(Ebook) - An Invitation To Eastern Medicine

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:
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A Delightful Journey into an Abstruse World
TRANSLATORS PREFACE
The reader holds in his/her hand an unusual book. What makes this bookunusual? I will come
back to that, but first a word about nomenclature. This isa book dealing with Eastern, but not strictly
Chinese Medicine. In the West, the term Chinese Medicineis used more frequently than Eastern
Medicine, if not exclusively. The Far East, as such, is constituted by countries andcultures other
than China, albeit China is the largest in size and hasbeen right up to the modern era the dominant
cultural influence. The East is not a monolith. In fact, not even Chinaherself is, as her citizenry is
comprised of well over two dozen minoritygroups. In Korea, the term Han Medicine is used when
referring to the vastencyclopaedia of medical knowledge which has over the centuries become the
warpand woof of traditional medicine as practiced by the Han people, who comprisethe dominant
ethnic group in China. Within the theoretical framework that wasoriginally developed in China
there is a wide variety of techniques oftreatment that differ from region to region reflecting not only
the so-calledlocal culture, but also the local availability of medicinal resources. For thisreason, it is
only when speaking specifically of some particularity of medicalprocedure or method as practiced
in China do the people in the East make apoint of calling it Chinese Medicine. To be sure, in so far
as this book islargely about the foundation of traditional medicine originating from China, itrelies
heavily on medical theories and philosophies that were first developedin China. However, it must
be remembered that what is presented in this book isthe broad foundation of medicine as practiced
in the Eastern world as a whole.Therefore, throughout this book, whenever the author speaks of
Han Medicine, hemeans Eastern Medicine. I used the latter literally, rather than translatingit as
Chinese Medicine.
So, going back to the question asked earlier, what makes this book unusual? The majority of
bookscurrently available in English about Eastern Medicine falls generally into twotypes:
Theoretical textbooks and do-it-yourself herbal remedy books. In tryingto understand Eastern
Medcine, the West still has the tendency to fall back onits traditional mechanical paradigm
concerning the human body in describing thevarious techniques of Eastern Medicine. While such
books may be valuable forthe medical professional, they are of little help to the average person
whowishes to understand the foundation of traditional Eastern medical practice.This book is
unusual because it is so understandable. It uncovers the structureof understanding which lies behind
Eastern Medicine. Ghm Oh speaks in terms ofordinary experiences which are familiar to us all:
Experiences both emotive andcorporeal. Ghm Oh takes us on a delightful journey by asking us to
observe andponder over the significance of everyday experiences: For example, Just what isthat
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chillin sensation down (or is it up?) the spine we feel when we arereally frightened? Why do we
say, I was so scared, I nearly peed in mypants!? Why is one lily-livered if one is lacking in
courage? What, afterall, is the relationship between the liver and courage? And the gall? Is thegall
really the seat of cheekiness? And, why is one accused of having a bighead if one acts overconfidently? How many causes, and how many types ofanger are there? Etc, etc.
Invitation to Eastern Medicine is a double invitation: To the Mind of theEast, and to a particular
discipline called medicine as shaped by the EasternMind. It is, as the subtitle declares, an invitation
to an abstruse world. Aworld strange and unfamiliar, constructed along a wholly different set
ofassumptions about the universe: A world in which the notion of observation isnot strictly
circumscribed by a dualistic conception separating the observingsubject and the observed object.
This is a book about how to understand andbalance ease and dis-ease in the flux of life. It is about
the art of beinghealthy, so that one can finish the arduous homework of becoming human. Thatis
to say, becoming human according to the definition of human as framedaccording to the East: An
em-bodied transformation toward a fullyrealized, miniature cosmos, in its perfection, mystery,
splendor, and fading.Ghm Oh might as well have titled his book Invitation to the
TraditionalEastern Mindset, because Ghm Oh is attempting to show the reader a sliverof a
particular world-view, an attitude toward the world, and a cosmology uponwhich the epistemology
of Eastern Medicine is founded. The author firstpresented this material in his own country. This
book first appeared in Koreabearing the subtitle, A Delightful Journey into an Abstruse World.
This factindicates that this traditional Eastern world-view has now become just asabstruse and
incomprehensible to the majority of modern Orientals as it is tothe Occidentals.
Be that as it may. This book was originally a transcription of theauthors lectures to a mostly lay
audience. The author and the audience were ontheir own cultural turf, so to speak. The authors
reference to certainthings-foods, cultural habits, or social practices, for the purpose of emphasisand
illustration-may at times strike the reader who is unfamiliar with Koreanculture to be just that:
Unfamiliar. But as they are not undulyincomprehensible, I felt that it was not necessary to modify
every elementwhich belongs to the quotidian practice of another culture. I concentrated onlyon the
task of bringing home the message of these lectures with their congenialcharacter and freshness
intact. And keeping the freshness and the vibrancy ofthese lectures meant doing two things
normally avoided when translating.
One, I have had to occasionally substitute words or phrases, if the originalcould not be translated
literally to sustain any meaning in any meaningfulway. (The sensibilty-gap between the East and
the West is not, on the whole, asgreat as it might at first appear. But it is there, there is no denying
that,and in the most unexpected places.) Where a faster and clearer comprehensioncould be had for
the taking, I did not hesitate to translate in such a mannerif that meant rendering the author as if he
were speaking in American English,making references to Americana.
Two, I ruled, with the approval of the author, that many of the wordswithout which no text
concerning the East would seem to be complete, e.g.,Sage, Taoist Master, Zen Master,
etcetera, had to be revamped. The reasonbeing primarily that they sound intolerably stuffy and trite,
and have been sofor some time already. Another reason is that, as hackneyed cliches,
theyunnecessarily feed a distorted understanding concerning the East. But, franklyspeaking, I
personally do not find that seeing another culture in terms ofstereotypes is a practice so evil as to
get all bent out of shape about.Stereotypes are like boxing gloves rather than surgical gloves. They
are clumsyand crude, but not necessarily totally wrong. However, wretched
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stereotypesnotwithstanding, we can at least try to keep an open mind for things not yetencountered.
That means we should be playing at least with a larger set ofstereotypes than the one that has so far
shaped the popular imagination in theWest regarding the East, its culture, and its peoples. Orientals
are eithertreacherous, inscrutable, filially pious, good-at-math, bad drivers, kung-fu fightin,
and/orparticularly wise. Is that not true, oh, Grasshopper? Sure, they are all that(although I
personally do not know any kung-fu fightin Orientals), and more,as all human beings are.
The words in question were translated as Intuner for Sage, Way-Grooverfor Taoist Master,
and Zenster for Zen Master. Whimsical? Maybe. There is nolaw or divine commandment that
says we must associate wisdom only with hoary,white-bearded, old men. True, in the East,
traditional prejudice equates wisdomas such with Qi (pronounced chee, meaning vital energy that
is in all life)collected over a long period of time, but sagacity is not denied to the youngor to
women, bearded or not. One who is wise, in the manner suggested by theoriginal word in SinoKorean character, is one who has large ears. In otherwords, he/she is a good listener. S/he is
someone in tune with Nature, andcan show the way (Tao) for others to understand how to do the
same. Hence, theterm Intuner. And, as for someone who would seek Tao (way), or
Enlightenmentthrough Zen, there is no reason to assume that such a person is in any way aMaster
automatically. In fact, the common Chinese term is literally just Taoman. Moreoverfor, the very
notion of mastery goes against the very stuffof what the Way-Groover and the Zenster are all
about. The cultivator of Tao isone who treads the Way and therefore makes a groove along the
Way. KnowingTao has the connotation that one knows how to flow like water. Thus, a Taoistis
one who grooves to Tao without resistance, just as one would groove tomusic. As for the term
Zenster: The suffix -ster is added, for example, toyoung and hip to refer to a person to whom
the adjectives apply. Since Zenis less a noun than an adjective describing the condition of a mental
state, Ichose to add the suffix -ster to one who seeks that state obtainablethrough the discipline of
Zen. I have retained the traditional term Master asa mark of respect when the author refers to his
own teacher(s).
Whenever possible, I have translated literally the original Korean orChinese words in this
book. However, some words and concepts have no equivalent in English. In these cases, I have
retained theterms in their original language and have designated them by capitalizingthem. Some
representative examplesare: Qi, Tai Chi, Yin and Yang. This book is an edited transcript of a
seriesof lectures. Occasionally, the author interacted with the audience, asking themquestions and
such. In these instances, the audience response has beendesignated by A:. Quite often, the
audience response was an inaudible mumble.In such a case, this was designated by A: (silence).
Regrettably, I was forced to delete a chapter that deals with the subjectof the I Ching (Book of
Changes). The author and I decided that thecontent would require way too many footnotes to make
it comprehensible for theaverage Western reader. In any case, the main content of this book is in no
waycompromised by that deletion of the chapter in question. The primary aim ofthis book is to
pique the readers curiosity for the Eastern way of thinkingand seeing. And if the book is successful
to that extent, the reader will nodoubt wish to seek out other texts germane to the topic at hand,
including the IChing, of which there now exist several fine English translations.
Many people today in America who are seeking an alternative to thereigning standard in
medical care as determined by the AMA and the insuranceestablishment might find this book
particularly helpful. It is, of course, upto the reader to decide what to make of the ramifications
surrounding theincreasing interest in alternative medicine. But the reader should bear inmind that
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Eastern Medicine is not necessarily an alternative medicine in andof itself. It is an alternative

only in the context of some dominant systemof medicine that has convinced the public that it and it
alone is the arbiterof all matters medical. The notion of alternative medicine has a
certainconnotation that it is but a make-shift or an understudy to fill in where thestandard falls
short. This book will perhaps get the reader to wonder if alland any medical intervention is not an
alternative to the true path ofwell-being.
Today, there is a tendency to associate, under the general rubric of NewAge, anything
traditionally Eastern with that benighted enthusiasm foranything remotely spiritual. Ifind that to
be unfortunate in so far as so many New Age enthusiasts happen toperpetuate their enthusiasm in a
rejective gesture against the workings ofmodern science and the rationality that supports it. Eastern
Medicine isneither New Age nor mystical. Eastern Medicine is founded on a rationality,albeit of a
different paradigm, one which is by necessity lessprecision-bound than the one on which modern
Western Medicine is founded. (Itshould be noted that even the notion of precision is not something
absolutebut dependent upon the very paradigm of rationality that valorizes the term.)As the
translator, I hope that this book will aid in enlarging the scope ofrationality in its various modes.
In reading this book, the average person is called to take seriously theidea that health-ones own
and that of loved ones-may not be a medical issue,much less an insurance issue, so much as it
is an existential issue. And whenunderstood as an existential issue, then and only then, does it
become aspiritual issue as well. Ones health is ultimately not a matter to be decidedunilaterally by
a man or a woman in a white gown, or any other professionalgarb. The broad question of health, as
such, must be asked and answered interms of the extent to which one is willing to abrogate ones
work in securingones own well-being and happiness to instrumental techniques and
bureaucraticdecisions. On this decision hangs the central question of ones willingness totake
responsibility, to mark and recognize ones footprints as ones own incrossing that infinite field of
possibilities called ones life.
I wish to thank my wife Kalla for getting me to undertake this translationand for her editing, and
my former student Ju-chul Kim for introducing thisbook to me many years ago. In translating the
names of herbs and concoctionsand various technical terms, Dr. Ki-hyon Kim and his assistant Ms.
Randy Otakaprovided invaluable help. To them, I owe a debt of gratitude. But, for anyerrors which
might still lurk in these pages, I am, nonetheless solelyaccountable.
1
Sagan Lazar*
* Sagan Lazar is the translators pen name. During the past 14 years, thetranslator has taught at
various universities, including Temple University andthe University of the Arts in Philadelphia,
Kyong-gi University and Kon-kukUniversity in Seoul, and Shih-Chien University in Taiwan. He is
currentlyDirector of xNOISIA,an independent research laboratory.
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CONTENTS
TRANSLATORS PREFACE -- 4
Authors Foreword to the English Edition -- 18
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
INTRODUCTION -- 48
The Wonder and Mystery of Eastern Medicine -- 58
Round are the Heavens, and the Earth Square -- 88
Yang is Movement, Yin is Stillness -- 124
Analysis of the Sixty-Year Cycle -- 152
Five Transportative and Six Climatic Qi -- 172
Biorhythms and the Three
Energeticsof the Meridians -- 186
Huh Juns Allegory of the Dew -- 204
The Turning Point of Symptoms -- 216
The Tree that Grows Leaning to the East,
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Chapter 10
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Fallsto the East -- 232

Tonifying the Deficient and Sedating
theExcessive -- 246
INDEX --270
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Authors Foreword
to the English Edition
An Invitation to Eastern Medicine is indeed an invitation to the world of Eastern Medicine, now
extended tothe English-speaking reader. Beyond data, formulas and recipes, this book waswritten
with the desire to share with the reader the culture and the mind-setof the East. And to understand
the East is to understand her unifying visioninherent in the Yin-Yang philosophy which underlies
her view of theworld and cosmos.
Like many other countries in Asia, Korea too, has modernized at breakneckspeed at the expense
of her own traditional wisdom. Even today, oblivious towhat was best in her own tradition, Korea
suffers from the nausea that comeswith the euphoric giddiness of rapid modernization, and confuses
modernizationwith Westernization. Ironically enough, it is only in the wake of the
Westsincreasing interest in the East, that Korea too, over the last decade or so,has slowly begun to
re-evaluate the wisdom of her time-tested tradition. Takebirthing for example. Discarded as
unscientific by the MIW(men in white), theage-old techniques once commonplace in the East squatting, water birthing, dimlights, slow cutting of the umbilical cord-are now considered worth
lookinginto now that Western specialists are recognizing the sheer sensibleness ofthese age-old
techniques. There are signs, emerging slowly but surely, thatthere is a growing interest in Korea for
things jettisoned thoughtlessly. Thecurrent TV drama in Korea, based on the exploits of the
legendary doctorHuh-Jun is enjoying immense popularity at an unheard-of 60% ratings, and
Eastern Medicine is nowthe most popular major in all the universities in Korea.
But when I was in school, there was much to be desired in the learning ofthis wonderful science.
After graduating, I wandered throughout the country farand wide, and high and low in search of
Masters who would help me find the keythat would one day unlock the mysteries of understanding.
I sought out andstudied with men in remote places,0 possessing superior insights into thenature of
things: men of medicine, buddhist monks, philosophers of the I Ching(Book of Changes). As a
result, I came to realize the supreme importanceand power of that certain thing over and above all
the data I accumulated whilein school: Understanding from within, by standing-under, not over, the
subjectof ones study.
No matter what the field of study, one can make no advances without astrong foundation. And it
is my conviction that the foundation of all trueunderstanding is the insight into the fundamental
Principle of DynamicComplementarity inherent in Nature. That Principle is what the ancients inthe
East called the Yin-Yang Principle. And this book is a short tourguide to the world-as-we-know-it,
as seen through Yin-Yangology, if Imay coin that term.
When I was in my early thirties, I was employed as a regular lecturer atDong-Guk University.
Back then, the substance of my lectures was based on mydeeply-felt intuitions about the
relationship between the mind as such and thebody as such. The students reaction to my ideas was
for the most part verypositive. But, despite the positive responses, I was not free from my
owndoubts and questions concerning the logic of the Fundamental PrinciplesGovernor the mindfile:///Users/hee/Downloads/Eeasternmedicine10A.M.5,8.2003doc-100000.htm
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body relationship. And it was at that time that I had thegood fortune to have that accidental
encounter which was later to be soconsequential in its impact: I came under the guidance of Zen
Master Hyeh-Am.Through him I learned to cultivate Zen, and that process totally changed mylife,
bringing me peace and certainty at last.
It was Master Hye-Ams life-long wish to transmit to the West the Truth asdiscovered by the
East. And even as he entered Nirvana at the age of 102, hewas hoping that I would carry out his
wish. But already twenty some years hadpassed, and I had not, could not, possibly fulfill my
promise to him. My heartwas heavy. I was not exactly young as I had already passed forty, but I
didwhat I could. I left for Australia for the purpose of doing one thing and onething only: Studying
English! Things have their own way of working out, and thistime they did too, all things
considering, but just not to my advantage. I hadmade very little headway with English, but people
around me continued toencourage me to translate the book. Yikes! The pressure!
It was at that time that I got word that a certain professor at Kyong-GiUniversity was translating
my book, An Invitation to Eastern Medicine.This translation is truly a fruit borne of the labor of
love, three years inthe making. Professor Lazar initially undertook it solely for the benefit ofhis
wife who could not read Korean. This translation, therefore, is atranslation of love, bound with the
desire to understand the undercurrent ofEastern Culture, and to transmit and share that
understanding with someone whohad no linguistic access to it. Now, having read the book, and
having become aconnoisseur of the East, Mrs. Lazar is also eager to share the joy of herdiscoveries
with everyone who picks up this book.
I do hope that Professor and Mrs. Lazar have profited in wisdom in theprocess of translating.
And as for my occasionally (But very rarely! Maybenever!) recurring habit of foul-mouthing, I trust
the translator has done theright thing, whatever that may be. The English-speaking reader will come
acrosshere and there differences of sensibility as determined by differences ofculture. During my
lecture, I would exaggerate certain expressions or examplesoccasionally. The reader should bare in
mind that when in such cases, theexaggeration was done for the purpose of driving home a point
that was germaneto the lesson at the time, to an audience of a particular shade of cultural andmoral
determination.
Eastern Medicine in the West is still undergoing a period of settling-in,which means all the
terminologies have yet to be unified across the board. Ithank my friend and colleague Professor Kihyon Kim and his assistant Ms. RandyOtaka for lending a helping hand to Professor Sagn Lazar in
dealing with thetricky problem of technical terms. While there is no way for me to ever knowhow
much of what I said can be translated into English, I confidently send thisbook out to the Englishspeaking public, knowing that this small book will holdits own, and then some, as a reliable
introduction to Eastern Medicine.
Well, as long as Im writing a foreword, I might as well ramble a bit andtell a few stories, and do
it in the spirit of the First Weaver of Tales, asdepicted by Joseph Campbell. This story took place
some ten years ago, when I,already way past schoolin years, signed up for a Beginners English
class. Iremember having a hard time fully explaining to the foreign instructor that Iwas a doctor
with a university degree from a six-year medical program. When Ifinished introducing myself, the
instructor had this expression on his face, asif to say, Why would you need six years of training for
Oriental Medicine?The fact that in the West, a person who has studied Eastern Medicine is
notconsidered an MD may have caused the instructor to suspect my qualifications incalling myself a
doctor.
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Be that as it may, when it was time to engage in a little class debate, Igave a short talk on the
theme of how tobacco can be both a medicine and apoison. At first, most people in the class did not
agree with my idea. But whenI explained, torturing the English language and my own tongue in the
process,the analogy between Yin-Yang Theory and Einsteins Theory of Relativity, theinstructor
finally began to take interest in what I had to say. Yet, at thatmoment I realized what difficulty lay
ahead in trying to explain the art ofseeing Yin-Yang to someone like the English instructor who had
definite ideasabout what was good and what bad. For example, he had an unshakeable faith
thatginseng was good for ones health, while tobacco was a definite no-no. The artof seeing YinYang is easy for anyone who has the simplicity of a child stillin him/her. But for a mind-regardless
of the nationality of its owner-thatbelieves in something to be absolutely right, wrong, good, or bad,
such an artwould be impossible to master. When the instructor told me that ginseng agreedwith him
well, I knew right away that his body was constitutionally a Yin-type.Which means, his body tends
to be cool, rather than warm. Every O.M.D.(Oriental Medical Doctor) knows as a rule of thumb that
such a constitutiontype would not take well a cold draught of beer on an empty stomach. So when
Itold him that beer probably did not agree with him on an empty stomach, heseemed very much
surprised that I knew.
Tobacco can be a medicine and it can be a poison. Flexibility ofthought, in order to remain
open for the flux of other variables in any givensituation, is what lies at the heart of Eastern
Medicine. This is thephilosophy of change, as described in the Book of Changes, the I Ching.The
science of Yin-Yang, or YinYangology, is a philosophy promoting the art ofreading the flux, with
penetrating intuition. And as such, YinYangology is thescience of relationality that provides the
framework by which to regulate theplay of so-called diametricality between two opposite things,
like, medicineand poison. And as a text functioning as a flux diagram, the I Ching isalso a kind of
religious text, teaching the holistic truth of the underlyingorder behind the transformation of the
phenomenal world.
The movie The Gods Must Be Crazy was a world-wide hit, as I recall. Thepoor fellow, the
bushman! Almost got whacked by a coke bottle from the sky. Mr.Nakau (I beg his pardon if I
spelled his name incorrectly. Tr.), whoplayed the main character, the pygmy, came to visit Korea a
few years back, andhad himself the most refreshing drink Korea had to offer: Korean Ginseng,in a
can. Ah, but all was not well for our short friend. In an interview, hesaid that he could not sleep for
three days after quenching his thirst withthat drink. Our bushman friend Mr. Nikau has a body
which is thin and dry, andhe can run 100 meters in 12-13 seconds. His is a typical Yang-type
inconstitution. That means he has a lot of internal heat. His very curly hair isalso another indication
that he has a lot of internal heat. In the medicalClassics, it is written that Ginseng has the
properties to boost the bodysvital Qi and strengthen the Yang Qi. But, it so happens that the very
samevirtues in ginseng, when misused or used by a person of incompatibleconstitution, can also
cause the body to become thin, and the lungs to dry out.And for anyone suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis, ingesting ginseng couldhave some very serious consequences indeed. I ought to know,
having sufferedfrom pulmonary tuberculosis myself some twenty-plus years ago. It was rightafter
taking my physical examination required for military service. I was hotand thirsty, so I had me a
bottle of ginseng extract, and then wham! I was out cold.I was deemed unfit for service, and so,
thankfully, I never got to join thearmy and experience the potential horror of going to faraway
places, meetinginteresting people, and then killing them. But even today, I have battlescars that
can be seen on the X-ray, testifying to my own private war with PT.
Indeed, if Korean ginseng-which of late has become recognized and soprized internationally for
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its unique virtues, to the point where people aretrying to pass off cheap Chinese ginseng as Koreanshould be found to producesuch side-effects as insomnia, blood-shot eyes, and headaches, then the
Bureauof Tobacco and Ginseng (a government-operated monopoly in Korea) must lose notime in
making sure that this information is made available with every box ofginseng sold here and abroad.
In this day and age of global village, I believewe must have the information, as well as the sense to
discern whats what whenit comes to foods and beverages even in a foreign land.
A team of researchers at the University of Southern California recentlypublished its finding
regarding vitamin C. Taken over a long period, it cancause the hardening of the arteries. Fine. But
we must ask: Is this true foreveryone? YinYangology would insist on knowing whom vitamin C
would affectnegatively, and whom positively. There is nothing really new in the latestfindings. It
has been known that vitamin C in large doses can cause harm, justas much as in moderate amounts
it is indispensable. Nothing is ever totally bador totally good. That simple truth is the unchanging
truth of relationality.
Sour pulls, Hot pushes.An old adage in Eastern Medicine based on a simple observation. Put a
squeezeof lemon juice in your mouth. You react in a particular way. i.e., you squintand suck in air
through locked jaw. Now, chew some jalapeno peppers. There.Notice the difference? People
nowadays will believe a lab result, but nevertheir own senses. Avoiding sour foods and eating hot
(spicy) foods willdefinitely help if you want to lose weight. Such is the finding of EasternMedicine
based on observation and experience, culled over a long time. It isthe prejudice of the moderns to
believe that if a truth was manufactured in alab, over a period of months or years, then its science.
If the same truth ismanufactured through an experience gathered and transmitted over a period
ofhundreds or thousands of years, then its just culture, or worse, superstition.I am told that even
Ms. Oprah Winfrey carries with her a little thing of pepperto help along her diet regimen. True,
peppering ones food three meals a daycould be a bit drastic, but suffice to say you would be doing
yourself a favorif you would acquire the ability to see that in trying to lose weight,drinking ginger
tea would be better than orange juice.
Speaking of orange juice, Iam reminded of an episode. In 1994, I spent a year in India. It was my
firsttime there. I went with my American friend who is a professor of English and aZenster. We
went to Mount Abu, located in the northwestern part of thesubcontinent. And there we stayed at a
Yoga Meditation center, and met a gentleguru whom I miss even to this day. Anyway, at the center,
there was this tubbyfellow from England who had a rather peculiar affliction of not being able
toopen his mouth wide. So, I asked him if he drank a lot of orange juice. He wasstartled by my
question, and answered that he drank ten one-liter bottles oforange juice a day, religiously. In fact,
he admitted to being addicted to theliquid sunshine. People next to him were even more
astonished at the accuracyof my diagnosis. A little bit of applied YinYangology, thats all. In the
West,the fact that ingesting excessive amount of vitamin C could be harmful wasnever really taken
seriously, if at all. Hence the confusion and surprise onthe part of the fellow who drank so much of
it for the sake of hishealth. In Dong Yi Bo Gahm, the classic text of medical data collated bythe
great physician Huh-Jun, we find that foods tasting sour increase thebodys tendency to hold in
reserve, and therefore obese persons are advisedto avoid eating sour foods.
In Buddhism, the highestpinnacle of wisdom goes by the name of prajna. And YinYangology
may besaid to constitute the prajna of Eastern Medicine. Vitamin is both amedicine and a poison.
And it is not necessary to go through the whole nineyards of testing to figure out for whom it would
be a medicine and for whom apoison. One needs only a mind cleared of prejudices, capable of
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seeing simply.The tubby chap from England decided to take my simple advice and was
eventuallyable to open his mouth as widely as he wished. The advice? To drink no moreorange
juice, but eat in large quantities peppers, ginger, and other hot foods.Moreover, exercise, and abstain
from eating and drinking in the evening. Ofcourse, I did do just a bit more-I had to-to relieve the
fellow of his misery.I treated him with acupuncture so that he may at least get his mouth to
open.The swift effectiveness of that treatment was one of the sweeter moments in thehistory of SaAm acupuncture.
Sa-Am acupuncture is sonamed after Master Sa-Am, physician and Zen Master, who lived some
450 yearsago. He is today considered one of the Three Masters of Medicine in Koreanhistory.
Master Sa-Ams technique of acupuncture is singular regarding itsprinciple of efficacy in so far as it
involves the observation of the mind inits multifarious shifts, and the calculation of the
consequences of suchshifts. Before I rediscovered it in 1983, Sa-Am acupuncture lay dormant
fornearly 400 years, veiled in enigma. Its effectiveness lies in its understandingof the importance of
boosting the deficient, and sedating the excessive inregulating and balancing the flow of Qi. In
curing the English patient, I mustadmit, the treatment was not without a side-effect, and that was
this: The jawsof the observers in the room had dropped, and they would not close! Ha Ha Ha!
Putting faith in what she had seen with her own eyes, an obese black womanwho was also
staying at the Yoga center approached me. She told me that shefelt unbearable pains in her right
sole when she stepped on stones, and thusshe could not climb mountains. I placed some needles in
her left pinky, andstrongly stimulated her Heart Meridian. The result was immediate. In general,in
Sa-Am acupuncture, we treat not the side that is in affliction but theopposite side.
I was asked by the Yoga center to stay with them and be the residentphysician/scholar. They
wanted me to care for them and to teach them the principlesbehind Sa-Am acupuncture. As much as
I wanted to explain it to them, it was,alas, extremely difficult, but not only because both English
and Hindi wereGreek to me. No subject is more difficult to speak about than simplicity.
Simplicity, that is, the ability to see things as they are, in their truenature, is the very vehicle in
approaching the truth. And, really, you musthave a child-like eyes to grasp the simplicity of Eastern
Medicine. I have beendoing 15-minute lectures on TV for about three months now. And what I
havelearned is, no matter how many times I repeat and emphasize the importance ofacquiring the
art of seeing for oneself, people will not overcome the habit ofrelying on other peoples opinions,
but will do their damnedest to keep up withthe Joneses, or the Kims, even in matters medical. I had
to resort to bringingin an article in the London Times, featuring a story about me and SaAmacupuncture. Only then did the Korean public start to believe that Sa-Amacupuncture and I
were for real. I know this comparison is way off the mark,but I am nonetheless reminded of the
old saying that a prophet is rejected byhis own people.
I read somewhere that doctors in the West had recently discovered thatamong people with
chronic heart problems, there appeared to be a correlationbetween their cardiac troubles and the
peculiar shape of their pinky finger: Itis noticeably shorter, and curved when compared to that of
people with healthyhearts. It is good news that Western doctors are now taking this fact intoaccount
in their evaluation of potential heart patients. But in the East, thisis old news. For several thousand
years it has been known that the HeartMeridian passes through the pinky finger, even though no one
can claim to everhave seen a meridian since meridians are not physical or material entities. Thetrue
and complete science of medicine, the like of which has yet to appear, maycome one day when
students of medicine understand the body in its invisibledimension as well as the visible. When
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technology-driven modern medicine of theWest can open itself to fully embrace the science of the
meridians as chartedby Eastern Medicine, we may then be on our way toward a true science
ofmedicine, and a true alternative to any health-care we have so far.
States of consciousness and emotions affect health, and determine oneshappiness. That much we
all know. In this book, I have defined the meridians asthe routes by which various emotions, such as
love and hatred, greed and fear,joy and anger are carried throughout the body, thus affecting
variouscomponents of the body. The riseand flow of emotions and the turning of moods can be
observed only in a livingbody. No state-of-the-art anatomy of a dead body will ever shed light in
thismatter. There can be no doubt that medicine is a humanistic science, and assuch, has only the
living human being as its true subject. Which means, thevery study of medicine must begin with the
observation of ones own emotionsand consciousness. The Socratic imperative, Know Thyself is,
then, the alphaand the omega of the spirit of Eastern Medicine. My body is the cosmos writsmall,
and thus Eastern Medicine is founded as a cosmology with the assumptionthat the ability to
understand the workings of the cosmos hinges on thesensitivity perfected in the observation of the
flux within the mind-bodymatrix.
Many times have I been to America and Australia, and each time I went, Iwent with the intention
of sharing the treasure of Eastern Medicine. But, everytime, I could not but feel discouraged. Ill
tell you an incident that happenedduring one of my trips to the Land Down Under. I was on a train
going fromSydney to the Golden Coast when it happened. An elderly gentleman fell to thefloor,
having an apoplectic seizure. It was an emergency if there ever was one.But when I rushed over to
help with my acupuncture needles, his wife-Ah, I canstill remember her panic-stricken face!-waved
both hands at me, signalling meto back off. No doubt, she was acting with her husbands best
interest atheart. So I did not press her to make the patient available to my services.But, I could not
help but feel frustrated knowing how crucial the first fewminutes are in determining the chances for
survival in a case like this. Cometo think of it, it wasnt more than two weeks ago that Mr. Obuchi,
the PrimeMinister of Japan suffered the same, and was ultimately forced to relinquishhis rein of
power. Anyway, we rode on, with our hands tied, looking helplesslyat the elderly couple.
The train eventually pulled in at the next station. At last, the ladyheaved a sigh of relief upon
seeing an ambulance and a small crowd of medicalpersonnel from a nearby hospital waiting. I hope
even as I write this that theman has recovered. But knowing how difficult it is, even with the aid of
thebest medical equipment, to recover from such an attack, I found it deeplyregrettable that the lady
refused to let me help. Perhaps she simply could nottrust Eastern Medicine. Perhaps. But, as
Australia now has a college of EasternMedicine, I would like to believe that more people in that
country might bewilling to trust Eastern Medicine now.
In 1992, I was invited to give a lecture in Los Angeles. As I was unableto give the lecture in
English, I ended up speaking to only a small audience ofKorean doctors. For a week, I gave an
introductory lecture about the basicprinciples of Sa-Am acupuncture. My hosts, I remember, put me
up in a charminglittle apartment in a quiet neighborhood, with a clear view of the Hollywoodsign
up in the hills. Except for having to endure the minor unpleasantness ofthe visual squalor of
Hollywood Boulevard, I enjoyed the daily drive from theapartment to the place where I gave my
lectures. I have become friends withmany of the people I met during the lectures, including
professor Ki-hyon Kim,the professor who helped with the translation of the technical terms in
thisbook.
Anyway, there was this woman who lived in the apartment building where Iwas staying. She had
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some serious problems with her disc. She would nottolerate the idea of surgery, and so had been
suffering with a bad back forover ten years. Despite the fact that surgical methods for treating discs
hadvastly improved over the years, to the point where most surgical procedureswere considered
low-risk, she had a morbid fear of becoming paralyzed in theevent of a mishap. Moreover, the
hospital where she went for check-ups did notinsist on surgery against her wishes. The woman had,
all these years, opted totreat herself at home, following the recommendation of her personal
doctor.When she told me that she was diligent about massaging her lower back with anice pack
everyday, I was utterly confounded. I was totally dumbfounded by theviolence of absolutistic
way of thinking.
Head cold, Feet hot. That would be the literal translation of the FirstCommandment in Eastern
Medicine. What that means is, the head must be keptcool, and the lower half of the body-from the
abdomen down-must be kept warm.We know that hot air has the natural tendency to rise upward,
and cold air toflow downward. If the top is hot and the bottom cold, there is no exchange ofenergy:
It stays that way. That means, only by keeping the bottom hot and thetop cold can you get a
circulation of energy going. An application of thissimple principle would mean, she should have
been using a hotpack, not an icepack, for her lower back.
Overconsumption of vitamin C negatively affects those with a Yin-ishconstitution, for whom the
Qi of sour foods builds up in the body and affectsit negatively. Penicillin, once thought to be
practically a panacea, is madefrom a fungus, which means its place of origin is basically Yin-ish, as
fungusgrows in damp and dark places. It was only after some folks mysteriouslydropped dead after
taking penicillin that modern scientists began to look intothe possibility of side-effects of the
marvel drug. But, long ago, an OMDfigured it out on the spot, that penicillin would affect
negatively person ofYin-ish disposition. All he had to know was that it was made from a
fungus.YinYangology, thats all. Again, nothing is absolutely good or bad foreveryone all the time.
The latest medical advice is, in two words:Low salt. Oh, really? Is this advice supposed to apply
to everybody across theboard?
Why do the Japanese-at least the older generation-drink a shot of hot sakefirst, and not a cold
glass of beer, before biting into (cold) sushi?Unfortunately, the young no longer observe this timetested wisdom, which says,Take care of the stomach before you take care of the throat. That
means,before you quench your thirst with a cold beverage, be sure to heat the stomachfirst.
Translating truth into action is a righteous thing wherever you are,regardless of culture. In
medicine, truth cannot be decided by the prejudiceand practice of the majority, just because the
majority happens to be themajority. That would amount to an abortion of truth in favor of
collectivehabit. When it comes to the issue of healing, I myself would rather see anemphasis put on
the more basic sciences, like psychology and internal medicine,and less reliance on intrusive
surgery. I give credit where credit is due, andWestern Medicine must be respected for the incredible
advances it has made inthe instrumental aspect of the science. But in hoping for the birth of
aparadigm for a new science of medicine in this new millenium, I would like to recommendthat we
all take a closer look at the existing paradigm that has for so longsustained Eastern Medicine.
To expect salvation to comesolely from the technology of the future is as foolish as expecting it
to comesolely from the wisdom of the past. In Zen, there is an expression, returningto the ancient
field. It has nothing to do with going back to the past.Rather, it refers to that non-time before the
mind differentiated itself intovarious states of consciousness. Scientistic fundamentalists in Korea
say thatthe ancients were unscientific to think that the earth was square. But, yousee, the
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ancients were not only poetic in their expression, they also knew howto calculate the distance to the
moon using the principles contained in the IChing. The philosophy contained in the Book of
Changes underlies thescience of Eastern Medicine. The expression, Round are the Heavens, and
theEarth square is but a figure of speech to help remind one to be well-roundedin knowledge but
square in dealing with the affairs of the world. To be roundin knowledge means to have no sharp
corners, but to be fluid and flexiblein applying ones knowledge, likethe wind. To be square in
action means to be honest and persevering in action,following an unbending set of ethical rules.
Thus is Heavens fluidity joinedto and harmonized with Earths firmness. And, it so happens that
the human headis round and the torso quadrangular. Hence, the all-around adaptable symbolof
the circle and the square.
It is impossible for anyone person to know everything, but when it comes to keeping oneself
healthy,one doesnt have to be a genius, or a doctor. Keeping the top cool and thebottom warm is
a basic rule in staying healthy. Again, this rule is notabsolute either. It is known that in some
instances of spiritual experiences,the head can get hot and the belly go cold. Nonetheless, for the
most part, itis a good rule to observe. In fact, this same excellent piece of wisdom wasalso
promulgated in the West as early as the 17th century by a Dutch physiciannamed Hermann
Boerhaave (1668-1738), who re-introduced bedside teaching and isconsidered by some historians to
be the most important medical educator of histime. There is an anecdote about a book supposedly
written by Dr. Hermann,which goes like this: At an auction house a fellow bought for a large sum
ofmoney a huge leather-bound antique tome which claimed to have the single mostimportant secret
of staying healthy. When the fellow took it home and openedit, he found only blank pages. Except
for the last page, on which it wasinscribed, Keep thy head exposed to the cool of air and thy feet
heated at alltimes. Then thou shall live a long, healthy life, and be free of thephysicians
meddlesome visits.
The Zen Masters of old usedto say, Eat when hungry, sleep when sleepy. A very good idea, if
you ask me.It is written in one of the medical texts from the Yuan Dynasty period(1260-1368) that
in the event of a sudden lapse of health, eat foods younormally dont like to or get to eat, and avoid
eating foods you habituallyeat. And in the Book of Rites, it is suggested that one must learn to see
thefaults of those for whom one has the greatest affection, and the virtues ofthose one dislikes.
These words remind us of the importance of maintaining anunwobbling pivot in ones judgement.
When I was taking Englishlessons, I made up a little nickname for myself. It was AIB, short for
All IsmBreaker. I look forward to that day when we can all live without the baggage ofUs vs.
Them. Because then, and only then, can there be peace among men, andwomen too. No more
racism, religionism, regionalism, nationalism. In the gardenof Eden, God said, Eat not from the
Tree of Good and Evil. This commandmentmeans, understood from the Eastern point of view, Do
not allow your mind todivide itself so as to see the world in terms of duality. The mind
bifurcatedsees you apart from me; good apart from evil; beauty apart fromugliness;
superiority apart from inferiority. The mind thus divided seesthe world that way, and proceeds to
divide the world, and brings about war anddestruction. As a prayer for peace, I dedicate this book to
all who read it.
I shall conclude this preface with a little reminder to the reader thatthere exist more marvels in
this universe than can be dreamed of by the mind.But the mind too belongs to that dimension of the
universe which is beyondlanguages reach, beyond conceptualization, beyond all questions and
answers,and beyond Yin and Yang. I hope this little book will serve the reader not onlyin his/her
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attempt to stay physically healthy, but also to understand that truehealth comes from returning to
our true mind.
- Ghm Oh, Kim Hong-Ghyoung, OMD
INTRODUCTION
Before I begin, let me first tell you how this lecture series came to be.For the past five years, Ive
been giving lectures all over the country tostudents majoring in Eastern Medicine. And in lecturing,
I decided to approachthe subject matter from an unconventional angle, different from the
pedagogicalmethodology found in the established academic institutions.
Man is not merely a collection of cells, tissues and organs. Man is also aspiritual being. And the
human body is not just a self-referential phenomenon,but a microcosm mirroring the cosmos itself.
I chose a path of study into theart and science of medicine that would reflect this understanding. In
myjourney, I was guided not only by hard empirical facts, but also by Intuition.By Intuition- or
should I say Into-It ion-I dont mean guesswork. I amreferring to another Plane of Knowing that
is grounded in the experience of areality where the material and the spiritual function as one. The
conventionalapproaches to Eastern Medicine today emphasize only the material aspect of theworld,
in the name of science. Through these lectures, I thought I would bringattention to the need for
seeing more than this, for seeing the big picturewhen it came to the art of healing.
Judged by the academic standards prevailing then, my lectures wereconsidered radical. The
content of my lectures caused quite a sensation for awhile. Even now, people argue over their merit.
But be that as it may, what Iattempted in those lectures was solidly based on my personal conviction
as tothe worth of my point of view. Now, as then, I continue with the same faith.And I will continue
to do what I do, so long as I myself truly believe in theworth of whatever it is that I do.
Facts and memorization by rote! Incessant competition and comparison tosee whos smarter than
whom! Clever is as clever does! Grades dont lie!Thats the motto in all the schools today! How
the hell can one grow in thatkind of atmosphere? The professors dont help things either, with
theirconstant political hobnobbing and undignified elbow-rubbing in search of theever bigger
comfy chair. Hardly anyone is interested in furthering his ownscholarship, let alone teaching
others! In an educational system infested withimpostors, I had to do something. I had to break the
hopeless, tedious,inspiration-crushing cycle of education by pre-recorded message.
It grieved me to see people gobbling up all sorts of hearsay about health.The current rampage of
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misguided notions concerning health may be said to beone of the side effects of the
misappropriation of western science, whichoperates by division of knowledge. I have personally
experienced thisphenomenon of hearsay. I once gave a series of lectures targeted at a
professionalaudience. The title of the series was: a 40-Day Lecture on the Principle ofSa-Am1
Acupuncture. The content of those lectures is available in mybook, Revolution in Eastern
Medicine. 2 Apparently, evenbefore I had published the book, there were quite a number of bootleg
copies ofmy lecture transcripts floating around. People who had not even come to thelectures would
call me up to say how the lectures had helped them to broadentheir understanding of Eastern
Medicine. These people came from all walks oflife: religion, academia, pharmacology, you name it.
1.Sa-Am Was a famous Buddist master in Korea who lived about 500 years ago. Hecreated the
Five-Element Needling technique based on the traditional principleof the Five Elements
(wood, fire, earth, metal and water). His acupuncturemethod is commonly called Sa-Am
acupuncture in Korea.
2.This is my first book, based on my lecture series. The English translation isnot yet available.
What Id like to do today is share with you non-professionals a simplifiedand summarized

