Internal Alchemy On a warm summer night last July, I was sitting with a friend at the edge of a quay overlooking the mouth of a
harbor on Cortes Island. We were discussing how time although linear in our perceptions could be encompassing of all times; that somehow these waters we were marveling at were
still inhabited with indigenous people and their native canoes. My friend says: “I can still hear them and feel their presence on these grounds”. While walking back in the dark,
he continues: “you know we are so one that we are not even separated”. I chuckled. I heard these words so many times, but that night with the immensity of the sky, coming from the mouth of an authentic old hippie these words felt true.
My interest in Chinese Medicine is rooted in its inter-relationships with all that exist from the un-manifest to the manifest in innumerable ways.
Everything is inter-connected: from One comes the ten thousand things and the ten thousands things are in the One. Everything is engaged in co-creation. One
of the most fundamental co-creationship exists between the feminine or yin energy and the masculine or yang energy. This relationship is at the root of the phenomenal world; the dance between yin and yang creates the ten thousand things.
Yin and yang are polarities within a whole; they are complementary opposite of dark and light, moon and sun, soft and hard, cold and hot, feminine and masculine. They cannot live without the other and all life form has both elemental
forces. The process of internal alchemy is to synergize all polarizations into oneness. When yin and yang are harmonized inside the body, there is optimum
radiant health; every minute bodily responses is timely, appropriate and in service of the whole organism. Our body is a vessel for the spirit. As such the
body is yin in comparison to the spirit, which is yang. The body/yin is manifest and the spirit/yang is invisible. Shen or Spirit is said to reside in the heart while the root of our body’s vitality or Jing is stored in the kidneys. The
relationship between the heart and the kidneys is one of mutual support where one would not be able to exist without the other. The radiance of the spirit animates the body and the body’s vitality provides a strong vehicle to the spirit
for its journey here on earth. Our existence follows a blue print of events. A man and a woman holding their essence, make love and conceive a new being. The
conception is informed with intelligence transmitted to offspring. Prenatal Jing stored in the kidney-yin (sperm and ova) holds the genetic information encoded in our DNA while the radiance of Shen residing in the heart rises from the
heaven. Shen and Jing share the same root. Humans are the meeting place of heaven and earth. "Heaven abides so that we have virtue. Earth abides so that we
have qi. When virtue flows and qi is blended there is life." Qi Bo (the chief physician) In the Wu Xing theory or five elements theory, the heart is
associated with summer and fire while the kidneys are associated with winter and water. Summer is yang within yang or maximum yang while winter is yin within yin or maximum yin. The nature of fire is hot and active whereas the nature of
water is cold and still. Water is also the grandmother of Fire and is said to control fire. This can be observed in nature with fire being put out by water. However, their relationship is one of integration rather than opposition.
Although fire naturally ascends, the heart fire, located in the upper burner descends to warm the kidneys located in the lower burner. The same happens with water: even though the natural tendency of water is to descend, in the body
kidney-yin rises to nourish and cool fire. Heart and kidneys assist one another. If they were to go their opposite ways, life would cease, Shen would depart from the body and the body would decay; only the bones would remain as trace of
this alchemical union. If the heart is the emperor, the kidneys are the hierophant of the earth, keeper of ancestral knowledge, insight and wisdom.
All organs have both yin and yang qualities. However, the kidneys are considered the root of yin and yang. Kidney-yin holds the essence or Jing which rises to cool and nourish the heart fire; Kidney yang or Ming Men fire provides the
physiological fire necessary for all functions of the body including supporting the heart in its mobilization of blood, it is akin to a power house. Yet the heart fire is also a source of power essential to life. Shen can be likened to
the sun, the great provider. Being yang in nature it is invisible yet it nourishes all life. In Chinese Medicine Yin and Yang are always relative i.e. one
thing is yin in relationship to another. With the kidneys and the heart this relationship has many perspectives and point of views. The functions of the kidneys and the heart are many and together along with all the other internal organs
are engaged in the co-creation of our human existence. We are so one that we are not even separated. |
