Earth

The Spleen supplies nourishment and sustains the organism.  SUSTENANCE.

Food (and experiences) is ingested, digested, and assimilated into FUEL—called the Nutritive Essence— which is extracted and converted into Qi and Blood.

The Earth gathers and holds together. The Spleen is the constant provider, maintaining proper integrity of the body, space and relationships. The Spleen distributes Moisture by adjusting the circulation of blood and fluids “through the vascular and lymphatic systems, the density of flesh and the total mass of the body” (114, BH&E). The entire form, shape, weight, and tone of tissue results in how the Spleen disseminates Moisture and assimilates nutrients.

The “faculties of concentration, ideation, recollection, and reflection emanate from the Spleen.” (114, BH&E). Memory and the power to focus the mind come from a healthy Earth. “Intention is a means of gathering the momentum necessary to transform will, the impulse of the Kidney, into action, the drive of the Liver. Maintaining the necessary motivation necessary to sustain effort over time arises from the Spleen.” (113, BH&E).  So the Spleen is a major provider of homeostasis: it distributes nutrients, maintains balance, sustains healthy mental functioning, and creates the impetus to adapt smoothly to changes, while maintaining equilibrium.

The Spleen provides continuity of

·       Of body size

·       Mental orientation

·       Psychological perspective

·       Sense of identity in relationship to place, people and values

·       “Such constancy supports adaptability, the capacity to endure stress without harm” (115, BH&E).

·        “When the Spleen circulates fluids from tissues the flesh becomes less dense and the body becomes lighter and more mobile. “ (115, BH&E).

Breakdowns occurs when:

·       Feelings of overwhelm

·       Overburdened by excessive input

o   Either food or information

o   Creates congestion

·       When the Spleen is exhausted the mind becomes easily distracted by “scattered, superficial and elusive thoughts” (115).

·       The body feels fatigue

·       “The Spleen attempts to balance disequilibrium by slowing down or speeding up the conversion of nourishment to Blood and Qi”

·       If the Spleen thickens fluids and tissues: congestion, stagnation, movement retards the body.

o   Feeling weighed down

·       Dampness occurs

o   When tissues become saturated, the excess is experiences as

§  “Spongy tender flesh, swelling of the belly, joints, and lymph nodes, edema under the skin, painful swelling of the breast or reproductive organs, and copious or sticky discharges from the nose, throat, mouth and other mucous membranes” (115, BH&E).

·       Secretions are determined by the way Dampness interacts with Heat and Cold

o   Cold affecting the Spleen: clear and fluent discharge

o   Heat entangled with Moisture: sticky discharge

o   Accumulated Dampness: congealed phlegm, stagnant sputum/mucus.

Deficiency of Qi: Spleen forms the Blood and Qi (with nutritive essence)

Symptoms are anemia, dry skin and hair, blurry vision, pale lips and nails, dizziness, fatigue. (116)

·       If Spleen Qi descends, diarrhea, prolapse of the organs and veins occurs; hernias and hemorrhoids.

·       If Stomach Qi ascends, belching, burping hiccups, nausea, and puke.

The SPLEEN ASSISTS THE LIVER AND HEART (yin)

                  “By maintaining the integrity of the blood vessels, nourishing the Blood, and maintaining proper viscosity so that if flows fluidly” (117). Spleen Qi moves UP, bringing pure Essence to the Lung (116)

·       Relationship with Small Intestine/Heart?  (Child)

·       Relationship with Gallbladder/Liver?  (

THE STOMACH (yang)

                  Active one; rots and ripens food. Moistens and decomposes food. Stomach Qi, DESCENDS, bringing impure matter and liquid to the Intestines.

Fire

The dynamic of Fire and Water, Heart and Kidney, organizes the continuum of our reality. The Heart evokes communication and contacts with the world, while the Kidneys processes our inner impressions and establishes our root and substance of our individual and ancestral identity.

o    It is necessary to clear excessive Qi in the Heart, which can damage the Yin of the Kidney and Lung. Clearing heat and generating moisture can do this: Yin can balance the Yang. (184, BH&E)

Fire is like a Wizard. Fire seeks to imbue the mundane with the extraordinary, merging human aspirations with divine purpose*. “Just like the fire of love unites male and female to form new life, so the Wizard wields a miraculous power to overcome separation by welding divergent elements into one” (177, BH&E, Beinfield, Korngold). With excitement and enthusiasm—the catalyst—to energize, the Wizard, brings transformation with the power of light, love and awareness into the world. (177).

