail on the index
finger. It continues along the outside edge of the index finger between the 2 tendons of the
thumb at the wrist joint and along the bony ridge on the outer edge of the arm (the radius)
to the elbow. It crosses the outside of the elbow crease up to the outside of the shoulder
muscle. It then crosses the shoulder blade and meets the Governing Vessel on the spine. It
descends informally and connects with the lung then with the transverse section of the
Large Intestine. From the shoulder it branches up over the stano-cleido-mastoid muscle
(side of the neck) to the cheek, going through the lower gums then over the top lip. It
finishes beside the opposite nostril, where it links with the stomach meridian.

The Large Intestine

The Large Intestine is sometimes referred to as being "like the officials who procreate the
right way of living." The large intestine is the final part of the digestive system, and most of
the disharmonies relate to other digestive organs especially the stomach, spleen and small
intestine.

The functions of the large intestine are:

Eliminate wastes and poisons

Moves the turbid part of food and fluids downwards.
Reabsorbs some fluids.
In charge of moving the dregs.
Receives and excretes urine.
At the end of the process the feces are formed and eliminated.

The large intestine prefers a cool and dry atmosphere.

If the large intestine loses harmony, abdominal pain may result with intestinal rumblings,
diarrhea or constipation may result depending on the overall condition of the person.
The Large intestine influences the venous blood by absorbing water. The lungs operate on
venous blood by supplying it with oxygen. The lungs being more yang deal with oxygen
(yin). The Large intestines, being more structurally yang deals with grosser, physical yin ki
in the form of food and drink.
The five elements

The concept of the five elements is one of the basic descriptive frameworks in ancient
Chinese thinking - five notes in music, five viscera in physiology, five constants and five
virtues in sociology, five senses and five emotions in psychology. The five elements are
represented by fire, water, metal wood and earth; these in turn stand for conscious
knowledge, real knowledge, sense, essence, and intent. The five elements are "assembled'
in Taoism for the reconstruction and unification of the human being.

In Taoist terminology, there is the conditioned versus the primordial five elements.
The conditioned five elements are harmful and antagonistic and fragmented
The primordial five elements cooperate, foster and are unified.

In the conditioned state, wood stands for temperament, fire for volatility, earth for arbitrary
intentions, metal for feelings, water for desire. In these terms, temperament produces
volatility, volatility produces arbitrary intentions, intentions produce feelings, feelings
produce desires, and desires produce temperament. This represents a circle of conditioning,
somewhat reminiscent of the Buddhist idea of the twelve-fold circle of conditioning.

In the primordial state, wood stands for essence, fire for open consciousness, earth for true
intent, metal for true sense, and water for real knowledge.
The five elements also associate with the five 'bases' - the fundamental elements of a
human being - and are referred to as basic essence, sense, vitality, spirit, and basic energy.
The last three form the so-called three jewels or three treasures, which are an important
trinity in Taoist thought.

Vitality, energy and spirit are said to be originally one, yet are spoken as sexuality,
metabolism and thought. The metaphysical practice based on the three treasures is seen as
progressive refinement: refining vitality into energy, refining energy into spirit, refining spirit
into space, and finally breaking through space to merge with the reality of the Tao.

The 'five bases' present the five elements in the primordial, unconditional state.

In the temporal conditioned state they degenerate into the 'five things' which are referred to
as the; wondering higher soul, the ghost like lower soul, the earthly vitality, the
discriminating mind, and the errant intent.

To the ancient Chinese and to any people who live from the Earth, the closeness and
importance of Nature is understood. They live in the Elements, depend on the cycle of the
seasons, survive according to the laws of the universe and revere the flow and changes of
the world around them. They watch, heed, learn and steep themselves in the Elements so
basic to life. Just as Nature all around them is going through its natural process of change,
they instinctively know that the Nature inside them follows these same patterns that
intuitively human beings go through the cycle of seasons within themselves, that the
Elements are recreated within them. Each Element is ever present and ever basic to life. It
is not just in the world around them that the tender shoots of spring are born, bursting into
life, it is also within them. It is not only in summer that things bloom and flourish, but also
within them and so on with all the seasons. We are the seasons. We are the Elements.
Nature is without and within us, each of us every moment. We are a replica of the universe
passing from season to season in a natural unending cycle of life.

The ancient philosophers began with the premise that change occurred in an orderly and
predictable manner. They looked at nature and saw that the seasons progressed in an
orderly cycle, that the growth and development of humans took place in an organic and
orderly pattern. The ancient sages decided that change was not a random thing, but an
orderly process - an evolution.

Like much of traditional Oriental thought, the Five Transformations reflected the Chinese
ability to classify phenomena and at the same time remain flexible. The theory has been
used in healing, personal psychology, agriculture, economics and politics. It has been used
to treat disease, predict the weather and divine personal fortune. In short, it is a
cosmology, an attempt to understand life and the universe.

The most active or expanded part of the cycle is likened to the energy of fire and is
represented in our body by the heart and small intestine. Fire is highly amorphous, yet
possessed of great energy that inspires change. Fire is represented in our bodies by the
heart and small intestines.
As the energy of contraction becomes dominant it creates a stage of gathering, downward
and inward motion like the energy of soil. Here an idea begins to take shape as a
perceivable reality. This stage is represented in the body by the spleen, pancreas and
stomach. Reaching the extreme of contraction, energy appears consolidated or like metal.

The metallic stage suggests the greatest condensation or 'yangization' of the process, where
an idea firmly takes root in the material world. This is represented in our bodies by the
lungs and large intestines. Highly condensed energy begins to relax and open, as the yang
dominance transfers to yin dominance. This stage is like water, the most flexible and
enduring stage.

