Normal - by Liu Ming - Center for Chinese Medicine

NORMAL: Part One
A Workshop on the Cosmic Physiology
Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Introduction

It has come to my attention over the 25 years I have taught TCM in America that though many people have interest in its wisdom and methods, the education and practice in modern times has an unacknowledged emphasis on the morbid aspects of clinical pathology. This emphasis now possesses only a scant understanding of the remarkable ideas that are the roots of Chinese traditional healing.

The materials of this series will review the fundamental principles that form the basis or View teachings of traditional Chinese medicine. Emphasis will be placed on “normal” physiology and not pathology. We will look at the idealistic imagery of the West tradition that feeds the excessively analytical “pseudo-science” of modern medicine. We will try to open up the needless and perhaps reckless conformity modern TCM has adopted.

We will examine the meaning of the term health and how it is found, lost and maintained. How does health give value to Life? With these traditional View teachings we can restore and maintain Chinese medicine’s unique and profound methods.

Human Health and Cosmology

When we examine any system of human medicine, we must first ask the question: “According to this medicine, what is a human being?” and, therefore, “What is a healthy human being?”

If we ask this question of ancient traditional Chinese medicine or any of its pre-dynastic historical precedents, we get the answer:
“We are processional not solid. We are not a “being or thing” apart from our so-called environment (ancestors). We are compound (made up of many components) not uniform (one) or abiding (static). We are not a self, soul or the result of an immortal God’s creation. We are simply our complete and natural experience. The totality of this natural experience is called shen (or de [original pristine nature]). The manifestation of shen is the jing/qi compound (matrix of essential-fluid-substance-time-energy).”

If we look at early (pre-Han – BCE) Daoist sources, like Laozi’s Daodejing, we are also zi ran – being/things-are-as-they-are. We are such as we are in a forever of now. We (de) are not truly different or separate from the Space (Dao) from which we apparently arise. Each being/thing has the nature (de/shen) and power (qi) to self-arise and self-fulfill (jing). The so-called “world” we live in is nothing other than the interactive, mutually fulfilling “play” of all that is self-arising (wan wu: 10,000 being/things). Pervading our experience (nei [inner, internal] and wai [outer, external]) and all the 10,000 being/things is Luminous Unchanging Space (Dao).

In fact, Laozi uses the term xuan or dark to describe us, but he does not mean that our nature is a mystery to be solved. The darkness refers to both what we really are unknowable) and the fact that we are not what we “think” we are.We are the darkness that all the suns of all the galaxies do not change. In other words, we the darkness that contains all light.

Laozi refers to our genuine experience/activity as wuweidao. Wuweidao, our experience-being-movement, is like a constant fountain spewing diaphanous possibilities like a light-fluid-time-energy spout. We arise spontaneously in Space. The explosive profusion arises to see/experience/appreciate its own ecstasy-reflection-image-shadow in the dual world and resolve back into Space. “All 10,000 return” and “Return is the movement of Dao”.

If your stomach cramp is experienced in true Space, indeed if the experience of being riddled with cancers or bullets is experienced in true Space, it is not a particularly “meaningful” event! LOL

Reflection, Cultivation and Knowledge

All teaching-words-imagery that is used to “study-cultivate” our nature, if taken in as a natural flow (not an analysis/judgment) without concern for cognitive facticity, it is called transmission. It has NO TWO to it. When we receive knowledge of our true nature it is neither from the outside (teacher, teaching) nor from the inside (subconscious).

In self-examination/cultivation, that which stands before the mirror and the reflection within the mirror are both equally accepted (inseparable) by the true nature (capacity of the mirror to reflect).

While we are apparently in the dual world, health and illness can be judged as two things – health, a comfortable welcomed condition and illness, an uncomfortable, unwanted condition. The ultimate understanding of traditional Chinese medicine and its healing methods observes our condition as a whole with full acceptance. Health and illness, indeed Life itself, is a procession.

As the dual world resolves, oneness is only a flash before the sublime Unknowable swallows all. Two resolves into zero.