version of some of the studies Ive done with other scholars inthe field. Youll notice that in the
course of the lecture, I sometimes wanderinto topics in eastern philosophy. Well, take it for what its
worth. If itmakes sense, I hope youll consider making use of it in your daily life.
As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a singlestep. The first step is
indeed the most significant. Last year some 200students attended the 40-day lecture. Thank
goodness, everything went smoothly.It can be tough keeping pace with each other when so many
are involved! But,whether its 200 or 20,000, as long as we maintain a certain rhythm,
thereshouldnt be any problem. Even in a one-on-one situation, if youre out of syncwith each other,
its useless.
The most important thing is that you listen as a real beginner. Otherwise,youll think you know
something, and that attitude will block you from reallylistening to what the lecturer is saying. Even
the experienced pro shouldlisten with the mind of a beginner. What Im saying is, having a lot
ofknowledge is not the problem. The problem is when you let your knowledge weighdown your
mind, preventing it from moving, free and unfettered.
A number of events prompted me into giving this lecture today. A lot ofpeople have been urging
me to make the content of the 40-Day Lecture morewidely available to the general public. I got
calls from as far away asGermany-from the godfather of Tae Kwon Do, Mr.S; and from the Korean
Order ofBuddhist Monks over in Canada. They asked me, Could you be so kind as to getthe man
(and woman) in the street in on the action too? So here you are. Butthe substance of the lecture
isnt something that can be over and done withinjust a day or two. After all, I had to go four hours a
day for 40 days, andthat was with just the pros. Itd be unreasonable to try to cram in as much
amaterial to a lay audience. Id be content if I succeeded in giving you a tasteof what Eastern
Medicine is all about. But thats no small task! At first youthink youve got it, but later on, youll
find it more and more inscrutable.Who knows, maybe by the end of our lecture, there might be only
a handful ofyou still left in the audience?
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The great Zen Master Chao-chou (778-897) once said, Even a crowd of fiveHumongous! So,
even if half way through the series there should remain onlyfive in the audience, I will push on for
the sake of the Humongous. Besides,I intend to have the content of this 26-Day Lecture published
also.
Do you know just how many people wreck their health and die subscribing tovarious
misconceptions about health? I dont know the exact number of peoplekilled by Hitler, but in the
course of the atrocities committed by the Nazis inthe span of three or four years, the figure is
estimated to be around sixmillion. Today roughly the samenumber of people die of cancer every
year. Its another Holocaust! No bombs, nogas, no Evil Genius; just cancer. And the alarming thing
is, the general publicprobably doesnt have a clue as to what the doctors are doing about it.
Healthand medicine are serious business, and theyre everyones business.
An Attitude of Learning
A car slams into the trains side.
Side?
The train knows only of front and back
Out of nowhere. Wham!
Conceptually speaking, an impossible occurrence,
as far as the trains concerned.
Forward and backward, and all is well.
Until
Whacked by something that wasnt even
supposed to be there!
Tracks over gravel.
Thats all it ever saw:
The whole world must be
made of gravel, then.
There are countless things thats
never heard nor seen.
Knowing what one doesnt know
Is more difficult than knowing what one knows.
Chugging along
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Whistling a song.
Oops, nearly got derailed by a
felled tree.
Just yesterday, was it?
Thinking about everything
except where youre going.
Youd probably be more careful,
after a nasty spill.
But a busted nose! Well, its busted
Lights on, lights off.
All the same.
The mind, too, sees
If its awake!
Im the best, Im the king!
Second verse:
Oh, my nose! Oh, my nose!
Conceit: the mind paralyzed.
You insist, day and night,
on riding the old tracks.
Whatever for?
Blessed is he who lays new tracks.
A walking encyclopedia, are you?
Well, Bravo! my dear man
But do you know the Secret
of being a Master Beginner?
Do you know how to open up
to All Possibilities?
No front.
No back.
No thought.
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No prejudice.
Just see.
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Chapter 1
The Wonder and Mystery of

Eastern Medicine
A few days ago, a friend I hadnt seen for a while dropped by. He said tome, There was this
crowd of people huddled around something at the subwaystation, so I took a peek to see what was
going on. Turns out its some fellowselling grubs claiming that theyre good for treating the kind of
problem Ivegot (hes overweight). So I figure, what the hell, lets give it a shot, andbought some.
Now, Id like you to tell me if the stuff is any good.
So I told him, Look. Lets say theres this housewife with a degree inhome economics. One day
shes cooking up some fried noodles for lunch, and itoccurs to her to apply some of that fine
education she got in college. Shewhips out her calorie-calculator, does her thing, and concludes that
thenoodles are a few points shy of the perfect-meal score. No problem, shesays. Ill just smother
them in mayonnaise and lard. And then, she adds agenerous serving of pork sausage for good
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measure on the noodles beforeserving. Now, if it were you, would you eat that?
What! Noodles are greasy enough as is, and youre asking me if Id eatthem smothered in mayo
and lard? No way! But what kind of dingbat of a womanwould do that in the first place?
Precisely. So, whats the difference between your eating grubs and herserving a wad of grease?
What we generally understand as common sense is not a whole lot betterthan this sort of logic,
calorie-calculator notwithstanding. What, then, shouldwe add to noodles to make it a perfect
meal? If we dont know all theingredients in the sausage, it stands to reason that we couldnt know
whatwould properly balance its overall nutritional value. In that case, wed bebetter off just
eating it, with some kimchee (hot and spicy pickled cabbage). Imean, why ruin a good meal by
being pedantic about nutrition?
Not sure what Im getting at? Thats okay. Youll catch on soon enough, ifyou pay close enough
attention.
People tend to believe what others believe, like grubs are effective intreating this, or aloe is
good for that. But, people often fail to take intoaccount the person who is supposed to benefit from
taking this or that. Peoplebelieve, for example, that earthworms have certain medicinal properties,
likethose which will enhance ones sexual stamina. Even if that were true, would itbe good for
everyone?
A: (silence)
Dont know? For sure, if we dont know what it is were looking at, wellremain vulnerable to all
kinds of swindling.
Eastern Medicine takes as its starting point the correct observation ofthe most fundamental
conditions and properties of the elemental world aroundus. The woman who thinks it is a good idea
to add lard to noodles is morelikely than not to feed her husband worms even though he is fat. But
the womanwho understands that when drinking soju (a Korean rice vodka), the meat ofchoice is
pork, will see to it that her skinny husband does not get driedpollack with hot sauce to nibble on
while drinking.
Who should eat pork, and who, pollack?
A: (silence)
Still not sure, eh? Alright then. Lets talk about liquor, which Im sureyou all know something
about. The Chinese have known about a wonderful medicinesince remote antiquity that works to
counter the effects of alcohol. Do youknow what it is?
A: (silence)
Its called Ge Gen, the roots of the arrowroot, commonly known asthe kudzu root. This root has
been used for the past 5,000 years as an antidotefor alcohol intoxication. A holy brew, indeed. But
even better than the root isthe flower. Its called Ge Hua, and the herbal formula that goes by the
name ofGe Hua Jie Sheng Dan3 (Pill of Kudzu flower for SoberingUp) contains Ge Hua as its main
ingredient. Although Ge Hua Jie ShengDan, Ge Gen Tang4 (Decoction of kudzu), etc., are herbal
medicinesused to neutralize the effects of excessive inebriation, it would not be wiseto assume that
kudzu root is a cure-all for all the maladies resulting from toomuch drinking.
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3. Ge Hua Jie Sheng Dan consists ofkudzu flower, poria, polyporus, alisma, cardamon,
cluster, medicated leaven,saussurea, dried ginger, cirtus, ginseng, and atractylodus.
4. Ge Gen Tang consists of kudzu,cinnamon, ephedra, peony, baked licorice, fresh ginger,
and red dates.
Today theres a huge variety of liquor available, but beer probably stilltops the list as the most
popular alcoholic beverage. Say your hubbys been outdrinking all night with some buddies. He
comes home and hurls. He not onlylooks like shit, he says he feels like one too. So what do you do?
You rememberthat kudzu root is supposed to make you feel better if youre sick fromdrinking, so
out you go and get some, bring it home and make a brew. But wait!Would that be the right thing to
do? If youre drunk due to beer, drinking aconcentrate of kudzu root will only get you more drunk.
How come? In order tounderstand the reason, youll have to learn-in the second half of ourlessonthe theory of Yin and Yang. But, suffice it to say for now, when youredrunk with beer, kudzu root
may not be the remedy. The point is this: We donttake the time to observe things correctly. We
simply memorize formulas andwere off without another thought.
If you go down to the subway stations, you can find quacks busy trying tosell you the moon,
making all sorts of outlandish claims: These grubs, ladiesand gentlemen, what can they not cure?
They work wonders, curing everythingfrom impotence to premature ejaculation! And youll also
see people gullibleenough to fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. Even fat people succumb to theglib
talk.
Where do grubs thrive, generally?
A: In moist places.
Precisely! But people who are already overweight, that is, people withexcessive amounts of
flesh, make a mistake in their reasoning: Since grubs aregood for boosting the (Yang) energy,
eating grubs ought to help me loseweight. But, grubs are, after all, all flesh. So, what do you
suppose willhappen? You get even more fleshy! A sorry situation, eh? When it comes totonics,
its not uncommon for people (even those who know better than to addketchup or butter when
cooking pork) to ruin their otherwise good health inthis manner.
If being overweight is the problem, youre better off using dragonflies.The type of dragonfly
called Hong Long is used to treat obesity.
Isnt it all too true, ladies and gentlemen, that we rely too often onmemorized formulas and
hearsay without really observing things for ourselves?Someone tells you, So-and-So recovered
from such-and-such after taking X. So,you automatically assume that X is always the correct
remedy for such-and-such,right?
A: (silence)
It could be that, by some fluke, some medicine happens to agree with yourparticular constitution,
so you recover. But, for other people with the sameaffliction, the same medicine might actually
aggravate the condition.
Im sure you all know the story about the foolish king who got duped byhis evil ministers into
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thinking that he had on the handsomest robe, when infact he was stark naked. It took a young boy to
say what the grown-ups were tooafraid to say. Like the boy in the fairy tale, we, too, need an honest
eye, nota calculating one. We need to be able to look at things straight, and call aspade a spade.
What is really important in studying is not memorization of somedetail, but learning how to
approach the truth without forcing our way.
Eastern Medicine is not a difficult thing. If you know how to poop andpee, and know what goes
with what when you eat, then youve got what it takesto understand the science of Eastern
Medicine.
In all things, theres unity within duality, and the relationship betweenunity and duality we call
relativity. Take a heavy-set person. What colors doyou suppose would look best on such a person?
We all have a sense concerningcolor, dont we? Like, which colors tend to make you look thinner,
whichheavier, etc. That means, youve got to look beyond the labels if you want tolook your best,
right? So what if its not a designer label? If youve got theconfidence to know what looks good on
you, then thats all that matters. Thosepeople who buy things for their labels, or just because
something is expensive,theyre all hypocrites! That sort of materialistic thinking would be okay if
itwere limited to ones wardrobe. But can you imagine what itd be like ifphysicians went about
their work with a similar mentality? You wouldnt have ahealer. Youd have a death-dealer!
Its important that we realize were all healers, not just those withdegrees in medicine. Just on a
day-to-day basis, were always showing ourconcern for those around us when we say things like,
try this, do it thisway. It is by looking out for one anothers well-being that we become
knittedinto the life of our communities.
For a family of really skinny people, it would be a good thing to havesome butter with their toast,
since butter will help them put on some pounds.But suppose the father is skinny but the son is
chubby. A one size fits allmenu might not be the best thing. Butter might be good for dad, but
juniormight end up dozing in class later.
The One-Size-Fits-All mentality! The surest way of not taking intoconsideration the individual
concerned. Hurry up and finish your meal! Quityakking while eating! Before you say such
things, see if your child is feelingfull. Lets look at another scenario: the husband comes home late,
quitestuffed after having had an evening out with the fellows at work. The wifeyells, Ive been
waiting so we could eat together! Im starving at home whileyoure out stuffing yourself with your
buddies!
So, to allay her feelings, the husband sits down and has another meal,pretending to be still
hungry. These small lies add up! As a result of thistype of behavior, there are many reports of
husbands getting stomach ulcers.Furthermore, they wreck your familys eating pattern and
negatively affect yourrelationships with those around you!
After much study and experience, I think I may have finally gotten a teenyweeny foothold in
understanding the laws that regulate the flow of energy innature and in our bodies. As a result, Ive
also come to realize that all thoselectures I heard as a student were mostly bullshit. There are
conscientiousprofessionals who told me that they had come to the same conclusion, especiallyafter
reading my Revolution in Eastern Medicine; the conclusion being that thecurrent university
curriculum in Eastern Medicine is simply rotten. The causeof this rot, of course, lies in the
confusion of memorization withunderstanding. In other words, in the current system, there is
no room forinsight! Tao is not a difficult thing to understand. Heres a line from LaoTzu:
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The water flows from high to low

The sapling is pliant, and
The mature tree stands its ground.
Into-Iting this, thats Inexhaustability .
That is Tao.
Heres another:
Without stepping outside,
He sees All under Heaven
Without looking out the window,
He knows the Way of Heaven.
Therefore, the Intuner5
Knows without going about
Brightens without seeing
Accomplishes without doing
The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng said:
Ones Original Nature,
Darken it, and you have Joe Schmo.
Brighten it, and you have the Buddha.
Enlightenment seeks the mind only.
Whats with all this running about?
5. The standard word is sage. Seetranslators preface for explanation.
You may have noticed how some people spare no effort in saying nastythings about others. Soand-So, hes a shit wrapped in skin. They might feelsuperior over others in saying things like that,
but are they really? One oughtnever to forget ones own imperfections and limitations. A married
woman,thinking herself a paragon of family values, might look upon prostitutes asfilthy and / or
just plain objectionable. But, how blameless is she?Prostitutes exist because men go to them, and
her husband could very well beamong those who do! One ought to reflect on whether one can afford
to be somorally high-handed, passing judgment on who or what is clean or unclean.
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Aspirin and Herbal Tea

Would aspirin work any better just because youre a Christian, or becauseyoure a Buddhist?
A: (silence)
Have you ever heard of herbaltea holding back on its curative effects because of the users
religion ornationality? Neither aspirin nor herbal tea holds any bias, but sadly enough,people do. I
know a man who runs a store. Though not a religious man himself,he keeps a copy of the Bible as
well as a copy of the (Buddhist) Sutras. Iasked him why. You know what he told me?
When a Christian customer walks in, I leave out the Bible on the counterin plain sight. She sees
it, and feels a certain kinship with me. Consequently,she buys more. Same for the Buddhists.
Business is always good!6
6. Religious discord isserious in Korea, especially as militant fundamental Christians have

taken uponthemselves the dubious mission of cleansing the country of its Buddhistlegacies
found in historic architecture and art. Acts of vandalism and arsontargetting Buddhist relics
and temples have been known to happen.
Isnt it because we harbor in our hearts ungenerous and biased attitudesthat we call forth so much
misery for ourselves? Favoring only those who sharethe same opinions with us, and vilifying
anyone who thinks differently Something to think about.
The role of the physician is to prolong life and to treat illnesses.Letsay a man suffering from an
illness is restored to health, thanks to theefforts of some skilled physician, only to be killed walking
out of thehospital by some exploding grenade. If, as a result of this incident, thedoctors decide that
their time would be better spent figuring out ways tolessen the damage wrought by an exploding
grenade upon the body, well, theywouldnt be physicians in the highest sense of the word. There is
a section inthe Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine 7 that talks about the medicine of a
sage. It says, in order to become asage, or a master of any art, one must hold a certain breadth of
philosophicaloutlook. A real physician should look into what causes people to throw grenadesin the
streets in the first place; why violence is spreading; why our MotherEarth is being divided and
demarcated into impassable zones.
Without taking into consideration the deeper issues from a spiritual andphilosophical angle, a
physician would get only so far dealing with whatsvisible to the eye alone. A stitch in time saves
nine, as the saying goes.Likewise, one must learn the art of detecting that which has not yet
appearedin the form of a disease.
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7. This is the oldest text inEastern Medicine. It is estimated to have been written between
722 B.C. and 221B.C.
Flipping through a book entitled Hospital Management, I found that somethings had been quite
accurately observed. For example, on doctors today, itsaid: Of late, doctors have become too
arrogant: They make the patient waitfor five hours, but administer the treatment in five minutes. Is
this any wayto handle a patient or treat a disease?
Of course, the purpose of our lecture here is not to make doctors out ofyou. But after you read
this book, I hope youll all take it upon yourselves toact as missionaries of health among your
friends and neighbors. In order toovercome the various handicaps of the mind-misconceptions
and hypocrisies-weall must do our part. And our struggle involves nothing less than helping
oneanother take off the straitjacket of preconceptions and prejudices. Even if youlearn the right
thing, but dont put it into practice, it will atrophy. We musttry to be points of light in these chaotic
times, and put into action what wehave learned, so that in the process, we can fully actualize our
understanding.A lot of people have their heads filled with all sorts of wild ideas abouthealth. Whats
truly unfortunate, however, is that they lack the wherewithal tosee through and correct the errors in
their ideas.
Ever see people with Bells Palsy, with half of their face paralyzed?People afflicted with this all
say theyd rather die of a rotting colon. Andwhat about strokes? Its not all that uncommon to see
people blow up in angerand drop dead on the spot. Blow your top and you could end up popping
somearteries in the brain, fall into a coma, and die.
So, then, whats with theseawful incidents? Why do they happen? Smart people might think,
Its becauseyou have a lot of blood all of a sudden rushing through a small opening.Maybe. But,
why so much blood all of a sudden?
A: (silence)
Apoplexy or stroke is called Windstroke in Eastern Medicine. Struck by thewind, as we say. If
youre out by the shore and the winds gusting, do you getapoplexy?
A: (silence)
Now, typhoons and other strong winds wouldnt cause paralysis or cause youto faint, would
they? Of course not! In fact, nothing could be more refreshingthan being out near the ocean, having
all that salty wind rush through yourhair.
A while back, a woman came to see me at the clinic, leaning on her twosons. She had Bells
Palsy, and half of her face was bent out of shape. Whathad happened to her was this: One day, she
went to the beauty salon to get herhair done. Reclining in her chair, she happened to overhear a
livelyconversation taking place a few chairs down.
Three young women were yakking up a storm:
Hey, girl! How much did you make in tips last night?
10 bucks!
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Yo, girl! Really! What a tightwad bastard!

The girls were chatting away, chewing their gum loudly, as though it werestuck to their teeth, and
coloring their nails. Overhearing all this, ourpatient thought to herself, Oh, for shame! Why, its
girls like them thatbreak up families! Well, at least my husband doesnt do things like that.
The girls continued:
So, whos the bastard that gave you only 10?
You know! He comes over all the time!
So whats his name?
Mr. Kim.
At this point, the patients ears perked up: My husbands name is Kim,too
All right already! Kim what?
Mr. Kim So-and-So. You know, the president of X company!
Hark! Do mine ears deceive me? No sooner did the lady have thesethoughts than she fell out of
her chair, her mouth mangled. Thats why she hadcome to see me. She had been so sure! Her own
husband, of all people!UNBELIEVABLE!
She was rushed out of the beauty shop to a nearby emergency room. Uponexamining her, the
doctor told her,
You have a hemorrhage in the brain. Theres not a whole lot we can do.
Please! Do something! Anything!
Itll be no more than a stopgap measure, but we could try a hemostatic (amedicine to help stop
bleeding).
What is apoplexy?
A: A clogging or hemorrhaging of an artery.
Is that so? Fine. But what triggers the attack in the first place?
A: (silence)
All right, think about this carefully. You go to the hospital. They take aCT Scan and tell you, Its
ruptured here, its clogged there. Then, they tellyou, Theres not much we can do about it. Only
the more open-minded MDs willrecommend that you give acupuncture a try (after theyve
attempted hemolysis orhemostasis), but always with the caveat that acupuncture is not all
thatscientific.
Now, lets examine what triggered the attack in our lady. Was it a gust ofwind? Certainly not. All
the windows were firmly shut at the salon. Did thegirls perform some act of voodoo on this lady?
Nothing of the sort. For thingslike apoplexy and high blood pressure, you cant determine the true
cause justby looking at the results of a CT Scanner. The decisive catalyst that broughtabout the
tragedy at the salon was the womans own mind!
Did you know that the success rate of disease treatment throughout theworld is only around 2530%? If you put together all the MDs, pharmacists,witch doctors, shamans, and what have you,
youll still get no better thanthree successful treatments out of 10. This is something I heard when I
was inschool, but I dont suppose those figures have changed much since then. If youcan fix three
out of every 10 patients that you see, then youre batting aboutaverage. Youd be a real regular
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doctor. But, now that Im in on the action,armed with my Sa Am Acupuncture, Id bet my bottom
dollar that the success rateis climbing, for sure!
Anyway, what are we going to do about the remaining 70% that arent cured?Isnt it the patient
himself who must bear the responsibility for getting well?So your husband spends more time
hanging around the corner pub than youd like.But, is it really such a big deal? Its the
unwillingness to see eye-to-eye orto understand why someone behaves in one way or another, its
the inflexibilityof the attitude of my way or no way thats going to trigger an illnessfurther on
down the road.
Whenever we discover that weve been had, duped, cheated, or ripped-off,we wax poetic in
describing the various ways in which the putatively guiltyparty ought to be dispatched, pronto, to
the devil: That lousy son of amongrel bitch! First, Im going to castrate him, and then Im going
to!
But who deceives whom? More often than not, we deceive ourselves, dontwe? I once saw a
funeral procession outside of my office. It was a largefuneral, and the roads near the City Hall were
blocked off because of it. Not asingle car was to be seen on the huge boulevard. But all of a sudden,
a carshoots out of nowhere. Apparently, the driver of the car thought he would takea short cut to
wherever he was headed by zooming in front of City Hall. Sureenough, I see the same car return
after a few minutes. I could just picture himgoing ballistic in the car: Sons of bitches! Im late for
my appointment, and theyre slowing me down with some stupidfuneral!!
Now, whos responsible for the drivers miscalculation? Nobody tricked himinto doing anything.
He just thought that he was more clever than everyoneelse.
Lacking in Sympathy
If a man should pick a fight with his wife over her weight or herappearance out of the blue, and then
proceeded to lose his cool well, that would be totally uncool. Infact, right there, in
thatthoughtless act we may find the seed of some future Windstroke.
We not only have a visible body, but an invisible one as well, called theethereal body. And it is
usually this ethereal body that is first affected bythe onset of disease; the visible body only shows
symptoms later on. Thus, weshould deal not so much with the material body (the visible body), but
withthat which moves the mind (the invisible or ethereal body). In the language ofZen, that which
moves the mind is called the Greater Self. And the Art ofHealing that deals with this Greater
Self is what we call Eastern Medicine.
The Nature of the Greater Self

The text known as The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine is theBible of Eastern
Medicine. In it, we find that all ailments are divided into abinary system: Inner and outer, or to use a
more formal nomenclature, InternalInjury and External Pathogen. So, lets say you have indigestion
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from eatingtoo much. That would fall under External Pathogen. But if youve got atummyache due
to stress after arguing with your parents at the dinner table,then that would fall under the category
of Internal Injury.
In this day and age, weve seen a drastic reduction of cases involvingcommunicable diseases
(which would be classified under External Pathogen). Yet,the number of people dying of cancer
every year nowadays is greater than thenumber of people who died during the entirety of World
War II. Cancer, as anillness, ultimately has its origin in the mind. It begins as an unhealthythought,
hardly perceptible at first. As time goes on, it slowly stiffens andsolidifies into a knotty lump lodged
in the mind.
Speaking of disease originating from unventilated thoughts, there is, ofcourse, AIDS, which
people say stands for Ah! Its Dying Season! People thinkthat AIDS did not exist way back when,
but thats not so. In the Annals ofEastern Medicine, there is a record of a disease bearing a
closesymptomatic resemblance to AIDS. Its been documented under syphilis, but thedescribed
symptoms resemble those of AIDS: the body gradually withers, the haircolor becomes reddish,
rashes break out, and the teeth and eyeballs begin toloosen; the person eventually dies of fever.
I wrote the following ditty about AIDS for an alumni newsletter. Let meread it to you:
AIDS
Ah! Its Dying Season! Humanity is going to hell in a handbasket!
Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome. Fever of unknown origin;shriveling-up of the body;
the abscesses; the rashes; bleeding; hair and teethfalling out; loss of memory; headaches; the
numbing of the whole body.
Apocalypse Now!
Acquired. As opposed to hereditary. Whats that supposed to mean? If itwere hereditary, one
could at least blame ones parents.
Acquired! What does that tell you? It means actions have consequences. Youreap what you sow.
Trash your body, so your body trashes you. Where did we gowrong? Wrong ideas about health,
maybe?
The body is the very axis of ones existence! You move about all your lifein this Marvel of
marvels, and yet you mistakenly believe that only a doctor ora biologist can unlock its mysteries for
you!
Mind and body. After abusing them both, we expect, and want to believe,that men in white
gowns will put us back together again.
Do you know what Princess Di got for a present from the World AIDS ReliefOrganization?
Condoms!! It just breaks my heart! The top scientists in theworld, and the best they could offer as a
preventive measure against AIDS wascondoms?!
One scientist stated: Only with a fundamental revision in our attitudetoward our lifestyles, can
we expect to really tackle the problem of AIDS.
What does that mean? That means prevention is the best cure. The onlycure.
To put it another way, we must change our behavior, and develop a clearunderstanding
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concerning the moral and ethical dimensions of our actions.

The AIDS virus is a consequence of going against the current of nature.Sexual acts, even in
normal heterosexual relationships, when performed excessively,cause a negative reaction in the
body, giving rise to symptoms bearing aresemblance to gonorrhea.
The worlds very first case of VD: Where did that come from? Most likelyfrom the crotches of
some excessively horny duo.
Yin and Yang: The Law of their Union follows the Grand Order thatstructures the entire
universe. What one lacks, the other supplies. Through theharmony of their union, Yin and Yang
show the Grand Matrix of nature thatunifies all dualities.
What is loves theme but the instinct to be made whole, to return toTotality? But when this
process of return violates natures pattern, thatswhen disaster strikes!
As bad as VD may be, its a walk in the park compared to AIDS. A singleHIV virus is more
destructive than all the venereal diseases combined. Justwhere did it originate, this monster? It
behooves us to pause a moment toconsider this question. Did it come from the sky? From the earth?
Neither. Itwas created within the mind / body matrix. The birth of this scourge took placewhere
flesh met flesh in pursuit of the most anti-natural sex. Whether it washomo- or heterosexual, the
contact was flawed. What do I mean by anti-naturalsex and flawed contact? I mean sexual life
made vapid by having defined sexas two bodies mechanically performing frictional in-and-out
motions.
Sex is the meeting of the positive(+) and the negative(-). Male andfemale, representing the
positive and the negative, respectively, are each onlyone-half of the whole, regardless of the fullness
of each individualpersonality. Even among homosexuals, mutual completion through
personality,taste, and even physical appearance, add a rich dimension to the relationship.
Subconsciously, we all strive constantly to fill the deficiencies withinourselves and in others. In
this manner, we progress step by step towardsperfection and completion. But, in progressing
towards the Complete, we mustlose the ball and chain of the ego. Only those who can be selfsacrificing andsincere in love have a chance of finding liberation through love.
The conception of sex as a piston action accompanied by sweat and gruntingis the result of
blindly following the gospel of truth according to Westernscience, which unduly emphasizes the
physical dimension of nature. They in theWest dont seem to see the hole theyve dug for
themselves in defining manthus, as a mechanistic system of parts. Love plays no part in this
mechanisticprocess of friction, pounding, and grunting.
Man is actually a unified entity, the most fantastic fusion of mind andmatter. And love is a
rendezvous with the Power of Creation that occurs at themoment when two minds open up to each
other.
The key to AIDS prevention lies in this, and this only: the re-cognitionof the true meaning of
love. What is needed is transcendence above theI/Me/Mine into a realm where all the ego-bound
conditions-man/woman; body/mind;future/past-lose their hold.
How does it happen that one should go around poking every hole thatpromises a moment of
pleasure, doing anything and everything solely to pleasethe tyrant in the crotch? It is said: The
love that bonds two men exists inthe form of friendship that furthers a worthy enterprise. The love
that bondsone woman to another blossoms only when there is mutual empathy based on integrityof
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character, and cultivation of sensibility. Yet, in a maniacal pursuit oforgasms, no act is considered
too degrading. But still not enough! So bring inthe sex kits-those tacky and crude gadgets of
titillation, wreaking havoc onthe delicate tissues.
Lawd above! Hab mercy!!
May True Love show us the way to freedom from the tyranny of AIDS!
Love crystalline, yet profound.
Unadorned, yet full of grace.
Chaste, but elegantly so, like a magnolia in full bloom;
and like the bamboo, straight in the matters of the heart.
Grant us, oh Lawd, the marbles to discern True Love
That we may know how to keep our mind and body sane and sound.
And, Lawd, please make all the doctors become unnecessary!
Better yet, please make the entire medical profession disappear from
the face of this earth, forever!
Please Lawd, make it so that our childrens children would
have to go to a museum to see the tools of the trade!
-GhmOh
I wonder why I must write words like these. I could just mind my ownbusiness and be content.
Yes, but there are simply too many awful thingshappening all around us right now.
Ive done all I can do for the students and the experts in the field ofEastern Medicine. But there is
a saying in the game of Go: One should refrainfrom strengthening a stronghold. Likewise, I feel it
necessary to devote myenergies in other areas, and in particular to an area that still remains
weak,namely, the lay publics understanding. Dont get me wrong: Im not insistingthat you seek
out only Eastern Medicine. Western Medicine is fine, too. Imjust saying that you must develop a
sense of judgment.
A while back, an obese lady Ill call Jane paid me a visit with twopounds of deer antler. She
wanted me to make her an herbal formula, and includethe antler in it. I told her, It may not be a
good idea to include theantler. She replied, All right, then. You make the tonic without it-Ill putit
in myself when I get home. Youd think that if I told a patient that there couldbe a problem, then
shed want to find out what the problem was, right? Well,she didnt. So, I went ahead with making
the prescription that shed asked for.And there she was, right behind me, looking over my shoulder
to see what I wasputting in! Since what she wanted was a tonic formula, she probably doubtedthat I
was putting in the right stuff. Why? Because I was using mostly the dryouter layer (the leaves and
bark) of the herbs.
Now, when we speak of a tonic or a restorative, what are we talkingabout?
A: Something thatll beef you up.
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Something thatll beef you up?! Great googly-moogly! The person who saidthat is gonna
moiderize8 someone someday! All right, hows this: arestorative is something thatll slim you
down if youre a bit chunky, and bulkyou up if youre too thin? Am I right?
A: (silence)
Am I wrong?
Lets have a closer look. Jane knew so much about herbal medicine thatshe only had to take
one look at a dried lycium fruit9 to determinewhether or not it had been recently picked. Even with
cooked rehmannia root10,which requires a lengthy process of steaming and drying-a full nine
cycles inall-this lady could tell just by looking whether the stuff really had undergonethe full nine
cycles. But I ask you: What good is knowing all of this if youdont know your own body? Anyone
who is overweight should not eat anythingtartly sweet and sticky, like cooked rehmannia root or
lycium fruit. Theyaffect the body negatively, increasing the retention of dampness and coolingthe
body, making it more susceptible to weight gain and arthritic pain on rainydays.
8. Murder, as pronounced by Moe,the most violent of the Stooges. Larry or Coily were
often threatened withthis.
9. This is a commonly used herb forstrengthening the blood and the Yin energies of the body.
It is known toimprove the eyesight and sexual stamina.
10. This herb is the stronger Yin-and blood- tonic. It is used to treat anemia, lumbago and
nocturnal emissions,among other things.
Though I tried to explain all of this to Jane, she had already made upher mind. She knew what
a good tonic was supposed to be made of, and wouldnthear any more on the subject. Moreover,
she was a bit miffed that I wouldntuse the antler that she had brought. But Ill tell you something:
it isprecisely someone like Jane that needs a brew made from leaves, peels, andflowers (lighter
herbs). But, convincing her of this would have taken God knowshow long, and there were other
patients waiting, so.
To use a fancy term, wed say that an overweight person has an Excess ofYin. That means their
body is damp. For such individuals, dry things are best.
When you go to the market, everything you see there thats edible is medicine.But you have to
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know how to use them correctly. Otherwise, anything can bepoison, too.
For an overweight person, it might be possible to recommend Lu Rong(the freshly sprouting soft
bud of an antler), but never Lu Jiao (thefully grown antler). Even children, who know nothing,
would at least know that LuJiao, because it is tough and chewy, would make you chubby. Moreover,
onecould pretty much figure out, just by using common sense, whether Lu Jiaowould make the
body more moist or dry. After all, which would be a more healthyside dish for someone skinnypork or dried pollack? One can figure it out byusing plain common sense (yet when it comes to
medicine, one fails to apply itcorrectly). Just because people say that Lu Jiao is good, people
automaticallyassume that it must be good for them too, without taking into account thecondition of
their own bodies. But what can I do if a patient insists on using LuJiao even if the stuffs going to
end up making him fatter than he isalready? If youre going to use Lu Jiao, youve got to do it right.
Simmeringfor a couple of hours isnt going to do a whole lot. Youve got to let itsimmer for a whole
day and allow it to get soft, like jelly, before you can useit. As a rule, you never use any ingredient
thats tough and chewy whenpreparing a restorative for an overweight person, except in very rare
cases,like after a major surgery, for instance.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of knowing who should eat what. Oneought to know, for
example, that the so-called aphrodisiacs (snakes, worms,grubs, and deer antler) are not good for
people who are Yin types, right?
A: (silence)
How do you tell Yin from Yang? Yin and Yang constitute polar opposites:Dark and light; cold
and hot; female and male; earth and heaven; static anddynamic. You get the idea. If youre fat, but
produce a lot of body heat, areyou Yin or Yang? You can leave a question like that for the experts.
All weneed, as regular folks, is some sharp common sense.
As civilization has become more and more complex, so have diseasesincreased in their variety.
The sages of the past prophesied that, toward theend of the world, there would be a proliferation of
the strangest diseases.AIDS is like an omen, sort of like a reddening sky at dawn. I am afraid that,in
speaking like this, I may cause you to feel dread and angst, but when I lookaround and see whats
happening nowadays, when I see people running amok,committing all kinds of unspeakable deeds
for lack of just plain old commonsense, well.
This man I know, he runs a kindergarten class in the outskirts of Seoul.One day, a kid there died
of the measles. Some people thought that the kidhadnt received his vaccination shots, so they
notified the kids mother,telling her to rush him to a hospital. There, the doctors said that it was
askin rash of sorts: poison ivy, maybe, or something that hed touched? Theywerent sure. So they
rubbed some ointment on the boy and gave him a shot ofantibiotic. Later, the boys breaking out all
over, and has a raging fever toboot. So, his parents rush him back to the hospital. This time, some
ice bagsand more shots were administered to bring down the fever. Were not sure whatit is, they
said.
Nowadays, a lot of doctors no longer recognize the symptoms of the measlesbecause, thanks to
vaccinations, they hardly ever see anyone with the measlesanymore! It kinda makes you wonder
just what the hecks going on Well, youllsee whats what soon enough.
In Eastern Medicine, there are four basic rules concerning treatment thatone may follow even in
cases when one does not know the name of the disease:
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One: If its on the skin, make the patient perspire.

