Luo Vessels by J Yuen001

Channel
Chinese
of Channels as Descri-bed
ucnces and Protocols
Jeffrev C.Yuen
Id
New England School of Acupuncture

Transcribing
Many thanks to Leslie Franks, L.M.T.

for her trained ear and quick touch
Channel Systems of Chinese Medicine
Luo Vessels
Jeffrey C. Yuen
Table of Contents
I. Theoretical Foundations for the Luo Jing
A. Role Within the Meridian System ..................................................................... 1
B. Historical Perspective
1. Based on the Ling Shu ....................................................................................
8
2. Based on the Su Wen...................................................................................... 19
3. Based on the Nan Jtn?..................................................................... ,.." 25 ..........
C. Trajectories with Signs and Symptoms
(the Longitudinal Luo Channels) ............................................................. 27
D. General Features of the Luo Passage Channels

1. Pathway Sequence
2. Luo Channel Overview of Yi Mind Development .................................. 40
3. Transverse Luo (Connection of Yin Yang Pairs)
a. Based on Source Luo Concept ...............................................................
66
b. Transverse Luo Correlations ................................................................
69
4. Longitudinal Luo
a. Rebellious Qi .............*....,......................................................................
.. 71
b. Effects on the Yin (Jin-Ye,Blood, Essence)
c. Effects on the Shen Spirit .................. .....................................................
74
11. Clinical Applications of Luo Passage Channels..................................................86
A. Cardiovascular Conditions
1. Trajectory Perspective..............................................................................
110
2. Effect on the Curious Organs ..................................................................
120
3. Relationship to Blood, Zang
4 . Basic Protocol for Longitudinal Channels
in Cardiovascular Conditions ............................................................121
B . MuscuIo-Skeletal Conditions
.
1 Due to Trauma with Discoloration............... .........................................129
2. Due to Emotional Trauma ........................................................................ 142
Gastro-Intestinal Conditions
1. Review of Gastro-Intestinal Health
a Food . ......................................................................................................145
.
b IntrinsicFactors .................................................................................. 149
.
c PsychologicalAspects ....................................................................... 151
.
2 Relationship to Transverse Luo Channel
.
a Basic Concepts ....................................................................................152
.
b Treatment Factors to Consider
for Upper Gastro-Intestinal Disorders ..................................... 153
.
c Basic Treatment Protocol ................................................................... 154
.
3 Relationship to Longitudinal Luo Channels
.
a Basic Concepts Involving Longitudinal Luo
b. Basic Treatment Protocol .................................................................. 157
Charts ....................................................................... .......................................................... 166
"
Luo Jing
Connecting - Passage Channels
I. Theoretical Foundations for the Luo fine

A. Role Within the Meridian System
As some of you know this is an ongoing series that NESA has asked me to
share with the NESA community on the Secondary Vessels, at least what people
refer to as the Secondary Vessels. Some of you have already been through the
class on the Sinew Merdians, and that's going to be important because some of
the treatment strategies that we're going to be looking at when we look at the Luo
Channels will include the Sinew Merdians in that strategy. When you look at the
Secondary Vessels, the best way of understanding them is really, in my opinion,
to look at the layers of human energetics. The layers of human energetics to an
acupuncturist is often described as the Wei Level, which one will often say is the
Defensive Qi, it is the Qi of the Exterior, the Ying Level, which is the Level of
nourishing, or Nutritive Qi, and the Yuan Level, the layer of Constitutional, or
Yuan Source Qi. S o we have the three layers of how we establish relationships to
life, from the Constitutional relationships, to the External and Internal
relationships.
Within the perspective of Acupuncture, as many of us know, that

relationship can be defined by the various Merdians that seem to have a greater
resonance to a particular layer. So the Sinew Merdians, or what some people
refer to as the Tendinomuscular Channels, have a direct correlation to the Wei
Level, to the External Level. The Luo Passage, or Connecting, Vessels have a
direct connection to the Internal Level. And then of course the Eight Extra
Channels definitely make their connection to the Constitutional Level. We also
have the Divergent Channels, which make the connection between the Yuan
Level and the Level of Wei Qi, so they basically communicate between that which
is very External to that which is very, Constitutional, as defined by these
Divergent Channels. There's also what we have learned in our schooling, as the
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reference Channels by which we can in some ways understand the workings of
the Exterior and the Interior and those are called the Primary Channels. So
Acupuncture basically is a study of the different roadmaps, the different
pathways that deal with the External-Internal as well as the Constitutional, and it
gives us a way of exploringra way of analyzing, a way to come to terms with our
client and his or her emphasis in terms of their External, Internal and
Constitutional reflections and perceptions.
But we know that reflectionitself is not enough. You don't really find out
who you are by just reflecting. You can't just meditate and say, oh, this is who1
am. You can only really find out who you are based on what you have done,
based on what you have in some ways aspired to do. It is your actions that very
often become a good measureof whatyour lifeis about. Sooneof the aspects
that we're going to look at in terms of the Lw Channels is, as I'm going to
suggest, that they are the pathways (that involve) how true can you be to
yourself, how passionate, how committed can you be to what it is that you are
doing in your life? Or, is life simply about things that you're holding on to? And
if you are holding on to different aspects of your personality, different aspects of
your past, or different aspects of what you hope to become, you're going to have
Lao Vessel issues. IMO Vessel issues are how you hold on to life. Be it something
that's past, something thafs in the future. But when we Release the Luo Vessels,
if s going to be about realizing your virtues, what in Dmism is referred to as De
-?& . I f s going to realize the manifestations of your life that in some ways
empower you to become truthful to who exactly it is that you are.
So you're going to see that the inferences that I'mgoing to suggest in t h i s
weekend are that the Luo Channels are really about the excursions that we've
taken in life, when we've distracted ourselves from the primacy of what exactly it
is that we need to do to realize our true being. The reason why is because the
Luo Channels deal directly with Blood. They deal with the Internal terrain. In
terms of pathology, the Internal terrain deals with the Emotions. When they talk
about Internal causes, we're looking at the Emotions. Ifs going to look at choices
that we've made, lifestyle choices. Thafs Internal causes as well. While the
word "lifestyle" is perhaps not as meaningful, probably because of how it was
popularly used by people living in California, the idea of lifestyle here, requires a
certain degree of reflection.
Lifestyle is basically Broken into three parts. You make choices about
your life due to personal satisfaction. That means there are certain desires that
you have#and you seek a life that will help in some ways to fulfill those desires.
Or another way of saying that is, you seek a life to avoid the pain of things that
you don't want in your life. That's a lifestyle choice. You commit yourself to
searching and finding these things that you hope will make your life a little bit
more satisfying. And sometimes that too can become problematic, as we'll see
when we look at some of the usual aspects that are reflected by the Luo Channels.
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Lifestyle also is about a certain degree morality. Many of you here want
to live a good life, and I don't mean just from a pleasure point of view, but a life
that when you are judged by others, they can say that you are a good person, or
that you are a bad person. There are lifestyle choices that are in some cases
moralistic. We have an ethical life. What we're doing and what we've decided
to commit ourselves to doing is viewed by many as something that basically
constructs a person that is considered good, or that is considered someone who is
to the benefit of society. Remember, ethics in truth is really just a belief that is
accepted by many, but not necessarily by all. That's why we can have a
somewhat immoral life, and if s simply immoral because most people would not
accept that kind of life. So really, if s a judgment upon yourself that you're really
ultimately going to be making. But once you make a moral decision, you are
making a decision about obligations, you are making a decision about duties.
What happens when those relationships that, at one time you thought were good
relationships, begin to fail? What do you do with those obligations and duties?
Those are going to be Luo Channel issues.
The third aspect, even though some of you might not think of yourselves
as such, nevertheless we see it in Classical literature, is that there is a certain
degree of Internal subjectivity, that there is a certain degree of going inward to
try to know a little bit more about who you are, not necessarily your needs, even
though one can say that there might be a need for enlightenment, or whatever it
is when you use this word. There is a spiritual or religious life, and the choices
that you have made, put a lot of your effort and belief into something. That
effort and belief does not necessarily have to include a morality, even though
sometimes people would say that the religious lifestyle is really a moral or
ethical lifestyle. For example, some people would say that you don't have to give
me the religious aspect, just give me the ethical aspect of what it is to be a good
Christian, because we often think of religion as in some ways telling us what it
means to live a moral life. But "religious" means, in a greater degree, faith, that I
can have faith in what it is that I'm doing, without any certain degree of
expectations that need to come from that. So it's not a personal satisfaction that
there's going to be something that I'm longing to achieve, but rather if s just
having faith in myself. This is very important, because we as healers are trying,
in some ways, to transmit faith into our clients, that they, too, can overcome, that
they, too, can resolve their condition. Not necessarily because of what we're
doing for them in terms of the Needles, in terms of the Herbs, in terms of the
drugs, or whatever that they've chosen as the modality of healing, but rather
their faith that they can get beyond this particular point that they're at. That is
where religion, or spirituality if you don't want to use the word religion, plays a
role.
If you look at the Luo Channels, what you'll find is that they lie within the
domain that deals with the Interior, so their role within the Meridian system
would be that if s the terrain of the Interior, serving as reservoirs for Excess Qior
Perversity, very often because we have somehow a certain degree of
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the DiredionaLities of the Emotions and come up with certain qualities or certain
states of one's being.
There's also Emotions that are being influenced by society, social

constructs. Emotions are also a paradigm. Remember, to the Chinese, anything
that has an Internal cause is not something that is natural, is not something that
is intrinsic, is not somethmg that is instinctual. An Internal cause is something
that has an intelligence about it, something that allows us to put our
consaousness into it. Even though we might not be consuous of the fact that
we're feeling this way, at the time we're feeling it, they feel that nevertheless
there is indeed an intelligence about what it is that we feel. We make choices.
Should 1get Angry? Should I get Sad? Should I get Anxious? These are indeed
things that are being conjured up by one's Shn, by one's mind. The social
construct is how we hold onto the Emotions. As we all know, Blood contains the
Shen. But Blood itself needs to be contained in a Vessel. And that container, that
which Banks the Blood, whi& makes sure the Blood stays in its banks, is the
Spleen. Spleen is that which represents society. It is that by which you can
interact with, as a measure of how well, or how good, or in some ways how
much you're doing in life itself. That Spleen is represented by social constructs.
What I mean by that is the examples that society gives you. You observe it on
television. You observe it in motion pictures. You observe it in your family
setting. If you are in a somewhat underdeveloped country, with the absence of
mass media, you will observe it in the villagers and how they interact with each
other. And based on their relationships, and how their emotional dynamics
occur, you learn to mirror and mimic the same kinds of relationships, or the
same kinds of Emotions, when you encounter similar situations.
That means that, according to the CXnese, you learn what it means to
become Angry, because you have observed it in other people, or what it means to
become Sad. They don't believe that Emotions are simply something that
happens to you, that there's no one to blame except the Emotion itself.
The idea is that you have to take Responsibility for your Emotions, because you
do have control over the Emotions. But you can only control that which you are
aware of. You can't control anything that you're not aware of. What they're
really encouraging to some degree is, be conscious of the way you feel. If you're
able to be conscious of the way you feel, then you can change the way you feel.
The social construct is the paradigm by which we have been influenced by
society. It tells you that if a certain thing happens, this is how you should feel.
And if you buy into that story line, that's exactly how you will feel. And if you
decide to change that story line, you might find that what begins to happen is
that society is going to find you in cordlid, because they're saying "you're not
feeling what we all feel; you're not feeling what everyone around you feels."
And consequently, can you be responsible for what it is that you're feeling,
irrespective of what someone else tells you that you ought to feel?
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That becomes the third aspect of Emotions. Responsibility, Will. Am I
willing to o m my Emotions, or am I going to say, oh, this is simply a Mood. I
have nothing to do with these Emotions, and I'm sorry about it. I'm sorry I was
Angry at you earlier, but now I'm not. As a result, this is a person who really is
not taking Responsibility for their particular Emotions. We're looking at a
certain degree of cultivation toward that end.
Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, when you look at the Internal terrain in
terms of etiology, what you have is Lifestyle, and the choice is often (between)
what is %atural", "moral" or "religious".
The connection that the Luo Channels have to the other Channels will also
be explored. Since the Luo Channels deal primarily with the Interior, at least
they deal with movement of things into the Interior from the Exterior, or
movement of things that have gone into the Interior itself, they are connected to
the Primary Channels. That's why the Primary Channels have to have a Luo
Point, because it connects with them, or else the Primary Channels would not
have Luo Points on their trajectories.
Many of the Opening Points of the Eight Extra Channels happen to be Luo
Points. You'll see some interesting reasons why Luo Points became the Opemng
Points for Eight Extra Channels. And be reminded that Opening Points for Eight
Extra Channels are a very recent invention of Chinese medical history. They
were not developed until the Ming dynasty. That means you're Imking at the
15#century when these Luo Points began to be itemized, Prior to that, there was
no such thing. It would have been ludicrous to say that SP-4 Opens up the
Chong. In the time of the 15&century is when things began to change.
hstly there are the Sinew Channels. Sinew Channels are conduits of Wei
Qz, but Wei Qi very often can be Internalized. M u d a r components can very
often be Internalized or accompany Emotional discrepancies. In other words,
when you look at Sinew Channels, very commonly what we look at in a very
simplistic scale is Tendinomuscularpain. If someone is in pain, what will you do
in TCM? The first thmg you might do is evaluate the nature of the pain. Is it
Wind Bi; is it Damp Bi;is it Cold Bi? Or if you come from an Herbal tradition,
you basically say it's all three, but just with one that predominates. If you find
that the person is not giving you any dues as to what exactly is the nature of the
Bi obstruction, most of you who do TCM will be stuck with the diagnosis Qi and
Blood Stagnation. That's the only way that you can explain why someone has
pain, but you cannot explain what is the Climatic Factor, so you would say Qi
and Blood Stagnation. Now the Qi and Blood Stagnation could come from a
physical acadent. I could have fallen and hurt myself and developed a
Tendinomuscular pain. But it could be where I have not fallen, 1 have not
injured it in any way that I'm aware of, and yet I'm very painful in a particular
area. Well, maybe the pain, the physical pain, is an expression of an Emotional
component of life. And that's where the L w Channels are very, very important,
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because the Luo Channels basically are saying that you can have Blood that
occluded in an area. In the area there is pain that is elicitedrand Blood does not
have to respond to any Climatic Factor. It does not have to feel better with the
application of heat or the application of cold, or the application of massage. It's
always painful. And that kind of situation will suggest to us that what we have
is someone with psychosomatic pain.
This is where the Luo Channels become a very important componentr

because just simply treating the Ah Shi Points, and let's say if you're following
Sinew Meridian treatments/ while you might get relief from the painr you will
not resolve the pain until you treat the Emotions that are being manifested on the
Wei Level in the form of Tendinomusdar pain. It's almost the like the Reichian
tradition of body armoring. But unlike the Reichian tradition, the Luo Channels
do not suggest that the body takes certain Emotions and segments it in certain
areas of the body. Remember, the directions of Emotions can be anywhere.
Anger does not have to go up, it can go down. I can decide to Control my Anger,
and manifest it in the form of depression, Grief,Metal overacting on Wood. And
when you're treating the Grief, or the person appears to be Sad and you're
treating Sadness, what you are really treating in essence is letting go of Metal's
Control over Wood, and the person becomes Angry as a result of that.
We have to look at all of these, and in truth really just understand that the
physical part is just the manifestation. It is not equated with the Emotion itself.
You cannot say Anger is in your shoulders. That would be, f?om a Chinese point
of view, ludicrous, because simply, Emotions can move anywhere they want to
go. The physical part is just an accompaniment to the Emotion itself. We all
know that a lot of times, even if you get rid of the Emotion, the physical part
itself, because it's been so programmed to hold on to something, it might not
necessarily be relieved either. So we have to work on both. That's why it's very
important that you begin to understand the parallels and in many cases the
comections that are interwoven with each one of these Meridian systems.
So that's the role of the Luo Channelsrat least within the Meridian system.
What it serves is the Internal aspect of the body. What it attempts to do is to
convey, as a Collateral, distractions that have in some way have taken us away
from the primary aspect of our lives, from the priorities of our lives. Many of us
have many distractions. Some of you bring your distractions here with you
today. There are things that are p d i n g that you need to do when this weekend
is over. There are a lot of issues of the past that you might be carrying with you
today into this seminar. You might have had an argument last night with
someone, and that argument is still fresh in your mind. The totality of what is
important in your life right now, at this moment, might often be very distracted
by many things. And if those things continue, then you're going to have Broken
Blood Vessels, because you're going to give it Blood to keep it alive. Blood
contains the Spirit. Your thoughts are being kept dive by Blood, or vice versa.
And those Blood issues eventually are going to distract you from all of your vital
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resources. That's going to be then, very taxing over time on the Constitution, the
relationship between Blood and Jing, the relationship between Luo and Source, a
very common strategy that has developed, the Source Luo treatment.
B. Historical Perspective (Nei ling)

1.Based on the Ling Shu
What I'd like to do first is begin with a historical perspective bemuse what
we are talking about does have a long history behind it. The h t area we need to
go to is the Ling Shu, and I choose the Ling Shu over the Su Wen, at least initially,
because the Ling Shu is the textbook of Acupuncture. In the old days, they didn't
call it the Ling Shu, it was Zhm Jing, The Treatise on Acupuncture, on the
Merdians.
When you look at the Ling Shu, we know that the Luo Channels are
presented in Chapter 10. It gives the basic trajectories and it also gives the basic
role of what the Luo Channels are. Before we do the trajectories, let's look at
what this chapter gives us in terms of information about the role of the LMO
Channels. It says that the Channels that Float, and can be observed frequently
are the Luo Passage Channels. In some translations they're called the Luo
Linking Channels, of which the Great Luo of the Arm, Yang Ming, m e
Intestine, and the Luo of the Arm, Shao Yang, Triple Heater, are most visible.
We'll come back to the passage later on as to why they're emphasizing the Triple
Heater so much, and why they're emphasizing the Large Intestine SO much in
terms of visibility. Again, it's not to be taken literally. You don't have to
necessarily just look at Large Intestine and say, "Oh yeah, indeed I can see
Broken blood Vessels on my Large Intestine Luo Channel." Or if you look at TH-
5 and you see Broken blood Vessels, it's not just that kind of statement that
they're trying to aim at. At least that is my contention. It also says that when
one drinks alcohol, the Luo Passage Channels are Full with Wei Defensive Qi,
which stimulates the Ying Nourishing Qi to create Abundance or Fdness in the
Primary Channels. Ag& the focus on alcohol, which was seen even during the
ancient times as one of those instruments of intoxication, of poisoning the body.
When we are poisoned, or as we might sometimes even in the anaent times do,
when we are distressed and we use drinking as a way to escape from our
distress, what drinking does is create a certain degree of Abundance inthese Luo
Vessels. We see that in alcoholics. We very often see rosacea on their face. We
see the Broken blood Vessels especially around the area of the nose and the
mouth, and area that the Large Intestine Luo Channel travels to.
But at the same time, it's really stating that the Luo Channels are conduits
that deal with Wei Qi and Ying Qz. They're referring to where the stimulation of
the Luo Channel is coming from an Internal cause, drhking, eating. Thafs part
of the Mestyle muses, diet. It's an Internal cause. It stimulates the Wei and the
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Ying and it creates a certain degree of Abundance, Fullness. This "Fullness"
some people would translate as what causes the Primary Channels to Quicken.
And this word "Quicken" is very specific to Blood. You Quicken the Blood. You
speed up the Blood. To a certain degree, you're running. You're running away
from your Emotions. Or you're taking your Emotions and you're getting carried
away by them. That's very often what we see with alcohol. We drink to loosen
up so we have the excuse of alcohol to act silly. Some of us use it because it
numbs us, so that we can fall asleep. So we definitely know that with alcohol it
can be an excuse to be carried away by Emotions, or if s an excuse by which we
can run away from our Emotions.
Nevertheless, the body becomes Hot. We expect that because it's an
Internal cause. From a Classical perspective, pathology that goes Internally, that
moves into the Interior becomes Hot, regardless of if it was Wind, regardless of if
it was Damp, regardless of if it was Cold. That was at least during the time of
the Ling Shu, we know that. The idea that from Tai Yaw or Shao Yaw, it goes
into Yang Ming, and when things go into Yang Ming, Qi, that is, Yang Qi says this
is something serious, this is going into the Internal terrain, and the axis by which
something goes Internally, is the chest.
Once it moves into the chest, the body is going to say, I don't want this in
the Interior. I want this back out to the Exterior. The most Yang force that we
can create with Yang Qi is Heat. So Heat is something that rises; Heat is
something that tries to push something back out. The Classical symptom of Yang
Ming in the Merdians, fever, thirst, sweat, a Flooding Pulse. These are all
attempts by the body to move something back out to the Exterior at the expense
of Ying Qi, at the expense of bodily Fluids, at the expense of Stomach Yin. So
Stomach Yin rises upward, it brings its so-called Pure Yam to create more Fluid
so there is some form of expectoration, some form of sweating that takes place.
This is an attempt to get rid of something. Heat, remember, in the Classical era,
was seen as a good force. It was a manifestation of Yang Qi. It was not
something that was negative, per se, a concept that we see being changed
radically in the Ming dynasty with the development of the Wen Bing School. So
the idea is the body becomes Hot, and yet the Pathogenic Factor can still
Penetrate. Even though the body becomes Hot, if s not able to get rid of this
condition, in some cases. Here again, the allusion to alcohol, because alcohol also
has Dampness to it. Alcohol produces Damp Heat, from a pathological point of
view. One would say that the Heat is responding to the Damp Factor of alcohol.
So what happens is the Dampness in some ways prevents the body's Heat from
getting rid of the alcohol. As a result it Penetrates Deeper, and it says this can
especially happen if the Luo Passage Channels are not strong, are not firm,
resulting in Emptiness of the Luo.
Now Emptiness of the Luo simply means that something has moved into
the Luo Channels, and the body is not able to contain it. The body is not able to
eliminate it by producing Heat. What eventually happens is that it Empties into
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the Primary Meridian. So Emptiness is not a state of Deficiency, or else they
would say specifically that you have a Deficient con& tion in the Luo. But rather
if s an idea of a Vessel that is dumping, that is Emptying out. And if s not
Emptying out to the Exterior, if s Emptying out Deeper into the Interior, into the
Primary Medians. In which case then, it will enter the Zany Fu.Remember, one
of the things about the Luo Channels is they do not connect to any of their
associated Zmg Fu, with the exception of the Pericardium and the Heart. The
Lung Luo do not connect with the Lungs, the Large Intestine does not connect
with Large Intestine, Stomach does not connect with Stomach, Spleen does not
connect with Spleen, even though it connects with Stomach and the Intestines.
The only Luo Channels that will connect with the Organs they're named after are
going to be the Pericardium and the Heart. And you'll see why that is the case a
little later on.
Q. When you talk about the Pathogenic Factor in this case, are you talking
about the alcohol itself, or are you talking about when you're using alcohol that
it makes you more vulnerable to an External Pathogenic Factor?
A. When you're using alcohol it makes you more susceptible to External

Pathogenic, as well as InternalPathogenic Factors. So if s both,
Q- So the Empty Luo, you said that dumps out into the Primary Channels.....?
But in the case of, like the Lung for instance, since it doesn't connect to the Lung,
did you say it doesn't connect to the Lung Channel?
A. It doesn't connect to the Lung Urgan.
Q. But it would connect to the Lung Primary Channel?
A. RightItonlyconnectstotheLungPrimaryChanne1whenitEmpties.Ifs
almost like you want to have the analogy that. . .
Q. Wouldn't it connect to the Organ via the Primary Channel?

