CHAPTER FOUR. T a o. Formless & unified whole. Split into

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1 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER SUMMARY Part B (Pages ) See page 2 first. The Five Elements - All reality can be represented by the Five Elements. - Represent the flavour and richness of life and how it moves and expresses itself. T a o Formless & unified whole. Split into Y i n & Y a n g. Created movement. They create the dance of life. Further differentiated into the F i v e E l e m e n t s Which give life it s flavour and richness. They give a broader array of qualities and characteristics of the Universe and increase the depth of our physical experience. FINAL 1

2 The Five Elements Yang (active) Shen The realm of Spirit. Fire (Shen): House of attention, seat of compassion. Housed in the heart. Earth (Yi): Concept of intellect (mind/concentration). Digest concepts/ideas. Housed in the spleen. Water (Zhi): The Will or Intention. Transform desires into reality. Housed in the kidneys. Wood (Hun): The house of the Ethereal Soul. Problem solving while we sleep. Housed in the liver. Metal (Po): The house of the Corporeal Soul. Connects us with our body. Energy of decline/fall/grief. Lungs Qi (energy) All the metabolic & physiological processes in the body that are constantly running. Currency of Life. Always moving in flux (moves through meridians). Sets things in motion, helping to fulfil our purpose. Original Qi: Energetic equivalent of Essense. Essense transformed into energy. Foundation of all yin and yang energies in the body. The firestarter, activates other energy and sets things in motion. Food Qi: Energy we derive from food, mixes with air. Gathering Qi: Energy from oxygenation. True Qi: Undifferentiated form of energy in the body. Nutritive Qi: Energy that circulates and nourishes the internal organs. Defensive Qi: Controls bodily invasion and temperature control. Yin (passive) Jing (essence) Essential energy stored in our bodies. Most precious substance to be cherished & guarded. The Three Treasures Yang Post-heaven: lifestyle related, derived from food& fluids post birth. Can be cultivated. FINAL Yin 2 Day to day: Stored in kidneys & flows through the body through the 8 extraordinary vessels. Reinforcement/battery back-up. Want it overflowing and in abundance. Pre-heaven: Ancestral DNA - determines our individuality, vitality, unique, history, information, karma. Challenging to increase. Strong light body and open up our perception.

3 CHAPTER FOUR DISCUSSION TOPICS Part B (88-100) FOLLOW UP QUESTION FROM LAST WEEK: P. 87 Most of us are not going to practice Putting out the Flame without formal training. What else would you suggest to measure our progress as we practice and develop our skills? You said that spirits are lining up for an Earth experience, that it is so cool, such an interesting time in our evolution. I see very high inner-city murder rates and the Middle East is a battle zone, with one faction killing another. It seems that quite a few Homo sapiens are pretty violent, so why would a Spirit want to chance being sent into that kind of life when they could go to a more advanced civilization on another planet? Could you explain your reasoning in light of that? AND SIMILARLY: I have read that souls tend to stay in their same family unit what do you have to say about that? And does that mean they tend to continue to have a similar sort of earthly experience each time? Astral travel: you have mentioned this several times. What is it and do you do it? Can a person using it just talk to spirits on Earth or in other realms also? THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS: Who came up with all these names and systems? How long ago are we talking? Is the energy body composed of the 3 treasures? What is the difference between the energy body and the Light body? (Is the Light body an energy body that s been awakened with meditation and qi gong?) In regard to the 8 extraordinary vessels, Leigh has included a section on them. When you acupuncture patients, do you ever use any of these vessels? What Qi meridians do you find you use most commonly and what does each one improve in a patient? (Leigh s note: Big topic - perhaps you could recommend some good texts). Pg 91: re Day to Day Essense The point is to store it up and create an endowment that propels us into eternity. You are talking here about our soul/essense, so we can go on and have many reincarnations? Pg 92 When talking about Qi as the flame, you write that: It is the life force that comes into a fertilized embryo (once spirit is imbued with matter) that really gets the show on the road. I can t help but wonder what the Taoist view on abortion is. At what stage of the pregnancy do the Taoists believe that the foetus becomes infused with spirit? Or is it the other way around? Your words once spirit is imbued with matter do sound strange to me. I ve always thought that it was matter that becomes imbued with spirit. Or are they inextricably linked, matter being nothing without spirit according to Taoism? Pg 96: Somehow things have gotten messy in the West where we feel justified in killing each other over interpretations of the same book. Are you talking here about the bible or religion in general? Re the Creation of Qi in the body diagram (see page 1 of summary notes): if someone is eating well, breathing well (good O2), not unduly stressed, but still has say Chronic Fatigue Syndrome where do you look for clues (specifically in relation to this diagram)? Re the Creation of Qi in the body diagram (see page 1 of summary notes): what about the impact of the environment, say toxins/pollens and the impact on Qi? (Defensive Qi?). What about emotional toxins? FINAL 3

