Life cultivation differences between men and women
As practitioners of life cultivation, we observe that there are some differences between men and women in their practice. However, they emphasize different aspects of the practice, not a fundamental difference.
For example, we recognize that men emphasize kidney essence and women focus on vital energy and blood. Why?
There are physiological differences between men and women. Therefore, the practice of life cultivation is also different between men and women. If we observe the differences, we will reap better results from our practice.
How do we know there are differences between the body constitution of men and women? We may make the following observations. When Summer ends and Autumn begins, some shopping centers may still operate their air conditioning system at full blast. You will see that women will put on their jackets or outer coats to ward off the cold. On the other hand, men may still wear short-sleeve shirts. Men can naturally ward off colds compared with women. Their body constitution is vastly different under the same environment.
The body constitution differences between men and women are hereditary. At birth, some will be rigid and some will be mellow. Some will be weak and some will be strong. Some will be short and some will be long. Some will be bright and some will be shallow.
Moreover, men will inherit the strong portions of their parents, and women will inherit the weak portions of their parents. Thus the body constitution of a man will show strength, and that of a woman will show mellowness.
Based on the difference in body constitution at birth, practitioners of life cultivation have different guidelines for men and women. Dr. Gong Tingxian in the Ming Dynasty stipulated: Men should emphasize kidney essence and women should emphasize blood.
In daily activities, men mostly engage in physical work and they should pay attention to preserving their kidney essence. On the other hand, women have menstrual cycles, pregnancy, giving birth to children, breastfeeding babies and such activities, and they easily suffer from blood loss. Therefore, women should pay attention to preserving their blood.
Thus, men should pay attention to preservation of kidney essence, and women should pay attention to preservation of blood.
What Men Do
As practitioners of life cultivation, we observe that men put heavy emphasis on the preservation of kidneys in their practice.
When we mention kidneys, we refer to the organ kidneys and the associated system and functions, not just the organ itself. The most important part of the kidneys is its essence.
Kidney essence is the fundamental building block of the physical body.
Book Suwen Section Jinkui
Kidney essence is the fundamental material of our physical body. Both men and women have it. The kidney essence at birth is referred to as birth-essence which is kept in the kidney system. It may be vaporized and is then referred to as kidney vital energy. A healthy body will have a strong kidney vital energy.
Every one of our activities involves the use of kidney vital energy. Eventually it will be all used up and then the physical body will die. In our current society, men are engaged in more physical work and responsibility, and thus they spend more kidney vital energy on a daily basis, and men will die sooner compared with women.
Thus, if a man wants to live longer and remain in good health, he must learn how to preserve his kidney essence and protect his kidney system.
Kidneys are a very important organ that influences the characteristics of a man. It regulates how he grows up as a man. It produces sperm for reproduction. It vaporizes into kidney vital energy for energy circulation. It produces body fluid for temperature control. It regulates urination and sperm ejaculation.
To simplify the whole process, the kidney determines the growth of a man and his reproductive ability. It decides how manly he is. These functions of the kidney cannot be replaced by other organs of his body. Thus, men should cultivate their kidneys more seriously. How?
Kidney preservation through foods
Eating more food black in color will be good for our kidney system.
Black sesame is a neutral and harmonized food. It is neither hot nor cold to our body. It is a very good food for our kidneys.
Black date has a large amount of trace minerals which is good for our kidneys and stomach.
Black beans are particularly good for the preservation of our kidneys.
Thus in the Oriental culture, we observe that men eat more black beans and black sesame compared with their counterparts in the Western society.
Kidney preservation through Mustang Tuina Technique
For men, the zusanli depression point is the number one depression point because it influences the physical and sexual activities of a man.
It is located four-finger depth from the knee eye down, to the outside of the frontal bone.
When we massage this depression point regularly, it will help with our digestive system so that we will feel hungry and eat more. It will improve our vital energy circulation system so that we may engage in physical work such as walking for a long time. It will help to improve our kidneys and reproductive system to reduce chances of premature ejaculation and soft erection.
Kidney preservation through liver preservation
Why are we concerned about our liver when we are talking about the preservation of our kidneys? We believe that our liver and kidneys have the same mother, so we talk about them together.
The structure and function of the liver and kidneys may be different, but they originated from the same mother, and they are interdependent once they become dysfunctional. Thus we believe that if we protect our liver, we will protect our kidneys at the same time. Try it and you will believe it too.
If you are interested in pursuing the reasoning behind our belief, read about it in another article. Here we will continue on the preservation of the liver as follow:
Liver preservation through lifestyle changes
01 Sleep at the right time. Do not work until late at night. Go to bed before eleven in the evening. Blood flow into our liver is seven times more when we sleep compared with standing up.
02 Control our temper. Do not be angry. When we are angry, it hurts our liver. It reduces our blood and vital energy circulation. Be calm.
03 Do not use our eyes for a long time. It will hurt our liver with prolonged use of vision. When our eyes are tired after prolonged use, give it a rest. Do not read newspapers or magazines or smartphones when we first wake up in the morning.
04 Do not over consume alcohol. An overuse of alcohol will hurt our liver, leading to a dysfunctional liver.
Liver preservation through certain teas
According to an ancient book, tea will soothe the liver, bile, upper thorax and films. In other words, it helps to reduce inflammation and toxic waste. Thus, it is helpful for certain liver dysfunctions.
For those of us who tend to have strong inflammation due to liver dysfunction, we may try to drink Shugan Tea, a blend of mulberry leaf, cassia, and wolfberry (goji).
Mulberry leaf will help with the metabolism of the liver in getting rid of toxic waste with added function of liver preservation. Cassia will help with excretion of toxic waste to the outside of our body. Wolfberry will help with cleansing our liver and brightening our eyes. All in all, the tea will help to reduce inflammation and cleansing and preservation of our liver at the same time.
For those of us who want to preserve our kidneys, we will drink Wubao Tea. When we want to help with our sleep (no late night work), we will drink Anran Tea.
Wubao Tea is a blend of mulberry, wolfberry, ginseng, maca and red date.
Anran Tea is a blend of jujube seed, lily, poria, red dates, and dried yam. It not only helps with our sleep, it will also help us to strengthen our stomach and spleen. It is very efficient for improving insomnia and stress.
Liver preservation through Mustang Tuina Technique
01 Rub your palms. Take any comfortable stance. Get rid of random thoughts from your mind. Keep a peaceful and focused mind. You do not hear. You do not see. You focus on your navel. Rub your palms together, from slow to quick until they are warm. This is the simplest technique for liver and blood preservation.
02 Clap your palms. Prepare your actions as mentioned above. Instead of rubbing your palms, clap your palms forcefully together until they become red. Focus on doing the technique instead.
What Women Do
The fundamental element of a human being is vital energy and blood. For women, however, the fundamental element is blood.
A woman suffers from menstrual cycles, pregnancy, childbirth, breast feeding and raising a child. She has more chances of losing blood during the process. Thus a woman may suffer from insufficient blood or blood stasis in many of her illnesses compared to a man.
Moreover, as a woman ages, her facial complexion will lose its lustre, and the skin will lose its elasticity. These are all related to a loss of vital energy and blood.
Therefore, for a woman to be healthy and beautiful, she has to have a sufficient supply of vital energy and blood.
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Folks, that is all for now. If you think this article may be beneficial to your friends and loved-ones, feel free to forward this article to them.
This is an extract of the full article published in Mustang BodyWorks Infoletter, a paid-subscription.
Future episodes for this series:
- Men and women at middle-aged
- More on men’s kidneys
- Anecdotes and Stories
Stay tuned for the next episode: Men and women at middle-aged
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