Two: If its affecting the upper part of the body, induce vomiting.
Three: If its the lower part thats feeling sick, induce diarrhea.
Four: If its in the middle region, harmonize.
People nowadays, however, ignore these basic precepts. What should you doin case of an
outbreak of the measles? You probably dont know, do you? In theold days, grandmas would
swaddle a child so as to increase sweating. Now, whywould they do that?
If a kids got the measles, you have to make him sweat so as to releasethe heat inside of his body.
But you see, at the hospital, they gave the boy anantifebrile medicine, which ended up trapping the
heat inside of his body.
When the kindergarten teacher went over to visit the boy at the hospital,he could see that the
rashes had healed, but the twinkle in the boys eyes hadall but disappeared. The boy was breathing
rapidly, and his pulse was running amile a minute. The teacher felt so frustrated that there was
nothing he coulddo. He told me that the boy died a few days later. The whole incident reallybroke
his heart.
Re-viewing the Old and Grasping the New
With regard to everything, one must master the art of seeing. The classictexts speak of Insight
Through Subtle Observation (from here on out, wellcall it ITSO). To attain the highest
understanding, one first masters the Artof observing the Subtle. In other words, what we need is not
knowledge in thesense of stored-up data in our heads. As a matter of fact, we need to
liberateourselves from the rigor mentis that results from knowing too much, andperceiving too
little. We need to develop an ability for Subtle Discernment!Aye! Thats the key!
Earlier, when I spoke of AIDS in passing, I stressed the word acquired,which is to say, AIDS is
something contracted through ones own action (wereleaving out, of course, accidental contraction
through blood transfusion andthe like). We must deeply understand what this means. If you have
AIDS, andsay, Its So-and-Sos fault that I have AIDS! then itll only make yourcondition worse.
Venereal diseases. Again, where did they come from? From the Blue Yonder?
From the bowels of the earth? From a man? A woman? We hear people say,Its all because of
loose women! or Its them hookers! But then, who goesto the hookers?
A: Men.
Women say that its mens fault, and men blame women. They are both toblame, if you ask me.
Heres a story: A ship lost its way after getting tossed around in astorm. The next day, the sea
was calm again, and the crew found that the shiphad beached up on a beautiful island. The island
was covered with beautifulflowers. Fruits were hanging from every branch, and the shade looked
inviting.The passengers split up into five groups. The first group was afraid that theship would drift
out to sea with the next gale. So, they opted to remain onboard, despite their desire to see the island
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and refresh themselves. Thesecond group disembarked, and went straight to the nearest grove.
Aftersmelling the exotic flowers, and picking some fruit, they promptly returned tothe ship. The
third group roamed the island, enjoying the local color at aleisurely pace. A little later, the wind
began to pick up, and this grouprealized that the ship could depart any minute. So, they dropped
whatever theywere doing and headed for the ship in a hurry. But, when they got back to theship,
they had not only lost their seats, but some of their own valuables aswell. The fourth group also
noticed the wind picking up. But since the captainhadnt pulled up the anchor, they thought it
wasnt time to leave yet. So, theylingered on, assuming the captain wouldnt leave without them.
But, oopsydaisy, the ship did in fact begin to move slowly. Panic seized them, and theyall made a
mad dash for the ship. Running, jumping, and swimming, theyeventually caught up with the ship,
but injured themselves in the process. Thefifth group found the island so enchanting, they didnt
even notice that theship was sailing away. They frolicked in the meadows, and pranced in theforest.
How happy they were! It was paradise! That is, until they all had theirfrivolous tushies chomped off
by the unfriendly beasts of the forest.
Which group do you belong to? One shouldnt refuse the delights thatlife-the long voyage on the
sea-has to offer. But only he who has masteredhimself can roam this world without becoming
enslaved by it. In other words,only a person of discernment would know how to do his part in this
worldwithout getting caught up in it. Every problem that we face can be traced backto giving in to
our greed and lust. Think about it.
Anyone attending this lecture with some thought of some personalgain,-like, learning a few
recipes and ingredients so you can impress yourfriends, or finding out where to buy herbs at a
discount-that person inparticular must realize that there are issues far more important at hand.
Likewhat? Like learning how to understand the true cause of an ailment, and how toremove that
cause. Think about it, folks, and youll know what really counts.
Rippling
A shadow cast
On the lakes eye.
A stone is tossed
and the shadow begins
its liquid dance.
Seeing the dance, the mind
gets busy conceptualizing about it.
A shadow
on becalmed water is
Just a shadow
Nothing more
Whence the stone?
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Whence the rippling?
Chapter 2
Round are the Heavens and
the Earth Square
That which commonly goes by the name of love: Is it sheer lust or is ittender affection? Is it
physical or is it emotional? If, strictly speaking,its neither one nor the other, then what exactly is it?
We may never be ableto define love, but if we try to eliminate what love is not, then perhaps
wecan get a little closer to understanding it. By the same token, if, instead ofracking our brains
trying to figure out which medicine is best for oursweetheart, we carefully weed out those things
which are NOT good, then wewould narrow our choices.
Confucius once said, Before launching into action, check to make surethat theres sufficient
justification for it. Taking his advice to heart, Ivedecided to do just this. And so, here in four parts
are my justifications fordoing this lecture:
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The First Justification: Attainment of Insight ThroughSubtle Observation (ITSO)

Whenever I give a lecture, whether it be to an audience of students,professionals, or laypeople, I
always make a point of mentioning the importanceof ITSO. Truth is all around us, and if you
have the right curiosity (ITSO),no matter what you do for a living, youll learn to see it.
But ITSO is not so easy to come by. Only the most simple and pure mindedcan hope to attain it.
A mind full of pedantic theories, on the other hand,will have a difficult time grasping it. You cant
be bogged down with a lot ofbaggage if youre trying to attain it. Thats a definite no-no.
ITSO involves taking care not to overlook the little things in life,particularly when selecting
foods and medicines. It is this kind of everydaywisdom thats going to be the starting point of our
lesson.
The Second Justification: The Brightening of Knowledgeinto Illuminating Insight
Through the mastery of Subtle Observation, one may acquire Knowledge thatreally matters.
What were after might be said to be the rational,philosophical appropriation of the age-old wisdom
and insights that lie at thesource of all religious experience.
. So youve read a bit of this and a bit of that, and learned a fewobscure scraps of trivia. And
suddenly, youre off rambling about the FiveTransportative and Six Climatic Energies11, the I
Ching,astrology, planetary influences, and what not. Oh, sure, youve seen peoplelike that (perhaps
youve even BEEN people like that). These are the guys withheads full of esoterica who tell you,
Calculate your birth chart correctly andyoull automatically be able to determine the right recipe
for whatevermedicine you may need. Well, maybe, maybe not.
11.This refers to the highest stage of theory in Eastern Medicine.The FiveTransportative

Energies correspond to the Five Elements (wood,fire,earth,metaland water) and the manner
in which they move in phases.The Six ClimaticEnergies are related to the weather (wind,
cold, heat, damp, summerheat, anddryness). These six energies are related to our
meridians.The Yin and Yang ofthe Five Transportative Energies are called the 10 Celestial
Stems and Yin andYang of the Six Climatic Energies are called the 12 Terrestrial
Branches.The 10Stems and the 12 Branches are devices to denote time and are used in
astronomyas well as astrology. Both energies influence everything in nature, includingour
bodies.
A person with a healthy spiritual life, on the other hand, would be moreattentive to the Here and
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Now, not to some far off, far out stuff. With hiseyes open and his mind alert, he would look at what
was right in front of himin order to perceive the foundation of the wondrous.
Let me share a story with you. Once upon a time, there was a pair oftwins. One was named Bae
Hyu, and the other, Bae Taak. Eventually, one becameprime minister, and the other, a ferryman.
With the circumstances of theirbirths being practically identical, why was there such a drastic
difference intheir respective fates?
The twins had lost their parents early in life, so they were sent to livewith their uncle. One day, a
mendicant monk happened to come by their housebegging for alms. Bae Hyu was in the yard
minding his business when the monkentered. The monk saw the boys face, and right away, felt a
sense offoreboding. He told the boys uncle that Bae Hyus face bore a sign that spelleddisaster for
the family, and that it would be prudent to send him away. But theuncle was a kind man, and didnt
have the heart to heed the monks advice.
A little later, Bae Hyu overheard the servants talking, and got wind ofwhat had been said about
him. Bae Hyu thought that he was a burden enough onhis uncle as it was; he certainly didnt want
to bring further harm to the manwho had showed him nothing but kindness. So, he decided that he
had no choicebut to leave. This he did without further ado, vowing never to return.
After many days of wandering without food or water, Bae Hyu came upon awell. Overcome with
thirst, he staggered over to the well and proceeded tolower the bucket. It was at this point that he
saw something by the side of thewell. It turned out to be a bracelet made of jade. Bae Hyu
completely forgotabout his thirst, and wondered who could have left an item so valuable there,and
how vexed that person must be feeling! Out of sympathy for the owner of thebracelet, Bae Hyu
decided to remain by the well and safeguard the braceletuntil the owner returned. Three days came
and went. At last a woman showed uplooking desperate, scanning the ground.
What are you looking for, maam? asked Bae Hyu.
The woman, feeling bad and looking not much better, said, My son has beenwrongfully
imprisoned, so I was going to sell this jade bracelet to secure hisbail.
Could this be it? asked Bae Hyu, showing her the bracelet. The womanshrieked with joy, and
was soon overwhelmed with tears, sputtering her thanks.She told him that she had stopped by the
well a few days ago to quench herthirst, and being nervous and anxious at the time, had just plain
forgottenabout the bracelet. She hadnt even been aware that she had misplaced thebracelet until she
was a good two-days journey away. Although she didnt thinkthere was much chance that it would
still be there, she couldnt give up onsaving her son, so she returned.
As soon as the woman had finished her soppy chat with Bae Hyu, off shewent and rescued her
son. But our Bae Hyu was no better off than before. He wasstill hungry, cold, and lonely. Oh,
screw pride! he finally thought tohimself. Im going to have to go back to my uncle. I cant go on
like this anymore! So he returned home. And of course, his kind uncle welcomed him back.
A few days after their tearful reunion, the same future-seeing monkstopped by the house again.
But guess what he said this time? That boys goingto be Prime Minister some day! Bae Hyus act
of kindness had changed hisphysiognomy, and thus, his destiny.
Theres a saying: No matter how fine the face, of greater importance isthe form of the skull, and
of greater importance still, a pure heart. But doyou know whats even better than a pure heart? An
enlightened heart, able toroam at will! That is to say, a heart that is in tune with Tao.
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A long time ago, there lived a famous fortune-teller named Ji Xian. Thisguy was so good that he
could read a mans fate with a mere glance-includingthe date of his death! One day a man named
Lie Zi met with Ji Xian, and wastotally blown away by the mans uncanny power. Lie Zi related this
matter tohis teacher, Hu Qiu Zi, saying, I thought Tao was the Ultimate, but today Ifound
something even more awesome!
Hu Qiu Zi smiled and replied, So far Ive only told you what Tao iswithout ever demonstrating
it. Yet, you already think you know everything thatthere is to know about it. You may have a
hundred hens, but without a roosteryoull never see an egg hatch! You and your so-called theories!
No wonderyoure so easily impressed! Bring this Ji Xian to me tomorrow and have him readmy
fortune.
The next day, Lie Zi did as he was told, and brought Ji Xian for anaudience with his master.
After looking at Hu Qiu Zi, Ji Xian turned to Lie Zi,and in a low voice said, Your master will not
live past ten days.
After sending the fortune-teller on his way, Lie Zi, holding back histears, told his teacher the
grim news. But Hu Qiu Zi just laughed it off,saying, What I showed him on my face just now was
my Qi in the form of a wideopen prairie, where all the vital energies are stilled. Bring Ji Xian to
meagain tomorrow.
On the next day, the fortune-teller said: Your masters vital energies aremoving again. Hell
live. This time, Hu Qiu Zi had shown a face whose Qiconfiguration was that of the budding
flowers of spring.
On the next day, the fortune-teller admitted, I cannot make a reading ofhis face. This time, Hu
Qiu Zi had presented a face whose Qi contained bothflow and stillness, like a river flowing in the
abyss of the sea.
For the final reading, Hu Qiu Zi showed yet another face. Upon seeing it,Ji Xian turned pale and
ran out of the house. The masters face on that day waslike a mirror. Without a trace of his own ego
on his face, he abided in thestate of No-mind. Thus, his mind reflected Ji Xians.
Yes, its true that physiognomy is a science not to be taken lightly. Thatwhich is locked away in
the mind can be read from the face. Thats why peopleare so curious about face-reading, whether it
be ones own, or that of others.But an enlightened mind casts no shadows on the face. Thats why I
say that anenlightened mind is more valuable than a handsome face or a nice personality.
Know oneself! Without this, no enlightenment. It aint gonna happen.
One evening, I was in a car with a friend who was driving me to a lecture.We werent speeding,
nor were we really violating any traffic regulations, buta cop pulled us over. He wanted to know
why we didnt have our lights on. Myfriend was sure that theyd been on, but sure enough, they
werent. We hadntnoticed, since the other cars had had their lights on, and the road itself waswell
lit.
Im sure that if wed been driving along some desolate, deserted road upin the mountains, we
definitely wouldve noticed whether our lights were on ornot. And we wouldve done whatever it
took to turn on those lights, wouldntwe? Sure we would. But what about the headlights of the
mind? Why do we neglectto turn them on, when they are so much more important? When alls well,
itslike were driving during the day. But when the going gets tough, and youre onyour own on
some lonely road of suffering, then you need to have those lights.Death comes to us all. During the
final moments when youre getting ready toembark on your journey into the next world, whose light
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are you going to counton, if not your own?

Master Sa Am once said, the Seven Emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, fear,love, hatred, and greedSee to it that you understand the law of their risingand their passing away. From a religious point
of view, if youve got a pureheart, thats what counts, even if your physiognomy is less than
optimal.
In the science of physiognomy, theres this thing called the meridians.Even if you know nothing
about the theory of the meridians, you should knowsomething about meridian massage. There are
guys at the barber shop who dontknow diddley squat about the meridians, but every time you go in
for a haircut,there they are. Have a seat! they tell you, and no sooner do you sit downthan they
recline the chair back, and mop your face with something, I dontknow what. After that, they knead
your face like it was dough! When theyredone with you, you dont know which way is up! If
youre a sensitive type likeme, youd definitely feel the worse for wear, let me tell you!
Thrashing the meridians: thats an expression among acupuncturists,referring to hacks who
have no idea what theyre doing. Every now and then, yousee this kind of ghastly abuse in bath
houses, where they bleed you, and thenstick about a hundred needles in your back. But even more
alarming is the factthat those whove been abused in this manner actually think that they feelbetter
afterwards!
Even with acupressure (pressing on the acupuncture points with the fingertips), one ought to have
some basic understanding of the principles of themeridians in order to figure out the direction in
which the fingers shouldmove. Take the limbs, for example. The Yang Meridians flow on the
outside, andthe Yin Meridians flow along the inner side. With the Yin Meridians, the flowis from
the bottom up, whereas with the Yang Meridians, its from the top down.This is difficult stuff, and
Ill explain it in detail later on. My point hereis that people dont pay attention to the meridians:
they just whack people anywhich way, and the whacked party goes away thinking theyve been
rejuvenated.Unbelievable!
There was this woman who brought some chicken feathers back from Japan.She made a lot of
money selling those feathers, claiming that they couldmassage the meridians like nothing else.
Chicken feathers, cow feathers! Whatsthe difference? The important thing is knowing the direction
of flow of the meridians.
A fat person should sedate the Yin Meridians, while tonifying oraugmenting the Yang Meridians.
Believe it or not, there are people who claim tobe professionals in this field who dont really
understand the principle ofsedating and tonifying the meridians. A worrisome situation indeed! All
themore reason for you to know your own body and mind-you cant always rely on theso-called
pros.
The measles: What is it? On the one hand, youve got MDs trained inWestern Medicine, who
treat it by prescribing antifebrile medications whichtrap the heat inside the body; and on the other,
youve got everyone else, who,in the name of traditional medicine, knead you as though you were
putty, andstick you with needles anywhere they please. Whos supposed to be responsiblefor your
health in the end? You, thats who! You cant rely on others. All ofus must develop the ability to
look at Truth straight in the eye, withoutblinking! We have to learn how to look after ourselves and
our families bybecoming more observant.
Wind and rain howl through the House of a Thousand Rooms
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And on the Golden Bodies of a Gazillion Buddhas,

Nothing but moss and dust.
You know what?
If a Zensters tears could see through this,
thered be no stopping them.
-Hyoo Jong
Well, now. Lets have a look at our lips. The lower lip belongs to the Ren(Conception) Meridian.
Ren means to entrust, or to commission.The upper lip corresponds to the Du (Governor)
Meridian. Du means to oversee, tosupervise, or to direct. In general, women have a more
developed RenMeridian, whereas with men, its the Du Meridian thats more developed. Peoplewho
are more developed in the Du Meridian have a fuller upper lip, and wouldtend to not trust others
easily.
Anyone reading this book with excessive Du Meridian energy, a stiff upperlip, is probably not
buying a word of what Im saying. Whenever I give alecture, I notice that the men in the audience
have tense upper lips for thefirst 15 days or so, watching me guardedly. Theyre thinking to
themselves, Isthis guy pulling my leg, or what? Men in general, and the majority of
arrogantpeople, have a more developed Du Meridian. A woman with a large hooked nose anda
prominent upper lip, also a sign of stronger Du Meridian development, is morelikely than not to
have infertility problems. Her appearance is an indicationthat she has more masculine energy than
feminine energy.
Lets say that a guy asks a girl out for a date, and the girl says, Sure!Id love to, but with her
upper lip puckered. What is she really saying? Shessaying, Let me see if I like you or not. Or,
say a guy asks his sweetheart togo on a picnic, but the girl says, No, I dont want to with her
lower lippuckered. Although she says no, she actually wants to go. When someone says,read my
lips, you really should, if you want to find out what that person isreally thinking.
In my lecturing experience, Ive found that women tend to believe whateverI say right from the
start. But by the end of the lecture, theyve gone off ontheir own tangents, and drawn conclusions
totally unrelated to anything Ivebeen talking about. Men, on the other hand, tend to be more wary
in thebeginning. But once things begin to fall into place, they stick with me to theend. So, with my
audience, its always half and half. But then, were all madeup of half and half: Yin and Yang!
Scholars who specialize in the esoteric theories of the I Ching,the Five Transportative and Six
Climatic Energies dont like me too much. Youknow why? Because I make the difficult sound so
easy. The Truth IS EASY! When athree year-old child thinks her sister is pretty, is she talking about
theproportion of the nose in relation to the arch of the brows? No. The child seesand knows. Just
like The Du Meridian is related to death, and the Ren Meridianis related to life. When youre really,
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really angry, and you say F**k off!,notice how your lower lip gets covered over by your upper
lip. The lips are thecrossroads of life and death. In Eastern Philosophy we call the lips Qi Jiao,or
the place where the Exchange of Qi occurs. Speech is possible only whenthe upper and the lower
lips work in unison, or, to put it another way, whenYin and Yang exchange their respective Qi.
Eagle Well-developed Du Meridian.
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Aggressively dispersesenergy upward.
Shark Well-developedDu Meridian.

Yang-natured andaggressive.
Pelican Well-developedRen Meridian.

Has a strong chin.
Pollack Well-developedRen Meridian.

Yin-natured and producesmany eggs.
Diagram 2-1 Du andRen Meridians
During my examinations, my patients often pour out a torrent ofspeculations as to how or why
they got sick. But I dont let what they sayunduly sway me. I stick to what I observe. What
medicine should I prescribe forsomeone who has a prominent upper lip but a rather thin lower one?
Generallyspeaking, you dont find too many obese people with a prominent upper lip. However,an
obese (Yin) person with a strong Du Meridian (Yang) would be a good thing(because it shows
relational balance).
A skinny person (Yang) with a prominent upper lip (Yang) tends to beargumentative, asking a lot
of questions. When hes done getting his treatment,hell turn right around and ask:
And my head itches, too. What do you think, doc?
Thats because you have heat rising to the head.
I sprained my back a few years ago. What about that?
And so on and so forth. In such a case, sedating the Du Meridian andtonifying the Ren Meridian
either through acupuncture or herbs would be inorder.
Every one of you is an incredible piece of work, a complete meridianmatrix. And, within this
matrix is the small part which weve just talked, theDu and Ren Meridians. You really gotta believe
me when I say, Emptying themind cures the disease. If you have a headache or a tummyache,
calmlyscrutinize the location of the pain. Youll feel better in no time. Thats whatmy lectures all
about.
Its this sort of thingthat Im trying to help you to see. And Im going to do whatever it takes
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foryou to see it, even if it takes hollering and swearing! But itd be no good ifthe only thing you
remembered after the lecture is, Man, hes one foul-moutheds.o.b.!
The Third Justification: Do the right thing!
Having attained knowledgethat really illuminates, now what? Do the Right Thing, thats what! In
theBible, it is written that God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree ofKnowledge, lest
they come to know the difference between good and evil. You allknow that the disobedient couple
got evicted from the Garden shortly afterlearning to distinguish between right and wrong. Now, in
order for us, theirdescendants, to do the right thing, we need to get past the duality that theyset up:
The strife-ridden conceptualizations that pit beauty against ugliness,superior against inferior,
knowledge against ignorance. The right thing, afterall, is not a matter of intellectually constructed
definitions.
The Fourth Justification:
From one day to the next, ever anew.
Lets look at everyonearound us as if were seeing them for the first time. When you take a
freshlook at the world from a certain meditative angle, youll see everything in awholly new light.
When asked, Where are youfrom? most people generally skip the street, borough, county, and
town, and gostraight to their country of citizenship. They say, Im Korean or ImAmerican, etc.
But, love of ones country notwithstanding, from a planetary pointof view, were all from the same
place: Earth. When you realize that yourejust a human being, no more, no less, youll be able to
lose a lot of thebaggage that makes you and others uptight. Think big in this way, and youllget rid
of a lot of diseases. But if we keep going the way that weregoing-popping pills and idly
speculating about things which only furtherobfuscate the most fundamental truths of being humanthen for sure, wereheaded straight for the all-you-can-eat buffet table of disaster.
I cant divulge their nameshere, but theres been a lot of talk about things to come among those
in theknow within the field of Eastern Medicine. I count among my teachers of Zen,Masters
Kyung Huh, Mahn Gong, and Hye Am. But Ive met and talked with manyother Masters who
possess profound knowledge concerning the I Ching,Five Transportative and Six Climatic Energies.
According to them, the futureforecast doesnt look good. But where there is despair, theres hope,
no? I runa small clinic, and enjoy giving lectures because I believe there is stillhope. And, it is
through gatherings like this one that Im trying to share thishope, the possibility of thinking beyond
(conceptual) thinking.
Theres a saying in EasternMedicine: When the 12 Meridians empty the mind, all diseases lose
their hold.Even in the classical text, Invitation to the Science of Medicine,12there is a simple
drawing of a circle for the frontispiece, symbolizingEmptiness. Within this circle is written: If you
know how to discipline youranger, and rein in your greed, youll come to know the meaning of the
Circle.And if you understand the Circle, youll recover ease from all dis-ease. Onthe very first
page of this book, it is written: So that even the unletteredmight find ease, this Circle has been
drawn. Indeed, knowing your three Rswont necessarily help you to be healthy. In fact, knowing
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too much could evenmake you sick. Even if you never went to school, if you know how to keep
yourcool, and how to count your blessings, then Id say that you understand themeaning of the
Circle.
12.This comprehensive text was written in 1580 A.D. by Dr. Li Cun. One of theclassics of
Eastern Medicine, it is currently used as a textbook in alluniversities of Eastern Medicine in
Korea.
Should I go this way, or that? That guys a hunk, but hes got nomoney! Shes nothing
to look at, but her familys loaded! When we think inthis manner, our thoughts become entangled,
and our minds become burdened withworry. We become at odds with ourselves. When your
thoughts are not seatedproperly, its because your mind is restless with distrust and
suspicion.According to Eastern Medicine, the karma accrued as a result of having asuspicious mind
will trigger illnesses. In Eastern Medicine, there is acorrespondence between the Five Elements and
the mental faculties. Thought isrelated to the central Earth Element. Thought is divided into Right
Thought(correct use of the mind) and Suspicion (incorrect use of the mind).According to
Eastern Medicine, the karma accrued as a result of having a suspiciousmind will trigger illnesses.
You know what Im saying?
A: (silence)
No? Everything starts with the mind. It is the mind which determineseverything.
When you listen to my lectures, it doesnt matter if youre ignorant. Whatis important is that you
have a sincere desire to return to what is mostfundamental. In other words, if you have the stamina
to concentrate onimproving yourself, illnesses will retreat by themselves.
Religious enthusiasts and professionals alike are initially pretty gung-hoabout leading a pure,
stainless life, saying to themselves, This is mysalvation! But after a while, their enthusiasm
wanes, and their will powerloses that initial intensity. Soon, theyre looking out for number one,
moreconcerned about searching for ways to make life a little easier for themselves.Have to watch
that!
Lets have a look at the introduction to my book, Revolution in EasternMedicine, shall we?
This book is a rag. A patch here, a patch there A shabby bouquet ofwords, thats all.
At first, I just lectured. Then one day a few students came to me to showme the work of their
hands that took over eight months to complete. It was a1,200-page transcription of my lectures.
Frankly, I was initially a bitapprehensive at this because the written word is not the same as the
spokenword. A word that is forever fixed onto a sheet of paper cannot convey thespontaneity of the
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moment, the mood of the place, etc. when the word wasuttered. For example, if I had said excitedly,
Those motherf**kers!!!, theforce conveyed by my voice would not be fully felt in reading.
Moreover, in theprocess of editing, theres always a watering down in order to make the
speakersound more respectable. So, in place of the original words, you might get adiluted version,
like Those sons of bitches! After another washing cycle, itgets cleaned up to Those evil
scumbags! Then, it goes through the rinsecycle, and comes out as Those repulsive vermin!
Finally, the G ratedversion, the only one thats truly fit to print: Those unpleasant gentlemenwith
questionable ideas! By this point, all youve got is a cold fart in adixie cup, instead of piping hot
shit on a shiny silver platter.
A lecture is a living, breathing thing, full of spontaneity, sparks, andinspiration; whereas the
written version of it would be like carefully chewedgum, drained of all flavor.
Anyway, the original manuscript for this book came into being, willynilly, during the fourth
Winter Lecture Series in 1986. Relying on the tapesused to record the lectures, I went over the
transcripts. You see, it wasimportant for me that the book should be understandable to any
intelligentreader regardless of his or her profession. The reason I took the trouble tocomb through
the transcript was that, in my lectures, it was the generalremarks that comprised the highlights,
and I wanted to make these availableto all who wished to understand the fundamental principles of
Eastern Medicine.
Whether it was by reading a bootleg copy of my lectures,or by speaking withme over the phone,
or by visiting me in person; whatever the route by whichyouve come to know about what I have to
say, its all fine by me! As far backas two years before my lectures finally appeared in book form,
the bootlegversions were seen tucked under the arms of students majoring in WesternMedicine, to
say nothing of those majoring in Eastern Medicine. Even monkshidden away in remote mountains
had them! Even folks living abroad had managedto get a hold of those bootleg copies! How was it
possible for these lecturesto find their way into the hands of so many, so very far away?
Ive received many calls from all over. People from all walks of lifecalled to tell me how the
lectures really hit the spot, intellectually andemotionally. Why would people say things like that?
Why the overwhelminglyunified response? After all, the lectures were aimed primarily at
aprofessional audience specializing in acupuncture.
Resonance! A feeling of oneness between the lecturer and the audience!Just that! No need to
pigeon-hole people according to their area ofspecialization! No need to build a wall between
Eastern and Western Medicine!After all, any medical science worth its weight in salt has as its
subject thehuman being. Thats why people could not but read these lectures, even if theywerent
even remotely interested in the medical profession. The book had beenedited to remain relevant and
open to anyone interested in his/her own health,and who wishes to better understand the
relationship between body and mind.
Because MAN is the sole subject of medicine, medicine cannot fulfill itsmission if it fails to take
into account things like psychology, philosophy,politics, economics, art, technology, etc. Only the
individual who understandsthe entire gamut of being human can legitimately claim the honor of
thetitle, physician.
Dear reader (especially if youre in the profession!), you, who intend tosomeday practice
medicine!; and you, who would like to see your son or daughterbecome a doctor!; and you, doing
what you can to lead a healthy life!; why,even you, shaman faith healers, working in the shadows
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without a properlicense!; and, last but not least, you in the religious community who wouldlead
people to health through prayers and meditation! PLEASE! DO ME A FAVOR!Dont rush to make
use of whats in these lectures! If youre not properlytrained in the science of acupuncture, and
dont have a license to practice, notonly will you be doing something illegal, youll also have to
pay dearly foracting rashly.
What I was trying to say in the introduction was that I was afraid ofpeople getting the wrong
impression, that anyone can go around sticking needlesinto people just because they read a book.
Let me emphasize once again that thebulk of Revolution in Eastern Medicine is geared for people in
theprofession. Nonetheless, the book does contain a good deal of generalobservations that pertain to
everyone, because Sa-Am Acupuncture and itsprinciples, above and beyond the technical jargon,
offers guidance and insightapplicable to everyday life. Sa-Am principles apply to cooking, for
example.Lets say someone likes his food sour; what might his personality be like?
A: (silence)
Generally, such a person would likely be greedy. If you read the generalremarks in the book,
youll come to understand the principles behind suchinduction.
To the students who sign up to hear my lectures, I always insist that theyvolunteer for some
fieldwork. I divide them into three teams and send them todifferent provinces. Once theyre out
practicing what theyve learned, theirjaws drop in amazement. Even the freshmen and sophomores
are impressed! Afarmer comes limping into the clinic, and after just one session, he walks outof
there like there was nothing ever the matter with him. The students are atfirst a bit skeptical as to
the effectiveness of the theories theyve beenstudying. But once they see the results with their very
own eyes, theyre justblown away. Even students who did not attend my lectures are learning
fromthose who did, and are now applying the same techniques elsewhere. A professorat Kyung Hee
University13 told me that over 50% of all the Eastern Medical student volunteers currentlyuse the
Sa-Am method.
13.Kyung Hee University, located in Seoul, is highly regarded in Korea for itsdepartment of
Eastern Medicine.
Be that as it may, even if you dont know the first thing about medicine,Im going to send you
home with some solid tips that you can use in daily life.I hope these lectures can help those of you
who have a religion to get closerto the truth that your religion embodies; and I hope those of you
who do notsubscribe to a particular faith will get inspired to find your own path to
selfenlightenment. As I have said before, knowing your mind and your body is thefirst step to
knowing yourself; after this, you will be able to know everythingelse in the world.
It is because I dont know myself that I have to run to a doctor to askabout the changes
happening in my body; and to a religious person to ask aboutthe meaning of life ; and to a politician
to ask for a utopia; and to an artistto ask for an elevated sentiment. Because its too much work for
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me to know WHOI AM, I rely on dope and booze, or become a slave to an ideology, to help
meforget my problems. And I blow money, time, and energy to stay young-looking,because I
cannot tolerate the idea of an old me. And thus I run and run andrun on the very same spot on
the Wheel of Karma.
Scholars squander their learning debating whether man is a finite or aninfinite being, and wax
pedantic about dead things. But in the Upanishads,it says, The Light of Truth shines everywhere,
for all to see. Look beyondappearances! Tend to the Inner Self! Waste not thy substance chasing
afterephemera!
Do you suppose its because we consider our present selves to be souninteresting that we are so
obsessed with projecting ourselves into thefuture? What separates the present I from the future
I is psychologicaltime. Krishnamurti talks about that in his book Freedom from Time.
Im not much now, but I will be somebody in the future! But if you thinkabout it, in the infinite
stretch of time between now and the future, there isaging, grief, and the imminent possibility of
kicking the bucket. Arent wewasting too many a fine day waiting for some possibly non-existent
perfectevening?
We feel weve been taken for a ride one time too many by everyone fromartists to scientists,
from politicians to preachers. Wed like some Truth thatwe could live with, for a change.
Unfortunately, were all lie-aholics. Asmuch as we hate lies, we think wed die without them! So
we go on upholding allthe lies that require us to separate people according to their race,
religion,nationality, class and the color of their skin. Since its always us vs.them we fall into
the senseless habit of competitive comparison. Its thisnasty habit more than anything else that
exposes us to all sorts of ailments.Its critical that we tame this peculiarly human arrogance that
considersitself to be in a category above plants and animals. We must not go gentlyinto that good
night of scientific hogwash like a flock of sheep loaded onDemerol, believing that the mind and
body are two distinct, separate, andindependent entities, and that we (split as we are) are distinct
from theuniverse.
Long ago, a king had an orchard. In this orchard grew a fruit sodelicious, the king wanted to keep
it all for himself. So, he had a blind manand a cripple watch over his orchard, thinking that their
respective handicapswould prevent them from stealing any of the fruit. Of course, the two
guardswanted to taste the fruit. One could see it, but couldnt get to it. The othercould smell it, but
couldnt find it. So, they decided to join forces andaccomplish what neither could do alone: the
cripple rode on the shoulders ofthe blind man. In this way, they were able to outwit the scrooge
king, and eatto their hearts content.
One things for certain: if we dont get our act together (like the blindman and the cripple), were
going to get whacked by diseases much worse thanAIDS. You know what they say: an ounce of
prevention is better than a ton ofcure. It even says so in the Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal
Medicine,albeit indirectly: When a disease appears in the world, it brings with itits own cure. We
just dont see the cure, thats all. If we understood thefull breadth of the Cosmology of Man that
serves as the foundation of EasternMedicine, and acted upon that understanding, then we would be
able to cure ahost of diseases considered untreatable by Western Medicine.
There you have it: my four justifications for giving this lecture, so thatyou can be on your way
toward ITSO. But you must remember that ITSO isntsomething that you attain in a day or two
or three, or even four days, forthat matter. To attain it, you need to be uncomplicated and straight
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withyourself. Memorizing facts wont help you. You need to simplify your mind, sothat it can
reflect effortlessly the nature of things as they truly are, not asthey have been conceptualized. You
must rid yourselves of preconceived notions.
People think that medicine is a lofty science. But if you get right downto it, medicine rests on
things as rudimentary as eating, drinking, pooping andpeeing. What did Lao Tzu say? What I say
is easy to understand, and easy toapply. But people neither understand, nor do they act on it. The
Truth is onlyas difficult as you want it to be.
There was a certain Ms. Kim who thought that she had every reason to thinkhighly of herself.
She was ambitious and motivated. When she landed a job aftergraduating from school, she fancied
that things would be smooth sailing fromthere, that she would just sit behind some spacious desk,
and watch her careertake off. But, from the very first day, it was Ms. Kim, 100 copies of thisright
away, Ms. Kim, please deliver this file to So-and-So, etc. Well! Aself-respecting girl can only
put up with so much! So, Ms. Kim decided to quitthis gopher job, and look for something more in
line with her ownself-estimation. But alas! No one would hire her. You see, back at her old job,she
had been so disgruntled with her tasks that shed done them in a rathersloppy manner. The word got
out that she was so incompetent that she couldnteven make copies. So much for her career!
Is there a business today that doesnt need xeroxing done? It may be atedious chore, but do it
badly, and the whole business suffers! The smallestdetail determines the integrity of the whole, just
as a chain is only as strongas its weakest link. Theres even an old saying that goes, Befriend not
he whothinks a trifle is trifling. Out of arrogance, we make the mistake of thinkingthat the small
things in the world are for the little people. But, itsalways the little things that get you in the end.
Its recommended in the old texts, If you want to alleviate yourhemorrhoids, wipe with your left
hand (assuming youre right-handed). Also, itis said, When opening a double-door, use the side
not often used. This means,use all of your meridians in a balanced manner. If you only use your
righthand, youre going to over-develop that hand, and thus add undue stress to thathand, making it
susceptible to problems down the road. You may have noticedlately how people who work at the
computer all the time, punching away at thekeyboard, develop problems with their fingers. This is a
clear case of smallthings producing serious effects if done over a long time.
There was a guy who was sick for over ten years. His eyes bulged out, andhis face was
constantly puffy. He had a lot of money though, having workedhimself like a dog for all of his life.
One day, he thought to himself, Idont want to part with my money, nor do I want to part with my
life. Whats itgoing to be? Damn. So, off he went to the best hospital in town for a checkup.
Nope, they said, nothings the matter. The guys feeling mighty miserable,but all the readouts say
theres no problem, so whats he going to do? He goesto an eye specialist who says to him, I think
the blood pressure inside youreyes is too high. We should do a CT scan.
So a CT scan it is. Well, what do you know, the eyes seem to be okay, butthere appears to be
some extraneous matter inside his skull. So, a brainsurgery is performed
successfully. Maybe hesfeeling better now? No, not quite yet. So, the next stop is the
internists.This time, its his lungs that are messed up, so theyre removed. So, hes offto another
specialist, who tells him that its the thyroids. Out, thyroids!Another visit to the urologist was no
better. Surely by now, the old boysfeeling better? Nosiree! As a last resort, the guy goes to see a
psychiatrist,who tells him: You put yourself through the meat grinder, and now you come tome
because you want to live a long and healthy life? Youre definitely mental!Look, Jack, this is my
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best advice: go out there and live it up like theres notomorrow, because you dont have too many
tomorrows left.
Well, living it up is one thing Jack had never allowed himself, soreluctant was he to part with the
money hed earned through the sweat of hisbrow. But, now, it had all come down to this: a death
sentence, without so muchas a pat on the back for all the hard work hed done. Jack thought about
hissituation. Hell no! I wont go quietly! Im going to party till I drop!! Fromnow on, only the
finest in everything! So, what does a gentleman need before theparty gets underway? Elegant
attire, of course! In almost no time at all, hesgetting his measurements done by the best tailor in
town. The tailor jots downthe measurements as he goes along, and upon measuring the neck, writes
down 16inches. Our doomed gentleman happens to see this, and says,
Hey, measure that again. Its supposed to be 14 inches.
The tailor measures again, and confirms his first measurement.
But a man living on borrowed time cant afford to waste any beingcontradicted.
Ive worn a 14 neck size for the past 20 years, so dont give me anylip! he cries. Make these
shirts 14, got that?!
You know what the tailor said?
Whatever you say, sir, but with a 14 inch neck, youre going to have youreyes bug out and your
face puff up. Hearing this, Jack falls to the floor,traumatized.
Two inches! Just because of two teeny weeny stinking inches, a man loses ahalf dozen organs.
Whats so small about two inches?
ITSO will help you not only to see small things, but to see them with precisionand sensitivity.
Snake vendors in the streets will tell you how terrific snakesare for your health. Never mind what
the vendors have to say! You should askthe right questions, like, where is the snakes habitat? What
does a snakesappearance tell me about its character? You ought to be able to answer thesequestions
using ITSO. When I said earlier that a woman with a pronounced upperlip is likely to have
problems getting pregnant, that too is ITSO. If one canread a person, then why not a snake? There
is an esoteric tradition withinEastern Medicine that has kept such techniques of observation secret.
But Imhere to share them with you.
We must train our eyes so that we go beyond merely looking, and arrive atobserving. By
observing, well be able to see into the very nature of a person,a snake, or even a plant. Arent there
many different kinds of snakes, afterall? Snakes, while they may look similar in terms of their basic
form, differgreatly in their habitat. Just as there are many kinds of snakes, so too arethere many
ways of seeing. For example, how would a large-headed snake differin behavior and personality
from a small-headed snake with a large body?
A: (silence)
We say that the male is Yang, and the female Yin. What was the basis forthis observation? In
Eastern Medicine, we say, Round are the Heavens, and theEarth square. Today, progressive folk,
who worship graphs, charts, anddiagrams would have our children believe that our forefathers were
just plainignorant nincompoops, making do with a sorry stock of logic. But au contraire,mon frere!
Those dudes way back when knew some cool stuff. Let me tell you whatis meant by Round
Heavens and Square Earth.
. In Eastern Medicine, we call the body a microcosmos. You, ladies and gentlemenin the
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audience, each and every one of you, is a perfect, scaled-down versionof the same star-studded,
planet-orbiting, galaxy-swirling, supernova-fied, BigBang-a-Bong universe! Thus, if you
understand what makes this little walking,talking universe of yours tick, youll come to know what
makes the big one hum.The Round Heavens / Square Earth notion is rooted in the most
basicobservation of the body. The head (the Heavens) is round, and the torso (theEarth) is
quadrangular. If the sky is Yang, and the earth is Yin, is the headYin or Yang?
Heaven:Head
Earth:Body
Hands
Feet
Diagram 2-2 RoundHeaven / Square Earth Diagram
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A: (silence)
In this system of correspondence, the head would be Yang. Whether man,animal, or plant, if its
got a big head with a small body, it would likely behighly active. In fact, do you notice that we say
that anyone who presumes toact beyond his station has a big head? A man with a small head and
a largebody, on the other hand, is most likely to be phlegmatic, perhaps evencouch-potato-ish. The
same goes for a woman. A large-headed woman with aproportionally smaller body wont like
hanging around the house; shell likelywant to be out there, moving and shaking up things.
Easy, eh? No need to get all convoluted and theoretical.
Now, take a look at the blowfish. Lots to observe. Hes got a huge belly,but his frame is actually
quite small. Now, if you ate some soup made out ofone of these, and something went wrong, would
you be more likely to die ofdiarrhea, or a headache?
A: (silence)
and if you wanted to neutralize any potential problems in advance, whichof the following
would you add to the soup: something with a large head, or asmall head? Have you ever noticed
that we usually dump a wad of bean sprouts ordropwort when we make blowfish soup? Theres a
good reason behind that.
Well get into the details of how to observe plants and vegetables later,but this much we all
already know: plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Ilearned as a child that God created
everything in pairs. So, for every animal,there is a corresponding plant. Take a look at the
mushroom. It sticks out ofthe ground about as much as it is buried in it. Contrary to common sense,
forplants, the head part is in the ground, while the body sticks out.
In a way, animals and plants may be said to be inversely related to eachother. Look at it this way.
The reason why, in plants, the root is analogous tothe head, is that in order to eat whats in the
soil, it has to stick itshead in the soil, since its mouth is located on its head. Suffice to say,the
synergistic relationship between animals and plants can be best rememberedin the form of an X.
This is because the lower part of plants affect the upperpart of animals. So, now you know why we
should add bean sprouts without theyellow bean head when preparing blowfish soup.
It is said that a human being absorbs the celestial Qi through his hair.Even in the Bible, it says
that Samson lost all of his strength after getting asalon job. Of course, the story has a symbolic
meaning.
Plants thrive on the Qi thats in the earth. And since earth is Yin,plants absorb energy that is Yin,
and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen withthe animal world. Plants and animals were created to
be symbiotic.
Plants have their sexual organs inside their flowers, right? Thats wherethe erotic life of plants
takes place. Has it ever occurred to you that whenyou receive and give flowers on various
occasions, youre basically exchangingplant sex organs? Probably not. Muhktananda once said,
You knew the truth allalong; you just didnt realize it. Wake up!
When flowers are ready to bloom, that is, when they reachpuberty (you may have noticed this
yourselves), they are ravishing, for sure,but theyre also shy and incredibly sensitive emotionally.
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The seeds producedby flowers are calledi, which means sn. If you turn plants upside down,
the flowers wouldthen point downward, just like the sexual organs in humans. Right? So, then, ifa
woman has trouble conceiving, what sort of medicine might an Eastern Medicalphysician
recommend
A: (silence)
Come on now, use yourimagination. Hed use five different kinds of seed: schizandra (Wu Wei
Zi),lycium fruit (Gou Qi Zi), wild raspberry seeds (Fu Pen Zi),plantaginis (Che Qian Zi), and
cuscuta (Tu Si Zi). Their Chinesenames all have zi in them.
What sort of ITSO didpeople have in the past? Heaven and Earth have the same roots, they
said. Inother words, all things, myself included, constitute the Grand Web of Life.Between Heaven
and Earth, all things, in their myriad diversity, are governedby the same cosmic principle that
structures the human body.
Now, back to the blowfish: when making blowfish soup, wed like to add avegetable of what type
one with long roots, or one with a long stem?
A: (silence)
All right, well narrow our choices down to just bean sprouts andmushrooms. Which one?
A: Bean sprouts.
Correct. Bean sprouts. And lots of them, too. Now, keeping thistheoretical framework in mind,
lets consider a medicine made from a plant withlong roots. Would such a medicine tend to affect
the upper or the lower part ofthe body?
A: (silence)
Youll need ITSO if you want to figure out the proper attributes of aplant or a vegetable, like
when youre trying to decide which would be good forheadaches, and which for stomach cramps.
Using ITSO you ought to be able tofigure out about 30% of the total composition of the medicine
you need.Selecting the rest of the ingredients will require some expertise. For example,you need
something hot. But will it be red peppers or mustard seeds?
Id like to remind you that the main objective of this lecture is to getyou to realize the importance
of ITSO. Were not here to get a recipe for acold remedy. Were here to learn the importance of
changing the pattern ofthinking that puts us in harms way.
There are spices that burn the mouth. They taste hot as condiments. So,this hot taste, if it is
Bright Yang-Dryness-Metal,14 where would you want touse it?
14. Thecategories Bright Yang (Yang- Ming), Greater Yang (Tai-Yang), Lesser
Yang(Shao-Yang), Declining Yin (Jue-Yin), Greater Yin (Tai-Yin), and LesserYin
(Shao-Yin), all refer to the six terrestrial energies and the six pairingsof the bodys twelve
meridians. These will be dealt with in greater detail inchapter 6.
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A: (silence)
To answer, wed have to first know which meridian would be affected byingesting the hot
condiment. In other words, if you have a tummyache after anice meal, wed want to know what you
ate, before we decided on the medicine.There is a basic rule to things, but just because its a rule,
doesnt mean itsalways correct. But, this rule of thumb states that, generally speaking,
hotcondiments are administered to people of the Greater Yin type. Still, one mustbear in mind that
there are many kinds of hot taste.
In any case, you can leave the really detailed questions to thespecialists. If you could correctly
judge just 30% of the basic ingredients onyour own, then thatd be a major breakthrough. I mean,
there are people outthere who call themselves experts who cant even do that!
Even if youre not too good at observing the subtle, you ought to be able,at the very least, to see
the big picture. That is, you have to be able tofigure out whether an ingredient is going to help or
harm a person. That meansthat youll think twice before feeding your pudgyhubby stuff containing
grubs, right?
A: (silence)
But if your boy is looking like a bag of bones-in Eastern Medicine, wecall such a condition
Deficiency of Yin with Exuberance of Fire-it would beokay to feed him grubs, right?
From picking the right cosmetics for dry skin, to knowing what kinds ofclothes and colors suit
you, its all a matter of having smart eyes. Inrestaurants where they really know how to make
blowfish soup, they alwaysremove the heads of bean sprouts and put them in a separate pile.
Depending onhow they are going to prepare a dish, they might use just the head, or just thestem.
What about scallions? If we use the top half-the green part-what part ofthe body would that
affect? Would it be good for diarrhea, or constipation? Illput it this way: would its medicinal
properties tend to act downward, orupward?
Well slowly discover the answers to questions like these. If I gave youall of the answers right
now, youd only busy yourselves trying to memorizethem, and in the end, wouldnt remember
anything of substance.
Silent Joy
Im the King of the Hill
Everything happens only to me!
Meeee!
Dont mind me if I borrow your head to step on:
Gotta get to the top.
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Excuse me, but, what did you say you do for a living?
Whats the name of the school you say you went to?
I see. Dont call me.
Ill call you.
Mom and dad think
Im the best.
Envy! Jealousy!
Honed them into an art
At an early age, I did.
Wont tolerate playing second fiddle
To nobody!
Smart is as
Smart does.
And being honest
Is almost never a smart thing to do.
Must win at all cost!
Locked jaw! Steely eyes!
Stiff upper lip!
Stiff collar!
But, everything rigid
cracks so easily
The mind is vulnerable.
So what?
Ive got an impenetrable armor!
It sprouts in spring.
Its lush in the summer.
Come fall, it must wither.
Thats Natures Law!
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Even metal has to be