A. "Right. So from the Primary Channel it will connect to the Organ. If you're
looking at the Luos, and if this was the Primary Meridian, the Primary Meridian
is going to connect to the External and the Internal. It's always, constantly being
bombarded by External Pathogenic Factors, bombarded by Internal Pathogenic
Factors. The External Pathogenic Factors basically are tackled by the Sinew
Merdians. Internal Pathogenic Factors that the Primary Channels cannot resolve,
the Primary Channel is going to say, "OK,I can't resolve it. I'm not going to
allow it to distract me from my life! so I'm just going to create a Vessel, a holding
Vessel." At the time it creates a holding Vessel, that's called a Luo. Just think of
your house. You accumulate a lot of things, but you have a lot of closet space.
After a whilet that doset space is going to be full. After a while the drawers. ..
you can't put anything else in. So what are you going to do? Now you're just
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@ New England School of Acqnmaure A Jeffrey C Yuen 20ftt
going to leave it laying around the house. So now if s coming back into the
Primary Channel. Now if s something that you do see. You haven't found time
to get rid of it, so now you do start to see it, so at this point the L w Channel is
Emptying back into the Primary Channels. The first part of it, when it becomes a
state of Fullness is an attempt to not allow it to go into the Organs that the
Primary Channels connect to, but once it Empties, it goes back into the Primary
Channels at which point it can now connect directly to the Zang Fu. That's the
concept of Fullness and Emptiness. So just think of it as directionality. If s
movement. If s not a Deficiency or an Excess, even though some people would
contend that by the time that if s Emptying out, there is indeed a Deficiency of
the Luo, that it doesn't have the integrity. Part of that Deficiency could be that
the Primary Merdians themselves are Deficient in Ying, which is the thing that
allows for storage, that allows for the holding aspect of something that is
pathological. That Ying that is holding on to the Pathological Factor could be
Fluids, it could be Blood, and eventually, since we know that generally the most
common thing that's holding to it is Blood, eventually what you have is Essence,
Jing. If you find that the Luo Channels are becoming Empty, already we know
that the body is having taxation on the Yuan Level, on the Constitutional Level.
One can even use that as an argument for why the Eight Extra Channels, the
Constitutional Channels, deal with the Luo Points, or are Opened by the Luo
Points. Not all of them, but the majority of them definitely are involving the Luo
Points.
Someone else had a question?
Q. In that example, the Luo Vessels became Full of Wei Qi because of drinking
alcohol. -l
A. What they're saying is that when you drink something, Wei Qi goes
Internally, because it sees it as a Pathogenic Factor, to try to move it back out.
And if Wei Qi cannot move it back out, then Heat becomes created. One can say
that the Heat is Wei Qz, because Wei Qz by nature is Yang, Wei Qi by nature is Hot.
Q. So the L w Vessels will become ... however, depending on which

pathogen is influencing them? Like you will have Blood, you'll have Qi,
whichever. . .
A. No. In other words, the idea is, from our analogy, if you drink alcohol,
Wei Qi goes inward, and as Wei Qi goes inward to try to get rid of the alcohol,
what it does is that Wei Qi will then promote peristaltic activity. When you drink
beer, when you drink alcohol, Wei Qi gets rid of it by promoting diuresis. You
urinate a lot more. Some people, when they drink alcohol, start to perspire.
That's an attempt of Wei Qito move that Pathogenic Factor back out. If however,
as Wei Qi goes in, and it creates this Heat to try to stimulate diaphoresis, diuresis,
and Wei Qi is Insufficient, or maybe at the same time that I'm drinking the
alcohol, I'm just drinking so much that Wei Qi simply cannot deal with all the
11
alcohol, at this point, the Wei Qi is no longer able to deal with it, Ying Qi now
comes and says, "What I'm going to do with this alcohol, which I still have to
deal with, is I'm going to contain the Wei Qi with the alcohol in a Vessel." That
Vessel that's created is called a Luo Vessel. At that particular point, the person
who's not sweating, who's not urinating, now starts to get very flushed, starts to
get very ruddy. That's Blood that's moving, now. And then afterwards they
might start to even get pale, because the Blood now moves inward. Especially if
one drinks a lot of alcohol, you no longer see that ruddy complexion; you very
often see a very pale complexion. Over time when they're not drinking, the Wei
Qi is trying to move all that stuff out and they start to have that ruddy face and
they have all the Broken blood Vessels, obviously a lot of Pathogenic Factor is
being held. That would be this context of the body translocating, first sweat,
Fluids to try to flush out something. That's one aspect of Ying. If that doesn't
succeed, then we have Blood coming in. When Blood comes in, it holds on to it.
At that point, we really call that a Luo Vessel.
Q. Is that an example of an imbalance of the Ying and the Wei? When you
drink alcohol for instance, and the Wei Qi goes deep inside, does the Ying and the
Wei flip at that point.
A. Right. In other words the Wei Qi is going inward, but it becomes a Luo
issue problem when Ying Qi has to engage with i t So you wouldn't necessarily
call it an imbalance between Wei and Ying. The idea here is that normally Wei Qi
would go inward and would get rid of it. It only becomes a Luo problem when
Luo has to support that Wei and Ying Qi is now engaged with it. That's why Luo
Channels deal more with Ying Qz, the Blood that is engaging with a Pathogenic
Factor, that could be External, Wei Qz coming in, or an Internal Pathogenic
Factor. What they were saying here with alcohol, and why they're selecting that,
in my opinion, rather than say, Climatic Factors, is because they want to say that
even with Internal causes, like drinking and eating certain kinds of foods, you
can get an External response coming in to try to deal with that so-called Internal
pathology.
Q. The Classical texts talk about an imbalance of the Ying and the Wei, and I
just wondered if that was an example of it.
A. When you say Classical texts, which texts are you referring to?
Q. Actually, in Chinese Herbology, for instance with Gui Zhi Tang, they talk
about the imbalance of the Ying and the Wei. And I've used that particular
formula sometimes to help a woman who has been sexually abused, to let go of
that experience, which I think of in the sense of an External Pathogenic Factor
being taken in, and the Ying being on the outside, instead of being on the inside,
and I wondered if this was another example of the Ying and the Wei?
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@ New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C. Yuen 2004
A. Well, when you're using Herbal medicine, and you use the concept where
they say, "You adjust the balance between Wei Qi and Ying Qi", very often that is
suggested when a person has an Exogenous Pathogenic Factor, with an
underlying Qi Deficiency on the Ying Level. So what it is, is that you're trying to
Expel something to the Exterior, but at the same time protect the Interior. And
those Herbs, the Gui Zhi and the Bai Shao, the Cinnamon Twigs and the White
Paeonia, are tile most common Herbs that adjust the so-called balance between
Wei Qi and Ying Qi, but it would not be equivalent to, let's say, using a Luo Point.
A Luo Point would not adjust the balance between Wei Qi and Ying Qi. The Lw
Points are more involved when the issues warrant that it needs to contain a
condition, so that the condition does not distract you from Primary Merdians, or
the priorities of your life. The Luo Channels are almost like when you don't
know what to do with something, and at that time you just don't know what to
do. So you say, 'Well, I'm just going to deal with it another time." That would
be a very Luo Channel statement Or if someone has something and they don't
know what to do with that something, "I'll just deal with it another time." In
other words, I can't eliminate it. I can't sweat it out. I can't throw up and vomit
it out, and I can't defecate it out. So what do I do with it? I'll just keep it
lingering for a while in my life and maybe one day when I have my integrity, I'll
deal with it, unless someone forces me to deal with it. If they force me to deal
with it, then the Luo Channels become in a state of Fullness. They say/ "Hey, I'm
symptomatic, you have to deal with these things now." The issue is starting to
bulge out of the drawers. You can't keep slamming that drawer and keep me
tucked in. Now the closet door won't dose, if s sticking out. I have to do
something with it. Now it becomes a problem in your primary life. You just take
that stuff and put it in your life, so you see it all the time. You just do not have
the Will yet to throw it out. That's where the Source Point comes in, to give you
the Will to throw it out. Just get rid of it. Easier said than done for many people,
because very often these are the things that we are very sentimental about,
Emotions, things with too much memory attached to them.
Q. And that's when you use the Source Luo treatment.

A. Right that's one example where you might use the Source Luo. I'll give
other examples later.
OK. So when the Luos are in a state of Fullness, we say they're visible.
Many people translate that as physical Fullness, so you can actually see Broken
Blood Vessels. The blood is coming out to the surface. If s visible. Visibility
means that if s also very conscious. I'm aware of it. I'm in pain. Something is
going an. that tells me that I need to start paying attention to my life. Something
is starting to discharge. I need to pay attention to this discharge. Or I notice I'm
so pent up, I'm so constipated, I can't even seem to eradicate and get rid of
things. These are some of the Classical symptoms that we have of the Luo
Channels. A lot of them include musculo-skeletal types of pain and stiffness.
They include nasal stuff, things that involve the Orificies, the Sensory Organs.
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New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C. Yueu 2004
They include where the person has difficulty urinating and defecating. So if s
telling us that something is wrong, that we have to start paying attention to these
issues that are happening in our lives. While it sounds very physical/ keep in
mind that it could be Emotional issues that are starting to play out in your lives.
Emptiness is usually not visible, because it Empties into the Primary
Merdians. Soyou just allow it to be a part of your life. It becomes something
that is problematic, but you just have a certaindegree of acceptance, that this is
something that I can't change. This is my life. This is the way I am, or this is the
way my boss is. This is the way my circumstancesare, and thafs the way if s
goingtohavetobe Soeventhoughyou
YM somewhat upset by it, you
come to accept it There's a certain degree tolerance, and that tolerance is
where it no longerbecomes visible over time. Now lack of v i s a i t y can also
mean physically, that while there are no Broken blood Vessels along the Lw
Channels, but upon palpation, what you find is Pi .You find/ to use Kike's
term,you find "gu-es" underneath the skin. Phlegm nodules. What is
Phlegm? Fluids that are being used to hold on to something at a certainlocation.
That's a Lw Channel issue as welL If sjust that if if s Phlegmatic if s usually
-
seen more as Emptiness, and if if s Blood Stasis, there will be v i s i i t y going to
be there.
It also says the Channelswhich can be seen are all Luo Passage Channels,
and come to the surface because they cannot flow directly through the Great
Joints(i.e. Divergences). So while some of the signs and symptoms suggest that
there might be a skeletalissue, keep in mind that with the Luo Channels, the
skeletalissues that they refer to usually are to be around theelbows,
Tf
around the area of the ankles, around the area the knees in some cases. But
they generaltydonotmanifest throughthew-mjoints,whichwinbewherethe
Kvqent, or the Distinct and SeparateChannelsbegin. So, that which the Luo
Channelscannot containand cannot deal directly with, the Divergent Channels
willdealwith. Themodelislikethis: thePrimaryChannelcreatestheLuo
Channel because it doesn't want to deal with that issue at this time, so it creates
Blood or Ying to hold onto that issue. Now you have a Broken blood Vessel that
shows up. A lot of these are issues that pertain to Constitutional issues because
you Seek somewhat violated. Most of us, if you take off your socks and look at
the area of KI-4, will have Luo Vessels there. I can pretty much guarantee that,
because KI-4, Kidneys, Constitutionissues that you know involve who you really
are, but you don't know what to do with it. So you're going to develop Broken
blood Vessels there. What happens is as this Vessel becomes Full and you start
to get somesigns and symptoms that come up with these Broken blood Vessels,
it starts to Empty back h t o the Primary Channels. When it reaches a state of
saturation, I cannot hold onto this any longer. I'm saturated. I'm going to start
dumping this back into the Primary Merdians. As it goes into the Primary
Merdians, as it goes toward the Zang Fu, the Zang Fu says, wait a minute,I'mnot
going to allow you to get into the Organ. At that point theZang FM creates
another Collateral, another trajectory, and that trajectory is called the Divergent
Channels. That's why the Divergent Channels connect directly with the Zang Fu
that they're named after. The Luo Channels won't do it, but the Divergent
Channels, that's the only way they can get it out of the Zang Fu from the Primary
Channels. So the Divergent Channels take the Pathogenic Factor and move it
away. As it moves it away from the Z q Eu, it carries it into where these
Divergent Channels articulate their trajectory. Thafs the major articulations: the
knees, the hips, the shoulders, the major articulations of the body. So that's the
body's defensive mechanism in some ways, if you want to look at it in terms of
pathology. One can say that's also the grace of the body, that it can protect the
Internal Organs to the extent by making you see, visibly, issues that need to be
addressed by having varicosities, issues that need to be addressed by having
joint pain, in terms of signs and symptoms.
So we know that the Luo Channels do not Penetrate directly into the major
joints. In Chapter 10 it says how you treat the Luo Passage Channels. You
should treat it by Needling at the pooling of Blood. Generally what that means
in subsequent chapters in the Ling Shu, whenever they talk about the L w Points,
they generally say Bleed them, Bloodletting. Bloodletting simply means that
you're getting about 1-2 drops of Blood. If s not pints of Blood that we're getting.
You should not feel intimidated by the idea that you're Bloodletting. Keep in
mind the Lance Needle, generally when you look at it from a Classical point of
view, the sharpness of the tip of it is very, very small. That means when you are
puncturing a Point, it is still relatively speaking, Superficial. If s not deep
insertion. I f s not bleeding Deeply. If s still Superficial, because what you want
to do is bring something from the Interior back out to the Exterior. Thafs why
the Seven Star Hammer, or Plum Blossoming a Point would be equivalent to
doing a lancet, if you don't want to do Bloodletting. Plum Blossoming would be
a little bit more gentle, because when you Plum Blossom you don't always get
Blood in the area, unless you do Gua Sha first and then you Plum Blossom, then
for sure you'll get Blood coming out of the area.
So again, this is Superficial Needling. You're trying to bring things out to
the Exterior. A very important point that I need to make is that Luo Channels do
not treat anything. The clinician treats by Needling the Lw Channel. If s our
treatment that really is treating the Luo Channels. The Luo Channels are just
holding Vessels. I'm just holding onto your problem for you. I'm not dealing
with the problem; I'mnot treating anything. I'm just holding on to it. Which for
some of us, by itself is considered already a treatment, because we're buying
time. We think that time will help us one day, which obviously subtracts us
from the current time that we have. If s very important that you realize that
while we're looking at the Luo Channels, the treatment involves the actual
Needling of the Points. The Luo Channels themselves do not treat anything.
They're just seen as reservoirs for pathology. Thafs why in Classical texts they
always write: L w Channels do not treat. If s the Plum Blossoming the
Bloodletting that is treating the Channels.
15
In that same passage, it says that if you're treating Luo Channels, you have
to treat once every other day, which makes it not as clinically useful for some of
us. You can see also why some of this is abandoned in modern times, because
if s not reasonable for many clinicians to treat people once every other day. In
the old days it was very possible, because most of the clinicians lived in the
village within walking distance to each other. So it was very easy to go there the
next day, or every other day, and treat that person accordingly.
It says after Bloodletting, Harmonize the Full and Empty, which
generally means to Tonify that which is Empty, and Sedate that which is Full. So
it is in that passage that some people think of Full and Empty as being Excess
and Deficiency. And of course, with that comes the Energy Transfer theory,
which some of you are probably familiar with, often seen with the so-called
Source Luo treatment. They're doing an energy transfer by dealing with one
that's Excess and one that's Deficient. We'll see that when we apply the Luo
Channel treatments.
It says when the Luo Passage Channels are darkish, that indicates Cold
and pain. They were more interested in that in the Han dynasty, because in the
Han dynasty we know that very often the pathology that one encountered was
Wind and Cold. Wind, however, tends to be more Surface. If s the Cold that
tends to Penetrate more deeply. So that when the Cold penetrates Deeper, and
the Luo Channels have to deal with it, it become occluded, it becomes dark, it
becomes so-called bluish, deprivation of oxygen, of life. When if s red, which
means now Wei Qi is going in to try to invigorate, to try to bleed, to try to move
this so-called Stagnation, the area becomes red. As Wei Qi starts to try to move it
back out, we can have fever, and we know that is going to manifest, to use the
Wen Bing term, Heat in the Blood. You might have hemorrhaging now. If s
doing what we would do in Acupuncture. If s going to cause bleeding. If s
going to cause nosebleeds. There's going to be blood in the sputum. You're
going to vomit blood. We know also, at the same time, the Classical symptom of
the Luo Channel is that there is going to be irritability, because Heat, Wei Qz is
going into the Blood. Heat in the Blood causes restlessness and irritability,
Disturbed Shen signs and symptoms, as we would expect with anything that
affects Blood. So from that perspective, we already see that Luo Channels can be
used to treat a lot of conditions that involve Hot and Cold, a lot of so-called
infections that are in the Blood. You'll see some of the clinical applications
would be, let's say Lyme Disease, let's say endocarditis, malaria would be the
most common disease that is talked about in the Classical texts where you have
symptoms of Heat and Cold, very often alternating in some cases, or a
combination of both. That's one of the inferences that comes from Chapter 10.
As we continue on with this discussion,and again all of this is in Chapter
10, it tells us a lot of implications about the Luo Channels. The thenar eminence,
the Fish Border, Yu Ji, which is where the Lung's Luo Channel flows into, they
say is very diagnostic for discerning. Many people will probably have some
16
bluishness in their thenar eminence. When you s ueeze you hands like this, and
1
you make the thenar eminence puff up, you'll pro ably see already some bluish
color there, some red color. If s common to see that. And relatively speaking, if
it becomes extremely bluish, or if s more blue than red, then there is Cold in the
Stomach. Why Stomach? Why not Lungs? It would be because, that which
represents the Internalization of a Pathogenic Factor occurs in Yang Ming at the
Stomach. The focus is at the Stomach, not on the Lungs. Lungs would be more
External, even though, if s a Zang Fu Organ. In terms of energetics, Lungs deal
more with External energetics. The Stomach deals with things that have become
more Internalized. If if s red, then there's Heat in the Stomach. If if s blackened,
then there's prolonged and chronic Bi Obstruction Syndrome. A lot of times
these chronic Bi Obstruction Syndromes will be related to psychosomatic Bi.
That means there's no Climatic Factors that you can evaluate that's causing the
pain. There's no relief that seems to come from Climatic or temperature
applications. The pain doesn't seem to have come from an accident. Even
though it can be from an accident.
In Chapter 56 of the Su Wen, it furthers the same discussion. It says when
the Luo Channels of Yang Ming are bluish, then there is pain. When there is
blackening, there is Bi Obstruction. If if s yellow or red, there is Heat, so it just
adds another color aspect to it. And if if s pale, there is Cold, a Five Element
discussion here, to some degree.
Severity in the Luo Passage Channels will result in depression. There's the
Emotional aspect, loss of consciousness, again a severe Disturbance of Shen, loss
of speech, as it relates to the Sensory Organs. Luo Channels deal a lot with
Sensory Organs. We'll see that a little later on when we look at the idea of Luo
Channels and the development of the psyche.
Chapter 21 discusses the use of the Luo Points for Rebellious Qi.
Rebellious Qi from Counterflow in the Stomach can result also in Bi Obstruction,
again this relationship between the Stomach and Bi obstruction. If s very simple
to make that relationship. The Earth School, in fact, borrows from this particular
passage. The Earth School is going to say that the Spleen controls the four limbs.
Any conditions afflicting the four limbs in the form of Bi Obstruction is an
imbalance in the Spleen and the Stomach in the Earth Element. Here we have
Rebellious Qi from Counterflow in the abdomen. Counterflow in the abdomen is
very often Stomach Qi in this context. Stomach Qi, if if s not Descending and it
becomes Rebellious, which means that it can also affect Spleen, will start to
move, not necessarily in the form of nausea and vomiting but it can also go into
the four limbs and cause Bi Obstruction syndrome, Rebellious Qi. Here, in
Chapter 21, it actually says to treat with Luo Points on the Yin and Yang
Channels, Dispersing the Yang and Tonifying the Yin. The applications we'll get
to later. In fact what I'd really like to do today is do the theoretical part, and
tomorrow we'll do the applications. So some of these passages will become
much more clear as we go along.
17
And again, this term, the Imbalance of Wei and Ying Qi: Bi Obstruction as
a result of Counterflow Qi due to the imbalance of Wei and Ying Qi.
Rebellious Qi leads to Heat Diseases (which can) affect the Orificies. We
made the association already between the Luo Channels and the Orifiaes, to
some degree, which would be the Pure Yang of the Stomach. Are we dear? In
other words if you have Rebellious Qz in your Stomach, Stomach is no longer
Descending. That Rebellious Qi can affect the Pure Yang of the Stomach, which
is responsible for bringing bodily Fluids to the Sensory Organs. As the
Rebellious Qi becomes Excessive, Qi Stagnation becomes Hot, and it can start to
dry out the Sensory Organs, including the throat, the eyes, the ears, the mouth.
This is what is meant by "affecting the Qrifiaes". So you can have your Sensory
conditions due to Lno Channel conditions. You don't want to see what the world
really is. You don't want to hear what you really need to do. You don't want to
say what is really on your mind. That's a Sensory Organ Stagnation. It doesn't
have to be just physical: that you have glaucoma, you have cataracts, you have
tinnitus, you have chronic sore throat, you have chronic tonsillitis, you have
chronic sinusitis. It might simply mean that you have a hard time dealing with
the realities that your mind knows, but you're not willing to face. Then those
areas of the Sensory Organs become stuck, become Stagnant.
Commentaries relate this discussion to the Stomach and Spleen, Yang
Ming as Interior, which produces Heat. Counterflow Qt can come from Heat to
affect Tai Yin of the Spleen, which controls the four limbs. This is very important
to the School of External Medicine, the specialty Wai Ke basically treats all
musculoskeletal conditions by first Opening the Orificies, in particular opening
the sinus region. That means if you're coming from the External School, anyone
that comes to you with a chronic Bi Obstruction syndrome most likely has a
history of sinusitis, rhinitis, nasal congestion, Sensory Organ Stagnation, which
they feel you need to treat adequately if you want to relieve, and in some ways,
Release the chronic Bi syndrome.
Chapter 39 infers the relationship between Fluids and Blood in the Luo
Passage Channels. Fresh liquids or fluids that one drinks seep into the Luo
Channels and later become Blood. Again, the Ying Qi is responsible for
supporting the Luo Channels,and later on, they also say that Blood will be
responsible for supporting the Luo Channels, as well. This is also important in
terms of the production of Blood, and if we have time, we might go into that
tomorrow, the relationshipbetween the Great Luo of the Spleen and the Stomach,
as the origin of Fluids and Blood. So in other words, we know that the Spleen
produces the Red Substance that goes into the Heart, and then the Heart takes
that Red Substance and moves it into the Liver for storage. People who practice
with the Luo Channels believe that the Great Luo of the Spleen is responsible for
bringing that Red Substance into the chest. We know the Great Luo of the Spleen
wraps around, it embraces the chest region, and consequently it is the Great Luo
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aNew England School ofAcupuncture &Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
of the Spleen that helps the Heart in the production of Blood, from a Luo
Meridian perspective. In fact the Great Luo of the Stomach is the heartbeat. It is
the movement of that Blood as it circulates through the body. That's why they
would say that the Great Luo of the Spleen originates in the region of the chest,
going into the diaphragm, and merging at the left breast, the area where the
heart obviously is located, where a pulsating can be seen and felt, the heartbeat.
2. Based on the Su Wen
The second historical aspect about the Luo Channels is based on the Su
Wen. The Su Wen in chapters 56,57and 63 describes the Luo Channels as being
more Superficial than the Primary Channels. We talked about that. It says the
Luo Channels are Yam. They tend to be visible, and they Float to the Surface.
That's in these chapters in the Su Wen, and then furthermore, it says that when a
pathogen attacks the body it will first enter the skin, and if not Released, it will
then travel into the Sun Luo Channels. Sun 3% Luo means the Grandchild Luo.
If still not Released it will then enter the Primary Channels.
Sun Luo is also inferred as the Divergent Channels. So some people will
actually have some problems with this as being looked at as Luo Channels.
When we do the Divergent Channels, we see that this particular passage will
come in, and the arguments that will come with it to suggest that these Channels
are not the Luo Channels, but indeed the Divergent Channels. Nevertheless, if s
important because what they're saying is that before anything goes into the
Primary Channels, if s going to have to go through the Luo Channels. That's the
important aspect.
Sun Luo, by the way, is sometimes translated as Grandchild Luo. In Ni's
translation of the Su Wen, they translate Sun Luo as Micro Luo. I just want you to
realize that because they translate it as Micro Luo,most people are going to get
confused. Even earlier clinicians historically got confused, because they say Sun
Luo should be even of a lesser generation, or a future generation of the Luo, and
Sun means future. It does not mean that if s more "'micro", because remember,
the Luo first took it on and it moved it back out. If s already going back out.
Now the next generation that has to deal with it is the Divergent Channels,
That's why it is the "future" generation. It does not mean that the Divergent
Channels are more Superficial, per se. They're not more Superficial. So that's
why the word "micro" might throw off the reader. In fact, clinicians will argue,
if you look at the signs and symptoms of these so-called Micro Luos that are
being described in Chapter 63 of the Su Wen, they're talking about conditions
that usually involve the major articulations, the major joints. So it couldn't be the
Luo Channels, because the Luo Channels do not Penetrate into the major
articulations. Since the Divergent Channels are not identified, they don't use the
word Jing Bie. Some people would say these are precisely the same kinds of
articulations by which major articulations begin, so that's why they must be the
Divergent Channels that are being described here.
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0 New England School ofAcupuncture &Jeffrey C. Yuen 2004
In the same series of chapters, they also talk about the correspondence of
the Luo to color. There's always that visibility, that you can see it. In the Su Wen
they basically give more of the Five Element coloration, the idea that the Fire's
Luo would be red, the Earth's Luo would be yellow, those kinds of Five Element
correspondences. They also would talk about how the seasons in particular
would change the Yang Luo Channels' color. Again, the seasons will have some
type of influence over the colors of the Luo. Now, some people would say that if
you're looking at color, color is always a reflection, from a Five Element
perspective, of a Control Cycle disharmony. So that's another way that they
apply Luo Channels, that if you have a Control Cycle disharmony, you should
use Luo Points. Since Luo Points manifest through color, color is very often
reflective of a Control Cycle disharmony. Some of you who studied the Nan Jing
would know that, because we covered that in the Nan Jing discussion.
Chapter 24 emphasizes Bloodletting to relieve the Fullness of the Blood
Vessels, and describes how mental, emotional stress will result in the Stagnation
of Qi and Blood in the Luo Channels, and subsequently in the Primary Channels
as well. Again, Luo Channels dealing with mental, emotional stress, a very
important facet of the Luo Channels.
Chapter 62 says, "When the Shen Spirit is Excess, Bleed the Luo Channels
collaterally." "Collaterally" here means, I'm trying to say, Superficially. That's
why I said on the Superficial Level. So if s really Bled Superficially. Here they're
actually describing, if you have a Shen Disturbance, Excess, Bleed the Luo Points.
They're not saying go to other Points. They're talking about going directly to the
Luo Points themselves. In fact, it further says, when Blood is Excess, one
becomes Angry. When Blood is Deficient, one becomes apprehensive, a further
reminder that Emotions can manifest in many ways depending on Excess or
Fullness, or Deficiency and Emptiness of the L w Channels.
Q. In the Su Wen, talking about Bleeding the Luo Points, they didn't have Luo
Points. Is that correct? They were just talking about Luo Vessels being formed as
needed?
A. Right.
Q. So when they talk about Bleeding L w Points?
A. Well, Luo Points in relationship to the Luo Vessels, as they were being
created. What Stephen mentioned, we talked about this when we did the
discussion on the Su Wen, that Luo Points, as Points on the Primary Channels,
only appear when the body needs them. Primary Channels only had, among
Point categories, the Antique Points, which would be the Five Element Points.
When areas bundled up, they became known as Cleft Points. Cleft Points were
created as needed. When the body begins to be occluded with Blood, it develops
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Luo Points along the Primary Channels. The Su Wen was trying to develop the
theories, and the Ling Shu is going to take on those theories and now actually
give trajectories. So Luo Points are things that we need when we start to
accumulate. You're put in an empty room. You just have your bare necessities.
But when you start accumulating, you're going to start looking for storage bins.
You're going to want to start looking for closets. You're going to start looking
for chests that you can put things in. That's when you go beyond your bare
necessities. And it could be, as this point is noted, seasonal. We have seasonal
necessities. We put away the blankets for the cold winter. Right now we don't
need them, so we put them away. There can be seasonal factors that can affect
our necessities.
Let me finish that thought on Chapter 62. It says the condition will
manifest in the Lw Channels, and will then flow into the Primary Channels if
there is Greater Fullness. If the Luo Channel is Greater Fullness, saturated, it will
then flow into the Primary Channel, at which state, we would say that the Luo
Channel is simply Emptying that Greater Fullness that it has been retaining, this
idea that if s transferring things into the Primary Channels. Then the question
comes: where is it transferring it into the Primary Channels? Is it transferring it
at the Luo Point? Or is it transferring it at another Point. The idea of the Luo is
that it deals with External and Internal. Internal is saturated, and it can't go out
to the External. So what Level is it going to go into now? Constitutional. What
Points on the Primary Channels represent the Constitutional? The Source Points.
Emptying into the Source. This is how the Source Luo treatment comes about. So
you do the Luo and the Source.
Chapter 39: Cold can Penetrate and constrict the Channels to affect the
Luo Channels, resulting in pain. The preoccupation with Cold was common, the
idea of Cold causing this concept of pain, which also means paying attention,
really. Pathogenic Cold attacking the Channels will produce Fullness.
Pathogenic Cold attacking the Stomach and the Intestines will cause Qi and
Blood to Stagnate, with pain in the Luo Channels. This is just looking at the Su
Wen to support the statements of the Ling Shu, that Luo Channels will include
signs and symptoms dealing with Bi Obstruction syndrome, pain, that the Luo
Channels will include signs and symptoms that deal with Rebellious Qi,
Counterflow Qi, Stomach and Intestines. As it affects the Stomach and Intestines,
and causes Qi and Blood to Stagnate, you'll see that it will cause other signs and
symptoms, as well, especially pertaining to gastrointestinal problems. When
Blood Stagnates and cannot move into the larger Channels, the larger Channels
generally mean the Divergent Channels, perhaps, the Sinew Channels. We don't
really know exactly what they mean by the "big Channels". Some people would
say Primary Channels, but that would not make sense, because they were
already talking earlier about the Channels, the Primary Channels, so these must
be something different. It says that since it cannot move into the "larger"
Channels, and we know the Lw Channels cannot move into the major joints,
most people think that they're referring to the Divergent Channels. It will
21
accumulate into a mass. That mass would be like a Phlegm mass, a nodule, a Pi
that develops.
Are there any questions before we take a break?
Q. Whafs happening when the Luo is diverting into the Primary Meridian.
What is the change in the patient's emotional ...?
A. Remember, once something dumps into the Primary Meridian, it means it
becomes conscious. It becomes something that is now a part of your life that you
have to deal with. The idea of something Emptying itself into the Primary is
where you now begin to have signs and symptoms of the Primary Channels,
signs and symptoms of the Zany Fu, signs and symptoms, if you're looking at it
Emotionally, where the Emotional issues that you know have been simmering in
your life come to the forefront. You have to face them. You become very
symptomatic as it begins to dump into the Primary Channels.
Q. Does that give them the opportunity to actually really deal with it?
A. Well, at that point, what it tells us is that we have to deal with it, because
if s coming not only into the Primary Channels, if s coming into the Source Point
of the Primary Channels, unless the Divergent Merdians deal with it and make
you paralyzed so you don't have to feel anything. The Divergent Channels come
in and say, "Oh, don't worry. I know you can't handle it any longer, so I'll make
your arms become so weak that you can't handle anything any longer." You
develop arthritis in your hands. I can't handle the world. "Oh, don't worry
about it. I'll move it into your hips. I'm make you become so numb you can't
walk, so you don't have to go that distance to face that boss thafs so terrible that
you can't stand, so you can stay home now." It might not be the best way of
handling it, but that's one way the body can definitely handle it. By making you
such that you no longer have to deal with the issue, by numbing by paralyzing,
Classical symptoms of Divergent Channels. Or I can say, "Well, no, don't you
think if s about time you start handling this? Don't you think that the reason
why you have not been able to handle this is because you've been a bad person.
You've been guilty of so many things." And the body handles it by saying,
"There's nothing wrong with the outside world; there's something wrong with
you." You develop an autoimmune disease. The body attacks itself. Remember,
one of the most common so-called autoimmune diseases is rheumatoid arthritis.
The body attacks its own structure, to say if s me that's wrong, if s me that's bad.
That very often can be related to Emotional problems.
OK. Why don't we take a short break.
22
The last section that I want to explore with you in the Su Wen is the
discussion that's provided in Chapter 56. Here it gives a concept of the Lw
Channels as movement of Pathogenic Factors, where these Pathogenic Factors
are held. If s about holding spaces prior to entering into the Primary Channels.
Actually they give names for each one of these Zones, so to speak. Whenever
there's a Zonal relationship, then the inference generally means that the
Pathogenic Factor usually came from the External Level. The External Level
behaves by Zone, the Internal Level behaves by Element What I mean by Zones
is Tai Yang, Shao Yang, Yang Ming. What I mean by Element would be Wood
Element, Water Element, Fire Element, etc. The fact that they describe something
moving from Yang Ming to Shoo Yang to Tai Yang, Shao Yin into Jue Yin and Tai
Yin, again the sequencing, in my opinion, is important. They're looking at
something that has gone into the Interior, Yang Ming, and if s trying to find its
way back out to the Exterior, moving from Yang Ming to Shao Yang to Tai Yang.
If if s not able to go back to the Exterior, due to either a Deficiency of Wei Qi or
Insufficiency of Wei Qi,then it begins to move into the Interior. As it moves into
the Interior, into the Level of Shao Yin, if s trying to find, again, an exit from the
Interior, from Shao Yin to Jue Yin to Tai Yin. Each one of these Yang and Yin
stages will represent the most terminal, the most final, or the most complete of
those so-called Yang and Yin stages, and subsequently returning back to the
Exterior. The names that are given in Chinese basically represent a concept of
movement.
% HaiFei: Yang Ming
W Shu Chi: Shao Yang
% Guan Shu: Tai Yang
W S h u Ru: Shao Yin
%fi HaiJian: w i n
M @ GuanZhe (?): Tai Yin
For example, the first term, Hai Fei, generally means that which can be
destructive, or that's harmful. Hai means to harm, to hurt And Fei means that
which gives birth to growth. So Yang Ming is that which damages your
capability to produce Post-natal Qi. That's often what we see with the Luo
Channels, that when you get into the Internalization of a Pathogenic Factor, be it
due to an External or an Internal cause, Heat is produced. The Heat is at the
expense of one's Yang Qi. Yang Qi's goal is birth and growth. Yang is to aspire,
to grow from. So what happens is at the Yang Level, or Yang Ming Level, what
you're going to have is damage to that which produces Post-natal Qi, or that
which represents growth.
The second term is Shu Chi. Shu as in Ling Shu, the axis, or the pivot as it
is sometimes translated. And Chi, simply means the axle of the pivot, so that
which serves as the axle, the center. From the perimeters, from Yang Ming,
you're looking at the context that something is disrupting movement. And
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what's disrupting, because what causes all movement, is the axle. The axle is
what spins everything.
Finally when you get into this term Gnan Shu, Guan means gate or barrier.
And again, Shu as in Ling Shu, the same term, the axis, the gate to the pivot. Very
often the context is, as this is spinning, as the axle is spinning, something is
blocking it. Something is jamming it. Because Guan can also mean a barrier,
something is blocking it from moving. The pivot can't move. If s almost like this
idea that there's movement; the movement is being held, and consequently
you're looking at the actual thing that's holding on to it. Again, that's the idea of
the Luo Channels. Something first gets Stagnant. Then after the Stagnancy,
something is actually physically holding onto that Stagnancy, be it Yin,be it
Blood, be it Fluids.
Likewise, you get the same imagery in the Yin Level. Shao Yin is referred
to as Shu Ru. Again, Shu is the pivot, the axis. And Ru means the encasing that
wraps around the axle, that wraps around the wheel, if you were to use the
wheel as an analogy.
Hai Jian. Hai means to harm, to hurt. Jian means the shoulders. Harming
the shoulders, if you translate it literally. I've seen some commentaries that
simply translate it as the Inner Gate, which obviously would not be a very literal
translation. Here, when you get into the Level of Jzte Yin, they're talking about
something that is now really beginning to go Deeper. With Jue Yin you're
looking at the Level where the area of the shoulders, potentially the Divergent
Channels perhaps can be inferred here. The major articulations are maybe being
inferred here, that is now being affected.
And lastly, G u m Zhi (Zhe), Guan means a barrier or gate. Zhe means a
closure. In truth, the term really means seasonal hibernation. Everything is
blocked. Things are just hibernating. Things are becoming latent. Luo Channels
have a lot to do with Latency, things being held in the body.
These terms from Chapter 56 are very important, especially when it gets
to the Nan Jing. The Nan Jing will look at these terms and use these terms to
explain the concept that some of you already know, known as Closure and
Exuberance. How Exuberance in one leads to Closure in another, and vice and
versa. I don't want to really get into that, because if s not the scope of this
weekend's discussion to look at the Nan Jing School. But we do want to look at
the Nan Jing in terms of what it has to say about the Luo Channels.
Q. In that term, Shu Ru, where they talk about encasing, you suggested that
at that Level, that would be an extreme Level internally. Does it suggest that
there's going to be tumors, and that kind of thing?
A. Right. Things are starting to come and wrap around this.
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3. Based on the Nan Jing
The Nan Jing does not really talk much about the Luo Channels. But they
do give some interesting insights. Chapters 23 and 26 identify 15Luo Passage
Channels. It is the Nan Jing School that one can say got rid of the Great Luo of the
Stomach. You don't see much discussion about that in the Nan Jing School. One
of the interesting things that they do say is that the Luo Channels are one sided.
At the same time the Nan Jing School says that the Primary Channels are also
single sided. They are not bi-lateral Merdians. On one side you have the
Primary Merdians, and on the opposite side you have the Luo Merdians. This
has generally not been accepted in the field of Acupuncture. But if you want to
know which side is which, it is in relationship to the Pulses. The left Pulses
would be for your Heart, liver and Kidineys, so the Primary Merdians for the
Heart, Liver, and Kidneys would be on the left side of the body. Their Luo
Channels would be on the right side of the body. Likewise, their Yang pairs, the
Small Intestine, Gall Bladder, and Bladder would be on the left side of the body,
and their Luo would be on the right side of the body. This has led some
clinicians, when using the Luos, to treat based on this left right concept.
Likewise, the right side of the body would be represented by the Lung and Large
Intestine, Spleen and Stomach, Pericardium and Triple Heater for the Primary
Merdians, and the related Luo would be on the left side.
Another important thing about the Nan ling School is that they don't talk
about, or say that there are Luo for the Ren and the Du. They say that the Luo of
Yin and Yang are the Yin Qiao and the Yang Qiao Mai. Keep this in mind as very
important, that the Eight Extra Channels have Luo Points, that the Eight Extra
Channels, at the Level of the Constitution, are somehow being connected to the
Luo Connecting Vessels. Remember that it is the Nan Jing School that says that
the Primary Channels do not reach into the Eight Extra Channels. It is the Nan
Jing School that says that the Eight Extra Channels are beyond the reach of the
Primary Channels. This is in support of the idea that the Constitutional Level is
simply too Deep, and that the Level of one's Self is the clients responsibility, not
that of the clinician. Only the client can reveal what that is. This understanding
was common during the Han dynasty. It took more than a thousand years for us
to begin to change that viewpoint, that indeed we could get into someone's
Constiution. We could try to alter their genetic code,just like modem medicine
is trying to do today, and Chinese medicine was trying to do during the Ming
dynasty.
So they say that the Luo of Yin and Yang is the Yin Qiao and Yang Qiw,
respectfully, and the role of the Yin's Luo is to link the Internal, in particular the
Five Zang Organs (and this is coming from the commentaries on this). The
Yang's Luo was to link the External, the Six Fu Organs, and the role of the Great
Luo is (here they don't identify the Great L w of the Spleen, but that is generally
what is inferred, because they do say that there is a Great Luo of the Spleen) to
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link the External to the Internal, also linking above to below, Yang to Yin, with
the chest as the barrier between External and Internal. The chest defines that
which is above it, is External, that which is below it, is Internal. Where does the
Great Luo of the Spleen begin? It begins in that area that divides the body
between front and back, and it wraps around the chest, the area of the barrier
between External and Internal.
Q. When they talk about linking the Internal and the External, how do they
distinquish the Yin Qiw and the Yang Qiao from the Yin Wei and Yang Wei, which
also link Yin and Yang?
A, If s different with Yin Wei and Yang Wei, which link the medium that
defines Yin and Yang. Yin Wei is dealing with the idea of Essence, Blood and
Fluids. So that's what they are referring to in terms of humours. Yang Wei would
be linking Wei Qi with Yang Qi, different aspects of Yang Qi. With the Qiao
Vessels, they're talking about linking the External terrain, not in terms of Qz, but
rather in terms of anatomy, the skin, the flesh, that kind of idea, all the way
down to the bone. Yin Qiao would be dealing with, from the Level of the Bone
into the Internal Organs, that kind of an anatomical differentiation.
Before we look at the trajectories, I want to make sure everyone
understands the concept here, about the Luo Channels. In brief the Luo Channels
represent the creation of a space, a medium, to hold and to contain Pathogenic
Factors that came from the Exterior, or from the Interior, or a combination of
both, that begin to violate, begin to confront the Primary Merdians. They begin
to confront the priorities, the regularities of your everyday life. Anything that
acutely happens in your life is being subjected to the resolution of the Primary
Merdians. If the Primary Merdians find that they cannot deal with those issues,
then the Luo Channels are created to contain those issues. The creation of a space
requires Yin. That Yin is in the form of Blood or Fluids. Collectively, from an
Acupuncture point of view, we would call that Ying Qi, the Nourishing Qi.
When the space reaches a point where it is overflowing, when the Vessel
is overflowing, then the Luo begins to Empty. It Empties back into the Primary
Meridian, which deals with the Exterior and Interior. However, the reason the
Luo Channels were created in the first place was that the Primary Merdians did
not really want to deal with the condition. So when it goes into the Primary
Meridian, the Level that it returns back to requires that now we have to deal with
these problems at the expense of an energetics that is Deeper, which is the Level
of Yuan Qi. As it goes into the Primary Meridian, if s going to move toward the
Yuan Qz Level. Within the Primary Merdians, that's defined by the Yuan Source
Points.
I could choose to not allow it to go into the Primary Merdians by bringing
it to other Merdians that deal with Yuan Source Qi, which would include the
26
Divergent Medians, and the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. These are the
Meridian systems, or the Points, that deal directly with Yuan Qi.
If I'm going to look at it from a Primary Meridian perspective, remember
that the Yuan Qi associated with Yuan Source Points is disseminated from Triple
Heater, San Jim. The San Jiao is going to represent itself through the Shu Points
on the back, and the Mu Collection Points on the front. Which means that, as it
goes back into the Primary Meridian, if it goes to the Mu Collection Points, it is
going into the Zang Fu. If it goes into the back Bladder Shu Points, it is going into
the Zang Fu. That means that, at that point you will develop a condition. Keep
in mind what it is dumping in there: Yin, Blood, Fluids, a Yin condition that can
now go into the Internal Organs, first affecting the Gao and the Huang of the
Organs, the wrapping of the Internal Organs, the membranes that keep the
Organs in their state of tonicity.
That can happen, or the body can choose to move it into the Divergents, or
Eight Extra Channels, however consider the time period. The time period we're
looking at is the Han dynasty: you can't use the Eight Extra Channels, can't treat
with them, unless you treat with something that the Luo Channels dump into the
Eight Extra Channels. That dumping occurs, if the Nei Jing is correct, at the Ren
and the Du's Luo. If the Nan Jing is correct, it will occur at Yang Qiao and Yin
Qiao. That's now the connection of how the Luo is making its way into the Eight
Extra Channels, that there is a Lw that is connecting to the Eight Extra Channels,
to the Yuan Level, Ren and Du. Consequently, we see that there are indeed Luo
Points for those four Extraordinary Vessels. That's the model, and if everyone
understands that, it makes it easier when we go into the next component.
C. Trajectories with Signs and Symptoms