 "The Fire aspect represents fulfillment: the total expression and integration of our being, to the full extent of our expansion, maturation and development" (109). The emotions that unfold are of awe and joy. Love is astonishingly powerful, and with the clearest of intentions, it transforms life into fullness and beauty. Love brings happiness and a feeling of completeness. 

But what happens when one feels a sense of lack? When the liveliness of humor, affection and feeling of connection, seems to be missing from one’s momentary possession? Is it truly a lack of fire that exists in absence, or is it possible that we have been conditioned to believe that fire is contingent upon others’ responsibility to light our flames? Do we teach a man to fish, or merely provide him with the sustenance he does not know how to harvest himself?

Fire is enchanting, persuasive, and inclusive. In people, fire is expressed with a jovial outlook for life— an optimistic and generous attitude. There is genuine concern about the happiness of others, in which brings involvement with the needs and desires of friends, families and even strangers. Fire expresses a passion for contact through touch and conversation. This capacity makes reaching out and making friends easy.

Thoughts and feelings are readily available, Ready access to intuition, Fire types are often “considered by (their) friends to be a mind readers because (they) know what’s happening without being told” (178, BH&E). This beautiful trait, but it can also create disconnect when others do not respect or understand the power of intuition. “He scans his world with antenna like intelligence, receiving and integrating a plethora of information and impressions” (178, BH&E). An exhausting activity if not followed by solitude and time to process what has been observed and collected.

There may be a requirement for stimulation, contact, expression and recognition. To feel delight by making contact with those it desires, fire freely shares that delight with others. Bright and magnetic, fire pulls you closer.

Glowing, warm energy.

Sparkling dazzle.

Fire can be awesome and seductive.

Pulling you into a trance of dance and heat.

Flames have the power to inflame,

Transforming solids into ash.

The spirit looks on towards transcendence.

Take me beyond this world of forms and banality,

Focus my sights on union and oneness. 
Stimulate. 
Excitement is so alluring,
consuming the perfect Lover. 
How can I express what it is I feel, 
I see, 
and hear. I sense this world with love and pleasure. 

“Because [fire] has trouble insulating [itself] from the constant barrage of external influences… powers of discrimination and discernment can be overloaded, resulting in anxiety and confusion” (178, BH&E). Who influences you? What are you influenced by? When do you feel confused with anxiety, a lack of clarity? There is love in you. Do you know how to separate your thoughts from those who have influenced you? Which thoughts are truly yours, from your heart, and which are given to you from family and friends?

Confusion can develop into a sense of dread, if Fire feels “bombarded by unwanted and unpredictable events” (178, BH&E). Like a clear lake that becomes muddled with too much movement, confusion needs time to settle from upset, back stillness and transparency.

Under stress, Fire expresses itself as overactive, hyperactive, nervous, and distracted. Warmth and intimacy turn to isolation and melancholy. In order for Fire to generate joy and fulfillment, it must remain within bounds. Fire must maintain calmness and clarity, surprisingly by preserving boundaries, setting limits, and maintaining defenses (Lung) (181, BH&E). Senseless babbling and disjoined thoughts are the outcome of this disorientation and homelessness of the Spirit. When exaggerated or collapsed, Fire’s sense of boundaries are soft. They easily expand or shrink under emotional stress. During intense moments, the challenge is to maintain an anchored sense of self, a clear discrete identity without sacrificing intuitive sensitivity and openness. Conflicts heighten when the desire for expansion and effusion struggle with the need to preserve boundaries and mystery.

Fire’s virtue is compassion—the capacity to know, feel and understand what others are experiencing.

When the Lung cannot nurture the Kidney, the weakness shows as damaged Yin. Painful scanty urine, soreness of the back, disturbance of libido and potency; attention, expression and sensation are disturbed. A person becomes easily distracted and doubtful. The warm confidence of self-assurance dries up, becoming unreliable and overwhelmed. The stress on the integrity of Shen-Jing, Spirit and Essence, Fire and Water, shows through dehydration, unstable mental functioning and disturbed circulation of the blood. The unstable expression of Fire can be seen in “metabolic activity as well as the pace of thoughts and impressions in the mind, [they] become unpredictable with surges of energy and emotion alternating with periods of vapid dullness” (181, BH&E).

