1 Guide to the 5 Elements

Transcription

1 Guide to the 5 Elements Class 3 - Fire and Water Cindy Black, L.Ac, LMT Founder, Big Tree School of Natural Healing 1 Guide to the 5 Elements

2 Guide to the 5 Elements - Class 3 What s in this class: Review of Metal and Earth Fire and Water Fire Organs Emotional Fire Mental Fire Fire Summary Water Water Organs Don t Be Afraid of the Water Work without Doing Chief Seattle Caterpillars, Butterflies, and Incubation Water Review Review of Metal and Earth Metal corresponds to fall, and its energy is downward and inward with a very quiet, meditative focus. It s about letting go of everything that s not essential to our core, getting in touch with our breath, aging, clearing out old energy (even if that energy was positive), and settling into ourselves. On the reverse side of that, it can be a time of grief. Earth corresponds to late summer, and it s about transition with a very centered energy that makes us feel safe and nourished. It s about feeling satisfied, like we have enough. The negative aspect some people experience is that there s never enough of whatever. Even if we re surrounded by plenty, we feel there s not enough food, money, time, or not enough work done in the day. Fire and Water Fire and Water are polar opposites and such strong forces that I really think of them as the root of everything else in the body the primary polarity. They are as quintessential as night and day, and everything else revolves around these two. This is the essential Yin and Yang pair (with Fire as Yang). Metal and Wood are also a Yin-Yang pair (with Wood as Yang). However, they re not as extreme as Fire and Water. For instance, we know that Wood is its own season spring. But spring is also kind of the lead-up to summer, isn t it? It s warm but it s not hot. The days are getting long but they ll be longest when summer sets in. You can also think about a plant, such as a sunflower; it s growing during spring, the Wood season. When summer comes around, it s done growing. It s not going to get any bigger. It continues to change, but that s really the maximum expression of the seed. 1 Guide to the 5 Elements

3 Fire and Water are the peaks of Yang and Yin, and they re a very extreme couple. If they re unbalanced, we re going to see big things manifest. Water is a little weird. It s associated with beginnings because everything starts with Water; but everything comes back to Water too, so it s also endings. The deeper we dive into this Element (pun intended!) the more beginnings and endings will start to blur. Here s a good way to think about the Yin and Yang of Fire and Water. Imagine a burning candle, it s hard not to be drawn to the flame, right? The flame is fueled by the wax. The flame, which is very Yang, is what we re attracted to creating or expressing in our life;it s what we want to keep going and make bigger or increase. In order to support that flame, however, we need plenty of wax the Yin. People are often very invested in just keeping the flame going, especially in the West. We want to produce, create, go, go, go. Instead of resting (and replenishing the Yin), we look for a quick fix. It s caffeine, sugar, energy drinks, speed, or whatever drugs people might use to get that blast of Yang energy, but that doesn t nourish anything. It s just a quick flame out; this can lead to a big imbalance between a person s Fire and Water. Fire Organs In nature, Fire is the sun. In a person, Fire is the human Heart. Actually, Fire has four Organs associated with it... so Water is not the only weird one in this set. The Heart is Yin, and the Small Intestine is the Yang Organ; those two are a pair. The other two are the Pericardium, which is Yin (that s the sac around the Heart, sometimes called the Heart protector ); and the San Jiao, which is Yang. You ve never heard of the San Jiao, huh? It s kind of mysterious for us in the West. It doesn t refer to a physical Organ. San means three and Jiao means burner, so San Jiao means triple burner or triple heater. The idea is that there are three warmers in your body that generate internal heat to keep you warm. One heater is in your pelvic region, the other is in your solar plexus, and the third is around your Heart. Let s go back to something a little simpler, the Heart and Small Intestine. These are like the big flames of a fire, whereas the Pericardium and San Jiao are like the embers at the base of the fire. They re necessary, but they re not the main show. The Heart is pretty much the main show. The tissue associated with Fire is blood because the Heart moves the blood. The body system is the cardiovascular system. The sensory organ is the tongue and in this case the tongue not only has to do with taste (the associated taste is bitter), but it also allows us to speak. It makes a lot of sense when we think about speaking from our Heart or speaking our truth, and really expressing what we re feeling and what we re passionate about. 2 Guide to the 5 Elements