(the Longitudinal Luo Channels)
What I'd like to do now is talk about the trajectories. For now I will be
describing their movement, and so forth, giving you some signs and symptoms.
What I'd like to do after that, is extend it, where I hope it becomes much more
meaningful to you as a clinician. Now the way that I'm going to present the
Longitudinal Channels is the way that it is presented in the Ling Shu. The Ling
Shu presents the Lw Channels based on the sequence that begins with the Arm
Yin Channels, moving into the Arm Yang Channels, then moving into the Leg
Yang Channels, ending with the Leg Yin Channels. Sequence is very important.
The way that the sequencing was made in the Ling Shu, is going to come
back in the 19th century, in the work of a practitioner named Wang Qzng Ren.
Wang Qing Ren was a very famous clinician that was responsible for
understanding Blood Stagnation. He's the one who, if you study Herbal
medicine, is responsible for all the formulas that involve Expelling Blood Stasis
from the Diaphragm, or from the lower abdomen. He's the one with the all the
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Expelling Blood Stasis formulas. He's the one that did dissection of prisoners.
He also did dissections of people after they died that were considered mentally
insane, or so forth. He found direct correlations between the heart and the brain.
It is to his credit that he began to reexamine the role of the Luo Channels in
relationship directly to cardiovascular and Blood movement. We'll see his
strategy tomorrow when we look at the application of the Luo Channels to
treatment of cardiovascular conditions.
This trajectory to him is very, very important, that things are moving from
the Level of the chest and affecting the arms, and then from the arms to the legs,
and then from the legs returning back to the chest. What you're looking at is the
cardiovascular system in the very primitive way that he's describing i t Moving
from the heart, from the chest into the four limbs, as we get into arterial
circulation. Then if s returned back to the heart as we get into the venous
circulation.
So in any case, let's just look at the Longitudinal Luo Channels. And
again, that term Longitudinal Luo, as most of you know, is a European term. You
say that to the Chinese, and they would not understand exactly what you're
talking about. Europeans have coined the terms Transverse Luo and
Longitudinal Luo (in order) to differentiate: if the Luo Point is connecting to the
Source Point of this Yin Yong pair, they would call that a Transverse Luo, and if
you're looking at the Luo Point, and its own trajectory, you would call that the
Longitudinal Luo. In Chinese, they often just see that as part of a sub-pathway of
each other.
1. Tai Yin LU The Lung is one of the few Channels that goes
distally. There are only two Luo Channels that go distally. That means there are
two Channels whose role it is to bring things back out to the Exterior.
Everything else goes internally. They go proximally. They go toward the center
of the body. The Lung and the Gall Bladder go away from the body. However,
the Gall Bladder is also interesting because it goes into the dorsum of the foot,
into ST-42, which suggests, as you'll see as I'm going to argue for the Gall
Bladder, that it is really not bringing things out to the Exterior, but rather
bringing something all the way into Constitutional, because ST-42 happens to be
a Point along the Chong's trajectory. The Lung Luo Channel as a collective group
of Channels would be the Channel that's responsible for moving things back out
to the Exterior that have gone into the Interior. The Interior is represented by the
chest, at least the axis. What develops in the chest is Heat. So if s not unusual
that the Luo Point of the Lungs would go into the two Fire Points that represent
the Organs of the chest, PC-8 and LU-10. LU-7 goes to the thenar eminence, to
the "Fish Border" that we use to do diagnosis by looking, the Fire Point of the
Lungs. It also goes into the center of the palms, into PC-8. I'm using the Points
just as a reference to the area that if s going into.
28
When you look at the Lung's Channel, you see the Lung going from LU-7
into the thenar eminence, and I added to some of the diagrams. I looked at
Royston Low's book. I looked at Headman's book. I also looked at EUis &
Weisman's book, and if s hard for me to find trajectories that are similar to what
was described directly by the Ling Shu, so what I did was I took pictures from
Peter Deadman's book. In Peter Headman's book it only goes to the thenar
eminence. It does not go to the center of the palms. You see that it goes to the
center of the palms in Royston Low's book. But then Royston Low's book has
other things that would differ from Peter Deadman's book. So you can see,
different Acupuncture textbooks do not depict the Luo Channels with the degree
of consistency that we have established with the Primary Merdians. Everyone
agrees on the Primary Merdians, but when it comes to some of these other
Merdians, not everyone is in total agreement. So I added the little trajectory
where it goes to the center of the palms, and that would be in line with what it
describes in terms of the Ling Shu.
The Ling Shu also describes Fullness as Heat in the palms. I'mgoing to
suggest to you, take this for its physical representation, but for its psychosomatic
representation as well. Keep in mind that the Chinese language is a
psychosomatic language. We don't give terms for Shen Disturbances. We might
describe that you have a S h Disturbance, but very often if s described in very
physical language. If s just like when we use terms like "weakness of the Gall
Bladder" to signify that you have lack of courage, or that you tend to be very
timid. Just as some of you here would use the term, for lack of better words,
"you have ants in your pants" or something like that. When you use something
like that, you're not translating that literally. You know that there's something
about this person that makes them very restless, something about this person
that makes them very jumpy. The Chinese language uses the same kind of
metaphors. They have a lot of those kinds of words. So to say to someone that I
have chest pains, that my heart hurts, that can be physical, but it can also be
psychological. If I have just been disappointed, I can very easily say that my
heart aches, and that might be misconstrued as having angina. Keep in mind
that the language is very psychosomatic. You'll see what I mean by that later on
when I describe psychmodal development.
The Emptiness of the Lung's Luo,has frequent urination, frequent
yawning, again, some type of attempt to get rid of something that has gone into
the Interior. If if s on the Exterior, you can sweat it out, but once it goes into the
Interior, the Lungs control peristalsis. Even though we're not looking at the
Lung organ itself, the idea of this, that if s attached to the Lungs, is that the
Lungs, by causing Descension, the first thing if s going to want to move is Fluids
If s not going to by to move the stools, because the Lungs, by moving Fluid,
Descends into the Bladder and it causes frequent urination. Frequent yawning
could be just a constant need to open up my chest, to dilate my Lungs, to try to
bring something back out Again, the symptoms that I'm translating literally
have a lot more inferences than what it simply appears to be.
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New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C. Yuen 2004
Q. With Heat in the palms, what was the psychological implication?
A. Someone who has, instead of "ants in their pants", ants in their shirt, or
whatever, obviously there's no expression like that, but the hands are very
restless. There is a Chinese expression "many hands". "Many hands" means
someone who can't keep their hands off many things. If you hear someone say,
Duo, which means a lot, Shou, thafs slang that means a lot of hands, but it means
this person is a very fidgety type of person.
Q. And then with the frequent urination and the yawning, that didn't really
have a . ..?
A. It has. I'm going to get to all of that. I don't want to give you the
psychosocial stuff right now, until we start looking at actually how people
develop psychosoually. These things will become very obvious then.
Q. Then, as well, with Emptiness, you might expect coldness in the palms,
perhaps?
A. You could. You can put in that translation. In Chinese they don't have
that term, that's all. You can see that what they're doing is just translating. In
other words, Lungs is where someone is very interested in the world. Someone
is trying to sense the world through the tactile ability of hands. Emptiness would
be someone who is in a state of boredom, that there is nothing really that is
interesting about the world. So yawning can be seen as an expression of
boredom, as well. You can say coldness of the hands, sure, could be seen as that.
Now I don't want to jump ahead. I started the process, but I don't want to
do it with each one of these, because if s not going to be that valid in the
trajectory that we see it in, in the sequence of that trajectory. If s going to be
more valid when we look at it from the context of the Primary Meridian
sequencing. But this is the way that if s presented in the Ling Shu, and it does
serve clinically to support the process of Blood.
2. Shao Yin HT Next, what you're looking at is two trajectories, both
of which are going to go into their associative Organ, in particular the Heart and
the Pericardium. The difference is that the Heart goes away from the chest into
the throat, into the eyes, while the Pericardium stays concentrated in the region
of the heart, in the region of the chest. It almost makes it seem, and many people
would argue that Pericardium seems to be more important than the Heart. Be
reminded that in the anaent times there was no such thing as a so-called
Pericardium Channel. The true Heart Channel was the Pericardium Channel. It
was in later times that we added the Heart Meridian to the trajectories. The
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0 New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
reason why was because, as we would suspect, finding an entrance, finding a
way to get into the "sovereign ruler" was not going to be that easy. You just
couldn't see the emperor. You have to see the emperor through his eunuch, or
you have to see the emperor through the Heart Protector, who in most cases
were the eunuchs. The idea here is that the Pathways cannot, and should not,
represent a direct accessibility to the True Emperor, or the True Empress, the
True Self that you are. So consequently, it didn't make sense for the early
clinicians to think that there was such a thing as a Heart Meridian by which we
could get into here. At best, what we can get into is the Pericardium, the Heart
Protector. If s specifically stated in the Ling Shu that you only use the Heart
Meridian when you have physical pains along the Heart trajectory. When you
have angina, then you use the Heart Channel. In particular they actually say to
use HT-7for that. So it wasn't talking about using the Heart Meridian for Shen
disturbances, as we might see today when we use HT-7.
It was about, if you had an actual Shen Disturbance, what you really
needed to treat was the Pericardium, the Heart Protector, that which is, in some
ways perhaps, betraying the emperor. Remember, the eunuch decides what and
who goes before the emperor. If the eunuch decides, well, this is not really
necessary for your life, the emperor doesn't really need to listen to this, the
eunuch says, well, I'm not going to bother the emperor with this. Likewise, some
of you do the same thing. Something happens in your life, and you have that
voice that talks to you, "Oh this is not necessary, you don't need to deal with
this. Just let it go." Consequently you dismiss it. That is the Heart Protector
helping you to move on with your life. It maintains your sanity. Even though it
talks to you all the time.
In any case, the Heart Meridian begins one inch above the wrist at Tong Li,
HT-5. It follows the Heart Primary Meridian and it actually goes to the center of
the heart. But then from there it goes to the root of the tongue. Obviously you
know if s going to be involved with speech. It goes into the eyes, to give us that
sparkle in our eyes that represents our animation, our interest in life.
Its Fullness is a sense of oppression. Again, there's a certain sense of
suffocation, stuffiness. There's something on my chest that I really want to just,
kind of like, pull out to everyone. That would be a Fullness. Its Emptiness is not
having the voice, not having the ability to verbalize, to articulate what is in our
Hearts, or what is on our minds. Physically we can also look at that as someone
who has a stroke, and now has a loss of voice. But, again, the Heart Meridian
would be in this particular sequencing. Peter Deadman's book has it going from
the region of HT-5all the way into the axillary region, and then from there going
directly into the chest. In some of the earlier textbooks, what they would have is
that it actually goes up into the upper region underneath the clavicle, traveling
into LU-1 and LU-2 before traveling down into the chest, and they would ,
actually say that there is a sub-pathway that goes from this area, as it comes up
from the axillary, that goes into the chest. The major trajectory is that if s going
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to go up here, and then enter into the Heart itself at that point. Thafs why I
added these dotted lines here, to represent that there is a trajectory that comes,
from the dotted line, into the clavicle, underneath the clavicle in particular, and
then going into the chest. This trajectory some books would say is a sub-
pathway that begins at the axillary fold, at HT-1, and that from there it goes into
the so-called Heart. In any case, you have the trajectory where it goes into the
throat and then an Internal branch, really, that goes into the eyes. So thafs the
Heart Channel.
3. Jue Yin PC Pericardium Channel begins at probably one of the
most famous Points of Chinese Acupuncture, at least modern Acupuncture, PC-6
Nei Guan. It travels along the Pericardium's Primary Meridian to connect with
the Pericardiurn at Tan Zhong, The Center of the Altar, or The Altar of the Chest,
(37-17.Here the Fullness includes heart pain. Its Emptiness includes rigidity
and pain in the neck and in the head, even though its trajectory does not go into
the neck or into the head. You'll see what is inferred, a little later on, by that
particular symptom of why you have rigidity in the neck, or rigidity in the neck
where it prevents essentially circulation from moving into the head, because
what if s trying to do is prevent you from having meningitis, prevent you from
having Heat entering the Marrow, entering into the Brain. So it tightens up, it
stiffens up. Your neck locks up. That rigidity is really a defensive mechanism.
Almost like the Heart Protector protecting you from really getting to know
something about yourself. It might be too painful, too traumatic, and as such it
begins to develop that particular symptom.
4. TaiYang SI From the Arm Yin Channels, it begins to move into
the Yang arm Channels, in particular into Small Intestine. The Small Intestine
begins at what is referred to as the Straight, or Upright Branch. The trajectories
are very simplistic. They all go to LI-15, trying to get into the major articulation,
but knowing it cannot get into the major joints, and then from there it begins to
Diffuse. "We can't get into the major joints; let me bring it somewhere else,
namely into the Sensory Organs." Small Intestine ends at LI-15.
5. Yang Ming LI Large Intestine (Luo)goes into LI-15, cannot Penetrate
U-15, continues the trajectory into the neck, goes into the area of the jaw, in
particular ST-5 area, and then from there we know there's a pathway that goes
into two or three of the Sensory Organs, namely the nose/ lip area, and the other
area is into the area of the ears. That would be Large Intestine.
6. Shao Yang TH Then Triple Heater goes through U-15, knows that it
cannot Penetrate the joints, and now, since the Large Intestine has already gone
to the face, Triple Heater goes into the region of the neck,and from thee it enters
the Pericardium, or I should say it enters into the chest. Triple Heater does not
connect with all Three Burners. Some later books would have it connecting to
the Middle Burner, that from the chest it goes into the area around CV-12, into
the Middle Burner. I'mgoing to depict all of this. Small Intestine goes into here
32
(area of LI-151, and it starts to try to get into the joints, but it can't, so the Broken
Blood Vessels begin to show along the sides here, Broken Blood Vessels along the
area of LI-15.
Q. Why do these Merdians have this emphasis with LI-15 and the joint,
whereas, let's say the three Leg Yin Merdians don't have an emphasis of one
major Point in the knee? For instance, LI-15 is a big Point for these three. When I
look down at the further trajectories for the three Yin Merdians in the leg, if s not
like everything is trying to get into SP-9 or LR-8.
A. No. With the legs if s not trying to get . . .remember, their attempt is to
try to bring things up and out. That which they cannot bring out this way
(through the finger tips), they're going to bring to here (the head), this way. The
Yang Merdians are all trying to move back up to the head. That's the context,
that they're all going to try to find their way back to the head. And in particular,
all you really have is the Stomach Luo Channel that tries to do that, because the
Bladder basically is taken over by the Kidneys Lw. Gall Bladder essentially is
Descending. So if s really just the Stomach. The important part about the
Stomach is that if s going to bring something from one side, to the opposite side.
The Stomach's Luo is the Luo Meridian that represents polarity. How something
from one side begins to manifest on the opposite side. But no, they're not trying
to focus their attention on any of the lower articulations, because they're really
trying to get up to here (the head).
Small Intestine originates five inches above the wrist at the "Branch to the
Upright", goes to the elbows, onto the Point on the shoulder bone. Fullness of
Small Intestine involves looseness of the joints, elbow atrophy. The elbow is a
major lesser articulation that you'll see is common in a lot of the . . .I wouldn't
say a lot, but in particular Small intestine and Triple Heater, will be where
elbows will come in. Emptiness is where the person can have small itchy
swellings, scabs, things that very often will be considered fungal. Sometimes
they flake, flakiness. There may be pebbly stools. You'll see this tomorrow when
we look at gastrointestinal applications of the Luo Channels. Small Intestine is
responsible for the further Separationof the Pure from the Impure, and if it has a
hard time with that, very commonly you have pebbly stools. In TCM sometimes
they might even say that if s like duck droppings. Here they're not necessarily
referring to that particular kind of presentation.
Q. When you had started, you said Small Intestine starting from Zhi Zheng,
or SI-7, and then it seemed like you said Large Intestine. Where does the Large
Intestine Luo begin?
A. In other words, all of the Yang Arm Channels' Luo go to LI-15, so that
means Triple Heater, which starts at TH-5, Large Intestine, which starts at LI-6,
Small Intestine which starts at SI-7. They all travel to the major articulation of U-
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15. If s just that Small Intestine stops here. Large Intestine extends beyond there,
Tai Yang, Yang Ming. S h o Yang goes into the chest.
Needless to say, Large Intestine now begins three inches above the wrist
at the Veering Passage, U-6, which follows the arm up to the shoulder, LI-15,
and then curves along the jaw into the teeth. A branch enters the ears to join
with the Large Intestine's Primary Meridian. Fullness includes toothaches,
deafness. Emptiness includes coldness in the teeth. That gentleman asked
earlier about coldness in the hands. The Chinese do have the term "Coldness in
the Teeth" and you'll see what that means. It's not just that when you drink cold
things, your teeth hurt It also means you have a difficulty chewing, difficulty
biting because the teeth are so painful upon contact. Also there's Diaphragmatic
Numbness. I'm trying to translate literally what is being written in the Ling Shu.
That's obviously not a term that we often see. In modern terms people wouldn't
say your Diaphragm is Numb, but the idea of Diaphragmatic Numbness is that
you have a hard time feeling what is in your chest, or what is in your Heart,
DiaphragmaticNumbness. Here (the chart of) the Large Intestine would be in
this particular sequence. Here I've not added anything to Peter Deadman's
articulation of Large Intestine.
Triple Heater begins at Wai Guan, TH-5. It too travels up into LI-15 and as
it goes into LI-15, into the shoulders, it travels to the middle of the breast (ST-17,
Ru Zhong) and from there it goes into the center of the chest, into CV-17. Later
commentators added that the trajectory goes all the way down to CV-12. Triple
Heater, both Fullness and Emptiness, talks about elbow signs and symptoms:
Fullness with dislocation and stiffness, Emptiness with a certain degree of
difficulty in bending, which one can very often construe as stiffness, but there's
often the idea that the forearm cannot bear weight. Its ability to bear weight is
substantially diminished. Some of you know from a Tendinomuscular point of
view, that the pain, or the stiffness, or the uncomfortability is further elicited
upon rotational movements.
In Deadman's trajectory, they just have it going to the side (of the breast).
I didn't want to draw into this, but you would have it from here, going into the
chest. From the nipples into the chest is how you would want to depict that, so
that San Jiao does communicate with one of the Three Burners, namely the Upper
Burner, and in later editions, Upper and Middle Burner.
7. Tai Yang BL Bladder begins seven inches above the ankle at the
Point Bl-58, and then its identity gets lost, because if s joined by the Kidney. It
joins up, I should say, with the Kidney's Lw Meridian. From BL-58, Fei Yang,
Taking Flight, it goes to KI-4. However, we do know that there are certain
symptoms that are specific to Fullness of the Bladder's Luo, namely nasal
congestion, headaches, and low back pain. With Emptiness, nosebleeds, runny
nose with dear Fluids. If s very interesting, if you look at the signs and
symptoms of the Bladder's Luo Channel, you'll find that the signs and symptoms
34
for the Bladder's Luo really do not seem to suggest that its sequence, its trajectory
will give you these signs and symptoms. In fact, the low back pain you might
even think should be related to the Kidneys, and indeed the Kidney's Luo
includes low back pain. But things relating to the nasal region, relating to the
headaches, its trajectory doesn't seem to suggest that. So some clinicians are
going to be at odds with that and they'll come up with rationales of how the
Bladder's Luo is going to give you signs and symptoms relating to the upper
region. Of course you might think, well the primary Channel goes there, but the
Luo only Empties into the Primary Channel when if s in a state of Emptiness.
We'll come back to that issue.
Q. So the pathway of the Bladder Luo Vessel goes from BL-58 around and
then down to KI-4? It follows the Kidney Meridian down to KI-4?
A. Right. It loops around to KI-4.
8. Shao Yang GB Gall Bladder, again, opposite the Liver's Luo, on the
other side, both five inches above the ankle, in this case the external ankle. It
begins at the Point known as Giwng Ming, the Illuminating light or The Bright
Light. It connects with the dorsum of the foot at ST-42. When you look at the
Gall Bladder's Luo,again if s one of the trajectories that is moving away from the
center of the body. If s moving distally. If s trying to move something back out,
and the contention, as I mentioned earlier, is that if s trying to move it into the
Constitutional Level, because ST-42is one of the Points that the Chong Vessel
goes into. We can also say that if it goes to the dorsum of the foot, that the
dorsum of the foot has a major influence over the big toe, because there's a
trajectory that goes from the dorsum of the foot to LR-1 and SP-1. One can say,
"Oh yes, it is going to the big toe to try to Drain things out, because the Jing Well
Pointsrepresent the Exterior."
9. Y q Ming ST Now we move into the Stomach Meridian, which is
perhaps the largest Luo Channel. It has a huge trajectory. It begins at a very
popular TCM Point, ST-40. It follows the Stomach Primary Meridian. Now even
though it follows the Primary Meridian, if s just following it in terms of where
the Primary Meridian goes to, but not in terms of entering into the Organs that
the Primary Meridian of the Stomach connects with. It does not go to the
Stomach. It does not go to the Spleen. It goes and it follows it all the way to the
top of the head to meet all of the Qi of the Primary Medians, and the obvious
inference here is Du-20Bai Hui, before Descending down to the throat on the
opposite side, really, is where it goes into. That particular trajectory is depicted
in Royston Low's book. In Peter Deadman's book he does not have that. He just
has it ending at the throat. You can see he has the trajectory going up into the
throat where there's two trajectories, or one sub-pathway that goes into the
throat, tile other going into the ear. But I've added this sequence where it goes in
front of the ears, traveling all the way up into Bai Hui, and then coming back
down to the opposite side into the throat. There is indeed another trajectory
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a New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C. Yuen 2004
from the Stomach that goes from the throat all the way up, ending at the area of
BL-1. So Stomach Luo Channel also goes into the eyes.
Now again, the trajectories make a very big difference, because if you're
going to look at it from one sense of a trajectory, if s going to give you certain
ways of treating. If you're looking at it from another sense, if s going to be very
different treatments. So if s the first Luo Channel that's polarizing, bringing from
one side to the opposite side. That's crucial because if you're treating a disease
that started on one side and went to the other side, and you suspect that if s a Luo
condition, the Luo of the Stomach is going to be a very important Point, as well as
a very important Vessel that you're going to be treating with.
Signs and symptoms of the Stomach's Luo: Fullness includes the term
Dian Kuang, madness and insanity. Emptiness includes stiffness of the foot and
one can also have atrophy of the lower leg. In addition, since earlier we
mentioned Rebellions Qi, we also talked about Rebellious Qi originating in the
Stomach. In the Ling Shu they also add Rebellious Qi as a symptom relating to
the Stomach's Luo. It says Rebellious Qi from Excess, from Fullness in the Luo of
the Stomach will numb the throat and affect the voice, causing a sudden loss of
one's voice. This is very different than the loss of voice that saw earlier with the
Heart's Luo. Heart's Luo is something that is long term. It could be stuttering.
Heart's Luo could be someone who has a hard time finding their inner voice,
finding their own words that they need to articulate.
Then we get into the Leg Yin Channels, ending the sequence. Again, Arm
Yin to Arm Yang, Arm Yang goes into the Leg's Yang, and then from the Leg's
Yang into the leg'sYin.
10. Tai Yin SP The Spleen begins one inch behind the "big knob",
that big knob would be that big bone that we're looking at, called Grandfather-
Grandchild SP-4. It goes to the dorsum of the foot, so Spleen's Luo connects with
Stomach's Luo in the sense that if s going to the dorsum of the foot, in particular
to the Source Point at the dorsum of the foot. From there it travels into two, or
you might say three of the Fu Organs: Stomach and Intestines, which can
include Large Intestine and Small Intestine. Very often we think of it as just Yang
Ming, Stomach and Large Intestine. When you look at the Spleen's Luo, here is
its trajectory, connecting respectively to the Intestines and into the Stomach.
And signs and symptoms relating to the Spleen's Luo: for Fullness, sharp pains
in the middle of the intestines; for Emptiness, intestinal drum-like swellings.
Some people would say abdominal drum-like distention. The term Gu J^,
means like a drum, very resilient, very hard, very tough. Again, like the
Stomach, they talk about Rebellious Qi. hi fact Rebellious Qi is talked about from
the point of the Stomach onward. In the previous ones, they didn't talk about
Rebellious Qi. Now they're going to talk about Rebellious Qi of the Spleen,
Rebellious Qi of the Kidneys, Rebellious Qi of the liver. Rebellious Qi of the
36
Spleen, it says, can result from Deficiency, and that Deficiency will create
cholera, dysentery.
11. Shao Yin KI Kidney's Luo begins behind the ankle bone around
the heel, at the "Great Bell" KI-4 Da Z h g . It travels, along with the Kidney
Primary Meridian, again it does not enter the Kidney Organ or the Bladder, to
the area just below the Pericardium. Kl-21 is generally the Point that has been
suggested. Then it goes Internally through the genitals into the lumbar spine.
When you look at the Kidney Channel, you can see if s moving up into the area
underneath the ribcage. In Deadman's depiction, it seems like if s going up
further, even toward the Pericardium in some ways, but then from there it goes
into Ming Men, as some people would say. That if s not just the lumbar spine,
but in particular Ming Men, so Heart-Kidney Communication can be seen in this
context. Indeed KI-4 is used a lot for Heart-Kidney Discomrnunication, even
within the context of TCM. Signs and symptoms of the Kidneys: Fullness
includes blockage of the lower orifice, constipation, difficulty in urination,
anuria, and Emptiness includes pain in the genitalia and the kidney region. That
could be testicular pain, vaginal pain. Rebellious Qi will cause irritability and
depression, a very broad statement. Not too interesting in the way it first
presents itself. Of course what they're referring to here is the Kidney and the
Heart Not Communicating, so one can experience the apprehension, the
depression from Fear, yet at the same time the anxiety, the irritability from the
Heart.
12. Jue Yin LR The Liver begins at LR-5 and it travels up the medial
aspect of the legs into the genitals. Fullness: abnormal sexual arousal, erection.
Again, don't just take that literally. Emptiness: cruel, unbearable itching, often
in the genital region, again, cruel, unbearable itching. You're itching to do
something. You're itching to, in some ways, create something. If s almost like
there's a certain sense of frustration that you can't create, you can't procreate the
things you want. These will be some of the metaphors that will come with this
discussion. Rebellious Qi in the Liver will lead to genital swellings and the word
Shan. There are seven Sham in Classical Chinese medicine. Generally speaking it
means some kind of urinary tract infection and if if s substantiated, you have
some type of hernia.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about the energetic dynamics that are associated
with the Rebellious Qi and these three Yin Channels?
A. What you have is not just the three Yin, but also the Stomach's Yang
Channel. By the time you get into the Liver, the Spleen, the Kidneys, what
you're looking at is something, in terms of the Luos trajectory, that is going into
the abdominal region and getting stuck there. That's why they all have
Rebellious Qi signs and symptoms, because the Rebellious Qi that they associate
with the Luo Channel originates, to them, in the Stomach, in the abdomen. And
all three of those trajectories go into this region of the abdomen, be it the middle
37
abdomen or the lower abdomen. But the Stomach is what obviously creates
some of that connection, previously too. So that's why they are the only ones
that have the Rebellious Qi signs. The others do not, because they go into the
chest. At worst, they just go to the head. So there is no Rebellious Qz that's
going to come from there, at least if you're following the idea that Rebellious Qi
originates in the abdomen. Some people might say the chest, but the coughing
that they talk about, the wheezing, you don't see that as signs and symptoms
related to the Luo Channels.
13. Ren Mai CV The Ling Shu gives us the Luo for the Ren, the Du, and
it also describes the Great Luo of the Spleen, as well as the Great Luo of the
Stomach. The Ren, it says, separates at Jiu Wei Turtle Dove Tail CV-15, and it
Disperses into the abdomen. So here's the Ren's Luo and if we look at the Ren's
Luo, its Fullness again includes abdominal pain, Emptiness: abdominal itch, and
there are also metaphors for that. We'll get to that.
14. Du Mai GV The DMMn begins at DM-1,below the coccyx, to
support the spine, up to the neck, and then spreads to the top of the head before
descending down along the Leg Tai Yang Channel into the lumbar spine. And as
it descends down into the Leg Tai Yang Channel, commentaries will add that if s
going into the Sinew Meridian of Tai Yaw, of Bladder. Fullness of DM M i
includes stiffness of the spine, Emptiness includes heaviness of the head, with
shaking. Almost like someone who has Parkinson's in some ways. Here's the
trajectory as if s depicted by Peter Deadman's book. The idea is that it goes up,
and then it comes back down. As it comes back down, it goes into the Sinew
Channel of the Bladder.
15. Great Luo of Splenn Lastly, the Great Luo of the Spleen begins three
inches below the armpit. Notice that, "three inches below the armpit", would be
GB-22 today. The Nan ling identifies the Great Luo of the Spleen as three inches
below GB-22, which makes it SP-21, six inches below the axillary fold. Again, the
Ling Shu and the Nan Jing are in discrepancy with each other. One can say, we're
just following that because it doesn't identify the point as SP-21. It just says it
begins "three inches below the armpit" at the Great Wrap. So the Great Wrap
could be GB-22 for that matter, if we're following Classical descriptions of the
location. GB-22 is a major Point for Wei Qi,where Wei Qi begins to Internalize.
Some of you know GB-22 as the Confluent Point for the Yin Sinew Channels of
the arms, Yin Sinew, Wei Qi Sinews, Yin going inward. GB-22 is a major Point for
the Divergent Channels. GB-22 could be a good candidate for the Great Luo of
the Spleen, until the Nan Jing began to change that, and call that being six inches
below the axillary fold.
In any case, the Great Luo of the Spleen is said to spread into the breasts
and into the ribs. Fullness of the Great Luo of the Spleen includes diffuse pain all
over the body, like someone who has fibromyalgia. Emptiness includes
looseness, a loosening of all the joints with the loss of strength. If s almost like
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@ New England School of Acupuncture &JeffreyC Yuen 2004
if s trying to get into the joints, and the joints are trying to support it, by giving
its Marrow out to it. As the joint begins to move its Marrow out, Jing, to support
the Blood, the joints begin to get loose. Also by moving things out, it prevents
things from coming in, has been one of the premises that we also look at in terms
of Chinese medicine.
It also says fhat the Great Luo Spleen controls all of the L w Passage
Channels. This is why the Great L w of the Spleen is the end, not the Ren and the
Du, but rather the Great Luo of the Spleen ends that discussion, in particular, the
'Great Luo", really. Later on we add in the term "Spleen" to it. It makes sense
that the Spleen and the Great Luo of the Stomach,because the Luo discussion
focuses primarily on Spleen and Stomach, Yang Ming, Internalization, and how
that causes consumption of Tai Yin of the Spleen, that Yang Ming is paired off
with.
Here's the Great Luo of the Spleen. Even though if s being depicted in
such a fashion, the early discussion has it wrapping around the chest. Also keep
in mind that later discussions give it where it wraps around the back as well, so
that if s not just a frontal enclosure, if s also a rear enclosure. The Great Luo of
the Spleen is coming around like this, Da Bao SP-21, and there's also a wrap that
comes around from the area of the navel, so it goes from the navel, down to the
perineum, goes along the back, comes to around where Du-9 is, comes to the
front, CV-15, and comes back down. That's called Bao Mai, so you also have that.
Bao Mai connects Da Bao to Dai Mai. This wrapping that traditionally was
around the waistline. Today, we have Dai Mai coming frontally from LR-13 to
GB-26 down to GO-27 and GB-28. Just like the Luo is frontal, in the old days it
was both, front and back. Dai M i is front and back. Then you have this that
embraces it, that connects between the upper and the lower burner, or the
middle and the lower burner, and that's referred to as Boo Mai. Boo Mai is very
important because Boo Mai controls the permeability factors of Yin that goes
through the Zang Fu. When we look at GI health, we'll see where Bao Mai will
come in, in terms of an understanding of the etiology of GI disorders.
Q. Jeffrey, are there specificPoints that you think of for activating the Bao
Mai?
A. Well, Bao Mai is activated when you activate Dai Mm, so GB-41 would be...
more of that in the Ming dynasty, or just simply Needling Points along its
trajectory.
The last trajectory that's given in the Ling Shu is the Great Luo of the
Stomach. It says it begins at the Stomach and it penetrates through the
Diaphragm, below the left breast, at the Pulsating Vessel, or where the Pulsating
Vessel can be felt. Fullness: rapid and irregular breathing with chest congestion.
Someone that might be having congestive heart failure. Emptiness: palpitations,
fibrillations, tachycardia. The Great Luo of the Stomach, one can say, is further
39
talked about in Chapter 18 of the Su Wen, even though when they talked about
the Luo Channels in the Su Wen, they only say that there are fifteen. So they
don't really consider this, but that's a contradiction because in Chapter 18it says
the Stomach Channel has a Great Luo called Xu li. Xu means Empty as in
Deficiency Empty. And U means mile, the Empty Mile. This trajectory travels
from the Stomach through the diaphragm to connect with the Lungs, where the
pulsating Vessel can be felt underneath the left breast. It is the foundation of Qi
that flows through the Pulse. It is the Qi that pushes the heartbeat that you
measure when you take someone's Pulse. So that is referred to as Xu Li.
D. General Feature of the Luo-Passage Channel (LM)

