Yang Sheng: 養生之道 - The Art of Life Cultivation
Most of us take life for granted. We don't give it much thought; it stands mute in the background of our existence until, that is, something starts to go wrong - we get sick, injured, desperate or traumatised, even suicidal. Only then does life spring to the forefront of our awareness, only then does the question of life and the meaning of life awaken within. From the Tai Chi perspective, there is something terribly backwards about this situation. But if we are really honest, most of us have not yet chosen to live.
This (often subconscious) resistance to living - of not making the conscious choice of living our lives - is a source of much suffering and stands in opposition to the venerable teachings of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is based on the principle of Yang Sheng Ji Dao養生之道 - the way of cultivating life.
Yang Sheng is based on the premise that we have the in-born ability to take charge of the direction of our own lives, and that health emerges out of balancing the deep energetic equilibriums within nature and our bodies in ways that are potentially accessible to us all.
Yang Sheng is the way of nourishing/nurturing life.
Yang Sheng may actually be the single most important concept underlying all traditional Chinese medicine and every modality of Chinese health and self-cultivation practice. It touches on all aspects of healthy living - the foods we eat, the thoughts and feelings we hold, the manner of working with the body, breath and energetic life force. Yang Sheng embraces the whole of Chinese health (or should we say "life") practices: herbal medicine, acupuncture, Tai Chi, Tuina, breathing and meditation, therapy, even feng shui and human inter-relationships. Rather than simply treating disease and sickness, we focus on the attainment of optimal health and harmony. One of the oldest medical texts emphasising Yang Sheng is
The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine:
In the days of old, the sages treated disease by preventing illness before it began... If someone digs a well when thirsty, or forges weapons after the battle has already begun, are not these actions too late?
To nourish life is to provide it with sustaining nutrients, to provide the food, water and air without which life is not possible. To nurture life is to foster the conditions for growth and development. Human beings do not exist here merely to organically survive like molds or algae. We are born to expand our consciousness and awareness, to create and interconnect. We are meant - you might say - to listen for the universal rhythm and find ways of responding to it.
With over 3000 years of documented medical history in China, it is possible to approach Yang Sheng as a vast, complex, specialized and esoteric subject suitable only for experts. But this is not in the original spirit of these practices. So, in this and subsequent posts, I want to introduce some simple and direct perspectives on Yang Sheng. After all, the essence of life cultivation is the belief that the secret to your health and well-being lies within you. All healing begins and ends with you.
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Not long ago, I came across an interesting article about a famous Chinese doctor from Nanjing Province who died at the ripe age of 102. Before he died, he wrote down the principle ways by which he lived his life, thinking his accumulated knowledge and wisdom might benefit others and aid in their contentment with life. It consists of only 4 points:
1. Have a heart like a child.
2. Eat like an ant.
3. Desire like a turtle.
4. Act like a monkey.
These 4 points represent his own personal path of self-cultivation, his own Yang Sheng Ji Dao. Allow me to expand on each of these points a little.
Heart Like a Child
Babies are pure and innocent. They do not carry the burden of stress, worry or negative thoughts. These are learned responses. A baby may feel pain, but they are not attached to it until memories and associations start to form. As long as a baby's basic needs are met, they respond to life in a completely direct manner - in a happy, simple - we adults might say - optimistic way. Thus, a child-like heart is ready for fun and always open to what lies before it. It isn't weighed down by the past or anxious about the future. A child's heart contains no memory yet of traumas or wounds, and no fear or hope of what is yet to come. It dwells in the now. It delights in the now. Babies look about them as though the world was freshly made, all things a source of wonder and curiosity. The Tai Chi tradition sees the baby as the teacher of us all - what the baby does spontaneously, naturally, we can learn (re-learn) to do through conscious awareness and retraining.
Eat Like an Ant
We currently live in a culture saturated with health advice and experts; consequently, no one knows what to eat anymore. Many of us spend our energy chasing health trends instead of listening to the deeper needs of our own bodies. Chasing trends will invariably lead us into confusion. Decades ago the medical profession declared butter was "bad" and encouraged everyone to eat margarine instead. We now "know" that margarine is far worse for us than butter but a whole generation lived on it thanks to the experts. Gluten is now, apparently, bad for us and products that never had glutton in them in the first place are labelled gluten-free. And just the other week the world health organization released a report claiming that bacon is cancer causing. It may be so, but this is the point. We will never know everything about the foods we are eating - especially as the layers of manufacturing, processing and genetic manipulation increase in complexity. And this becomes a source of worry for us; and our worry about healthy eating leads to getting sick with worry. This is the deep meaning of the doctor's statement:
We should never worry about what we eat, ever!
