The Way Of The Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Regime

March 20, 2010 in Philosophy, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by Danny | No comments

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“In the old days the sages treated disease by preventing illness before it began, just as a good government or emperor was able to take the necessary steps to avert war. Treating an illness after it has begun is like suppressing revolt after it has broken out. If someone digs a well only when thirsty, or forges weapons only after becoming engaged in battle, one cannot help but ask: Aren’t these actions too late?”
—–Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor Inner Classic) Suwen Chapter 2: THE ART OF LIFE THROUGH THE SEASONS

Health is a foundation of life; with good health you can enjoy your life more. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been catching the attention of the World War II baby boomers as they’re approaching retirement. The more senior of baby boomers are slanting towards natural foods and natural body, mind, and spirit cures. They are realizing that Western medicine’s high technology treatments have limitations when it comes to promoting their health and managing chronic health problems. That’s why modalities like Acupuncture, TCM diet and TCM exercises are getting popular in North America. Over several thousand years the East has developed a philosophy and special customs designed to maintain good health that are quite different from that of Western medicine. Now the Western world is starting to pay attention and even study them. Here is introduction to TCM concepts and the way of the TCM health regime.

The TCM concept of health:
1.Emphasizes the universal: The human body is viewed as part of the cosmos. Traditional Chinese medicine considers our human body as a small universe; one that is in communication with the cosmos. Mother Nature influences human beings all the time, therefore TCM emphasizes the human body in unity with Mother Nature. To be suitable, the way of anyone’s health regime must be adjusted to follow climate changes and the four seasons.

2.Body and mind are part of an undividable whole. TCM emphasizes both body and mind; not only the tangible body’s health, but also practising the mind and spirit. Body does influence the mind and the mind also will affect the body: both need to be balanced.

3.Yin Yang is in balance: According to TCM thought, when your Yin Yang is balanced you are a healthy person. The objective of any health regime is to get the Yin Yang of body and mind balanced. What is Yin? In simple terms Yin is the material base that constitutes our body. And what is Yang? Yang is the energy. Yin and Yang are opposites but they can’t stand alone; they influence each other and depend on each other. Whatever is upward, outward, external, active, dry or heat belongs to Yang. Whatever is downward, inward, internal, passive, damp or cold belongs to Yin. So illness occurs because of too much or too little of either Yang or Yin. As you do things to decrease excesses and increase deficiencies thereby rebalancing your Yin and Yang the illness will naturally vanish.

4.The five Primary Elements are balanced. The Five Primary Elements are metal, earth, fire, water, and wood. They complement each other much in the same manner as Yin and Yang: they can’t stand alone; they influence each other and depend on each other. Wood can produce fire, fire produces earth, earth produces metal, metal produces water, and water produces wood. Wood hurts earth, earth hurts water, water hurts fire, fire hurts metal, metal hurts wood. The liver and gallbladder belongs to the Wood element, the heart and small intestine to the Fire element. Spleen and stomach is ruled by Earth, lungs and large intestine by Metal and kidneys and bladder by the Water element. A deficiency or excess in any of these elements produces illness in its corresponding organ so correcting the imbalance will restore health.

The TCM way to keeping good health:
1.Keep a regular pattern to your daily life and balance to your diet. This is the easiest aspect of the TCM health regime. Many of us do this naturally. It is best if you go to bed before eleven o’clock every night. This is because TCM thinks that from11:00pm to 1:00am your gallbladder rests and from 1:00am to 3:00 am your liver rests. If you always stay up late or even all night this will damage the function of both. Variety in your diet is important. After I moved to Canada I saw how lots of people eat too much meat and too little fruit and vegetables.

2.Suitable and sustained exercise. Everyone knows that doing exercise is very important to promoting health but not every body will do it. Also not every exercise should be practiced as a part of a regular health regime. From research we know Yoga, Tai Chi, and Chi Kung are good choices. If you can do it every day then you can easily get the benefits.