1. Pathway Sequence
First and foremost are the general features of the Luo Passage Channel.
Pathway sequencing: the Ling Shu has it beginning at the Lung,Heart,
Pericardium, then moving into Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Triple Heater,
then Bladder, Gall Bladder, Stomach, and lastly, at least among the Twelve
Merdians, Spleen, Kidney and Liver. So it begins and ends with the Yin
Channels, while the Yang Channels are sequenced right in the middle. As Wang
Qtns Ren will argue, Blood basically comes from the chest, goes to the upper
limbs and then flows down the lower limbs, and returns back to the chest ending
with the Great Luo of the Spleen. That's the trajectory, at least in terms of the
sequencing, and will argue the cardiovascular model.
The second aspect is based on the Primary Merdians. That's something
that we're going to spend a little more time on. In relation to the Primary
Merdians, remember the Luos are seen as Collaterals that extend from the
Primary Merdians. They come out of the Primary Merdians. Many people
would say that they should have a sequence that should be following the
Primary Channels rather than the sequence that the Ling Shu gave us. If we look
at the Primary Channels, we have Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart,
Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Triple Heater, Gall Bladder and
Liver. We also know that, in most cases, the Luo Merdians share the Primary
Meridian trajectories. We also know that Luo Merdians often contain signs and
symptoms associated with their Yin Yang pair, in which case you get the
Transverse Luo. (e.g., Heart Qz Deficiency: use HT-7 with 9-7)Now with that
said and done, before we continue at this point, we need to move on to another
very important point, which is, the Lw Channels based on mind development
2. Luo Channel Overview of Yi Mind Development
The sequence of the Primary Merdians: Primary Merdians represent Post-
natal existence, after you're born. Not before you're born, but after. Post-natal
existence represents three basic components of life. I've mentioned this in
previous classes. The first layer is called Survival, Self-Survival. The second
40
layer is called Self, or at least it originates from one's self, Self-Interaction. The
third layer is Self-Differentiation,
Self-survival is represented by respiration, digestion, and the bridge, of

course, is sleep. When you sleep you breathe deeply. When you sleep you
digest better. You rest to digest. That's the bridge. So one would say that for
you to be alive, you have to first breathe; you have to be able to eat; and you
have to be able to sleep. Those are the prerequisites of human life. If any of
those things are missing, you die, ... regardless of how good your love
relationships are. But then you might be doing all of that, but not feel that you
have anything meaningful in your life, that life has a sense of purpose,,that life
has a certain sense of deep meaningful relationships.
You begin to interact with yourself. You begin to see yourself as a

wonderful person, or you look at relationships that very often support how you
perceive yourself. Remember relationships are not just because of circumstances.
As some of you might say, "Well they're my friends because we went to school
together." But obviously you chose from among the people you went to school
with, those who are going to be your friends. You don't necessarily have to be
their friend. But most commonly we look for relationships that support a
reflection of how and who we think we are.
If you think of yourself as an intelligent person, you might look for people
that will support that idea, by either being not very intelligent, so that proves to
you that you are intelligent. You may look for people who will always question
you and challenge your intelligence, so again, i t brings on that intelligence. You
might look for other people who are equally as intelligent as you are,so that you
have relatively, through that other person's eyes, a reflection of yourself. That's
how wedevelop relationships. We don't really justpickanyone. You really pick
them for a certain purpose that's often a reflection of who you are. That's
interaction.
Interaction is about choices that we make, obligations (to those) who we

