With these passages, exhorts, left behind by the ancient Chinese, how should we understand TCM’s understanding of life? What is life from a TCM perspective?
Of course there are many different theories while can be found in TCM. However, Qi as the essence, as the basis of life is something everyone agrees on. Everyone is unanimous on this point. So, Qi is the basis of life. Only with Qi can we have life, but can this life be maintained solely by Qi? That’s different. It also requires energy and the spirit. That’s why we often talk about energy, Qi, and the spirit. If someone only has Qi, but they have no energy or spirit, this is just their physical presence. When a life is formed, it must contain energy, Qi, and spirit. Through Qi, we can elevate our energy and spirit. Through the spirit, we can guide our Qi. It’s a mutual relationship. These three can’t be separated.
By doing some research, everyone knows that the ancient medical systems of the world include traditional Chinese medicine and the ancient medical system of India called Ayurveda I don’t know how the relationship between medicine and philosophy is explained in these ancient Indian traditions.
There were four great philosophies of ancient India, one of which veda, or Ayurveda. Ayurveda was specifically for medicine. There were records of it before 1500 B.C. even. What does Ayurveda mean in classical Hindi? It’s a classical text for all of Indian philosophy. The Ayurveda Classic. Right, we know it as veda. But in Chinese it is Ayurveda. Ayurveda was the fourth of four greats, and almost all of the “Atharvaveda” talked about beautification in ancient India, or the preservation of one’s health. There are two schools of traditional Indian medicine, and the first school emphasizes beauty. Even women who get married today, according to traditional Indian ways, they might have to spend the three months prior to their marriage in a beauty parlor. So traditional Indian medicine has never gone extinct as long as there are practitioners of traditional Indian medicine, they will never change to Western medicine.
Have you taken Chinese medicine? I’m sorry, but the first time I took it, I threw up, because I couldn’t stand it.
Gao Xing, in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, are there any explanations similar to TCM’s explanation of Qi?
Whether it is Yoga, or Chinese arts like T’ai chi ch’uan, or Qigong, a lot of the traditional philosophy or Chinese Daoist traditions have already faded.
Some of the philosophical wisdom in TCM might have an intimate relation with Buddhism’s entrance into China. That’s right it is very closely related. In last years, TCM absorbed many methods from Buddhism. Many Buddhist concepts and methods were absorbed into TCM. You just mentioned Yoga. Yoga and Chan meditation are also types of treatment methods. We just mentioned that breath is life. Only through breathing can life be maintained. So, whether it is yoga, or Chan meditation, they both make use of regulation of breathing. They practice adjusting breathing from hurried to slow, from shallow to deep, from coarse to fine. They regulate breathing through this sort of process.
You just mentioned the idea of Yin and Yang Qi. I was suddenly reminded of the balance between Yin Qi and Yang Qi as discussed in TCM.
Take the idea of Yin and Yang for example. Take was actually mentioned in Laozi’s book. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (Yin), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (Yang) while they harmonize their conflicting Qi. This was an observation o Yin and Yang, and the simplest portrayal of this idea is in daily life, if sunlight shines in our lives, there is Yang Qi, and if there is no sunlight, it is Yin. There’s only one word of Yin found in the book of changes, which is called “Min Ke Zai Yin” in ancient speech. A bird is there, in a place without sunlight, the “shade within the mountains”. But throughout the entirety of the “The book of changes”, the word Yin only appears once in the hexagrams. It’s doesn’t hold any notion of Yin and Yang. There is a very complicated relationship between Yin and Yang. So, through the implementation of TCM, they discovered the reciprocity between Yin and Yang the reciprocal basis. One is contained within the other. They contain each other and but in TCM, this notion cloud be said to be the transformation of Yin and Yang. Of course, this promoted the development of the “The book of changes”, so in the chapter “Yi Zhuan”, it talks about the path of balance between Yin and Yang, and so it developed.
What philosophical wisdom lies in the secrets of TCM’s methods for a healthy life? If a person can live by these values, Taking norms from Yin and Yang, harmonizing with nature’s arcane, consuming food and drink in moderation, having a regular daily life, and putting labor to a purpose, then one can live to 100.
What kind of physician is the best? They said that the high-class, most intelligent physicians, treated disea