3.Keep an unconcerned frame of mind. The speed of modern life, multitasking and frequent interactions with other people causes a lot of stress in many different ways. We see more and more people with nervous disorders like panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, maniac-depression and even Schizophrenia. What causes this? It is because people just care about the body’s health yet ignore mind and spirit health even though body, mind and spirit are together. But how can we strengthen and keep healthy our mind and spirit? For over two thousand years Taoist and Buddhist philosophy have told us how to practice our mind and meditation is a good way to eliminate stress.
Below is a research article link about meditation:
“More than just relaxing, meditation helps improve self-image of anxiety sufferers” http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/june3/meditate-060309.html

Traditional Chinese Medicine arose from our ancient people’s conflict with their natural environment. Generation by generation the unceasing accumulate of experience gained through continuous trial and error resulted in the practices of today. I hope this introduction can offer some different ideas and alternative practices to people looking for improvements to their health regime.

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An Amazing Senior In Taiwan

March 11, 2010 in Chi Kung, General by Danny | No comments

Upcoming Retreat:6/18/10 – 6/20/10 Tai Chi Retreat at CrossRiver Wilderness Centre near Calgary
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A few days ago I read an amazing article in a Taiwanese newspaper. It is about a 101 year old man and his health regime.
Mr. Tray, a man who says he is one hundred and one years old, still has a mouthful of his original teeth. He shows them off proudly in the article. He is not nearsighted either, a common affliction for the elderly.
He goes on to describe his health regime. He goes to bed at nine o’clock every night and get up at four-thirty every morning. He begins his day by doing exercises while still in bed. He learned them seventy-seven years ago from a monk in China. After retiring at sixty-six, he began doing those exercises daily and has continued for thirty-five years. His bed exercise include: Breathing (one thousand times into his Dan-Tien), stretching and rubbing his face and head. He also walks at least half an hour every day. He says; “ My body is even better than before I retired.”Besides the body exercise, he also discusses the consequence of having a sanguine disposition/ taking a brighter view of life. He thinks that if you want to have real happiness in life, then you need have less of desire and cultivate a leisurely attitude.
His secrets for the health and long life were simple; “Just have enough nutrition, enough sleep, enough exercise and try to keep a pleasant mood.”
The News article link: “http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=238317” “http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=238316

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Some Practical Acupuncture Points

March 1, 2010 in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by Danny | 1 comment

Upcoming Retreat:6/18/10 – 6/20/10 Tai Chi Retreat at CrossRiver Wilderness Centre near Calgary
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Some forms of acupuncture can be practiced anyone, not just by specialist. Whether for healing or as part of your health regime, you can do acupressure at home. But there are three hundreds sixty-five acupuncture points. Remembering where they are and how to use them is not easy, even for a trained acupuncturist.
I recently bought a three book set called “The Secrets of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Health Regime.” The author is Dr. Wu Guo Jong. He is a TCM doctor working in Beijing, China. In the book he mentioned using some acupuncture points as part of an everyday health regime. I think what he suggests is easy and useful for everybody, so I would like to share them with you.
1. LI 4 Acupuncture Point – He Gu – Large Intestine Meridian
Chinese Name: He Gu “http://www.tcmadvisory.com/2007/8-12/200781210309.html”
English Name: Union Valley
Location: On the dorsum(back) of the hand, approximately at the midpoint of the second metacarpal bone, in the belly of the first interosseus dorsalis muscle. (between your thumb and first finger)
Contraindication: Do Not Needle If Pregnancy is known or suspected

Actions & Effects:
Releases the exterior for wind-cold or wind-heat syndromes
Strengthens the wei qi, improves immunity
Regulates the sweat glands, for excessive sweating tonify LI 4 then disperse KD 7 and vice versa.
Any problem on the face – sense organs, mouth, teeth, jaw, toothache, allergies, rhinitis, hay fever, acne, eye problems, etc.
Toothache, use both LI 4 & ST 44 – LI for the lower jaw & ST for the upper jaw.
Headache, especially frontal and/or sinus (yangming) area.
Chronic Pain.
Influence the circulation of Qi and Blood – Use the four gates, LI 4 & LV 3 to strongly move the Qi and Blood in the body clearing stagnation and alleviating pain.
Promote labor or for retained placenta.
Use your thumbs to press your He Gu point. Then, using medium force and speed, rub in tiny circles for two to three minutes.