tempered by Fire
if its going to last.
There resides another self
behind the face?
Its like having two drivers
behind the wheel.
It aint going nowhere.
Judge! Judge! Judge!
Till the cows come home.
Then the chickens will surely
come home to roost.
It gets stepped on.
It gets rained on.
It gets blown this way and that.
But the grass by the roadside
is green with silent joy.
Chapter 3
Yang is Movement,
Yin is Stillness
In just a little while, Im going to talk about Yin-Yang and the FiveElements. Those of you in the
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audience who have some theoretical knowledge onthis subject could use this as an opportunity to
reaffirm what you alreadyknow.
I happen to take great pride in the fact that I can explain Yin-Yang andthe Five Elements more
clearly and simply than anyone else. I can explain it sosimply, in fact, that if you just listen and pay
close attention to me, then youllbe able to make use of the information right away.
In order to see Yin-Yang and the Five Elements clearly, I had to undergomuch trial and error. I
struggled for years following the erroneous opinions ofa countless number of idiotic savants. And, I
kneeled in front of God knows howmany a learned fool, just to hear the Truth.
So, compared to me, youre getting it for nothing. But because I make thestuff sound so easy,
some people think Im the one whos bullshitting. Yeah,but what did Lao Tzu say? He said, When
a man of high ability hears the Tao,he puts it into practice. When a man of mediocre ability hears
the Tao, he isin two minds about it. When a loser hears the Tao, he laughs at it. So there.(But then
again, if it werent laughable, it wouldnt be the Tao!).
When people make blowfish soup, they never think very deeply about thefact that they should
remove the bean heads off of the bean sprouts, right?Anyone whos ever bothered to think about it
would be surprised at the reasonbehind it. Sure, knowledge (the accumulation of data) is important,
but whatseven more important is Illuminedge, Knowledge-turned-into-Illumination.Knowledge
separates, but Illumi-nedge allows one to see the Totality.
Back when I was in school, there was a guy who was about as handsome as adirty jockstrap. He
used to copy my answers during exams. One day, a rumor wentaround that he was the son of a high
government official, and that he alwaysrode around in a chauffeured car. Suddenly, after that, the
jockstrap imagewas transformed into the golden girdle of Hercules or something, becausegirls
who wouldnt bother to give him the time of day before were all over himfrom then on.
Its like that: a single piece of information can turn your subjectivejudgment upside down and
inside out. What was dung yesterday becomes chocolatetoday. Which is to say that its that much
harder to size up someone when youresort to some data about them. Someone says, She was
Miss Korea, you know,and all of a sudden, she looks a lot better than when you first laid eyes
onher. Why, once, this guy showed up at my clinic and said to me, Do you knowwho I am?
Im thinking, Huh?
He says,
Im So-and-So (some famous actress)s uncle.
Big friggin deal! The man was apparently suffering from a case ofdelusion of fame by proxy!
Speaking of loonies, I just remembered a funny story. Indian PrimeMinister Nehru once paid a
visit to a mental hospital. This particular hospitalhappened to be filled with crazies who all thought
they were Nehru. While thereal Nehru was in the hospital, a patient was about to be released.
Thispatient stopped by the Directors office to thank him and the staff for helpinghim to recover
from his delusions.
Gentlemen, for the past five years, I suffered from the delusion that Iwas Nehru. But thanks to
your dedicated efforts, I have at last recovered mytrue identity. I wish you all farewell!
The Director bade him well, and was about to see him out, when heremembered that Nehru
happened to be visiting that day. So, he said to thepatient, Just a minute. The real Nehru is here
today. Hes in my office, infact. Why dont you say hello to him?
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The patient meets the real Nehru, and says,

So, youre the real Prime Minister Nehru?
Yes, I am. And I am glad youre feeling better now, replied Nehru.
And, so the patient, with a sympathetic expression on his face, toldNehru,
Poor man! But dont worry! With any luck youll also recover in fiveyears time.
Displacement of the ego. This thing called the self. People who want tothink highly of
themselves, but lack the substance to back it up tend toproject themselves onto others. Its a
psychological disorder thats referredto as a personality transfer. Its virtually impossible for
people with thiskind of defect to master anything, much less understand reality. I amsuch-andsuch! I am the son / daughter of So-and-So! My bloodline is blahblah blah!
This pathetic state of confusion is available in two general flavors:secular and religious. The
latter sometimes manifests in a God complex ormessiah complex.
Many years ago, I was a lecturer in the department of mental health atDong-Guk University.15 It
occurred to me that, in order to understand something about insanity, Iought to have some direct
contact with some bona fide insane people. So, Ideliberately checked into the mental hospital as a
patient.
15. Dong-Guk University has thesecond largest department of Eastern Medicine in Korea.
The first day I was there, I noticed a patient who kept staring at me.Later, he motioned to me and
said, Come here!
Im wondering, What could he want? At the same time, Im feeling a bitapprehensive, because
you never can tell with these people.
Anyway, when I got near him, he stared into my face and said, The momentI saw you, I knew!
Whats he talking about?! He told me to follow him, so I did. He led meinto the bathroom, and
locked the door! I was getting ready to freak out whenhe asked me, Ive decided that you should
be my successor. Can you keep asecret?
He proceeded to tell me, in fluent English, that he had dropped outof S. University. He even
jokedthat many an English word had suffered a mangling in his mouth. The man had asense of
humor, all right. You see, in general, insane people have no sense ofhumor whatsoever. Many
people go crazy because they were too serious to beginwith, because they would never laugh at
themselves. But this man, he had asense of humor.
After entrusting me with the sacred duty of guarding a secret, he tookfrom under his arm a
bundle of paper, folded accordion-style, and tied withsome rubber bands. He unraveled the bundle,
and said, Im going to show you myfamilys genealogy.
Well, I was curious, so I took a peek. And what did I see?! The very firstname on the list was that
of none other than Gautama Sakyamuni! The BuddhaHimself!! The man explained: One of my
ancestral grandmothers was concubine toSakyamuni at the time of His Renunciation of the world.
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This concubine, who waspregnant with Sakyamunis child, did not wish to remain in the palace
becauseshe thought that the father might someday feel a longing to see his child, andthereby be
impeded in His Mission to become the Buddha. So, she left India tosettle in China, where she gave
birth to Sakyamunis son. The descendants ofthis line crossed the sea and settled in Korea at some
point in time. I am thelast descendant of those immigrants to Korea.
He went on to say: Nobody recognizes me for who I am, and I am afraidthat my death is not too
far off. Since I have no son, I have been looking fora suitable candidate to be my successor. The
moment I saw you, I knew rightaway that you were the one. I could tell by your unusual aura.
Man! This dude was MESSED UP! Just how wretched do you have to feel aboutyourself to
make up some bullshit like that?! There are other people out therewalking around and acting normal
even as we speak who think that theyrehearing special messages from Jesus! Well, with all these
people thinking thattheyve been hand-picked by Buddha or Jesus, its no wonder we have a war
ofreligions! This us/them mentality only makes us ill to the point of hysteria.
Ive seen patients who say they cant walk near a church without having arash break out, or who
cant listen to a chant without feeling nauseous. Andthey yell at me, Why the hell cant you fix my
ailment?!
Someone once said, For he who understands eternity, there is nodifference in religions. For him,
there is only a dialogue with eternity. Buthow is it today with those who would profess a religion?
A: (silence)
They busy themselves with cheerleading for their side, as though religionwere a war to be
won. Nor do they bother to think about how they think. Wevegot to get our priorities straight
when it comes to things like this, or wellnever be healthy.
No matter how lovey-dovey a couple may be, if they believe in different religions,they are
actually living in two separate worlds. Do you know the number oneproblem most people go to see
marriage counselors about in Korea? A lot ofpeople might think its personality differences, but
thats not it. Itsreligion. They may eat together, sleep together, even swear to love and honorone
another till death do them part. But one goes to the temple and prays, Maymy husband soon see
that his salvation lies in following the Teachings of theBuddha, I pray to all the Boddhisatvas
while the other goes to church andprays May my wife soon quit her idol-worshipping, and find
true religion, Ipray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, what sort of prayers are these?! Wheres love, compassion, grace andtolerance? If you ask
me, it sounds more like a prayer for a one-wayfirst-class ticket to unhappiness for the entire family!
A lot of people who divorce due to irreconcilable differences ofreligion have no compunctions
about the matter, so gung-ho are they to defendtheir respective faiths. They justify the divorce,
saying, I cant live with adevil-worshipper!, I cant dirty my karma living with a heretic!, It
wasGods will!, It was Buddhas will!, etc. Is this what Buddha meant bycompassion, what
Jesus meant by love? Doesnt it look like we no longerhave a religion of either compassion or
love? Instead, we have dogmas ofhatred and intolerance. Why do you think this is? Its because
the Teachings ofthese great men have disappeared. Now, we have only dogmas and sects; theletter,
but not the spirit of the Sermons.
Just what did the ancient Intuners teach? Thoughtful people willunderstand what is meant by the
prophecy that says that, If Christ were toappear in our time, he would be crucified all over again.
If someone points atthe moon, we should look at the moon, not the finger. But we waste our
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timelooking at the finger: Buddhas finger, Jesus finger, Mohammeds finger.

Im going to read for you some of the questions I was asked (and theanswers that I gave) during
the 1988 Summer Sa Am Acupuncture Lecture Series.
1. If a hospital or a clinic should make obvious itsreligious orientation, how does that affect the
operation / management of it?
A: I would advise against the clinics disclosing its religious preference:it makes people
uncomfortable. But, there are cases in which patients feel liketheyll be looked after better just
because they happen to share the samereligion.
Because I happen to belong to a certain patriarchal lineage of Zen, Iveset aside a small
meditation room next to the clinic. Some people havemisunderstandings about it, but on the whole
it isnt a big problem.
I know this nun who belongs to a Catholic nunnery. She wanted to take upthe study of Zen
meditation, and the head abbess of her convent gave her thegreen light. Pretty cool, eh? This nun,
shes quite something: she succeeded insolving a koan ( Zen riddle) in just three attempts. It was a
difficultquestion called Traveler on Horseback. The koan goes something like this: AZen monk
was in the field ripping the clothes off of a scarecrow, so that hecould wear them himself. At that
moment, a traveler on horseback, witnessingthis, yelled, If you do that, whats the scarecrow
supposed to wear? Uponhearing this, the monk was speechless. The koan asks: What should the
monkhave done?
That the nun was able to answer this difficult koan testifies to herunusual acumen. It also reveals
that there is something common to all whoundertake spiritual training (whether it be through prayer
or meditation),regardless of religion. There was even a Protestant deacon who stopped by tosee me
after reading my book, The Path to Zen, saying that he wanted tolearn more about Zen meditation.
Indeed, anyone who thinks Jesus and Buddha aretwo will find it very difficult to attain a spiritual
understanding ofanything.
There is no royal road to Enlightenment. Youve got to follow your heart,just like all the streams
and rivers follow their natural courses out into thesea. In the book Yogananda, you can see pictures
of yogis in India doing theirthing surrounded by statues of figures from every religion: The Virgin
Mary,Jesus, the Bodhisattvas, etc.
If you did something like that in this country, people would think you hadsome ulterior political
motive, or that you were a waffler when it came toreligion.
A person who must compare religions in order to arrive at a conclusion hehas already drawn upnamely, that his own is the absolute best-isnt doing anyonea favor, least of all himself. You see,
you wont get any better just becauseyou think the religion that you subscribe to is the one and only
religion.Youve got to be as good as your religion is, not the other way around. Inother words, your
religion doesnt exist for the purpose of inflating your ownego.
2. Is it possible to experience a religion by way ofemotions?
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Absolutely! In fact, in many cases, itd be impossible to enter into areligion without the emotions.
Religion is sensual. I dont know how its(mis)understood in some religions, but in Tantra, for
example, spiritualtraining techniques fully incorporate all of the senses and emotions. Inemotional
religions, things like devotion, worship, and community service areemphasized. These are doors
into faith.
There are other religions which tend to be more intellectual, like Zen. Inthese religions,
skepticism is more important. The path of Zen is paved withquestions like, What is the origin of
I? or Where am I going? Thus, for thosewho are emotionally sensitive (especially those of
feminine sensibility), Zenkoans are not recommended.
Of course, whether by emotions, or by intellect, once youve arrived,youd no longer make this
distinction. Nevertheless, I feel that women in generaldo need a more feminine (emotional) religion.
In India, they say that Siva made112 subjects of meditation for women alone. But, in the
meditationinstructions, they say that women should refrain from meditating on the AjnaChakra,
located on the center of the forehead. It instead recommends that womenshould practice religion by
way of devotion and play. Men, on the other hand,are by nature skeptical. Thus, they enjoy
questions like, What was my OriginalFace before my parents were born? After wrestling with
difficult questionslike this for a long time, youre at your wits end. Then, suddenly one day,you
make a breakthrough, and stand beyond both skepticism and faith.
Even if your spiritual life should consist primarily of faith anddevotion, one day when you make
it across to the other shore, youll have torelinquish these. This is because even faith is but a
vehicle, a mere boat ifyou will, which has as its sole purpose transporting you to the other side.This
is true of skepticism as well. In fact, whether youre on a boat of faithand emotions, or of
skepticism and intellect, its all the same: once youarrive, you must leave the boat. Thats one of the
rules in the transmission ofZen koans: Once you arrive, you leave the boat, so that the next guy can
useit.
Although the other shore is a world beyond emotions, emotions can serveas an expedient
instrument to help get you there. The only problem is thatemotions, if not kept in check, tend to run
off in the direction of blindfaith. Nevertheless, religions like Buddhism could use some of the
passion thatyou see among Christians. While some dudes may have attained Enlightenmentafter
sitting quietly till their faces turned pale, Buddhism could use sometips from Christianity. But on
the other hand, Christians could learn a fewthings from Buddhism as well, like meditation
techniques, no? I mean, you cantsay that youll be saved automatically if you just believe in Jesus
Christunconditionally. Both religions have things that the other lacks.
We could say that Buddhism and Christianity are the two dominant religionsin this country
(Korea). The former tends to be intellectual, while the lattertends to be emotional. Go to a Christian
church to see what happens. Even ifyou only show up once, theyll treat you like a member of the
family right offthe bat, calling you brother, sister, uncle, aunty. Even if you never returnagain,
theyll send you a postcard every month for a whole year. Theyre justsoooo happy that you could
come! But try visiting a Buddhist temple. No soonerdo they see you, than they gruffly ask, What is
it? Whaddya want? A realfriendly bunch. Therein lies the shortcoming of Buddhism. It loves
quietudetoo much, and as a result, it does not extend itself to anyone not committed toit full-time.
The shortcoming of the Protestant religion, meanwhile, is that itsometimes gets too carried away
with all its wailing and clapping and singinghallelujah. Nevertheless, it does do its part in helping
people release pent-upstress. All that energy has to be used up somehow.
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So, in the grand scheme of things, we could say that everything is as Godwilled it. But even were
we to say that everything that exists is an expressionof Gods will, were still held accountable for
the choices we make in makinguse of what exists. Since I happened to not take the path of
emotions, I lookat the world through the lens of Zen koans. Nevertheless, I still feel thatthere is
definitely a need for the emotional approach to reality. But, as for me,I only use the Zen koans,
nothing else. Even when understanding another person,whether Christian or Buddhist, I use Zen
koans on them. Thats because Ibelieve that a persons answer reveals a lot about whether he or she
has anyreal insight into spirituality.
Because I happened to choose a method that operates on skepticism and theintellect, I dont know
much about the emotional method. But still, I firmlyacknowledge the value of emotions. Why?
Because, in the final analysis,intellect and emotion are but two faces of the divinity within Man.
I am not a professor ofmedicine, nor am I a preacher or a monk. So Im not taking any sides on
anyparticular issue: I am just telling you whats going on around us, thats all.Ive seen plenty of
patients who think that theyre someone theyre not. Thatswhy its understandable why
Krishnamurti would say that One must be liberatedfrom the notion of the self. I know of a young
man who was driven to suicidefrom excessive discrimination, mistreatment and ostracism by his
peers, justbecause he happened to be from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. Theonly cure to
all the afflictions arising from this us vs. them mentalitylies in our willingness to look coolly
and rationally into why the hell we thinkwe have to see things that way to begin with.
On the left antenna of a snail, there is a country called Chu. Onthe right antenna, is a country
called Wan. Every now and then, the twocountries go to war. The casualties number in the tens of
thousands. The sidethat chases after the defeated army gets chased in turn within a merefortnight.
Thus spake Chuang Tzu. He was parodying the folly of mankind, itscompulsion to kill or be
killed over some petty gain, even though it lives on apatch of earth no bigger than a snails antennae
in the cosmic scale of things.Lasting no longer than a spark flying off a flint, life is too short even to
dogood deeds properly, let alone cause misery, dont you think?
Its grievous enough that our countrys divided by an impassable DMZ intoNorth and South. And
yet, here in the South, we continue to bicker amongstourselves over which province is better than
another. The source of all of oursickness stems from this sort of mentality, one which thrives on
discrimination.We must first understand that this is causing us to become sick. Yet all thatpeople
ever want is hospitals to fix them up whenever they get sick!
Doctors must take seriously the psychological make-up of their patientsinto consideration. As
people are highly educated nowadays, its imperativethat doctors be able to offer psychological
counseling. Not all illnesses canbe treated with a shot, a pill, or an acupuncture needle. Most people
get sickfor no other reason than from having too much stress, whether it be from work,a rocky
marriage, or what have you. In order to diagnose a patients problemcorrectly, a physicians got to
maintain his own pace, stick to his ownobservation. A physicians got to be able to see the Here and
Now, withoutgetting sidetracked by the past or the future.
Theres this thing thats wired into our minds. Its called the conceptof time. We really ought to
think carefully over what some Intuner of oldmeant when he said, Time is death and sorrow. We
must be able to erase allfantasies concerning the future and all memories of the past, and look
squarelyat the present! When the Buddha was asked, What is an Intuner? he replied,He who in
every fleeting moment exists in the present, he is an Intuner. EvenJesus exhorted his followers to
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live in the present, when he told them to Beas the birds in the sky, and the lilies of the field, for
they worry not forthe morrow.
The attainment of Knowledge that really illuminates ( Illuminedge)involves nothing more than
scrubbing the mind clean of everything that hasaccumulated within it, from the wanna be
complex to the obsession with timeand space. So, what do you get if you attain Illuminedge? You
get the ExtremeGood, thats what. And just what is this Extreme Good? As I mentioned before,its
doing the right thing, not by discriminating between good and evil,but by standing beyond
such categories altogether. Its a state of existencethat goes by the name of Tai Chi (literally, the
Supreme Ultimate) in Eastern Medicine.In Buddhism, its called Buddha Mind; in Christianity,
Logos; in Taoism, Tao.Whatever its called, it points to the same Reality.
Entering Enlightenment through the Extreme Good! Why not? This ExtremeGood isnt located
in some far off land. Its as close as your ownself-reflection, if youd only give it a chance. Indeed,
if you keep at it,youd get there in no time. Why, then youd feel better, look better, and beable to
attain ITSO, and even begin to see other people in a better light. Now,thats no small thing!
The Tao of Great Learning is comprised of these things: Letting there beLight so that all things
may shine in their excellence; Seeing people alwaysafresh; and Arriving at the threshold of the
Extreme Good. So it is said.Which means, in the end, that Everyday is the first day of Creation.
If morepeople would think generously, like the saying suggests, not only our familiesand friends,
but our entire society could be made to shine like new.
Sir Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941. Indian writer and philospher.) onceprophesied that Korea
would become the Lamp Bearer of the East. And there area lot of people who go around saying
that nothing can stop Korea from becominga major power. But let me tell you something.
Megalomaniacal delusions ofgrandeur aside, this country wont amount to anything if it is led by
people ofthe lights-on-but-nobodys-home type. Look at the kids out on the streetsdemonstratingtheyre bursting at the seams with raw discontent and half-bakedideological mush. Why the hell
must we live like this?!, Whos responsiblefor this crappy state of affairs?!
Mind over matter is the very structure of this phenomenal world, andconsciousness moves
according to this structure. That is, once the mind gets ahold of an idea, it insists on seeing the
material world through the lens ofthat idea. Communisms basic premise is that the human world is
divided betweenthe Haves and Have-nots. Right off the bat, they look at the world as
beingcomprised of two separate antagonistic camps. Their theory of social justicebasically consists
of eliminating the Haves, who are perceived as existingsolely to oppress the Have-nots. When the
Sixth Patriarch said, All thoseneck-deep in concepts like Existence/Non-existence,
Superior/Inferior,Good/Evil-they make up all the Joe Blows of the world, he was talking aboutyou
and me. Those students, mad with idealism, throwing molotov cocktails, andthe riot police shooting
tear gas; both are neck-deep in a bog of conceptualism.
If I were to give each and every one of you a thousand dollars todaywithout any explanation, the
only condition being that you meet me in a month,youd all begin to think about it. Some of you
might wonder whether youd haveto give me the interest accrued on the money; some of you might
think aboutplaying poker; some of you might think about investing the money in realestate, in
stocks; some of you might consider giving it to charity.
Lets say someone made ten thousand dollars after a smart investment withthe thousand dollars,
and someone else spent it all on drinks. Could we becertain that the former is happier than the
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latter? What if, after a month, wehad to divide whatever money that was made equally? In this case,
who wouldbother to scramble to increase the capital? Thered be no incentive!
I have nothing, you have everything. Im scum, youre the man. Theinferiority complex is also
a form of arrogance. The Haves dont have amonopoly on arrogance, you know. Ill never amount
to anything, Im just ashit on legs, I was born to lose, etc. Thats arrogance talking! It shows
acertain smug satisfaction about being inferior. This too has got to go. We haveto keep to the
middle. In other words, we must have balance! Holding steady tothe center is the means for
returning to the Extreme Good.
Chuang Tzu was shooting the breeze one day with some people at the market.Someone said,
So-and-So, hes a cheat and a liar. Altogether not to betrusted.
Chuang Tzu heard this, and replied, That man sings splendidly, and isreally courteous, too.
As soon as the people heard this, they nodded in assent, and began to saynice things about the
man.
But Chuang Tzu abruptly interjected. Actually, the mans a crook!
So the people complained: First you compliment the man, and then youabuse him. Whats with
you?
Chuang Tzu replied, I like wobbling around the center.
If you can see the good, you ought to be able to see the bad as well, no?If you take a look at the
beginning part of the Six Classics16,it says, A sign of breeding: Being aware of the fault of one
who is closest,and acknowledging the strength of he who is farthest away. Its important tokeep to
the Golden Mean in all things.
16. The Six Classics refer to the IChing (Classic of Change), Shu Ching (Classic of History),
ShihChing (Classic of Poetry), Li Chi (Collection of Rituals), ChunChiu (Spring and
Autumn Annals) and Chou Li (Rites of Chou).
I just remembered a line from Lao Tzu:

Acknowledge beauty, and there appears ugliness also.
Put the light on the good, and itll cast a shadow as the non-good.
Being and non-being, difficult and easy,
Long and short, high and low
Sound and pitch, front and back
Like so, all reciprocally enframed.
Therefore, the Intuner, balanced on the fulcrum,
Acts actionlessly and transmits without words.
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So your husband brings home a paycheck that looks more like an insult thana just remuneration
for his labors, and he wont lift a finger to do anythingaround the house. But if the mans spent a
couple of decades working as a civilservant and yet never accepted a penny in bribes, youve got to
give the mansome credit. If instead, you think your mans principles are nothing more thanan
excuse to cover up his incompetence, theres no way your kids are going toshow their old man any
respect. Theres a saying: If youre nearing fifty, andcan still command genuine respect and
affection from your wife and children,its better than being President! Men today! Poor wretches!
Women put up with their husbands high-handed ways. But once they havechildren, the mothers
end up transferring their discontent onto the children.Naturally, when the kids are old enough, they
begin to stand up to theirfather. I hear that the mother feels herself sweetly avenged at that
moment.Thats how things are today!
Grown-ups will pose stupid questions to little babies just barely oldenough to talk: Whos your
favorite? Daddy or mommy? Grown-ups brainwash kidsinto choosing A or B from day one! With
this kind of education taking place athome, do you think medicine and acupuncture are the answer?
No! Whatspressing is the need to rid ourselves of this bug that compels us todiscriminate and
choose incessantly!
With the advancement of civilization, not only do you have more and biggerhospitals, you also
have more illnesses, too. Now, why would that be? Hey, thenext door neighbor just bought a grand
piano. How come we dont have one?,Our cars such a junk! I dont want my friends to see me in
it! Even littlekids busy themselves comparing things like this. I have a friend who finallycaved in
to his wifes persistent nagging and took out a loan to buy a new car,even though in doing so he has
to live on a shoestring budget. Youd thinkafter buying the car that theyd live happily ever after?
Noooo! When the wifesaw her neighbor throw a garden party, with a four-piece band, and the
wholekit n kaboodle, she thought, My, my, we dont even have space to decentlyaccommodate a
single guest! Dont get me wrong, the husbands no better. Hesthinking about how wretched his
lot is to live with an old bag, after eyeingsome pretty young thangs at a bar. At this rate, how could
there be truelove? If two people really loved each other, they could sleep soundly togethereven on a
bed the width of a blade. But, without love, theyll find even a bedthe size of a soccer field too
cramped.
Ive heard that, in former times, wise Jewish mothers used to give thispiece of advice to their
daughters when they were getting married: If youuphold your husband as if he were a king, then
he will treat you as if you werehis queen. But, if, like some low slave girl, you think light of
mistreatinghim, then he will treat you as if you were nothing more than a slave. And, ifyou behave
with arrogance and pride, your husband will use every meansavailable to him to break you, until
you are like a servant. If, my child, youdevote yourself completely to the welfare of your children
and your husband, thenhe will place a crown of respect and love upon your head. Here, I
justmentioned only what a wife must do, but the same goes for the husband. It isonly when the
husband truly loves and respects his wife, that the flowers ofmarriage bloom. And in a marriage, the
flowers are the children. If there is nomutual love and respect between man and wife, there is none
to be expected fromthe children.
But how are things nowadays? Man and wife compare each other to other menand women, and
parents and children continually find fault with one another.When I was your age, I was in the top
x of my class. Now, why cant you dothe same? Or, You need how much for allowance money?
When I was in school, Ididnt even have enough to buy books! And you need money for dates?!
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Just youmake sure you ace those exams, mister! Got that?! What kids going to put upwith this sort
of comparison? Theyll come right back with, At your age, dad,some people are Presidents! And
so on and so forth, all parties wallowing inthe mud. Given the situation that we have today, it would
be a miracle ifsomeone didnt get sick! Constantly comparing yourself to others why,
thatllknock you sick for sure!
Why do you suppose God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree ofKnowledge? We
ought to think about the hidden message of this story. Sure, Adamand Eve acquired knowledge by
eating the forbidden fruit, but not the Knowledgethat really illuminates. And the price of this
knowledge was eviction from thegarden of bliss.
I think the same thing is repeated in watching TV. People rabidly swallowall the facts concerning
the dirty laundry supposedly belonging to So-and-So.Then, they get so busy rendering judgment on
this person that they couldntcare less whether the facts behind the story are true or not. You see,
thefruit of good and evil was not only eaten by the couple in Eden. Seven billionpeople of this
world eat it everyday. People today may know more than everbefore, and they may be a lot smarter,
too. But, its undeniable that more andmore people suffer from anxiety and irritability living this
modern lifestyle.
Its important for us to know how to be ignorant as well. Here I amreminded of Lao Tzus On
the Usefulness of the Useless:
Thirty spokes to a hub make a wheel,
But it is made useful by virtue of the Empty.
Kneaded clay makes a vessel,
Windows make a house,
The reason why things are useful
Is that the Empty is constantly at work.
The foundation of education is laid in the family, and that foundationdetermines the moral
character of an individual for the rest of his life,regardless of how many years he might spend going
to school. The old saying,Cultivate ones character, and the family will be in order is a
timelesspiece of wisdom. Govern the nation with justice, and peace will reign underHeaven is but
an extension of the same ethical imperative.
When Confucius was asked how one is to govern well, he replied, A king asa king; a liege as a
liege; a father as a father; a son as a son. What hemeant by that is this: If each and every man,
according to his station in life,performed his duty, then the country would automatically be well
governed.Instead of pointing out the faults of those who are negligent in their duties,one ought to
quietly go about fulfilling ones own duty toward others. Thiswould be the path of live and let
live, for oneself, for the family, and forthe country. To make a pound of honey, countless bees rush
about, going fromflower to flower, each bringing back his portion to the hive. If each and everybee
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thought, Whats the big deal about bringing back the honey? and doesntfulfill its duty, then it
would be impossible to gather a pound of honey. Also,because the flower fulfills its duty by
blooming, the bee need not do more thanhis allotted work. In fact, the bee cannot help the flower to
bloom, nor canthe flower hold its nectar indefinitely.
Each man, woman and child, doing his and her thing, with devotion.Difficult, but also the easiest
thing to do. Its something we all mustpractice.
When you enter the world of Eastern Philosophy, the first thing youll seeis a drawing of a circle,
representing the innate Tao in everyone. Even in theClassic Introduction to the Science of
Medicine, you see a circle on thefrontispiece. The study of medicine begins with that circle. So
then, whatexactly are the basics that we can learn from this circle?
Every phenomenon occurring in both our minds and our bodies are governedby laws which are
studied by physiology. And when the mind/body matrix losesits balance, we have a phenomenon
which we call illness. While the study ofmedicine involves things like Qi circulation, if you grasp
the fundamentals ofboth the physiology and pathology, then youll be able to figure out
theproper remedy in most cases. If you have a unified understanding of these twoPrinciples, then,
very possibly, you may never have to go to see a doctor,since youll be able to detect and address
the true cause of your illness.
We carry heaven and hell in our hearts and in our bodies. When the Buddhaspoke of the Freezing
and Burning Hell, he compared it to the body. He said,When there arises a desire in the mind, the
mind becomes wet, just as themouth waters when one thinks of a feast of delicacies, and the sexual
organsbecome swollen with fluids when the thought of sex arises. It is a commonresponse to
inhale when we see something desirable. We do this most often whenwe see something that looks
delicious. Cartoons often show exaggerations ofthis, like when the Wily Coyote sees the
Roadrunner, licking his chops andmaking slurping sounds. When youre out on a date, and your
girlfriend seessome beautiful jewelry displayed in a store window, her eyes open wide and shetakes
in a whiff, no? Inhaling in such a way is a subconsciously motivatedexpression of desire for the
object. The mind is in a Yin state when it desiresto have something. On the other hand, if, while her
husband is talking, a womansneers and exhales in spurts like little nasal farts (sounding
likeHhng!),then she is clearly in a rejecting mode. In that case, her mind is in a Yangstate.
For someone who generally tends to be critical and sneers a lot, wouldspicy foods be good? Or
would sweet and sour food be better? For someone whotends to take a sharply negative view of
things, sweet and sour foods arerecommended. Even when reading the morning paper, such a
person is more likelythan not to go straight for the article that talks about some sort ofwrongdoing.
He probably wont spend half as much time reading positive articlesor feel good stories. Walking
down the street, he would notice all the badlydressed people, but wouldnt even see the smartly
dressed ones. In aconversation, such a person would not give full sympathetic attention to theother
persons side of the story. He would listen only so that he may find somepoint to criticize.
The world as we know it is an even mixture of good and evil, with 50% ofeach. So depending on
your perspective, youre going to see what you want tosee, sometimes more good, sometimes more
evil. But to be healthy, you should beable to see a little bit of both in everything.
Once upon a time, there was a monk, who, after much effort, attainedenlightenment. When he
went to see his teacher, he saw that nothing hadchanged: the old monk was still reading the same
book hed been reading yearsago (chewing on the same black beans, as we say in Zen).
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The enlightened disciple thought his teacher pathetic, and wondered how hemight help the old
monk to attain enlightenment. One day, the two of them wentto a bath house. The disciple was
astonished to find his teacher to be so chubby.Has he been eating all the food people brought as
offerings to the dead? hethought to himself. When the teacher asked the monk to wash his back,
thedisciple did as he was asked. While doing so, he muttered under his breath,The sanctum is
splendid but the Buddha inside has no light! As soon as thesewords fell on the teachers ears, the
teacher suddenly turned his head andglared at his former pupil. The disciple coolly continued:
Even a Buddha thathas no light can still emit shiny daggers out of his eyes!
On top of the doorway to myZen meditation room hangs a portrait of Master Kyung Huh, who is
like my greatgreat-grandfather in Zen. One day, Master Kyung Huh told his disciple (Master)Mahn
Gong: Issue an announcement that we need donations to build a polychromeBuddha statue. So,
Mahn Gong did just that, and was able to generate a largesum of money in no time at all. But
instead of commissioning a polychromeBuddha, Kyung Huh took the money and spent it all on a
dozen barrels of rice beer.Needless to say, Mahn Gong was deeply confounded.
You told me to take up acollection to build a polychrome Buddha. But youre youre Just
what the helldo you think you are you doing?!
Master Kyung Huh replied,Take a good look at my face. Aint it red n blue n colorful all over?
Havent I become the polychrome Buddha? Havent I told you that the body is thesanctum? Since I
have painted the sanctum, the polychrome Buddha is as good asbuilt! Well, compared to Masters
Kyung Huh and Mahn Gong, I guess Im a realgentleman - five barrels of rice beer would be my
limit!
Eventually, Master Mahn Gong would turn out to be no less outrageoushimself. He once went to
the palace, and in the presence of the king, recitedan unthinkably obscene song: The woodpecker
in the mountain can peck a holeanywhere he wants, but some wretches cant peck(er) a hole even if
you giveemone! If you look into its hidden meaning, this is not merely an obscene song;it is
actually a Buddhist teaching. Thats right. Most people cant peck(er) ahole even if you giveem
one.
Master Kyung Huh once said, If you are in tune, every joke and trash talkwill point to the
Dharma. But if youre out of tune, youll get lost in thelabyrinth of language, and all the Sutras will
read like nonsense. Indeed, ifyou dont have ITSO, and dont stand on the plateau of the Extreme
Good, eventhe Bible and the Sutras wont do you much good.
The Buddha said that the foundation of the Four Noble Truths-that allsentient beings are born,
grow old, suffer, and die-lies in No Light. Thatis, they all arise from being in the dark. All
diseases arise from being in thedark.
The reason why I enjoy speaking on religious themes during a lecture onmedicine is that religion
and medicine are closely related. 5,000 years ago,the Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal
Medicine emphasized theunity of religion, philosophy and medicine.
Remember that desire always draws forth water. If youre too greedy,youll end up with a lot
of water stored in your body. Have you noticed how theeyes twinkle when one see something that
one wants? Its the moisture in theeyes that makes them twinkle.
Although people who are greedy for honors may not show it physically, itsstill greed
nonetheless. You see, greed comes in many forms. Some people mightthink, I dont eat a lot, I
dont think about sex all that much, I just studyall the time, thats all. So, Im not greedy! Yes, but
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what about greed forknowledge?

