內外經絡心包三焦 // Inner and Outer Meridians [Protector of the Heart & the Three that Burn]

Sharing this paper written for a class at the beginning of 2020, a precursor to the next article relating to the Pericardium channel and our connections to the Heavens...

Chinese Medicine is a system of sublime cosmology and interconnectivity that precedes our understanding as humans, in form and formless. It is one of beauty and poetry, nature and harmony. In our modern studies, we are often disconnected from how far this medicine can take us and the story it has to tell. The story is told, not only through their names and meanings, but through their functions and how they exist within the workings of our physical and energetic bodies. We must remember the importance of the micro and macrocosmic existence... of each system, each channel, each point, their names, radicals, and what they represent individually and as a whole.

The Yin-Yang is commonly seen as a simple, two-dimensional sphere–a turning circle that rotates clock-wise or counter-clockwise. By observing the Yin-Yang in the third dimension, we can take this idea further and envision the circle becoming a sphere. When it is brought to the fourth dimension and beyond, it can translate to Newtonian mechanics of centrifugal force—seeing the expansion and contraction of the renowned symbol, it exists as a moving orb.

Wudang + Shaolin School in Central China

"A dot in the middle of the circle could be used to illustrate something being born of it. It emerges from the centre of nothingness. The word emptiness is frequently attributed to it, but it is actually unknown if it is in fact void. The same applies to black holes...They call it ‘dark matter’ in science. Maybe it is material or non-material. There is the matter, things with form that people can see and experience, and there is the non-material, the formless matter, which possibly somehow theoretically exists as the opposite of matter, so-called dark matter. According to the same principle there is yin and yang in Daoism."

(Xing De, Five Immortals Temple)