Water signifies the continuity of change toward a specific goal - water is always flowing
toward the sea. The water stage is represented in the body by kidneys, bladder and sexual
organs. Energy then rises in the cycle and begins to move outward in a dispersing motion.
This energy is like wood or a tree.

Wood not only bears fruit but fertilizes the soil with its leaves, seeds and unused fruit to
enrich the soil and begin the process of regeneration all over again. Wood energy is
represented by the body, by the liver and gallbladder. Energy then reaches its most active,
dispersed stage and the cycle begins again.

In terms of health, the five transformations reveal how energy moves through the body,
nourishing each organ system in an orderly and methodical manner. The body can be
understood as an integrated circuitry system in which ki, or life force, flows through the
system continuously according to an orderly pattern. Health can be described as a state in
which ki flows unimpeded through the system and thus fully nourish every organ and cell in
the body.

EXERCISES TO BALANCE THE BODY’S ENERGY

REF Text and Source: Dr Stephen T. Chang The Great Tao
About The Exercises
A mostly healthy person can do any of the five animal exercises, at any time. This will help
you stay on top physically and emotionally. If there are particular problems, the relevant
exercise can be done. Alternatively, you can take advantage of the pattern of the elements.
Each element nurtures one other element. By doing the exercise for the preceding element
that nurtures the one that is faulty, you get the benefit for the afflicted part as well as the
part, which nourishes it. To take advantage of this principle, simply find the element that
represents the area to be worked on, and then look at the following sequence showing the
nourishing element.

WOOD → FIRE → EARTH → METAL → WATER → WOOD

Perhaps you suffer from diabetes, and note the bear exercise from the earth element. There
is a choice of the Bear Exercise with its direct benefit, or the Dragon Exercise, of the fire
element, which will treat both the spleen/pancreas and heart.

Finally, be careful not to overdo any one exercise. If one element is strengthened too much,
it will adversely affect the other elements indirectly. Balance is the secret.

The Dragon Exercise

Purpose: overcome depression, anger, aggression, and anxiety from feeling overwhelmed.
Also, to feel like the dragon who soars above all petty concerns? The Dragon is the symbol
of power, wisdom, and control. For the body, it balances the element of fire. It helps
balance the heart, small intestines, and blood vessels.

Method: stand without moving. After a moment or two, take some deep breaths, imagining
as you breathe that you are changing into a dragon. See this clearly in your mind. Raise
one foot, taking on the pose and persona of the dragon. Thinking of your hands as claws,
hold up one arm with the ‘claws’ pointing down, the other arm up with the ‘claws’ pointing
up. Do this until you feel strain. Repeat as long as is comfortable.

The Tiger Exercise

Purpose: help if you feel anxious, antagonistic, function poorly in day-to-day tasks, and have
no drive to better you. For the body, it corresponds to the wood element. This is a good
exercise for healing the liver that may have made toxic with abuse of drugs including
alcohol. It eases inflamed nerves, helps remove toxins from brain cells, and helps the gall
bladder.

Method: Stand still. Taking deep breaths, imagine yourself turning into a powerful tiger.
Slightly flex your knees, rise on your toes. At the same time, your arms are reaching up and
out as if to capture something. Stop if you feel strained, and continue as often as you want.

The Bear Exercise

Purpose: this will help you think and grasp a concept clearly. It also instills decisiveness. It
corresponds to the earth element. It helps to heal the spleen and pancreas, and stomach
muscle. People suffering from diabetes, poor digestion, or hypo- or hyperglycemia should
benefit from regularly practicing the bear exercise.

Method: stand still, taking deep breaths as you imagine yourself becoming a powerful,
upright bear. Now, keeping your legs stiff, amble slowly forward. Your stomach should be
pushed out, and your arms kept together and slightly forward. Keep your neck and head
looking slightly down, rather than strictly upright. You should feel the abdomen affected as
you do this exercise. Continue as long as you can maintain the visualization. Repeat as
much as you wish.

The Eagle Exercise

Purpose: to dispel depression, feeling isolated and lacking hope. Physically, it helps the
lungs, large intestine, and skin. It corresponds to the metal element.

Method: stand still, taking deep breaths as you imagine that you become an eagle. You can
soar without effort. Method One. Now, stand with your legs apart, head to one side,
keeping both arms held out at about a 45° angle. Your hands point to the ground.
Method Two. Now, keeping your hands gently together behind your back, walk forward
slowly. You should feel totally relaxed as you do this exercise. Look at everything as an
eagle does, but without focusing on it; as if it has no concern for you. Nothing can harm
you; imagine yourself to be a holy creature filled with the spirit of God as you move through
the clear sky. This can be done at any time or place, but ideally after eating in the evening,
outdoors.

The Monkey Exercise

Purpose: to be able to break free of restrictions, perhaps caused by few options and little
personal freedom. Physically, it helps the kidneys and bladder, as well as urinary tract. This
exercise relates to the water element.

Method: stand or sit, breathing deeply until you have imagined yourself becoming a monkey.
Now, disrobe, remove footwear, and caper like a mischievous monkey. Crouch, caper, leap
about, perhaps bounce or hang upside down or by one arm. Whatever you do should not
strain or exert you. Act at whim. You might also like to rub and scratch your kidney area.
Song-Txu's Diagnosis of Human Types
The Chinese sage Song-Txu developed his own diagnosis of human types in the context of
their respective destinies:

• He who is gentle (yin) in appearance but has a firm (yang) inner

character develops endlessly.

• He who is active (yang) in appearance but has a flexible (yin)

inner character becomes famous.

• He who is flexible and docile (yin) in appearance and has a

weak (yin) inner character will lose everything.

• He who is violent (yang) in appearance and has a stubborn

(yang) inner character will perish sooner or later.