2. PC 6 Acupuncture Point – Nei Guan – Pericardium Meridian
Chinese Name: Nei Guan “http://www.tcmadvisory.com/2007/8-20/2007820144316.html”
English Name: Inner Pass
Location: On the anterior forearm (inner wrist), 2 cm superior to the transverse wrist crease, between the tendons of palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis muscles (in the middle of your inner arm).

Actions & Effects:
Similar to PC 3, but more for Chronic Heart symptoms from Qi stagnation.
Opens and relaxes the chest, chest tightness, asthma, angina, palpitations.
Insomnia a/or other spirit disorders of an excess or deficient nature, mania, nervousness, stress, poor memory.
Nausea, seasickness, motion sickness, vomiting, epigastric pain.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Use your thumb to press your Nei Guan point. Then, using medium force and speed, rub in tiny circles for two minutes. Do once on the morning and once on the evening.

3. UB 40 Acupuncture Point – Wei Zhong – Bladder Meridian
Chinese Name: Wei Zhong “http://www.tcmadvisory.com/2007/8-17/2007817165550.html”
English Name: Bend Middle
Location: At the midpoint of the popliteal fossa (behind the knee).

Actions & Effects:
As the Lumbar Command Point, useful for all lumbar related issues: acute low back pain, sprain, muscle spasms, etc.
Main point for heat conditions such as summer heat, heatstroke and heat exhaustion.
Main point for all skin related issues: itching, oozing, inflammation, etc.
Good local point for leg and/or knee pain.

Put your foot on the low chair. Use your middle finger to press your Wei Zhong point. Then, using medium force and speed, rub in tiny circles for two to three minutes.

4. ST 36 Acupuncture Point – Zu San Li – Stomach Meridian
Chinese Name: Zusanli “http://www.tcmadvisory.com/2007/8-16/200781615595.html
English Name: Leg Three Li
Location: On the leg, one finger breadth lateral to the tibia’s anterior crest, 3 cm inferior to ST 35 in the depression to the lateral side of the patella.

Actions & Effects:
Tonifies deficient Qi a/or Blood.
Tonifies Wei Qi.
All issues involving the Stomach a/or the Spleen.
Clears disorders along the course of the channel – breast problems, lower leg pain.
Earth as the mother of Metal – will support Lung function in cases of asthma, wheezing, dyspnea.
Psychological/Emotional disorders – PMS, depression, nervousness.
Use your thumbs to press your Zu San Li point. Then, using strong force and slow speed, rub in tiny circles for two minutes.

These four acupuncture points can be stimulated once or twice a day. Try to do both sides. After two weeks you should be able to feel an improvement in your health problem

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Meditation

February 19, 2010 in Meditation by Danny | No comments

Upcoming Retreat:6/18/10 – 6/20/10 Tai Chi Retreat at CrossRiver Wilderness Centre near Calgary
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In Buddhism there are many kinds of meditations. I think every religion also has their own way of doing meditation. I find that Meditation is also getting popular in North America because of the efforts of the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist monks.
Within Buddhism there are many different kinds of meditation. Some are easy and can be practiced at home by yourself. Some are of a high spiritual level where you need a good teacher to guide you and correct your errors. Regardless of the kind of meditation you are doing, whether Buddhist, Taoist or Yoga, when we talk about how to meditate, it always starts with how to breathe right. We all know breathing is essential and a necessity of life. But breathing also affects your psychological and subtler physiological processes.

When you are angry, nervous or afraid, your breath is fast and short. Your pulse speeds up too. If you are able to calm your breathing, taking deep and slow breaths, you can also slow your heart rate. People usually breath 14~18 breathes per minute. Research involving meditating monks, found when they breath 4~6 times a minute their pulse is also very slow. They also have greatly altered brain waves.

