Excerpt - Original Influence
On the Presence and Loss of Original Influences
The basic doctrine of those who strive to nourish their lives is this: Everyone on earth has the possibility to escape death. That is just nonsense! Why so? Once the age of suckling is over, human life passes the stages of childhood, of growing up, and of strong adulthood, and its quality increases each day over each previous day. For what reason, now, does it weaken day by day, once the age of forty has passed, even though it is nourished with the same drinks and food as before?
Some say man’s life is brought to an end by his addiction to lust, and hence they imply that it is possible to escape death by eliminating one’s lustful desires!
Others say man’s life is destroyed through toil and labor, and hence they imply that it is possible to escape death when one avoids toil and labor.
Still others say man’s life is jeopardized through thoughts and pondering, and hence they imply that it is possible to escape death by refraining from thoughts and pondering!
No doubt, occasionally it is possible to prevent illness and early death if one eliminates one’s lustful desires, if one avoids toil and labor, and if one refrains from thoughts and pondering. Nevertheless, the people who achieve this grow old and their eyes turn dim, and after their eyes have turned dim they die - just as anyone else!
Also, before one has reached the age of forty, everyone has lustful desires, everyone toils and labors, and everyone thinks and ponders, and still he grows day by day. After the age of forty, even though there are no more lustful desires, toil and suffering, as well as thoughts and pondering, one deteriorates day by day. What then is the reason behind all of this?
People compare human life with the life span of summer insects and laugh; how can it be that birth and death of these beings follow each other so quickly? But these same people do not know that we, in fact, are not different from these little beings.
At the moment we get our lives, we have already received a fixed share. This so-called fixed share is the original influences. If one were to look for them, one would not see them. If one were to search for them, one would not find them. They are attached to the interior of the influences and the blood, but they already govern life prior to the existence of influences and blood.
When influences and blood assume shape, the duration of one’s life has already been determined. One may compare this with firewood that is placed on the fire. At first, the fire is still quite weak. After a while, the fire turns violent. Once the strength of the firewood is exhausted, the fire will go out.
The difference between fires that burn longer and others that burn shorter results from differences in the quality of the firewood - it may be solid or brittle. Hence, those who do not fall ill for their entire life will die once their original influences have exhausted themselves. They are those who may be said to have gone through all the years allotted to them by heaven. Those who fall ill will survive if their original influences are not harmed, even if their illness is quite severe. Those, however, whose original influences have been harmed will die, even if their illness is only minor. Within these two categories there are further variations.
If the original influences were harmed prior to the illness, the latter will not be curable. Harm to one’s original influences as a result of an illness, that is to be prevented. It may also be that the original influences are harmed because of a mistaken medical treatment. Sometimes the original influences are harmed, but not seriously, and can be fully restored. The degree of harm varies, and those who, in diagnosing an illness, attempt to determine whether the patient will die or survive, they should not investigate whether an illness is minor or serious; they should examine whether the patient’s original influences are sufficiently present or not! If this course is followed, one will not lose on patient in one hundred cases!
Now, where do these so-called original influences reside? Each of the five viscera has its genuine essence; these essences are separate materializations of the original influences. Their basic location, though, is said to be between the kidneys.
What, then, are the methods to protect the original influences in case of illness?
The original influences may have a location by themselves; nevertheless, they are closely associated with the body’s viscera and bowels.
If, in case of an illness, cold or hot drugs or efforts to attack or supplement are not appropriately applied, one may replenish a repletion or deplete a depletion, and the body’s viscera will suffer great harm from this.
Pathogenic influences will penetrate the body’s center, and the essential influences will not be able to stay. As a result, the original influences will have nothing to remain attached to, and will suffer harm. Hence, man’s entire body must be carefully protected, and no drug should be tested lightly!
Only superior practitioners, though, are able to consider appropriate methods of prevention prior to the onset of an illness; only they can prevent an illness from becoming so strong that no effort can save the patient.
Superior practitioners see to it that the original influences are complete and remain in control, so that the original influences themselves may keep the harmful influences outside.
If, however, harmful influences gain the upper hand and cause harm, the superior practitioners activate the original influences that remain untouched so far; they have them fight with their back toward the city wall and enter a decisive struggle, and thus they avoid the shame that follows the death of a patient.
This is an intelligent procedure. To assume one could compete with creation, and keep all the people on earth away from death, is completely unreasonable.
Notes
- “Five viscera” refers to the five major functional units in the organism and includes the tangible organs lung, heart, spleen, liver, and kidneys, and their functions.
- Six “bowels” refers to a second set of functional units in the organism including the stomach, gallbladder, urinary bladder, large intestine, and small intestine, as well as an anatomicallly non-verifiable entity, the triple burner.
- The funcitons of the bowels and viscera are closely associated. The bowels suggest processing and the viscera suggest storage.
From
Forgotten Traditions of Ancient Chinese Medicine: A Chinese View from the Eighteenth Century
https://a.co/d/5uuqWLQ