Ohsawa’s Seven Levels of Awareness

Scientist and philosopher Georges Ohsawa, the modern day father of Macrobiotics, classified
human types according to the quality of their consciousness, which he measured on a
metaphysical scale of his own invention. This scale proceeds vertically from the lower levels
evolving towards the highest level. Ohsawa believed that most people demonstrate a
tendency to fluctuate between levels, though they have an affinity to one in particular. The
highest level, he said, is reached by very few. It compares to the Indian Satvic man. Here
are the seven levels:
1. Mechanical/Instinctual: predominantly motivated by impulse rather
than thoughts of feelings or intuitive judgment.

2. Sensorial: guided entirely by the senses: in search of sensory

gratification and material fulfillment.

3. Sentimental: makes a distinction between likes and dislikes with

respect to the senses; feelings predominate.

4. Intellectual: conceptual and mental activity governed by analysis,

logic, rationale and evaluation.

5. Social: extension of the self into family, society, country, and the
world; emphasis on social conditions and community.

6. Ideological: the search for the answers to the questions of life relating
to the order of Universe: who are we, what are we doing here, and
what is our eternal dream.
7th Level- Cosmological: understanding of phenomena as
complementary and antagonistic manifestations of One Infinity, making
all antagonisms complementary and harmonious.
You are completely at one with the universe and THE
UNIVERSE
ASTROLOGY
Recognizing the universal nature of the process of change, ancient peoples were able to
classify numerous processes and phenomena according to the five transformations of
energy: eg. Astrology
* The changes in atmospheric energy over the course of a twenty-four hour day.
* The progression of the twenty-eight day Lunar cycle.
* The unfolding of the solar year.
* Various weather related condition.

Astrology Archetypes
It is estimated that the roots of astrological typecasting stretch as far back as the Lemurian
and Atlantean civilizations. The Babylonians used it 5,000 years ago, as did others.
Essentially, orthodox Western astrology recognizes twelve general human types. Nine Star
Qi, a branch of Oriental astrology, recognizes nine. Following is a summary of both:

Western Astrology Sun Signs

• Aries: Independent, individualistic, highly sexed, pioneering,

imaginative, strong willed, ambitious, idealistic, single-minded,
fiery, great capacity for love.

• Taurus: Artistic, keen sense of humor, pragmatic, conservative,

good tempered, earthy, power-conscious, possessive.

• Gemini: Adaptable, curious, loyal, has intellectual acumen,

restless, likes to communicate, moderate sexuality, prefers ideas
and abstractions to feelings.

• Cancer: Introverted, emotional, hide’s feelings, prudent but

charitable, ambitious, ebullient, moody, good with money.

• Leo: Extroverted, leaders, kind, warm-hearted, good with

people, prideful, organized, faithful, romantic, flamboyant.

• Virgo: Cerebral, analytical, intellectual, frugal, introspective,

emotionally cool, detached, unromantic.

• Libra: Fair, conciliatory, flexible, creative, libidinous, and

sensitive to cultural and social mores.

• Scorpio: Sense of purpose, single-minded, intuitive, perceptive,

forceful, demonstrative, suspicious.

• Sagittarius: Frank, outspoken, intuitive, thinks and acts big,

fiery, likes the outdoors, a doer, emotional, a traveler, jovial.

• Capricorn: Reflective, humanitarian, good memory, desire for

recognition, conservative, stable, keenly aware.
 • Aquarius: Individualistic, original, futuristic, easy-going,
dreamer, progressive, liberal, organized, passionate.

• Pisces: Often psychic, metaphysical, subjective, emotional,

blindly trusting, artistic, secretive, sexed, dreamer.

Note: The above are Sun Signs. Authentic astrological observation depends on the
acquisition of a complete natal chart that is highly detailed and intricate.

Oriental Astrology
Oriental Astrology is somewhat different in approach to occidental methodologies. Here are
some common associations in the context of typology:

Nine Star Qi
Based on the year of birth, Nine Star Qi is associated with the Loshu magic square numbers
and the eight trigrams from the I Ching.

Metal active symptoms are sighing and crying. When metal energy is being
frustrated, the person tends to be stubborn, depressed and has an affinity to
attachment. Under stress, a normally disciplined and orderly person may become
excitable and nervous.

The completion of the yin phase of the five phases settles in the metal phase. Here the
material world shines with its physical design and substance. In the world of social actions
(earth essence), goals are realized in metal. Individuals find completion and sense of
permanence by creating structures or establishing businesses.

The metal persons motto might be "seeing is believing" or "actions speak louder than
words." They passionately pursue their goals with the material world as their domain. They
love competition and know how to play the game in a low-key methodical style. Their
desires, whether for food or sex, are strong, but it is the drive for power and control that
propels the metal person.

Power is a force without physical boundaries. By using this concentrated yang energy the
metal person creates their goals. Therefore, power becomes the vehicle for dream
realization. The dream begins in fire, gains momentum in earth, and crystallizes in metal.

Metal people enjoy being in command and easily feel resentment if they are not. They
accept responsibilities because they know that they can fulfill them. This ability springs from
their natural commitment to whichever undertaking they choose.

Because success seems to come to metal types without great difficulty, it does not fulfill
them. More than any of the other four essences metal types can conceal their feelings and
thoughts. They use this ability to hide their doubts about the meaning of success. For
example, if they settle for material comfort alone they can quickly become secretive and
aloof to avoid confronting their doubts.

Metal people need to seek out new ideas that give them fresh insights (water essence) into
life. In order to rekindle metal's active sense of participation they need the catalyst of fire’s
inspiration. Inspiration combined with general images of the universe and about life provides
the stimulus for new undertakings and challenges.