are going to allow into our lives. The interactive component, purpose, is
represented by the Heart. Heart represents sovereignty, that I get a certain sense
of ownership. This is my life. I'm willing to take responsibility for this life, and
I'm willing to enjoy it the best that I can. (Interaction)with others,Heart, about
going out into the world, having questions, having purpose, having conquests
that you need to make. But if s also about Kidneys, learning about yourself, your
own introspection, your own looking. But keep in mind that you don't really
know about who you are by just reflectingyourself. You really know who you
are based on your interactions with other people, at best. That's proven in
Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine does not like to use single Points. They do
not like to use single Herbs. Everything is Point combinations, Herbal formulas,
because at best you can understand another Point by having another Point
Needled at the same time with that Point. That way you see an interdynamic.
41
@ New England School of A c u ~ n r &Jeffrey
e C Yuen 2004
An Herb responds best when another Herb is added with it. You see
interdependency, hopefully not codependency, because then we can run into a
lot of problems, because if you don't have that Herb around then your whole life
is lost. But some of us find that even in interaction, that's where we go into
codependency conditions. We find that without this person in my life, my life
simply cannot be what it is. So in any case, that's purpose.
Differentiation means selective purpose. You don't allow everything in
your life to be what it is, then you'd be friendly with everyone. Some of you
might think of yourselves as being friendly with everyone, but if you ask
yourself, "Well, who are the ones that I'm really dose to?" Then you come down
to selective differentiation. Differentiation is the Heart Protector, Pericardium.
Differentiation is making sure that my life moves smoothly. Well, what makes
your life move smoothly? The Liver is responsible for the Smooth Flow of Qi.
liver makes sure that you do not get toxic; it detoxifies. So remember, Smooth
Flow of Qi if relative. If s really relative to you. It doesn't become Smooth
because you chose to be Angry about it. You let go of the Anger, and it becomes
Smooth once again. So you really, consciously or unconsciously, select that.
This is Post-natal existence. What we're going to look at now is the
development of the mind (in relation) to this Post-natal existence. To develop the
mind, how do I finance my experience of life? How do I give Blood to combine
with the Shen, that it contains, to make my life meaningful? That's what the Luo
Channels offer you, as an understanding of how you begin to develop, that you
hold onto the experiences that define your personality. The Luo Channels
represent the container of Blood. It is the container of your experiences that
defines who you think, Source Yuan, you are, and that's what we're going to be
looking at. This is where this model now comes into play.
The overview of Yi Mind's development, I could spend days just doing
this, but this is just an overview. I don't want to suggest that we can learn the
entirety of the complexities of the development of human consciousness within a
matter of a couple of hours.
Lung First of all what does the Lung mean? Once you're born you're given the
grace, and primitive grace is that you're now beginning to perceive and sense a
totally different world than in utero. You're born into this world. Your
connection to the whole was severed by the cutting of the umbilical cord, your
first trauma, your first scar. And yet at the same time, you're experiencing the
facet of light. Now you notice that there are differences between, perhaps day
and night. You notice that at certain times, there is this bright light hitting your
eyes, and at other times there is total darkness. You also notice that you're
feeling the sensuality of, in most cases, your maternal figure. You are suckling
on something that now becomes your new measure of nourishment. You're not
being nourished by the umbilicus. You're now being nourished by what appears
to be a nipple. It could be a bottle formula, but generally it has the texture of
42
something that you suckle on. The suckling reflex, that you are suckling on the
mother's milk, or maybe bottle formulas in modem days. But the idea is that
once you're born, the Lungs reflect a body that is given the ability to be
stimulated, that if s sensing a totally new world, what Freudians would call
polymorphic perversity. Every part of my body is very erotic; if s very sensual,
because I long to be totally stimulated. In utero you were totally stimulated.
You were surrounded by fluid, which was touching every part of your body.
That fluid got lost and you long for that arousal, you long for that sensuality.
The Lung Luo Channel begins to provide you with the primitive idea of just
perceiving and sensing the world, stimulation. That stimulation is represented
by the arousal of the skin; if s represented by the arousal of the senses.
Fullness of the Lung's Luo will be someone who has a constant need for
stimulation, as metaphorically, or as somatically defined as having "Hot hands".
This is someone whose Fire Points, PC-8, LU-10, are constantly on fire. There's a
tremendous amount of stimulation that I need, trying to embrace. That's what
the child very often tries to do when he or she is born, to be fetal, to be whole, to
be circular. So Fullness of the Lung's Luo is someone who has a constant need
for stimulation. There's no intelligence here. It's not like, "Oh, this is what I
want and I need this a lot." If s not like someone who has a certain desire that is
based on intelligence, not that they have been told what they want. And if s not
a fetish or something of that sort. Here if s very primitive. These are
fundamental needs: the need to be nurtured, the need to breathe, the need to
touch. The need to just be stimulated. To have my eyes feel the difference
between night and day in terms of darkness and light. To be able to have that
differentiation in a very primitive scale, without judging, without saying, oh, I
hate light, I hate darkness. There is this constant need for stimulation.
We know that that occurs very early on in terms of breath. The first thing
you're going to be exposed to is smell, because the first thing you're forced to do
when you come out of the uterus is to breathe, smell. Scent obviously is very
primitive. The brain evolves from the olfactory lobe. It evolves from the "nose
brain", the whole idea that if we did evolve from animals, we have to evolve first
from this tactile sensitivity, first of smell, and then from smell into the tongue,
like the snake sniffing, feeling the temperature differential, skin. Thafs another
thing we experience when we come out, that there are changes now in the
climate, the weather. In utero, you were being monitored by the mother's own
body temperature. You had a pretty stable body temperature. Now you're
subjected, even though you maintain a certain body temperature, you're
subjected to differences in temperature, External factors, smell, Lungs, like skin.
An Emptiness of the Lung's Luo would be someone who has no interest in
life. Ifs not because you have not found anything motivating, nothing to please
your intellectual mind, or Emotional mind. I f s your sense of perception, that
you have a hard time perceiving things, sensing things. There's a certain degree
of boredom, disenchantment. This would be represented by the frequent
43
yawning that you experience, the frequent sighing. To a certain degree, if s
harder for you to breathe into life, to smell. That loss of interest in life could be a
loss of perceptual capability. You are born color blind, or you're starting to
develop Alzheimer's and you're having a hard time smelling things. This will be
seen as having no interest in life. I'm just using very general words hoping
you'll get the understanding of the metaphor that goes with them.
The child is enjoying the context of sensation and perceiving, that which
we are sensing, and at the same time we sense our own perceptions, so it has a
kind of a dual relationship. But what happens after the child begins to
experience the differences in terms of temperature, in terms of light, in terms of
texture, in terms of taste, is that every now and then, when I'm suckling on
mother's milk, it feels warm, at other times it feels cold. Maybe at that time the
mother is giving the child bottled formula. The child begins to no longer just
simply accept, because when I swallow it, when I embrace it, I'm just simply
accepting. We're born with the innocence to simply accept everything that is
given to us from the world.
Large Intestine begins a process where we're no longer just accepting;
we're no longer just seeing that there are differences. We begin to realize that
there is something about these things. Large Intestine is when the child starts
teething. When you start teething, it means that you graduated into a diet that is
no longer just liquid. You're now beginning to be given solids, because solids
allow you to chew, allow you to bite, allow you to tear, allow you to further
assimilate, and not simply swallow, as you did when you were just suckling on
the mother's milk. The idea of teething means that the brain now is starting to
judge, the brain is starting to differentiate. If s not necessarily good or bad
because of a moral good or bad; if s good or bad in terms of, oh, this is too hot, or
this is too cold. There is now a differentiation that allows me the first inkling of
intelligence; I'm able to associate and dis-associate. That's the Large Intestine.
You can see why, if someone has a Fullness in the Large Intestine, they're
having to chew on something constantly. "Gee, what does this feel like? I don't
know. I have to do it again. I have to do it again, and again, and again. Some of
us as adults have Large Intestine Luo issues, that with just one time, if s hard for
you to assimilate it. You have to repeat it several times. If s almost like your
teeth are constantly in a state of TMJ, locked, because you're trying to bite it;
you're trying to hold it; you're trying to get to understand it in a very primitive
way.
An Emptiness of the Large Intestine's Luo is difficulty in association, in
assimilation. That means you can't even relate to it. Fullness is you have to
relate to it constantly. Emptiness is you have a hard time relating, associating
with what it is in the first place. That's what I mean by if s a difficulty in
assimilation. You go back to where all you do is gulp everything down. You're
a fast eater, as you might call yourself. You don't chew. You just swallow. So
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having difficulty in chewing, in assimilating would be someone who has an
Emptiness in the Large Intestine's Luo. Likewise, it would be someone who has
simply been told, just take it. Just take it. Don't think about i t And they just
absorb everything that other people give them. Large Intestine's Emptiness can
be where someone becomes victimized, in other people's eyes. They're just a
sponge; they just simply take everything in. That's Emptiness in the Large
Intestine's Luo.
You can see if s a developmental concept that the Chinese have. First you
learn to swallow, and then you start to teethe. And as you start to teethe, you
know that there's going to be something that's going to evolve out of that,
because once you can start assimilating, you can start giving meaning, to some
degree, to that which you are sensing. You start to have meanings for that which
you're sensing. You start to have Emotions. Emotions in some ways give a
certain direction, a certain meaning and a certain responsibility, as I mentioned,
to what it is that you are sensing and perceiving. Emotionality begins to take
place. And that's represented by the Stomach.
With Stomach, now the child begins to demonstrate a gamut of Emotions,
in the sense that they know, or eventually they know, when the Spleen gets
involved, that these Emotions elicit a certain response. I'm not saying that these
Merdians necessarily begin step by step. A lot of them begin all at one time. The
fact that I cry, and mommy comes. The fact that if I kick off the blanket,
somehow the blanket always comes back onto my body. These are basic
primitive Emotions that we are beginning to experience. So what happens is
that's what's represented by the Stomach. That's why the Stomach's Luo, as you
can see, has all these trajectories that go into the brain. I have a certain amount of
intelligence now. Stomach's Luo is the trajectory that goes to the top of the head.
Remember, Large Intestine only went to you ears and to your mouth and to your
teeth. By the time you get into Stomach, it now goes into your head. It goes into
Du-20. It goes into your brain, where all the Qi accumulates, or gathers as they
would say, where all experience is gathered.
Now I'm starting to have feelings about what it is that I'm experiencing in
life. Those feelings, in the case of when the Stomach's Luo develop into a state of
Fullness, is where the feelings, the Emotions, become stronger than the mental
faculties. This is like the expression, the heart is greater, or stronger, than the
head. You can see why Fullness of the Stomach's Luo causes dementia, causes
madness, but not neurosis so to speak; if s not an intellectual thing, but hysteria.
You just tend to be emotionally out of control. So you can see why this Point is
very popular, ST-40, because especially in a Confucian society, what we want
you to do is pretty much keep your Emotions to yourself. ST-40 becomes a very
popular Point now for C- the Shen. You might use it in a much more
neutral sense, but it also subdues your Emotions. It also tells you, "keep it to
yourself." And many times, we will tend to keep it to ourselves because we live
in a culture, at least in the Chinese culture, that you have to keep it to yourself.
45
a New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
You can't just go to a psychiatrist; there was no psychiatrist around. If you
wanted to talk a lot about your Emotions, even if you went to a physician, if the
physician was a Confucian, they would not be interested in listening to that.
They would try to get your head to be stronger than your heart. So a lot of times,
people with Emotional problems went to the neighborhood temples, the
monasteries, and visited their local priest. The priest was where you made
Emotional "confessions". In fact, a lot of times people who found that their
Emotions were just getting out of hand, at least by their families, often
abandoned their family and joined the monastery, bringing their Emotional
miseries to the temples. Obviously the temples did not want that, so as a result
the temples often discouraged those people from joining the monasteries. They
didn't want to deal with those vibrations coming into an area where the idea was
that you had let go of most of your Emotions, in the sense of resolving it.
When you look at the Stomach's Fullness, this is where the heart is
stronger than the head. Again, one of the things that is important, that was not
dearly depicted in the trajectory that we have for the Stomach is, and this little
segment here that you see where it goes from essentially around ST-31, and it
travels along the trajectory that the Kidney Meridian will be going into, I've
added this, because in Classical books you'll see that. The trajectory is going
along the Kidneys' Luo;the Stomach joins up with the Kidneys' Luo. You might
see that being mentioned in some books, that the Stomach's Luo connects with
the Kidneys' Luo, and Kidneys' Luo, in terms of Kidneys, we know involves Fear.
When Fear becomes so strong, that's one of the Emotions that we know will very
often override any intelligent faculty, Fear. When you're afraid, you often don't
think right. In fact, we know that if you are looking at criminal justice, the idea
of insanity at the time of a crime would be the involvement of the Stomach's Luo.
When the Stomach's Luo reaches a state of Fullness, that's when its Emotions
become so intense that any logical, rational thought is going to be blocked out,
and you commit what you do at that time. That's going to be the excuse that we
use at the time, insanity.
There is an example I use a lot in discussions, because you see this a lot in
criminal cases. Let's say there was a burglar who goes into a house and decides
that they're going to take something that's very valuable. There's no one home.
This individual goes into the person's house and starts to ransack, looking for
precious things. The burglar gets surprised by the owner of the house, who
walks in. The burglar pulls out a gun, points it at the owner of the house, and
the owner of the house then submits to the burglar, sits down, and the burglar
begins to tie up this owner. As he's tying up the owner, the owner is now saying
to the burglar, "You know I know who you are". "I recognize your face; you're
not going to be able to get away with this. As soon as you leave I'm going to
definitely get in touch with the police." The burglar who is trying to ransack,
listening to that voice, has a state of Fear overcome him, turns around and shoots
the person. In hindsight, the burglar can say, "If he had only shut up, I would
not have done that". And some people might say that at the time he committed
46
it, he was overcome by Emotion. He was insane at the time, and that might be.
In Chinese culture, if you ever study forensic medicine, these were some of the
defenses that they talked about. The Stomach's Luo comes up a lot. People
basically said that at the time, their Emotions were just so overwhelming they
had no control over what they did. "I was just so Angry I had to hit the person,"
abuse, Stomach's Luo Fullness. Heart overrides the intelligence. You can see
why if s a common Point that we often Disperse rather than Tonify.
We know that happens to us as children. We go into our tantrums. We
get Emotionally riled up, and our parents deade to do something about it. Or
some parents say "Oh let them, let them, if s OK If s healthy for them." There's
no judgment here, but I'm just saying that because of how we've been allowed to
express the intensity of our Emotions, we might never develop other Luo
Channels that could be very useful. As in the case of the Spleen, where the
intelligence now comes in and says, wait a minute, I'm going to Bank this Blood.
I'm going to hold onto the Blood first. You can't just become reckless. I'm not
going to let the Heat in the Blood become Rebellious. I'm going to hold onto it.
The Spleen is that which starts to develop a certain sense of intelligence.
Intelligence, where the mind controls the Emotions, is what I mean by that. You
can come up with reasons to let those Emotions begin to diffuse. That's not only
by the Spleen, but also by the Pericardium for that matter. Pericardium is also
very important in helping us deal with that.
Emptiness of the Stomach's Luo would be where there's no sense of
personal satisfaction. You don't feel good about what it is that you're doing.
There's no Emotion to it. Some of you feel that, you feel a sense of Emptiness
inside of you. No sense of personal satisfaction. The key word is personal. There
are no morals, because there's no good or bad. There's no head involved in this.
There's no intelligence. You should feel good because you've done all of these
good things. If s not even that. When you get to the Stomach, if s more about
your own personal satisfaction. When you look at the Emptiness of the
Stomach's Luo, if s someone who feels that their desires are not being completed.
This can be problematic. You have one set of desires that's satisfied, then where
do you go next? I'm going to need another set of desires. At what point do the
desires all come to a point that you feel complete? And that, as we know
philosophically, can become problematic for some people. You always feel that
you have to have something that you need to do. Maybe if s because you never
felt emotionally, personally satisfied. That lack of personal satisfaction will then
cause you to no longer have a sense of what is meaningful in your life, a lack of
destination. Emptiness of the Stomach's Luo: not knowing where to go with your
legs, not knowing where to go, weakness of the lower limbs, not knowing what
to do, Emptiness of the Stomach's Luo. There's going to be several Luo Channels,
Gall Bladder for one, which will deal with weakness of the lower limbs, but the
difference here is for Stomach, there's no sense of personal satisfaction to where
it is that you're going. Gall Bladder's not interested in personal satisfaction. Gall
Bladder is taking leaps of faith. I just have faith, and I'm going by leaps and
47
bounds. When we become totally paralyzed, what you have lost, in the sense of
Gall Bladder, is a loss of faith.
Spleen: well how do we develop intelligence? By repetition, if I do
something a lot. Remember, Spleen provides the Banks for Blood. It holds onto
the Blood. Its trajectory goes to the Stomach, so if s connecting to the Stomach to
try to get you to be able to hold onto your Emotions. It also goes to the
Intestines. The Spleen's role is trying to bring the context, record the context by
which a certain Emotion is felt. The fact that you can conjure up an experience is
the function of the Spleen. How you can think of something right now, and
come up with the image of it. That'sthe Spleen that's doing it, providing the
Blood. If s saying, OK, I'm going to Bank this Blood so you can have this image.
Let's say most of you can probably conjure up the image of your neighbor
who lives next to you. Spleen is doing that. The fact that you don't like your
neighbor, the Stomach is doing that. That's the Emotions. And if you can't stand
your neighbor, that's going to eventually develop into a Fullness of the
Stomach's Luo. So the Spleen's Luo is providing a space by which that Blood can
be projected into an image, into a thought. When you daydream, that's Spleen
doing it for you. If sjust when if s pathological, then we see that other Organs
are involved. Nevertheless, the Spleen is what produces the images. It allows us
to think about our feelings. That's a very crucial part, because thinking begins to
develop into the mental faculties of intelligence. You can only develop
intelligence to the extent that you have memory. By knowing a certain set of
information, memory, it allows you to grow into another set of information.
That's knowledge. Knowledge is building upon information that the Spleen is
holding onto for you. Even in TCM, you have weakness of the Spleen, poor
memory. So when you look at Spleen, its component is, as we would know in
modem Chinese medicine, obsession, habituation. I'm thinking about something
over, and over and over again. My neighbor's face comes up in my mind over
and over again. That's a Fullness of the Spleen's Luo. I'm constantly trying to
assimilate it over and over again: abdominal distention and fullness. It seems to
be stuck in my abdomen. I'm getting gas from it. If s telling me I need to move
it, but I don't know what to do with it. It just gets all pent up in my abdomen:
abdominal distention and fullness, Fullness of the Spleen's Luo, habituation,
obsession.
Emptiness of the Spleen's Luo,even in the Luo signs and symptoms, is
where there doesn't seem to be any way of shutting down the mind. So desire,
and here I don't really mean Emotional desire, but mental inability to shut off the
mind. One could say that the fact that you're thinking a lot is already Fullness of
the Spleen, but Emptiness is not being able to have the satisfactory completion of
a thought You can be Full, and that Fullness, as we will see, will lead to an
Emptiness in the Spleen's Luo. I'm constantly thinking about thinking, and it
comes to a point, "Geehow can I stop this?" When you start trying to stop it,
rather than just stop the thinking, you know what's thinking about it obsessively
48
is the Spleen's Fullness, and the being preoccupied with stopping that thinking
becomes the Spleen's Emptiness. If s like a drum, drumlike distention. How do I
get this to loosen up, to relax, to let go? There is a tautness, a resilience perhaps,
of a thought that doesn't seem to be able to become flexible. That would be an
Emptiness of the Spleen's Luo. The Spleen's Luo is often affected by the child's
parents. The child's parents give the child ways of controlling their Emotions,
either by spoiling them, by giving them what they want, in which case they don't
have to habituate and think about it, because they have their desires, and most
likely they want more, or the parents might control them by punishment.
Nevertheless, we know that as a child, we know that our Emotions need to be
placed under control. Thafs when the Spleen begins to kick in. learning to
control yourself. As you begin to control yourself, you begin to develop
morality. Ethics begins in the family. It doesn't begin when you go out to the
world. You begin to learn what is right and wrong from your family. That's
why in Confucianism, the most important aspect of learning morals begins, not
at the level of society, but at the level of the family. Ethics begins to come in.
And once ethics comes in, what you're going to have is social skills. Without
ethics, you won't be able to survive in society. Ethics allows you to be a citizen
of society.
Now I do want to answer one of the questions that was asked, that I think
would be important for many of you, and that is in terms of written material. In
the Chinese medical arena, you're not going to find much written material on the
psychosocial development that relates to the Luo Channels. One main reason for
that is because, as I mentioned earlier, when you're in a Chinese society, if one is
going to be Emotional about anything, you don't typically send them to a
Chinese medical practitioner to get treated for that. You typically send them to
the neighborhood, or to the local monastery, where they see that Emotional
problems can be, indeed, a disturbance of one's Spirit. You're going to find the
treatment of Shen Disturbances, richly, in religious writings, in particular in
Daoist writings, since Daoist writings include the study of the Meridian system.
If s also important to note that when you look at the system of

Acupuncture, keep in mind that Acupuncture as a medical system, reached its
peak during the Tang dynasty. That means we're looking at the ninth century,
during which time, the importance of Acupuncture began to decline. In fact, if s
in the Ming dynasty when you have some of the major textbooks of Acupuncture
being written, most notably the Great Compendium of Acupuncture (Zhen Jiu Da
Cheng, 1601) and the Great Accomplishments (Complete Collection?)of
Acupuncture (Zhen Jiu Da Quan 7,1439). Even their names tell you that they
were trying to say, look at Acupuncture, we've done all these great things. That
if s not something that should be forgotten. If s something that needs to be
revived. And really, by the time you get into the Song (960- 1279 CE) dynasty,
Acupuncture is not that popular any more among the Chinese population. So
during the Ming dynasty, there is really an attempt to bring Acupuncture back
into its life, to bring back Acupuncture, in a sense as a revival.
49
If you look at the famous books of Acupuncture, and there are many, they
always date back to the Ming dynasty. The only textbook that will predate that
will be the Ling Shu, that is the Zhen Jing, and the Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (282 CE). So
you're not going to find that. And interestingly enough, when we do start
writing about Acupuncture again in the Ming dynasty, any of you who study
Chinese philosophy know that in the Ming dynasty, that was the period of a
movement in China, philosophically and politically, known as Neo-
Confucianism. Now what is a Confucian going to do when they look at
Emotional stuff. They're going to say, "Well, let's leave this out of here. We
don't want people to be reading about Acupuncture as it deals with Emotional
issues." For that, you go somewhere else. Again, for Confucians, their idea is
that you keep your Emotions to yourself. So you're not going to find a
discussion about Emotions, per se, in Ming dynasty textbooks. Keep in mind that
modem Acupuncture textbooks are based on Ming dynasty translations. Even
today we don't often use the Ling Shu as our reference. We often use the Great
Compendium or the Great Accomplishments of Acupuncture as the reference
books that we go back to.
When you look at the idea of Emotions, and you are looking for material
and literature that you can study from, you have to look for Daoist textbooks.
Daoist textbooks will often talk about meditation. If s not uncommon that ina
Daoist textbook they might say, "Focus on a Luo Point". They might talk about
focusing on a Luo Point, and moving from that Luo Point to a certain area of the
body, in which case they are describing its trajectory. If you know Acupuncture,
then you know exactly which trajectory they are talking about. They may not
itemize the trajectory, but if s not uncommon that they'll talk about i t For
example, if a person finds that they are having extreme repetition of thought,
pensiveness, obsession, if s not uncommon that they would say, do Standing
meditation and focus on an area behind the Big Knob, behind SP-3, into the area
of SP-4. Focus on the connection from that Point, as it moves up into your legs,
into the lower abdomen. From there, it might say, go into that area, and focus on
it all the way up until it reaches the xiphoid process. So obviously what they are
describing is the Spleen's Luo. That would be a meditation that would be helpful
for someone who happens to be excessively thinking about something. That
would be a Fullness of the Spleen's Luo, habituation.
Some of the materials that I've taught have been translated into Italian. So
there are Italian books on it. Unfortunately there is no English book on the
subject, now. One of the things that the Italians are beginning to try to do is to
establish "Italian Acupuncture". The French tend to be more philosophical. The
Italians want to make it more psychological. They are trying to use this
information to develop their system, so the Italians can stand on their own
ground in the field of Acupuncture, instead of looking at the French or the
English for translation. So you'll probably see this more and more in the future,
when it comes to writings that come out of Italy. There is material on the Luo
50
Channels, and the Eight Extra Channels for that matter, which has been
translated into Italian. Now I don't feel any ownership of this material, so if you
want to use this material, if s fine with me. Please keep in mind; if you do use it,
you need to give credit, not to me, but to the Classics. It comes from Classical
Acupuncture, and that's what it really is.
As we get into the Second Unit, and this is my own differentiation of the
Units, and we have three Units, First, Second, and Third. The Second Unit is
about the child developing social skills. The child is starting to develop an
intelligence. Their first social unit is the family structure. From there they go out
into the world. There's going to be the need for some social skills. The first
aspect of social skills is the idea that you're going to be able to, literally,
verbalize, that you are able to say what is on your mind. The Heart deals with
linguistics. It opens to the tongue. We already have teeth. Now the words we're
saying have meaning. The meaning comes from memory, provided by the
Spleen, and that the words we say express our Emotions. Again, the Emotions
come from the Stomach.
When you get to the Heart, the fact is that it goes into your Heart, and it
brings it out. The Heart Luo Channel is about verbalizing. If s about articulating.
You can be mute, and still be able to express it through bodily language. But it is
about being able to express your thoughts, and about being able to express your
feelings. We know that one of the general components that compromises our
ability to express our thoughts, is when we are told that our thoughts, our
feelings, are not appropriate, are not good enough, when we begin to define our
lives based on morals, on ethics. Our families, our society will start doing that to
you. When you feel something, and yet you feel ashamed of expressing it
because you know that if s taboo, you feel a certain sense of betrayal, indeed you
really cannot be all that you can be. Indeed, you cannot really be all that you
want to be. Then there is the idea that Fullness in the Heart is Heart Pain, that
stickiness in the Heart, that stickiness in the chest, the idea that you are stuck, in
your feelings and your thoughts, without being able to adequately express it.
That is the Fullness that is described as chest stiddness, chest pains; that one
could say is also a sense of betrayal, not so much Self-betrayal, but betrayal by
society. Again, these are social skills. You learn from your betrayal. You learn
from your pain. You learn from your defeats. You learn from your
disappointments. And you try to maneuver around that If s when you cannot
learn to maneuver; then you are going to have some problems with Fullness of
the Hearts Luo.
Heart's Emptiness is not so much the betrayal. Again, do not let the
words Fullness and Emptiness mean Excess and Deficiency. Emptiness is when
I'm so Full of the sense of betrayal, I'm beside my words, when you don't know
what to say any longer, when you've given up on trying to verbalize the
situation, and you feel that your voice does not count, that your words don't
make a difference. This is when you might look at the Heart's Emptiness. I f s
51
like what we see globally, especially in America. A lot people think that their
voice doesn't count. Especially when you look at politics, most of us probably
don't vote because we don't think that our vote makes a difference. There's
almost a global sense that the government has betrayed us, let us down. So we
may feel that there no longer is any sense that we can make a difference. That
would be an Emptiness of the Heart's Luo. That's a loss of speech, a loss of
linguistics, a loss of engagement. You don't feel as excited about being who it is
that you are, in relation to the soda1 scheme.
When you get into Small Intestine, its Fullness is about a measure of what
it is that gives us a sense of how we are doing in life. How you are doing in life
is often measured by praise. Think of the Small Intestine as having the ability to
further Separate the Pure from the Impure. Small Intestine is the Organ that
takes something that is potentially negative and it tries to change it into
something potentially more positive. It further creates the ability to sort, to in
some ways differentiate, even though that word might not be best because that
really deals more with the the last Unit. But if s about getting a sense of
feedback. When you ask someone, how am I doing? What you're really asking
is a question relating to the Small Intestine's Lw. Small Intestine's Lw is
interested in your sense of who you are based on people's reaction and feedback
to who it is that you are. I use the term overbearing with obsession as a Fullness-
Here is where the person is overbearing on others and they demand your
attention. They demand your critique; they demand your feedback. So if s
overbearing with an obsessive need for Self-recognition, or in particular Self-
recognition through others. There are some of us who are like that. We demand
a lot of attention, usually from people who are very dose to us, family members.
That includes your friends, your spouses, your lovers. You feel that they're not
giving you enough attention. You feel that they're not giving you enough things,
or enough words that seem to reinforce who it is you think you are. And even if
they do tell you what you want to hear, you sometimes wonder if what they're
saying is really truthful, because they know that you want to hear it, so that's
why they're saying i t When they start thinking that way, that's the
obsessiveness that becomes a Small Intestine Fullness.
Q. And that has to do with feedback, not necessarily whether if s good or