What goes in, must comeout. If you eat, you gotta poop. Thats the law of nature, and of our
ownphysical rhythm. Imagine a pill that could make everything you eat unbelievablydelicious.
What if the only drawback to this pill was that you couldnt shitfor a month. Who would want to
take such a pill?
Even with regard to knowledge, we defecate what we cant use by forgetting.And what about greed
for love? We call it lust. But since the two words are nowused almost interchangeably, what would
be the opposite of love? Hatred.Through hatred, we excrete what we cant digest with love. Such is
the law ofemotional rhythm. Without hatred, we cant love (that is, unless we love in themanner of
an Intuner). And yet, we all only want love, but not hate.
People who forget easilyare less prone to stress, arent they? In fact, dont we find people
whoremember everything, no matter how trivial, somewhat disturbing anduncomfortable? Such
people dont shit mentally because theyre mentallyconstipated! Its good every now and then to
erase the memory banks of all thatuseless information.
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Chapter 4
Analysisof the Sixty-Year Cycle 17
17.The Sixty-year Cycle refers to the Chinese zodiac.There are twelve terrestrial branches
represented by the twelve zodiacalanimals, and ten celestial stems. A complete cycle through
the stems andbranches takes sixty years.
One curious thing about life is that everything exists in relation toeverything else. Have you ever
noticed how people who are too perfect arentmuch fun to be with? I have a friend who has girls
waiting in line for him,even though hes got this stuttering problem. You see, sometimes not
havingeverything together all the time can be an attractive quality. You must havesome part of you
thats mediocre. The same goes for the mind. If youve got itfilled to the brim with knowledge,
youve got to sometimes give it a rest byforgetting a thing or two. And, youve got to know the
difference betweenwhats worth knowing and what youre better off not knowing. For
example,suppose I told you that I would buy you a fantastic dinner after the lecture,but because you
couldnt wait a couple of hours, you went ahead and had somejunk food anyway. You wouldnt
have much of an appetite left for the reallygood stuff, now, would you? The tiger moth is free to
roam anywhere it pleasesunder the moon, yet, it chooses to fly into the flame, and die a
prematuredeath.
There is such a thing as fortifying knowledge! That is to say, theresstuff that can vitaminize you
right down to your bones, stuff that can becomeyour very flesh and blood. Butinstead of focusing
on this stuff, we opt to spend our time rummaging throughgossip columns, and wind up storing all
sorts of trivia in our brains: whosdoing what to whom, when, where, and how Junk food for the
mind!
Imagine youre at the theater watching a movie. While youre watching anintensely emotional
love scene in breathless anticipation, some guy behind yousays, The girls gonna die soon. Now,
wouldnt that just ruin the movie foryou? A movie holds the power of suspense and holds your
interest as long as youremain ignorant of the outcome. The drama of our daily life is no different.
You must know how to keep a balance between knowing and not knowing,between love and
hate, between eating and defecating, etc. Everything must bedone in proper amounts.
All too often, we drive our kids too hard, telling them, Memorize!Memorize! as if their lives
depended on it. As a result, there are many kidswho one day simply get overloaded, and their minds
just go blank. Cant evenremember where their own house is! With all that incessant cramming,
theirsubconscious steps in and screams, No more! Some kids even forget who theirown parents
are. This sort of dementia occurs more often than youd think. It happens especially among
kidswho grow up with rich parents, insisting that their children follow in theirfootsteps.
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Sometimes a guy will tell his girlfriend that hell call. But when hedoesnt, and his girlfriend
asks why, he says, I forgot. I couldnt rememberyour number for the life of me! The guy
subconsciously wants to forget abouther, thats whats going on, no doubt about it! In other words,
hes trying toeliminate her out of his system (for whatever reason) through forgetfulness.
In the Introduction to the Science of Medicine, this kind ofrhythm - of taking in and flushing
out-is discussed using the symbols waterand fire, respectively. Lets have a look at what it
actually says:
It is possible to speak of medicine only after mastering the Book ofChanges (I Ching). By this
we do not mean being familiar with theexplanation of the hexagrams, or of what the individual lines
of the hexagramssymolize.
Examine the Circle: What is in It? A stroke? A sign? It is the flawlessconcrescence of the
Originary Principle and the Originary Qi. Out of thisunity, Heaven and earth, Man and all things
come into its own vitality throughthe Creative Power of this Unity.
When he who cultivates this Vitality as the Divine within his own heart,understands the
Creative Power of this Unity, he will naturally dissolve hisanger and yoke his desires. Thus he
raises his water and lowers his fire, andis gentle to all.
When he who would be a healer of men hears the Truth of Unity, henaturally comes to possess a
discerning power when observing the phenomenalworld. He becomes steady in his Art, and is able
to cure the most deeply lodgeddiseases.
For the benefit of those who are unlettered, the Truth is rendered hereon the frontispiece as a
circle, that they may understand. Open this book, andyou will be entering a world of solemn
tranquility. Yet, the words within aresimple and easy. Even the reader who peruses for delight will
be sure to findin this book much that will command his interest.
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Pre-Heaven Diagram (i.e.,Reality without Dualistic Conceptualization)
Understanding the Book of Changes (I Ching) is crucial if youreally want to go into the heart of
Eastern Medicine. But to do so, well,thats a tall order. I mean, the Book aint easy. It is said that by
the timeConfucius finally caught a glimpse of understanding and insight into the IChing, he had
broken the leather binding three times, so diligent was he inhis study.
There is a foreigner I know who thought that the I Ching was aproduct of shamanism. Well, he
was wrong, dead wrong. So I gave him shit abouthis sloppy scholarship.
The I Ching is essentially about reading the relationship betweenthe dynamics of the psyche, the
Qi, and the external world. What the I Chingis talking about is the readability of the mind-matter
configuration at someparticular conjunction of time and space, in relation to the totality of
thesituation at hand. If what I just said is too difficult to understand, dontworry about it. Ill be
coming back to this later on.
Behind the theory of Sa-Am Acupuncture is a certain tradition of Zen,passed down from Master
Suh-Sahn to Master Sa-Am. In the book, The Compendiumof Eminent Monks and Their Deeds,
Master Suh-Sahn drew a circle on the firstpage, and said, There! Since even Sahkyamuni (the
Buddha) knew not of it, howwas Mahakasyapa supposed to transmit it?
He also said, Mahakasyapa may have shown his understanding of the Meaningwith his smile
when the Buddha raised the flower to His face. Even so, how washe to transmit that which even the
Buddha did not know? What he was getting atwas the same thing he was attempting to ask with
regards to the circle: Isthere a stroke? Is there a sign (inside the circle)?
The stroke and sign that he mentions refer to the Yin and Yang systemof the I Ching. Yang
is represented by a single unbroken line (
) while Yin is depicted by a broken line( ) A certain
scholar of the I Chingonce said, very frankly, that (
) takes its symbol from the phallus,and
that(
) takes its symbol from the womans Jade Gate.
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So, what is inside the circle? This question basically asks, What isinside your Original Mind?
In our Original Mind, there is nothing but aseamless fusion of the Originary Principle (fundamental
disposition) and theOriginary Qi (fundamental energy). But before there was Yin and Yang, there
wasTai Chi. And what is Tai Chi? Its the Fundamental Principle of the Infinite.This Tai Chi is what
makes the universe possible, and is the Basis of Lifeitself. In Eastern Philosophy, Heaven, Earth,
and Man are called the ThreeJewels. But among the three, Man is considered to be the noblest.
Here in my Revolution in Eastern Medicine, I wrote a little song:
People divide the world into four quarters,
And think that theres Eastern and Western Med
But the road to health is open to all
And he who strays not from it is truly blessed
Indeed, whats the difference between Eastern and Western Medicine whenhealing is the name of
the game?
Between Heaven and Earth, and among all of Creation
Man is noblest and best, goes an old saying
Only Man carries the possibility of promotion
To lord over all, in wisdom shining
Man is the noblest and best! Just what makes us so noble?
He may go where he will, but wherever
He goes, hed better watch his tush
Because if a push came to a shove
Itd be against a tiger waiting to ambush
If we had to measure strength against strength, wed be no match for atiger. Nor can we fly half
as well as a chicken!
When it comes to running a mile
A horsell make you bite the dust
If its dancing the clouds in style
A lesson from a dragons a must
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Look at em go forth and multiply, the rat!

Groin power, hes got it where its at!
When it comes to infinite patience and innocence
Who can outdo the cow and the sheep over by the fence?
Sharp as a whip is the slithery snake
Outsmart any man asleep or awake
And the dog will stick by you, even unto death
Even if you utter lies with every breath
What man could claim to be more alert than a rabbit
When his whole life is but one big habit?
Compared with the monkey in the tree
Mans about as agile as Humpty-Dumpty.
Of your fighting spirit, dare you brag?
Do think twice, lest you make the boar gag
Pathetic wretch, think you might fly?
The chicken will first laugh, then sigh
Theres no animal that cant outdo us in some aspect. So what gives Manthe idea that he can
arrogate all of Creation under his power? Only Man has thewherewithal to penetrate into the mystic
core of the universe, and thereby becomewhat he is, thats what.
Look carefully, now. All the animals that were mentioned in the song arefrom the Zodiac. The
Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, etc. make up the 12 TerrestrialBranches. The 12 Branches have an
important position in the study of themeridians (which also number 12). I dare say that without first
understandingthe internal dynamics of the 12 Branches, it is totally impossible to make anyheadway
into the study of the meridians.
From Rat to Boar, all of them make a Dozen
Each has his thing, each his specialty
In just about every way, Mans their cousin
Except, in every way, they can outdo you and me
How the heck did it ever occur to Man
To think he was still and forever the Master
When everything else beneath the blue skys rim
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Is either stronger, or cleverer, or faster?

Why do all the creatures
of the land, sea and air
Obey this two-legged King,
Whos wingless and bare?
Each of the Twelve is
By Nature endowed
With a single talent to
Use as allowed
But only Mans got the Talent Supreme
That he alone may (weak though he may seem)
Solve the puzzle that is the universe
And see what a blessing was his curse
What makes Man a Jewel most rare?
Not even the Twelve can compare
He alone was given the Gift
From chaos the Truth to sift
Alrighty then! Let us begin. There are 12 animals, each corresponding toone of the 12 Terrestrial
Branches: Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake,Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar. In
that order. Now, just what did theancients have in mind when they decided to select these twelve
particularanimals out of the myriad of animal forms? Lets see if we cant engage in alittle ITSO.
First of all, when we speak of the Rat, were not talking about the littleguys shortcomings so
much as his overall characteristics. We can see that theRats personality is Yin-ish. How do we
differentiate between Yin and Yang? Bighead, small body: Yin or Yang?
A: (silence)
Dont know? All right, again. Small head, big body: Yin? Yang?
A: (silence)
Thats right. Its Yin. What does a rat look like? Small head, big body,right?
Lets have a little story-telling before we continue. A big country wantedto invade a small
country, and needed a pretext for invading it. So, the bigcountry sent an emissary to the small
country with a message saying that theywould not invade if the small country could correctly
answer the followingthree questions:
One: Given a section of a treetrunk, which end is top and which bottom?
Two: Given an identical lookingpair of snakes, which is male, and which female?
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Three: Given an identical lookingpair of horses, which is the mother, and which the offspring?
Okay. How about solving the first question? This question involves whatEastern Medicine calls
Differentiating between Heaven and Earth, since itdeals with what is above and what is
below. With regard to Yin and Yang,bear in mind that there are grades of differentiation in their
union. Justbecause we say that a man is Yang, and a woman Yin, that doesnt mean that anyman
would go well with any woman. Just as wed be repulsed by the idea of a manand his daughter-inlaw sharing the same bed, so too are there cases in whichone Yin coupled with one Yang is not so
hunky-dory. Thats why, when I wasstudying the I Ching, my teacher said, The operative rules of
the IChing may be likened to the unwritten laws that govern a household. In anycase, he said that
just being able to accurately see the workings of Yin andYang takes at least ten years of continuous
study.
So, what we want to do is understand the principle of:
1. The separation that is symbolized by heaven and earth, to figure outwhich end of a tree trunk
is up.
2. Energy shown by movement to figure out which snake is male.
3. Emotive behavior to figure out which horse is the parent.
Now, pretend the fate of a country is in your hands, and try to answer theriddles. Can anyone
answer the first one?
A: (silence)
Put the trunk in water, and see which side tilts. The side that dips alittle more is the bottom. Now
how about the next one?
A: (silence)
An identical looking pair of snakes. Put them out on a sheet of silk, andsee which one moves
first. That one is the male! Now, why is this?
Yang, as we said earlier, represents movement, whereas Yin representssettling. Thats why, in
general, boys like to play war, but girls like to playtea-time. Even after they grow up, men rarely
like sitting around the house.But if a man happens to be congenitally predisposed to being Yin-ish,
like ifhe has a small head and a large body, hed do very well to pair up with a womanwho is Yangish, with a larger head and a thin body. Otherwise, who knows?Women are already Yin, so if a man
is Yin-ish too, there could be friction.
The third riddle. Anyone? Two horses. Both full-grown, identical inappearance. Which is the
mother? To find out, all you have to do is feed them.The first to eat is the baby. Mothers love, you
know. Its the same across theboard, human or animal.
Id like for you to let go of some of the stuff youve been carryingaround in your heads since
school days. Stop playing the parrot with regards toknowledge, and spend a little more effort in
observing whats directly in frontof you. What that means is that, although your husband loves his
steaks, youwomen may decide that he should eat a little more fish instead. And, if yourdaughter is
having problems with constipation, you wouldnt think of giving herwalnuts, skin and all, just
because theyre supposed to be good for the skin,now, would you? No, of course not. Remember,
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everything changes constantly.Dont get stuck in a rut, blindly following formulas!

Once there was a Sufi- a mystic in the Islamic tradition - who was deeplyrespected and trusted by
the king. One day, one of the Sufis disciples went upto his teacher, and asked for a favor.
I have a family of five, and we havent got a thing to eat. Could youplease speak to the king on
my behalf for some work?
The Sufi looked the disciple straight in the face, and said, No.
The disciple returned home dejected. As the night grew deeper, he becameangry. He felt
betrayed. What! That hypocrite! Hes always talking about mercyand compassion, and helping the
poor. I show up in need, and he cuts me to thequick!
He went back to his teacher the next day, bubbling with anger. Using histeachers own sermons
against him, the disciple argued for his rights. Afterlistening calmly to his disciples impassioned
plea, the Sufi again said, No.The disciple was beside himself with frustration and rage. The Sufi
looked athim, and said, Since you wont understand even if I tell you the true sourceof your
poverty, I will instead show you. On the seventh day of the seventhmoon, meet me on the opposite
bank of the river by such-and-such bridge.
The bridge happened to be near the disciples house, so it was quitefamiliar to the man. On the
appointed day, the Sufi gathered a crowd to serveas witnesses. The Sufi placed a bar of gold in the
middle of the bridge, thenwaited for the disciple to cross it. The gathered crowd thought, What a
luckyman! The Master has at last taken pity on him, and has decided to give him abar of gold. But
what does the disciple do? He walks right past the bar ofgold. After he had crossed the bridge, the
people asked him, Didnt you seeanything on the bridge?
He shook his head, no.
How could you not see the bar of gold?
The man replied, Well, you see, Ive crossed this bridge many times, evenat night. I know it like
the back of my hand. So, this time, to amuse myself, Iwanted to see if I could cross it with my eyes
closed, and thats exactly whatI did.
All of us, were no different from the man in the story. We live our livesthinking, Nothing
special happened yesterday. Why should anything specialhappen today?
I was walking down J. Boulevard the other day, and I saw a cute girlwalking towards me. Instead
of looking straight ahead, shes got her headturned 90 degrees to the side, looking at all the store
window displays. Weregoing to collide for sure, I thought. But I kept my course, because I
wantedto see what she would do. Instead of stepping aside, I just kept walkingstraight ahead, with
my head lowered. Sure enough Wham! I could have sworn Isaw stars orbiting my head, like you
see in cartoons! A moment later, the girlapologized, and went on her way. I was the one who
shouldve apologized. Afterall, I saw it coming. But the girl couldnt have known, one way or the
other.
Havent you ever done that? Run into a mailbox or a glass door, allbecause your mind was some
place else? There isnt any guarantee that thestreet you used yesterday is going to be there today.
Everything changesconstantly. Even your husband, wife, children, friends, everyone that you
thinkyou know so well, will all have cells different from the ones they hadyesterday.
Youve all heard the saying, You cannot step into the same river twice,right? Thats damn true,
yet, we stubbornly choose to live in our memories ofthe past, gone forever.
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The jade, covered in mud, left by the roadside.

Every day, the passers-by ignore it, thinking it a lump of dirt.
Let it be. Someone someday will recognize it.
Until that day, just let it lie, in perfect mudhood.
Because were not awake, we end up missing out on so much. Theres notelling whether the
common beggar on the street isnt someone whos transcendedour narrow categories of
respectability. Theres no law, after all, that saysthat a beggar cant attain enlightenment. Lets not
allow habit to numb ourjudgment and intuition!
There is a little game that I like to play with people. Its a game thattests your ability to see
whats right in front of you. The funny thing is, theso-called smart, highly educated people have the
hardest time with it. So howabout it, want to give it a shot?
Okay. Theres this person who drinks instant coffee. The way he takes hiscoffee is like this, in
this order: two spoons of coffee, one spoon of cream,three spoons of sugar, then adds hot water,
stirs, and drinks. One day, out ofthe blue, he changes his regimen, and makes his coffee like this:
Hot water,two spoons of sugar, three spoons of cream, and one spoonful of coffee. Now,why did he
drink his coffee that way?
I want you to think about this; you can even phone me once youve figuredit out. But you must
not divulge the answer to anyone. You can give thisproblem for someone else to try to solve, but if
you give away the answer, bothyou and the receiver will pay dearly in hell. Every person must
tackle thequestion all by himself. If youve truly struggled with it, youre sure to gainsomething out
of it. If you just hear the answer, you might get angry, sayingthat it wasnt much of a question after
all.But without a struggle of your own,you wont gain anything at all.
Call it whatever you like, but basically, sickness results whenever animbalance occurs in the
circulation of Qi. That is to say, it happens wheneverthe body is out of tune. To be more specific,
illnesses tends to arise whenevertheres a malfunction in the bodys regulation of Cold (Yin) and
Heat (Yang).One common malfunction takes the form of a surplus of Heat, and is usuallycaused by
anger; whereas the other takes the form of a surplus of Cold, and isusually caused by greed.
Its no wonder all the Intuners of old recommended disciplining anger.
To blow ones top, to be steaming mad, etc. All these are volcaniceruptions, metaphorically
speaking. Translation: Heat to the head. This resultsin a stroke, a break in the blood vessels of the
brain, a rupture which doesnot merely originate in the brain, but requires some provocation. For
example,your boss bawls you out in front of others, or you have to take crap from a kidfresh outta
school just because he happens to be the bosss son. Things likethat are enough to make your
insides boil.
Or you happen to see something, whether it be a car, a diamond ring, or aperson, and your mind
becomes turbid with desire: you want the object of yourdesire so-o-o-o-o bad!!! Youve laid
yourself open to a future illness,resulting from too much Cold.
The various desires that occupy the mind are like the traffic light.Whether green or red or yellow,
the mind perceives whatever it desiresaccording to the color in which it is presented. But the
energy required tooperate the traffic light is the same, no matter what color is presented.Therefore,
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if greed isnt checked, it can wreak havoc on ones health in moreways than one can imagine.
There is a passage written by an Intuner that cautions against greed: Thegreedy man, when
given gold, laments that he did not get jade. When conferredthe rank of Baron, he complains about
not being made a Duke. Even with all thepower and privilege that he possesses, he envies even a
beggar for one thing oranother. The man who understands limits, on the other hand, can find even
thehumblest dish satisfying; he does not hanker after foods out of season. Whenwearing clothes
made from the coarsest hemp, he finds satisfaction in thewarmth, and does not wish for shiny
armor. A master of his situation, though hebe a commoner, does not envy even the king.
Even this thing called Truth is mutable. Everything changes, right? TheBuddha said, This exists
because that exists; and this ceases to exist becausethat has ceased to exist.
In other words, nothing can exist by itself. To put it another way,Nothing is absolute and
eternal is the only absolute and eternal truth. Form!As long as there is form (or a face), the self
will be inextricable from it.But where there is the will to look into the foundation of the self, there
iswisdom, and the possibility of freedom.
Just as you can tell something about the character of a foreign countryjust by listening to one of
its folk songs, you can also get a fairly goodsense of a patients condition by listening to his voice.
A sharp shrilly voiceindicates a predominance of theLesser Yang Qi. So, you already have an idea
about which meridian to treat, andwhat sort of things the patient should watch out for. For example,
such aperson should probably avoid running for office, because if he should fail toget elected, he
will likely suffer a heart attack from frustration. A goodphysician should be able to discern details
like this in his patient. Such a physicianwould be able to take one look at the physique of a patient,
and immediatelyget an idea of what his personality is like. Not only that, he would even beable to
caution his patient to be extra careful in such-and-such a year. Forinstance, Ding Mao18 was a year
in which the Metal Qi (of the Five Elements) predominated. Thatyear might have been somewhat
good for someone who was overweight, but it wouldnot have been good for someone thin, with a
lot of Cold Qi.
Everything appears in the color in which the mind chooses to see theworld. Despite the many
forms that greed can take, all have one thing incommon. Thats why greed for knowledge easily
transforms into greed for sex, orlust transforms into greed for salvation. Furthermore, greed and
anger areclosely related emotions. Think about it: is it possible to get angry withoutfirst being
greedy in one way or another? Lets say youre in a stickysituation, but your friends refuse to take
your side. Youd get angry, right?Even wanting ones friends to be on ones side is a form of greed,
you see.
18.Ding is the fourth Celestial Stem and Mao is the fourth Terrestrial Branch.
To have fire, you must have fuel. The same is true for anger. If anger islike fire, then greed is like
fuel. The greedier you are, the more anger yourelikely to feel. But bear in mind that, like greed,
anger takes many forms.Thus, when treating a disease that has its origin in anger, the approach may
bediverse. Normally, wed think to put out a fire with water, but in a firefueled by some
inflammable agent, like gasoline, wed have to use sand. So,like putting sand on fire, for stressrelated diseases, we could use a varietyof herbs of mineral origin, like cinnabar, talcum, gypsum,
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dragon bone, andoyster shell.

Women, like men, can be afflicted by a variety of anger-caused diseases. Awoman can get sick
from an unsatisfactory marriage, or because she was insultedby her mother-in-law for bringing in
too small a dowry. Because the cause ofthe sickness is different in these two cases, we must treat
each differently.In the latter case, for example, wed avoid using things like cooled rehmanniaroot,
because thatd be like throwing water on a gasoline fire.
From here on out, the lecture is going to get more technical, but at thesame time, well look more
deeply into how greed drives the mind. I hope youall keep in mind the following words:
One whose mind is filled with greed burns even in a cool lake, and findsno tranquillity even in
the deepest recesses of a mountain. One who has emptiedhis mind of greed enjoys the coolness
even when standing under the hottest sun,and hears no commotion even in the marketplace.
Selfishness
Way back when, long long ago,
A hundred bucks was a lot
When we were just starving desperados
Every month thats what you got.
Red numbers, holidays
Black ones, workdays
But back in those days
It was work, work, work anyways!
Do as youre told!
Or be out in the cold!
Do or die, you expendable fly!
Bite the bullet!
Thats the spirit!
Save every dime,theres no time!
Money in the bank!
Rich at last!
But what about the others,
Begging in the street?
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Well, listen my brothers

You have no bread, so why not eat meat?
Moneys but a means!
But to make ends meet
Many a fool who dont knowbeans
Think money alone will make life complete.
Now that Ive got money
I feel much smarter
And with my brilliant plans
For power Ill barter
Its my sense of noblesse oblige
That propels me to serve the nation
Id use well, my power and prestige
For the people! my only justification.
Going to the top, sure its tough!
But Im doing it for you, its my mission!
I never lie, except by omission
The fact is, enough is never truly enough
The truth be told, Im my own best fan
As for your rights, like I really care!
Why dont you run along, my dear man
For you, I couldnt even one second spare.
In a two-part act, the breathings done
Breathing in and breathing out
One without the others no fun
What goes in must come out!
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Chapter 5
Five Transportative and
Six Climatic Qi
Youve heard me use terms that may sound somewhat unfamiliar, like LesserYang, Declining Yin,
etc. But not to worry: if you keep hearing them, youlleventually get the drift of their meaning. So
then, lets get acquainted withthe eight trigrams of the I Ching.
Eight Trigrams
Number
Mind-only
(kun)
(gen)
(kan)
(xun)
(zhen)
(li)
(dui)
(qian)
(di)
(shan)
(shui)
(feng)
(lei)
(hua)
(ze)
(tian)
Dimension
Matter-only
Dimension
English term
Earth
Mountain
Meridian
Ren ( )
Yang-Ming Tai-Yang (
Conception Vessel (
Water
Wind
Thunder
Jue-Yin (
) Shao-Yang (
) Greater Declining
Bright Yang Yang
Lesser Yang
Fire
)
Shao-Yin
(
Heaven
Tai-Yin (
Du( )
) Greater Governor Vessel
Lesser
Yin
Pond
Yin
Yin
6 Climatic Energy
(
Dryness (
Cold (
Wind (
Ministerial Fire(
Monarch
Fire (
Dampness
)(
Flavor
pungent
salty
sour
bitter
bitter
sweet
Smell
fishy
rotten
goatish
burning
burning
fragrant
Diagram 5-1 The Relationship Between the Eight Trigrams and the Six Meridians
First things first: Id like for you all to storein your heads the figures and names of the eight
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trigrams. And this isimportant: the diagram above structured in such a way that if you fold it
alongthe dotted line, all the opposites are paired up.
Bear in mind that Confucius wrote his commentarieson the I Ching cryptically, using ordinary
words like maiden, orconcubine. Its no wonder then that today, after so many centuries, there
areinterpretations of every stripe and color
Self-acclaimed esoteric masters may tell you whomyou ought or ought not marry, based on how
they decipher the trigrams. But totell the truth, people who really understand the I Ching are not
likelyto rattle-off casually about matters concerning fate.
A long time ago, an Emperor happened to hear of aman who was said to be uncanny in his ability
for interpreting dreams. Hisinterest having been piqued, the Emperor had this fellow brought in.
HisMajesty said, I dreamt that a roof tile fell on a homely woman. What say you?Of course, hed
dreamt nothing of the sort... hed just made it up to test thereaders ability. The dream reader
replied, Someone highly valued at the courtwill die soon. Angry, the Emperor said, This man is
a deceiver! Throw him inprison at once! But just then, the chamberlain walked in, announcing that
oneof His Majestys favorite concubines had just met an untimely death: a fallingroof tile had
suddenly come to occupy the same space where her head was,whereupon the unfortunate womans
brain came off considerably the worse forwear. Explain yourself! demanded the Emperor of the
dream reader. Grinningpeevishly, the dream reader replied: A dream, Your Majesty, is nothing
morethan the roaming of the soul, frolicking, away from the body.
So, if a dream is just that - the soul gone outfor a walk - whos to say whether a dream
forebodes good or ill luck?Sometimes a dream is but a reflection of ones own thoughts. Heres a
story ofa general who went to consult a famous monk: Tell me what Ill see in my dreamtonight,
asked the general, who was then waging a battle. The monk said tohim, You, Sir, will dream that
you have routed the enemy, captured their land,and taken their people as your slaves. The
following day, the general returnedto the monk, marveling at the accuracy of the prediction. The
general wasobviously unaware that the words of the monk had become stored in his memoryand
was subsequently reflected in his dream. Perhaps he himself had wanted tothink the same thing that
hed heard from the monk. A wish dream, in otherwords. Its no small thing learning to discern how
a thought arises.
One day King Lee and the Grand Patriarch Mu Hahkwere engaged in a game of words. The king
said to the monk, Thou art like apig, sir. The monk replied, How now! Your Majesty is like a
radiant Buddha.The king found the reply odd, so he inquired, How is it that you should saythat I
am like a radiant Buddha when I mock you by saying that you are like apig? Mu Hahk replied,
One sees what one is: A pig sees pigs, and a Buddhasees Buddhas. A lightening riposte! The story
illustrates how ones thoughtcolors how one perceives reality. Ones thoughts ultimately determine
thefortune and misfortune of a given omen.
Interpretations of dreams Those whove masteredthe art will always base their interpretations
according to the person who hadthe dream. To use a slightly learned term, wed say that a
dreaminterpretation, when done properly, is performed in reference to the foundationalenframing
of the overall situation.
Theres a story involving a certain scholar namedPark Moon-Su who was on his way to the
capital to take the Civil ServiceExamination. Along the way, he stopped at an inn to rest for the
night. Theowner of the inn was an old woman who so happened to be well versed in thescience of
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the I Ching, and was a not-too-shabby reader of dreams.