To know the beginning is to forecast the end. Traveling in one direction eventually leads to a
destination. Success in life requires experiencing each essence of the five phases of life’s
potential: curiosity and insight (water) brings inspiration and imagination (fire). Their innate
creative implementation (earth) leads to realization and completion (metal).

Everyone is capable of fulfilling each essence. The ones that come easily and naturally are
usually the 'mother' and 'child' of your birth phase (based on your 9 star Ming Kua Kiyear).
The other phases may seem more difficult, yet can be accomplished by applying effort and
maintaining the self-image of the complete person.

There is no failure in the school of life. Likewise, others cannot measure success, nor is it
significant in material matters per se, for life contains greater meaning that can be perceived
through the five senses. Rather, its foundation rests upon the bonding of your spiritual,
mental, emotional and physical being. The efforts given to reuniting these primal qualities
determines the endurance of true success. This depends upon how much you are willing to
discover in order to recover your true destiny.

Uniting your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical natures brings endless faith in the
universe and nature. Openness and communion with them is true success, and the meaning
of freedom and self-mastery.

A Simple Test In Diagnosis Using The Five Transformations

In order to see the principle of detecting various organ troubles in handwriting lets use a
simple example. Please have your friends draw a simple circle on a piece of paper, and draw
one yourself.

Since all the organs are related to each other’s activities and conditions in a cyclic flow of
energy, all of the organs energies come into play when we draw a simple circle with our
hand. If you see someone can draw a nearly perfect circle, without having to concentrate
very hard, just drawing normally, then you can tell that persons organs are all working fairly
well in harmony.

However, perhaps the circles you have drawn are not so regular! When you are beginning to
draw downward, start to gather toward the lower area of the circle, you are using what we
call soil nature type of energy; in other words this energy is correlated with your stomach,
spleen and pancreas. As your reach toward the bottom, that fully gathered, very heavy
energy corresponds to the lungs and the large intestines, or metal nature. Then as you
begin to curve around the bottom and go towards drawing upward, that floating transitional
stage is using water energy, reflecting the condition of the kidneys, bladder and sex organs.
Upward motion is reflecting the liver and gall bladder, or tree nature; and as you reach the
highest part of the circle, that fully expanded, active energy shows the condition of the
heart, small intestines triple heater and heart governor, or fire nature energy.

In other words when you draw a circle you are creating a perfect picture of your organs and
meridians conditions according to the diagram of the five transformations.

If one part of the circle bulges out, then you know that corresponding organ is more
expanded; if another part of the circle is too tight and not smoothly rounded, that organ is
tight and contracted. If some part is shaky or weak, then you can tell that some condition is
characteristic of that organ.

Also, you have to see which direction that circle is drawn, so you know which side was
drawn with a descending line and which side was drawn with an ascending line. The
particular place where a person begins his drawing also has some certain meaning. In
general, more Yang people tend to begin at the bottom, while more Yin people tend to begin
at the top.
Questions, testing your knowledge, revision, self-reflection….food energetics, the
5 elements, self healing, home remedies, cooking skills, diet planning, yin-yang
princiles, oreder of the universe…

1. Is Earth's force stronger in coffee or meat.

2. Classify the following into the five elements: rain, ice, steam, and clouds, water.
Please place their energies into a cycle that corresponds with the five elements.

3. Fire controls ......

Soil controls ......
Water controls .....

4. Yang meridian are which organs.

Yin meridian creates which organs.

5. Yang organs by structure are more hollow or solid?

6. Why does winter correlate with water energy?

7. Which element do you think you express more: more flowing, rising, expanding,
consolidating, contracting?
Why do you choose this element?

8. If we are all these elements, how can we choose one that is dominating?

9. Ke-cycle: if one is rising, the other moves. If we accelerate liver, then soil and
metal suffer. We can control fire energy by emphasizing water energy.

10. Mother-child: wood creates fire, fire creates the ashes etc. This is the creative
nourishing cycle.

11 The yin/yang paired complimentary organs of each element.

13 Everything is composed of the 5 elements, but in some cases a particular element is

predominating eg. in summer time energy is dominating, in autumn metal, in winter
water, in spring wood energy.

14 We can understand the 5 transformations by their archetypal energy, best

described by the arrows symbolically showing the type and direction of qi flow, eg:
soil, metal, water, wood and fire

15 Remember do not use in a rigid conceptual way, because each phase is continually
changing into the next, winter into spring, evening into night, and expansion into
contraction.

16 Research into your notes and find the following associations with the five phases
categorize into metal, wood, fire, soil and water. Morning time, red color, pungent
foods, self-pity, anger, millet, wheat, kidneys and bladder, steaming blue, eyesight,
decisions making, depression shouting, small intestines, speech, fear, humor, salty
taste, nighttime....
17 Draw a circle and diagnosis possible energy characteristics. Diagnose a friend’s
circle.

18 Work out your own five-element type from the natural year chart. Are you soil,
metal etc? From the year of your birth?
Describe if you see any connections with yourself.

19 How do you think the five elements theory can be applied to treating mental
disease?

20 Categorize the following into the five elements, which element dominates?
Basketball, cricket, Rugby, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand, England, U.S.A., golf,
swimming, Japanese cooking, Spanish cooking.

