Question
To me it seems that smiling from the heart and to forgive oneself and others are two very important skills connected to the heart and to the liver. Are there other fundamental skills connected to other organs, like letting go of fear or being more balanced connected to kidneys and spleen?
Answer
It does not only seem, but many students have actually told me that Smiling from the Heart and forgiving themselves and others are two of the best lessons they have learnt from our school.
It also does not only seem, but these two very important skills are directly connected with the heart. In Chinese, the heart refers not just to the organ that pumps blood, but also to the spirit or mind as well as the intellect and the emotions.
The heart affects and controls all other organs. When you smile from your heart, and forgive yourself and others, not only you bring benefit to your liver, you bring benefit to your whole being, including your mind and your body.
There are many types of Qigong practiced in our school that train fundamental skills connected to various organs. Some examples of courses that involve these skills and organs are Five-Animal Play, Massaging Internal Organs and Bone-Marrow Cleansing at the organ level.
Each of the five animals in the Five-Animal Play relates to each of the five storage organs and their corresponding transformational organs associated with various emotions. The bird is related to the heart and the intestines, associated with joy. The deer is related to the liver and the gall bladder, associated with anger. The monkey is related to the spleen and the stomach, associated with anxiety. The tiger is related to the lungs and the colon, associated with sorrow. The bear is related to the kidneys and the urinary bladder, associated with fear.
In Massaging Internal Organs, you can direct your chi to the kidneys to clear yourself of fear, or to the spleen to clear yourself of anxiety. You can also practice similar skills in Bone-Marrow Cleansing at the organ level.
Knowing the relationship between various organs and their emotions is very useful. However, if you don’t have this knowledge, you can still benefit a lot from our Qigong practice. Every time you start your practice, you Smile from the Heart and be happy. As a matter of course of your dedicated practice, you will have good health, vitality, longevity, mental clarity and spiritual joys, irrespective of religion.
The above article is reproduced from the thread Developing and Deepening the Fundamental Skills of Chi Kung in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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