In the old days, it was said that if you were learned inthe I Ching, you could even snare a Gui
Shen(ghost) at will. WhatGu is, in this case, is none other than Qi tts beenbunched up into
a lump. So, for example, if a woman who deeply trusts herhusband finds out that es been
cheating on her, ses going to bear a seriousgrudge against the dude. That grudge, if harbored with
intensity, will become aGui.Gui Shen doesnt just refer to things that go bump in the night, italso
refers to those nasty thoughts bred in thedark recesses of a rancorousheart. Greed is also Gui Shen!
Take a look at one of the trigrams. The character Gen (), which means tocome to rest or to
reach a limit, is one of the symbols representing mountain. If you add the radical xin ( ),
meaning heart or mind, notice that you get thecharacter hen ( ), which can mean everything from
grudge and spleen, to a lament of theheart resulting from some unfulfilled longing. The Koreans are
a race steepedin han. Perhaps its no coincidence that there are so many mountains inKorea.
Strangely enough, ken and han overlap. How is this?
In terms of the study of the meridians, wed read this conjunction asBright Yang. And Bright
Yang, in turn, represents Metal within the FiveElements scheme. In terms of flavor, Bright Yang is
hot and pungent. Its seasonis fall, and white is its color. Now, all these things align with one
anotheraccording to a formula, but nobodys life or fate can be narrowed down to fit aformula.
Nevertheless, with some understanding of how the system operates, itspossible for one to be able
to read about 40% (the basic enframing) into agiven situation or person.
So if we were to visit some foreign country which has a lot of mountains,can we expect the
people there to have a taste for sorrow? Probably. And whatcolor would they enjoy wearing?
Maybe white. And since its likely to be drythere, we might reasonably surmise that the people of
that country wouldntlikely be fat. Now, by no means am I saying that its always like this! As
someIntuner once said with regards to the Tao, First of all, its in Non-Action;and second, without
necessarily saying that its so, it just might be.
Anyway, well discuss the finer points of the trigrams later on. Rightnow, we have to get back to
our story, starring a certain Park Moon-Su. Ourfriend was spending the night chz an old woman
whose depth ofpenetration into the secrets of the I Ching was enough to bring any ghost toheel. On
that night, Moon- Su had a dream about a bottle whose neck had beenbroken. Upon waking, he felt
a little unsettled about it, thinking that it wasan inauspicious dream. He thought he might ask the
old woman what she thoughtof it, but she was out on business. So, when Moon-Su got ready to
leave, theold womans daughter offered to interpret the dream, saying that she herselfwas no slouch
in the art, having learned a thing or two from her mother. So whynot give her a try? Well, what the
heck, so he did. The daughter said to him,Thats an unlucky dream, alright. It means you arent
going to pass the Exam.Might as well save yourself the long journey, and go back home.
Dejected,Moon-Su heaved a sigh, and left the inn. Soon after, the old woman returned tothe inn,
and asked her daughter how the guest was faring. When she heard whathad just transpired, she
scolded her daughter and commanded her to fetch theman back. When Moon-Su returned to the inn,
the old woman fell on her kneesapologizing: Sir, please forgive my foolish daughter, for she
knoweth notwherefore she speaketh. That is, she knoweth not shit from shinola, Sir.Moon-Su was
perplexed. Lady, what wrong did your daughter commit? As far as Iknow, shes done me no
wrong. Sir, my daughter related to me the nature ofyour dream, in which you saw a bottle with a
broken neck. It is a mostauspicious dream. Now, Moon-Su was really confused. What was this old
womantalking about? Sir, if a bottle has no neck, one cannot grab it with ease. Onemust be careful
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and hold it from the bottom. You are destined to rise to a highofficial position. Therefore, I beg you,
sir, not to bear any grudge against mydaughter when you have risen to a high position. So
pleading, she sent Moon-Suon his way. Those of you who know the rest, know that Moon-Su ended
up indeedsuccessful. Well, it just goes to show you just how radically different dream
interpretationscan be, depending on the person reading it. The story also shows how those witha
little knowledge are always eager to show off.
There was a Zenster by the name of Guji. To whatever question that wasdirected at him, he
would always answer by raising his index finger. Whenasked, Whats the Buddha?, hed raise the
finger. When asked, What can youteach me about the Dharma? again, hed raise the finger. An
acolyte monk oftensaw his Master do this, and thought, Well, thats easy enough. One day, anold
man came to the temple, saying that hed traveled a great distance to seethe Master. Unfortunately,
the Master happened to be out of the temple. The oldman was laid low with disappointment, and
said so to the young monk: I cameover many a hill and over many a dale so that I may ask the
great Master whatis the Buddha, and where one goes upon death. But, alas, he is not here.
Whatshould I do? To this, the young monk replied, Ive been studying under theMaster. Surely I
can answer your questions. The old man was so happy with themonks offer that he bowed three
times before him, and respectfully posed thequestion: What is the Big Meaning in the Dharma?
The young monk wasted notime answering the question-he stuck out his index finger. The old
man,apparently satisfied with the answer, thanked the young monk and went backhome. A few days
later, Master Guji returned, and wanted to know if anythinghad occurred while he was away. Upon
getting the low-down concerning thevisitor, the Master said to the monk, I will ask you the same
question posedby the old man, and you are to answer me as you did him. The question wasasked,
and the monk raised his finger. SHWOOSH, the Master chopped off themonks finger with a knife!
The monk was so astonished to see his finger loppedoff that he ran about like mad all over the
courtyard. At that moment, theMaster asked the monk, What is the Buddha? Again, the monk
tried to raise hisfinger, but the finger was no longer there. It is said that the young monkattained
Enlightenment at that moment. So much for showing off!
A Visit toa Way-Groover
Where the mountain peaks

Touch the sky, the Way Groover dwells
Oblivious to the passing day.
Wading through the clouds, looking for the Way,
I, leaning against a tree, catch my breath
To the sound of the purling waters.
In the cozy floral shade, a blue cow, lying languid.
Among the towering pines, a white crane, dozing.
A few words exchanged, but already the light
On the water is beginning to grow dim.
Damp with mist, I make my descent.
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- Li Bai (701-762)
Dream interpretation, if done incorrectly, could invite trouble. In the IChing, there are 64
hexagrams; 32 are favorable, and 32 are unfavorable. Now,if you have water below and fire above,
would that be favorable or not?
A: (silence)
What about a crescent moon: Good or bad?
A: (silence)
What if its a full moon?
A: Favorable.
Getting tougher to figure out? Dont give up yet; well get there. In anycase, water below with
fire above would be an unfavorable hexagram. So then,the reverse would be favorable, yes?
The kinetic nature, or perhaps we should call it Qi-netics, of fire isto rise, while that of water is
to flow downward. Hexagrammatically speaking,the conditions that render a reading of a hexagram
favorable or unfavorable arein a constant flux.
NOTE:MUST SEE EDITED COPY FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Diagram 5-2 Fire and Water

There is a story that perfectly illustrates the mind-set behind the IChing: Once, there lived in
China an old man, with his son and a horse.Back in those days, having a horse was like owning a
car today. So you can wellimagine how valuable a property the animal must have been. One
morning, whenthe man went to feed the horse, the animal was gone. People in the villagesaid,
What bad luck to lose a horse!
But the old man replied, Dont say that it was bad. The horse happens tobe gone, so well just
leave it at that. No sense passing judgment. After all,who really knows?
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The people thought the old man a little soft in the head, and said, Whowould lose a horse and
not think it a bad thing?
A few days later, the horse returned with a handsome mare. People came byagain. You were
right. Not only was your horse not stolen, it brought youanother horse. How lucky you are!
But the old man said, Dont say Im lucky. Its not always a good thingto have another horse.
Now I happen to have two horses, and well just leave itat that.
This time, his neighbors thought the old man was definitely screwy in thehead. What lunatic
wouldnt think it a good thing to get another horse forfree?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the old mans son, while trying to break inthe new horse, fell off
his horse and broke his leg.
Again, people came over and said, Youre right. Since the new horsecaused your son to break
his leg, maybe it wasnt entirely a good thing gettinganother horse. In fact, wed say it was unlucky
for you that another horseshowed up.
Same as before, the old man was indifferent about the whole thing, and said,Its neither good
nor bad. My son fell off and broke his leg, and well justleave it at that.
This time the neighbors thought that maybe the old man was right, and wentback home. A few
days later, a war broke out and all the able-bodied young menwere conscripted except for the old
mans son, who was exempt because of hisleg.
The story captures the essence of the philosophical attitude of the East.Refrain from passing
judgment over an occurrence; nothing is absolutely good orbad.
Heres another story about a man traveling with a donkey, a dog, and alantern. He was walking
through the woods. The sun was beginning to set, so hedecided to spend the night at an abandoned
hut nearby. It being still too earlyto go to sleep, he lit his lantern so as to read for a little while. But
all ofa sudden, a gust blew out the lantern. Well, he didnt want to go through thetrouble of relighting it, so he decided to turn in. When he got up in themorning, he was sadly surprised to see
that his four-legged travelingcompanions had been dragged away by some wild animals during the
night. Now allthe man had was his extinguished lantern to keep him company for the rest ofhis
sojourn. Continuing his walk along the lonely trail, he came upon avillage. But when he got there,
he saw not a single living soul. The villagehad been pillaged the night before by an unfriendly gang
of thugs.
If the wind had not blown out the lantern, the man surely wouldve beendiscovered by the
bandits. And if the donkey and the dog had not been draggedaway by the wild beasts, they most
certainly wouldve made so much commotionupon sensing danger from the bandits, that the man
wouldve been discovered,and killed.
Nowadays, fortune-tellers are busy telling their clients whats favorable andwhats not. They
dont seem to understand that a blessing can change into acurse, and vice versa.
The Buddha once said, The Goddess of Radiance and the Goddess of Darknessalways go
everywhere together, never alone.
One day, the Goddess of Radiance heard the prayers of a devout man, anddecided to pay him a
visit. Upon receiving the Goddess into his home, the manand his household became wealthy and
respectable. But one day, the Goddess whobestows unhappiness showed up. The man said to her,
We already have theGoddess of Radiance living with us, and were quite pleased. We cant have
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youin here wrecking things. Out with you!

But the Goddess of Radiance said to the man, The Goddess of Darkness ismy sister. She always
goes wherever I go. Just as youve let me into yourhouse, so you must invite her in!
This story contains a message whose meaning is often overlooked: Wherethere is happiness,
there is also unhappiness. And where wealth exists, thereis also poverty.
This doesnt just apply to dualities like Yin and Yang. Life itself is ina state of relativity. So
whos to say whats lucky or unlucky, favorable orunfavorable? When we speak of impermanence
and mutability, we are speaking ofneither life nor death exclusively, but the two as one, both
generation anddestruction. In other words, because everything is in flux, what is not cancome into
existence, while what is can fade into non-existence. If there is acoming, there is a going. Its the
same with diseases: they come and go, likeguests. Thats how you must treat them. You shouldnt
think, How am I gonnakick the shit out of this disease? Rather, you should think, How shall
Igreet this illness, and then send it on its way?
Were all going to get sick every now and then, and eventually, well allget old. In accepting our
mortality, we would be acting a bit more wisely if weaccepted the fact that we might get sick,
instead of trying to not get sick atall. Getting sick infrequently and mildly is a more reasonable goal
than notgetting sick at all. Actually, if you ever managed to get rid of all knowndiseases, youd be
attacked by a million more that youd never even heard of.
While there are innumerable ways to suffer, the first onthe list would have to be the pain of
parting with ones beloved, dont youthink? Of course, there is also the pain of having to see
someone you despise,and there are the various annoyances that cause you to suffer without
reallyteaching you anything. And then, there is the suffering that comes from beingtoo healthy. You
might not understand this, but things like lust and ambitionare desires that can cause suffering. You
must be healthy to even harbor suchdesires. It is written in The Theory of Bao Wong Samadhi19:
Wishnot to be free of disease. Without them, a host of unhealthy desires willinvade your heart.
Look upon disease as a medicine.
19.Written by Fei Shi of Zhong Nan Mountain during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The unpredictability of ourlives, and our general insecurity in this topsy-turvy world are also
causes ofsuffering. People who are struck down by a stroke are, psychologicallyspeaking, those
who subconsciously longed for a rest. People who are full ofdrive and confidence usually dont
even have the time for a stroke. But as soonas you think, I need a break in the deepest recesses of
your mind, you havebegun to drop your guard, opening yourself up to a tackle. Now, of course,
thisis only the negative aspect of disease. The positive side is that, because ofillness, you may learn
to curb some of the excessiveness of your drive. Whenyoure sick, the only desire you have is to get
well; you arent going to bethinking about your next big gig.
The spirit of Eastern Philosophy is about being freefrom the trap of thinking that you have to
choose between the favorable andthe unfavorable. It is by no means easy to realize this. But the
only wayyoure going to be free of this tyranny of choice is through contemplationand
meditation.
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I mentioned earlier how theI Ching was full of cryptic ciphers. For example, in the description
ofone of the trigrams (Tui or lake), it reads, a maiden, a shaman, a concubine.Ask a hundred
scholars of the I Ching what that means, and youll get ahundred different answers.
When I was in school, I got a letter from my girlfriend. Without anyexplanation, there was a
drawing of what looked like a club, or a baseball bat.So I took the letter to mean that she wanted to
beat me. So, I decided not tosee her anymore. But a few days later, a friend told me that Id had it
allwrong. Because I was living alone, I was doing my own cooking. So the girl hadwanted to wish
me good luck with cooking by drawing me a rolling pin. Thecorrect interpretation of the drawing,
then, would have been something like,Eat only fresh noodles, made from scratch. No instant
noodles! Well, that wassweet. So, I wrote her back by drawing a small knife. But, there was no
reply.We happened to run into each other a couple of years later. When I asked herwhy she never
answered my letter, she said, Because I thought you were tellingme to go kill myself! But, that
wasnt what Id meant at all! Id wanted herto eat a lot of apples to keep her skin pretty. The knife
was for peeling!
The I Ching interpretation is sort of like the story of the rollingpin and the knife: when it comes
to interpretations, its every man forhimself! So you can imagine how confusing it can get when
people startembellishing the meaning of the hexagrams with all kinds of fancy commentaries.
Chapter 6
Bio-rhythms and the
Three Energetics of the Meridians
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In the course of our study well get to discuss a number of varioustopics. And after a while,
youll be able to figure out a thing or two on yourown, things like, in the year of Yin Shen20
Ministerial Fire, things have a tendency to run generallyin such and such a manner. Now, lets
have a look at this thing called Fire.
20. Yin is the third Terrestrial Stem and Shen is theninth Terrestrial Branch. Together, they
represent Ministerial Fire.
Inside our bodies we have two types of Fire: One is called Monarch Fire,and the other is called
Ministerial Fire. Even the Earth has two kinds of Fire,right? Ive been trying to explain to you
through diagrams the operation ofsubstances as understood in Eastern Philosophy. But to tell you
the truth, thestuff operates three-dimensionally. How many dimensions does a point have? If
weextend a point, we get a line, which has one dimension. Now, any movement in aonedimensional world can only be forwards or backwards. For example, for atrain running along its
track, getting rammed by a car from the side wouldreally be unthinkable and impossible from the
trains perspective. There arequite a few people who are like this, with a kind of do or die, my
way or noway attitude, no matter what the situation.
When a person has no aptitude for driving, we say that he or she isdeficient in Earth Qi.
Among the Five Elements, the element Earth occupiesthe center. The ability to drive is the mastery
of left and right, andtherefore the limbs have a taxonomic relationship to the central modality,Earth.
Diagram6-1 (The Five Elements and the Earth)
We might say that the cockroach is a creature of the two-dimensionalworld. Imagine the fellow
going about his business, down on the killin floor.Out of nowhere, a bird nails him on the back.
Front or back, left or right, noproblem. But from the air? Well, our multi-legged neighbor isnt too
familiarwith the three-dimensional world, thats all. Now, add motion (time) and wehave four
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dimensions. To that, add consciousness, and we get five dimensions,and so on and so forth. The
system of the I Ching operates on thepredication of nine dimensions.
The Earth is an object in motion, rotating about an axis that runs throughthe poles. As it rotates,
it creates wind. To put it in simpler terms, we mightimagine a spinning top and the wind it causes
while in motion. But whichspinning object is going to cause bigger turbulence in the air, a top or
abasketball? Naturally, a basketball would, since it has greater volume. Itssame thing when it
comes to people: a fat person is always going to be buffetedby more air than a skinny person.
Now, as the Earth turns, where is it going to heat up the most? Where thefriction is greatest,
right? Along the belly of the ball. So, if we call thisarea Fire, then the cold spots are where?
Right, the poles. These, we callWater. When we look at the micro-cosmos, the body, where are
the trees andvegetation? In the middle, at the equator of the body. Since foliage on thebody is
hair, we call hair Wood.
Since were on the topic of hair, let me say this about baldness. What isbaldness if not the
absence of trees (hair) on the head? There are two reasonsfor a lack of trees: One, the dirt has dried
up, and the tree cannot suck upthe nutrients in the ground. Two, the ground has become too wet,
and so theroots rot and the tree dies. Now, ladies, if your husband is fat and goingbald, you dont
want to keep feeding him wet, oily foods. You have to dry him abit. And, if his hair is excessively
shiny and breaks easily, you would want tofeed him foods with higher moisture content in order to
tone down the Fire Qiin him.
As you continue with your study, youll come to understand not only theart of watering a tree,
but also the nature of plants in general, such thatyoull know what kind of soil would be appropriate
for what plant; and whatkind of plant goes with whom. Lets say you have a skin affliction thats
sonasty its eaten its way to the bone, causing it to rot as well. In such acase, it might be helpful to
consume something made of ground animal bone. Thedeeper reasoning behind the recommendation
of such a remedy is a little toocomplicated to go into here. Suffice it to say that it follows the
principle ofYin and Yang. So, to put it another way, if you see that the hair on the bodyis analogous
to trees on this planet, youll also be able to see theapplicability of this analogy in the understanding
of diseases. On what part ofthe body would you say hair is concentrated? If we look at the Earth,
we knowthere is a lot of vegetation near the equator. The equatorial area is where theEarth exhales a
great deal of heat. When we look at the arm pit, we find hairthere. That part of the body is where the
Fire Qi of the Hand Lesser Yin HeartMeridian begins to flow. Therefore, we could say that someone
with little bodyhair has a body that is relatively cold On the other hand, a person with alot of
body hair has a lot of heat. Generally, men tend to have more body hairthan women. Thus women
are classified under Yin.
Look at the face: we see that the eye is covered by the eyelid, from thetop down, whereas the
mouth opens and closes by the motion of the jaw, from thebottom up. Again, its Yin and Yang, no?
Thats why, when we look at a face andsee that what is supposed to be tucked in is in, and what has
to protrude outis out, in proper proportion, then we say that such a face is attractive.
The Earth, in addition to its internal heat, also receives heat from thesun. When a hen lays an
egg, it keeps it warm by sitting on it. In EasternMedicine, we call this heat Qi of Ministerial Fire.
So, again, the heat thatcomes from the sun, we call Ministerial Fire, and the internal heat that
comesto the surface from the core of the Earth, we call Monarch Fire. And these twokinds of Fire
exist in all material things. A human being has two kinds ofFire, and they manifest in anger and in
desire. The former is in keeping withMinisterial Fire, whereas the latter is associated with Monarch
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Fire. To put itanother way, the tenseness and the rush that overcome you the moment you runinto
the bastard that stole your money a few years ago, is not the same passionyou would feel when
encountering your old flame. Any illnesses that mightresult from such experiences of Fire must
be treated according to the type ofFire.
Now, lets have a look at what the West calls abiorhythm, and compare itto the Six Meridians
and the Eight Trigrams. People usually see the world interms of a mind / matter duality. Eastern
Medicine, however, avoids puttingemphasis on either spirituality or materiality; it looks at the
whole. Thatwhich is holy is holy by virtue of being whole: a unity of all phenomenaldualities. If
there should ever be a saint who says that the world is filthy,and only those who have renounced it
are clean, then that man is not only notsaintly, but an affront to holiness itself. We should pause to
think about howridiculous we are when we separate whats within our bodies into clean
andunclean. Theres just no way we could ever be truly healthy thinking in sucha manner.
Because of such misuses of the mind, the Qi of Ministerial Fire canmanifest itself in our bodies in
the form of cancer.
Cancer is a disease originating from the imbalance of the Qi of the LesserYang Ministerial Fire.
There is a report that the number of people who die eachyear of cancer is greater than that of those
killed during the entirety ofWorld War II. Cancer tumors are biopsied and studied through a
microscope, andthen classified. But the chief cause of cancer is said to be stress. But whatis stress?
Stress is anger. How does anger arise? Someone over at the cancerresearch labs should look into
that as well. A certain desire arises as aresult of comparing oneself with others, and that desire often
goesunsatisfied. When this desire is repeatedly frustrated, one eventually becomesangry (or
stressed). But why does desire arise? It arises because of ones ego.So, then, what is needed is the
insight to see through the lump of ego that onecalls the self.
In the old days, they used to say, Internal Injury, Affection by ExternalPathogen. In other
words, all diseases come from the seven emotions. Whohasnt heard of people getting sick, or even
going mad from unrequited love? Howcan one cure a Romeo withering away in fever and cold
sweat? Its necessary tolook into the inner story, since such an illness calls for a remedy for
themind. Nowadays, we have reached a high level of competence with regard to thetreatment of the
material body. But what about the mind and its effect on thebody? Not enough competence in that,
Im afraid. Gotta have a balance here.Science seeks the truth by cutting into the very stuff of matter,
and even theshadow of matter. Men at the frontiers of science are not too sure if what theyare
seeing as the subject of their study is really nature in its objectivestate. Theres even talk that what
were seeing is but a reflection of theobservers mind. Perhaps thats why, even in the West today,
more and morepeople are becoming interested in things like Zen, Tao, and Yoga.
In the old days, people used to say: Grandmas hand is the healing hand.In most cases this was
true: there wasnt a child who didnt get well aftergrandma caressed his tummy. Nowadays, some
would say, Thats a lot of crap!,demanding scientific proof of the medical efficacy of grandmas
hands. Well,they aint gonna get it, ever, because they just dont get it: They just dontunderstand
that the energy (Qi) which is embodied in and projected throughgrandmas love wont ever show up
on a chart.
Inquiry into the mind, hows that done? It isnt easy, and simple analysiswill only get you so far.
In the past, people tried to understand the mind byseparating the space of its operation into three
basic systems, or worlds. InBuddhism, the three worlds are desires (usually of the animal
kind),emotions, and non-emotions (purified consciousness). In the functioning ofconsciousness, we
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have hearing and seeing, which lead to knowing, which givesrise to intentionality. And from this,
we start getting funny ideas, despitethe admonition, Dont get any funny ideas! But, of course,
if two peopleshould discover that they have the same funny ideas, they usually takedelight in the
fact, and then, who knows, they sometimes even end up gettingmarried! But life is not always full
of delight: to every knowing, there issomething unknown and perhaps even unknowable.
What does this character mean? (Ghm Oh writes the Sino-Korean characterfor sky on the
chalkboard) Everyone knows that it means sky. But do youknow this one? Ghm Oh adds the
character for earth next to sky.) Its oneword. Anyone? No? Of course you dont know what it
is. I just made it up! Wethink we know a lot, but actually what we know is but a granule compared
to thedesert were ignorant of. Think how little of the ground we need to stand on.Only as much as
the size of our feet! But imagine what would happen if the restof the ground suddenly disappeared.
Do you think you could stand, let alonewalk, on a strip of Earth eight-inches wide, with nothing but
an abyss oneither side? The amount of Earth we need to support ourselves at any givenmoment is
actually quite small. But as the needful exist by virtue of theneedless, so too does knowing exist by
virtue of not-knowing.
Knowing and not-knowing are not a matter of jealousy or envy. It is onlyafter a certain period
has elapsed, and knowing turns into loving thatsomething like jealousy or possessiveness becomes
possible. You may even findyourself engulfed by it the moment you lay your eyes on your lover
holdinghands with another. The greater the pleasure, the deeper the possible pain.Its just one of
lifes laws. But people pay little heed to this fact, as ifwhatever pleasure they have right now will
last indefinitely. Imagine losingyour husband. Sure, youd be sad (but then, think about all those
times when hewas a pain in the ass!), but could it ever compare with the anguish of losingyour
child? What would a mother not do to see her child live again? Anyway, thepoint is, it is important
to understand how the mind moves.
One must approach the mind in and through the principle that regulates theuniverse, for the
essence of truth lies in mutablity. In the I Ching,the word I means change or transformation.
The book is founded on thepermanent truth that there is no permanence. In the West, Heraclitus
once said,One never enters the same river twice. Eastern Medicine is founded on thesame
irrefutable premise: everything changes. The body changes constantly, evenif we dont notice it.
Over the course of months or years, we feel the change,dont we? Which means that the foods we
eat and the medicines we take shouldchange accordingly. What was good for you when you were
twenty and slim may notbe good for you when youre forty and roundish. But we are all slaves of
habit,arent we?
How to nip the problem in the bud? This would be a good thing to know, anda key to all success
and well-being. Lao Tzu said, whether it be in the art ofruling, or the management of ones health,
the wisdom lies in conserving onesvital energies. Lao Tzu called it the art of frugality:
In dealing with men, and in heeding heaven
There is nothing better than frugality.
Where there is frugality, all things
Recuperate early.
Recuperating early: thats accumulation of synergy.
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With synergy thus accumulated, nothing is unaccomplishable.

As nothing is unaccomplishable, there is no knowing of limits.
Knowing no limits, Order reigns.
The Mother who reigns thus, is far-roaming
and lasts.
And this lasting is the deep-rooted and firm Way:
enduring, and there to see, always.
Since war is a squandering of everything, maintaining peace would be thebest way by which a
state could practice frugality. For an individual,practicing frugality might mean not over-eating or
gabbing. Refraining fromone-sided thinking and from egocentric behavior would also be a form
offrugality. Frugality might also involve being careful not to pour all of onesenergy into one thing,
and being mindful at all times so as to recognize atruly good thing when it appears. Sometimes you
have to use the hand thats notoften called into action, and give the other hand a chance to
rest.Ambidexterity, not only of the body but also of the mind, would be the way ofbeing sparing
with oneself. The character that Lao Tzu used to mean frugal,sparing, to store up, to regard
something as precious, is the samecharacter that is used in the word that has the meaning of being
miserly,niggardly, and parsimonious. In a word, cheap. But here the word is usedin a
positive sense: not wasting. I think those doctors are talking nonsensewhen it comes to the issue
of masturbation. Its not to be brushed aside as ifit were a foregone conclusion, saying that its
absolutely harmless.
There is a couple of sayings that we should keep in mind: Adversity helpsone to grow, and
Nature cures itself. Its not unheard of to find peoplewith cancer who were given the death
sentence at the hospital, but whosubsequently recovered for some inexplicable reason. An English
doctor oncelooked into this phenomenon of natural recovery. He discovered that the bodyhas a
homeostatic tendency to restore itself to health. This means thatmedicines (when they help) work
by assisting the bodys innate tendencies.
Theres a saying that says that a human being is born docile, andadversity gives birth to Dhan
(purified mettle).
One might say that cultivatingDhan is a power obtained through a certain kind of spiritual
discipline.One could even call it a supernatural healing power of nature. In otherwords, through
Dhan, it is possible to heal oneself, simply by observingand rectifying the minds wobble. We
should always be conscious of the factthat everything changes. Even the foods we eat ought to be in
accordance withour present state. Truth is to be found in the change itself. Ice cream fordessert?
Check the season, the weather, and the condition of those who are withyou. Just a moments
observation will set you straight about what to eat on anygiven day.
The Yin and Yang concept used in Eastern Medicine basically says that whenone is full, the other
must be empty. When the stomach is full, the intestinesshould be empty, and vice versa. Top and
bottom must take turns being full andempty. One must take care to be frugal when eating so as not
to blow a hole inthe stomach (an ulcer).
Truth IS only in relation to something. As previously mentioned,anger arises only when there is
greed. Long ago, a Zenster lay in a boat thatdrifted down a river. The smooth breeze and the gentle
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flow made him think,So, this must be what the Buddhas enlightenment must have been like!
Then,all of a sudden, there was a loud thud next to his head. Rudely interruptedfrom his reverie, the
angry Zenster sat up abruptly, yelling, Who the @#$% isit?! But there was no one there. It was
just an empty boat drifting along thathad come crashing into the side of his boat. Whom was he
going to be angry at?So, he sat there quietly, and reflected on the situation. He then
attainedEnlightenment, and from that moment on he was never angry again.
People who never fail to go out of their way to be polite and courteous toeveryone; you have to
watch out for them. The more outwardly nice they are, thebigger the explosives they carry inside.
When angry, women are often more scarythan men. Why? Because although women are Yin,
hidden deep within them is YangQi.
Man and woman: Were they divided into Yang and Yin from the beginning?
A: (silence)
In the beginning, there is no such differentiation. You come into thisworld, and there you are,
male or female, thats all. In the Bible, someTeachers of the Torah once asked, A woman was
honorably married to sevenhusbands, who all died before she did. When she gets to heaven, who
should beher true husband?
Christ answered, In heaven, there is no such thing as marriage.
Well, I think that the Teachers of the Torah overlooked or else had noknowledge of the fact that,
in heaven, there is no male and no female. So,naturally, there can be no marriage. A human being,
according to the logic ofEastern Medicine, is an a priori existent, a pure potential that happens
toacquire, in the material world, a particular sex.
Lets have a look at the following table:
-Rat
FootShao-Yin (Lesser Yin) Kidney
-Ox
-Tiger
-Rabbit
HandTai-Yin (Greater Yin) Lung

FootShao-Yang (Lesser Yang) Gall Bladder
HandYang-Ming (Bright Yang) Large Intestine
-Dragon
-Snake
-Horse
FootTai-Yang (Greater Yang) Urinary Bladder

HandJue-Yin (Declining Yin) Mind-Wrapper
HandShao-Yin (Lesser Yin) Heart
-Sheep
-Monkey
-Rooster
FootTai-Yin (Greater Yin) Spleen

HandShao-Yang (Lesser Yang) Triple Energizer (or Burner)
FootYang-Ming (Bright Yang) Stomach
-Dog
-Pig
HandTai-Yang (Greater Yang) Small Intestine