21 What is health?

21 Name the seven levels of health?

22 What is disease?

23 Name the stages of disease.

24 Define the seven levels of consciousness.

25 What is the spiral of materialization?

26 What is Macrobiotics?

27 Is heavens force or earth force dominating when an object is stationary?

28 Which force is dominating more on the left side; which ancestors does it relate to?

29 Describe colors, taste, and grains that relate to each element.

30 Describe six positive emotional and behavior tendencies for each element.

31 Metal controls/inhibits which element?

32 Water is the mother of which element?

33 What organs do the “cold” effect the most?

34 A full moon produces a more Yin effect T/F.

35 What is food?

36 What is tension?

37 What is gravity?

38 What is Dualism?

39 In your own words, describe and define: what is Qi?

40 What do we mean by kundalini

41 What we we mean by Bliss

42 How does food become our blood and then our body cells?

43 How long has life evolved on this planet. How do we represent this evolution?

44 What is death? Describe life in the vibrational world. Is there a vibrational world
after dealth.

45 How can we develop one’s instinct?

46 What is cancer?

47 List 10 ideas towards world peace.

48 What is the relationship between food and memory?

49 What is the importance of spiritual nourishment in health?

50 When is a healing diet not effective?

51 Why is the number 13, a superstitious number.

52 Classify from yin to yang: heart, reason, soul, spirit.

53 Why do we stand upright?

54 What is hara?

55 Why do we forget experiences?

56 Why do people gather into a group?

57 What is polarization?

58 How do you know that yin and yang is not just a convenient story to explain what is
accurately chaos?

59 Why does Dualism reign in the West?

60 What is light? Is it yin or yang? What is darkness?

61 List 5 major criticisms of yourself. Where in your life can you improve your attitude?

62 If it is so easy to cure disease with TCM and macrobiotics, why is it not widely used
in Society?

63 Yin and Yang describe the two primordial forces in the universe.
In your own words describe what this means.
64 What is more yang a stone or an egg and why?

65 Answer true or false to the following questions:

A buckwheat plaster is made from cold water

Hairy men are more yang
Protein is more yin than oil
Steaming is more yang than boiling
Corn is beneficial for heart disease
Nori condiment is cooked for more than 30 minutes
Hijiki is more yang than Kombu
Dry skin is an indication of anemia.
High altitude produces a more yang effect
Ginger compress is to draw out the swelling
Carp is more yang than tuna fish.
Glass is more yin than wood
The liver meridian is found on the inside of the arm
The spleen meridian begins on the big toe.
Eyebrows relate to our vitality
Kudzu is dissolved in hot water
A waxing moon is more yin

66 If someone had a frontal headache, what medicinal drink would you recommend?

67 Why are overly spicy foods avoided on a healing diet?

68 Why is eating at home considered nourishing?

69 Describe briefly the different effects of high-refined sugar to complex carbohydrate

sugar in the function of the liver.

70 Outline generally, a good eating plan for a healthy person. Include foods to avoid
and foods to emphasize.

71 A pregnant woman comes to you who want to shift from her junk food, what do
you recommend?

72 What home remedies would you make for?

Swollen knee
Acute attack of diarrhea
Cystitis attack
Lower back pain
Fever
Gall bladder stones pain

73 What advice do you give to help manage sweet cravings / sugar addiction?

74 What is the treatment principle involved in treating with a home remedy an acute
problem such as burning, swelling, etc.?

75 Name three home remedies useful for treating an acute symptom such as
inflammation and swelling.
76 Name a special dish for lung discharge.

77 What is good home remedy for fish poisoning.

78 Describe 5 home remedy treatments for menstrual cramps,

79 Name 3 qualities of Kombu tea.

80 Name some foods useful for treating edema.

81 Name 2 foods good for stomach ulcer.

82 Write a dietary plan for a client who has diabetes.

83 Name three special dishes for after childbirth.

84 A man in with lung cancer on a macrobiotic diet phones you because he is craving
fruit, what suggestions do you give?

85 What do you recommend for a person with chronic constipation?

86 Describe making a Daikon- Shitake – kombu tea.

87 For what would you use dried Daikon?

88 Create 6 dishes and 2 medicinal drinks to help a child with bed-wetting

89 Create 4 recipes that will tonify the spleen yang

90
List 30 cooling foods

List 30 cold foods

List 30 warm foods

List 15 hot foods

91 Create 6 recipes to dispel damp from the body

92 Create a menu plan for 1 week to help someone reduce weight

93 Create 7 recipes to help nourish kidney yin

94 Create 7 recipes to help nourish kidney yang

95 Create a menu plan for 1 week for someone who has asthma

96 Create 5 recipes to help sedate an overactive and hot liver

97 Choose a particular cancer and write your dietary recommendations, include

foods to avoid, home remedies, special dishes, and lifestyle strategies.
98 Write a dietary plan for a man who has prostrate problems

99 What supplements have been scientifically proven to help with prostrate problems?

100 A child has a runny nose and a cold, what are your recommendations. Describe
certain dishes and home remedies that are suitable for children

5 ELEMENTS and SELF DIAGNOSIS

101 Diagnostic Exercise:

For your own current condition- describe:

a) List pains/aches (if any)

b) List preferences for hot and cold (foods/drinks etc.)
c) List urination/stool habits/tendencies
d) List taste preferences (e.g. sour, salty etc.)
e) List sleeping patterns
f) Describe energy levels
g) Describe genealogical patterns (if applicable)
h) Pulse and tongue
i) List nature of secretions (e.g. eruptions, expectorations etc.)
j) List emotional tendencies (e.g. anger, sadness, etc.)
k) List specific problems (are they chronic or acute?)
l) Deriving an understanding of the energetic

102 Diagnostic Exercise:

For your friend or client- describe:

a) List pains/aches (if any)

b) List preferences for hot and cold (foods/drinks etc.)
c) List urination/stool habits/tendencies
d) List taste preferences (e.g. sour, salty etc.)
e) List sleeping patterns
f) Describe energy levels
g) Describe genealogical patterns (if applicable)
h) Pulse and tongue
i) List nature of secretions (e.g. eruptions, expectorations etc.)
j) List emotional tendencies (e.g. anger, sadness, etc.)
k) List specific problems (are they chronic or acute?)
l) Deriving an understanding of the energetics

