Riding the Ox

[Mark Foote]

 

... when we realize that we manifest from the One, the direction of manifestation is exactly opposite. Sometimes I imagine that the Energy Source is within the earth; the fiery ball at the center of the earth, the piece of the sun which is still manifesting outward. I can picture the earth energy coming up through our feet and out through our eyes and hands. Sometimes, when circumstances are very unusual, I have felt the energy flow actually going 'out of my eyes', an odd sensation indeed. But it is That Entity within, the one that knows exactly what it needs to develop the vessel that is Marbles or Manitou, that manifests and grabs everything that we need to get along, to develop along the lines that the Entity (the Void) requires to express fully from within both of us. When we have a pre-set notion about things being good or bad, therefore desirable or undesirable, this cuts off our sphere of manifestion and leaves us only with what we can see in front of us.

 

As to the spirit of the One - it occurred to me one day that if anything (man, woman, child, bear, dog, insect) has little black spots in it's eyes, that's the Void we're looking at. That's 'God'. The little black spots in all of our eyes; if you think about it, that's the one thing we all have on our bodies that is pretty close to identical. Makes it real easy to stay in Awareness, to remember that.

 

 

Hi, Manitou, you write so well I start to feel worked up, and emotional, and tears of sympathy are very close. Knowing that drinking coffee pushes me into being even more worked up and sometimes downright weepy over dog food commercials, I just have to get up in the middle of reading your post and make myself another cup. Ha ha! Life...

 

The energy from the ground up, I look for that sometimes when I'm dancing. When I'm sitting, I sometimes look to feel like my whole body might clear (the ground) on inhalation, and like my body as a whole might cleave (at a point) on exhalation. I came up with this as a feeling-explanation of these two sayings:

 

 

"Miraculous power and marvelous activity

Drawing water and chopping wood."

 

(Pangyun, a lay Zen practitioner, eight century C.E.)

 

 

"Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there;

lift up the stone and you will find Me there."

 

(The Gospel According to Thomas, pg 43 log. 77, ©1959 E. J. Brill)

 

 

Also there's this, regarding the eyes, hands and feet:

 

 

"...when you make eyes in the place of an eye,

and a hand in the place of a hand,

and a foot in the place of a foot,

(and) an image in the place of an image,

then shall you enter [the Kingdom]."

 

(The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, pg 18-19 log. 22, ©1959 E. J. Brill)

 

 

Yes, my reference to waking up and falling asleep is really this:

 

 

"when I realize my physical sense of location in space, and realize it as it occurs from one moment to the next, then I wake up or fall asleep as appropriate...

 

Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. This is also true when I am waking up, although it can be harder to recognize (I tend to live through my eyes in the daytime, and associate my sense of place with them). When my awareness shifts readily, I realize that my ability to feel my location in space is made possible in part by the freedom of my awareness to move."

 

(Waking Up and Falling Asleep, yers truly)

 

 

And for 3bob, from the same:

 

 

"I sometimes overlook my location in space because I attach to what I’m feeling, or I’m averse to it, or I ignore it. The result is that I lose the freedom of my awareness to shift and move, and I have difficulty relaxing or staying alert. When I allow what I feel to enter into where I am, then my awareness remains free, and I can relax and keep my wits about me."

 

 

Just lately, I find myself embracing the recollection that the cranial-sacral rhythm is present with the location of consciousness. John Upledger wrote that he was able to palpate a location in the body where the cranial-sacral rhythm was moving well, and add the pressure of 5 grams (the weight of a nickel) to the movement at that place in order to open the movement at other places in the body- places that were not moving so well, maybe even places that were stuck. When I recall that the cranial-sacral rhythm is present with the location of consciousness, I accept that the free occurrence of consciousness can by virtue of its location act like John Upledger's hands in adding movement to the cranial-sacral rhythm where the movement is good. I allow this to act to open places where I feel movement is needed, and the witness of activity and feeling born in this relationship reinforces my trust in the free occurrence of consciousness.

 

Koichi Tohei the aikidoist taught four recollections: 1) keep one point; 2) weight underside; 3) relax; 4) extend ki. I never liked what I took to be the exercise of will implied in these recollections, but I now see that some of the time (at least) my consciousness cleaves to one place, I am aware of an underside like clearing the ground, I am looking to relax like waking up or falling asleep, and I recognize that the movement of the cranial-sacral rhythm where consciousness takes place opens movement appropriate to what is felt.