We believe that the history of meditation is several thousands years old. In India, before Sakyamuni Buddha, meditation already existed in Brahmanism. Brahmans believe that through meditation practice you can get mystical powers. Buddhism also believes meditation practice can cultivate mystical powers but the ultimate goal is to reach Satori (enlightenment). In China Taoist meditation practice started with Chi Kung meditation. Practitioners focus on their Chi (energy) encouraging it to flow through all the body’s meridians. They then focus on their spirit part hoping they can become immortal.

Now, when modern people do meditation I don’t think they want get mystical powers, achieve enlightenment or become immortal. Mostly just want to find a way to release the stress of living. But I find some people feel frustrated after they trying meditation because they can’t calm down their mind; they have too many thoughts. When some people see “Meditation” they automatically think “calm”, “peace” or “empty mind”. These preconceived notions interfere when they are doing meditation because they tell themselves they must have these feelings and when they don’t they feel frustrated.

In Buddhism, meditation means “Focus Observe”. This means that when you are doing meditation you try to focus on one thing (you can focus on your breath, one thought, a sound…etc.) then observe it. At the beginning you might have a lot of feelings from your body (itching, pain, heat…etc.) and a lot of thoughts in your mind but you still just observe them and don’t follow them. You don’t let your mind be distracted from your single focus. If you think your mind has too many thoughts you can try this: Your mind is just like the blue sky, your thought are like clouds. When a thought comes it’s just like a cloud. No matter if it’s a white cloud or a dark cloud, behind all clouds there is always the blue sky.

There are many places that teach meditation for free, like Vipassana Meditation centres, local meditation groups, Buddhist temples or even some Buddhist monasteries. You can go take a course there then go home and practice by your self. There are also some places that teach expensive meditation courses. You have to pay a lot of money to learn how to meditate! Usually I don’t like that. Meditation is not like buying a car, house…etc. When you buy things, paying more money usually means getting better quality. Meditation is different from buying an object. When you want to do meditation it means you want to find a way to release your mind and spirit. If you pay a lot of money to take a course you already expect to get something from the course so how can you release your mind and spirit?

Here is one easy way to do meditation: Do some warm-up or stretching first to relax your body. In Yoga meditation the stretching is very important because when your body is soft enough then the energy can go through your body.
Next rest your tongue tip on the ridge behind your upper teeth then breathe through your nose down your Dan-Tien with every breath. The Dan-Tien is here:
The “Sea of Chi”, or “Chi Hai”, is usually 1.5 inches below your umbilicus/belly button for an average sized person.

You can find your Dantien this way. Place your hand flat against your belly. With fingers together, thumb up and fingers below, put your thumb directly over your umbilicus. The “Sea of Chi”, an acupuncture point, is directly beneath your ring finger. Place your other hand beneath the first hand. Your second hand is now over your Dantien. The Dantien is part of a larger area that includes the “Hinge at the Source” or “Guan Yuan”.

When you breath-in try taking a deep, fast breath. When you breath-out, exhale as slow as you can, focusing on your breath. You can sit on a seat cushion or on a chair. You can even stand but most importantly you want to keep your spine straight from neck to hip.

In the beginning you can try to meditate for 15~ 20 minutes at a time then gradually lengthen it. Sometimes you will feel good, sometimes you will have bad feelings but you just want to observe it and fixate on it. You need to persevere with your practice. When your breathing can slow to 4~6 times a minute you will find your mind and body feel different than before.

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False And Genuine: Detachment From Material Desires