bad, but just anything? They don't need to be approved of or anything like that?
They could be condemned as long as they're getting that feedback?
A. Right, exactly. With the Small Intestine, this is feedback from others. If s
not that inner voice that's talking to you all the time, that's giving you feedback.
This is trying to get validity in other people's eyes.
Even though in Small Intestine, when we look at the signs and symptoms,
it talks about this tightness, this stiffness in the elbows. Again a very similar
symptom to Triple Heater, but this is almost like your elbows and that which
deals with the ability to rotate, that which deals with the ability to, in some ways,
52
make choices. We cannot handle the choices. We cannot handle the criticism.
We cannot handle the feedback. As a result we're searching for someone else to
say something different. That could also be construed in terms of the Fullness of
Small Intestine.
Emptiness of the Small Intestine, with the pebbly stools, this is where
you're uncertain about your own internal feedback. Am I really this? Or am I
really that? I don't know. So what happens is that as you're trying to further
judge who you are, you cannot fully excrete and let go of something if you're still
holding on to another image of yourself. So pebbly stools is almost like poor
elimination because the body is still obsessing, the body is still holding on to
images that you have, and keep in mind ethical, moral or rational images. That's
what you're looking at. Social skills are about intelligence. It's about how we
conjure up ways that we use to entertain ourselves, call them mindgames if you
like, that we use, in some ways to hurt ourselves so that we don't need to make
the necessary changes in our lives.
Bladder's Fullness, remember the Luo of the Bladder goes into the Luo of
the Kidney. So when you look at the Bladder you can't really separate it from the
Kidneys. In other words, from BL-58 we know that it goes into KI-4. The
Bladder is the alarm system. It is the panic attacks. It sounds almost like the
Stomach, where your Emotions become so overwhelming that they begin to
startle you and begin to cause you to do certain things that you would say are
beyond your mind's control. The only difference here is that with the Bladder's
Fullness, this panic attack cannot be shut off. Stomach,because it also goes to the
Kidney's Luo Meridian, can go into an Emotional upheaval, which then calms
back down. But when it goes into the sense of the Bladder being Full, the
person's alarm system is essentially turned on; they're in a state of panic where
they can't seem to turn off the alarm system. Every time they're in a state of
panic, it is as if it were the very first time all over again. Post-traumatic stress
disorder would be seen as a Fullness of the Bladder's Luo. You've kept so much
Blood holding onto that Fear in the Bladder that whenever it begins to become
active, when it reaches a state of Fullness, you begin to trigger off this panic
attack where you can't seem to get relief unless you get tranquilized, unless
someone begins to try to slow down the Blood by Dampening the Blood.
Tranquilizers very often are Dampening agents. Even in Chinese Herbal
medicine, when we Calm the Shen, we're not really Calming the Shen; we're in
some ways suppressing the Shen by giving the person heavy minerals, by giving
them things that are very anchoring. But that doesn't really treat the
psychological condition. All it does is allow us to have some time so that maybe
we can reflect and hopefully, again that word hope, which means the virtue of
the Pericardium and the Heart, will come to our rescue.
The Emptiness of the Bladder's Luo is where someone doesn't know, and
again, if s like an alarm system. But the alarm system here is not so frantic.
Emptiness of the Bladder's Luo is basically not knowing that enough is enough,
53
not knowing when the threshold has been reached, not knowing when your
limits have been overstepped upon, not having the ability to defend, not having
the ability to say no, not having the ability to basically put limits on how much
society can violate your own privacy. So not knowing when enough is enough,
is seen as an Emptiness of the Bladder's Lw.A lot of this comes from the Daoist
literature. When they write about these things, a lot of times they write about it
in metaphors.
Kidney's Fullness is someone who is not only obsessive, but acts out on
their obsession, so they're also compulsive. Remember, obsession is a faculty of
the mind. Compulsion is a faculty of the body. You act on that obsession. So
obsessive-compulsivebehavior is a Fullness of the Kidney Luo.
Extreme Fear or paranoia would be seen as an Emptiness of the Kidney's
Luo. In terms of physical signs and symptoms, we have low back pain, but if s
almost like your adrenaline, or your lower back, is constantly on the run. Your
running dramatically away from something, but you don't really know what it
is. Paranoia is dread, dread of the unknown. You don't know what's after you,
which is very different from the panic attack. A panic attack could be, let's say,
someone who is a veteran of war who has these images of their fellow soldiers
being shot, and every time they get these images, they can't seem to turn it off.
At the same time, they're going through the same reaction, as if they were right
there on the fields of war. They're posturing themselves as if they were in war.
That would be seen as a panic attack. Paranoia, I'm defining as where someone
is in extreme dread. They're not even able to name what it is that they're afraid
of. So extreme Fear, or fright, or shock would be in this context of the Emptiness
of the Kidney's Luo.
Again, Emptiness means there's a loss of Blood. There's a loss of
resources for you to be able to pinpoint exactly what it is that's causing it. Blood
contains the experiences that you can at least name and blame. When you lose
Blood, you become dizzy with what exactly it is that is causing you to feel so
frail, so vulnerable, so weak.
The Third Unit comes after social skills has been set up, although the
social skills really come a lot from the Third Unit, which is the Pericardium.
That's why the Pericardium is the true Heart. What Pericardiurn does is
maintain our sanity. More importantly, the Pericardium is the intellectual
control over the Emotions. You might see some correlation with the Spleen. The
Spleen just provides the Blood to hold onto the Emotions, to Bank the Blood, to
Bank the Emotions. But the reasons by which the Spleen is going to be
commanded to bring the Blood out, come from the Pericardium. So Pericardium
is responsible for, first and foremost, your social skills which allow you to be
somewhat self-preserved. By "self-preserved" I mean that you have some
general self-esteem for who you are.
54
Pericardium functions in many ways. One way is by rationalization.
Imagine you encounter a problem; one way that you can get around the problem
is simply by polarizing the problem. The problem was bad; you polarize it and
change it into something else that allows the problem to be acceptable in your
life. That would be an example of polarization. It comes through rationalization.
Let's say you really wanted a job desperately. You got the phone call, and the
phone call was disappointing. They say you didn't get the job. Now you sit back
on your couch and you start thinking about the job. First you are probably
Angry. You're upset. That's the Stomach. Then the Spleen comes in and tries to
hold onto that Anger. You might start to obsess about it a little, and that
obsessive component might be where you're looking at the context of Small
Intestine. But then Pericardium would say, wait a minute, you know if you got
that job, you wouldn't be able to do this; if you got that job, you couldn't have
done that. You really didn't want that job because it had bad hours. The
Pericardium says, "It's OK. Oh, gee, I don't really need that job". Pericardium
came to my rescue. That's a form of rationalization where I've polarized the
situation I really wanted badly, but now if s not really that interesting any
longer, like the concept of sour grapes. Thafs what it is. You thought the grapes
were really tasty; you couldn't get to them, so what happens? They were
probably sour anyway. You move on and your life is not now disturbed. We do
that all the time. It was probably no good anyway. So that's a Pericardium tool
that we use.
Another could be where you take out your Emotions on someone, who at
least in your mind, is really not the person that caused your Emotions to take
place in the first place. In other words, your boss screamed at you; you felt really
Angry at your boss, but you don't want to lose your job, so you go home and you
start screaming and shouting at your spouse. That's your Pericardium doing
that for you. You might think of it as bad, or negative, as we would want to
judge it. But nevertheless, it allows you to release some of your Emotions.
Pericardium is your savior. It helps you when you feel emotionally uncertain as
to what you need to do in your life. And we do that all the time.
When you look at Pericardium, its Fullness is when you can't control your
Emotions, and again, you have the chest pains coming back. You have the
angina. You have the sense of oppression in your chest, very similar to the
Heart. The difference between the Heart and the Pericardium is that the
Pericardium offers help; the Heart offers hope. Help you can always get, but
hope you may not always be able to find. That's the difference between the two.
You can almost see where the Heart becomes a little bit more elevated in terms of
its role, in terms of helping to save us from our miseries and from our so-called
sufferings.
Emptiness of the Pericardium is the inability to interact, to go out into the
world, because you feel that everyone is out there to get you. There's a certain
moral judgment that the world is bad and that you're really the only one that's
55
sane. As a result you live a very ascetic life. You become a hermit. You hide
somewhere. You don't want to interact with anyone. You find engagement with
other people quite distasteful. A lot of these people seem somewhat depressed
when they're in large groups, or they feel somewhat apprehensive when they're
in a large crowd. In other words, Pericardium is not helping you. If s Emptying
itself out in a way that you can deal with a social environment. That would be
seen as an Emptiness of the Pericardium's Luo. They talk about that as stiffness
of the neck. The neck, remember, tightens up when it tries to prevent something
from reaching the brain, reaching the head. When it does that, it causes Wind to
show up on the head, because what happens is that everything gets locked and
all of a sudden it releases, and from that point you get seizures, you get spasms.
And acute example of Emptiness of the Pericardium's Luo is something that is so
overwhelming that you faint. Pericardiurn did that. It isolated you from the
environment so you didn't have to deal with the pain. Thafs Pericardiurn Lw
doing that. Loss of consciousness, which is a Classical symptom of the Luo
Channels, and the Pericardium is one of the Channels that deals with that:
inability to interact because of a loss of consciousness, in its very extreme way.
Some of us do it with great subtlety. We just don't want to be very conscious of
many things, so we numb ourselves.
Fullness of the Triple Heater: remember, both somatic symptoms deal
with the elbows. Fullness of the Triple Heater, first is that rigidity of the elbows.
Thafs stubbornness. The only way that you feel that makes you who you are is
constantly acknowledging that who you are is the only way that you can be. In a
negative way, we would say that you are very stubborn. You're very rigid,
mentally and physically. You always do things the same way. You do not find
any ability, or any opening to make necessary changes. That would be seen as a
Fullness of the Triple Heater. Interestingly enough, a lot of times according to
Chinese medicine, especially coming from the Nan Jing School, they say that very
difficult diseases, very stubborn diseases, diseases that are considered
intractable, are intractable because there are Blockages in the Sensory Organs.
We're not willing to change the way we perceive and sense the world. That
rigidity that we hold is reflected in the fact that we're not willing to understand
that intrinsic to the world is conflict. We can't buy into the fact that if s natural to
have conflict in the world. We won't ever want to experience conflict. So as a
result of that inability to notice that there's Fire and Water imbalance, Triple
Heater, Fire and Water, we become very stubborn. That would be seen as
Fullness of the Triple Heater, which when it becomes Empty, that rigidity leads
to a certain degree of indifference. You don't care. You don't care what they say.
This is the way I want it. I'm not going to change. This is the way. You almost
come off as if you don't really care about other people.
Self-preservationis about lack of concern for others. Social skills are about
concern for others and how you become able to live in the world. Thafs why
you're interested in how you're doing. You're interested in people giving you
constructive criticism, so you get a sense of how your role is in relationship to the
56
world. Triple Heater is not interested at all, indifference. I can't care less. As
long as I'm alive, that's all I care about, personal satisfaction to the exclusion of
others. That becomes a Triple Heater Emptiness. You've seen some of these
individuals. If s about them only and no one else, and they will even allow for
the destruction of their families, their dose ones, in order that they can
personally be able to move ahead. That would be seen as an Emptiness of Triple
Heater's Luo.
Fullness of the Gall Bladder Gall Bladder starts at Gwng Ming, The
Bright Light or The Illuminating Ught, GB-37. For that Point, they talk about
vision, about the eyes. Gall Bladder moves into the dorsum of the foot and its
role is about being able to see new transmutative options. That means "magical"
options. The rational mind goes from A to B to C, where B is the intermediate,
the step that gets to C. "Magical" is where there's no B. A all of a sudden
becomes C. That's "magical". Gall Bladder is about magic. Gall Bladder is
about the ability to see things in a totally different light. Again, one can say that
part of that is reinforced by the Pericardium, by your intelligence. But if you
were to track down your intelligence, how one thought led to another thought
and so forth, with Gall Bladder you would not be able to come up with that step
by-step process. Gall Bladder is very magical. Remember Gall Bladder is one of
the Curious Organs. It has the ability to affect the uterus, reproduction,
creativity. It has the ability to affect the brain, consciousness. And I think one of
the important dues that we learn from the Classical texts is the fact that the Gall
Bladder is not only a Curious Organ, but is also a Zang Fu Organ. So if you
wanted to get into the Constitutional Level, as represented by the Curious
Organs, the dues that were provided, (suggest it would be) by the Gall Bladder.
Irrespective of whether you had your Gall Bladder removed or not, the
energetics are going to be there.
The Gall Bladder is about redefining our lives in a way that becomes
totally different. And you will see that its imbalances will manifest later on in
the Liver as multiple personalities; you become someone totally different. But
the Gall Bladder starts the process. If s the beginning. Can you see new options?
Can you see new possibilities? Can you give yourself another "blueprint"?
Some of you would know what I mean by that because of GB-37 moving into the
Chong, and the C h g represents the blueprint, represents a new creativity or new
beginning of life.
Emptiness of Gall Bladder is when you no longer see options. If s almost

like Triple Heater, its Shao Yang pair. There's a certain degree of loneliness. Even
by yourself you don't feel at peace with who you are. The difference with Triple
Heater is that while you're rigid, you are quite comfortable with who you are.
You might be stubborn, but that's only in the eyes of others. Who you are is
exactly right. You're comfortable with yourself. But with Gall Bladder, its
Emptiness is where you feel no longer comfortable with the world, as well as no
longer being comfortable with yourself. There's a certain degree of loneliness.
57
aNew England School of Acupuncture & Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
There's a certain sense that there's no place to go. A lot of times when you have
Emptiness of the Gall Bladder, it becomes that which wants to destroy one's own
Constitution. Suicidal tendencies take place with Emptiness of the Gall Bladder's
Luo. And you can see that suicidal tendencies do not have to be acute. I don't
have to necessarily go and cut myself. (And interestingly, a lot of people who do
cut themselves, cut themselves at their Luo Points.) But rather, I can be suicidal
by creating a disease to kill myself. These would be people who really don't care
that they have a very serious disease. They're not concerned. If s almost like the
disease is a welcome event. That would be seen as an Emptiness in the Gall
Bladder.
A lot of these symptoms are obviously pathological. There are healthy

aspects, too, to all of these things. All of us have Luo Vessels. If s just that those
are the areas we're stuck in, and if s not necessarily very pathological. Once we
become aware of what they are, we have the options to change them.
Fullness of the Liver's Luo, it talks about abnormal sexual arousal, the
person has constant sexual erection. You might think of this in a very simplistic
way, "Oh, this might be someone who masturbates." But it doesn't have to be
that, because this is about coming inward, the most you can come inward with,
in terms of intimacy. The question of intimacy ultimately is: can you love
yourself? As I mentioned earlier, a lot of times we engage in a relationship not
because we see that the person is different, not because we see that the person is
our soul mate, but because we see that person as really a reflection of who we
are, or at least who we want to be. That person provides an outlet, provides a
component by which we can be that. I'm not talking about friends. I'm talking
about lovers. When you get with friends, you can have many different kinds of
friends that allow you to be many different kinds of people. But when you're
talking about someone who you're going to be extremely intimate with, when
you're talking about someone that you would consider to be your spouse or to be
your lover, these are people who are going to exemplify in (to) you the best that
you (one)can be, at least to you. So here, when they're looking at the Liver's Luo,
they're talking about how we become intimate with ourselves. That intimacy is
where you feel very aroused, very sexual, that you really like who you are.
In a pathological sense, that's when you have this abnormal sexual
arousal that they're referring to. At worst, what you have is this idea that the
person begins to have this cruel, unbearable itch, where not only are you
uncomfortable with who you are, but you want to be someone else. So you can
see where if you're becoming intimate with yourself, you start to talk to yourself.
Granted all of us here talk to ourselves. If s just that you don't tell people that
you hear voices that you talk to. But if you talk to yourself, where you are telling
people, or at least talking to yourself out loud over time, you're going to be
considered a schizophrenic. That would be seen as a Fullness of the Liver's Luo.
There's a certain sense of intimate contact that you're trying to make with that
58
part of your being that you somehow feel you might be lost from. That would be
the Fullness of the Livens Luo.
Emptiness of the Liver's Lw would be where you try to create many

different kinds of you. You're itching to become different, and if s unbearable. I
just can't stand who I am. Then you become someone else through the magical
transformation that Gall Bladder provides. HI give you another person. Now
you become Joeor J o b and then from there you become George. A lot of times,
treating multiple personalities, is really getting the person to be aware of the
personalities that they have manifested, and trying to get them to pinpoint, to
solidify which personality they really want to be, then trying to work with that
particular personality and developing more of a consistency in that personality.
That's the Emptiness of the Liver's Luo.
Then there is the Great Luo of: the Spleen. Fullness of the Great Luo of the
Spleen is someone who has an existence that has become somewhat unbearable.
What is your life right now? Is this the lifethat you delight in? You say, "Well,
yeah, there are a lot of issues about my life that need to be worked on." Those
are Luo issues. And if those issues become overwhelming, eventually it will
cause pain all aver the body: the tendency to feel that you've been beaten-
You've been oppressed. Y o u are victimized. As a result you feel on a physical
level, as well as on an Emotional level, that you are always going to be a martyr.
You are always going to be crucified. That would be pain all over the body. So
obviously this can manifest as severe depression.
Emptiness of the Great L w of the Spleen is a lack of will to live. A lack of

wilt to live often brings on the issue of contingency. The idea is that if you were
to have this life ..., and you start thinking about the question "what if?" What if
you were bornin the Tang dynasty? Would you be thesameas youare today?
What if you were born five minutes earlier? Would you be the same person that
you are today? So there are always those kinds of questions that we can ask,
When we start asking those questions, that's the Spleen's Luo that is taking us
beyond the element of time. Y o u do it on a regular basis, a lot of times. Let's say
you were driving down the street and you came right in front of an accident, and
you ask yourself, well, what if I was here just a minute earlier? Would I have
been the car that got smashed? Thafs this idea of contingencies. We do that all
the time, where we almost seem to assume that our life at this moment is not
what it ought to be. We start asking questions about what would it be like if I
was in tile past? What would it be like if I was in the future? And when you
start doing that, you lose the will to live the present moment, and that's seen as
an Emptiness of the Great Luo of the Spleen. Anything that you cannot live out
in this lifetime, you're going to have another lifetime to re-do it all over again.
The Dmists had a problem with that. That was very problematic among
the Daoists because the notion that there was a heaven., the notion that there is a
life after, very often subtracts from the importance of this life. If I know that
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New England School of Acupnnctm &Jeffrey C Yoen 2004
there's going to be a heaven that I'm going to go to where everything is going to
be perfect, then why wait? Why not go into that world right now? Some of us
do believe that. That's the religious choice, the leap of faith that we have that
maybe there's going to be a better thing after all, that there's a better life. You see
it even in politics. Socialism is about having a better life. But if you start
believing in those things, what you do is you subtract from your present life.
That's why the Daoists had a hard time with the idea of believing in an afterlife.
Not because they didn't want to believe it, but because they didn't want you to
be distracted by that notion that there is a heaven that you're going to enter
when you die; there's going to be the real reincarnation when you die. When
you start thinking that way, it takes away from your life in this particular
existence.
Ultimately what you want to be fascinated about is your existence right
now, at this time. And that which you cannot be, they say, well that's going to
go back to your Constitution. The Constitution is going to have to recycle that,
and you're going to have to be reborn again to have another life. That's the
reason why some of the books do not even want to deal with the Luo of the
Conception Vessel and Governor Vessel, because they don't want people to start
thinking about the after-life, the world to come.
That's a very brief overview of the development of the mind and the Yi. If
you're looking at this from a clinical point of view, it means you have to be
willing to get to understand the client you're working with. But more
importantly, as they would say in psychotherapy, you have to really know what
Luo you yourself are stuck in. What part of your life are you fixated in right
now? Do you feel betrayed? Do you feel that you can't say the things you want
to say? Do you feel that there's no magic in you life, that you can't see options?
Once you start asking these questions, honestly, you begin to look at your own
Luo Channels. You begin to see your own fixations. You begin to know what it
is that you need to Bleed to at least dean that wound that has been inflicted upon
you by, perhaps yourself, perhaps your family, perhaps by that exclusive
relationship that you call your lover, perhaps by the not as exclusive
relationships that you call your friends. Once you start to look at those things,
you begin to know where the occluded Blood is, where the mind, where the
trauma has been stuck.
That's an insight to give you a way to start beginning to understand the
Luo Channels, not just from its physical symptoms, but also from the
psychological symptoms. Remember, the Luo Channels are Blood. They are the
Emotions, and they also are the choices that you have allowed yourself to be
obligated to in this lifestyle that you've chosen for yourself. You can change it,
but the question that comes is, do you have the Will to change it? And that's
where the Source Point comes in, to give you the Will, to start changing that
which you're very Stagnant in, which is in your Blood. If s just experiences. If
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you can change the experience, you can change your whole mental and
Emotional outlook on life.
Q. Where does the Stomach Luo that you mentioned earlier fit in to this
model?
A. The idea of the Great Luo of the Stomach is that it is what is responsible for
pulsating the so-called movement of Blood. The Great Luo of the Stomach is
what brings consciousness to whatever thoughts that you have. If s responsible
for the Qi that pulsates the Blood flow. Outside of the physical symptoms, they
haven't given psychosocial signs and symptoms for the Great Luo of the
Stomach.
Q- inaudible
A. In general, regardless of what Luo you're treating, you always begin by
Bleeding, even if if s Emptying. Remember, if s Emptying into the Primary
Merdians, so once you start Bleeding the Luo Point, it begins to come back out to
the Luo, so it has a Vessel to come out from. Because there's an Emptiness, which
means that the body somehow has lost its ability to deal with the Pathogenic
Factor which is trapped with the Blood, this Wei Qi,Moxibustion is done after
Bleeding the Luo for an Emptiness. Bleeding is done for a Fullness of the Luo.
Both cases require bleeding. You have to bring the Blood out. In the case where
there is a Blood Deficiency, then you're still going to try to elicit some type of
movement of Blood where it does not necessarily have to Bleed, but you have to
do Plum Blossoming. That's why if people feel faint after they get Gua Sha or
Cupping, if s usually because they don't have enough Blood. There's an
underlying Blood Deficiency. So when they get Cupped they feel faint, because
there's not enough Blood to go to the Surface, most likely because the Blood is
being held Internally to try to keep something in a state of Latency. A state of
Latency means that if s either being suppressed consciously, or repressed
unconsciously. And if if s repressed, it means that the Jing is coming to keep the
condition in a state of denial. Jing is so dense that the body very often is not
aware of where the Jing is going. With Blood, because it contains the Spirit, you
still can become conscious of what it is that you are holding on to: the idea of
'suppressed" Emotions and "repressed Emotions.
Q. I have another question. Is this a continuum that you're presenting here?

Where issues come . . .afterit goes from the Lungs to the Large Intestine, is that
how you're presenting this?
A. In terms of a developmental process, this is a continuum. In terms of
pathology, this is also seen as a continuum.
Q. So how would that work in respect to what you said earlier about how,
let's say you have an issue, and if the first Luo Channel gets Full, then it unloads
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into the Primary and it gets Empty. How would that continuum then move to
the next level of Luo?
A. Remember, that's the whole idea of the Source Luo. It goes into the
Primary Channel, and the Primary says, "Oh let me move this back to the Luo",
and it can move between its Yin Yang pairs. Also there is the idea that the Luo
Channels can also Transverse across itself as it moves it back to the Sinew
Merdians or the Eight Extra Channels. There's always that interplay by which
if s moving. What you're really looking at is, when one is healthy, it means that
if s just able to move things through. But by the time that you might have a
healthy series of things, that when you get to, lefs say Small Intestine, Small
Intestine is not able to deal with it. So Small Intestine creates these Broken Blood
Vessels to say, "Well you've reached this point, I can't deal with this particular
issue." Then at that point, it sounds not like if s a progression, but rather that if s
uniquely Small Intestine. What if s really saying is that those other aspects of my
psychological profile are relatively healthy. Thafs what if s saying.
Q. You seem to be saying that . . .I know you're going to be getting into this
tomorrow probably, but you seem to be saying that one of the ways one
diagnoses is by seeing that there are Blood capillaries on the skin. Is that correct,
because the Luo has to do with Blood?
A. One of the easiest ways of ascertaining which Luo Channel is Full is by
looking for visible Blood Vessels. You can also palpate and find nodules, in
which case that would represent an Emptiness of a Luo Channel. You can also do
it by signs and symptoms. If they're presenting certain symptoms on a physical
or an Emotional Level, it also gives you dues as to which Luo Channel might be
acutely Stagnant, or in some cases chronically Stagnant
Q. Is that possibly where this chart would come in?

A. Right. So lefs say if someone comes in and says, "I really find that I have
a hard time recently in expressing my feelings to my spouse". If that were the
case, we would say, "Well what brings Blood to the tongue?" In our example,
that would be part of the Heart's Luo. So we might look at the Heart's Luo. And
maybe as we Release the Heart's Luo, the person does begin to speak more, and
the person is able to articulate. But maybe what they really have a hard time
with is that they don't know exactly what their feeling is. I feel something, but I
can't seem to put a name on it. So it sounds like if s Heart, linguistic, but there's
this general sense that I don't know exactly what it is that I'm feeling. Then the
Stomach's Luo might be used, because Stomach's Luo at least allows us to start to
get the sense of what the feeling is. And then Spleen gives us the intelligence to
define it and name it. So we might do a combination of ST-40 and SP-4 as a way
of dealing with that.
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Q. I was wondering, you talked about Fullness and Emptiness and the
pathologies that go with them. I was wondering if there was a state of sort of
neutral, where if s not Full or Empty, and if there were, what would it look like?
A. Many of us have it right now. Many of us have neutral states of Luo.
That's why if s not sounding out; if s not telling you, pay attention. If s only
when it reaches a point of saturation that it becomes Full, and when if s beyond
saturation, it Empties out. That's when it says we have to start paying attention.
Many of us have Luos that are half full; if s not really there. I mean, I know there
are certain issues I have to deal with. I know they're there, but they haven't
gotten to the point that I know I have to deal with them right away. Many of us
know what some of our issues are, but if s not to the point where we would say
that it demands our attention at this time, mainly because if s not in a state of
Fullness. When if s in a state of Fullness, that's when it tells you, "Hey, you have
to do something about this pain" or "you have to do something about this
congestion". You have to do something about these Emotions. At that point,
that's when the Luo Channels really become very active.
Q. When you're talking about the Gall Bladder and "magic", and you talk
about moving to the Chong, you mean the Extra Vessel, the Chong?
A. Right. Remember, Chong Mai has five trajectories. One of the trajectories
essentially begins at ST-30, and it travels all the way to ST-42, to the dorsum of
the foot. From there it goes into the big toe. So the fact that GB-37 goes to ST-42,
there's that correlation between that and the Chong. The reason why I'm making
that assertion is, notice in the beginning you have one distal trajectory, the Lung
trajectory. And near the end of this sequence, you have now another distal
trajectory, Gall Bladder, because from there, if s going to go to Yin. So the idea is
that you have a Yin, Internal, trying to go External, and now you have a Yang
thafs trying to go Internal. That's GB-37 now, going into the Deeper Level, the
Level of the Constitution, And thafs the trajectory of the Chong that begins at
ST-30, and ST-30's relationship to the abdomen. Remember, if s included in the
Four Seas of the Ling Shu; the Sea of Food and Grains, the Upper Transporting
Point, is ST-30. The Lower Transporting Point would be ST-36. So ST-30 has a
major affect on the abdomen, on our digestive capability, and likewise, if s going
to have a major affect also on the Sea of the Twelve Merdians, which the Chong
represents, which is rooted in Post-natal Qi, in the Spleen and Stomach.
Q. When you talk about Bleeding, are you talking about a Three-edged
Needle, or a Plum blossom ......... ?
A. Whatever you're comfortablewith. If you're comfortable with the Lance
Needle, then you use that. If you're comfortable with the Seven Star Hammer or
the Plum Blossom Hammer, use that, whatever a person's comfortable with. I
generally like to recommend the Plum Blossom Hammer unless you really know
the client very well, because I believe that with Emotions, if you're using Luo
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Channels for the very first time with someone you might want to start out gently.
First, just try to get them to start moving through some of their psycho-
Emotional states. When you know that they are willing to really do spring-
cleaning, you might become a little bit more aggressive, to help them start
cleaning their lives out, getting rid of all the sentiment, all of the junk,all of the
things that they really don't need that are continuing to poison their minds and
poison their Emotions.
Q. When you talked about the Rebellious Qz, Stomach, Liver, Kidney, Spleen,
how does that relate to Emptiness or Fullness of the Luo?
A. No. Emptiness or Fullness just involves separate symptoms.
Rebelliousness, remember, is the body's attempt to run away from one's Self.
When you're looking at it from the context of the Ling Shu, if s very different.
Here, remember the sequencing that I'm giving you is based on the Collaterals,
as an extension of the Primary Channels. So we're following the sequence from
Lungs all the way to, and ending with, Liver, and even though we end with
Liver, within the Ling Shu if you exclude the Eight Extra Luos, then what you
have, in that context, is as if the Luo Channels were independent Channels. One
aspect of the Ling Shu is really to teach everyone to see the Merdians as
independent of each other. So the Sinew Channels are independent. The Luo
Channels are independent. The Eight Extra Channels are independent The
Primary Channels are independent. What you really want to do is ask yourself
is, "Well, what layer do I like to work with?" Well, I'm a very physical kind of a
person. I really like touching the fascia. I really like touching, palpating and
finding muscles that are very tight. That means you are a very Sinew Meridian
kind of clinician; thafs what you are. Or, "Well, no, I'm really fascinated with
Blood. I really like to look for where the varicosity is. Oh, gee, I like to see all
these varicosities. I like to see all these varicosities in the chest." That's going to
be a Luo Channel person. "I'm going to Bleed all of these for you." That means
you're getting rid of a lot of the person's Emotional layers.
Q. So with the Rebelliousness, how do you. . .inaudible.

