Whole Health (29 page)

FIGURE 8.1
The Tai Chi Circle

I have seen these dualistic energies play out in my work with people as well. You may remember I once counseled a woman who
was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. When we first began she explained that she'd been very repressed all her life. She described her father as a very imperative, intimidating person who discouraged her from opening up to her own power. As she described it, she was programmed very early in life to believe that she didn't matter. Subsequently, she found herself in a marriage and family where the same dysfunctional themes predominated.

Following a rigorous battle with the disease and a series of spiritual epiphanies, she was declared cancer free. Over the many months we worked together, it became very clear to me that her power was evolving through the inspirational challenge of her ordeal. At last, with great passion, she embraced just how much she really mattered.

As our final visit together concluded, she rose up from the chair and began to cry tears of joy and thanksgiving. She said that she would forever be indebted to cancer for teaching her how to truly live. She was emboldened by her victory to at last live her life knowing that she truly mattered, inspired by the very opposing force that once threatened to take her life away.

The great Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu taught that we come to escape the duality of birth and rebirth through the consciousness that understands that separation is but an illusion.

And so it is with our spiritual self, and our mortal self. We may appear to be made up of two very distinctly different selves, but in truth these two represent one whole and complete self. Only through higher consciousness can we decide whether or not they are unified and aligned.

The same fire that can burn us can also warm, feed, and protect us. The same water that drowns also hydrates and sustains. The same self that's flawed leads to the perfected self. Most would struggle mightily at the prospect of placing a divine self and human self within the same circle. We have been programmed to believe in the polar opposition of these forces. We've been taught to
understand God as a perfect and complete spirit, tucked away in some heavenly domain, far away from us and our shameful spirit nature.

For us, God has become an “external” concept that we file under the “other” category, while our perception of “self” remains isolated and eternally flawed. But there is no “other,” nor is there separation; there is only oneness. If the T'ai Chi Tu teaches us anything, it is that everything in the multiverse is comprised of both “this” and “that.” For most, imagining such a thing would be considered an act of spiritual heresy. Furthermore, it might require a level of self-love we don't feel deserving of.

IMMORTALITY CONSCIOUSNESS

Aligned with the teachings of classical Chinese medicine, the Whole Health Healing System is based on attaining and maintaining a natural balance between body, mind, and spirit. It is also about understanding that the natural processes of both ease and dis-ease are rooted in spirit. Moreover, ease or wellness may only be cultivated by the attainment of what the ancient Chinese sages referred to as “immortality.” But their understanding of immortality was very different from ours.

The ancient Chinese didn't have to be reminded that they were not humans having a spiritual experience—they knew well that they were spirit first. Our modern material programming distracts us from realizing that, though human, we are of spirit nature. The mere fact that we are spirit implies immortality. Therefore we already have immortality, but it can only be actualized through spiritual cultivation that realigns our awareness with our spirit. To emanate from the innermost core of spirit is to cultivate ease and immortality. To emanate from our mortal ego, on the other hand, is to remain suspended in the state of dis-ease.

Self-cultivation through diet, exercise, spiritual development,
and energy balancing was considered a prerequisite to living out one's full natural life cycle of 120 years. The main reason they strove to live so long was to attain spiritual immortality.

We are each forever immortal but can only attain immortality consciousness through Whole Health self-cultivation. The quest for immortality consciousness begins with balancing our body's spirits, or “waking up the organ spirits.” Waking up the organ spirits is also a phrase that refers to energizing the separate spirits that exist within each organ. As you will see below, Whole Health has devised an acupressure technique for waking up the spirit of each organ. Each of these organ spirits represents a five-element influence.

THE FIVE SPIRIT BLOCKAGES

When our spirits are ill at ease, we become totally imbalanced and our entire being enters into the state of dis-ease. This is something that no one can deny. The ancient Chinese ascribed to the belief that each vital organ is vivified by a specific spirit that profoundly influences and is influenced by that spirit. They teach us that human emotion is a reflection of the vital connection between deep feelings and spirit.

Our culture maintains a very different stance. We are programmed to repress and deny emotions, as they represent a force counter to our material drive. Addiction and obsessive compulsion result from our inability to contend with the massing force of our emotional repression. There is even a dissociated awkwardness around our therapeutic approach to dealing with our emotions. We are inclined to medicate our emotional state. And even while engaged in counseling, we are told to let our emotions
out
. The fact is, we
are
our emotions. The only thing we can let out is the volcanic backlog of repressed energy from the unnatural resistance of who we really are. The ancient Chinese innately understood all this.
They knew well that the key to emotional wellness is to maintain balance. As with all things, this was done through the Five Elements Principle.

In keeping with the five elements, there are five positive and five negative emotions that exert the most profound influence over our spirits. In fact, as we shall see later in this chapter, there are five specific spirits within each of our major organs, and five corresponding sets of emotions that, when imbalanced, become the causal roots of our blockages. Blockages of any kind, especially of the spirit nature, will result in energy imbalances that obstruct our path to wholeness.

Painful life experiences, distorted perceptions, lack of emotional adaptability, and painful memories are among the key factors that initiate and reinforce our dis-ease-producing emotional spirit blockages. Each of the five sets of emotions generates very powerful ch'i that can affect a whole self for a lifetime. To live in a state of wholeness, we must first cultivate an energy balance within our organ spirit emotions.