 

gack. At least Tohei's approach has brevity!

 

with sympathy over the parts and the wrenching, your openness and experiential approach are so valuable to me, I'm sure to all us Bums!

Edited May 3, 2012 by Mark Foote

[manitou]

[manitou]

Sorry, double post

Edited May 4, 2012 by manitou

[mYTHmAKER]

Sorry, double post

 

Where is your beautiful butterfly ?

[manitou]

Where is your beautiful butterfly ?

 

 

My beautiful butterfly started bugging me. It was a little too happy and trivial for the place I'm in at the present, despite the change it represented. I'm really looking for a root avatar, but I'm not finding one. I came across this one and it reminded me more of 'becoming'. So this is my temporary one until the root avatar manifests. Somehow.

[manitou]

I've noticed an odd thing lately. My tendency to talk to myself is really kicking up. Especially if I'm driving. Sometimes I get so furled in thinking (often about things we've discussed on this board) that my inner thoughts turn into outer expression and I will talk aloud to myself.

 

The interesting thing, is that after I've said something aloud (to myself), it's usually said aloud because there's emotion under it. And then when I have said the word, often times there is incredible synchronicity happening at the same moment, pertaining to the words I've just said (or thought).

 

My friend Mo still has horrible terminal cancer - I've had him up on our Bums healing circle. Shortly before Easter, his doctor told him one more time that all he can do is try and keep him out of pain, that the end is near. One day I was driving back home to the ranch from Santa Barbara, intently thinking about Mo. This man has the deepest social conscience of anyone I know, and it just doesn't make any sense to me that this man, in his 40's, would be yanked off the assembly line at a time when he is needed the most.

 

I was thinking these thoughts as I was driving up San Marcos Pass. The words I said out loud were, "He's not going to die - there's going to be a hail-mary pass". And at that very moment I said that, my eyes landed on a sign that said No Passing. It was rather remarkable - so remarkable that I pulled off the road and called Mo and told him about it.

 

I don't know what's going to happen to Mo - maybe his time is now. But he had been dreaming all winter that he was going to die on Easter Sunday - but instead, on Easter, he started eating voraciously at his family's dinner. He hadn't eaten for months, they'd been feeding him intravenously and all he could eat were popsicles, he would get so sick. And now he's eating, gaining weight from his thin 100 pounds. Maybe he'll pull through this thing after all.

 

We are the Creator, apparently. Somehow we manifest all this. How very long it takes for this to actully sink in. It's like putting on a new cloak and making zillions of adjustments.

[3bob]

.oops

Edited May 5, 2012 by 3bob

[mYTHmAKER]

.oops

 

Fell off the ox? LOL

[Marblehead]

Fell off the ox? LOL

Hehehe.

[3bob]

That's funny. Btw, I have fallen off a horse before and it sure looked funny to my buddy when it happened!

 

Anyway, the oops was for a possible avatar picture I posted that I thought Manitou might have some interest in but it came out so small that I posted the oops instead...

 

[Mark Foote]

 

It sounds like you use the 'falling asleep' metaphor as a way to instantaneously get into the Here and Now mindset, no other thoughts but Awareness. The words that do it for me are 'Do Nothing' - they put me in the same place, because of my inner understanding of what I mean when I say those words to myself. It taps into the wu-wei, the dynamic that is already in play; if I get my ego out of the way, I become capable of seeing the dynamic. If my ego is in the way, the vision is contorted. (Speaking of wu-wei, by any chance can you see the wu-wei that is being played out on the world stage right now? And who the 'source-eror' is?)

 

 

Yes, "Do Nothing" is "making an image in the place of an image", as is "waking up and falling asleep"- that's dropping mind and body, as it were, and allowing the feelings and the anxiety of falling to discover "in the place".

 

Have to reflect on your koan, there!

 

My committment and I believe the unstated committment of most of the Bums here is to develop a vocabulary that can be used to communicate experience forward, so that next time I am looking to remember what doing nothing means, I can pick up the "sign of the concentration" where I left off. something like that?

[manitou]

Fell off the ox? LOL

 

 

Damn. I fall off the Ox daily. I guess the trick is to get back on.

 

I had to laugh at the synchronicity of being butted in the arm by a very headstrong goat up here at the ranch. He butted me so badly it bruised. I've been trying to figure out the reason I manifested that. Like, I'm trying to strongarm something and it's trying to tell me to back off? I'm being a butt-head about something? Can't see it quite yet.