FootJue-Yin (Declining Yin) Liver
All things rotate in this order. You dont have to fully understand thistable yet, but commit it to
memory anyway. Youll come to figure it out foryourselves a little later on. I expect you to make the
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necessary connectionwhen I later mention Foot Shao-Yin-Kidney Meridian. So, for example,
MonarchFire lines up with Foot Shao-Yin-Kidney Meridian. And, Monarch Fire isgenerally
related to sexual desire, to reproduction. To understand this, weneed to first know the Rat. One rat
can multiply itself into 1,000 rats in justone year. The rat is an animal with a highly developed Foot
Shao-Yin-KidneyMeridian. You can tell this just by looking that it is a Yin animal, because ithas a
small head with a big body, and it likes dark places.
If a person happens to havea highly developed Kidney Meridian, would that person likely have
problemsmaking babies?
A: (silence)
No, not likely. No fertility problems.
If you look at the table,you can see that everything is paired with its opposite: Rat and Horse, Ox
andSheep, Tiger and Monkey, Rabbit and Rooster, Snake and Pig. And, the foot ispaired with the
hand. If you compare Foot Shao-Yin-Kidney Meridian with HandShao-Yin-Heart Meridian, youll
see that theres no mistaking it. You see, theI cannot be determined, since it changes constantly.
The physical rhythmmanifested in the desire for survival changes into the emotional rhythm
ofsexual desire, and then into the intellectual rhythm of the desire for fame.Some parents get angry
if their child loses in the student election. But forthe child, it is usually no big deal, because children
are not obsessed withthe desire for fame and power. But on the other hand, if a girl should receivea
note from a boy she has a crush on that says, I dont want to see you anymore, you can expect her
to experience a major upheaval. Adults tend to brushaside such events as childish puppy love. How
soon they forget that they, too,once acted in the same way.
I am going to introduce a poem here. I would like for you all to recallyour own youth as you
listen to it.
Eight years-old, looking into the mirror
Painting my eyelashes.
At ten, picking wild-flowers was delightful.
Learned to play the zither at twelve
Wearing a skirt embroidered with lotus flowers.
And never took off the silver ring, no.
At fourteen, I would often hide
Behind my parents.
Boys made me feel so bashful.
When I was fifteen, my body was sad
For no particular reason.
So, sitting on a swing,
Holding the rope, I had me a good cry,
With my face turned away.
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- Lee Sang-Eun
A woman came to me the other day, saying that shed found some loveletters while cleaning her
childs room, and that she was worried that herchild was frittering away precious time over childish
things. Well, they mayseem childish to you, but to them, it could be the most important thing in
theworld!
Lets now take a look at this thing called Bio-rythm.
NOTE:SEE EDITED COPY FOR CORRECTIONS
Diagram 6-3 Human Desire, the Six Meridians, andBio-rhythms
Bio-rythms can be seen in three parts: physical rhythm, emotional rhythm,and intellectual
rhythm. The desire manifested through physical rhythm is formaterial things, including food and
drink. Emotional rhythm desires sex andart. Intellectual rhythm desires fame, power, and
knowledge. The cycles of thethree rhythms are as follows: 33 days for intellectual rhythm, 28 days
foremotional rhythm, and 23 days for physical rhythm. When all three rhythms areabout to repeat
the cycle, just after having peaked, thats when you must be alittle cautious and take care. If we
combine all three rhythms, we get a grandcycle of 58 years and 3 months. It may be no coincidence
that it is similar tothe cycle of 60 years.
Lets see what happens when we posit bio-rhythms into the system of theSix Meridians. The
state of complete satisfaction with regard to the physicalrhythm is related to Greater Yin (Tai-Yin).
Its like the condition of havingjust stuffed yourself to your hearts content with your favorite dish,
and havingno worries whatsoever about the basic necessities of life. It is also the statein which there
are no worries over the basic necessities of life.
The state of dissatisfaction is Bright Yang (Yang-Ming): Youre hungry,and you dont like it. Its
like when youre undesirably thin and hunched over.There are people with tons of money who are
like this. They are showingdissatisfaction with regard to their physical rhythm. Such people may
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havemoney, but they suffer from poverty of the mind. Thus we say that Greater Yin(Tai-Yin)
corresponds to the state of being free from all worries, whereasBright Yang (Yang-Ming)
corresponds to anxiety.
When it comes to emotional rhythm, the state of complete satisfactioncorresponds to Lesser Yin
Shao-Yin). Its the feeling you get when youre outon a date, and everything is going just right. The
state of dissatisfaction, onthe other hand, corresponds to Greater Yang (Tai-Yang). Not surprisingly,
itfeels like when nothing goes right on a date, and you feel antsy.
Intellectual rhythms satisfaction would be called Declining Yin(Jue-Yin). This state would occur
upon winning the election to some highoffice. You glow with delight at the rise of your reputation,
and the prospectof having people follow your orders. The dissatisfied state, on the other
hand,corresponds to Lesser Yang (Shao-Yang). This occurs when, for example, youflunk the
entrance exam, and your parents yell at you: So-and sos kid got in!Why cant you!? Youd feel
mighty angry, wouldnt you?
Chapter 7
Huh Juns Allegory of the Dew
From here on, the lecture might seem a little difficult. But I ask you totry your best to follow
what I am saying, and not get discouraged over the fewwords youre not familiar with. Im certainly
going to do my best to explainthings as clearly as I can.
In the English language, there are two words to describe the same hole:entrance and exit.
While such words also exist in Korean, we generally justuse a single word, inout-hole. That says
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something about the Eastern way ofperception: we tend to see going in and coming out as one
and the samething. Some people say that this just goes to show our ineptitude with regardto
scientific thinking. Maybe. But then again, maybe its not always a goodthing to see everything
only in terms of the various components.
Truth is always about the Whole. There are huge differences between theEast and the West when
it comes to living patterns, both in terms of thesoftware and the hardware. For example, if you go to
a Westerners house, whatwould you normally expect to find in a room?
A: A bed.
Correct. There would be a bed on one side of the room, and most likely aTV on the other.
Thered probably also be a desk, and a few other pieces offurniture. Moreover, thered be separate
rooms for eating, cooking, etc. Thewestern living patterns are such that every piece of furniture and
everyhousehold function are clearly differentiated. Of course, in Korea nowadays,most people with
money live the same way, following the Western pattern. Buthow was it before, when we all lived
in the traditional way? At one end of theroom, youd have grandpa and grandma, then the children,
and in some cases, evenmom and dad, all living in the same room. A room became a bedroom
when thecots and blankets were laid out at night. Youd get up in the morning, put awaythe
bedding, and the room became just a space. Then, breakfast would be servedon small tables, and the
space would be transformed into a dining room. Then,after the tables had been cleared, the space
would become a romper room forthe kids. Thats not all. This same space was also used as a
bathroom. Justwhip out the old chamberpot, and voil! Whats a bathroom after all? Its
whereyou can take out what you have put in, right? Even eating and relieving oneself- that, too, is
an inout. If someone were to object and say, It was that waythen because we were so wretchedly
poor! then of course Id have nothing tosay in rebuttal. But, Im just illustrating the point that our
living patternin the past was influenced by the pervasive notion that in-ing and out-ingare not
two different things, and that they occur simultaneously.
If you only ate, but never excreted, youd literally be up shit creek,wouldnt you? Eating, as
such, involves two things: Drinking (of fluids), andchewing/swallowing (of solids). That is, some
things are soft enough to goright over the tongue, and some things require a little tenderizing
throughmastication. Whatever you swallow, goes in through one hole, but comes out ofyou through
two holes. What youve swallowed comes out, separated into shit andpiss. What! Should a doctor
use such unbecoming words? Noooo! So I should callthem by their proper terms: Rear Yin, and
Front Yin, respectively.
I may have regained my respectability through the use of such academicjargon, but were still
talking about what? Shit and piss, ladies andgentlemen! On certain days you see shit and piss
coming out of one hole. Whatdo you have? Diarrhea. There are animals whose feces are mixed with
urine.Animals with perpetual diarrhea. What are they?
A: Birds.
Correct. Take chicken, for example. Does it have a definite separation andarticulation of Rear
Yin and Front Yin?
A: (silence)
It does not. When you suffer from diarrhea, that means your body is havingproblem routing
traffic. There is no reason for you to think of EasternMedicine as something mystifying. Thats
because, Eastern Medicine issimplicity itself.
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The condition in which urine is mixed with feces is called diarrhea. Howdo we treat diarrhea in
Eastern Medicine?
A: (silence)
Ill tell you how simple and interesting the thinking is in EasternMedicine. In cases of diarrhea,
we want to restore feces to its normalsolidity, yes? But how? Even in a severe case, sometimes its
better toactually make it more severe. In Eastern Medicine, we call such a method,Extreme Yin
Becoming Yang. Whats the best way to beat the summer heat?
A: Fight fire with fire.
Absolutely. Its a technique that is used quite often when treatingdiseases.
Last Sunday, I went up a nearby mountain. There was a fire raging to theleft of it. I later saw the
news which reported that it took some 16 hours toput the fire out. It must have burned a huge chunk
of the mountain. Lets saythere is a fire raging on now. What should we do?
A: (silence)
What? If you dont know how to put out a fire in the material world, howare you going to put out
the fire inside your body? I said earlier that Fire isconceptually divided into two types: Ministerial
Fire and Monarch Fire. So, howare we going to put out the fire on the mountain?
A: Start another fire to contain it.
Thats right. When there is a brush fire, the firefighters will deploy ahelicopter to drop white
powder. But if the entire forest is burning, theresnot a whole lot that can be done. Forest fires can
spread at a speed fasterthan a man running, as the fire goes from branch to branch, not trunk to
trunk.Thats why one must resort to cutting down trees far away from the fire, so asto make a
clearing. The objective is to remove the fuel that feeds the fire.You could also use water, if it is
handy, when the fire first erupts. Theresalso sand, and other mineral substances. But sometimes all
these methods cantdo the job. In such desperate situations, you might use dynamite to blow up
apart of the forest to make a clearing. Thats one way. Here in Korea, the oldway is to pile up huge
bundles of brush at the opposite side of the fire. Bothtechniques are a form of fighting fire with fire,
by choking the fire to death.
You resort to such a technique when the fire is particularly strong. Butyou use it only in the most
extreme cases. With diarrhea, its the same. In asevere case, you might have to fight diarrhea with
diarrhea. But only in rarecases, and not as a routine method. Diarrhea passes through the large
intestines.Below the large intestines, there is the rectum. Now, how would you physicallystop
diarrhea from passing through? The idea behind an anti-diarrhea medicineis what? To block the
flow of chyme through the large intestines as it headsfull speed toward the rectum, right? The
medicine thatll do the job wouldconstrict the large intestines and reduce the fluid content. That
means such amedicine, whether it be western or eastern, would be slippery or rough?
A: (silence)
Dont try to memorize formulas. You have to try to understand, just usingcommon sense, the
basic principles behind the efficacy of medicines. Say, yourchild has diarrhea, and all you have
available to administer to him are cheeseand some charcoal. Which would you use?
A: Charcoal.
Thats right. You might think it strange to feed a child charcoal, butremember way back when,
when those anti-diarrhea medicines came in packs with apig label on them? That was charcoal
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powder! Modified, of course, butessentially charcoal. In folk medicine, there is a recipe for a
concoctionusing a boiled egg, minus the yolk, and soot thats found under the ricecauldron. Perhaps
some of you advanced in years may remember using such amedicine.
Since I am demystifying the mystery of Eastern Medicine, you may no longersubscribe to it. But
I am willing to bear the consequence of telling youeverything straight: Namely, losing my business!
In Eastern Medicine, there is this thing called Charring/Blackening to aCrisp. Certain
medicines are prepared in this way. There is a story about awoman who was mighty displeased with
her doctors fees. She came home after oneof her visits to the doctor, and opened the package
containing the medicinespecially prepared for her. But what does she find inside? Some plain
oldgrass! Now, shes really fed up, and is cursing like a sailor. She decides toreturn the goods and
demand her money back. She tried to re-wrap the package,but found it to be inordinately difficult.
At that point, she smiled, realizingthat what cost so much was not the medicine, but the weird
wrapping. There waseven this guy who came home from the doctors, opening a package
containingnothing but charcoal. Boy, was he mad. But if what he got was real charcoal,then at least
hed gotten something that was properly prepared.
When the prescription calls for, say, schizonepeta21, gardenia fruit22 and dried ginger23
blackened to a crisp, that means thatit is burned black, while still retaining something of its original
form. Itslike when you burn a pork chop on the barbecue. When its a little overcooked,its charred.
But if its burned till its black all over, until you cantquite recognize what it once was, and it easily
crumbles between your fingersnow, thats crisp! This process requires skill, and is an art of
herbalpreparation. Its hard nowadays to find people who have really mastered it. Yousee, a given
substance can work in the complete opposite way, depending on howits prepared.
21. A commonly used herb for coldsand measles. It is charred to help stop bleeding.
22. An herb that clears heat andtoxins. Again, it is charred tohelp stop bleeding.
23. A root that warms up the entire body, including thedigestive system. It is also used for
resuscitation. It is slightly charred tohelp stop bleeding.
Ive spent a few years living with people who practice this art ofblackening to a crisp. And I
learned how to do it the old fashioned way, bystarting from the bottom. I have interns who have
finished med school, somewith PhDs even. But one and all, I make them start from the bottom:
burning,steaming, frying, distilling. Ive seen kids come out of med school who didnteven know
the term blackening to a crisp. Id ask them to blacken somethingto a crisp, and theyd bring
me something which looked like overcooked beans.
As I said, a substance will acquire different medicinal properties,depending on how it is treated.
There is for example, a medicine calledschizonepeta, which is sometimes prepared so that it
becomes somewhat yellowrather than black. On the other hand, there is an incredible medicine
calledzizyphus seed24, which is an excellent remedy for insomnia, even if itsnot blackened to a
crisp, but just blackened. But this same substance, if used aunaturel will actually keep you awake.
So, if someone comes to me and saysthat he sleeps too much, I whip out my trusty zizyphus seed.
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24.This herb is charred to help stop insommia.
But can it be proven scientifically, that burning a substance will changeits curative effect?
A: (silence)
Youd think the composition would basically be the same, right? Take ricefor example. Raw,
steamed, and fried. Same stuff, right? But it will reactdifferently inside your stomach, dont you
think?
Knowing things like this is ultimately more important than memorizing therecommended daily
requirement of calcium, vitamins, and minerals.
What about water? What is its chemical composition?
A: H2O.
Sure, youve all memorized the formula, but have you ever seen an H2Omolecule with your
naked eyes? No, the water that concerns us is rapidlyflowing water, falling water, spring water, or
even, morning dew and eveningdew. In Eastern Medicine, we consider all these types of water to be
differentin their Qi.
Huh Jun was a famous doctorwho lived during Chosun Dynasty (1392--1910). After attaining his
mastery ofITSO, he ran a clinic in the capital city of Hanyang (Seoul). He also made afamous
compilation of all the medicinal herbs. One day he went to the provincesto do some studies on
herbs. He happened to go to an area that had a large lakeas he was said to have enjoyed fishing. It is
said that he fished not to catchanything, but simply for the pleasure of sitting by the water. So, he
never usedany hooks! Anyway, the word got out among the locals that the famous doctorfrom the
capital had come to their neck of the woods. People soon gatheredaround him. One of them was a
woman who was having difficulty conceiving.
Ill tell you the remedy for such a case, but please dont use it. Itsjust a story that was told to
illustrate something of the thought-patternbehind Eastern Medicine.
Huh Jun told the woman todrink dew for a hundred days. Now, there are two kinds of dew:
morning dew andevening dew. Which do you think would be better for the woman?
A: (silence)
Observe carefully!
The woman followed the doctors orders and after a hundred days, becamepregnant. Nine
months later, she gave birth to a big, healthy baby. The storyof this incredible cure spread like
wildfire, and other women with the sameproblem started to drink dew. But these other women
failed to get pregnant, sothey complained to Huh Jun. So the doctor asked them, When did you
collect thedew?
The women replied, Morning and night, as we were impatient.
Ah, theres the clue. No wonder they couldnt get pregnant! What happensto morning dew when
the sun comes up?
A: (silence)
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It dissipates and evaporates. Pregnancy requires a fusion of energy. Thedew that is formed by
Yang Qi will have a tendency to diffuse and scatter. Thewomen should have drunk only the evening
dew, which is formed by Yin Qi,because it has the tendency to congeal energy.
Master Huh-Jun had a disciple who found this remedy most perplexing.Nowhere in the Yellow
Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine isthere a mention of dew as a remedyfor infertility. Of
course, there are certain pellet-tablets that are madeusing dew, and theres even a medicine whose
name contains the word dew, butits merely symbolic. To take an example, when making certain
medicines inpellet form, it is required to use the dew collected between the hours of 11:00PM - 1:00
AM on the night of the winter solstice. The fussiness required in thepreparation probably served to
remind the preparer that he should be thoroughlycareful in assembling the ingredients for the
medicine. But the disciple lethimself get perplexed over his Masters whimsical remedy, only
because he hadonly memorized the book without understanding the subtleties of the Yin andYang
dynamics. We too sometimes think like this disciple, and insist on doingeverything by the book.
Once there was a guru who would go by the ashram to offer his prayers. Butevery time he went,
a cat would follow him and distract his attention. So, theguru would tie the cat to a post for the
duration of his evening prayer. Evenafter the guru died, the other people would tie the cat come
evening prayertime. After a while, that cat died, and another cat came. So, the people tiedthe new
cat to the post, although this one never bothered anybody. People said,Its always been like this. A
few centuries later, people said, No eveningprayer can be offered without there first being a cat
tied to a post at theashram. Its a funny story, but its about us, isnt it? The foolishness ofHuhJuns disciple in thinking by the book, is really our own. Its alwaysbeen done that way, We
never learned it this way, so we shouldnt try it.
One day, Huh-Jun was enjoying his afternoon playing a game of chess, whena woman rushed to
him saying that her childs life was in danger. The child hadeaten too fast, and was having a severe
case of the cramps. Without lookingeven the least bit alarmed, Huh-Jun gave the woman a handful
of persimmonleaves, and told her to boil them, and feed them to the child.
Id like you to think about Huh-Juns prescription in light of the logicof Yin and Yang dynamics.
Leaves are not all alike.
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Chapter 8
The Turning Point of Symptoms:
Treating Constipation throughVomiting
and Diarrhea through Diuresis
Around June, leaves are gathered to make a particular tea called persimmontea. Around May or
June, by lunar reckoning, its full of vitamin C. Theresanother tea enjoying a resurgence of
popularity these days. And that is whattea? Thats right, its green tea. And we like best those leaves
that are justsprouting.
When are the leaves for green tea called jaksol tea (the fresh bud ofjaksol tree) picked?
A: (silence)
In the spring? In the fall?
A: (silence)
Tea leaves show a great difference in content when theyre just sproutingversus when theyre
withering.
This is easier: how about bamboo shoots? When do we eat them?
A: (silence)
You have to eat them when theyre just sprouting, because when they growup, they become?
A: Bamboo leaves.
A general analysis will show you that bamboo shoots and bamboo leaves areidentical in content.
But thats not so. They are completely different. Andyour stomach will be the first to let you know
that! Now, would anyone care fora serving of bamboo leaf salad? Probably not. But if you were to
eat it, whatare you more likely going to have? Diarrhea or constipation?
A: (silence)
Diamond and coal are identical in that they are both made of carbon, butthey are actually totally
different, in the same way that morning dew andevening dew are totally different. Lets say that you
want to make some tea outof persimmon leaves. Youre so enthusiastic about it that you collect
yourleaves in March. Would that be a good idea? No, because the leaves are highlytoxic at that
time. Not at all friendly like they would become in June. Andthey change again in the fall. It just
goes to show you how important it is tohave a proper understanding of how Yin and Yang function.
Vomiting through the top, and evacuating through the bottom is calledSudden Turmoil
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Syndrome (similar to cholera) and the inability to do eitherone is called Block and Repulsion.
You may have learned somewhere thatpersimmon leaves are good for indigestion. But if you apply
that informationany which way, then you could be asking for trouble. Discernment isindispensable
in Eastern Medicine.
I told you earlier about a process of herbal preparation calledCharring/Blackening to a Crisp.
Some woman came to me and took home a bag ofsuch medicine. She went home, opened the bag,
and thought Id given her a bunchof charcoal! But not all thats black is mere charcoal, even though
it may looklike it. Some patients even think that I made a mistake and overcooked themedicine.
Theyd call me on the phone, demanding to know what the big idea was.Theyd tell me that a
medicine has no curative effect once its been burnt.Then, Id have to reassure them that it was all
done properly and deliberately.
There is another method which goes a step further, and that method is calledNatural
Preservative Burning. This is a method which is used to makeashes. Ever notice how, if you burn
paper, itll turn black, but if you burn itlonger, it turns gray? Sometimes a remedy calls for a
medicine made of ashes.But its not common to find doctors who still maintain the rigor of
traditionalstandards. One who understands the theory behind it all would know theimportance of
ash-making, following the correct procedure.
A wise man once said, What you cannot do, require not of others.
Theres a story of a boy who loved sweets excessively. No matter how muchhis parents warned
him about cavities and all, the boy just wouldnt listen. Attheir wits end, the boys parents finally
sought the help of their familydoctor. They asked the doctor to talk some sense into the boy. So the
doctorsaid hed talk to the boy three days hence. Three days later, the parents tookthe boy and went
back to see the doctor. The doctor said to them, Come back intwo weeks.
Things continued in this manner, until some three months had gone by. Thenthe doctor told the
boy to cut down on his sugar intake, and this time, the boyquit his addiction. Seeing this, the parents
complained to the doctor, saying,If you had told him this three months ago, he would have stopped
then! Butthe doctor replied, I, too, like sweets. I thought I could quit in three days,but it ended up
taking me three whole months to finally control the craving. IfI couldnt do it, why should I expect
the boy to do it?
It is a story close to my heart, and I try to bear it in mind as I goabout my duties as a doctor.
All right, lets get back to the business of burning stuff for health.Now, what condition, do you
suppose, might require a medicine thats beenburned to a crisp?
A: Suffering from diarrhea.
Anyone else care to take a guess?
A: Melena.
Yes. That is correct, thank you. When you are discharging blood downbelow. What is diarrhea,
after all?Isnt it a discharge of liquid? Think simply. Blood, too, is a liquid, no? Whenwomen have
it, its called menses. But sometimes one can discharge blood in thestool as well. Lets say youre
discharging blood down there. So you rush homeand burn a bunch of paper and eat it. Well, you
may have done the right thing,given the magnitude of the emergency. But, lets consider the details.
Wouldyou have to be fat or skinny?
A: Fat.
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Yes, thats right. No matter how severe the bleeding, eating ashes wouldnot be advisable for a
skinny person. Are you beginning to get a feel for this?Ash has a tendency to absorb, right? How
about burnt food? Would it be good fora fat person or a skinny one?
A: (silence)
Would it be good for someone suffering from constipation or diarrhea?
A: (silence)
If you know the answers, youve got it made. Burnt food would be good forsomeone who was
overweight, and who had the runs. If you have among your lovedones someone who is skinny but
loves his or her food burnt, you might tell thatperson to go easy on the carbon.
Those of you who have read my Revolution in Eastern Medicine may alreadyknow this. But for
those of you who dont know yet, Ill go over the lesson.The urinal duct is called what Yin?
A: Frontal Yin.
And the excremental duct is what Yin?
A: Rear Yin.
Very good. And when what ought to be separated is not,its called diarrhea. But there are many
kinds of diarrhea. The kind that runsout, like out of a broken jar as you pour water into it, is
calledthoroughflux diarrhea. And the kind that comes out like melted cheese orbutter is called
soft stool diarrhea. And then, there is a type of stoolwhich is like diarrhea, called efflux
diarrhea. There is also this thingcalled water diarrhea, which is like the squirting of a water
pistol. Inthese dire cases wed want to use something blackened to a crisp. Of course,this is a
primitive method. The whole idea of using such a medicine is to stopup the bunghole. So what
happens when we put a cap on the bunghole? Itsflooding on the inside, so whats going to happen?
Its going to go back up, thatswhat. In extreme cases, it might back up out the mouth. But, heck,
what are yougonna do?
The mouth and the anus, as the two ends of a single tube, are extremelyimportant. Lets look at
the body, minus the complex stuff, and youll see atube. Remember the pipette in your school
chemistry lab? Its a glass tubebasically, with both ends open. A pipette, as you know, will hold a
liquid atthe same level as the depth of its immersion. But does it always?
Pipette
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A: Yes.
No! Youve got to stop up the top first. If you dont, the liquid drainsout as you pull the pipette
up. If you want to draw a certain amount of liquidout with a pipette, you have to stop up the top
first. So using this analogy,Im going to tell you a method of treatment for constipation. Just rememberthat the mouth-to-anus route is anagous to a pipette.
Someone who keeps his mouth shut all the time would tend to be what?
A: (silence)
Constipated. Which means what? The top is stopped up. So if we want tocure constipation, we
have to?
A: Vomit.
Thats right. Inducing vomit will help to relieve constipation. I used totell my patients suffering
from constipation to drink a glass of salt water andvomit. But, Ive become weary of doing that.
Why? Because its a thankless job,as most people would rather I give them real medicine.
But, of course, sometimes medicine is necessary. We said earlier thatmedicine for constipation is
generally what?
A: (silence)
Rough or slippery? If you know the answer, you can apply it right away inyour daily diet.
Something oily in an empty stomach would be best. And if youdrink coffee first thing in the
morning, you might add more water, dont forgetthe cream! Those who are constipated but would
insist on appearing extra-civilizedby taking their coffee black are (and will continue to be) full of
shit.
Using the technique weve just learned, we can eject something else thatoften refuses to exit the
body. What might that be?
A: The menses.
What else?
A: Urine.
Yes, that too. What else?
A: Gas.
What else?
A: Babies.
Thats right. Babies. I said women have which meridian that is highlydeveloped?
A: (silence)
The Ren (Conception) Meridian. If you add the character for girl ( ) in front of the character
to entrust ( ), you have the character for pregnant ( ), right? Even though you think that
what Im sayingholds water, your lower lip protrudes. By the end of our lecture, it will stickway
out.
Because women have this meridian developed to a greater degree than do men,women have a
strong urge toward pregnancy. Besides, the Good Lord made it thatway. But, the joys of pregnancy
aside, what happens when the baby wont comeout? Whats the common practice these days? A
Caesarian Section. Its no picnicfor the mother, Ill tell you that! But how did they used to do it
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beforeCaesar came along?

Since the time of Hippocrates, doctors in the West used to carry a specialtool. Any idea what that
was?
A: A knife.
Something less intimidating. Ive already given you plenty of hints up tonow. Especially for a
gynecologist, it was a must. You can read about in anyHistory of Medicine book.
A: (silence)
Liquor?
A: A brush.
A brush?
A: A quill.
Thats right! A quill! What do we do when we want to induce vomiting?Stick a finger down the
throat, right? But, sometimes even a finger is notenough; you need something longer. Thats why
the doctors of old used to carrya feather with them when they went to deliver a baby.
Thats what an ancient Intuner meant when he said, All things have theirusefulness. In other
words, there is nothing in the world that cannot in someway help you to become enlightened. We
must keep in mind that there was once agreat monk who attained enlightenment upon hearing the
wind blowing through a bamboogrove, and another who got enlightened upon seeing a flower
bloom. Sir IsaacNewton discovered the idea of gravity upon seeing an apple fall, and James
Wattwas able to clarify the principle of steam power after staring at a boilingkettle. Millions have
seen things fall and water boil, but they failed to havean insight into the nature of the universe. All
because of the failure to makea subtle observation.
What do we do in Eastern Medicine when a baby refuses to pop out? We use?
A: Fo Shou San25 (Buddha Hand Powder).
25. A formula consisting of two herbs--angelica andligusticum.
Very good!
My love is gone, through the blue hue of the mountain That was writtenby a poet named
Han Yong-Un. He was a friend of Master Mahn Gongs. Master Haneventually became a monk
himself. Do you know why he ended up leaving home? Yousee, his wife was about to give birth,
and she was going through a lot of pain.So, he was out fetching some Buddha Hand Powder when a
thought struck him.
That kids gonna drive me insane, no doubt. And my wife is gonna use thekid as an excuse to
drive me insane. What the hell is this life all about,anyway? Where am I from? Where am I going?
Why the hell am I running aroundfetching this stuff?
He decided on a career change, right then and there, and left home.
Anyway, as the name suggests the Buddha Hand Powder is a medicineconsidered to be as
compassionate as the Buddhas hands. But, if this medicinecouldnt solve the problem, one had to
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resort to using the quill in the old days.

One day, Master Huh Jun went fishing. People at the village nearby came tohim, and told him
that a baby wouldnt come out. After asking some routinequestions, Master Huh Jun abruptly asked
whether there was any stream with astrong current flowing nearby. The people told him there was
such a stream.Then the master asked if there were any lichen-covered stones in the stream.The
people said yes. The master told them to gather these stones and boil themin a cauldron, and then
have the woman drink the boiled water. The Masterspupil looked perplexed, and thought his
master might be wrong since there wasno mention of this remedy in any of the texts that hed read.
The pupil is somuch like todays doctors, who only know what is in the books!
But really, what is it to know something? One day a man told his friendthat he became a
Christian. So his friend said, Then you must know quite a bitabout Jesus. Where was he born?
I dunno.
Then, for how many years did he go around preaching, and when did he die?
I dunno.
How come you dont know anything about what you believe in? the friendcriticized.
The man replied, All I know is that before I became a Christian, I was adrunk and a gambler. I
tormented my family in many ways. But now, I dontdrink, and have paid off all my debts, and have
become a better father andhusband. I know I was able to do all this because of Jesus.
Ladies and gentlemen, now isnt this really knowing?
A few days ago, a group of med students from H. University came to see me.They told me that
they held discussions among themselves over my lectures. Ifelt so proud of their diligence, I
decided to give more lectures during thenext summer break. More doctors should listen to my
lectures. Why? Because Imake the principles easy to understand.
This story about drinking boiled lichen to ease birth labors is only astory talking about the interrelatedness of things. I wouldnt want you to goout and start collecting lichen from streams to solve
similar problems.
When I was studying the theory of Yin and Yang, I heard a great deal ofparables from my
teacher. Schools dont teach this way any more, but my teacherused to tell us a parable every three
months or so. These parables were helpfulin driving home an image. A student who remembers the
story of Master Huh-Junsunconventional remedy will later remember to prescribe a medicine with
slipperycharacteristics under similar circumstances. Hell at least know not to useanything dried
and rough. All things being equal, wouldnt something like eelmake a better medicine than say,
bread sticks in such a case?
Yes, one woman had results following Master Huh-Juns advice, but anotherwoman didnt. The
villagers returned to ask the master, It didnt work. Whatdo we do now? So, Huh-Jun went to see
the woman himself. What do you think hedid? What would you have done?
A: (silence)
He had no chicken feathers on hand. So, what to do?
A: Stick your finger down her throat.
Please! Show a little respect to the lady! What are we going to do?
A: (silence)
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Huh-Jun undid the ladys hair, and shoved a clump of it down her throat!And out shot the baby!
Again, the pupil was astonished to see a remedy sooutrageous. This method is not recorded in any
classic texts. Its just alegend, thats all.
One thing you could take with you from these stories is this: if youredaughter or wife is having
difficulties during labor, just make her vomit. Thepoint Im making here is that nature has curative
powers built into everything.The principle involved in easing labor pains is the same one involved
inrelieving constipation and urination. But remember, this technique should onlybe used under
extreme cases. Normally, you should go to a hospital to get thejob done.
Let me tell you about another technique thats even more amazing. Thebody, as we said earlier, is
a kind of tube. And the mouth serves as the lid tothis tube. But what is on top of the lid?
A: (silence)
The top of the head, of course. There is a meridian point up there calledBai Hui (DU-20) or a
Hundred Gathering. If we were to apply moxibustion upthere, would it help to relieve diarrhea or
constipation?
A: (silence)
Acupuncture follows the same principle.
Take diarrhea medicine, for example. Is it supposed to make you stophaving diarrhea, or make
you have more of it? In other words, is it supposed tostop you up, or open the sluices? Stop you up,
obviously. Moxibustion conjuresup an image of stopping up, doesnt it? So moxibustion is used
to help onesuffering from diarrhea. This is especially so in very severe case where thepatient is
dehydrating; we apply moxibustion on that spot after shaving thehead clean. One or two
applications usually does the job.
What about the case of a patient with constipation? Normally, one avoidsputting the needle to
DU-20, except in the most severe cases, so as tostimulate the circulation of Qi. But all this implies
the assumption that thebody is analogous to a tube. But theres another way of looking at the
body:From the inside out. And from that viewpoint, we see a hole on the outside.What is that hole
called?
A: (silence)
The tube model orients the body vertically, into a top and a bottom. Butfrom inside out, the body
has holes on the outside, and they are?
A: The pores.
Correct. Now, under what condition, and for what, would sweating be good?
A: Urinary problems.
Correct, when one has trouble peeing. But would sweating be good forsomeone who is thin? No,
not really. A fat person who has either constipationor trouble urinating could benefit from
perspiring.
All right, lets go back to our starting point. We defined diarrhea asthat condition in which urine
and feces are mixed. Liquids and solids have tobe mixed in a balanced way, otherwise you have
either constipation or diarrhea.This talk about moxibustion and everything else, theyre all
secondary. Juststopping the bunghole is plain brutal. So, what to do? How are we going tohandle
diarrhea without plugging the Rear Yin?
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A: Through urine.
Thats right. Separate the liquid and let it go out the front. Theres noneed to think in a complex
way about the body. The body has different meridiansfor different things, so we just have to use
them. Simplicity is a virtue injust about everything. Even when it comes to healing, we have to go
for thesimple methods before resorting to the fancy techniques.
We can simply use a diuretic to stop diarrhea. It sounds kind of homely,doesnt it? But it works.
When it comes to diarrhea, people will use fancywords like colitis, Dupuytrens abscess, colitis
nervosa, irritable bowelsyndrome, dysentery bacillus, and what not. But whatever the name, we
have totreat it, and we might consider using diuretics in at least 50% of the cases.In other words, we
should be looking for an ingredient that will promote theflow of urine. So whatever the name,
weve got to first separate the liquidfrom the solid. I know a pharmacist of Western Medicine who
heard about usingdiuretics to cure diarrhea, so he mixed some in with his brand of medicine andgot
great results! Should we criticize him? No! We should be grateful to theman.
You might think all this stuff about using diuretics is obvious, but itsnot really. Modern doctors
never thought of it, nor the pharmacists. Not evenpractitioners of Eastern Medicine, except those
steeped in the art of theirscience, know this. Most of them dont know enough to put in ingredients
likeplantain, akebia, alisma and juncus, which are all diuretics.
Eastern Medicine is strictly about observing simply and purely. Thatswhy, theoretically
speaking, in the initial phase of diarrhea treatment, adiuretic is prescribed. The cause of diarrhea is
due to the liquid canals notchanneling the liquids properly. Thats why we use diuretics to clear
thecanals. Just as the solar system obeys an orderly cycle of revolutions, so mustthe body keep to its
rhythm of cycles. Just as the head has its function, somust the waste canals perform their given
responsibilities.
What is the food that makes you pee well?
A: (silence)
For example, what fruit does this job well?
A: Watermelon.
Right. So, suppose you fed a lot of watermelons to someone suffering fromdiarrhea. Would that
stop the diarrhea?
A: (silence)
See, thats why we need to look at the watermelons characteristics.Because watermelons have
cold Qi, they could aggravate the condition.Therefore, ideally, we would want to look for
something that would keep theinsides warm, but still function as a diuretic. You could feed porridge
to theperson in question. But if that alone doesnt help, you could run to yourpharmacists and get
some diuretic and administer that too. Youll get at leasta 50% success rate.
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Chapter 9
A Tree that Grows Leaning to theEast, Falls to the East
Theres a saying: Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. Indeed, whocould know the
future? But we can learn to discern patterns that show a certainflow of things, such that we could
even say that person of such-and-such typemight take extra precautions in such-and-such year, or in
such-and-such a kindof environment. For example, would it be better, generally speaking, for
askinny person to live in the desert, or by the sea?
A: By the sea.
Ah, youre beginning to see. What about a fat person? By the sea or in thedesert?
A: The desert.
Very good. In the same way, you know who would benefit from eating lettuceand who would
benefit from eating aloe. If you get good at bunting, you wouldget good at hitting home runs
eventually. Likewise, it doesnt take much tobecome a doctor or a pharmacist. So if you start with
the basics for a fewyears, youll get good enough to gauge the character of things just by onelook.
And this ability will help you to assess not just people, but alsoplants. With just one look, youll
know which plant will thrive where.
Say theres an apple. And it happens to be particularly sour. What couldwe guess about the
environmental condition in which it ripened?
A: A lot of wind.
Thats right. That is definitely a good possibility.
Do you know what fruit thrives well in windy places? Quinces. Quinces growwell in windy
places like the foot of the mountain. With just one look at theearth, you could get a general idea of
what grows there. Just as great parentsproduce great children, superior teachers produce superior
pupils. Likewise,fertile soil produces sweet fruits. Man, no less than plants, is shaped by
hisenvironment. Thats why theres an old saying: If born in the bamboo grove,even an ivy will
grow straight, and even the white sand will become dark ifburied in mud. It just goes to show you
how important environmental factorsare in shaping ones character.
A long time ago, there was a monk who had a peculiar way of speaking. Hedmispronounce the
name of the Bodhisattva of Compassion during his daily prayer.Instead of pronouncing it Gwan Se
M, hed say Gwan Se Am.But that didnt stop him from acquiring spiritual acumen. One day, a
scholarlymonk came to the temple, and heard the former mispronounce the name, anddecided to
correct the man.
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Its Gwan Se M, not Gwan Se Am. See to it that youpronounce the sacred name correctly.
The first monk replied, All my life Ive been pronouncing the name GwanSe Am, and I have
had no problem saying my prayers. Why should I change itnow?
Thereupon ensued an argument which clearly was not going to reach aconclusion. Therefore,
they decided to seek the judgment of a Master. But thefirst monk secretly went to see the Master
first and told him, Sir, Im beingchallenged by a pedantic scholar monk who claims Im wrong to
pronounce thename as Gwan Se Am, despite the fact that Im recognized for myspiritual
achievements. When we come before you tomorrow, please rule in myfavor. After all, what
difference does the pronunciation make as long as onehas seen results?
Hearing this, the Master said, I see your point, but I might see itbetter with a full stomach.
The Master was fond of noodles, so the monk served him a bowl of noodles.After downing the
contents of the bowl in a gulp, the Master said, All right,Ill be on your side. Dont worry. So,
feeling secure of his victory, thefirst monk left.
Shortly afterwards, the scholar monk came stealthily, with a similarrequest. The Master also
happened to be fond of pumpkin porridge. So the monkserved him a bowl, and made his request,
saying, Sir, ignorance is one thing,but stupidity is another. We cannot let stupidity prevail by
refusing to let afellow monk admit that he is ignorant. Please rule in my favor.
With his tongue delighted and his stomach full, the Master said, Fine.Ill rule in your favor.
The next day, the quarreling monks appeared before the Master forjudgment, each confident that
hed win. But the Master said with a straightface, In the Noodle Sutra, it is written that the name of
the Bodhisattva ofCompassion is Gwan Se Am. And in the Pumpkin Sutra, it is Gwan Se
M.Ahem!
Ah yes, the world is filled with people who will nitpick over minutiaejust because they think
what they know is definitive and certain. I know an oldMaster who says to me whenever I go to see
him, Ghm Oh, I mussed you, instead of sayingI missed you. But so what? Its the sentiment
thats real, isnt it?
Theres a story about a professor in England who went to the john, andwouldnt come out. So his
students began to worry about him, thinking somethinghad happened to him. They went to the
lavatory to see what was the matter, andfound their professor writing on the stall walls. So they
said, Professor,what are you doing? Why are you writing graffiti when youve told us not to
doso?
The professor replied, Im correcting the grammar.
Man is a creature of habits, and it is by habits that he defines himself.Academics are in the habit
of evaluating truth according to knowledge. Thosewho are in the habit of being truthful through the
heart will naturally tend tolook for the meaning beneath the visible form, whereas those who are in
thehabit of seeking the truth of the letter will look for meaning in the form.Thats why one
shouldnt take habits lightly. And thats what is meant by theold saying, Even a great tree will fall
to the East if it grew leaning to theEast.
The cycle of the years, as laid out in the I Ching, allows you tosee a pattern that regulates the
web that connects man to the rest of nature.Lets take a look at the relationships between the
trigrams and the meridians:
1 - Qian( ) - Tian( ) : Heaven is related to the Du Meridian(Governor Vessel
)
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2 - Dui( ) - Ze( ) : Pond is related to the Greater Yin Meridian (

3 - Li( ) - Hua( ) : Fire is related to the Lesser Yin Meridian (
)
)
4 - Zhen( ) - Lei( ) : Thunder is related to theLesser Yang Meridian (
5 - Xun( ) - Feng( ) : Wind is related to the Declining Yin Meridian.(
6 - Kan( ) - Shui( ) : Water is related to the Greater Yang Meridian.(
7 - Gen( ) - Shan( ) : Mountain is related to the Bright Yang Meridian.(
8 -Kun( ) - Di( ) : Earth is related to the Ren Meridian(Conception Vessel
You can see, at least graphically, how the varioustrigrams are correlated to the meridians and
colors. Look at the 7 - Gen( ) - Shan( ) trigram. What is its meridian?
A: Bright Yang.
Correct. And its color is?
A: Red.
No, its white.
What can you say about Korea, when you view it fromthe sky? It has a lot of mountains. So what
might that say about the Koreans?They might have a lot of pent up anguish. And they might tend to
preferwhite-colored clothes. And what about the food? Would a race like the Koreans,living in a
land like Korea, tend to prefer sweet and sour food, or hot andspicy food? They just might be partial
to more hot foods. A land with a lot ofmountains. That bit of information is enough to give you
some inkling of whatthe people might be like, even down to their music. They just might go for
sadsongs or songs that speak of the woes of the heart. Come to think of it, allKorean songs are like
that, arent they? The most famous folk song Arirang isjust such a song, isnt it? Full of longing
and anguish.
If you study the life-pattern of our people, youll beable to discern a pattern of illnesses that arise
within it, which means youllbe able to get a general idea of what sort of methods are called for in
thecure. Im only saying that things are only generally like this.
Ive taken a long detour in talking about thetrigrams, and thats because what Im about to say
from here on out about thetrigrams is really difficult. But first, well need to recognize
somethingbasic. And that is that the three types of rhythm-physical, emotional, andintellectualmake up the basic rhythm structure by which we exist as organicbeings. And there exists a certain
energy that determines the state in which wefeel either satisfied or unsatisfied, as a function of that
basic rhythm. Thismight be a little confusing, so let me put it this way: think about when youare
comfortably stuffed after a good meal versus when youre so hungry that youcould just keel over.
The energy involved in your sensation of each of thesestates is completely different, right?
Takesomeone who is severely hunched over. Now, maybe that person has a bad back.But if its
not a case of a bad back, we might surmise that that person mayhave known hunger for the greater
portion of his life. In any case, if we wereto try to cure this problem with acupuncture of course,
we dont have to useneedles necessarily; one could even use the fingernails to press on the
points.But where shall we press? Shall we press the Ren (Conception) Meridian or theDu
(Governor) Meridian?
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A:(silence)
What about a person who is bent backwards from havingeaten too much all his life?
A:Governor Vessel.
GovernorVessel?
A: Conception Vessel.
Conception Vessel? In this case we can press both meridians. The problem is how.Lets say, for
example, that the Governor Vessel flows in the direction of thearrow . Shall we press the
meridian in the direction of the flow, or inthe opposite direction? Thats whats important. One who
is hunched over islikely to have experienced a good deal of dissatisfaction in acquiring thebasic
necessities of life. Moreover, if he is thin, and most likely he will be,we could reasonably surmise
that his Governor Vessel will be more developed thanhis Conception Vessel. In thiscase, even if we
should press both of his meridians, we should go about it insuch a way as to increase the flow of the
Conception Vessel, and lessen that of the GovernorVessel. Therefore, in pressing the Governor
Vessel, wed want to do so againstthe flow of its meridian, and in pressing the Conception Vessel,
wed do so with the flow of themeridian.
Lets say the direction of the Conception Vessel flow of a fat person goes likethis. In which
direction should we press his Conception Vessel?
A:(silence)
Come on, people! Work this one out with me. Is the: ]Conception Vessel Yin, or is itYang?
A: Yin.
Yin?
A: Yang.
Yang? Now, dont let me bully you into changing youranswers. If a person has a thicker lower
lip, proportionally speaking, is thatperson more likely going to be thin or fat?
A: Fat.
Thats right. And in general, people with a strongerConception Vessel usually tend tobe kind and
giving. Look at the way people speak. The words we use, dependingon the circumstance, show the
meridians in action. For example, when one isreally angry, and says F**k you! the stress is in the
upper lip. In fact, thelower lip is practically swallowed by the upper teeth. But when one is
feelingromantic, and says I love you, notice how the stress is in the lower lip. So,if one is Yang,
then the other is Yin.
If a meridian is flowing in a particular direction,and you press it in the direction of its flow, its
called tonification,meaning supplementing or helping. When you tonify something, it
meansyoure boosting the energy contained within it, so that the energy can flow.When you press
against the flow, its called sedation, meaning draining orreducing.
Take a person with a more developed Governor Vessel,with a more pronounced upper lip. If we
press the meridian of hisConception Vessel in the directionof the flow, would that make him gain or
lose weight?
A: (silence)
Basically, it would make him gain weight. Why do yousuppose that would happen?
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Sometime ago, some man who was not a doctor of EasternMedicine was on TV outlining the
meridian theory behind massage techniques. Imyself couldnt tell whether what the man was doing
was a massage or acop-a-feel. Well, to those of us who understand the principle of the
meridianflow, the mans theory was just childs play. When we apply acupuncture, we arealways
careful about calibrating the tonification and sedation of the meridianflow.
So, anyway, what about a fat person? Which meridianwould we want to block, and which to let
flow? In other words, should we blockthe Yin Meridian? Or, would we want to increase its flow?
A: (silence)
Wed want to block the Yin Meridian by sedating itsflow, whereas wed want to tonify the Yang
Meridian to flow better.
Once I saw a child who had a congenitally dominantupper lip. So I asked the mother, Does he
tend to cry a lot, throwing temperfits, and asking a lot of questions? Is he stubborn and possessive?
The mother was surprised and asked me how I knew.
By the lips! I said. Kids like that are always onguard. They wont go to bed at bedtime either!
They dont let their parentshave even a moment of time for themselves. So, then, how shall we treat
such achild? Do we want to tonify his Conception Vessel or his Governor Vessel? Naturally, wed
want to boost hisConception Vessel.
Of course, doing acupuncture without a license couldland you in some serious trouble. But not
having a license doesnt mean youcant practice good health care. You can apply what youve
learned in yourselection of foods, and so on.
First try to remember that the first or Heaven trigramcorresponds to the Du or Governor Vessel
and the eighth or Earth trigramcorresponds to the Ren or Conception Vessel. The next set of words
you need to get familiar with are GreaterYin, Lesser Yin, Lesser Yang, Declining Yin, Greater
Yang, and Bright Yang. Ifyou would refer back to the table on page xxx (CORRECT LATER after
editingis done), youll see that theres a <P+>, for example. Here,<P> stands for physical rhythm,
and <+> means satisfaction. Sothen, <P-> means dissatisfaction with regard to physical rhythm;
<E+> and <E-> means satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively,with regard to emotional
rhythm; and, <I+> and <I-> refers to satisfactionand dissatisfaction, respectively, with regard to
intellectual rhythm. Simpleenough?
If you look up Bright Yang, youll see that it goeswith the condition characterized by a state of
dissatisfaction with physicalrhythm. It could mean a condition brought on by hunger, for example.
Now, howwould we go about treating a person under this sign? Should we treat hisGreater Yin?
A: (silence)
Were going to speak strictly in terms oftonification. Should we tonify the Greater Yin Meridian,
or the Bright YangMeridian?
A: (silence)
Were going to have to study the chart a little morecarefully. I said before that the elements in the
chart can be paired up if youfold the chart. In treatment, when Yin is full, either reduce Yin or
tonify theenergy of its complement, Yang. Therefore, Greater Yin and Bright Yang arepairs. That
means, wed want to tonify the Greater Yin Meridian, and drain theBright Yang Meridian. But, this
concept is a bit too difficult for now, soLets say you drank a lot of beer the night before. Would
it be better to drinkcold water or hot water the next morning?
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A: Cold water.
Cold water?
A: Hot water.
Hot water?
Before you take a wild guess, you should first figureout whats in beer. So, what if you drank a
lot of scotch? Which would bebetter for you then?
A: Hot water.
What! Hot water?!
With the exception of very special cases, one treatsYang with Yin, and vice versa. Cold with hot,
and hot with cold. Thats thebottom line when it comes to Yin and Yang application. Eastern
Medicine isbasically an enlargement of this fundamental principle. The Conception andGovernor
Vessels are two important applications of this principle, meeting atthe lips. This meeting at the lips
is called the Crossing of Qi.
The terms Greater Yin and Bright Yang are merely signsmade through a linguistic contract. Lets
take a look at the difference betweenbeing full and being hungry in terms of economics, that is to
say, money. Awake is taking place at a home. All the men get together in the back of thehouse,
spread a blanket and commence a game of Go-Stop (Korean versionof Black Jack) which will last
all night. Did you know that some peoplehave been known to slip their discs from playing Go-Stop
too long (because theyplay sitting hunched over on the floor for such a long time)? Anyway, the
manwins some money, and tells his wife, Honey, dont worry about me. Im going tostay up
tonight.
The wife, who is not entirely unhappy that her husbandhas won some money, will nevertheless
tell him to stop playing and get to bed.All the while shes voicing her concern, the wife herself is
looking over themans shoulder to see if hes winning or not. Her face crumbles when herhusbands
money goes into anothers hands, and beams with pride when he rakesin a pile of money. On and
off, the wife puts on a thousand faces.
A crow grabbed a piece of meat and took to the air. Nosooner was he airborne than a bunch of
other crows came at him trying to stealhis food. He couldnt resist any more, so finally, he let go of
his dinner. Thecrow breathed a sigh of relief, and said to himself, At last, some peace!
Money, money, money. Having it doesnt guaranteehappiness. But still, when it rolls in, when
you know that you are financiallysecure, you do feel mighty different, thats for sure.
One day, an Intuner was getting ready to spend a nightunder a tree when a farmer came running
to him. Breathless, the farmer told theIntuner that a god had appeared to him in a dream, and told
him a strangething: An enlightened man sleeps under a tree just outside the village.
Theenlightened man is carrying a treasure. Ask him to give it to you. With it youwill become rich.
Upon hearing that the Intuner said nothing, and took out thejade he had picked up in the mountain
from his pocket and gave it to the man.After returning home with the jade, the man thought over the
whole thing. Afterstaying up all night thinking about it, he went back to the Intuner, andbeseeched
him.
Sir, give me the real treasure: the freedom of theheart that allowed you to give away such a
precious stone so easily!
Indeed,what treasure could be more precious than a mind free from material obsession?
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Not eating because youre too busy; and not beingable to eat because you have no money.
Theres a huge difference between thetwo. And just what is that difference? When you have plenty,
and you feel goodabout it, we call such a state Fullness in the Hand Tai-Yin Lung
Meridian.Remember, <P+> shows satisfaction with ones physical rhythm. You allknow that the
concept of Hand Tai-Yin means Lung. But look at the radical ( , which is identical to ) in the
character for the Lung ( ). It refers to meat ( ), not to the moon, ( ). All the characters that
denote the organs and theviscera contain the radical for meat. And notice that theres a character
formarket ( ) next to the radical for meat.This is no accident. Theres a lot of wisdom here. How
do we write thecharacter for liver? Like this ( ),right? So, what is this character ( )? Yes,it means
shield. Do you think the ancients thought like this because they hadnothing better to do? Not so.
In Eastern Medicine, we call skin problems YinZhen (
), which is rash (urticaria) in Western
Medicine. Here the characterYin contains the character ( ), meaning hidden, and the character Jin
( ), meaning rash. So thatmeans the character Yin implies a Yin-type of disease, whereas Zhen
( ) implies that its red and rising (a Yang-type of disease, in otherwords). So which is more likely
to cause itching? One things for sure, one ofthem will definitely be itchy. Chinese characters have a
strange and mysteriousquality about them. If sweating is to be prescribed, which one should it
address?Zhen ? Yin?
Chapter 10
Tonifyingthe Deficient, Sedating the Excessive
All right, back to the shield. The people ofantiquity who created the (Chinese) characters were
clearly quite consciousabout what they were doing. And the great minds of the East took
particularlygreat pains in formulating the medical terminology.
The liver that I am talking about here is not thephysical liver, which we can palpate as being hard
or not by pressing under theright rib. What I am discussing here is the Liver Meridian. The
meridians arenot visible to the eye, nor can they be dissected for examination. But theyundeniably
exist! Lets say youre watching a horror movie, and at the climaxyou are face to face with some
unspeakably scary scene. Do you feel cold orhot? Of course you feel the chills running up the spine,
dont you? And whenyoure playing the game of Go-Stop (Korean version of Black Jack)and
youre winning, do you feel hot or cold?
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A: You feel the chills when you lose money.

