As practitioners of life cultivation, many of us have unique experience of going into the practice. Most of us start the practice of life cultivation because we are sick. As you probably know, when a person is as healthy as a fish, he will not pay any attention to being healthy. He will take that as a given, as if God owes him the favor.
A friend of ours became sick. She was a worker with low income. She visited doctors of Western medicine. No solution. She went to seek treatment in a hospital. No luck. She visited doctors of herbal medicine. No luck.
What could she do? Should she give up and die? The First Law of Life Cultivation states that a human body will try to live on no matter how bad the situation is because a human will not commit suicide. There was no other way out for her except to take steps to help herself. She did just that. She read up on her illness. She chose to treat herself by the tuina (massage) technique.
Miraculously, her illness was cured. Of course, otherwise we will not be telling her story. She liked the result, so she started to help other people. Slowly, through more than twenty years of practice, she came out with some very valuable health concepts. Her health concepts have two magic weapons, which we will introduce here.
01 Sleep. Magic health weapon
You laugh at the concept. Everyone goes to sleep. That is ordinary. It is not a weapon to combat health, much less being magic. Right? Wrong! You are right that sleep is ordinary, but you are wrong that everyone does it right.
We have talked about sleep at the right time being important to our health. We have talked about how our dwelling is important to our health. Thus, sleeping at the right time at the right place is very important to our health.
Why?
There are four seasons in a year. The Winter months are the tenth, eleventh and twelve months of the lunar year. There are also four seasons in a day. The Winter days are the haishi, zishi, and choushi of ancient time reckoning. That is equivalent to modern timing from nine in the evening to three the next morning.
What is Winter for? Winter is for us to rest, to hide, to hibernate, to reduce our activities. Thus, we should be in deep sleep from nine to three the next morning. At these hours, our yang-energy of Nature is hidden and our kidneys are in domination. We should be sleeping at these hours if we want to model our life with Nature.
In the state of sleep, the essence can be stored up, the yang-energy can be well replenished and continue to develop, and human life can continue to develop.
In herbal medicine, the kidneys support the bone, the bone generates the marrow, and the marrow generates the blood. Thus we need strong kidneys to support our bone, marrow and blood system, the hematopoiesis of our blood.
When do the kidneys go to work? Hematopoiesis does not occur until the kidneys are on duty from nine to three the next morning.
Under what state do the kidneys work? The kidneys are on duty during sleep. It should be emphasized that during this period of time, we must sleep. When we sleep, the kidneys can govern bones, produce marrow, produce blood, and replenish our yang-energy.
If we do not sleep at these hours, can we play catch-up? We are sorry, if you miss it, you will have missed it forever.
You say you have slept for eight hours, but your eight hours are different from my eight hours. You may be accustomed to nightlife. Clubs do not open for business until nine in the evening, so there is no way for you to be in bed at nine.
Think about it. If we follow the law of Nature, before the advance of electricity, we would be in bed when it was dark outside. Thus, we should be in bed before nine in the evening. There is nothing queer about it. Going to bed late at night is not natural, not the other way round.
Adjust your bedtime. For the sake of your health. For the sake of God.
You said you are busy. You have a lot of work to do so you cannot go to bed at nine. We said that you can go to bed early and wake up early the next morning to do your work.
Thus sleeping late is just a habit that you can correct. Adjust your bedtime and go on with a healthy life. Now. You are the master of your health. You command it.
You somehow work at night shifts and you do not have the luxury of going to bed at nine. What can you do?
Use your weekends to go to bed at nine in the evening to make up your overdraft on five days a week. However, make sure you do not fall into the following trap. You stay up way past midnight. You then go to sleep until two in the afternoon the next day. This will only compound your mistakes. This is a very important issue.
02 Knock. Magic Health Weapon
The gallbladder meridian
We have mentioned several times that we need vigorous yang-energy for us to operate. Otherwise, we will complain about fatigue or lack of energy the whole day. We complain that we still feel tired after waking up. Thus we need to replenish our yang-energy.
How!
We eat food. Food goes through our digestive system (stomach, spleen, intestines and so on) and becomes nutrients. The nutrients are absorbed and then become energy. Bile is one of the fundamental materials for this process.
Our second health weapon is to knock on our gallbladder meridian to aid in the production and usage of bile. It will ensure that the channel of digestion and absorption will be smooth without blockade. It has a collateral benefit. It also has a good effect on weight loss.
How do we knock on our gallbladder meridian?
The gallbladder meridian goes from our head to our feet, sideways. It is indicated by the solid lines and dots on the diagram. As practitioners of life cultivation, few of us bother to remember them. We merely have to have a vague idea of its location.
For our purpose of keeping healthy, all we are concerned about is the part from the buttock to the knee. As children, we might have been spanked by our parents or teachers for our mistakes. Did they tell us that it was for our health benefits? They should have. Then we might feel better.
We knock on the indicated parts for our health.
First, we must do it with force. The meridian is deep inside the muscle. A light touch will not work. The force we apply must penetrate and we must do it on both sides. Do it and do it now. It is simple. It costs no money. It is very beneficial.
Most of us will do it with our fists. Some people will do it with the help of a tool such as a hammer made of wood or bamboo.
We should knock it two or three times a day. If we do it to maintain our health, do less. If we do it to repair our diseased organs, we should knock it harder and for a longer period of time. Be persistent to see immediate results.
For old men, knock slowly. If young people, knock harder.
For women who want to look beautiful, knock harder and for a longer time of time. The weight loss effect is very good. The reason for weight loss is due to its effect of losing the fat in the bile duct by knocking on the right meridian.
03 Enjoy. Magic health weapon
Enjoy the health benefits of going to bed early and knocking on your gallbladder meridian. Most of our discomfort, especially our digestive system, will basically disappear. Of course, we must maintain a state of enjoyment. Nothing will help if we remain sad and gloomy.
We are the controller of our health. The real work resides with us, not our healthcare providers. We all know how to keep ourselves healthy, but we do have to practice life cultivation. Doing is more important than knowing. Pure talk does not help us.
Get it?
Call to Action
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. Life cultivation is mostly for older people with declining body health. If you are young and energetic, this may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have family members or friends who are middle-aged or older, they may want to practice life cultivation to maintain a life without pain or medication.
This is an extract of the full treatise published in the Mustang BodyWorks Series, a paid-subscription. You may buy this full treatise for the price of US$10.00, using your PayPal account.
Stay tuned for the next episode. End of Origin of illness.
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