 

but there is a really odd manifestation that just played out. is still playing out. since landing on the floor of this trailer in the mountains, where at some level I still lie there vibrating after leaving the 27 year relationship - i manifested a huge blockage. not just any blockage - a blockage of immense magnitude. i forgot to close the valves on my sewer lines the last time I emptied the tanks - and what resulted is a mountain of solidified poop that most folks would have called a plumber for (and maybe a bulldozer, lol). I decided that this was my mess to clean up, it was there because I manifested it - literally. so I spent the day trying to figure out how to cut through all this manure and get it flowing downward into the sewer. i was able to get it all broken up with a long metal yardstick. one of the rangers up here told me to 'soak' the pile overnight by closing the valve and flooding it with water, which is what i did. this morning is the big day - i get to open the valve into the sewer this morning and feel the incredible pleasure of hearing that mess go away. The trick for me now is to figure out what the blockage is about...or was about. I'm hoping that it's physical confirmation of that which is already happened and currently happening; not something new coming down the pike. I'm not strong enough right now to handle something new..

 

What an odd manifestation. but the more we talk about all this stuff, and the more I live this stuff, the more i realize that our daily binds are truly there for us to see and figure out why we've manifested it. We truly are the Manifester.

 

The thought occurred to me this morning as i was gazing at a mountain that the goal of Riding the Ox is to merge our Personal self with our Impersonal self. it's not that difficult once we realize Who dwells within.

 

3bob - what a wonderful picture that is. I'm going to run it off and save it, I love it so. What sweetness...thank you.

Edited May 6, 2012 by manitou

[Marblehead]

The thought occurred to me this morning as i was gazing at a mountain that the goal of Riding the Ox is to merge our Personal self with our Impersonal self. it's not that difficult once we realize Who dwells within.

Better still, I think, if our personal self and our impersonal self were one and the same.

[mYTHmAKER]

Better still, I think, if our personal self and our impersonal self were one and the same.

 

They are the same - how can they be different

[Marblehead]

They are the same - how can they be different

Hehehe.

 

I don't say "Duh" very often but, "Duh."

[Protector]

You think too much

[Mark Foote]

 

Damn. I fall off the Ox daily. I guess the trick is to get back on.

 

The thought occurred to me this morning as i was gazing at a mountain that the goal of Riding the Ox is to merge our Personal self with our Impersonal self. it's not that difficult once we realize Who dwells within.

 

 

The trick is never to mount in the first place, per the Ch'an master Foyan; he said there were only two diseases at his monastery, searching for an ox while riding an ox and being mounted on an ox unable to dismount. He asked, isn't it better never to mount in the first place?

 

I would say the meaning is that where we are is sufficient to act, if we can relax and accept the way our feelings inform consciousness. Our feelings do affect our sense of place, and our acceptance of what we feel allows the ability to feel to be spontaneous, and our consciousness to take place freely. Sometimes I look to falling asleep sitting up, where a little jerk wakes me up as I start to fall over, but I can realize the action without the jerk if I attend my sense of place. It's the same state of mind where I observe the dreams that happen sitting up, although those are very brief and the state of mind that catches sight of them can be continued.

 

Why would I do that: because the sense of place from one moment to the next acts, and that is ox and rider without mounting. I can't be anywhere other than where I am, but to experience action out of being where I am requires a state between waking and sleeping. As I said, it's as simple as the sense of location as I fall asleep, which shifts from place to place; it's also as complicated as getting up and walking around with no idea of what I'm doing or why (and finding out later!).

 

So no special effort, and yet I practice sitting doing nothing in the mornings, as I'm waking up. I practice at night until I'm falling asleep, too, although that's usually a shorter sitting. That's my approach to riding the ox home.

[林愛偉]

Moderator - could this please go in Pinned Topics?

 

Riding the Ox. This is an expression I've known about for years and I've certainly seen it in Taoist art. I've always assumed it referred to the perfect balance it would take to actually ride an ox, unlike a horse...

 

 

The "Ox-Cart" path refers to the Slow progression of attainment. Basically the path that takes a long time to get to your goal.

 

:-)

 

 

Peace,

Lin

[manitou]

The trick is never to mount in the first place, per the Ch'an master Foyan; he said there were only two diseases at his monastery, searching for an ox while riding an ox and being mounted on an ox unable to dismount. He asked, isn't it better never to mount in the first place?