What? Is that possible when youre all hot andbothered?
A: You feel the chills when you win.
What! Dont you all get messed up, now. Im tricky asa fox, you know.
When you see a shadowy figure creeping up frombehind, holding a nasty looking knife, ready to
cut someones head off, youddefinitely feel the chills. The emotion you feel is fear. This cold Qi,
does itgo down the spine, or does it go down toward the belly?
A: Down the spine.
Correct. It leaves a trace of a chilling sensation.Its formless, but a meridian is the medium that
carries that chillingsensation. Its sort of like when a leaf sways, you know there was a breeze,even
if you cant see the breeze per se.
Greater Yang has the essence of cold water. Themeridian that flows behind the head is called the
Foot Greater Yang BladderMeridian. In the old days, people used to say that their bladder hurt when
infact they had back pain. Sometimes theyd also say that their Huan Tiao (a nameof an
acupuncture point GB-30) was standing. In so saying, people of old werereferring to their
Bladder Meridian, not to their bladders per se. Because ofterminological differences, its easy to get
confused. So, dont try tounderstand the meridians in terms of modern physiological jargon.
Anyway, the Foot Greater Yang Bladder Meridian runsdown the spine. What Im saying is that
you all have a subterranean stream,as it were, inside your bodies. So that would mean theres a
source, a spring,where the stream originates from. For sure! And what influences this meridianis the
sensation of fear. So, if a person has no fear whatsoever, would thisstream flow in that person? No,
it wouldnt. And, such a person would be moresusceptible to what? A hot disease, or a cold
one?
A: A hot disease.
What do we call someone who is rash and fearless? Wesay that he has a bloated liver. Without
any fear, with too much gall, onewould be impudent. Actually, its good to have a moderate amount
of fear.
I once had to treat a female college student. She wasmugged one night while she was walking
home alone. She was so severelytraumatized by the event that she was practically paralyzed for a
whole year.So she came to see me. Can you imagine how frightened she must have been? Youcan
never be too careful these days. Defense! You have to have some fear! Youhave to keep your eyes
open. If youre walking by yourself, humming a tune,thinking everythings just hunky-dory, well,
you could be setting yourself upfor an unpleasant surprise.
Anyway, when we speak of the Foot Greater YangBladder Meridian, we speak in terms of
locks, precaution, and quietude.It is said in the Bible that God showed a rainbow to Noah as
a sign of Hispromise to never again destroy the world with water. But, it also says that Godwill
judge us using Fire the next time around. Were presently living in a timeof Fire, and the stream
within us is drying up. Which is why the world is sounquiet. The appearance of AIDS in our time
has to do with the weakening of theFoot Greater Yang Bladder Meridian. I believe that its possible
to treat AIDSby working on the Foot Greater Yang Bladder Meridian with acupuncture for aboutsix
months.
Generally, a person whose Foot Greater Yang BladderMeridian is damaged will likely suffer
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from a hot disease. And what can wesurmise about a person suffering from a hot disease? That
person would mostlikely be lacking the fear necessary to let flow the cold water within.Especially
in the case of women, if they begin to lose the sensibility for fear,they lose their calm, as well as
their defensive reflexes, to say nothing oftheir ethical rectitude. The Foot Greater Yang Bladder
Meridian functions toset up a DMZ (demilitarized zone) between oneself and others.
Which season would be best for showing a horrormovie? In the summer, or in the winter?
A: (silence)
I think summer would be better. All the people in themovie business know this, even if they
dont know anything about the theory ofmeridians. But, last winter, they made the mistake of
releasing Gremlins.It did miserably at the box office. Had they released it in the summer, itwould
have done well. So, what sort of movie would be good in the winter?
A: A romantic comedy.
Yes, to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Butin the summer, romantic themes wont do as
well. Greater Yang, therefore,belongs to <E->.
If you look at the chart, youll see that, aboveGreater Yang, it says Kan: Water, and its partner
is Lesser Yin. Put thewords Monarch Fire next to Lesser Yin, and you get Lesser Yin Monarch
Fire. Ialready mentioned the concept of Monarch Fire earlier. Where did I say MonarchFire was
located on this planet? Which Fire do we call by this name?
A: The fire in the center of the earth.
And Ministerial Fire?
A: The sun.
Even with Ministerial Fire, theres Hot MinisterialFire, and there is Cold Ministerial Fire. And
so, in relation to Earth, the Qiof the moon would be considered to be the Qi of Cold Fire. When we
light a firebecause its cold, that fire would be Monarch Fire. But if we light a firebecause its dark,
thats Ministerial Fire.
Where on your body do you carry light with which tobrighten whats around you to see better?
The eyes, naturally. So, when thefire in the eyes are dim, and you have trouble distinguishing whats
what, thenwe might have to take a look at the meridian affecting the Qi of the LesserYang
Ministerial Fire. Just maybe.
What part of the car would be its eyes? Theheadlights, right? Sometimes the headlights fail to
turn on because theyre burnedout. But, sometimes its because the battery is low. So, if the battery
insideyour body is low, we might have to take a look at the Declining Yin Meridian, because thats
like the bodysbattery. Ill explain this in greater detail later, but do keep in mind that abattery will
lose its charge if it is left in a hot room too long. I said thatGreater Yang is Cold Water, remember?
Heat will reduce the Qi of Greater Yang(Cold Water).
Sickness can be a complicated thing. When the liveror the spleen is full of heat, the eyes grow
dim. Physically, the eyes willlook fine, though. In this case, you have to check the battery, because
theresnothing wrong with the bulb. Therefore, if the problem is in the battery, wehave to treat the
Greater Yang Meridian. But if the problem is with the bulbitself, we might want to take a look at the
Lesser Yang Meridian. The energiesof Lesser Yang and Greater Yang are thus relative. To
recapitulate, Lesser Yinis Monarch Fire, and Lesser Yang is Ministerial Fire. Please try to
memorizethis one at a time. The chart will tell you the relationships.
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Bear in mind that the term Lesser Yin used here isconceptually different from how the term is
used in Sasang ConstitutionalMedicine26. And when we use the term Lesser Yang, we put the
characterthat means minister (serving the King), or mutual. Hence, Ministerial Fire.
26. Sa-sang Constitutional Medicine is a unique and comprehensive theorythat classifies human
beings into one of four body types: Tai-Yang (Greateryang), Shao-Yang (Lesser Yang), Tai-Yin
(Greater Yin), and Shao-Yin (LesserYin). It was created by Dr. Lee Jae-ma about one hundred years
ago in Korea.
Eight Trigrams
number
Mind-only Dimension
(kun)
(gen)
(kan)
(xun)
(zhen)
(li)
(dui)
(qian)
Matter-only Dimension
(di)
(shan)
(shui)
(feng)
(lei)
(hua)
(ze)
(tian)
English name
Earth
Mountain
Water
Wind
Meridian
Ren ( )
Yang-Ming
Tai-Yang (
Jue-Yin (
Conception (
Vessel
6 Climatic Energy (
) Greater
Thunder
Declining Yin
Bright Yang Yang

Dryness (
Cold (
Fire
) Shao-Yang (
) Lesser
Shao-Yin (
Wind (
Du( )
) Greater Governor
Yin
Ministerial
Fire(
Heaven
Lesser Yin
Yang
Pond
) Tai-Yin (
Monarch Fire (
)
Vessel
Dampness
(
Tastes
pungent
salty
sour
bitter
bitter
sweet
Flavor
fishy
rotten
goatish
burning
burning
fragrant
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Next, we have Greater Yin. The chart shows (seechart above) that Greater Yin isrelated to
Second-Ze( ): Pond. What happens when we use thecharacter for mind ( ) as a prefix to the
character dui ( )? The we get the character for delight ( ). So when we fold the chartalong the
line between xun ( ) and zhen ( ), what do we get? We get the pairing of twotrigrams,
Gen:Mountain (Bright Yang) and Ze:Pond (Greater Yin)tiragrams. Now, what happens when we put
the prefix for mind ( ) in front of Gen ( ): Mountain trigram?We get the character hen ( ),
meaning lament, which is the opposite ofdelight, yue ( ). The mind makes these two sentiments
into pairs. The more one isaddicted to pleasure, the greater the torment of the heart, just as one
whoeats more must evacuate more. We mentioned earlier about the mutual aspect ofthings. Purity
exists because impurity exists. Likewise, theres pleasurebecause there is pain. An Intuner once
said, That exists because this exists.That arises because this arises. That ceases to exist because
this has ceasedto exist. As this falls away, so does that.
If you want to pursue pleasure, you should at leastbe prepared for what will follow. The moth
dies by running into the candleflame, just because it is so mesmerized by the dancing flame.
Likewise, everypleasure brings with it its share of pain. Such is the natural order of
things.Inversely, no pain, no gain might be another way of expressing thisprinciple. Theres a
saying: If you really love something, set it free. Ifyou cant possess that which you love, it will
cause you pain. So if you dontwant pain, dont try to turn what you love into a possession.
Hen( ) represents the state ofdissatisfaction, and yue ( ) represents its opposite,the state of
satisfaction. So, in general, Greater Yin is joy, and Bright Yangis rancor. As you can see, the
characters denoting the trigrams-Qian:Heaven;Dui:Pond; Li:Fire; Zhen:Thunder; Xun:Wind;
Kan:Water; Gen:Mountain; andKun:Earth-refer to the various states of mind. Thatd be a
reasonablesummarization of what they represent. Take the character Xun ( ):Wind ( ), for
example. Add the prefix for lectern ( ), and what do you get? Its the character xuan( )
meaning to select.Therefore, someone with a meridian strongly characterized by this
trigram(Xun:Wind), just might have a very strong drive for honor, or a desire forpower and fame.
Just maybe.
Theres a meridian called the Declining Yin Meridian. What sort of personwould have a strong
Declining Yin Meridian?
A: (silence)
The character for Declining ( ) is pronounced the same as the word for imperial palace ( ). I
once had a patient who was of this type. As soon ashe walked in, he said, Hey! Bring the doctor
out here right now!
The pharmacist was so shocked that he didnt know what to say. The mantook no notice, and
said, Get him out here, will you!
Hhow may I help you?
How may you help me..?! I said, get him out here!
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Look, Im from over there.

Whe-where would there be?
Well, Ill be darned! Over there!
And so on. Maybe hes got a lot of money? Or maybe hes well-connected? Inany case, I finally
go out to see the man, and he says, Ah! You the doctor?Let me introduce myself. Im So-and-So!
I take a look at his business card, and its got his name on it, andnothing else! So Im thinking,
This dudes heavy
Look here. I went over to see Dr. So-and-So, but I dont think he knowswhat the hell hes
talking about. He says nothings wrong with me! So you takea look and fix me up real good, you
got that?
And then he goes on to tell me about his illustrious family. You knowthat So-and-So? Hes my
cousin. And So-and-So? Shes my wife.
Man! The bombastic turd just wouldnt shut up about how important he was!Who cares about his
genealogy? One who brags like that is telling the world howlacking he really is. His Declining Yin
Meridian just might be running a littletoo high. In this case, youd want to treat him by sedating this
meridians Qiflow a bit.
I mentioned earlier that the physical rhythm is tied to the basicnecessities of life, such as food,
clothing, and shelter. First you live in aone-room apartment. Then you move into a two-room
apartment and youre happy.But not for long. Soon you begin to want to buy a house of your own.
So you getyour own house, and now youre as happy as you could be. Meanwhile yourmaterial
desires have become a part of your emotional rhythm. You become moreconcerned with your
appearance, and might spend some money to enhance your goodlooks. Do you know how gigolos
and bargirls make their living? They make their livelihoodthrough the flow of peoples emotional
rhythm. Emotional rhythm is not static;it flows. Emotional rhythm flows and eventually gives rise
to a desire forpower, knowledge, honor, and fame. If you want to maintain good health, youneed to
pay attention to the flow of the three types of desire-basic survival;emotions; and knowledge,
power, and/or fame.
Ten years ago, a woman came to my clinic. She must have poured an entirebottle of perfume on
herself that day. Whew! Thanks to her, my clinic smelledof Chanel for a whole week. Judging by
her attire, it was hard to makeout whether she was a housewife or a professional mistress. My eyes
couldntfocus because of her see-through clothes. And of course, my nostrils were sonumb, I had
trouble concentrating on her diagnosis. But that was her disease,it turned out. What I mean is that
her Lesser Yin Monarch Fire Meridian was toostrong. So, what did I do? I let her have it good in
her Foot Greater YangBladder Meridian, and put out the Fire. Why? Because the womans
basicdisposition was excessively bent toward sensuality.
Imagine a guy asking a girl out on a date with his hands on his hips(actually waist). What sane
girl could possibly find that posture inviting? Ofcourse shell turn him down. Why? The Qi of the
Foot Lesser Yang Gall BladderMeridian flows to the sides. And when youre in a fighting mood,
you need theQi of Lesser Yang. Thats why, when you feel defiant, you subconsciously putyour
hands on your hips, and your body language says, Oh yeah? You want apiece of me? So, a guy
whod ask out a girl like that might want to get the Qiflow of his Foot Lesser Yang Gall Bladder
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Meridian turned down a bit.

The psychological process behind the way we behave goes through threedifferent levels of
desire. And we can detect that even by the way people sing.Someone who usually sings songs with
lyrics like, It aint ee-ee-zeh to eversay goodba-ah-ah... is on a different rhythm from someone
who likes to singsongs that go something like, Over the bodies of our fallen comrades we
marchon! Without a keen eye, its difficult to diagnose well. One must learn how toobserve the
subtle psychological dispositions underlying the way people behave.
I once had a college student come by the clinic. You know what he said?
A fine place you got here! Got some expensive things here, dont ya? Didyou buy all this with
the money you scammed off the poor?
Now, what do you suppose would be this young mans main interest? Heturned out to be a
radical political activist. Its possible to tell just bylooking into a persons eyes whether he is
balanced, bodily, intellectually andspiritually. In order to restore balance, such an individual would
have to payattention in his choice of foods and treatment.
Yes, it is possible to take one look at someone, and know right awaywhether a particular line of
work would be suitable for that person. Bystudying the face, and gauging the mind, one can even
prognosticate a thing ortwo about a persons future. I told you earlier about the Governor
andConception Vessels. What state ofmind goes with the Conception Vessel?
A: (silence)
A positive and cooperative attitude. But the Governor Vessels Qi flowswhen the mind is in a
negative mode, in the sense of being suspicious, and in awatchful mode.
After being on the lecture circuit for a while, I realized that women tendto believe what I have to
say, as their Conception Vessel tends to be more dominant.Consequently, they tend not to be as
critical in their reflection. But menusually start off by suspecting whatever I say.
Look at pollack, for instance. Notice how its chin protrudes out. Its nowonder that shamans hang
a pollack, and not a shark, on the wall when they dotheir rituals. Why? Which fish do you think
would be more likely to havegreater spawning power?
Just because man wears clothes and walks on two legs, doesnt mean he isdifferent from other
animals when it comes to the operative principle of Qicirculation. For instance, lets say a swarm of
locusts happened to sweepacross an area. Would rain likely follow in its path? Locusts have
anexoskeleton, just as lobsters do. If you go to the sea and see thousands oflobsters crawling onto
the beach, what can you infer from that?
A: (silence)
There could be a drought that year. Maybe.
And what might be in store if hundreds of frogs were seen jumping arounddry land? There might
be a lot of rain that year.
The great I Ching scholars in the past had a saying: One look, andyou know. They were talking
about reading the omens of things to come.
Lets say, all of a sudden a bunch of scaly fish fell from the sky. Wouldthere be a drought or a
flood that year?
A: (silence)
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If you think about it, its no accident that animals exist. There are somevery good reasons why
they exist. And feathers! Lets say a lot of featheredcreatures appeared some year. Countless
number of them! Then we would be ableto estimate what sort of things might follow that year. For
instance, if welook at the year of Ding Mao (
), which is one particualr year within the sixty
year lunar calendricalcycle, we can get a good idea of what kind of insects would flourish that
year,what sort of political events would occur, and people of what type ofphysiognomy are likely to
die.
In this sense, even people can be divided into two groups: One having arelatively more
prominent lower lip, and the other having a relatively moredeveloped upper lip. The former group
will likely have less trouble havingchildren, and the latter group will likely be more incredulous
when presentedwith an idea. You could read the general outline of a persons disposition byreading
his Conception and Governor Vessels, now, couldnt you? If a woman hasan aquiline nose and a
strong upper lip, what sort of man would be best forher? If she could find a man with a small nose
and a well-padded lower lip,shed be doing all right. You dont need to call the psychic hotline. Two
thinpeople may get along just because they happen to enjoy the same kind of food.But, from a
holistic point of view, they may not be the best possible match foreach other.
The boy-meets-girl routine is really the conjunction of Governor andConception Vessels. The
union of aman and a woman is the completion of the Governor and Conception Vessels. Man tends
to be on his guard.But when he has a wife, his Conception Vessel is boosted through trust. Awoman,
when she has a man, becomes more watchful and alert (her Governor Vesselis strengthened),
looking out for his interests. Both become whole through eachother.
So then, who would be the ideal person according to Eastern Medicine? Thatperson is called the
Person of Yin and Yang Harmony. Such a person would havewell-tuned Conception/Governor
Vessel dynamics, with an even skin glow. Inshort, he or she would be someone not leaning to either
side in any way, andwould be called healthy. That persons outlook on life would be neither
overlyoptimistic nor overly pessimistic (remember that the Conception and GovernorVessels
represent the positive and negative outlook on things, respectively).
Next, Greater Yin applies to a state of being satisfied through beingmaterially well-off, whereas
Bright Yang refers to the conditions giving riseto a feeling of dissatisfaction. So, the mental
condition of a man who used tobe well-off, but is now trying to flee the country after going
bankrupt wouldessentially be under the influence of Bright Yang. In Eastern Medicine, weregard
anyone who has a fever in his Bright Yang Meridian to be on death row,so to speak. When we
diagnose a patient, we examine the hands and the feet. Andin extreme cases we take the pulse
related to the Foot Lesser Yin KidneyMeridian, located near the anklebone. After that, we take a
look at the SupportYang pulse (dorsal pedis artery) on the top of the foot. If we check three orfour
places, we can figure out where along the Six Meridians lies the troublespot. Even if you dont
know anything, if we say that, on the topside of thefoot flows Bright Yang. I want you all touch
your feet, right now. See, fromthe second toe (that is, second from the big toe), if you follow a line
up fromthere, thats where the Support Yang pulse flows. Now, the Support Yang pulsebelongs with
the Bright Yang Stomach Meridian. So, then, who would run better,a fat person, or a slim one? Yes,
of course, a thin person would run better. Itso happens that a thin person usually has a stronger
Bright Yang Meridian.Principles Governor the operation of meridians make it so. Well have to
talkabout the pulses next time. I know that some people get frustrated with me foralways putting off
the hard stuff till next time. They want me to explain itnow, in terms easy to understand. Well, Ill
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tell you a Sufi story.

One day a Sufi was teaching, when one of his pupils asked him, Pleaseteach us that we may
understand all things quickly.
The Master smiled and said, Suppose you bought some rare and excellentfruits from a vendor
who went through a great deal of trouble in procuringthem. And you started to peel it right in front
of him. How would the vendorfeel?
If you really want to fully appreciate the true flavor of the fruit, eatit in a quiet place. Thats what
the Sufi was saying. The more valuable theknowledge, the greater the pleasure of unveiling its
secrets with patience.
Anyway, bear in mind for now that the anxiety you feel after losing a lotof money is brought to
you by the Bright Yang Meridian. So if you keep thinkingabout how wrongfully you were bilked
for all youre worth, youll get a feverin your Bright Yang Meridian. And thats the Fire of the pentup rage that willultimately lay you low. When it comes to treatment though, we must analyze
thesources and types of anger first. We must distinguish between anger rising fromlosing money, or
from discovering that your spouse had an affair, or fromfailing to get elected for office, etc. The
treatment will have to vary aswell. Theres nothing more effective in wrecking your health than
subscribingto a formula, like X is good for the stomachetc. You have to watch out forthat!
Three individuals A, B, C, may have the same symptoms, but the treatmentmay have to be different
for each one of them. A doctor must be moreenlightened than to rely on simplistic formulas like,
For illness X, alwayssolution Y. A doctor, if hes going to heal people, must know how to
observewhat is right in front of him!
An egg seller at the market posed a riddle to a scholar famous for hiserudition:
Can you guess what is in my hand?
The scholar asked the man for a clue. The egg seller replied, Its shapedlike an egg, and its the
size of an egg. It looks like an egg, and tastes likean egg. On the inside, there is something yellow
floating in something clear.When boiled, the clear thing turns white.
Ah ha! said the scholar. I know. Its a cookie of sorts!
All the erudition in the world wont save you from turning into an idiot,if you havent got an eye
for what is right in front of you. The egg seller wasjust jesting, but the guy who was supposed to be
so learned got busy spinningthe disk drive in his brain!
When a patient is ill, a doctor must examine the individuality of the casebefore trying to
remember the name of the illness. A man lived on one meal aday for years on end, trying to save
enough for his childrens future. But, oneday, it was all gone. Someone swindled him out of his
savings! Soon after, hecollapsed! In such a case, Id go straight for his Bright Yang Meridian,
toundo the damage caused by excessive anger and anxiety. Its sort of like theengine overheating.
You have to give your other meridians a chance to flow too!Otherwise, kaput! You have to have the
basic needs taken care of if youre goingto have other desires. You need to have housing, food, and
clothing before youcan direct your desires for knowledge, for aesthetic enjoyment, etc.
BecauseBright Yang is so directly tied to the basic needs of life, if you have a feverin that meridian,
it would spell death for you. If a patients Bright YangMeridian is flowing like wild rapids, and the
pulse measured at Chong Yang Xue(
) is throbbing,theres nothing one can do at that point.
The patient would have about a weekto live. Once the Bright Yang Meridian is forced into
overdrive, its all over.To use an automotive metaphor, if the engine shows signs of overheating,
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youhave to stop and let the engine cool. But once the engine blows, theres nosaving it.
To put it another way, Bright Yang Dryness Metal is to the body what theengine is to a car, or a
beam is to a building. When they build a building, thefirst thing to go up is the steel frame. Then
they pour the concrete. Afterthat, they build the inside. Lesser Yin Monarch Fire and Lesser
YangMinisterial Fire would be like the interior partition walls of a building. Ifyou have problems
with the interior, its relatively easy to fix. But, if thebeams are buckling, its all over. What can you
do when the whole building isabout to cave in? Therefore, Bright Yang is the most fundamental
meridian inthe body.
Next, we have the Lesser Yin Meridian and the Greater Yang Meridian. Theformer brings you
the sensation of sexual satisfaction, like when you feelhappy because of your wife, husband, or a
lover; or if you feel good after agood date. It is through the Lesser Yin Meridian that you feel
aestheticsatisfaction, as when you feel good looking at a fine painting, or listening tomusic.
Pleasures of this nature are regulated by the Lesser Yin. When you feelthe urge for this sort of
pleasure, the urge has the character of the LesserYin. Anyone who has a strong impulse of the
Lesser Yin type is sure to feel anequally strong impulse in the complementary meridian, the Greater
Yang. In a manscase, for example: lets say hes walking arm in arm with his girlfriend, allloveydovey. The lovely pair encounters a group of creepy ruffians who dontlook friendly at all. One of
them says, Yo! Come here! Immediately, the mansmuscles tense up, and his heart rate goes up.
Why? Fear, thats why. ThatsGreater Yang at work. If he had walked alone nothing would have
happened, butbecause he happened to have a lovely girl by his side, he has to get dissed!You know,
guys have a lot of envy, and they dont like the sight of another guydoing well.
Ill give you all the money I have.
Money? I dont need your stinking money!
Indeed, moneys not the issue here. Youre definitely not afraid to loseyour wallet at this point.
Its the girl youre worried about losing! So thatswhy its easy to get scared when you walk around
with a girl you love. Thiskind of fear is ruled by Greater Yang. So is your fear for the safety of
yourchildren. Therefore, caution belongs to Greater Yang Cold Water.
Therefore, if the state of satisfaction in matters sexual and aestheticalis Lesser Yin, then the state
of dissatisfaction in such matters is GreaterYang. In Eastern Medicine, we recognize disorders that
result from being toolonely. The lonely have a certain expression on their faces.
There is a treatment method for people who live oppressed lives due to theimproper guidance of
religious authorities. Where would you needle someone likethis? You would actively needle the
Kidney and Heart Meridians, as they belongto the Lesser Yin Monarch Fire. This would more or
less caress the meridiansaccording to meridian theory in a manner similar to acupressure. By doing
so,you would actually give a feeling of fulfillment to the persons mind.Strangely enough, the mind
becomes comfortable when this energy opens up.
Some excessively timid and prudish men say, I get rashes just by passingby women, or I
break out in hives just looking at a photo or a poster of awoman. Its the same with women,
actually. Some women are full of fear inside.By sheer coincidence, a man inside a crowded bus
bumps into a woman like this,and she involuntarily tenses up. Or, no man has shown any interest in
her, yetshe considers all men to be wolves and lechers, trying to make out with her.Now, what type
of woman is this? Shes a person without any Lesser Yin MonarchFire. To treat this sort of person,
you must put energy into the Lesser YinMonarch Fire.
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Sure, there are men who bump into women on buses on purpose. Since the busis full of people,
they should know better, and should exercise propercourtesy. Yet, their lewd nature causes them to
deliberately bump into women.For such men, acupuncture should be geared toward increasing the
energy flow ofthe Greater Yang (Cold-Water) Meridian.
Next, lets go over the Declining Yin and Lesser Yang energies. DecliningYin implies a state in
which the desire for knowledge, power or fame is met. Amost subtle thing, this. Conversely, the Qi
of Lesser Yang Ministerial Fire isexperienced as a wound to ones pride. Remember when I asked
you about theChinese character for Heaven? You were able to answer correctly. But when Iwrote
another character that I made up, you felt confused. There are thingsthat you do not know, things
that you barely seem to know, and things that youdefinitely do know. The mind is a subtle light that
shines in three differentways-bright, dark and half light, half dark.
There is both deficiency and excess even in the Declining Yin Meridian.Knowing is Declining
Yin and not knowing is Lesser Yang. The Hand DecliningYin Mind-Wrapper Meridian flows
through the middle finger. I would like toshare a secret with you. If you continually press the MindWrapper Meridian,you will develop a desire for knowledge. Also, by pressing the spot just
belowthe nail of the middle finger (the end of Mind-Wrapper Meridian), you will haveless need for
sleep. There are some who say, I dont know and I dont care!Whats the use of studying for
someone like me? For such people, pressing onthe spot just below the nail of the middle finger for
one year straight willinstill a desire to read books; who knows, that person may even come to want
torun for office! This is the basis for advising seniors in high school preparingto take college
entrance exams to frequently press the tip of the third finger.Were it not for the pain, I would put a
needle into the middle finger anytimeanyone asked me to help improve his or her memory.
This Mind-Wrapper Meridian is an extremely important meridian in thetheories of the
acupuncture meridians. This meridian has been inaccuratelytranslated as the Pericardium Meridian
only because the Latin wordpericardium, meaning surrounding the heart is used in Western
Medicine todesignate pressing the thinmembrane surrounding the heart. But the so-called MindWrapper that is referredto in Eastern Medicine is not a material thing. It is . For now, just
rememberthat the Mind-Wrapper Meridian corresponds to the desire for knowledge andpower.
Every movement that we make with our fingers in daily life has a meaning.When you say that
something is best which finger do you stick out?
A: The thumb.
Even if you dont exactly know what flows through the thumb, does themeridian of the thumb flow
in the positive or negative direction?
A: It would flow in the positive.
The meridian that flows through the thumb is the Greater Yin LungMeridian.
Now, straightening the pinky and asking Where is this? What does thatmean?
A: Girl/boy friend.
To express or symbolize ones lover, the pinky is extended, at least inAsia.
When asking where one is going, you use the index finger to point out thedirection, right? How
would you point with the fourth finger? If you try topoint somewhere with the fourth finger it
wouldnt be possible. This finger isonly extended when you put on a ring. You can only use the
index finger topoint. You do not use any other finger. There is a profound meaning behindthis.
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Die!
When the Emperor Nero said Die! which finger did he use?
You are probably well familiar with it.
On which finger are you supposed to put the wedding ring?
A: (silence)
What about the friendship ring?
A: (silence)
Theres a saying that you should only put rings on certain fingers, right?
Actually all of this has significance according to the theory ofmeridians. You are not supposed to
wear a ring just any which way.
Though we use our hands without much thought, they are actually our secondbrain. Thus people
like typists or pianists tend to develop an allaround balance of the brain. From the perspective of
Eastern Medicine, peoplewho use only one arm (such as violinists) are not so good, in the sense
thatthey arent balanced.Eastern Medicine encourages movements that make use ofboth hands. If
both hands are used instead of one, then all 12 Meridians wouldbe exercised.
Declining Yin is the carrier of the desire for fame, power, and knowledge;and flows into the
middle finger. Because the Declining Yin meridian is whatgets people sensitive about something as
invisible as honor, its no accidentthat people use this finger when they want to express anger to
someone whopricked their sense of pride. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but wordscan do
so much more. Just hearing someone say, What are you, stupid? or,Wow, you are awesome! is
enough to make or break your day, all day. Justwords! If Declining Yin is satisfaction with regard to
knowledge, honor, and /or power, then its opposite, Lesser Yang is dissatisfaction.
To summarize what we have talked about so far:
-Ren (Conception ) and Du(Governor) Vessels are affirmation and negation, respectively.
-Tai-Yin (Greater Yin) andYang-Ming (Bright Yang) are satisfaction and dissatisfaction,
respectively with
regardto physical rhythm (clothing, food and shelter).
-Shao-Yin (Lesser Yin) andTai-Yang (Greater Yang) satisfaction and dissatisfaction,
respectively, withregard to emotional rhythm (sexual desire and art/aesthetics)
-Jue-Yin (Declining Yin) andShao-Yang (Lesser Yang) meansatisfaction and dissatisfaction,
respectively, with regard to intellectualrhythm (power, fame and knowledge)
Once you understand these basic patterns, youll begin to see the basicsof treatment. All you
really have to know about Eastern Medicine is theprinciple of Supplementing the Deficient and
Reducing the Excess.
All medicine, religion, science, and philosophy exist solely to benefitman, not the other way
around. Thats why what we need today is ITSO, InsightThrough Subtle Observation: The innate
ability that we all have to see into thenature of all things. Not only myself, but my family, my
neighbors, my fellowcountrymen, and ultimately all of mankind can be set onto the path of health
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bythe power of thoughtful observation that renews all things.
INDEX
1-
Sa-Amwas a famous Buddhist master in Korea who lived about 500 years ago. He
createdthe original Five Element Needling technique based on the traditional
Easternprinciple of the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water).
Hisacupuncture method is commonly called Sa Am acupuncture in Korea.
2available.
Thisis my first book, based on my lecture series. The English translation is notyet
3-
GeHua Jie Sheng Dan consists of kudzu flower, poria, polyporus, alisma,
cardamon,cluster, medicated leaven, saussurea, dried ginger, citrus, green
citrus,ginseng, and atractylodus.
4-
GeGen Tang consists of kudzu, cinnamon, ephedra, peony, baked licorice,

freshginger, and red dates.
5-
Thestandard word is Sage. See translators preface for explanation.

6-
Religiousdiscord is serious in Korea, especially as militant fundamental christians

havetaken upon themselves the dubious mission of cleansing the country of
itsBuddhist legacies found in historic architecture and art. Acts of vandalism
andarson targetting Buddhist relics and temples have been known to happen.
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7-
Thisis the oldest text on the principles of Eastern Medicine. It is estimated tohave
been written around 722 B.C. and 221 B.C.
8-
Murder,as pronounced by Curly, or as he would say, Coily: one of the great

stooges ofall time.
Thisis a commonly used herb for strengthening the blood and Yin energies of
thebody. It is known to improve the eyesight and sexual stamina.
9-
10-
Thisherb is the strongest Yin and blood tonic in Eastern Medicine. It is used totreat
anemia, lumbago and nocturnal emissions, among other things.
11-
Thisrefers to the highest stage of theory in Eastern Medicine. The

FiveTransportative Energies correspond to the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth,metal
and water) and the manner in which they move in phases. The Six ClimaticEnergies
are related to the weather (wind, cold, heat, damp, summerheat, anddryness). These
six energies are related to our meridians. The Yin and Yang ofthe Five Transportative
Energies are called the 10 Celestial Stems and the Yinand Yang of the Six Climatic
Energies are called the 12 TerrestrialBranches. The 10 Stems and the 12Branches are
devices to denote time and are used in astronomy as well asastrology. Both energies
influenceeverything in nature, including our bodies.
12-
Thiscomprehensive text was written in 1580 A.D. by Dr. Li Cun. One of the
mostfamous books in Eastern Medicine, it is currently used as a textbook in
alluniversities of Eastern Medicine in Korea.
13-
KyungHee University, located in Seoul, is highly regarded in Korea for

itsdepartment of Eastern Medicine.
14-
Theterms Bright Yang (Yang- Ming), Greater Yang (Tai-Yang), Lesser

Yang(Shao-Yang), Declining Yin (Jue-Yin), Greater Yin (Tai-Yin) and
LesserYin (Shoayin) all refer to six terrestrial energies and to six pairings of
thebodys twelve meridians. These will be dealt with in greater detail beginningin
Chapter 6.
15-
DongKuk University has the second largest department of Eastern Medicine in

Korea.This department is located in the city of Kyung Joo.
16-
SixClassics refer to I Ching (Classic of Change), Shu Ching (Classic of
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History),Shih Ching (Classic of Poetry), Li Chi (Collection of Rituals), Chun

Chiu(Spring and Autumn Annals) and Chou Li (Rites of Chou).
17-
18-
TheSixty Year Cycle refers to the Chinese zodiac. There are twelve
terrestrialbranches (the twelve animals) and ten celestial stems. A complete cycle
throughthe stems and branches takes sixty years.
Dingis the fourth Celestial Stem, and Mao is the fourth Terrestrial Branch.
19China.
Writtenby Fei Shi of Zhong Nan Mountain during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) of
20-
Yinis the third Celestial Stem and Shen is the ninth Terrestrial Branch.
Together,they represent Ministerial Fire.
21-
Acommonly used herb for colds and measles. It is charred to help stop bleeding.
22-
Anherb that clears heat and toxins. Again, it is charred to help stop bleeding.
23Anherb that warms up the entire body, including the digestive system. It is alsoused for
resuscitation. It is slightly charred to help stop bleeding.
24-
Thisherb is charred to help stop insomnia.
25-
Aformula consisting of two herbs, angelica and ligusticum.

26-
Sa-SangConstitutional Medicine is a unique and comprehensive theory that

classifieshuman beings into one of four body types: Tai-Yang (Greater Yang), ShaoYang(Lesser Yang), Tai-Yin (Greater Yin) and Shao-Yin (Lesser Yin). It was createdby
Dr. Lee Jae-Ma about one hundredyears ago in Korea.
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Fallsto the East -- 232

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

What Id like to do today is share with you non-professionals a simplifiedand summarized

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

The Wonder and Mystery of

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

The water flows from high to low

5. The standard word is sage. Seetranslators preface for explanation.

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

Aspirin and Herbal Tea

6. Religious discord isserious in Korea, especially as militant fundamental Christians have

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

Yo, girl! Really! What a tightwad bastard!

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

The Nature of the Greater Self

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

concerning the moral and ethical dimensions of our actions.

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

One: If its on the skin, make the patient perspire.

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

Whence the rippling?

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

The First Justification: Attainment of Insight ThroughSubtle Observation (ITSO)

11.This refers to the highest stage of theory in Eastern Medicine.The FiveTransportative

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

are you going to counton, if not your own?

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

And on the Golden Bodies of a Gazillion Buddhas,

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

Eagle Well-developed Du Meridian.

An Invitation to Eastern Medicine:

Aggressively dispersesenergy upward.