The basic principles include the concept of human and nature are one, that we should live with nature in harmony. We trust that the human body observes the rules of self-preservation and self-healing. Therefore, we should learn the art of self-checking and self-diagnosis.
We should learn how our body parts work as a whole and use various techniques to improve the working relationships among them. Then our body will be in a state of balance, or homeostasis. We will then eat well, sleep well, and detox well. We will live a healthy life through life cultivation.
Basic principles of healthy living
A practitioner of life cultivation understands the basic principle that all parts of a man make it whole, and that man-and-nature are one. A human body will automatically make micro adjustments to the body so that it remains in homeostasis. It will start a process of self-healing based on the law of self-preservation of life. Once a practitioner accepts this, he is well on his way to longevity and a healthy life.
A practitioner will learn to make observations to his body and discover symptoms of any illness when it first occurs. Then he is in a position to take advantage of the opportunities to help the body for fast healing.
A practitioner will pay special attention to his blood and vital force circulation systems to make sure they are working properly to provide the necessary energy for his existence.
The practitioner will sleep well so that his body will have the necessary rest to do maintenance and repair. He will make sure his waste disposal system is in good order so that toxins will not remain in his body for long to do damage to the body.
Lastly, but not least, he will pay attention to his environment so that he is not attacked by bad elements such as cold and wind, so that he will not be sick from outside evil forces.
Let us examine each principle in detail.
Adapt to Nature
Adapting to nature is the highest state in the practice of life cultivation. When a person is born, his fate is basically fixed. For example, what he should do and what he should not do is fixed. What he should eat and what he should not eat is also fixed. If he follows the path of his preordained fate, he will be safe throughout his whole life.
A person with epiphany will discover and know his own fate. He will know what he should do and what he should not do. Therefore, life cultivation practice for each person is definitely not a simple imitation or following the crowd.
When a practitioner realizes what nature is, he has arrived at wisdom. Once he knows what nature is and follows nature, this person is god-like.
What is nature? Nature is that everything has complementary sides, and everything must go through the process of birth, growth, harvest, and storage. A practitioner who understands this process and uses the Principle of Five Elements to perform micro adjustments to balance his body will not likely be ill. He will eliminate the imbalance at the budding stage.
Let us look at this world to see the truth. Eating and sleeping are simple, but how many people can do them naturally? Why do they have a hard time doing them?
The answer is. They find it hard to follow nature. Why? Because it is too simple. It is so simple that it is not easy for them to comply. They tend to go to high technology to find solutions. That makes things more complicated.
Illness symptoms
As practitioners of life cultivation, we know most of our illnesses are the manifestations of the human body in regulating and cleaning up the body waste. It shows the state of the body’s automatic adjustment and balance of its systems. It should be regarded as normal physiological phenomena. They should not be eliminated as an illness.
When we feel sick, we should not harbor resentment. We should keep a peaceful mind, then our vital force circulation system will be smooth running. A smooth vital force circulation system will lead to a smooth blood circulation system, resulting in eliminating some discomfort.
As practitioners of life cultivation, when we feel uncomfortable, we look upon the role of others, especially physicians, as a supplementally external help. We should be the real help. In order for us to be cured of a disease, we will need to rely on our own understanding and wisdom. This is why a person may recover from a disease when a physician gives up hope.
Opportunity
What is an opportunity? It is something that waits to happen. When an arrow is on the bow to be shot, someone must trigger this opportunity. It applies to all events. They all have these opportunities. Something will happen if they are triggered. Otherwise, nothing will happen even if all conditions are ready. Therefore, an opportunity is the most critical factor in the occurrence of events.
Pathogenesis is the most important factor in the occurrence, development and change of an illness.
It can also be said that when pathogenesis is opened, the human condition will appear to be ill, and the person will enter the vicious circle of illness.
The opposite of pathogenesis is life vibrancy. When life vibrancy is detected, a person will enter the virtuous circle of rehabilitation.
In fact, when pathogenesis is opened, the life vibrancy is turned off. When life vibrancy is opened, pathogenesis will naturally begin to close. They are mutually exclusive.
Thus, as practitioners of life cultivation, we are always ready to give ourselves life vibrancy so that our body is given the chance to start the healing process.
Self-healing
All drugs are therapeutic in the treatment of a disease. It is not a cure. A disease arises for a reason. We know that we have done something wrong in our lifestyle thus producing a bad result which is a disease. If the error is not removed, the wrong result will not be uprooted.
The root of all good health is the mind. Everything arises from the mind. If the mind is pure, the body will be clean and healthy. Therefore, when we feel ill, instead of seeking outside help right away, we should focus on finding out the root cause and rely on our own repair system to root out the illness. People and animals are the same in this respect. Animals depend on themselves to recover from illness, so can people.
Vital force and Blood
Human health is inseparable from two major factors: (1) adequate vital force and blood (2) smooth meridians (including blood vessels and channels for excreting waste.)