 

I would say the meaning is that where we are is sufficient to act, if we can relax and accept the way our feelings inform consciousness. Our feelings do affect our sense of place, and our acceptance of what we feel allows the ability to feel to be spontaneous, and our consciousness to take place freely. Sometimes I look to falling asleep sitting up, where a little jerk wakes me up as I start to fall over, but I can realize the action without the jerk if I attend my sense of place. It's the same state of mind where I observe the dreams that happen sitting up, although those are very brief and the state of mind that catches sight of them can be continued.

 

Why would I do that: because the sense of place from one moment to the next acts, and that is ox and rider without mounting. I can't be anywhere other than where I am, but to experience action out of being where I am requires a state between waking and sleeping. As I said, it's as simple as the sense of location as I fall asleep, which shifts from place to place; it's also as complicated as getting up and walking around with no idea of what I'm doing or why (and finding out later!).

 

So no special effort, and yet I practice sitting doing nothing in the mornings, as I'm waking up. I practice at night until I'm falling asleep, too, although that's usually a shorter sitting. That's my approach to riding the ox home.

 

 

I see what you're saying here, Mark. Really good points.

 

I can see Riding the Ox in a different way too. There is the kind of 'Riding the Ox' that the Master alluded to, perhaps riding for the purpose of Attainment? Perhaps this is one and the same with what Lin just mentioned - slow progression of attainment. It's wonderful how many different concepts of Riding the Ox there seem to be.

 

To my way of thinking and at this point in my life, riding the ox for me means to stay in Awareness of Who I Am - as much of the day that I can. And to ride the ox also means (to me) to stay in the place of Love in my interactions with people; to take the high road when there is a fork in the road. Always the high road.

 

The words of Masters are a funny thing. The day after they utter any particular words, they are at a higher level than the day before. Sometimes they may wish to have taken back the words they said the day before, but because they're considered Masters...damn! they're immortalized and stuck in cement. There is a place where no further Striving is desirable; it is a place of relaxation, Knowing that the Entity Within is in control and knows exactly what It wants and when It wants it. It's timing is perfect; on any occasion, for any reason, all the people who are supposed to be there will be there...even if our Personal Self has planned otherwise. Our Impersonal Self (the god-consciousness) is actually the one in the driver's seat. The question of Awareness, as I see it, is merely a daily practice to remember Who's really doing the driving.

 

I realized something wonderful the other day. "Real" time, or as close as we can get to understanding the illusion of time at all, is reflected in the tiny flower as it opens in the morning, slowly offers its face up to the sun every day, and follows the sun's path until it closes at the end of the day and sleeps. I think that's the most basic way to see the illusion of time; and how incredible that must have seemed for the indigenous to notice that, back at the beginning of mankind's appearance on the planet. To watch a tiny flower move with the sun;; what a mystery that must have been to him! He wouldn't have understood things like chlorophyl and the scientific need for the plant to follow the sun. Instead, he would have seen it as a living attraction; the connection of the plant with that huge glowing ball in the sky. He would have seen life as one living connected thing. And his day would have followed the pattern of that tiny flower at the mouth of his cave; up with the light, down with the setting.

 

How very far we've come.

Edited May 7, 2012 by manitou

[林愛偉]

Mark Foote, on 06 May 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

The trick is never to mount in the first place, per the Ch'an master Foyan; he said there were only two diseases at his monastery, searching for an ox while riding an ox and being mounted on an ox unable to dismount. He asked, isn't it better never to mount in the first place?

 

"Searching for an ox while riding an ox.."

 

Means while already walking the path and utilizing its methods, one doesn't see the fruits of their practice just yet, and so, frustrated, looking outside for the path. Basically, looking for the goodies when the cultivator isn't ready to taste them yet.

 

 

"being mounted on an ox unable to dismount"

 

This one points to the cultivator not able to put down their methods when it is time to do so. Usually, cultivators become so attached to their methods, that they can not go any further due to that attachment.

When the time comes that the gradual practice begins to gain momentum for a sudden realization, sometimes the cultivator feels too attached to let go, change, their practice.

 

Sudden realization is because of gradual practice over so many lifetimes. Gradual practice is because there isn't enough nourishment in the mind ground for the realization to be "brought forth"

 

 

Both Sudden and Gradual themselves are simply illusions. It is simply the conditions in the mind of the cultivator which decide how that cultivator will proceed. Yet, it is the cultivator who is only able to see that which is gradual and or realize the sudden. All according ot the conditions of the mind.