The goal for Fire is to maintain fluidity and steadiness. Gentle inhibition from extreme excitation, the body needs to maintain its juiciness through preservation of the self. Drink sufficient liquid. Create time and space for solitude and restitution, to regain the calm and clarity. Develop discipline and powers of discrimination (the Metal aspect) and the rootedness of Water through identification with family, ancestry and history will help with the steadiness.

words are like water.

 It is a funny business posting personal thoughts "publicly" to the zero people who actually read this blog. The idea behind posting to a blog instead saving "documents" on Word, is it feels somehow less robotic, less removed and more personal, albeit, if only for me. My current relationship to blogging is like a casual, noncommittal hobby. Writing only when the the mood strikes me, the act is self indulgent and secretly self gratifying. I come and go as I please. Yet, within the act, some greater good emerges. Clarity.

Clarity is like an elusive lover. When Clarity is present, the world, my thoughts, my experiences feel… well… clear. Life feels better. Music sounds better, colors seem brighter, knowing the meaning of my existence feels like it is just a reach away. But since this lover is hard to hold onto, clarity eventually leaves me for greener pastures. Or perhaps it is I who becomes distracted. Carried away with life, I lose sight of the point. The greater picture is no longer clear and translucent, palpable and understandable. Confusion, distraction, dis-ease creep over like a dark cloud obstructing the reflection of the sea, above.

 The point is, writing gives me a chance to collect myself. We call this "centering" in Buddhism. For me, it is the point of meditation. Sure there are deeper, more esoteric points in meditation, such as experiencing the void, the death of ego, Union and the dissolution of the self. But for the shallow practitioner-- the act of centering is like the practice of "returning to the breath". Writing brings me to the breath of the my mind. The thoughts that have been flowing in and out, without much awareness put onto themselves. Like focusing on the breath, writing is the simple reminder to return to the center. In this way, writing, and meditative breathing, feels astonishingly familiar, like a mother's embrace. Grounding, familiar, as if returning home from a long journey away.

I would also like to specify, the words shallow and deep often carry subjective connotations. I admit, I too use these words to convey, compare and make judgments. Above I wrote about the "shallow practitioner" but in no way I am I expressing a deficiency or shortage of meaningfulness. So in order to clarify the words for myself, I would like to invite you to imagine...

Imagine:
A shallow lake, no deeper than whatever depth instills a sense of comfort. Now, for whatever deficiency the lake has in depth it compensates for in distance. This lake is vast, it expands as far as the eye can see. Due to its lack of depth it is easily warmed by the sun, therefore a pleasure to be in, easy to enter, and fun to splash in. And since it is shallow, there is a natural clarity in it. You may even be able to see the lake floor. And since the lake is warm, and not too deep, if you wished, you could swim for miles without tiring for you know you could always stand on the bottom. This feeling of constant security can bring a great sense of confidence and trust to a swimmer. Now, the swimmer may very well swim that mile and find enjoyment in the repetitive, meditative, and nourishing practice of coordinated movement and rhythmic breathing. There is something very natural to such activity. Expansively shallow.

Now, imagine the depths of the sea. Deep down, there is darkness where the sun cannot reach. There is much less clarity for the light cannot illuminate what we wish to perceive. For any lack of perception, we may feel a sense of mystery in the unknown.  A certain curiosity stirs within. What happens in the depths-- the unknown reaches of the sea, the earth, our minds. There is fear as well. For it is cold down in the dark, depths of the sea. This is not a place to splash around and float about. For most, this depth is impenetrable, untouchable and unknowable. Furthermore, it is dangerous. Deep sea diving has its practical dangers-- the bends, panic, extreme pressure and drowning. It takes time, effort, deep determination and certain level of "technology" to travel into the depths.

One image is not better or worse than the other. Yes, perhaps you may have a preference, a gravitation towards one more than the other, but that just shows our subjectiveness. Shallowness and depth are merely different measures of natural phenomena. The words express and convey substances, objectively, but it is the human mind that decides the interpretations and therefore the connotations. Those who are comfortable in shallow bathwater differ to those who seek the mysterious, darkness of the ocean depths, merely because we are comparing the subjects. But without comparison, there is much more and much less, all at once.

https://soundcloud.com/alanwatts/philosophy-of-nature

Words are like chameleons. They are shape shifters. Words are like water, they take on the shape of their container, they can penetrate and are permeable. They can be felt, and like water, words can be manipulated: cooled heated and damed, dependent on the speaker's intention. Yet, water has a natural course as well. And so do words-- without the judgment of "good or bad", without subjective misuse,  words have carry particular existence. Words, like water, have unique expressions, unique meanings, and with enough force, they have a unique flow. Same with water. Water gives birth to the earth-- by rain, rivers, creeks and streams, water flows and restores. Giving life a chance to express itself and to enjoy its pleasures. Same with words. Yet, water can also carry destructive forces that erode beaches, tear down trees and drown life. Same with words.

