Someone on the ground floor is worried about intruders in the dark, so we have a new prison-yard spotlight.
I know how fear holds peace hostage with the threat of harm.
And I miss the stars.
Someone on the ground floor is worried about intruders in the dark, so we have a new prison-yard spotlight.
I know how fear holds peace hostage with the threat of harm.
And I miss the stars.
Don’t be so quick to jump into the fray.
Inside the melee you see only the next blow;
From a space outside, you can see the battle.
Stepping back is the best strategy
When you have lost sight of the whole.
You underestimate your opponent
When you think of him as evil,
And waste your energy, your heart and your essence
In opposition.
Without them, you are your enemy.
In a conflict, success comes from staying in the center.
From the Old Sage Chapter 44
We will be tempted by fame,
By money,
By the pursuit of success and the fear of failure.
It is more difficult to recognize the value of integrity and
The pursuit of happiness.
If we remember to look to ourselves for fulfillment
And to our hearts for happiness,
We will be successful.
When we realize what we have,
There is nothing we need.
“Wood gives us the ability to see beyond the obstacles with our “mind’s eye,” and the strength and flexibility to keep moving past them towards the goal.”
I always marvel as daffodils and crocuses push up through the snow and bloom, just when the weather is changing enough to give them a chance to survive. What exquisite responsiveness to the smallest hint of light and warmth! We are just like the daffodils, when we pay attention. It’s the gift of the Wood element that allows us to sense the guidance of Shen, and like the plants sense the change in the light, we can notice those small stirrings that pull us to our highest vision, even before we can see it clearly. Wood grants the ability to move relentlessly through or around obstacles toward the sun and the light. We have all known and worked with people whose life experience should have them curled in a ball in the darkest corner, yet who keep moving, growing and spreading the power of their determination to all around them. They are the daffodils in the snow.
The movement associated with the balanced Wood Element is both strong and supple. The Liver and Gall Bladder meridians govern the tendons and ligaments, which stabilize the joints by holding them in place, and create movement of the bones by connecting them to the muscles. When there is too much Wood energy, the joints are tight and stiff; when there is too little, the joints and muscles are weak. The balance of strength and suppleness produces flow, like the movement of a gifted dancer or gymnast or our friend the house cat. The flow of the Water Element is different. Water flows because it doesn’t resist gravity. Without that outside force, it is still. The movement granted by the Wood Element has an inner direction and a purpose. Wood brings this gift of directed, smooth flow to the fluids in the body – the blood and lymph – and to everything that moves, including the voice, the feelings, the transmission of nerve impulses and the muscles.
Wood is also responsive to conditions. Watch children move seamlessly from one emotion to the other as they interact with the present moment. That beautiful responsiveness to life right now, without reactions from the past is what we call “innocence.” This responsiveness to the present also allows us to make appropriate decisions in the moment. The Gall Bladder influences all the other organs of the digestive system by a simple decision:”yes” or “no.” If there are fats to be emulsified, it releases bile to combine with the digestive juices from the pancreas in the small intestine. If not, it doesn’t. The same function influences our mental and emotional decision-making. General Gall Bladder responds to the conditions on the field while keeping sight of the vision embedded in the plans made behind the lines by its partner, the Liver. The plans are based on the vision toward which we move, be it the taking of a country or the accomplishment of our highest goals. Wood gives us the ability to see beyond the obstacles with our “mind’s eye,” and the strength and flexibility to keep moving past them towards the goal.
Meditation:
We can remind ourselves of our innate daffodil-ness by asking:
May we embody the balanced Wood Element this spring by clarifying our highest vision. May we unfold, grow and flow purposefully toward that light with the suppleness and strength of the body, the emotions and the spirit.
Spring!
Guidance from the Old Sage, Chapter 1
One
When my client says,
“I can’t tell you why; it’s just the way I feel,”
I need to remember to start from there.
Just let it be the truth.
This is compassion.
The Nei Ching Su Wen (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine) likens the twelve organs to twelve officials in an ancient Chinese city-state, each one with their own talents and responsibilities for maintaining the functioning of the harmonious whole. But this was historically a feudal structure as well. The harmony was maintained by the rule of a monarch, to whom the officials were subject. This “ruler” among the officials is meant to be the Heart.
Feudal societies, whether in Asia or Europe, adhered to “the divine right of kings.” The monarch was meant to be directly in touch with the divine and therefore was responsible for leading the country wisely. In China, this meant being in tune with the Tao, which is, well, everything. The wise ruler responds appropriately to climate, relationships, physical and mental activity, etc., in the present moment, without distortion from the past or future. The wise monarch’s guidance, therefore, would keep the country in harmony with the needs of the time and create peace and prosperity.
On the physical level, Western Science says that there are two functions of the heart organ and cardiovascular system (which together comprise the Heart Official in Chinese Medicine): 1) The heart pumps the blood through the cardiovascular system, and 2) The function of the cardiovascular system is to transport blood, which carries oxygen, wastes, nutrients hormones, etc. to all the tissues of the body. In addition, at the microscopic level of the capillary beds, where the blood drops off nutrients and picks up waste from the tissues, there is a simple system of shunts that determines what tissue will be nourished at any given time. If the shunts close, the blood bypasses that local tissue and goes straight into the veins, to be carried back to the heart and distributed appropriately. So literally, the heart rules all the organs and tissues, by choosing the tissues and functions that will receive the blood that gives the energy to respond.
The story of King Arthur describes a monarch who earned the loyalty and love of his subjects because of his integrity and wisdom. His knights (officials) met at the round table where each was respected and heard, and though subject to the king, their love and respect for him secured their acceptance of his leadership. Under his rule, the subjects were cared for, protected, and happy and the kingdom prospered. But when he was grieving for the loss of the two people who were the closest to his heart, he withdrew into himself and the kingdom was plagued by discord, poverty and famine.
The Neijing Suwen says, “The Heart is the Sovereign of all organs and represents the consciousness of one’s being. It is responsible for intelligence, wisdom and spiritual transformation. …Decision-making is the king’s job. If the spirit is clear, all the functions of the other organs will be normal. It is in this way that one’s life is preserved and perpetuated, just as a country becomes prosperous when all its people are fulfilling their duties.” (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary, by Maoshing, Ni, Ph.D., Shambhala, 1995.)
The Heart also is the home of the Shen – or spirit and part of the Fire Element which has to do with warmth, light and expansion. The Shen is the unassailable original nature that is the expression, as a human being, of the great emptiness from which all things come and into which they return – the Tao. When the Shen is not obscured, it directs and harmonizes all aspects of the body, mind and spirit appropriately for the conditions at hand and the person maintains balance and health.
So the highest job of the practitioner is not to tell people what to do, but to create the space for them to listen to the wisdom of their hearts.
Dorothy said, “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, and I don’t find it in my own back yard, I’ll know that I never lost it in the first place.
The task for all of us is to return home.
In my classes, students do a meditation – an inner dialogue – with each official as we are learning about it. We do this first, before left-brain “book learning,” so that we can listen better to the right brain. Here are some of the messages students have reported.
Meditation:
©2014 Deborah Valentine Smith
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