103 Seaweed corresponds and heals which organs?

104 The Yellow Emperor describes the kidneys as….

105 What is paleness?

106 Why is blood yin?

107 Name 4 symptoms that may be associated with deficient Qi?

108 Name 4 symptoms that may be associated with stagnant Qi?

109 What illnesses in Western medicine would give you these symptoms?

110 In your own words, describe Jing?

111 Name three functions of the pancreas.

112 The heart meridian connects to what other meridians?

113 How long does the liver take to neutralize alcohol?

114 What does the liver do if a person over-eats?

115 The Yellow Emperor describes the stomach as the official of what?

116 Which toes relate to the constitutional energy of the stomach?

117 The stomach likes which type of environment?

118 The solar plexus is associated with which organs, name them.

119 How is food allergy created?

120 How do you cure lateness for class?

121 Which is more yin energy; coffee or apple juice?

122 If someone was experiencing anger, what organs does it affect?

123 Is feeling isolated a Yin or Yang symptom?

124 Is feeling frustrated a more yin or yang symptom?

125 Transpose the water cycle in nature to the five transformations, draw a diagram
(steam, ice, atmosphere, water, rain)

126 Sweet tasting vegetables correspond to which element?

127 Name three liver Stuck Qi signs and symptoms.

128 Name four signs and symptoms of spleen and yang deficiency.

129 Wood controls which element?

130 The liver stores blood sugar (glucose) as_________ and changes it back into
_________ when there is lowered blood sugar level.

131 The stomach likes which type of environment?

132 Menstrual pain can originate from a number of causes. Name four and describe a
recipe for each one.

133 Take 3 foods and describe them according to there:

Temperature - nature
Flavor
Meridian route (when applicable)
Yin/Yang balance - quality
Five-element ascription
Generalized direction in the body
Treatment principles (Qi blood, Yin Damp etc)
Common clinical use
Contraindications (if any)

134 Choose a particular condition and create a recipe using the three foods described
above plus any others that might be needed.

135 Deficiencies often need tonification of the Qi and Blood. What does this mean?
Describe the kinds of foods that need to be eaten in energetic terms.

136 Write three causes of damp condition such as yeast infections and suggest foods
that should be avoided for a person with a damp spleen.

137 Write a meal plan for someone who has Amenorrhea.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

138 Dong Quai is reputed to be the women’s herb. Describe why and give five ways,
which the herb can be used to treat women.

139 What does a raw fruit and vegetable diet do in the body? Who should avoid this kind
of diet?

140 Explain digestion using the stomach, spleen, lung, heat, small intestine, large
intestine, kidney and bladder.

141 What are good quality cooking pots and what are not?

142 Name five human qualities that are important in cooking food?

143 What is the benefit of eating sea vegetables?

144 How do you use kudzu and what for?

145 Why is Miso a helpful food?

146 Is Miso a complete protein?

147 What do you recommend for a person with constipation?

148 List 10 ways of serving leafy greens.

149 What is the purpose of cooking?

150 What type of home remedy would you use to relieve burns?

151 What type of home remedy would you use to relieve earaches?
152 Where would you not use a ginger compress? List 5 places or situations.

153 Why do we use sea salt in Macrobiotic cooking, and are a salt free diet beneficial to
anybody?

154 When is raw food appropriate to a person’s health and when is it not?

155 Pickles are good quality why?

156 What are good summer foods and cooking styles?

157 What are some of the best ways of storing the following?

Grains
Oils
Miso
Flour
Tofu

158 Why do you clean the cutting board after each ingredient?

159 Why do macrobiotic cooks avoid microwaves and why is gas considered superior to
electricity?

160 List 10 summer desserts?

161 List 7 ways of serving brown rice.

162 In stews and casseroles, do large chunky vegetables impart flavor or absorb
flavor?

163 Describe two sauces you would make to balance some wild greens?

164 Name 7 cooling foods?

165 Name 7 warming foods.

166 Name 7 foods, which are blood warming and blood tonifying.

167 Name 5 foods, which assist the yang ki.

168 Name 5 foods, which drain dampness.

169 Name 5 foods, which tonify the kidney.

170 Name two foods that relax the liver.

171 Is fennel seed a digestive?

172 Name four “descending” type of foods.

173 What type of rhythm does a chicken have? Describe in terms of the doctrine of
signatures

174 Give 7 reasons why we choose grains as our principle food?

175 Each flavor has associated “power of flower” effect.

What is the effect of the sour taste?

176 From Yin to Yang, list these cooking styles….

Baking, blanched, salad, quick pickles, sauté, boil, steam, deep fry.

177 What foods is acid producing to the blood

178 What foods is alkaline producing to the blood

179 what foods make good iron producing/ /absorbing companions?

180 Give a balanced meal for a day in summer

181 What are good winter foods and cooking styles?

182 Make your own observations of the changes in food production and
Consumption over the past 20-50 years. Ask your parents and
Grandparents what they ate daily as children. Compare this to your own
Diet, and that of a child who you know.

183. Find 3 naturally occurring examples of spiral forms in your environment.

Draw and describe them. How would you describe them in terms of Yin?
and Yang tendencies?

184 Looking at your own lifestyle, personal history, hobbies, friends, dreams
and regrets, can you see how you create balance? Give short examples.

185 Suggest some tasty and appealing variations on any of the recipes you
have been given. Please indicate whether or not you actually cooked up
your ideas. Please share any successes or questions you have
concerning the menus, and your own ideas.

