ZANG – FU
DEEP ENERGY
Chinese Medicine has always contributed new ideas to its way of
working. When we come to think about the way of it's effect on
our inner body organism organization we understand, how much we
don’t know, and together with it the frustration, whom to ask,.
One of the major theory in acupuncture is based
on the five elements, saying that the name element is actually
wrong and present concept which is contradicted to the real
meaning of what it stand for. As element we get the idea of
something static, heavy, physical, chemical, material. Speaking
about each element as individual we can say that it is right to
say that Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water are the real component
that our Earth is built from. The attachment and association of
each organ from the Zang – Fu to a specific element has to be
seen at the elementary connotation as follow:
|
Elementary Connotation |
Element |
Zang - Fu |
|
Blood for growth ability
|
Wood |
Liver |
|
Jing for potential growth |
Wood |
Gall Bladder |
|
Shen distribution via the blood |
Fire |
Heart |
|
Shen characteristics in building of
man |
Fire |
Small Intestine |
|
Little fire between the Kidneys, Fire
for T&T |
Fire |
Three Heater |
|
The filter and messenger between the
Heart and the rest of the body |
Fire |
Pericardium |
|
Transformation and transportation of
Gu Chi |
Earth |
Spleen |
|
Container of food and the starting
stage of cooking and rotting |
Earth |
Stomach |
|
Distribution of Chi |
Metal |
Lung |
|
Defecation of wastes
|
Metal |
Colon |
|
Home of Jing, Yuan and Yin |
Water |
Kidneys |
|
Storage of Jin-Ye, Drainage of
fluids |
Water |
Urinary Bladder |
From
here we must look at the Five Elements as a dynamic, ever
flowing, ever changing cycle which give us the basic Sheng and
Ko Cycles as from this point onwards the individual elements are
no longer static, material and heavy manifestation but a stages
of development that the only static concept is the never ending
change. Further it will be true to say that in the cycle each
stage transformed to different form of existence by it's process
of development as we can see in nature by the changing of
seasons were spring comes out of winter, summer comes out of
spring and so on. In our body – nature, Macrocosmic –
Microcosmic relationship we see the changing of season in nature
through the five transformations as follow:
SHAPE \* MERGEFORMAT
The
understanding of Zang – Fu in relation to its action:
As we have
understood, the individual function of each organ is vital for
the harmonious function of the body, but the organs way of
action is more related to the endless cycle of change as seen in
the four seasons and biological clock that represents more of an
energetic cycle than material one.
As we go on with this
assumption we have to associate the organs to the seasonal cycle
and the biological clock, by doing that we will understand the
inner force of each organ that actually act to express it.
The relation of the
seasonal cycle and the Zang – Fu:
SUMMER
AUTUMN
WINTER
When we look closely
at this diagram we see very clearly that the energetic action of
the Zang - Fu organs are different that their element
correspondence, if we put it in a table it looks like that
|
Lung / Colon |
Wood |
|
Heart / Spleen |
Fire |
|
Liver / Stomach / Small Intestine /
Pericardium |
Earth |
|
Kidney / Urinary Bladder |
Metal |
|
Three Heather / Gall Bladder |
Water |
This
arrangement might look strange, but if we think about it, it
makes perfect logic.
The Wood by its
powerful expansion abilities gives the LU and Co the possibility
to expand and therefore to disperse Chi and Fluids from the Lung
and to make the peristaltic action of the Colon that is so
important for our cleanseness.
The fire is in direct
connection to the Heart and to the Spirit Shen.The Spleen main
action as Transformation and Transportation uses fire energy to
do it. Only fire can do transformation, surly not Earth.
The Earth energy
represent stability, adaptation and filtering which is so
important at the change of each season and for the Liver to
store the blood and calm the yang wood, for the Stomach to
balance the whole body energetic system as the centre of the
body, for the Small Intestine as couple of Heart and centre of
digestion where the Shen meet the substances that create man and
for the Pericardium as the direct minister of the Heart and the
organ that responsible for communication between the Heart and
the other Zang – Fu and vica versa .
The Metal energy is
concentrated, hard and focused. The Kidneys must be full and
concentrated and that for keeping the yin substances in order
and by that to keep the bones hard and the whole body in good
strong and centered shape. The Bladder needs the Metal energy to
be very sharp pointed in its way of spreading energy to all the
organs and supporting the five Shens via the Shu points and the
Spirit points.
The Water is
penetrating, moving and open stagnation. It is like the action
of the Three Heater that responsible to balance the three Jiaos
and to irrigate the all body, It is what the gall bladder does
as yang aspect of the wood, as part of Shao Yang division, as
Extra fu by storing Jing to give out in the process of growing
and to be the representative of the original water that come
from heaven in the Stems and Branches (Tian Gan Di Zi) system.
Now after the
realization that the organs actually act from these powerful
energies we can give this method the name: Zang –Fu Deep Energy.
The practical
application of Zang – Fu Deep Energy
1) The first stage of
this realization is change of thinking. From now when we think
about the lung we have to visualize wood energy that make the
lung function properly, we have to think metal energy when we
look at the strength of the kidneys, and so on.
2) Looking for the
expression of the deep energy at the pulses in pulse diagnosis,
like, Spleen pulse as the Nei Ching state should be soft like
feather in the wind, it is because its Fire deep energy that
make the chi so light and airy, The kidney pulse should be like
a stone in the river, this its metal energy that make it hard
and heavy, the lung should be flat and superficial as its wood
energy make it spread out , etc'
3) Diagnosis of the
person state of mind and behavior. A person that lost his
central stability we will use Earth Deep Energy, Person who
looks as he lost his energetic and physical tonus we will use
Metal Deep Energy,
Person that lost his
temperature balance like hot outside and cold inside we will use
Water Deep Energy and etc'.
Major Deep Energy
Points
In general all points
of each meridian have and introduce the deep energy. All Lung
points are Wood Deep Energy points, All Liver points are Earth
Deep Energy points etc'.
The major points are the elements point related
to the general deep energy of the meridian – organ, so:
|
LU - 11 |
Lung |
|
CO - 3 |
Colon |
|
ST - 36 |
Stomach |
|
SP - 2 |
Spleen |
|
HT - 8 |
Heart |
|
SI - 8 |
Small Intestine |
|
UB - 67 |
Urinary Bladder |
|
KID - 7 |
Kidney |
|
PC - 7 |
Pericardium |
|
TH - 2 |
Three Heather |
|
GB - 43 |
Gall Bladder |
|
LIV - 3 |
Liver |
Conclusion
Acupuncture is a
system that’s the practitioner should be able to see at the same
time different dimensions of action and existence. The ability
to do so is open us, the practitioners, full spectrum of
physical and metaphysical ideas, it makes the practice
interesting and with vast and endless knowledge to battle with.
Last year I
introduced the connection between the
I- Ching and Acupuncture , from my point of view
these two systems are the foundation understanding of
Acupuncture.
Roni
Sapir
Academic Dean: East –
west School of Classic Chinese Medicine, Israel,
www.east-west.co.il
Chairman, Israeli
Association of Classic Chinese Medicine Practitioners
Contact: roni@east-west.co.il
Article-2