4 Re Day to Day Essence (stored in the kidneys) - there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the kidneys. Is this why the body is prone to adrenal fatigue so closely linked to the kidneys? i.e. if all the other organ systems are calling on it, then can see how it gets drained. P. 97 Can you show us a Qi Gong exercise to strengthen our Kidney chi? Are there times it is contra indicated? As an example to understand the Qi systems: My daughter has a genetic abnormality in that she cannot fight a staph infection. So this would correspond to coming from/affecting her pre-heaven Jing (?), but showing up/displayed in her defensive qi? So bridging that gap through the original qi? What if a female has hot flushes/flashes? That is a disruption of the defensive qi? So if they were previously fine (at an earlier age), you could look for clues (on the Creation of Qi in the body diagram) re changes may be necessary in their diet, good breathing techniques, or is it their original qi? We know that hormones have a huge impact on this, so where do they fit in? P. 90 I have SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) so I am sure that affects my Qi. The hydrogen and methane producers eat your nutrients for themselves, so it would appear both my food qi and nutritive Qi and all those in between would be affected. Would Qi gong or acupuncture help with this? What about something like lymphoma? How does that fit into this system? (Blood and lymph are not the energy carriers as such (e.g. as the meridians are), but they carry the nutritional and immune components to our physical body correct? So what happens when there is cancer/disease in the physical body how does it impact on this system, as it obviously must do? P. 98 Please give us the pronunciation of the Chinese words next to the five Aspects of Spirit (Shen/Yi/Zhi/Hun/Po). p. 98 About Qi Gong, you write that the refinement of Essence into Spirit unleashes a tremendous amount of energy, which will eventually be fed into our shadow if we remain mindless. This will then rapidly highlight and magnify all of the problems we are having in our lives because they will now have so much more to feed upon. Therefore, it is critical to practice both sides of this equation. Could you please explain this a bit more? AND SIMILARLY: P. 98 You have said we all have blind spots in our shadows, so how do we handle this? How do we avoid blind spots tripping us up? I know we will get into this in more detail later, but how does the practise of Qi Gong actually get the chi moving or increasing? Similarly, how does pushing an acupuncture point correspond to a change in our system? Where is the biggest bang for your buck with qi? Seems genetics is a toughie, but nutritional, breathing and qi gong practises are they all equally good? As you alluded to in the chapter, are you almost wasting your time with other areas if you don t get the nutritional qi right? If you considered two people: A with really strong original qi who didn t have such a flash diet etc vs person B, who had to really work with food and gathering qi and other practises to get to a decent level of qi in their body. Would it be fair to say person A might be okay until around 40 years of age, then start to really suffer or notice a drop in qi, vs person B would have good practises in place and ultimately be better off. I think it would really throw people A if they become drained because it is a new thing for them (having previously having a very robust constitution). FINAL 4

5 Dig deeper 8 Extraordinary Vessels The eight extraordinary vessels of the traditional chinese medicine system, also known as the 8 strange flows and the 8 psychic channels, represents the underlying root of all the body s energy systems. Unlike other meridians, these are not attributed to a physical body system, but they are more akin to being the source and blueprint which makes manifest all the systems and structure of the body. The Eight Extraordinary Vessels The eight extraordinary Qi vessels and the twelve primary Qi channels (meridians) comprise the main part of the channel system. Most of the eight vessels branch out from the twelve primary channels and share the function of circulating Qi throughout the body. These vessels form a web of complex interconnections with the channels. At the same time, each has its own functional characteristics and clinical utility independent of the channels. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes the twelve primary organ-related channels and only two of the eight vessels (the Governing and the Conception vessels). The other six vessels are not used very often simply because they are not understood as well as the other channels, and there is still a lot of research being conducted on them. Although they were discovered two thousand years ago, little has been written about them. There is a lot of research on the extraordinary vessels being conducted today, especially in Japan, but the results of one researcher often contradict the results that another has achieved. On this page we would like to compile and summarize the important points from the limited number of available documents. Since references from original Chinese sources are very scarce, and references from Western textbooks are tentative, esoteric, or in disagreement with one another, we have used inquiring judgment in selecting ideas and details. Before reviewing these eight vessels, we will first define them and then summarize their functions. What are the Eight Vessels? The eight vessels are called "Qi Jing Ba Mai." Qi means odd, strange, or mysterious. Jing means meridian or channels. Ba means eight and Mai means vessels. Qi Jing Ba Mai is then translated as "Odd Meridians and Eight Vessels" or "Extraordinary Meridians (EM)." "Odd" has a meaning of strange in Chinese. It is used simply because these eight vessels are not well understood yet. Many Chinese doctors explain that they are called "Odd" simply because there are four vessels that are not paired. Since these eight vessels also contribute to the maintenance of homeostasis, sometimes they are called "Homeostatic Meridians." French acupuncturists call them "Miraculous Meridians" because they were able to create therapeutic effects when all other techniques had failed. In addition, because each of these channels exerts a strong effect upon psychic functioning and individuality, the command points are among the most important psychological points in the body. For this reason, they are occasionally called "The Eight Psychic Channels." FINAL 5