Self and Nature: TWO

Self is an imagined history of experience (memory, feelings, hopes), blurred together, giving the illusion of something solid and abiding – a storehouse or a receptacle of experience. Some beings imagine they are a RESULT (of this and that: dualism) of external creation (theism). Some beings imagine the self to be immortal.

This basic reality “mis-take”, the notion of an abiding self, is the basis for illness and disharmony in the original Chinese medical tradition.

The self has through time and culture acquired many names: self, soul, mind, heart, atman, essence, fate, karma, body, embodiment, etc. In the Chinese tradition the falseness or superficiality of the notion of an abiding self is proven by the strenuous effort involved in maintaining its “mis-take”. Therefore the false notion of an abiding self is the fundamental basis of illness, the effort to maintain what is false is the cause of illness.

Nature is what actually IS – it is being itself not a story or idea “about” being. Each being or thing’s nature is none other than Nature itself – immeasurable totality. The myriad profusion of beings and things (10,000 wan wu) is simultaneously the unmoving, unchanging Universal origin and all of its particular manifestations. According to this View our nature (even the mistake of self and all its delusion) is the luminous, self-arising bejeweled phantom of Dao (Nature itself). Nature, nature and self have no beginning or end. There is never any real separation – no birth, no growth and no demise.

At this level of understanding the only healing indicated, no matter the symptoms or manifestations, is found by relaxing the effort required to maintain the false view of an abiding self. The “result” of such healing is either a peaceful death or a complete and irreversible recovery. In this kind of healing, when a healer participates, healer and patient knowingly share the direct experience of the true nature of all being/thing’s – complete interrelatedness. This is profundity itself – not a profound relationship or event.

It is this View of life that allows religion, spirituality and healing to easily overlap. In all the traditions of healing in North Asia this direct experience of interrelatedness is the definition of “complete healing” and transmission.

This “complete and irreversible healing” is the completion of the shaman’s flight (personal healing and self-liberation) and inspires his/her shamanizing (healing and prognosticating profession). It is the Chan Buddhist master’s complete certification of a successor – enlightenment. It is the Daoist’s completion of the alchemical transformation of base lead into pure gold – immortality. It is the precise appropriateness of the true physician’s treatment.

For an ordinary person today illness (like dreaming) is a meaningless vacation from life. Geared toward productivity and the “story” of self, modern people often experience illness as a “time off” from a life of struggle.

From the point of View of self/nature teachings illness is one of the many given opportunities to directly experience our nature – find the wisdom inherent in our genuine experience of being – our totality.

It may sound odd but in this Way of healing there is no failure even if the patient dies.

Q: Is this self/nature teaching related to yin and yang?

LM: Yes, of course. It is however not important whether you call the self yin and the nature yang or vice versa. It would only be important to be consistent in your use of terms while teaching. Modern Daoism would call the self yin and the nature yang, but it is immaterial. The point of the teaching is not about shifting your preference from one to the other (this furthers dualistic struggling) but about directly appreciating reality (wuweidao).

Shen and Jing/Qi: THREE

If shen is our nature – the illusive capacity of the mirror to reflect then it is available to us (some perception of) through the jing/qi complex. The common compound (yin/yang) of all being/things is jing/qi. This compound is simultaneous and identical to the shen but may be observed and cultivated due to its apparent substance and movement.

Jing is the purity aspect of our nature. It is the genuine aspect of manifestation that is unstained and uncharacterized by form and movement. It is the appetite to become.

Jing is related to but not defined by the way in which human beings reproduce. It is associated with the continuity of reproduction that is ever-present life or immortality. It is not a substance (sperm, egg or blood) at all.In the mirror analogy, it is that which stands before the mirror. It is the body’s essentially unchanged purity when sexually aroused or in any state of ecstasy or euphoria.

Qi is the responsiveness aspect of our nature. It is the self-liberating response-movement–rhythm aspect of our nature. It has no interest in becoming. It is pure magnetism of appetite.

Qi is often in a relationship with form. It consorts with jing but does not require the partnership.