A. The Rebelliousness is an attempt by which the body tries to move the
Blood. So when you're treating the Luo, you're already treating the Rebellious
Qz. AH Luo Points treat Rebellious Qi. If s just that in the way that if s presented
in the Ling Shu, it gives you additional symptoms when it gets into the Stomach's
Luo, as it then also affects the Spleen, the Kidneys and the Liver.
Q. If you see several patterns, can you Bleed more than one Channel at a
time?
A. Sure. Why can't you?
Q. Well, should you?
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A. You can have a field day in Bleeding. Remember, Bleeding generally
means one to two drops of Blood. If s not what killed George Washington. If s
not that kind of Bloodletting that we're talking about.
Q. You didn't mention it, but it was written on the outline, the Du and the
Ren as karma accumulation ....... ?
A. He was asking about the Ren and the Du,the sequence chart that I had,
and that I didn't talk about the "accumulation of karma". The idea here is that
you feel that you've been victimized; you've been beaten. You have pain all over
your body. You have a loss of the Will to live this life, so you in some ways have
resigned yourself to a life that is going to be a life of misery. What it does then is
that the things that have caused you to feel that way, to think that way, then
those are the things you have not been able to transcend. Remember, the idea
that you're looking at, in terms of Buddhism, as well as in Daoism, is that you
reincarnate, not so much to get another chance, but you reincarnate to deal with
the same crap that you can't deal with in this lifetime. If s giving you the
opportunity to transcend. If s giving you the opportunity to discover your own
ability to transmute all of the garbage that you have allowed in this lifetime, that
you hope, that if you went to heaven, you would no longer have to see. Well,
heaven is alive right now on earth. And you have to discover it within yourself.
That's the idea of the Ren and the Du, that if you can't do it, you're really asking
for another incarnation, the idea of contingency. What if? What if I go into the
future, would it be better? That recent movie, Time Machine, the search within
time, that maybe if I move into another time, it would be better. Obviously that
was not the theme of it, but we know that's the concept. Can I change the reality
of things, if I had been born a little bit earlier, if I was born a little bit later? The
only time you want to escape from time is when things are not so good, at this
time. So what they're saying is that if you can't deal with it this time, don't think
the next time around is going to be any better. If s going to be the same stuff,
and you'd better, in some ways, learn how to resolve it right now. So that you no
longer look for it in the after life, but you look for it at this current time.
That's what the religious tradition really tries to treat. That's why they
don't want people with Emotional difficulties in the temples, because what they
often find is that what you're bringing with you into the monastery is your
inability to transcend, and you're hoping that the Spiritual guidance that is
provided by someone else, or by some other image, by some other philosophy,
by some other religion, is going to pave the way for you to change. It might be
the catalyst, but ultimately the change has to occur from within yourself. We all
know that. You can go to psychotherapy all you want, but ultimately you know
the change has to come from within. What they do is just give you insights.
Well, Luo Channels are saying "better off"? You don't need to talk to someone.
All you need to do is Bleed yourself! In other words you have to inflict the
wound upon yourself, and within the suffering you begin to see the light.
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OK. So let's move on now and bring this back a little bit to the physical
part.
3. Transverse Luo (connection of the Yin Yang Pairs)
a. Based on the Source-Luo Concept
If you look at it from the Primary Channels (sequence), which we just did,
and I just gave you some of the psychological presentations, you can see the Luo
Merdians are going to now start connecting with their so-called Yin Yang pairs.
The Luo Merdians, as they connect with their Yin Yang pair, is that concept the
Europeans have called the Transverse Lno. One of the problems that usually
comes out of the Transverse Luo idea, and if s not really been adequately satisfied
by Acupuncture, is that a lot of times, when you read these trajectories, they
often, in the Classical era, even in modem texts, say for example, that at LR-5
there's a trajectory that connects with the Gall Bladder Channel. So for the
Transverse Luo, we know the Luo somehow connects with its Yin Yang pair, and
likewise, Gall Bladder would say the same thing. But we don't know exactly
where on its pair it connects. If s only an assumption that Gall Bladder Luo, GB-
37, will connect with the Source of the Liver. Why wouldn't it connect with the
Luo of the Liver? Why do we have to connect with the Primary Channel for that
matter? The argument is that these Luo Channels are an extension of the Primary
Merdians, so that as it moves it out, or as it moves it from the Primary Meridian
to the Lw Point, the Luo Point will now begin to affect its Yin Yang pair, and we
know that the Yin Yang pair, theoretically, only begins to Empty, or move deeper
when we don't have enough Yuan Qi. So this is where people think that if s
going to connect with its Yin Yang pair at the Source Point. It's not an absolute.
In fact some clinicians would challenge that and would say that the Luo simply
connects with the Luo of its Yin Yang pair. It does not have to connect with the
Source.
Likewise, the theory by which the Merdians are following this Post-natal
sequencing, also seems to suggest that it is indeed connecting to the Source,
because as we went further and further down the line, (we saw) Gall Bladder
(connect to) ST-42, Chong. We can simply say, "Oh if s just connecting with a
Source Point". liver goes to the genitals, ling. So again, even the sequencing
seems to be indicating that near the end of it, if s somehow going to connect with
the Source. This is what gives birth to the idea of the Source Luo. Treatments in
the Classical texts always discuss Harmonizing the Yin and Yang after
Bloodletting. So it means that if you Bled one Yang Meridian, you have to do
something to its Yin pair. So the development of Source Luo is based on this
concept of things moving into the Level of Essence, or eventually affecting the
Essence, taxing the Essence: the use of the Source of the affected Zang Fu with the
Luo of its associated pair. One simple application that we see in modem Chinese
medicine is: lefs say someone had a Heart Qz Deficiency. They would use HT-7
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with SI-7 the Source Point followed by the Lw Point. There are several theories
about what the Source Luo treatment is about This is just one very simplistic
theory, where HT-7 would be Tonified, because you have an underlying
Deficiency, and SI-7 would be Dispersed, because that would be known as
Harmonization. You're balancing the energy.
Some people think of the Source Luo based on a narrative, where they
translate the concept of Source as the origin, that this is the beginning of a disease
or a condition. And then, where if s moving, where it passes on tof is at the LÃ§
Point. So thafs another application of Source Luo, where i f s based on a
narrative. It started here. Source, and then it went there, Lw.A lot of times,
however, when they do that kind of theoryt they don't generally look at it based
on the Yin Yang pair. So an example of that would be Liver invading the Spleen.
So it started in the Liver, Source, LR-3, and it went to the Spleen, SP-4. That
would be another application of a Source Luo theory. In my opinion, thafs really
extending the theory pretty far beyond what it really is intended to mean,
because Transverse Lwo goes to its Yin Yang pair. It doesn't say it goes anywhere.
Because of that theory, some people have said that the Leg Channels can easily
Transverse themselves across, like the Sinew Merdians, to adjacent Luo Channels,
irrespective of their Elemental pairing. So Liver does not have to go to Gall
Bladder, It could go to any of the Leg Channels. Spleen could go to any of the
Leg Channels. That becomes a question, againf that deals with a narrative-
Let's say the person has Damp Heat in the Gall Bladder. As a result of
that Damp Heat in the Gall Bladder, it then went to affect the Kidneys, causing
Kidney Yon? to be Deficient, because Dampness in the Gall Bladder, or Damp-
Heat in the Gall Bladder, very often settles into the Lower Burner, and can very
of ten consume Kidney Qi. So if you were following that principle, you would
say, "OK it originated in Gall Bladder, Source Point, GB-40, and it went into the
Kidneys, Kidneysf Luo Point, KI-4, where obvious1y, the Source Point is
Dispersed and the Luo point is Tonified, Excess leading to Deficiency." Now
again it could be where you have a situation where both of them are Excessf in
which case you would be Reducing both, and this would be a case where it
challenges the Harmonization principle. Harmonization usually means that
whatever you do to one,you do something elsef or something contrary to the
other. So you can see some flaws in that particular Source Luo concept.
(break in recording)
Getting back to references: some ofyou have asked about books where
you can get more information about the Luo Channels. So if you have the
capacity to read Chinese .... well, remember what Bob Flaws says. The Dao Zang
Jinffis one very important textbook that you could use to read about not only
Acupuncture, but also the teachings that have been transmitted from the Daoist
traditions. The Dao Zany Jing is basically comprised of about thirty volumes of
h i s t writings. It was writtenf or compiled, during the Ming dynasty, during
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the 15~"century. This book has a wealth of information pertaining not only to
Acupuncture, but to all aspects of Daoism. There you're going to find a lot of
writings as they pertain to Luo Channels as well as the other Channels of
Acupuncture. The Duo Zang Jing, while if s written in the Ming dynasty, begins
to record a number of traditions that previously were orally transmitted. I've
been teaching for a number of years, and I come from an oral transmission. My
tradition really is not too much into wanting people to write books, at least not
that come from that tradition. As a result, I have not entertained the idea of
writing. I do know that there are some students of mine who are currently
writing books, some of which are more on the philosophical aspect of the
Merdians, some on more of the clinical aspects. I have one student who is
writing on the Dao Yin exercises, and also some other students who have
expressed an interest in writing about the Luo Channels, as well as others. So
there are books that are being written. Unfortunately, the only ones that have
been published are in Europe. The people I teach in Switzerland are planning to
publish a book on the Divergent Channels, which, by the way, will be in English.
I don't know if if s going to be distributed in America, but it will be a book on the
Divergent Channels. The Luo Channels and the Eight Extra Channels have been
written in Italian, so if you read Italian if s just a matter of getting someone in
Italy to get you a copy of those books.
My own background: I come from a Daoist tradition. My grandfather was
a Daoist priest. He was a priest of the Jade Purity School. The Jade Purity School
is the tradition of Daoism that basically one would say is very ascetic. They
basically did a lot of meditation. Their focus was primarily on meditation. If s
the least written about of the Daoist traditions. There are five major Daoist
traditions. One is known as the Heavenly Master (Celestial Master) Tian Shi.
Tian Shi is the school that is still prominent in Taiwan. The most prominent
tradition in China is the Dragon Gate School, Long Men Pai. That is a tradition
that developed during the Song dynasty. The Dragon Gate School is the one that
writes a lot, mainly because their tradition essentially is also broken into the
Northern and Southern sects. They are the ones from whom you will find a
wealth of written Daoist material. Most of Thomas Cleary's translations are from
the Dragon Gate School, or the Complete Reality School as it is sometimes
referred to. There is also the Mao Shan Pai, which is more known for its magic.
They were the one's that you would invite to the village if the village was, let's
say, suffering from a drought, or what have you. They were more associated
with the magical, or what one would call the occult sciences. Lastly you have the
Lu Men Pai W^ . The Lu Men School also developed during the Ming
dynasty. The Lu Men School basically is the synthesis of all the five religions that
China was being exposed to at that time. The Chinese were familiar with Islam
through the Silk Road, during their trading with the Arab countries. They
already were incorporating Islam, at least in the Lu Men School. They were
exposed to Christianity through the Jesuits who were coming into China. So the
Lu Men School was the integration of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Christianity, and
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Confucianism. The Lu Men School would be the synthesis of the five, what they
called, major religions, at least at that time.
In the Dao Zang Jing you will find the information on the Luo Channels if
that's what you're looking for, but you'll also be able to find other information as
well. If you go to any Daoist monastery, they will always have a set of these
books. If s not very hard to find, but if you want to buy the whole set, if s going
to be very expensive because you're looking at major volumes of books that will
take more than a lifetime to study. Then you have those GV and CV Luo
Channel issues, and you're going to have to reincarnate back to continue learning
and learning.
b. Transverse Lno Correlations (paired Luo)
I'd like to finish off today's discussion with the Transverse Luos. Then
tomorrow we'll look at applications of the Luo Channels. So if the Transverse
Luos are seen as Merdians that connect between the Yin Yang pair, obviously if
you look at the Liver's Luo, it should be able to treat signs and symptoms in the
Gall Bladder's Luo, or the Gall Bladder's Transverse Luo, and vice versa. Some of
the correlations between Wood, that means liver transmitting to Gall Bladder, or
Gall Bladder transmitting to Liver, include the symptoms of: bitter taste in the
mouth, cholecystitis, gallstones, difficulty in the digestion of fat, predominately
due to DampHeat. What I'm saying is that if someone came in with these signs
and symptoms, which suggest Gall Bladder in particular, they might also be
signs and symptoms related to Liver, and you can treat them accordingly with
LR-5and, or GB-37. This is if you're just using the idea that the Luo of one
connects to the other. And remember, if s somewhat controversial; does the Luo
really connect with the Source? By treating both Luo you're going to address
signs and symptoms afflicting the Gall Bladder and the Liver.
Heart and Small Intestine: in TCM you would look at this as Full Heat in
the Small Intestine, or maybe even Rising Heart Fire. You have tongue ulcers
with burning or deep yellow urine, palpitations, and there's also anemia. So if
someone is anemic, they have chronic urinary tract infections, and they also have
insomnia, you might select the Heart's Luo as well as Small Intestine. SI-7 and
HT-5 would be the treatment for the Fire Transverse Luo. When I say treating, I
mean Bleeding, Plum Blossoming. In the absence of the Lw concept, you would
not be Bleeding a Point. In other words, let's say I decided to use LU-7 as an
Eight Extra Channel Point. LU-7 is not going to be Bled. You're not using it as a
Luo Point that relates to the Luo Channel. You're using it as an Opening Point
that relates to Ren Mai, and that would be an example which we can tell from the
Needling that you obviously are not using a Luo Point, per se.
Now you can also be using a Luo Point as an extension of the Primary
Channels. In which case the Luo Point, again, is not necessarily Bled. In the Su
Wen it says that when you have a condition during the Spring, the spring-time of
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a condition, you should be Needling the Ying-Spring Points, and at the same
time, Needling the Luo Points or the Luo Vessels. So let's say if you have the
beginning of a disease, or you have caught a disease during the season of the
Spring, and the disease, let's say, is in the Heart. In that case you might say,
'OK, if s in the beginning, if s in the Spring, let me use the Ying-Spring Point of
the Heart, so you might decide to use HT-8, and if you're not into using the
Heart Channel and you prefer the Pericardium instead, you'd use PC-8. You
would then follow with Needling the Luo Vessel of the Heart, or the Luo Vessel of
the Pericardium at the Luo Point. That's Needling, not Bleeding. So that would
be where you're not really using it necessarily as a Luo Vessel, but really as an
extension of the Primary Channels.
Earth, Stomach and Spleen: basic symptoms would be weak digestion, or
what we might think of as Deficiency in Spleen Qi, with symptoms of fullness,
bloating, so there's a loss of appetite, loose stools, flatulence and maybe even
Dampness-Phlegm, like signs and symptoms of a sluggish lymphatic system. In
which case you might be using SP-4 and ST-40. Definitely with the idea of
Phlegm, from a TCM point of view you might already be thinking of ST-40, even
though that might not be, arguably, the best Point for Phlegm. Definitely it was
not the most important Point for Phlegm during the Tang dynasty. We know
that.
Metal would be conditions in the Lungs that are also affecting the Large
Intestine, and vice versa. What are the Lungs responsible for? Diffusion of Lung
Qi as well as Descension of Lung Qi. The Lungs Descend its Qi into the Kidneys,
into the Bladder and into its Organ pair, the Large Intestine. So when the Lungs
Descend its Qz, it causes peristalsis, it causes bowel movements. When it
Descends its Qi, it causes urinary movement into the urinary bladder, and it also
allows for Kidneys to grasp Lung Qi. So when the Lung is afflicted, it can
definitely affect Bladder, it can affect the Kidneys, but if it's a Luo, it will affect
the Large Intestine, its Yin Yang pair. In which case, not only are you having
difficulty breathing, breathlessness, but you also experience constipation. One
affects the other, which means that LU-7 treats these signs and symptoms, as
well as LI-6.
Water: Kidney and Bladder, KI-4and BL-58, (has symptoms like) frequent
urination or urinary retention, edema, brittle bones and deposits. In terms of the
deposits, you'll see this a lot tomorrow when we look at gastrointestinal
conditions and how they are treated by using the Luo. The Luo really is very
important in the treatment of gastrointestinal problems since the root of the Luo
Channel discussion has been based a lot on the abdomen, on the Stomach and in
particular also in the Spleen, in terms of the abdomen. Again, KI-4and BL-58
would treat these particular signs and symptoms.
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Longitudinal LUQis (his idea (hat if you're looking for where there's a
trajectory that emanates from the LMo Point, that's the Longitudinal LUO.If this is
the Luo Point, as it goes to communicate with its Yin Yang pair, thafs referred to
as the Transverse Luo. The Longitudinal Luo does not connect with its Yin Yang
pair. Its sets of signs and symptoms are not going to be the same as the
Transverse Lw.Also the Transverse Luo is about the concept of Yin and Yang:
things from the Exterior moving into the Interior, Yang to Yh,or things that are
in the Interior trying to find their resolution by moving back to the Exterior, Yin
to Yang. So it doesn't always go from Yang to Yin, it can be from Yin to Yang as
well.
The Longitudinal Luo are said to treat a lot of signs and symptoms that
relate to Rebellious Qi. The Rebellious Qt signs as it relates to the Classical texts
was already introduced in Chapter 10 of the Ling Shu, as it pertains to Stomach,
Liver, Spleen and Kidneys. Subsequent clinicians have said, 'Well if there's
Rebellious Qi in those particular Luo Channels, then in truth we should have
Rebellious Qi in all of the Luo Channels. The Luo Channels, remember, represent
the movement of Wei Qi into the Interior. As it moves into the Interior if s trying
to move something back out. So as it moves it back out, if s generally creating
Counterflow, or Rebellious Qi, trying to move it so i f s not going Deeper and
Deeper and Deeper, going against the flow, trying to push it back out, from
where i t originates. To understand that, you have to then look at the vectors of
how Qi moves.
The Lungs are responsible for Descension and Diffusion. You have a Yang
quality and a Yin quality. Descension is Yin. Diffusion is Yang. When the Lungs
are no longer able to Diffuse, or it goes Counterflow, what you get is frequent
yawning and urination, which is part of the symptoms of the Longitudinal L d s
Emptiness of the Lungs: frequent yawning and urination. Don't confuse
yawning with an increase in Diffusion, or the urination with an increase in
Descension. You could say that if I'm Diffusing, so it's going Counterflow to the
k c e n s i o n And if I'm Descending, i f s going Counterflow to the Diffusion.
They're looking at that more as Counterflow, rather than enhancing one over the
other.
Large Intestine is responsible, again, for Descension. But remember,

Large Intestine, becomes "full" when the Stomach is "empty", and when the
Large Intestion is "empty" the Stomach becomes "full". So Large Intestine is
responsible for holding, Full. And if s also responsible for Emptying. So when
there's a Rebellious Large Intestine Qi, there could be constant Emptying or
constant "holding": frequent bowel movements or constipation. There could
also be gas that's associated with things that are not moving adequately out of
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@ New England Scboo! of A q m c t m e &Jeffrey C. Yuen 20(W
the body, flatulence. What this means is that if someone comes to you and they
have Rebellious Qi signs and symptoms, all you have to do is look at the Luo
Point that relates to those Rebellious Qi signs and symptoms. Look for Broken
Blood Vessels along the trajectory. Bleed them if you find them, and if not, you
might find nodules along the trajectory. If you can't find either one, you still
could just simply Bleed the Luo Point to help relieve the Rebellious Qi.
Spleen is responsible for Ascension. If Spleen is not Ascending, it Sinks.
As we know, Sinking Spleen Qi causes bloating, and it also causes lower
intestinal pain.
For the Stomach, we know the Classical symptom for Stomach's
Rebellious Qi. Thafs a very common discussion: nausea and vomiting.
The Heart is responsible for the production of Blood, but also for the
movement of Blood. So if the Heart is Rebellious, it causes Blood to Quicken.
That can often cause palpitations, but more commonly the Heart causes radiating
chest pain. Again, that's in line with the Classical idea that the Heart Meridian
really deals with pain that radiates along its trajectory. So you're looking at
angina. Pericardium is pain directly in the chest, actual pain that's localized in
the chest, unlike the Heart that radiates its pain,
For the Small Intestine we see cardiac reflux. Again, this is a sensation of
Fullness in the region of the heart. There is a certain sensation, like something is
sitting on your chest. It might be a sensation like something is pounding in your
chest. That would be seen as Small Intestine's Rebellious Qi, because the role of
Small Intestine is to take Heat from the Heart, take Yang from the Heart, and
move that Heat, or move that Yang, from a physiological perspective, into the
Kidneys. Small Intestine serves as an intermediary between the Yang of the
Heart and the Kidneys, and if if s Heat that comes from the Small Intestine,
which obviously it won't want to bring to the Kidneys, it will move it to the
Urinary Bladder, and you (would)have burning urination. So if the Small
Intestine is not interested in moving (facilitating)that connection from the Heart
to the Small Intestine, you get cardiac reflux. Things stay in the Heart.
The Bladder is responsible for urination. The Bladder Disinhibits, the
Classical term for diuresis in Chinese medicine. So Bladder, if if s not able to
Disinhibit, there's a lack of urination.
The Kidneys are responsible for the Grasping of Lung Qi. If if s not able to
Grasp, if there's Counterflow, there's wheezing.
There would be palpitations in relationship to Pericardium. We made that
association already.
72
Triple Heater is responsible for maintaining the balance between Fire and
Water, Hot and Cold. When Triple Heater looses the balance of maintaining Hot
and Cold, you get this Shao Yang symptom of alternating d u l l s and fevers,
alternating Hot and Cold. That's Triple Heater's role.
Gall Bladder, as we mentioned, has the responsibility to connect from
above to below. Gall Bladder is also Shao Yang. Gall Bladder we often think of as
the lateral costal discomforts. But it divides in the body, not only into front and
back; it also divides the body into above and below. So when you have
alternating symptoms that start from the lower and goes to the upper, and then
comes back to the lower, as in Running Piglet Qr, that would be seen as a Gall
Bladder Longitudinal Luo issue.
Lastly,,Liver we know Ascends Qi. The Liver's Counterflow is not that

if s going to Descend. Its Counterflow usually means that the Liver's Ascension
is getting out of hand. It's not being Controlled by Metal's Descensiom Metal
controlling Wood- The Lungs are no longer able to Descend. That's why you
can have Lung Qi weakness, and as a result have Ascending Liver Yang,which
unfortunately is not added into TCM patterns, where you can have Liver Yang
Ascension, usually due to Blood Deficiency or Kidney Yin Deficiency, but it
could be due to Lung Qi Deficiency. The Lungs can't Control by its Descension.
Remember, the Lungs also Control the Diaphragm. Then the Liver is going to
get out of hand. In which case it has this surging energy that rushes up and you
get dizziness, vertigo, hypertension, headaches, all signs of Rebellious Qi of the
Liven
Q. With these, we're not really describing these in terms of Empty or Full .--
A. Right.
Q. But would it be appropriate for some of these to Bleed and use Moxa?
A. Rebellious Qf is usually seen as an Excess condition. Even though you
might say, "Oh, Kidney wouldn't that be a Deficiency?" Not necessarily:i f s
only when you get into the Yuan dynasty that Kidney can never be Excess; if s
always Deficiency, In the Five Element School, there can be a pattern of Excess
Water, so it does not always have to be Deficient
Q. I was just thinking in terms ofthe one for the Lung. I think we had
described yawning as a Deficient symptom.
A. Ohpwell I'm just adding that as a little footnote.
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b. Effects on the Yin (}in-Ye, Blood, Essence)
Luo Channels are going to have an effect on Yin, because what maintains
the Luo Channels is Yin. What holds onto something is Yin. That Yin is being
financed by Fluids, that Yin is being financed by Blood, and eventually that Yin is
going to be financed by Essence. In truth, you can look at the sequencing, if
you're following the Primary Meridian sequencing that we just looked at, and
the Yin Merdians, Lung, Spleen and Kidneys, deal a lot with the component of
the Pure, Thick and Thin Fluids, the Jin-Ye. So when you look at that, the
sequencing, Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach,Spleen, Kidney, Bladder, you're
looking at the body as it finances the holding through Stomach Fluid, through
Lung Fluid, or in TCM you would call it Lung Yin and Stomach Yin, and to some
degree Kidney Yin. Kidney Yin would be the Thicker Fluid aspect. Then when
the Fluid system fails, the body will finance the holding by Blood; thafs the
Heart, the Liver, and the Great Luo of the Spleen. Then, if that fails, it will
finance the holding with the Essence, either through Yin Qiao and Yang Qiao if
you were to follow the Nan Jing concept, or through the Ren and the Du if you
were following the context of the Ling Shu. So Luo Channels over time are going
to be heavy taxation on the Fluid system of your body. The more weight you
accumulate, the more Blood Vessels need to be created to provide nourishment
for that additional weight that you have added on to your body, and that weight
might not be healthy weight. It could be simply Stagnation of things that you
don't need. The more you begin to put on weight, the more Blood eventually is
going to be used to finance that part of your life, that perhaps you really don't
need. And that's what if s really saying; the Luo Channels represent obesity of
mind, obesity of body. The obesity itself is negative because if s seen as things
that we really don't need, but yet we're holding on to anyway.
c. Effects on the Shen Spirit
Which brings us into this other aspect, which is about the first basic
treatment of the Luo Channels. That treatment involves the Yin Luo, and the
Yang Luo. The Yin Lm is the layer of Emotional imbalance. There are two
aspects to this. First, if s acute, (then) chronic, and then you can have a situation
where one can say that you're looking at the Nature (Constitutionallayer), in
terms of perhaps a repression.
Before I do that, there are the three energetic layers that I talked about
earlier today. There's Wei Qi, Ying Qi, and Yuan Qi, the three layers. The Wei
Level is the External Level. They tend to be more acute. They tend to be more
manifested. The Ying is the Internal Level, and the Yuan is the Constitutional
Level. So the first basic theory that relates to the treatment of Emotions is that
Emotions can be perceived as a Feeling. Stomach's Luo provides that; you can
say that in general from the sequencing. But the term Gan ^k means Feelings.
When that Feeling has enough intelligence, when you give it enough
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@ New England School of Acupuncture &JeffreyC. Yuen 2004
consciousness, it becomes Qmv dft an Emotion. And the Qinv can be a
reflection of Xing 'H. one's Natwe. So you have Feelings, Emotions and
Temperament. The radical next to the words Qiw and Xing is the radical for Xin
"tt Heart. This radical is the radical that represents the Heart. So Feelings are
on a WeiLevel. They happen to us, and then I s t a r t to become conscious of what
I'm feeling, and then it becomes an Emotion. Now you can have Angry Feelings,
but you can also have Angry Emotions. The difference between Feelings and
Emotions is that a Feeling doesn't necessarily have to be targeted. A Feeling
does not necessarily have to have a cause. If I Feel depressed, I might be in a
situation where I don't know what's causing my Feeling of depression, and then
you can't call it an Emotion- Emotion means that I can put Blood around it. I can
contain it I can Bank the Blood; I can own it. I feel this way because such and
such person did this to me. I feel this way because I feel ashamed, because I did
such and such thing. That's an Emotion. So an Emotion is discriminate. You do
know why you're feeling the way you're feeling.
A Feeling is when you don't necessarily know why if s there. So
sometimes a Feeling is simply referred to as a Mood. I'm in an Angry Mood.
Everything makes me Angry. When you say you have an Angry Emotion, that's
usually based on one thing. Maybe in some cases more than one thing, but
generally it's somewhat limited. Remember, it's easier to treat an Emotion,
because if I can own it, I can change it. But if I say, "Well I can't help it, I don't
know what's causing me to feel this way", if s harder for you to treat it. It seems
to be in the air, it seems to be all around that person.
A Temperament is something that you're b m with. Remember,