4 Emotional Fire Emotionally, Fire relates to love and joy, passion and desire, and also the sense of relating with people you feel connected to. It s about big expression of deep feelings. Think about Robin Williams, especially if you ve ever seen any of his stand-up routines. He s got so much energy! He s always goofing around. He s talking fast, he s laughing, he s loud, and he s jumping around very Yang and very Fire. I love this quote of his: You re only given a little spark of madness; you mustn t lose it. That s the big, joyful side of Fire s emotional energy. Like the other Elements, Fire has a negative side, and that s hyperactivity and rage. It can also manifest as some of the psycho-emotional disorders that we have mapped out and labeled here in the West. Fire can create all of these powerful emotions like love, passion, and joy, especially when we re with those people we have big chemistry with. Sparks fly, right? Yet that can go the other way, and we can sometimes have more explosive arguments with those people. You re not supposed to play with Fire. So, we ve got a few ideas centered on expression here. Speaking your Heart, feeling love, and relating to the people you care for. That s really a core concept for Fire it s big Yang and very extroverted. Mental Fire Princess Diana once undertook a huge campaign to get rid of land mines. Something like that takes a great deal of focus, leadership, and determination. She had this burning desire to change the world in this way. It also takes a great deal of influence, and Princess Diana had tremendous reach in the world. She was able to motivate people and shake things up to really set the world on fire with her ideas. This is a great example of the element of Fire at work mentally. In Chinese medicine, the Heart is often referred to as the emperor. Now, Princess Diana wasn t quite an emperor but she did have a lot of influence. Fire is in control; it s in charge of everything it can reach and it has a lot of reach. When we look at influential people who seem at the top of their game, undertaking these massive projects world leaders, presidents, activists they re embodying Fire. Think about our candle and flame again. It s hard not to look at a candle flame because it s so compelling. In the same way, it s hard to build a bonfire and not have people gather around it. People can t stay away from Fire. It commands attention. 3 Guide to the 5 Elements

5 We see that at work if we think of people like Princess Diana having strong Fire. She was magnetic. Fire is also associated with love, including unconditional love, it s got a lot of compassion. We can think about the Dalai Lama here, who said: Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. Let s talk about the emperor again because while Fire can be very inspiring and can motivate people within its reach, there s a flip side to that. It can mean that we get possessive and controlling of the people we love. We start to nitpick their behaviors and demand they act in a certain way. Instead of big, open, unconditional love, we get small, narrow-minded, pushy behavior. Instead of being magnetic, we re needy of attention. I also want to mention Bishop Desmond Tutu who s a South African bishop who worked tirelessly to end apartheid. He s also a big leader for the power of forgiveness in healing the incredible suffering that happened in his country. He s one of those people who just radiate warmth. Bishop Tutu has said, We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. What a wonderful way to express the idea of everyone gathering together around a bonfire, making room for each other, sharing food and drinks, talking, and just connecting. Fire is all about warmth both physically and emotionally; it s also about connecting (and serving as a point of connection for others) in a truly joyful, loving way. Fire Summary Here you go the Summary. The maximum expression of Fire. These notes have grown like a sunflower, and now they re in full bloom and just bursting with life (or with information about Fire). Fire is the peak expression of your most passionate self. You re not sitting quietly in the corner and hoping people can t see you for who you are. Fire is when you don t hold back any of your love or joy; you just let it out and let it touch the world. It s when you feel so much warmth and love, and you feel connected with someone or with a group of people as a figurehead. 4 Guide to the 5 Elements

6 The corresponding color is red, the time of day is noon, and the season is summer. If you pay attention as the day goes on, you might notice certain tendencies or desires that usually come up for you when the sun is at the same relative place in the sky. Maybe you want to read when the sun is rising. Maybe you feel most sociable when it s at its zenith or when it s just setting. Just pay attention to what comes up throughout the hours from day to day, and see if there s any regularity there. It can show you where Yang is in relationship to that activity or desire. Fire governs Qi, which is something we haven t really touched on yet. However, we ve talked a lot about Yang; Yang is dynamic, energetic, and full of momentum. It makes sense that the Heart governs Qi. Your Heart is beating all day, every day. That s a lot of work and it takes a lot of energy. There are some physical conditions where the Heart is just literally out of energy, and it can t keep up anymore. In the West, we sometimes call this congestive heart failure or that we have heart disease. A person with a tired Heart will feel exhausted, and that s an expression of low Qi. Our Qi can also get exhausted by too much Fire. The Heart gets exhausted trying to cycle through all that heat. Think about what happens in the summer, when the days get long and hot, and some people have a heat stroke. Others may feel faint or weak. And what s the solution? Drink Water! This is a classic example of how Fire and Water balance one another. You can see the same thing happen if you put a little plant in a sunny window, come back in a few days, and find it wilted. If you give it a little water, then it springs back up. That s the Yin and Yang balance. Simplifying it like this and seeing it in the little things, can help you understand the more complicated expressions of it that show up in some people. The sensory organ is the tongue, and the taste of Fire is bitter. In Chinese herbology, bitter herbs help to bring things down in the body. This balances the direction of Fire, which is a very upward energy. (Think of flames reaching up.) Now we re going to move into Water, so take a little break before we dive in. Move around, stretch, or get yourself a drink. 5 Guide to the 5 Elements