The Five Organ Spirit Emotions

1. Anger/Kindness
   influence the
   liver's
   spirit balance
   
2. Hatred/Joy
   influence the
   heart's
   spirit balance
   
3. Anxiety/Compassion
   influence the
   spleen's
   spirit balance
   
4. Grief/Courage
   influence the
   lungs
   '
   spirit balance
   
5. Fear/Calm
   influence the
   kidneys'
   sprit balance
   

The key to Whole Health spirit balancing is to maintain a conscious equilibrium between the positive and negative emotions. We are not to numb ourselves to our true feelings, nor are we to become addicted to their powerful energy. We all suffer from emotional energy imbalances that are the result of excess and deficient expression—the objective is to clear these blockages so that our
core ch'i can flow outward to our mental and physical bodies. After clearing the blockages, we must continue to consciously maintain a consistent balance of our emotions with the aid of the Whole Health techniques taught in this book. Before further elucidating on Whole Health's clearing and balancing techniques, it is important that we gain a clearer understanding of how our organ spirit emotions become imbalanced.

THE LIVER SPIRIT'S ANGER

The liver's spirit represents the immortal soul. It is believed that only when we master the balance between our anger and our kindness will we enter the threshold of our immortality. Life is hard and no human being can ever receive enough love. The frustration that gives birth to human anger requires no more than this, for a tainted will is easily violated. The planet has always known of the outward manifestation of anger and war, as humans have forever rebelled, sometimes violently, against anyone or anything that opposed or violated the intentions of their mortal will. And if ever we were to indulge our anger, our mortal will would stand in direct opposition to our own immortal will. But our immortal will is determined to guide us down the path of balance and wholeness in spite of the rebellious nature of our mortal will. Nonetheless, spiritual evolution is a process with great growing pains and, until we do grow up, misguided anger exacts a great toll. The destructive energy from malevolent anger is both acted out as well as acted in.

We are all part of the most material sociocultural experiment ever attempted. During our developmental years, we're conditioned to understand that winning alone is solely correlative with material entitlement. It doesn't take very long to get the message that losing is simply not tolerated. This highly competitive socialization may work well for some. For others it only seems to impose shame for
what are natural inadequacies, and guilt for what are believed to be sins and failures. There may be good spartan or meritorious intent here, but over the years I've witnessed the profoundly disabling effects of such spiritless inculcation.

I've seen far too many people who, because they are saturated with discouragement, have simply given up on life. These discouraged and angry people often internalize their anger by engaging in unconscious self-destruction. I have met far too many who are capable of healing, yet refuse to do so. They've been unconsciously indoctrinated to believe that they're undeserving. Not everyone can be a winner, and chronic loss often leads to feelings of failure, guilt, and shame—and after a life of losing, the prospect of losing life seems a fitting ending. Initially they may have been angry and bitter at the world for depriving them, but eventually that anger and bitterness become internalized.

During my consultation interview I often ask patients, “On a scale from one to ten, with ten the highest, how deserving of a life of abundant health, love, and happiness do you feel you are?” It is truly astounding to hear their responses. Most take quite a while to answer, and then when they finally do, the number that they offer is often very low. No more than two people out of ten answer with a ten.

This little exercise often sparks introspection, and further in-depth conversation. Many are all too willing to discuss their binds to guilt, shame, and anger. Failure and inadequacy are natural facts of life, but far too many of us have become enraged inwardly from the resultant self-contempt. Failure, guilt, and shame fan the flames of the liver spirit's anger, blocking the light of love and self-love.

I have observed many terminally ill patients who were given absolutely no chance to survive miraculously will themselves to live—just as I have observed patients who had no business dying leave this world. All of this is due to the delicate balance between self-contempt (internal anger) and self-love (internal kindness).

THE LIVER SPIRIT'S KINDNESS

Lao Tzu once wrote, “By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time, but by love and kindness he may rule the world forever.” The ancient Chinese understood everything as energy. As was just pointed out, there is an energy associated with excess internalized anger that breeds illness. I have met many who suffer from inflammatory conditions such as esophageal reflux, migraine headaches, and cirrhosis that are rooted in internalized anger. You can actually feel a tense energy within yourself at the mere mention of the word
anger
. The word
kindness
generates energy as well. It produces a gentle healing energy when spoken aloud. Kindness and forgiveness present us with a healing way to be gentle with the self.

Many years ago, I befriended an internationally acclaimed psychic from New York who was noted for his work with the FBI. He was a brilliant man who put his psychic gifts to work solving crime cases, but he also had a very high spiritual IQ. I was in my early twenties and was going through some emotional growing pains at the time. I remember asking him what the secret was to finding true inner peace of mind and personal solidarity. Without hesitation he urged me to learn how to become gentle with myself. He emphasized that the most elusive of all spiritual gifts were kindness and gentleness toward self. I recall feeling a bit perplexed as to how to go about zeroing in on his spiritual prescription. Like so many, my narcissism was extremely underdeveloped. Through the years I continued to work at it, and now many years later I credit it with being the most important advice I was ever given.