Harmonious Cosmic Motion

Dear Friends,

 

 image from www.london-se1.co.uk/whatson/imageuploads

 

The word 宇宙 (”yu zhou”) is typically translated into English equivalent as “Universe”, which is quite incorrect. “宇宙” was coined more than 3 thousand years ago in Chinese language (往古來今謂之宙，四方上下謂之宇).

• 宇 refers to East-South-West-North and Above-Below  (i.e. x-y-z axes), which is Universe itself,
• 宙 refers to Past-Present-Future (flow of time).

宇宙 therefore refers to Universe with time element, more appropriately Space-Time frame. (This space-time concept is more fully appreciated by the West only after Einstein’s Special Relativity). 宇宙 is therefore a dynamic entity, changing relative to time flow. A static Universe, therefore, does not exist in Chinese natural philosophy. (conversely, if the Universe is Static, then Time is irrelevant).

• What causes the Universe to be dynamic and therefore forming the a Space-Time entity ?

It is Cosmic Forces, the same forces that we have looked at earlier in some of the previous postings.

戊子年 (”wu zi nian”, 2008 ) is a good year to discuss the topic on Cosmic Forces because it illustrates the importance of a Harmonic Cosmic Forces on the well-being of the Universe itself, as well as all beings in it as they are inevitably subjected to the same Cosmic Forces.

In posting Universal Four Seasons, we discussed the 4 phases of life in a typical cycle. More specifically :

• Spring phase    is brought about by 春气 (”chun qi”),
• Summer phase is brought about by 夏气 (”xia qi”),
• Autumn phase is brought about by 秋气 (”qiu qi”),
• Winter phase   is brought about by 冬气 (”dong qi”) respectively.
• ( 春气, 夏气, 秋气, 冬气 refer to the Cosmic energy in each corresponding phase)

1. Spring Qi causes the Yang Qi/Energy to rise from deep under the ground to the Earth’s surface, therefore promoting growth ;
2. Summer Qi pushes the Yang Qi further up into the atmosphere, filling it with dynamic energy, promoting maturity and procreational energy;
3. Autumn Qi restraints the Summer Yang Qi and causes it to descend to the ground, life energy begins to be stored (we see harvesting in this period, seeds as storage of life energy),
4. Winter Qi further sinks the Yang Qi deep into the cold water under the ground for preservation until the following Spring Qi arrives to bring it up again and the 4 seasons cycle repeats. (In winter, the water is warm underground). Winter Qi is therefore also appropriately refered to as Storing Qi. 

Note that I have also touched upon this topic in a related posting The 5 Pointers: South, North, East, West & Middle.

Therefore Spring/Summer Qi rises and then floats, Autumn/Winter Qi descends and then sinks. These four Qi work in unison to create a big wheel of rhythmic cycle. This big wheel of circular movement generates the Middle Rotating Axis (中气, “zhong qi”). This is the basis of the Harmonic Cosmic Motion “大气圆运动”.

• This Zhong Qi is the essence of Life and is located at the surface of the Earth. Without the rhythmic movement, there will be no physical life.

Human body is a microcosm of the Universe. It is primarily made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, the four main elements in the Universe. Human body is a small reflection of the much larger Universe. We can therefore say we possess the DNA of the Universe.

The Human body therefore also possesses similar  Wheel of Life and the central Zhong Qi :

1. The Left side of the torso     is the Liver-system/Rising Qi, corresponds to Spring Qi,
2. The Right side of the torso   is the Lung-system/Descending Qi, corresponds to Autumn Qi,
3. The Upper Body above navel is the Heart-system/Maturing Qi, corresponds to Summer Qi,
4. The Lower Body below navel is the Kidney-system/Storing Qi, corresponds to Winter Qi.
5. The Navel region is the Spleen/Middle Axis, corresponds to Zhong Qi.

From this model, it is easy to see how health can be affected by the following 2 situations :

1. the Outer Wheel (made up of 1,2,3,4 above) is not rotating smoothly/rhythmically or,
2. the Inner Axis is not rotating smoothly/rhythmically.

When the Summer Qi is overly strong (as it is in 2008), the Outer Wheel movement will be overly skewed towards the South/Heart/Maturing phase, therefore affecting the whole rhythmic cycle of the natural 4 seasons. Remedial actions, both externally by the Cosmic Forces themselves, or by the body’s own internal forces, will take place. Therefore, we will see strong Water, for instance, as a counter phenomena. Therefore we will see some people are better equipped to cope than others due to the natural advantage in their Personal Cosmic Orientations.

Also note that there are natural 4 seasons in a day as well. The Body’s Wheel/Zhong Qi will behave correspondingly. Same for longer cycle. Please also refer to posting Sub-prime and Post-Conditions (後天八卦), the 後天八卦  is a more complex way to describe essentially the behaviour of  春气, 夏气, 秋气, 冬气, i.e. the Cosmic Rhythmic Motion in any cycle after the formation of an event.           

It is important to note the following 3 points :

1. When External Forces is skewed too strongly from normal, it is much harder for the smaller wheel/axis in each human body  to counter-off the unbalance forces,
2. By rebalancing the rhythmic movement of the wheel/axis, normal health can be restored,
3. Outer Wheel can be assisted by promoting Zhong Qi or vice versa.

As discussed earlier, the prevailing Summer Qi is overly strong this year and it is putting its load first and foremost on our Heart-system, one of the 4 elements of the Outer Wheel. As the Outer Movement is affected, so will be the central Axis, thus the Spleen-system (Digestion etc) will be impacted as well. We can counter this by strengthening the internal Winter Qi (i.e. Kidney system) as well as strenghtening the Zhong Qi (the Spleen system).

Sorry for this rather long elaboration of the Universal rhythmic Forces and its correpondence in human body. For those who have studied physics before, a comparison with Simple Harmonic Motion will be helpful. As in physics, ideal harmonic Cosmic Forces at work does not exist, they are either too strong or too weak at any one moment, with internal self correctional mechanism to correct these skewness.

You can also find a related posting in The 5 Pointers: South, North, East, West & Middle.

Well, lubricate your internal Wheel and its Axis, keep them moving as smoothly and as in-sync as possible with general Cosmic cycles. What do you think navel piercing will do to our Zhong Qi ?

 

image from http://www.physicssource.ca

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