7 Water Did you get yourself a drink of Water? Well, let s learn about the Element you re taking in. Water is a fascinating element, but it can be difficult to get a real sense of. It takes on the shape of its surroundings. It can be solid, liquid, or even misty. In humid areas of the world, there s literally Water in the air, but it s not rain and it s not fog. It s just moisture; it s so weird. There s a lot of Water in a human being. There s also a lot of Water in plants. Looking at the life cycle of a plant is actually a great way to understand the Five Elements. Plants are some of my biggest teachers. We can learn so much from them. At the beginning, a plant is a seed. That s its Water aspect. That s its potential. Then it grows into the Wood element during spring, and after that it reaches its Fire phase in full bloom. Then as we harvest any fruits from the plant, it passes through late summer and Earth. It then sheds its leaves during the fall for Metal. Finally we re back at winter and we re left with a seed again. It s the same place we began Water. Think about the ocean. We know it s Water and we know that there s life there. We can even go down into the ocean to a certain depth, however, we can t get to the deepest parts. We can t even send equipment down there because it would be crushed. We have no idea what s going on in the deepest parts of our own oceans. We ve been to the moon, but we can t get down there. It s a deep mystery, but it s part of what makes life possible. In human beings, Water is our life force. That s a hard concept to get across to Western minds, because we don t really talk about life force here. Here we might say, I get cold easily, or I pick up every bug that passes through the office. That would indicate low life force. We might say, My general constitution is robust, or something that sounds vague to indicate overall vitality. Although life force isn t just about overall vitality. A sperm and egg come together, and are fertilized. Nine months later, a baby is born. Well, the baby s life force came from the sperm and the egg. But where did its parents life force come from? If we follow this line of thinking, then we get into some really complex, deep thoughts. It can be very enlightening but also very confusing. So, you can get a sense for the depth and mystery of the Water Element. Here s another way to think about life force: An Olympic Athlete has a huge physical gift. Compare that to someone who always seems to keep getting sick, and who is often tired. The Olympian has more life force. Are you... strong, expressing yourself confidently, energetic, doing your thing, healthy? All of these things are manifestations of life force. And what s its origin? We usually say it comes from your biological parents. 6 Guide to the 5 Elements

8 Water Organs Our Water Organs are the Kidneys (Yin) and Bladder (Yang). The Kidneys are said to literally hold our life force, so Chinese medicine gives a lot of attention to the Kidneys. The corresponding tissue is our bones, and the sense organ is the ears. The taste for Water is salty, which makes sense if you think about the ocean. The body systems are the urinary and reproductive systems; and seasonally, it s associated with winter and cold. Just like too much (or not enough) heat injures the Fire element, too much (or not enough) cold injuries the Water element. This is easy to understand. If your coat isn t thick enough in the winter or you spend too much time in cold, dry air, then you re more susceptible to getting sick. Your body pulls its Fire closer to your core, using a lot of energy to keep your internal organs warm. Using its energy that way means there s less energy for your immune system. Don t Be Afraid of the Water Emotionally, Water is associated with fear. It s not just little fears of being uncomfortable or not catching the next train. Imagine you re swimming in the ocean and you see a shark. That s a big fear. That s the facing my own death kind of fear. On the reverse side of that, the emotion is peace. If you ve ever had your life threatened and lived through it, on the other side, there s a sense of peace. Some people spend a great deal of their lives facing death, or just contemplating it, in order to come to peace. There s a man in South Africa, who you can find on YouTube, who is able to be in the presence of wild animals big, scary predators that would probably terrify the daylights out of the rest of us but he s able to be peaceful with them. That s the power of Water. If you ve ever been with someone transitioning through death at the end of their life, you may be familiar with a sense of peace that either of you get to, or maybe you feel as though they ve gotten to. It s a beautiful thing to witness and to be a part of. There s a kind of communication that happens between the Water and Fire elements in you. Let s say you re at a party where you don t know anyone, so you feel uncomfortable. You hang back and hold your drink because you have this social anxiety thing happening. Some people might call you cold or aloof. That s a little too much cold; a little too much Water. That s the fearful side of Water. Although Fire can come in and warm that up. So you re more open, communicative, meeting new people, and taking part in conversations. Then, the Watery fear is melted away and you have more peace. 7 Guide to the 5 Elements