Qi is related to but not defined by movement, warmth and radiance. It is only appreciated when it has jing as a partner.
In the analogy of the mirror, qi is the spontaneous reflected image of that which stands before the mirror.
The two are as inseparable as the object and reflection that appear in a mirror.

Shen is our nature. It is the complete and natural display of a jing/qi compound. The three are inseparable. None is a “creator” because all three simultaneously arise.

It is common to imagine that there is a sequence to these three and therefore a pattern or sequence of creation and one of destruction. It is common in Chinese Daoism to say shen gives rise to qi and qi gives rise to jing. The Daoist alchemist then cultivates “return”. The Daoist alchemist sublimates (makes sublime) the jing into qi and qi into shen. Most presentations of alchemy “end” there – reversal is a “goal”. This View suggests that the spiritual path is a discipline that holds to a preference or a strenuous reversal of physical manifestation (and all its ultimate decay). This is nonsense – not Daoism. It defines the cause of illness and premature death.

Instead:
It is vitally important to understand that the generative shen-qi-jing sequence is not an illness and the sublimation of jing-qi-shen sequence is not a “cure”. When the Daoist completes the sublime alchemical distillation it is simply the acknowledgment of the bi-directionally of life – a revelation of what is so-of-itself and not the result of esoteric practices. Genuine ‘immortality’ is the inseparable and bi-directional nature of jing/qi and shen.

It is neither meaningful nor fruitful to judge or sort through the components of our experience. This sort of activity is (like self maintenance) a strenuous effort that causes “dis-ease” and illness.

Conclusion of Part One

These teachings about our self/nature and jing/qi and shen are not “ideas” that are to be understood or problems to be solved. In relationship to health and sickness these teachings only reveal the powerful natural dimension of our capacity to be “normal”. They tell us that illness is always the result of effort to maintain false views (consistent with conflicting emotions).

The suggestion of these teachings is that to maintain “normal” we needn’t seek out “abnormal” and destroy it – quite the contrary … we are invited to observe our nature (not make our self) and its “return”.

The two “resolutions” of illness/disharmony we can expect it death and complete and irreversible recovery – all else is struggle. We die according to our nature and we heal according to our nature. All sickness/disharmony is connected to the struggle to maintain the false View of an abiding self.

Though this teaching may seem “high” or mystical to you at first, if you think about it, it is really about the way we actually are not about the way we should be. The way you are is basically natural. All the ways you imagine you should be are the shape of the illnesses you are experiencing or will experience.The basic answer to “what is a human being?” found in these teachings uses words like compound nature, play of jing/qi, radiance and reflection. We are the Unknowable (Dao) jumping up out of nowhere to see a reflection (de/shen) in our mirror-like nature (Daode). Nothing about our genuine nature has preference for what we call sickness or health.

As patients or healers this View suggests that the “remedy” for all disharmony is inherent and capable at all times – no matter the circumstances. All our basic condition is untouched by illness, disharmony and degradation. We are free to manifest in the limitless possibilities of the Great Procession.

If we observe our own nature we find the inherent capacity/appetite to heal and comfort our own and others temporary disharmonies without effort or struggle. Doing so, we remain free of the morbidity associated with “dis-ease”.

Practical Observations of Healthy Shen

A healthy shen is reflected in (but limited by):

1) APPETITE: Our appetite is lively and gives us a vivid qi interest in the revelations offered by the world (wai) and our nature (nei). Our appetite includes food, rest, people (social) and ideas. We possess a sense of response-adventure without being recklessness.

2) APPEARANCE: Our appearance (skin, eyes and stature) should attract others but maintain a sense of calm safety. We possess a sense of confidence without arrogance.

3) THOROUGHNESS: Our actions are complete. We have a sense of inspiration but also a sense of sufficiency – we recognize the beginning and the end of things. There is an absence of conflicting emotions (morbid attachment).

4) OBSERVANT: Our observance is constant. Constant observance weakens the pattern of judgment and struggle. We observe the world and our inner workings like object/reflection in a mirror. We are both intentional and adaptive. We are capable but considerate.