186 Why is synthetic clothing or underwear not recommended?

187 What practical value can you see in the traditional practice of saying?
Grace before eating?

188 How does an Eskimo maintain a balance in his/her extreme Yin climate?

189 What is the connection between grains and the evolution of cities?

190 When we are studying diagnosis, what are some of the pitfalls that are easy to
fall into e. g. labeling, being fatalistic.......

191 Name 4 external factors that influence our constitution

192 Name 2 internal factors that influence our constitution

193 Name two important features you look for to distinguish a constitution

194 Describe what a Yin Excess body type means

195 The nose relates to......

196 How many body organs can you see indicated around the mouth?

197 Would type of pain experienced by a deficient SP/ST feel better with heat and
pressure?

198 Dry skin is indicating what?

199 Name 10 functions of the Liver

200 Now is chronic disease classified with the 8 Principles (Conditions)?

201 What would this condition indicate?

Headaches, fever, and aversion to wind, thirst, and perspiration

202 What would this condition indicate: loose stools, aversion to cold

203 What are the primal functions of Chi in the body – describe 10 aspects

204 What are the primal functions of Blood in the body e.g. nurturing, cooling

205 What can sleep patterns tell you?

206 Quality of the nails shows which organ?

207 Where would you diagnosis (see the condition of) the Gall Bladder?

208 List 5 symptoms of:

Stuck liver chi

Damp spleen
Kidney yin deficient
Lung Chi deficient
Bladder damp heat

209 Describe the climate of your local area, in your own words and in terms of Yin and
Yang elements, describe your bioregion

210. Describe your current diet, and list the items in two columns - More Yin and More
Yang. How would you describe the overall balance of your current diet?

211 What cooking style would you feel appropriate for cooking carrot?
Cauliflower and onion, on:
a) A very hot, dry day.
b) A very cold, wet day.
212 Outline changes you could make to improve your kitchen space, making it more
workable.

213 Which minerals and trace elements are found in seaweeds in large amounts overall?

214. Suggest which saucepans or pots would be useful for the following dishes:
Rice, stir-fry, steaming, making a sauce, casserole.

215 List any ecological changes you have made in your present lifestyle - and
possible additions in the future.

216 Why are sea vegetables considered valuable foods to eat in this day and age?

217 Which seaweeds are available in your local stores (if any)?

218 What are the soaking times for?

Chickpeas
Lentils
Adzuki beans
Rice

219 Most traditional cuisine features a staple grain and bean combination. What is the
nutritional value of this?

220 What are the respective values of brown and white (polished) rice?

221. What is the difference between Shoyu and Tamari?

222 Why is Umeboshi so valued by people and doctors in the Far East?

223 Which grain is the highest in protein of all the grains?

224 How does rice help in the treatment of diabetes?

225 Looking at a well-known cuisine (other than your own - i.e.: Chinese, Italian, French,
takeaway, etc.) describe the food balance in Yin and Yang terms. (General detail
only).

226 Outline the 7 levels of the Materialization Spiral (according to George Ohsawa)
with a short (one sentence) summary of what each one is.

227 Can you create a symbol of your own to express yin and yang, as you perceive it?

228 Make out a map or family tree of health or illness amongst your own, your parents
and your grand parents generations. Find out who died of what, or what illnesses
were suffered, and if possible, give a parallel picture of most likely foods that were
eaten. Take into account the lifestyles of family members.

229 What determines the amount of usable calcium in one's diet?

230 What ways are recommended to ensure correct levels of B12 intake?

231 Summarize the major differences between the standard Western diet, the
Recommended diet, and the Macrobiotic diet (i.e. list 3 differences).

232 What foods or dishes of foreign origin can you identify in your weekly diet?

233 How would you describe your own physical CONSTITUTION in terms of yin and yang
influences? Give descriptive reasons. What body type are you in from TCM. What
body type are you from Ayurvedic

234 A man commutes to work, 1 1/2 hours each way on the train. He is a manager and
has many tasks to do in each day and is kept on the run. He is married with 4
children and likes to take them bush walking on weekends. He has trouble relaxing
and 'switching off', and becomes irritable and tired.

Is this man's condition more yang or yin?

What suggestions could you make to help him relax.

235 Which chakras are affected by an excessively yin condition? How would you notice
this in yourself or someone else?

236 Looking around you, choose three people you know well, and give a brief description
of their yin/yang tendencies - give just a general idea.

237 Explain in your own words, what you understand 'energetic' to be in the context of
menu planning.

238 Look at your daily activities. List them and describe them in terms of yin/yang
energetic.

239 Give a simple menu for any 2 of the following:

a) Sarah, class teacher in Primary School, married with 3 teenage children. A keen tennis
player, and very active in local government.

b) John, a computer analyst, working at IBM. Read computer manuals in his spare time.
Lives alone and not keen on exercise.

c) Francesca, full-time student at University, studying music. Plays cello with friends or at
rehearsals in her spare time. Tending to be overweight. Lives in student household. Holds
irregular hours.

d) Katherine, jockey. Trains race horses from 5 am till mid-afternoon, then works out in the
gym to keep up her fitness. Socializes a lot with other riders in her spare time. Lives with
her boyfriend, who's also a jockey.

e) Bill, a painter. Married with 2 small children. Works when inspired but has to produce for
exhibitions. He's responsible for the children until 7.30 when his wife gets home. Spends
spare time going on long walks around the city.
240 Is gomashio a yang or yin preparation? Give reasons.

241. Suggest uses for a) umeboshi flesh and b) umeboshi pips.

243 Which root vegetable condiment would be specifically useful when served with fish
and chips?

244 If you have run out of ginger root, what could you use instead to get a similar
effect?

245. Despite the advent of modern science, in the form of medicines, vaccinations,
sophisticated micro-technology, pathology etc, and the commitment of democratic
governments to national health care, people of the western world die in endemic
proportions from diseases, many of which were relatively rare in previous times.
From the macrobiotic perspective, diet and lifestyle play a large role in this scenario.