[Marblehead]

I realized something wonderful the other day. "Real" time, or as close as we can get to understanding the illusion of time at all, is reflected in the tiny flower as it opens in the morning, slowly offers its face up to the sun every day, and follows the sun's path until it closes at the end of the day and sleeps.

 

My Moss Roses and Perslane (both of the same family of plants) do that except they call it a day when the sun gets too hot, normally between noon and two o'clock. I try to emulate them.

[manitou]

My Moss Roses and Perslane (both of the same family of plants) do that except they call it a day when the sun gets too hot, normally between noon and two o'clock. I try to emulate them.

 

 

Naptime. Good thinking

[manitou]

 

This one points to the cultivator not able to put down their methods when it is time to do so. Usually, cultivators become so attached to their methods, that they can not go any further due to that attachment.

 

 

Really nicely put, I think. And it seems that the very reason cultivators are unable to put down their methods is Ego. My guess is that the practitioner's ego is at risk of falling into the trap of buying it's own self-importance. I've noticed that the more trappings a practitioner uses (I'm thinking shamanic in particular), the more they're buying into their own 'personality', their own physical identity as a shaman, a healer, an energy worker, whatever.

 

And this is the very thing that is the largest impediment to our effectiveness as healers and practitioners. In order to really get the energy flow that we seek for healing purposes, we have to get out of our own way, in an ego sense. True healing, or at least I've found it so, is done from a place of Impersonality. We are not 'causing' the healing; rather, we are the vessel that the VIV (Very Intelligent Void) uses for the healing, IF IT IS APPROPRIATE. Sometimes it is not appropriate for the person to be healed; in which case, the practitioner must flow with that as well, not letting their ego get in the way.

 

From the 30 years of inner work that I have done through recovery, I know firsthand how ego clouds the vision; the trick seems to be to get to the point where we can see out of Everybody's eyes; after all, we are all one and contain the same Void Intelligence within. I agree with Mythmaker and Marbles about the fact that the Personal and Impersonal are already merged within us. I'm pretty sure it's been there since inception. But what hasn't been there is Our Awareness Of It on a daily basis, one chore at a time, one disappointment at a time, one irritation at a time. The Void is lurking in there, just waiting for us to become aware that It is not a theory out in space somewhere; that it is Here and Now and Waiting for us to just pick it up, wear it, use it. Our god-nature. Our void-nature.

 

The cloak won't fit if the ego is too large.

[Mark Foote]

 

From the 30 years of inner work that I have done through recovery, I know firsthand how ego clouds the vision; the trick seems to be to get to the point where we can see out of Everybody's eyes; after all, we are all one and contain the same Void Intelligence within. I agree with Mythmaker and Marbles about the fact that the Personal and Impersonal are already merged within us. I'm pretty sure it's been there since inception. But what hasn't been there is Our Awareness Of It on a daily basis, one chore at a time, one disappointment at a time, one irritation at a time. The Void is lurking in there, just waiting for us to become aware that It is not a theory out in space somewhere; that it is Here and Now and Waiting for us to just pick it up, wear it, use it. Our god-nature. Our void-nature.

 

The cloak won't fit if the ego is too large.

 

Soon as I can get this dang cloak on, I'm sure I have something to say here; thing seems to need alteration, who altered my cloak since I hung it in the closet last night!

 

I like your "sign" of doing nothing, manitou; this morning I am falling down doing nothing, ox and rider. The morning glory has the magic, alright. Rules of posture they have in Soto Zen, and yet we all have to find our own, I'm a firm believer in that even if it takes me a whole lifetime to discover the turning toward the sun open.

 

Not sure about the ox-herding pictures reflecting gradual and sudden. I read they are Chinese, and that the Japanese added the last two in the common ten-picture declension- the last two being the empty circle and the market-place. The Chinese version ended at the pine bough in the circle representing nature, according to what I read. If they are Zen or Ch'an pictures, how do they accord with sudden realization, the hallmark of the school (on the other hand, one could ask why if Zen and Ch'an are schools of sudden realization do the masters speak of 20-30 years ripening after the initial realization)? If they are Taoist, where in the classical literature of Taoism is there any reference to horse and cart, or ox and rider, I wonder? I don't know Taoist literature, it might be there.