9 Work without Doing Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, one of the most fundamental texts for Taoism. This is verse 43 (out of 81): The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe. That without substance can enter where there is no room. Hence I know the value of non-action. Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few. It s hard for us in the West to wrap our heads around work without doing. We understand the Fire element, which is outgoing, communicative, and getting things done; and we understand the Wood Element, which is planning, growing, and creating. Yet here s this guy saying the opposite of all of that can lead to some kind of incredible communion. Water has its own way of accomplishing things. Again, think about the ocean. It s pretty clear that there s a lot going on down there, even if we can t see it. Even if everything looks still. We ve got the same kind of thing going on when a baby is created. There s a lot happening on the surface we re having a passionate, joyful, loving time with a lot of the Fire element. However, go a little beneath the surface and the action becomes more subtle. You probably have no idea what s happening when that sperm and egg come together during fertilization. If I said to you, Take a little time to commune with your DNA, what would you say? That sounds pretty weird, right? It barely even makes sense. And yet, that s exactly the kind of practice required to try to get a good understanding of Water. It s easy to talk around the mysterious, creative, deep force of Water; but it s not easy to actually talk about it. Words and communication are in the realm of Fire. Water doesn t really have a lot of words. Connecting with Water is more about communing with your life force than trying to explain it with words. 8 Guide to the 5 Elements

10 Chief Seattle A person who embodies Water for me is Chief Seattle. As the Europeans were pushing West onto the continent of North America, they eventually reached the west coast, where Chief Seattle lived. He s at the end of the line. There had been wars and misery, but there was no more land for the Europeans to demand. Chief Seattle was supposed to figure out what to do to make a treaty or surrender. So Chief Seattle writes, Human kind has not woven the web of life. But we are one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. The Europeans say, Yeah, that s really nice, thanks. Then they ask him to sign a treaty and take a meager amount of money for his peoples land. Chief Seattle comes back and says, Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten. That s very profound. Then we come to the question of where money fits into the Five Elements. I asked a teacher of mine about this, and she said that money is our life force. That was her entire answer. I ve been pondering it for a long time. We only have a certain amount of time here. We trade a lot of that time for money. That way we can get food, shelter, clothes, and all the other things we need. But instead of looking at it as where we spend our time, we can look at it as where we spend our life force. How do you want to spend your life force? In the West, we re kind of expected to trade our life force for money. Yet Chief Seattle says that we can t eat money. I think a lot of ancient wisdom like this is coming back because we need it in order to figure out how to manage all of the things we ve been creating. Here are a few more wonderful words from Chief Seattle: Dead, did I say? There is no death. Only a change of worlds. 9 Guide to the 5 Elements

11 Caterpillars, Butterflies, and Incubation A caterpillar is crawling around, eating milk weed, and then one day and I cannot figure out why for the life of me it says to itself: Hmm, I feel like going up on that twig and hanging upside down. It s just following its core, totaling its life force. It creates this chrysalis around itself, and then it becomes entirely still. That thing does not move but inside, all of this shifting and changing is happening. The caterpillar completely disintegrates, breaking down into something like soupy soot. Its DNA rearranges, and then a few weeks later it has changed into a butterfly. I ve had points like this in my life, when I just felt like nothing was happening. I m not being particularly productive or accomplishing anything of note. I m certainly not the life of anyone s party. Then at some point, things shift and begin to unfold again. And here you and I are learning the Five Elements together. Western culture doesn t really understand or support times of incubation. We don t bring each other soup and nurture each other through our down times. Instead, we try to motivate each other and get each other moving. Sometimes we can even get a little judgmental of people who are incubating instead of actively producing. Nevertheless, the Water element is an essential, deep part of any creative process and of life itself. It s the well of our life force, and connecting with it is important. Water Review When we talk about connecting with our life force, it s not just an individual thing. Yes, we each have our own; however, there s a collective life force too. It emanates from this universal source of undifferentiated energy remember the Wu Ji? This brings us all the way back to Yin and Yang. When we connect with our life force, with Water, it s like we cut through all the Five Elements and Yin-Yang, to that endless unword place the origin of everything and of ourselves. There s a sense of peace there and of creation. So Water is black, like midnight; it s the direct opposite of Yang, which is at high noon. And once more, I m going to recommend paying attention to the cycle of a day. What s happening in the world, in your household, and in yourself at noon and midnight (and all the hours in between)? What is the energy like? The emotions of Water are deep fear and deep peace. The Organs are the Kidneys and Bladder, and the tissues are the bones (and also the bone marrow). The climate is cold, the taste is salty, and the sensory organ is the ears. Next time, we re going to focus on the Generating Cycle and explore the Five Elements relationship with each other. 10 Guide to the 5 Elements