Briefly elaborate on the macrobiotic perspective of current health issues and its
consequent relevance to the average person.

246 You have the following foods available to you to create a simple summer meal. Give
complete recipes of your own design, as you would cook at home. Imagine you
have the usual flavorings and dried foods etc.

CARROT CHINESE BARLEY

CAULIFLOWER BROWN RICE
BOK CHOK WAKAME
APPLES TOFU
PARSLEY SUNFLOWER SEEDS
ONION ALMONDS
ORANGE COCONUT
CORN MISO
CABBAGE

247 Wheat and some other grains contain phytic acid. What consequences does this
have for the body, and how serious are they? How can you remove this from grains?

248 All of us make healthy and unhealthy choices in how we spend our time, or
lifestyle, our eating patterns and our way of relating to the world and other people.
It is very interesting and helpful to review this occasionally, as honestly as possible.

Divide your page into halves lengthwise, with one side being A) Choices that support
my goal, and B) Choices that don't support my goal. If you are not sure of any
specific 'goal', change that word to 'wellbeing'. Think through the day and become
aware of the choices you have made, often without thinking, and indicate which
column they belong to. Use sections such as food and drink, activities,
entertainment. Behavior, stimulants, work, socializing etc.
A) Choices that support my goal (wellbeing) B) Choices that don't support my goal
(Wellbeing)
Drink &
Foods
Consumed

Activities

Entertainment

Behavior

Stimulants
Work

Socializing

Etc

249 The soybean has been used for centuries as an inexpensive, high quality protein.
Give examples of the various products made using soybeans, and details of
production, use in cooking and medicinal value if any.

250 Soya beans are controversial – why? What is your opinion?

251 What "ecologically sound" practices can the cook/householder adopt to ensure
maximum use of minimum resources?

252 Which essential element is found in kombu, and prevents goiter (enlargement of
thyroid gland)? What is it in seaweeds that prevent the absorption of heavy metals
in the body?

253 What are a) Soba, and b) Udoh noodles made of?

254 How do Umeboshi Plums compare to other fruits for medicinal and nutritive value?
List the benefits.

255 What does vitamin B12 do in the body, and what determines its absorption?
What is the main source of B12?

257 What is calcium’s role in the body? Which foods that you eat are high in calcium?

258 In terms of yin and yang, describe the physical, mental and spiritual changes
throughout a human life? What role does the 7-year cycle have for a woman? What
role does the 8-year cycle have for a man?

259 What are the nutritional and medical benefits of ginger?

260 Suggest the following:

(a) A breakfast to prepare for a busy day with lots of decision making and clear thinking,
and;

(b) Another breakfast for a holiday day of swimming reading and relaxing.

261 Give four ways to cope with sugar cravings.

262 Suggest some condiments that help cleanse the blood.

263 Which organs are primarily responsible for removing toxins from the body?

264 What are the two main functions of blood coagulation?

265 What are the benefits of using dark mud?

266 Name 3 areas of the body you could use a clay pack?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Native Nutrition, Eating According to Ancestral Wisdom by Ronald F. Schmid, N.D.

Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin
AIDS and Beyond by Michio Kushi
Macrobiotics Home Remedies by Michio Kushi
Zen Macrobiotics by George Ohsawa
Macrobiotic Cooking by Aveline Kushi
The Book of Macrobiotics by Michio Kushi
Australias Underwater Wilderness by Roland Hughes
The Food Pharmacy by Jean Carper
Kushi, Michio: MACROBIOTICS; Japan Publishing; 1977.
Kushi, Aveline: COMPLETE GUIDE TO MACROBIOTIC COOKING.
Kushi, Aveline, and Monte, Tom: 30 DAYS, A Program to Lower Cholestrol, Achieve Optimal
Weight and Prevent Serious Disease; Japan Publishing; 1977.
Kotzsch, Ronald: MACROBIOTICS - BEYOND FOOD; Japan Publishing; 1988.
Aihara, Herman: KALEIDOSCOPE; George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation; 1986.
Muramoto, Noboru: HEALING OURSELVES; Swan House/Avon; 1973.
Colbin, Annemarie: FOOD AND HEALING; Ballantine; 1986.
Clements, F.W., and Rogers, J.F. : YOU AND YOUR FOOD, Diet and Nutrition for Australians
and New Zealanders.
Reid, R.L. : MANUAL OF AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE; Australian Institute of Agricultural
Science; 1987.
Medved, Eva: WORLD OF FOOD; Xerox; 1970.
Purce, Jill: THE MYSTIC SPIRAL; 1990.
Aihara, Herman: SEVEN MACROBIOTIC PRINCIPLES; G.O.M.F. ; 1977.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA and MICROPAEDIA BRITANNICA.
Ohsawa, George: The Book of Judgement PUB:George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation 1986
Ronald E Kotzch, Macrobiotic Beyond Food PUB Japan Publications 1988

Cecile Tovah Levin Cooking for Regeneration PUB Japan Publications 1988
Jocelyn Godwin : Music, Mysticism and Arkana 1987 Magic, A Sourcebook
Michio Kushi The Book of Do-In, Japan Publications 1988
Michael Tierra, Herbal Diagnosis Pub Santa Cruz 1988
Rudolf Steiner The Education of a Child: Billing and Sons 1965
Herman Aihara Kaleidoscope G.O.M.F. 1986
Herman Aihara Acid and Alkaline G.O.M.F. 1980
GOMF- George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation

ROGER GREEN
2008

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