≈≈≈≈ the beginning ≈≈≈≈ Art, in process. In progress.

It has been a while since I stopped blogging. A few years ago, I used this medium as a vehicle to document and record what was happening in my life. What I was reading on, what I studied in class, what I watched, and where my thoughts found revolution-- in both uses of the word.

I am a visual artist. I am a visual learner, and I am an artist. I use and express my art in a 3-D world. Art is kinesthetic, experimental, and often beyond the norm. Art is also, subtle, indirect, and mysterious. Art can be felt, touched, loved and discarded. Art is life experienced consciously.

For me, Art is about living life fully, happily, and realistically. Art in this way, is beyond the accepted version of Art that is called "art". Art is thinking outside the box; outside the boundary; outside the limits; beyond what is typically considered.

Just think of the word revolution.

What do you imagine?

Do you imagine unrest? A band of humans coming together, aimed to overthrow an establishment?
Or perhaps particles spinning around a center-- revolving.

Now imagine words with the same essence and power. Thoughts, clustering in spheres of coherence; where-in topics emerge, sentences fall in line, like soldiers commanded into battle.

The revolution of words, moves along a polar axis.
As they revolve, they can serve to train the mind-- looped and repeated over and over again for good; Repetition conditions both the mind and body. As any trainer will tell you, repletion creates familiar pathways.
As words form into thoughts, these thoughts may eventually find a need to revolt. To break the established flow and pace of revolution (of spinning) and go against the very momentum it created. This is where the effort of revolt is necessary. In order to break a habituated pattern, concentrated, precise change must be created.

Words are beautiful and descriptive. They have power to inspire and frighten. The ego, the mind, the body and spirit can all speak with words, and that is something unique. Unique, in meanings and messages are uniquely configured, yet the function is universal. Communication is an Earthly matter. Animals, plants, humans, and smaller earthly creatures all communicate. Sound travels, whereby passing along meaning through wave particles.

As I begin on one tangent, I follow through and come to a finish. This is called the beginning and the end. These moments are grounded in something-- in time, space, or imagination. Time-moments like mile markers. We remember moments of elevation, elation, dissension and descension. The moments-- the every now-moment-- woven together, have the power to be the somewhere within the beginning, middle, and end, as well as the very beginning and end in their wholeness.

It is the way we configure our lives that determines, how we relate to the now-moment, which is ever changing, shifting, dying and rebuilding.

Barbara Dilley, a modern dancer in the late 60's, 70's and 80's highlighted these time markers in her approach to performative dance. The "beginning, middle, and end" became both a theme and an approach to studio time dance as well as creating performances. The approach is very simple. You have ten minutes. The markers are very honest. Begin when the time starts and end when ten minutes have passed. But what about the middle? Does the middle begin two seconds in? Or is it at the five minute mark? Does the middle fill all the gaps within the framed time-- the time window, or does it own its own clear boundary?

These are but a few of the questions that one may consider in Contemplative Dance, an Art form and dance practice developed by Ms. Dilley herself. Contemplative Dance has a history-- an origin and a lineage. It is an approach to dancing, as well as a performative form of Art. Contemplative Dance (C.D. for short) urges the participant to take what is rightfully theirs. Time and Space. There is no need to force the production of art, because the Art is revolving in its own spectrum of revolution.

Art in this way, is righteous, from origin to expression. Art in this way, is alive and therefore relevant.   As all living things have the inevitable fate of death, Art in this way, is susceptible to the same moment-- death. But it is not always the case, and that is what is amazing. Art that is honest and real, has the power to live for thousands of years. Art has the power to flow through decades, centuries, eras, and the winds and the waves of the sea.

But Art is not always eternal. When exposed to dangers, Art can weaken, thereby becoming vulnerable to destruction and death. And that is where the ego slides in. Where the space that contemplation creates fills up with the need to survive, the ego begins to thrive. Protection is ego's agenda. The mission is to preserve the sense of a "separate-self". The "identity" of the artist, if permitted to spiral into unawareness, loses some or all of the true graces Art bestows. For the grace of true Art, is that it is focused, disciplined and aware. Art is life awareness.

to be continued….