Guidance in the Time of Corona #8

Dear All,

Settling you breath, settling your energy, are you protecting your own health? During these days extreme news are circulating and we need to deepen even more within. We are living in coexistence with the environment. The earth has the power of gravitation. Gravitation is protecting our health. All our actions of the day are based on this power of gravitation. When we are tired, we lie down. Still it is difficult to sleep more than 8 hours. That is because we are not absorbing enough gravity power when lying down. When we are sick and have to stay in bed for a long time, we need to have some rehab exercises to again feel well again. When we are in bed, the gravity affect the circulation of our blood flow. We have all types of paths to strengthen our health and support the blood circulation, like chikung, yoga etc.

The place on top of our head is called the fontanelle. We receive the energy of the heavens through this place (Hyakue). Below our feet there is a point (Yusen) from where we receive the energy of the earth, where we can feel gravity. The energy from the heavens and from the earth gathers in our tanden. During zazen we can use this energy and let it circulate freely. When this energy moves naturally through our body, at this point we can easily forget our body, feeling at one with this huge universe.

Hakuin Zenji taught that with each exhalation and with each inhalation we move the ki energy for 10 cm through our body. There are the capillaries in our body and parallel to them we have the meridians, the nervous system along which the energy flows. To say we move the energy for 10 cm means that these meridians are being stimulated. During one day the energy circulates 50 time throughout the whole body. Nowadays we do not count how many times we breathe each day, yet it is known from olden days. That we breathe about 13,500 times a day. This is the wisdom of Asian medicine. This flow of energy is what maintains our health.

Everyone has this energy flow, yet you might no be aware of it. It is expressed in the Chinese letter “Kan” which is part of the word “Kangoshi” – nurse. “Kan” is written as a “hand having eyes” and is read as “seeing”. A nurse can sense the sickness of a person, can feel the pulse – all done with one´s hands. The expression of the hands is happening because of the energy moving through our body. This Ki energy can be found in many Japanese words: Tenki (weather), byoki (sickness), Kuki (air), Genki (health), Kiryoku (willpower). … It is expressed in this way, because from the origin the energy of the heavens and of our body are one. The energy of the heavens being absorbed by our body is Genki, is being healthy. Simply being alive we are at one with the energy around us. Sickness, byoki, means the energy not working well. The heavens in small is our body, and our body in big are the heavens. This is how Asian medicine looks at it.

We feel separate, yet we are of the same energy which is the source of us being healthy. This is what we sense when we do Chikung, Yoga and Taichi. We absorb the energy and thus sustain our own health. Looking at it in this way, we feel taught and alive. Once we lose this, that is called death.

In our life we do face many different obstacles, and the energy flow does not happen in a healthy way. We cannot see this energy, but can feel it, especially when doing zazen we can let it settle in our lower abdomen. Zazen is a path for us to increase our energy and develop our wisdom. This is not our personal problem only, but we can receive this energy of the heavens, using our breathing, and protect our health, taking this full taught energy as most important. When we are healthy the energy is strong in the lower part of our body. When we get sick, the energy rises in our body, going against the natural flow. The energy gets stuck in our head, worry and fear create further thoughts and unsettledness. It can even get so intense that we cannot manage our daily livelihood, being emotional and not standing firmly on the ground, feeling dizzy with our head being hot. Clear decisions are difficult to make at this time.

Please see how important it is to bring the energy down and gather the energy in the tanden.