Jing
– the Essence of the physical body. It is the sum of the physical processes in the body ( blood, bile, etc..) . It is also literally the physical energy available to you when performing physical acts. This energy comes from food and air, and is transformed into calories and oxygen to be consumed during physical activity.
In the end…garbage in, garbage out.
Pay attention to your energy cycles throughout the days. Do you need that cup of coffee to start the day? Do you have that afternoon crash? Your body is meant to be an efficient machine, capable of out-running predators. Hunters in the Kalahari desert hunt gazelles to exhaustion by simply…running. Non-stop. For days. Until the exhausted animal collapses. That is what we are capable of. We can outrun freakin’ gazelles.
You don’t NEED the morning cup of coffee. What you need is rest, and nutrition. If you crawl out of bed, it’s because you need more rest. If you crash in the afternoon, it’s because you have burned through the cheap calories from lunch and are starved of real nutrients.
No amount of meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong will change that. We Westerners are drained, tired, and malnourished. The lifestyle we are taught to want is burning through our reserve of Jing, leaving us fragile and tired.
Consciously think of your day as a workout. Are you recovering enough? Are you shutting off the screens and televisions early enough that you can go to sleep and get enough rest? Are you giving yourself enough time to relax, meditate, have sex, all the things that rejuvinate our bodies? Are you eating fresh foods? Fresh vegetables? Drop the processed white foods ( wheat, bread, rice, and especially SUGAR) and eat real foods.
Start there. If there is not enough Jing, there is no Qi.
Qi
– the energy body. The flow of emotions, information and energy that travels across the body and mind. Qi is the energy of life, the connection between the material and spiritual world.
“Qi”, the word, has its roots the meaning of “steam rising over cooked rice”…insubstantial yet energetic. It is also connected to the breath, another process which is insubstantial, yet carries energy into the body.
Breathing is intimately connected to Qi, and most energy exercises start with breathing.
Sit, and breathe. Relax the breath, let it be deep and slow. Don’t force the chest open; after all, the rib cage is exactly that…a cage, meant to be solid, to protect the heart and lungs. It doesn’t expand without a lot of force. But we want to start paying to the unsubstantial…
Let the belly out instead. Breathe in, and let the belly out. Let the diaphragm drop, give the lungs room to expand downwards. In Chinese Traditional Medicine, the lungs are associated with Metal energy…heavy, flowing downwards. So let them drop.
The deeper the breath, the closer you get to the Cinnabar Field..the Lower Dantian, the seat of the Qi within the body. So nice deep low breaths bring the mind and body in touch with the Qi.
As you breathe, notice how the entire lower torso moves. the belly expands in 3 dimensions, the sides moves, the back expands… the whole lower torso is a bellows. It’s not just the lungs expanding..it’s the whole body.
Breathe and be seated into your lower body, into your belly, into the pelvic area. It is a place or power and peace.
Shen
– the Spirit body. The mind, the consciousness and the soul. All are nourished by the body.
I used to get chided when I drove because i almost never used the horn, even when someone cut me off, or was, to use a technical term, an “asshole”.
So let me tell you an old Buddhist story, and then we will return to the asshole drivers.
Two monks were walking by a river. One was older, and had spent many years traveling and living on the road. The other monk was young and fresh out of the monastery.
These two monks come upon a young woman who seems distressed.
“I cannot cross this river without getting my dress wet!” she exclaims.
So the older monk offers to carry her across, which she gratefully accepts. The old monk carries her without trouble, and places her on the other side.
The monks and the young woman part ways. The young monk is speechless, apoplectic, and baffled. After many minutes of strained silence, he finally explodes:
“How can you have done that! Our vows of chastity explicitly forbid us from being in contact with women!”
“Who, that young lady?” replies the old monk. “I put her down a long time ago. You are the one still carrying her.”
The thing is, stuff happens. A lot. All the time. We must react to it, but then we are faced with a choice: do we ruminate on it, or do we let it go?
To have a calm heart, and a calm mind, the answer is clear. If the situation is over, drop it. Who cares. it’s over, in the past, not worth your mental energy. Drop it. let it go. Let all of it go. You know what is important and deserving of your attention, and what is not.
Honking at an asshole will not make him or her less of an
asshole. Don’t give the assholes the gift of your mental energy. They don’t deserve it.