Choosing Intentional Will over Fear

Choosing Intentional Will over Fear

denoted by character "scholar" over character
for "heart/mind"In Chinese medicine there are five Yin organs or "zang", which refer to the 'storehouses' of Qi.The six Yang organs are called "fu", or 'hollow containers'. These organs hold fluids or food etc., but are not solid.  Each of these zangfu/organs have an associated emotion and virtue.
The Kidneys houses the emotion kong, translated as "fear"or "binding of the heart/mind".Fear is not necessarily a negative thing. When there is a proper relationship of this emotion and it isn't in excess, then there is a sense of precaution and judgement. Kong causes the Qi to astringe, to pull-inward, and in this way it gives us a sense of proper cautiousness. The virtue of the Kidneys is zhi, translated as "incarnate will" or "scholarly heart/mind". This is the deep will. It is our sense of fulfilling our deeper desires, connected to our sense of self and relationship to this life and our understanding of the world.Its not so much about "what do I want for lunch" but rather "how shall I actualize my life".
When people have experienced traumas of any kind, be they emotional or physical, especially in childhood, often there is a nugget of kong that remains stuck in the Kidneys if they didn't have a chance to express themeselves fully and heal from the effects of that trauma. We say that Blood is the matrix of the mind. What this refers to is our understanding that Blood carries emotion. And that when there is trauma and kong, the ensuing astringing of emotion is imprinted in the Blood and if not allowed to be expressed correctly, it stagnates. In a sense it "freezes" like a nugget of cold in the Kidneys as a result of the astringing nature of 'kong' which disrupts the Source Qi and its warming nature in the Kidneys.In some sense, this is a protective strategy. If someone does not have the fortitude or emotional resource to handle a trauma, it is frozenly stored. But it is nonetheless still there, and impacting our ability to assert our zhi and to live our lives fully to our potentiation.
We can use acupuncture, moxa, herbs, and medical Qigong to address this nugget of Kong.But its important to remember that a patient always has choice too. Each of us can choose to determine and embrace a plan for our lives. We can be reactively pulled along by the results of kong or we can map a course that doesn't salute the limitations set upon us by kong and early trauma. When the fear has been with us a very long time, it often appears to us as an inherent part of our personalities. "I was born this way", is how it seems to present itself to most people. In actuality, there is a person that is laboring under the burden of carrying around this frozen nugget of kong but hasn't realized that they are imprisoned and in some ways, limited. Fear can also take on odd driving force of its own- a powerful one. But its corrupted in a sense. Its not guided by an expansive, warming quality (as I'll explain shortly). It often has a controlling, self-interested quality and can be dangerous, because it lacks the "scholarliness" or upright intention of zhi.When a person chooses to live their lives according to "zhi", an intentional choice about fulfilling their incarnate destiny, then many things can become possible. The assertion of the zhi helps to reinforce the connection of the Will to both the Shen and Xin, the Spirit and the Mind, both housed in the Heart. I believe through observation that the zhi has an expansive nature, supporting the Kidneys ability to share Source Qi and send it to the whole body.It is this expansive nature that rectifies the flow of warming Qi in the body. I believe it is this powerful expansive nature of zhi that when combined with the Shen and Xin creates a powerful combustion of Fire and Water Qi elements, and is perhaps known as the transformative nature of universal love or agape. This is perhaps the most powerful transformative Qi. When zhi is asserted, often read more..