February 13, 2010 in Philosophy by Danny | No comments

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Do you like delusions or truth? Many people keep a false front; projecting success and joy. Other people look on, believing this is reality, feeling envy. Culture and media supplies people with images of what success is, like a BMW. Then people delude themselves enough to repeat it parrot style. Real is simple and natural, but it is difficult, because you have work against the influence of media and culture. Especially when everybody is inebriated only you stay sober.
Recently I read a News article called “Millionaire Gives Away Fortune Which Made Him Miserable” The article says: Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realizing his riches were making him unhappy.
Mr Rabeder, 47, a businessman from Telfs is in the process of selling his luxury 3,455 sq ft villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.
Also for sale is his beautiful old stone farmhouse in Provence with its 17 hectares overlooking the arrière-pays, on the market for £613,000. Already gone is his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000, and a luxury Audi A8, worth around £44,000. His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.
“For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness,” he said. “I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years,” said Mr Rabeder.
But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling.
“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.
I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing.”
However, for many years he said he was simply not “brave” enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence.
The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.
“It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is,” he said. “In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person – that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”
Since selling his belongings, Mr Rabeder said he felt “free, the opposite of heavy”.
But he said he did not judge those who chose to keep their wealth. “I do not have the right to give any other person advice. I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul.”
“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/7190750/Millionaire-gives-away-fortune-which-made-him-miserable.html”
THe Chinese Taoist philosopher named Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu), in his book Nanhua zhenjing Chapter 18: Perfect Enjoyment tell us like this: “Is there a way to be perfectly happy in this world or not? Is there a way to live longer or not? If there is, what can you do and what can you depend on to accomplish those things? What should you avoid and what should you accept? What should you move towards and what should you stay away from? What should you enjoy and what should you hate?
The things admired in this world are having wealth, being moral, living a long life and being famous. What brings enjoyment are having a comfortable place to live, eating flavorful foods, wearing beautiful clothes, looking at pretty colors, and hearing delightful music. What’s looked down on are being poor, being vulgar, dying young, and those who are filled with hate. What’s disliked are not being physically healthy, not having flavorful food to stimulate the taste buds, not having fancy clothes to wear, not being able to see bright colors, and not being able to listen to delightful music. If someone doesn’t acquire those things, they become depressed and anxiety-ridden. Those are stupid ways to treat the body!
The wealthy cause suffering to their bodies and make themselves sick because they try to accumulate more and more riches, but they never seem to get enough. That’s treating the body as being superficial.
People who want to be moral spend all their time day and night wondering if others see them as being kind or not. That’s being negligent towards the body.
If a person spends their whole life worrying about when they’re going to die, then their lives would simply revolve around worrying and they’d just be extending their misery. That’s taking yourself even farther away from your body.
People of high morals could be lined up so the rest of the world could observe how good they were, but that wouldn’t be enough to keep them alive. Can we really determine whether what we think is good is really goodness or really not goodness? Even if we decide that someone is good, that’s still not enough to keep them alive. If we decide that someone isn’t good, that might be enough to keep other people alive.
Therefore it’s been said:
“Faithfully listen to admonishments. Squat down and obey. DO NOT disagree.”
When Zi Xu (an adviser to the kings of the state of Wu who was forced to commit suicide) disagreed he suffered great injury to his body. If he hadn’t disagreed, then he wouldn’t have ended up becoming so famous. Can anything really be considered to be good or not?
As for when ordinary people express happiness, can we really determine if their happiness is coming naturally from within them or if it’s a release from unhappiness? When I observe the common people having fun, they socialize with each other in groups, rushing on and chattering incessantly as though that’s the only thing they can do. Even though they all say they’re happy, I’m not sure if they’re happy, but I’m also not sure if they’re unhappy. Maybe they’re just appearing to be happy, but they’re really not? Personally, I find more happiness in not being involved in all that activity, yet ordinary people would find what I do to be very uncomfortable.
Therefore it’s been said:
“In perfect happiness the sense of happiness vanishes. In perfect honorability the sense of honor vanishes.”
In this world, no one can know what results might occur from acting in ways that are considered to be either right or wrong. Even so, if no actions are taken, right and wrong become settled of themselves. To be perfectly happy throughout your entire life – only by taking no actions would it keep multiplying and accumulating. Please try to get the gist of these words. Without taking any actions the heavens are clear, and without taking any actions the earth is stable. Since neither of them do anything, they conform to each other and all living things transform naturally. What wasn’t there before is suddenly there, and there’s no sense where it came from! What is there suddenly vanishes, and it doesn’t even leave an image behind! All living things become involved in all sorts of things, and they go along with what happens and keep developing without even being aware they’re doing it.
Therefore it’s been said:
“Heaven and earth don’t do anything, yet nothing is left undone.”
Among people, who would be able to achieve this type of nonaction?
( Translation by Nina Correa) “http://www.daoisopen.com/ZZ18.html”

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