Emotions are what make your life exciting. All of you have a Temperament, and
the Temperament allows for the circumstances to inform your life, allows you to
live out that which you were not able to resolve in the karmic associationwith
Du and Ren, Temperament. You have an Artery Temperament. You find that
you get into relationships that will support that Angry Temperament You find
that you will get into situations that will make you Angry. No matter how much
you try to control your Anger, it doesn't seem to be able to change, because that's
the Nature of your being. Now, do not judge Anger as some thing that's
negative. It might be simply the way that we are. So there's no judgment that is
given to that, at least not from the hoist point of view. From the Confucian
point of view, yes, there are certain Emotions that we would try to think of as
being very petty. Emotions that we would prefer you not to express, and other
Emotions that we would see as something that is worthy of your expression.
Inspiration is an Emotional feeling. So they might say, "Oh yeah, I hope you feel
inspired all the time, but Angry, no I hope you only feel that once in your
lifetime."
So when you get into these three components, the Mood, the Emotion and
the Temperament, the Mood, like Wei Qi, is not something we have control over.
It just happens to us. It has an association with the Lungs and the Liver. What I
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0New Engtand School of Acupmclm &Jeffrey C.Yuen 200*
mean by that is if you look at Wei energy, Wei energy is instinctual. Wei energy is
very natural in many ways. The most common example of Wei Qi we all know is
when you go outside and if s hot You don't say, "Oh if s hot. Let me sweat."
There's no intelligence behind that. If if s hot you perspire. If you go outside
and it gets freezing cold, you shiver. That's the natural response of Wei Qz. And
if you could put consciousness into Wei Qi, if you put Blood into it, and you can
control how your body autonomically responds, you become quite gifted in the
sense that you become known as a yogi. Yogis basically are people who can
control their Wei Qi: their temperature, their Blood pressure, their heart beat,
things that we would say are autonomic. Thafs Wei Qi that they're controlling.
Ying Qi on the other hand is something that the Chinese say that you do
have a choice about. That's your Emotions. You can choose to be depressed.
When you have a depressed Mood, if s like the weather. Today if s just a cloudy
day. Today I'm just depressed. Like the weather, I can't help i t Tomorrow
maybe I'll be a bit sunnier. That's a Mood. But when you get into Emotions, you
get into that which is Blood: Spleen, Heart or Pericardium.
Lastly, the Temperament is associated with Kidneys and Triple Heater.
Some of you might have a little harder time with me in terms of why I
made those particular Organ associations. Most of you would not have
problems with the Lungs, because you know the Lungs indeed deal with the
Exterior. You might have a little harder time with the Liver, because you know
Liver deals with Blood as well as Qi. If s one of the few Organs that really has an
aspect of Qi and Blood together. A lot of the Organs don't really have that, with
the exception, of course, of the Spleen. But if you look at the idea that the
External is represented anatomically by the skin and the sinews, you'll see the
parallels: Skin/ Sinews. What controls the skin? Lungs. What controls the
sinews? Liver.
The intermediary anatomy would be the Flesh and the Vessels. The Heart
and Pericardium control the Vessels. The Spleen controls the Flesh. So this is
where you have the Heart and Spleen correlation.
And the Bone would be the Kidneys. Triple Heater is whafs responsible
for disseminating the Jing, bringing the Jing out along the Triple Heater
mechanism, along the Governor Vessel as it begins to deposit the Jing via the Shu
Points along the back, into the Internal Organs. And from there, going from the
Zang Fu into the Primary Merdians, depositing Ywn Qi into the Yuan Source
Points. Thafs Triple Heater. But the Triple Heater is not "equal opportunity".
If s not giving each one of your Organs equal access to Jing. It says, "No I really
want your Liver to have most of the Jing. I really think that you need to be a
Liver person this lifetime." So if s going to translocate most of the Jing to the
liver. You become a Wood type. Or, "No, I won't do that; I'll translocate it
mostly to Fire." So you become Fire type. In other words it moves into the back
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a New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
Sh Points relating to Fire, BL-14 and BL-15,and it brings more of the ling into
your Heart so that you have a greater Heart personality. That would become
your Temperament, Emotionally you're going to be a Heart personality.
When you get into these three layers, you get these segmentations. When
you get to the Luo Point, it is going tobring us into the connection with these
three layers. For example, I could Needle KI-4, by Bleeding i t TbeYang Lm
deals with the actual Emotion,Feeling or Temperament that you feel the person
is experiencing. Bleeding KI-4 and -37 would suggest that you're feeling that
this person has a Temperamentof Anger. This person has a Temperament of
alwaysbeing anxious, Sl-7. This person has a Temperament of always being
very obsessive,very pensive in terms of what they're always thinking about, ST-
40. Or this person ten^tobe a very depressed type; they're always Sad. It
seems to be the story of their fife; that's their Temperament They put themselves
into situations that will always make them Sad, U-6. Or Fear seems to be the
predominant Temperament of this person's life, BL-58.
This is the simplest treatment that we have for the Lw Channels. That
means if someone comes into you, clinically, and if s a cloudy day. They come
in, and their Feelings today are douded. They feel somewhat depressed. What
you would do is treat the Mood. They're depressed; they d d t know why. Uke
the weather, if s on the Wei Level: LU-7 and LR-5, and for that depression, U-6.
That would be a treatment for someone who acutely is expressing Sadness,
where (hey don't know why they're Sad. There's no discriminating Factor.
There's no excuse as to why they ought to be Sad.
But if I came in and said, "Oh today's rainy but I'm not Sad because if s
rainy. I love the rain. I'm Sad because I just had a major argument with
someone." Then that becomes an Emotion. I can blame it on that person,and
that means SP-4, PC4 mHT-5 (again, some people do not like to use tihe Heart
Meridian, because of that idea that the Heart Meridian might not be the most
valid Meridian). In this case, SP-4, PC-6, and I'm Sad because I had an argument
with someone. Sadness, U-6. That would now treat the conditionof someone
who has a depressedEmotion.
A. They're all Bled, yes. You want them to come out; you want that Emotion
to come out You Bleed them, all three Points.
Bleeding does not mean necessarily bringing Blood out You could be
Plum Blossoming and not get Bbod out ofthe Point. That will be Releasing. If
you are Bleeding a Tern ent, what that means is you're trying to control the
Tmprmmt 4 m - b ~ c h m g e TheymnoItlyb
.
controlled. Thafs your genetic makeup. The premise is you can't change it, at
least not until the Ming dynasty. When you get to the Ming dynasty, you can
change anything and everything, because you can get directly into the Kidneys.
Q. At this point you're talking about Bleeding the Luo Points. One time when
I heard you present this you were talking about treating on the L w Vessel rather
than just the Point.
A. Yeah, if you find Luo Vessels you also Bleed those.
Q. You mean you're finding Broken Blood Vessels somewhere along the. . .
A. Right In other words sometimes what people do is they Needle the Luo
Point and they Bleed Luo Vessels along that Luo Point trajectory. That would be
the same. If s a matter of how much work you want to do, really.
Q. Are you saying that we can change Temperament, or we can't?

A. From this model, no. There are going to be other models that we'll
potentially look at tomorrow that will. It depends on how far we'll go with this.
Q. When you're treating along the L w Vessel, is it just Broken Blood Vessels,
or would it be swellings? Or what other physical appearances would merit
treatment along the Luo Vessel?
A. Remember that the Luo Vessels can tell you, in general, if you have a
Fullness or an Emptiness. Fullness would mean that there is discoloration. It
might even tell you if the Fullness is caused by Cold or by Heat, even though the
discussion on the thenar eminence could be about any of the Luo Channels. Then
if you do not find broken capillaries, spider veins, then what you can also do is
palpate for nodules. And if you find nodules, it basically means that if s the
Fluid of the Stomach and the Lungs that is financing the Latency. A lot of times
when you have the nodules, it usually means that there's an underlying Blood
Deficiency, so if s usually seen as an Emptiness. That means you would now
Bleed the area where you find these nodules, followed by Moxibustion.
With this particular model (just discussed), it doesn't bring into question
is it Full or Empty. It just brings into question that you're experiencing some
type of Emotional upheaval, and that by Plum Blossoming the Luo,you're
bringing the Blood, bringing Shen, bringing consciousness to the Emotion and
allowing that Blood that's coming out to Release the Emotion. Thafs what
you're really doing, irrespective of whether if s Full or Empty. The idea here is
that if you do know if if s Full or Empty, if s then followed by Harmonization at
the Source Points. But a lot of times, Emotions themselves can be a masquerade.
Someone could be very Deficient, and yet when they get Angry you can't tell that
they're Deficient at all. They'll pop out of bed and they'll scream and shout and
then they'll be all exhausted again. But at the time that they're screaming and
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New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C- Yuen 2004
shouting, it appears that they're in a total state of Excess, Fullness. So what I'm
saying is you don't need to use the Full and Empty analogy to do this treatment.
All you need to do is look at what the Emotion is.
Sometimes we as clinicians might suspect that the person is undergoing a
certain Emotion, but maybe they're embarrassed, or maybe they just don't want
to convey it, and we, as clinicians are instigators. We want them to express it.
We don't necessarily respect them, in this case. We don't care if they don't want
to express it, because we want them to express it. So we might go ahead and do
this anyway, to get that Emotion to come out. Depending on your client, they
might come to see you only one more time after that, or they'll decide this is not
for me! Some of you might even have noticed that at some time you
inadvertently Needled a Luo Point because you were treating something else and
the person's crying on the table, weeping. Or sometimes people start giggling
and they don't know why. That could be because the practitioner inadvertently
Needled a L w Point. And they didn't even Bleed any Luo Point at all.
Q. Inaudible
A. One of the things that is generally recommended, although if s not Clean
Needle Technique today, but in ancient times, among the Nine Needles, and
their techniques, there was the Lance Needle, Feng Zhen. Feng means a peak.
When they started to develop the Round Sharp Needle, and they decided that
was going to be the Needle that would duplicate the Nine Needle Techniques,
what they decided to do was to take this Needle, hold it by its tip, and where the
LUOPoints were, let's say TH-5, they would simply hit into that (Point,
repeatedly). That's Plum Blossoming, what I'm doing right now. But lefs say I
want to get a sense of how much Blood is in this area. What you can do is take
the head of the Needle, the Spoon Needle, one of the Nine Needles which was
not intended to pierce the skin, and you scrape the area. Scraping means you're
doing Gua Sha to the area. You know that if someone has a lot of Excess, the Sha
will come up right away to the surface, or it becomes ruddy or red, Heat. Or
maybe it gets blue, Cold. Once you get that, at that point you turn the Needle
over and you do Plum Blossom. You would know if you have an Excess or
Deficiency. If you are scraping away and nothing happens, then you obviously
have a state of Deficiency. So if you have metal Needles, if s almost like you
could take the head of the Needle, scrape, and then Plum Blossom with a regular
Seven Star Hammer Needle.
Again, remember when you are Plum Blossoming, you are Thrusting and
Lifting in terms of the technique. There's a big difference when you are
Thrusting and Lifting like this, with the Seven Star Hammer, or if you're resting
on something and Plum Blossoming like this with a Seven Star Hammer.
Remember, Thrusting and Lifting when the wrist is not touching a point, that's
Tonification. When the wrist is touching, even Needling, if you press down and
you went Thrusting and Lifting, that's called Reduction. If you went like this
79
(with the wrist not touching anything) and you did Thrusting and lifting, that's
Tonification. So you can also use the Needling technique to treat an Empty and
Full condition in a Luo Point without doing Moxibustion.
Let's say if I want to Needle TH-5 and I'm pressing down on the person's
wrist, that amount of weight is heavy weight. If s not just touching and resting
your hand. You're putting weight onto that Point And as you put weight onto
the Point, the person is going to want to resist the weight of your body. As
they're resisting, they're moving Qi up. So as they are resisting and then moving
the Qi up, and you Needle the Point, it scatters, it Reduces. When the wrist is not
touching the patient, there's no weight, and they don't have to resist anything
except the Needle. And very commonly, with the pain of that Needle, they
cringe away. With the Thrusting and Lifting, they're going to coil inward, and
thafs Tonification. That's how they came up with this as Tonification, and the
other as Reduction, in terms of Lifting and Thrusting. So you do that same thing
with the Seven Star Hammer. If s very important that you understand what I
mean by "heaviness". I f s the idea that when you hold the person's hand and
you ready the Needle, there's a certain amount of weight that I'm pushing
against her hand. I'm not just resting my hand on her. I'm almost like sitting on
her hand. It creates a certain uncomfortable pressure before I go right into that
Point. And that becomes the idea of Reduction in terms of Lifting and Thrusting,
because when you're doing Plum Blossoming, thafs exactly what you're doing,
Lifting and Thrusting.
Q. Jeffrey, after Bleeding the Luo Points of a Yin Element and a Yang Element
here, do you Harmonize the Source Point of the Yin and the Yang Element, or one
of them?
A. You would go to the Source Point of its Yin pair, because the Emotion that
you're Releasing is going to be the Yang Point. So you would go to the Source
Point of its Yin pair. Let's say we're treating Anger. I'm in an Angry mood
today. So you would say LU-7 and LR-5,and you would go into GB-37. Then
let's say you determine that indeed the Gall Bladder is the Emotion, is in a state
of Fullness, because you notice that when GB-37 Bled, it was really dark Blood
that came out of it, rather than dear Blood, Deficiency. There's dark Blood, so
you say this is in a state of Excess. Let me go to the Source Point and let me
Harmonize the Source Point, in this case LR-3. That would be the idea. And
because it was an Excess, because of dark occluded Blood, you would Tonify LR-
3 to prevent the condition that was in the Gall Bladder from going Deeper into its
Yin Yang pair, in this case Liver. The Yang Merdians, in this model, are always
used to Release the Emotions. The Yin Merdians' Source is used to Tonify or
balance, unless if s coming from a Deficiency.
Q. So the main emphasis for the L w Points is for Emotions, to treat

imbalances due to Emotional cause?
80
A. No.
Q. You've been talking a lot about the Emotional part of it.
A- I'm talking more about the Emotions because I feel that's whafs missing
in Acupuncture training in this country. That's why I'm focusing a little bit more
on the Emotions today. The L w Points don't just treat Emotions. They treat
everything that relates to Blood. So when w e apply it tomorrow, there's
cardiovascularproblems, for example. The Luo Points deal a lot with Rebellious
Qi in the Stomach, gastrointestmal. The Luo Points deal with the movement of
Wei Qt into the Ying Level, musculoskeletal conditions. Those are going to be
physical applications that we'll have for the Luo Channels. The only reason why
I'm focusing on the fact that the Luo Channels deal with Blood, and the Blood
contains the Shen, the Spirit, is that it has to deal with a lot of Emotional issues.
And what I'm saying is that by the tune you look at modem Chinese
Acupuncture textbooks that are focused on the Ming dynasty, which is
influenced by Confucianism, none of the Emotional stuff is talked about
anymore. People get the false illusion (impression)that Chinese medicine, or
even the Chinese people are not very Emotional. But that's false. They defiiutely
are influenced by Confucianism to try to maintain themselves, not to get too
Emotional, or at least not show that they're too excited. That's because of the
Confucianist influence over the culture. What I'm suggesting to you is that the
Dmis t writings would say, "No, the L w Channels have a lot of Emotion." What
it recommends is that you get carried away with your Emotions, so that you
don't have to re-experience them once again. That's the whole idea. Bring it to
its extreme. What happens when something goes to its extreme, it becomes its
counterpart W e don't have to deal with it again and again and again.
The third part of this is this model: Acute, Chronic,and Repression. Ifs
the same model, but if s applied in two ways. In other words I could be treating
someone based on a Mood, based on an Emotion, or based on a Temperament
But I can at the same time treat someone based on,is it an Acute Emotion? Is it
Chronic? Well I fed Angry all the time to tell you the truth. And you might say,
"Maybe that's you're Temperament." You might not be sure of that, but some of
us might be Angry to the point that if s now Repressed. I hold onto my Anger. I
don't show i t Instead, I show it through other things. Again, it could be Anger.
Maybe if s Wood Overacting on the Spleen. Instead of being an Angry person, I
tend to be more Obsessive. Or maybe I choose not to express my Anger by
allowing Metal to Overact on Wood. So I express it in the form of Sadness. Or
maybe I allow the context of the so-called Mother and Child. I sublimate, I
transform my Anger into Anxiety and it shows up as Fire. The idea is that the
Emotions are a disposition. They move us in a certain way. What happens then,
when you see that kind of situation,you really don't know if the Emotion itself is
the true Emotion, rather than the manifestation of something else. But it doesn't
matter, because once you let go of, let's say the Obsessiveness, and the
Obsessiveness Releases, what's causing the Obsessiveness is the Anger. The
person will be Angry afterwards. So it will reveal the true Emotion once you
start doing the clearing of the different layers of Emotions that you've put on top
of another Emotional layer.
1. LU/LR: Acute
2. SP/PC: Suppression
3. KI/TW Denial/ Repression
So: Acute, Chronic, deep, Suppression, Repression. Suppression means
I'mconscious of what I'm feeling and I feel it a lot of times. Acute is something I
rarely experience. Repression is where you suspect that the person is not
conscious of it, but you suspect that perhaps, due to their signs and symptoms
that are physically being presented, that underneath there must be some
Emotions. And you might feel that the best way of treating this person is to get
them to Release their Emotions, in which case then you go to the Repressed
nature. Let's say someone comes in to you and they have, to use TCM language,
Liver Qi Stagnation, and they're coming to you with a lot of physical signs and
symptoms. They're not giving you any Emotional symptoms. And cardinal to
your diagnosis is the Wiry Pulse. You do your basic TCM treatment. You try to
Regulate Liver Qi. So let's say, in TCM you'd probably go LR-3, LR-14, GB-34
would be among some of the common Points that you might use to Regulate this
Liver Qi. And yet the Wiry Pulse is still there. Some of the symptoms improve.
Yes, my headache has gotten a little better. Yes, I don't feel as much tightness in
my diaphragm, perhaps. I don't f e d that sensation of something stuck in my
throat, which can mean that this person really has a Heart Luo problem. Maybe
they have a hard time verbalizing, articulating. We don't know that, but they
gave you those symptoms and yet the Wiry Pulse is still there. You do all these
treatments, and again, I'm quite sure that many of you have seen that, where the
person has Wiry Pulses. You've tried a number of Herbal treatments, a number
of Acupuncture treatments. The Wiry Pulse simply doesn't want to resolve,
most likely because if s Wiry due to Blood. Blood is holding onto it. There is an
Emotion that's holding on to it.
You decide, "Well, gee I'm going to work on their Emotional Level.
Because their signs and symptoms are liver related, I suspect that maybe what
they're repressing is their Anger." So you decide. Repression, the deepest Level,
KI-4, TH-5. You decide to Plum Blossom those, and because if s Liver issues, you
start Needling -37. After that the person might get off your table, and you ask
them to report back to you next week, and keep a diary of the situations that they
find themselves in. You might find that as they report back to you, that they
were given the opportunity to be Angry after the treatment. They came out of
the office, and they noticed that their Liver was really trying to Release that
Wiriness. As a result they noticed they were driving a little faster after the
treatment. They noticed that they were cutting off people in front of them: trying
to develop or trying to express their Anger. They might come back reporting
Emotional releases, and now the Pulses indeed feel less Wiry. That's a very
82
@New England School of Acupuncture &Jeffrey C Yuen 2004
important due, because a lot of times we can't just simply say that TCM is
physical medicine, even though most of the symptoms that they give you and the
patterns happen to be physical symptoms. Yes, they'll throw some Emotional
stuff in, but very often they don't give you enough. The Luo Channels give you a
lot to work on.
The person who had that Plum Fit throat would not necessarily have a
Wiry Pulse; it would have been a Tight Pulse. Most likely the Pulse would have
been even Choppy, making you work. They would most likely say, yes, I do feel
Angry. I do feel frustrated. I'm frustrated that I can't get the things I want. It's
stuck here. I can't verbalize it, maybe. As a result, when you do HT-5, you will
find that the Plum Pit throat will release itself. Interestingly enough, if you look
up HT-5, one of the indications i s not just for loss of voice, but also for soreness
in the throat,which can be construed as Plum Pit throat. That would be an
example where you're using this Emotional model. There are two ways of using
it. Is it a mood, is it Emotion, is it Temperament? Second wayJis it acute, is it
chronic? SuppressionJI'm aware of it. Repression, denial, I'm not aware of it,
but my signs and symptoms seem t o suggest to the clinician that there is indeed
some type of Emotional disposition taking place.
Q. Justa question about that last example with HT-5. In that case you use the
Yin Luo Point instead of,say, 9-7.I'm sort of gathering that when you want to
dear an Emotion, you're using the Yaw, and in that case it was more of a
physical thing, you used the Yin. Is that right?
A. Well, if s because I didn't finish the treatment You would have been
using HT-5, SP-4 and GO-37. In other words, you suspect that the Emotion was
Anger, because they came in with all these Wood signs and symptoms. They
came to you saying, "Yes, I do feel resentful. I do feel frustrated. I do feel
Angry. And I have this Plum Pit throat I have this sensation that something is
stuck in my throat. So the idea that they're able to understand the Emotion that
they have, and they are in some way Suppressing it. That's why they feel
frustration instead of really AngerJbecause they're not expressing it, really.
What you're doing is going to the second Level, which deals with Suppression,
and that's where you have the HT-5, or PC-6 for that matter. Not everyone likes
t o use HT-5. And at the same time you use SP-4, but because it's Anger that you
suspect, GB-37.
Q. So you based that on determining the Level was the second Level, and
thafs why you went with that?
A. Right
Q. You would initially, when someone comes in, the first thing you do is try
to determine what Level if s at?
83
0New England School of Acupuncture & Jeffrey C Yacn 2004
A. No. What I hope to do this weekend is to give you a sense that you could
start looking at your clients on an Emotional Level. Even though, I should
remind you, within the scope of Acupuncture, acupuncturists cannot treat
psychological problems. That's in your laws, isn't it? It tells you what
Acupuncture can and can not do, right?
Q. With this particular model, what do you recommend as a treatment

frequency? Is this the kind of thing where if s best to treat 2-3 times a week?
A. Every other day.
Q. Every other day with the same treatment?
A. Right.
Q. In your experience, how many treatments does it usually take for them to
start. . .?
A. If s very rapid. This is a treatment that we have at the Swedish Institute,
where I teach that any time a client comes in and has any Emotional upset, they
should use this model as a basic treatment to work with the client. If they come
in with any Emotional expression whatsoever, this is the first. If s a very simple
one. If s not hard to remember, so they do this. Second of all, as I mentioned, I
teach a lot in Italy. In Italy, you have to be an M.D. to practice Acupuncture. A
good number of the students I have there are psychiatrists. So they've been
using a lot of this. That's why their fascination is primarily with the Lw
Channels. That's why they really want to develop the Lw Channels in Italy,
because a lot of them happen to be psychiatrists. They use this a lot, and a lot of
them have reported back on the treatments. While this is more simplistic, the
treatments they've learned have a little bit more sophistication because they
bring in the Longitudinal Luo idea, which is that chart that I gave out earlier. So
there is definitely a lot of clinical feedback I get about the Luo Channels.
Q. I just had a question about the Triple Heater. You were saying that the
Triple Heater is not "equal opportunity", so to speak, in terms of its bias. And I
was wondering if that is the intrinsic nature of the Triple Heater, or it's informed
by Jing, or what?
A. No. Triple Heater, remember, is your parents and the cosmos.
Remember, if s that idea that who you are .. . so here is the Male principle, here
is the Female principle. They're engaged in that cosmic dance that you call
sexual intercourse, which means that there is an exchange offing. That exchange
of Essence, Kidneys, is creating a cosmic vibration in the cosmos, in what is
referred to as Yun Qi Ã§I ,the idea of one's destiny. So the Yun Qi combines
with the Jing, the Essential Qi of the parents. Out of that comes conception.
What happens is that at the time you are conceived, you are a product of the
84
physical characteristic of your parents, because ringmeans physicality, and
inherent in that physicality are also the elements that are associated with your
parents. But during the time of conception, the cosmos also has its energy, which
is very prevalent at that time, which is also elemental.
Lefs say, for example, the mother is a Wood type, or a predominately
Wood type. And the father is predominately a Metal type. Obviously we have a
couple that is in a potentially dominating relationship. The faher dominates the
mother: Metal overacts on Wood. And during this time, the Cosmic Qi that
became embodied into this Essence, during that particular time, levs say if s Fire.
The Fire Element came in. Now the child is born bearing qualities of Firef
qualities of Metal, qualities of Wood. Lefs say that when the child is born, the
Cosmic Qi at that time was very, very Fire, so he's born with some qualities of
Wood, some qualities of Metal, but the Cosmic Qi was so strong that this person
is predominately Fire.
When Triple Heater begins to disseminate the Essence from the Left and
Right Kidneys, up along the Tree of Life, and it disseminates into the Bladder Shu
Points, i f s going to deposit most of its Jing into the Fire Organs. So this is a
person who gets Anxious pretty fast. This is a person who is very animated.
This is a person who probably is going to be very sociable, someone who
everyone loves to hang around with because that person always has something
to do. And this is a person who is not going to get along with the father. This is
someone who the mother adores, because the mother, Wood is the mother of
Fire. The Fire Controls Metal. So this child is going to have a very bad
relationship with the father, and a very good relationship with the mother. In
some ways the child will probably protect the mother when the father is very
abusive toward her. As a result you can see that is going to be his or her
Temperament. Even though he has, and lets say that the example is a "he", has
the qualities of the mother and the fatherJthe Cosmic quality was more
predominate at the time. So that person becomes predominately Firef with a
certain acceptance of Metal, a certainacceptance of Wood. You have to accept i t
that's your parents. That's prescribed love. You can't say, "Oh, I don't love you,
let me leave. " But predominately, at least when you're given the opportunity to
leave, you're definitely not going to want to live with the father, and you move
on. That's the Fire having a tendency not to get along with Metal: Fire
Overacting on Metal.
That would be an example of a Temperament. Who you are is based on

your astrology; who you are is based on your morphology. And what your
astrology and morphology determine is the curriculum that you have in this
lifetime. That's why if s given you the parents that you have. If s given you the
enwonment that you have. Keep in mind that environment is attracted to you
because of your Temperament, because of the quality of your life. That's why, as
I said, relationships very often are not something that happen to you passively.
You really select the people that you want to be around, even though you might
85
0 New England School of Acqmumc & Jeffrey C Ynen 20&t

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New England School of Acupuncture

Many thanks to Leslie Franks, L.M.T.

A. Role Within the Meridian System ..................................................................... 1

D. General Features of the Luo Passage Channels

11. Clinical Applications of Luo Passage Channels..................................................86

Connecting - Passage Channels

I. Theoretical Foundations for the Luo fine

Within the perspective of Acupuncture, as many of us know, that

There's also Emotions that are being influenced by society, social

This is where the Luo Channels become a very important componentr

B. Historical Perspective (Nei ling)

A. When you're using alcohol it makes you more susceptible to External

Q. But it would connect to the Lung Primary Channel?

Q. Wouldn't it connect to the Organ via the Primary Channel?

Q. So the L w Vessels will become ... however, depending on which

Q. And that's when you use the Source Luo treatment.

Q. So when they talk about Bleeding L w Points?

C. Trajectories with Signs and Symptoms

D. General Feature of the Luo-Passage Channel (LM)

Self-survival is represented by respiration, digestion, and the bridge, of

You begin to interact with yourself. You begin to see yourself as a

Interaction is about choices that we make, obligations (to those) who we

If s also important to note that when you look at the system of

Q. And that has to do with feedback, not necessarily whether if s good or

Emptiness of Gall Bladder is when you no longer see options. If s almost

A lot of these symptoms are obviously pathological. There are healthy

Emptiness of the Liver's Lw would be where you try to create many

Emptiness of the Great L w of the Spleen is a lack of will to live. A lack of

Q. I have another question. Is this a continuum that you're presenting here?

Q. Is that possibly where this chart would come in?

Q. So with the Rebelliousness, how do you. . .inaudible.

b. Transverse Lno Correlations (paired Luo)

Large Intestine is responsible, again, for Descension. But remember,

Lastly,,Liver we know Ascends Qi. The Liver's Counterflow is not that

A. Ohpwell I'm just adding that as a little footnote.

A Temperament is something that you're b m with. Remember,

Q. Are you saying that we can change Temperament, or we can't?

Q. So the main emphasis for the L w Points is for Emotions, to treat

Q. With this particular model, what do you recommend as a treatment

Q. Every other day with the same treatment?

That would be an example of a Temperament. Who you are is based on

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