 

Very hard, to turn toward the sun all day. Impossible, not to turn toward the sun all day. Ha ha!

[gendao]

My beautiful butterfly started bugging me. It was a little too happy and trivial for the place I'm in at the present, despite the change it represented. I'm really looking for a root avatar, but I'm not finding one. I came across this one and it reminded me more of 'becoming'. So this is my temporary one until the root avatar manifests. Somehow.

Interesting, perhaps the "uprooted" butterfly is now looking for a place to land?

 

Your current search for a root avatar, mirrors your current search for your root IRL...

I had to laugh at the synchronicity of being butted in the arm by a very headstrong goat up here at the ranch. He butted me so badly it bruised.

 

but there is a really odd manifestation that just played out. is still playing out. since landing on the floor of this trailer in the mountains, where at some level I still lie there vibrating after leaving the 27 year relationship - i manifested a huge blockage. not just any blockage - a blockage of immense magnitude. i forgot to close the valves on my sewer lines the last time I emptied the tanks - and what resulted is a mountain of solidified poop that most folks would have called a plumber for (and maybe a bulldozer, lol).

The goat shows us how to compose a firm foundation on which to stand and aids us in developing confidence as we head towards new. Goat teaches us how to create a solid foundation on which to stand and helps us develop confidence as we move towards new heights achievements.

 

The mountain goat is well known for its surefootedness on high rocky ledges, with its excellent climbing abilities due to its highly flexible skeleton.

 

When the mountain goat shows up in ones life, one should carefully observe their current foundation and ensure it is helping them appropriately. It can also mean you must let go of the ‘security of your insecurity’, basically the routines and beliefs that you are comfortable with and which stop you from trying new things. Try new things that are relevant to your growth, and maybe even exceeds it.

The M. Goat lives on rock, and therefore, is about creating a solid foundation for one’s personal life and spiritual life. M. Goat also sends the message about moving higher in career, life, thoughts, and wellness. Although the pickings seem slim, M. Goat always finds food and may be seen happily lying on a ledge, chewing its cud (regurgitated grass). Abundance and trust in finding that abundance is another message that M. Goat shares with all. In a very tough environment, M. Goat thrives and raises its family with many of the off spring being twins. The message in its behaviour is to move through the rocky areas of life with grace and dignity.

 

M. Goat shows us how to explore the unknown, the uncharted areas that allow it to go where other animals cannot. As we move through the unfamiliar, we too move into areas that take us beyond the ordinary. By living high in the mountains, M. Goat is also a reminder to continually connect with The Divine. Mountains represent wisdom and are said to be the Wisdom Keepers of the Earth. M. Goat walks through wisdom daily, and learns from taking chances, and with its appearance, encourages each of us to try something new.

Also, perhaps the "scapegoat" was ramming your intestinal meridians...releasing a huge dump (full of grief from your lungs) in your life.

The large intestine is called the 'Minister of Transportation'. It controls the transformation of digestive wastes from liquid to solid state and transports the solids onwards and outwards for excretion through the rectum. It plays a major role in the balance and purity of bodily fluids and assists the lungs in controlling the skin's pores and perspiration.

Thus sluggish bowels may be stimulated and constipation cured by deep diaphragmic breathing and by tonifying lung energy. Conversely, congested lungs and clogged bronchial passages may be cleared by purging the bowels.

 

The Large Intestine relationship to the Lungs makes it equally affected by the emotions of sadness, grief, and worry. An energetic imbalance in the Large Intestine can result in physical weakness and provoke emotional introversion, accompanied by feelings of depression, irritability, discouragement, distress and apathy. Strong emotions of fear or panic can produce an energetic-stool reflex reaction in the Large Intestine resulting in a spontaneous defecation.

Associated with the heart by Fire energy, the small intestine controls the more basic emotions, as reflected in the Chinese term duan chang ('broken intestines'), which is equivalent to the English term 'broken heart'. Its energy meridian runs into the head, where it influences the function of the pituitary gland, the 'master gland' whose secretions regulate growth, metabolism, immunity, sexuality, and the entire endocrine system.

The Small Intestine influences the patient's mental clarity, judgment, and powers of discernment. The ability to distinguish relevant issues with clarity before making a decision is attributed to the Small Intestine.

I dunno, just some thoughts... Edited May 9, 2012 by vortex