This may seem like shocking even morally irresponsible advice to some. But ants are omnivores - they eat everything and are not picky. If you want to eat or drink something, do it. Do it, and then pay attention to how your body reacts. Most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, already know what a healthy, balanced diet looks like. When we get out of our own way, the body knows what it needs to function in a healthy manner. In fact, whenever people undergo major changes in their own lives, their diets and food cravings usually reflect those change - as we see clearly with pregnant women. Some of us believe we have to eat a certain way - be vegetarian or gluten-free for example - but if we've eaten meat our whole lives such changes may need to happen gradually. Most often, the body stops craving certain foods long before we decide to stop eating those foods - the body registers changes deep within us long before we become consciously aware of those changes.
If, however, you are the type of person who must have guidelines for healthy eating, follow these simple rules of thumb:
- Focus on traditional foods lovingly prepared (Yes, TLC matters!)
- Serve smaller portions which are eaten slowly and chewed thoroughly
- Eat what is natural and whole over anything chemically altered, modified or processed
- Choose what is pleasing to the senses (in colour, texture, smell and of course taste)
- Strike a balance of the five flavours (sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter)
Desire Like a Turtle
In many cultures the turtle is depicted as wise, easy-going and good natured. It is stable and steadfast - to the point that in some creation myths a "World Turtle" supports the earth itself. In Chinese culture the turtle represents longevity and stability and has special sensitivity to universal rhythms. To have desires like a turtle means our desires are simple and direct, without calculation.
Desires are not bad. Desires are natural. All creatures desire, even if what they desire is simply the continuation of life itself. Only when our desires become cravings do we fall out of balance. We lose our natural alignment when we need more and more and more of something to fill a perceived lack within. Unlike desire, which can be satisfied and enjoyed, craving is never satisfied. Even if what we crave is perceived as an inherent good, it will still be a source of suffering and we may never be content with what is directly before us. We don't need to fight with others to get what we want. We do not reach or grasp because what we need is close at hand. A tortoise sets a goal for itself and steadily walks towards it.
Act Like a Monkey
I have a friend who, years ago, decided to build a shack for himself in the Redwood forest. One day - through no particular plan of his own - he found himself with a pet monkey. Whatever he did, he noted the monkey would observe him carefully and, as soon as his back was turned, try to do the same. If he peeled an orange, the monkey would do the same. If he unbolted the door, the monkey would unbolt the door. So my friend called his monkey "Seedo".
To act like a monkey is to be mentally and physically active and engaged. When we see something worth doing, we should do it without hesitation. The monkey doesn't torment itself with doubts, worries, over-thinking or excess planning - it does what it does spontaneously and immediately. We have the ability to act directly out of our experience - responding rather than reacting, rather than filtering our lives through successive layers of concepts, opinions (ours and others), assumptions and cultural conditioning.
While it is true in the Chinese tradition that the monkey has a reputation for causing trouble and having a mind bouncing all over the place, the flip side of this impulse is immersion in life, direct participation in the coursing flow of things. There's an old Buddhist parable that puts an interesting spin on this:
Once there was a monkey sitting on a stone observing an enlightened monk deep in meditation. Whatever the monk did, the monkey would do. It observed the monk regulating his breathe, so it slowed, deepened and smoothed out its own breathe; it watched the monk relax his muscles and eyes, and fold his hands gently in his lap, so it did the same; it watched the monk's countenance soften and gently fill with the light of awareness; it imitated the monks expression. And in this manner, so the story goes, the monkey became enlightened.
What took the monk a lifetime to achieve took the monkey a single day. Why? Perhaps because the monkey didn't trouble itself with all manner of thoughts, worries, doubts and disbeliefs, but acted directly out of unmediated experience. Since there was nothing repressed or hidden in the monkey's awareness, it had only to align itself with what was actually there before it.
Cultivate Your Life Your Way
While such principles may guide you - and in truth there are deep, universal principles pertaining to human health - the heart of the philosophy of Yang Sheng, or life cultivation, is that you find your own unique way. This is what makes it an art and not just a medical science. You are meant to expand on a trajectory that is truly your own, one that can lead to health, joy, creativity and life abundant. You've already planted the seeds by the mere fact of existing... now cultivate the soil - only then can you nourish and nurture the rare flower of your own personal destiny.