Adequate vital force and blood depends on adequate nutrients from foods plus a good digestive system plus sleep plus healthy lifestyles. Maintaining a healthy body requires not only an increase in vital force and blood but also a reduction in vital force and blood loss. Excessively increasing food intake will increase vital force and blood, but they also become body waste which have to be cleaned up by using vital force and blood.
The human body is a chemical processing factory with food as the raw material. The processing capacity is limited. If a person takes in unlimited food, the human body will have to work overtime with no avail. Therefore, it is critical that a person must control the amount of food he takes in.
Proper exercise will help a person in boosting up his vital force and blood circulation systems, but it also consumes vital force and blood in doing so. Therefore, a person should activate micro-circulations of his vital force and blood systems. These micro-circulations can be achieved by meditation and other techniques. This is essential for the maintenance of health.
With the accumulation of waste in a human body, more vital force and blood is needed to remove them. Therefore, the vital force and blood circulation of a human body is constantly reduced by the increase of waste and the blockage of blood vessels. This forms a vicious circle which leads to rapid aging of the human body.
Therefore, if a person wants to disrupt his aging process for longevity, he must (1) reduce the production of waste in the body (2) increase the smooth flow of blood and meridians circulation systems, and (3) increase the amount of vital force and blood in the body.
If a person wants to be healthy, he must take in enough oxygen to help digest and absorb food he takes in. His body will not accumulate waste this way. There will be no extra food to release free virtual fire doing damage to the internal organs. Otherwise this free virtual fire will in turn deplete his vital force and blood. From this analysis, we can see that a person is mostly sick from eating improperly or excessively.
In our practice of life cultivation, we will try to maintain a certain degree of hunger and thirst which is beneficial to our health. In fact, this is the magical use of Null.
Taoism says that Null will lead to Wisdom. When a person is in a state of Null and Wisdom, he will be in a state of Awakened, and consequently, Health.
Energy path
Human disease can be divided into two types.
First, the vital force paths of a person are basically smooth but he suffers from vital force insufficiency. The frequent phenomenon is pain. He will feel pain everywhere in his body. This happens because he does not have sufficient vital force to digest and absorb food that he takes in. It gives rise to a phase fire (also called virtual fire) that rushes aimlessly among the vital force paths. It goes wherever it finds a way. Once it is blocked in its vital force path, the person will feel pain at that point. The pain will be suppressed once he takes pain killing medication.
Second, the vital force paths of a person are mostly blocked. His energy has nowhere to go. He looks fine in his outer appearance, but once he is sick, his illness is very serious. Medication offers little help, or no help at all.
The prerequisite of smooth vital force paths is a purified mind. All the seven emotions and six desires of a person will contaminate a purified mind, destroying the normal operation of the vital force paths.
Therefore, for a person to successfully perform body maintenance and disrupt the aging process, he must start with a purified mind. He must learn and practice spiritual or mind cultivation. He will always have a purified mind with persistence practice. We will discuss how to do mind cultivation in depth later.
Sleep
Sleep is the first element of life cultivation or health maintenance. The amount of sleep needed varies from person to person and from season to season, but the sleeping time of a person should at least include 2100 pm to 0300 am. This time slot happens to be equivalent to the Winter time in a day, and a person should rest in the Winter time.
If a person thinks while sleeping, he will not feel calm or secure. Therefore a person should not turn around in bed and think while sleeping. This turning of mind is very energy consuming and is not good for him.
When a person is not sleeping at 1100 pm, he will develop kidney fluid insufficiency. His heart and kidney are interconnected. His kidney fluid insufficiency will lead to heart fire and his mind becomes the most vulnerable.
The remedy is for the person to focus his mind and to anchor his vital force, forgetting both himself and the surroundings. Spiritual or mind cultivation will promote good sleep and get rid of insomnia.
We will discuss sleep in great detail in another article. Stay tuned.
Environment
The importance of the environment to human health is self-evident. This is why a person who lives in a deep forest with fresh air may recover from a stubborn disease. In the deep forest with plenty of negative ions, a person in a relaxed mood may breathe them in, nourishing all his internal organs, rejuvenating him.
There is also an important point that ordinary people do not know. A person not only breathes through the nose and mouth, but also through every sweat pores of the human body. They are the ones who absorb the essence of vital force provided by nature.
Summary
A practitioner of life cultivation first understands the basic principle of oneness with nature. Once he discovers symptoms of discomfort, he will do a self-checking, and take the opportunity to invoke the self-healing ability of the body.
He will pay special attention to his blood and vital force circulation systems to help the self-discovery process. He will give himself enough sleep for the body to do repair and maintenance. He will get rid of toxins from his body on a regular basis.
He will pay special attention to the environment so that he is properly equipped to defend himself from bad elements from the environment. Then he is well on this way to an active, happy and healthy life.
End of part three. Next Mind Cultivation.
MUSTANG HOLISTIC WELLNESS 