spirit

Feb

2016

Incense and Rooting the Spirit

✍️Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.

The sense orifice of smell can have strong effects on the aspect of Spirit known in Chinese medicine as Shen. Burning clean, resinous incense can open the Heart-Spirit, and in part, enhances our remembering of what is important. Incense prepared with quality medicinal substances has the ability, as thought in shamanic and alchemical traditions, to sedate the illusory, fleeting, there-then-it’s-gone-again nature of wind. Resinous materials can help to seal ‘holes’ or chinks in our protective Wei aspect of QI, while profoundly stabilizing our inner world and anchoring the Spirit.

Meditative practice is useful to guide awareness toward releasing the longings, set-backs, temptations, ideas, belongings and so forth, that cause the Shen to be stirred. The transformative properties of burning medicinal herbs and materials in the form of incense is a harmonizing backdrop. With understanding from a settledness of Spirit we may more wholly embrace worldly existence.

The following link offers incense recipes.

http://bearmedicineherbals.com/incense.html

Important Note: Resin is an immunological secretion used by trees to help protect the tree from potential pests and pathogens, often secreted after the outer surface of the tree has been breached. Harvesters, please respect the importance of resin for a tree and refrain from *ever* ripping off chunks that may endanger it! Resin, differentiated from sap, is found deeper inside the tree and transports water, nutrients, hormones and other vital fluids through the tree.

Sit gracefully with a single stick of incense; drift among the white clouds wild as a river heron. -Loy Ching-Yuen, Book of the Heart.

Jul

2015

Heart Relationship to Sense Organs

The five sensory orifices, referring to the nose, ears, eyes, lips, and tongue, are each paired with specific visceral organs. In particular, the Heart, regarded as ‘the emperor or sovereign ruler’, gives residence to Shen – a level of ‘Spirit’ which activates all mental activities, as well as perceives the emotional stimulus of all of the organs. The Heart has relationships with the other orifices beyond its own link with the tip of the tongue.

Heart 心 is the only organ with insight to do that.

For example, the eyes are related to Liver, but are also related to Heart. The Heart supplies blood, and blood vessels supply the eyes. According to the Su Wen 素問, the first medical text to address basic questions, theoretic foundations and diagnostics in Chinese medicine, excessive use of the eyes injures the Heart as well as the blood of the Liver. Diagnostically, the eyes are the most important window of Shen (or Spirit) that is inherently stored in the Heart, and although the eyes are particularly the orifice of the Liver, sight is a manifestation of the function of Heart.

Well-Wishes to All