To live, and live more fully
In a famous Zen story, a student asks his master ‘What is enlightenment?’ The master throws the student off the boat, holds his head under water for a long time before releasing him, and then asks, ‘What do you you want now?’ ‘Air!’ gasps the student, and so answers his own question.
‘Air’ is the root of the Chinese word ‘chi’ and the Sanskrit word ‘prana’. In the West, ‘air’ or ‘breath’ is the literal meaning of the words ‘psyche’ and ‘soul’. Aristotle described the soul as the ‘anima’, or as that which animates body and mind. The soul, or the lifeforce, is that which enables us to breathe and continue breathing, as well as that which governs the higher functions of consciousness.
The lifeforce infuses every cell of our bodies. It is phenomenally complex, subtle and intelligent, and yet we barely notice it. How would you describe the actual feeling of being alive, for example? Familiarity makes us blind to it, and it operates mostly below the level of consciousness anyway.
We detect the life-force, if at all, as a fluctuating network of mostly pre-conscious sensations in our bodies, or as subtle feelings of pleasure or pain. If our attention is continually occupied with external matters, we may barely notice it at all.
Because it is so hard to identify, many traditions regard the lifeforce as a spiritual energy that is virtually independent of matter. This approach leads to some very durable myths. Christianity divorces the soul from the biology of life, and so imagines it as being immortal. Similarly, many Asians believe in reincarnation, and regard their individual lives and bodies as being disposable.
The practical Chinese, however, saw life as being far more important than metaphysics. They knew that without life you have nothing. As a result, Chinese thought hardly ever divorces the mind from the body. Whereas Westerners tend to locate the soul in the brain, the Chinese locate it in the ‘hara’, which is the body’s centre of gravity. The Laughing Buddha has a huge belly because it demonstrates his well-rounded heart and soul. He is holy because he is ‘whole’. His mind is fully integrated with his body.
We naturally associate chi with health, and with the ways to enhance that vitality that is essential for every aspect of life. In fact, improving our health is not an occasional matter. Deep within us, the process never stops. The Dutch philosopher Spinoza said the essential nature of all living beings is the relentless urge to survive and prosper.
To survive means that we will do everything we can to get the air, water and calories we need for yet another day. Once we’ve satisfied the basics, however, we look for More, Much More. Once we’ve got enough, we seek what is more than enough. We also want to prosper. We first want to live, and then to live more fully.
The body is not content with merely surviving. It also seeks out optimum health, which is another matter altogether. Similarly, to have enough money and be content is good, but to be rich and exuberant is even better. Every living creature understands this principle. It is hardwired into the nervous systems of even the simplest brains.
In practice, the instincts for survival and excess often compete with each other. On one hand we want health, balance and comfort, i.e. we want to go to sleep when we are tired. On the other hand, we also want to feel alive and stimulated, so we stay up late, talking or watching television. We want both survival and vitality, peace and stimulation, balance and ecstasy.
The Chinese yin-yang symbol illustrates this principle well. The universe and all the living beings within it function by constantly oscillating between opposing poles – light and dark, growth and decay, and so on. This means that good things are never static or fixed. They always rely on the harmonious interplay of opposites.
The Chinese traditionally see health and prosperity as a matter of attuning oneself to the rhythmic flow of the universe, as it manifests in the moment. Chinese medicine is all about harmonising the flow of chi, and balancing the yin/yang processes in the body.
Maintaining chi is very similar to what Western medicine calls ‘homeostatic balance’. Every second of the day, a vast ensemble of processes within us are striving for balance and optimal functioning. They govern the ongoing dramas of immune function, hormonal secretions, blood pressure and acidity, muscular contractions and release, the use of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, and the satisfaction of basic appetites. Most of this is beyond our perception or direct control. We tend to feel it instead at the level of pleasure or pain, energy or fatigue, hunger or satiety.
Our bodies always know exactly what we need for perfect homeostatic balance in the moment. They know the correct readings for blood sugar, hormonal levels, temperature control and so on. No matter how sick or out of balance we are, our minds still hold an inner template of perfection. The great stress researcher Herbert Benson called this template ‘remembered wellness’. The chi is continually adjusting itself towards that inner balance, however unachievable it may be at any moment.
Once we accept that optimal health is about optimal balance, it is easy to understand why we rarely feel as good as we might. Clever as the body is, it still can’t give us perfect health if our minds are on a different track, eating, drinking and staying up late at night. We commonly do things that derange that balance, and have usually been doing so for years.
I’m now approaching sixty, and in my work I see hundreds of people who are about my age. Most of them are not diagnosably sick but hardly any of them seems completely well either. Both Chinese and Western medicine clearly identify the core problem. We can survive while leading the kinds of lives that we do, but we can’t expect to feel healthy and mentally vibrant while doing so.
Optimal health demands an optimal balance. Your body knows how much sleep and rest it needs. Is it getting it? We know that something as simple as poor sleep often contributes to anxiety, depression, overeating, poor immune function and premature ageing. The body also needs the right amounts of the right food, no more, and probably 3-4 hours of physical activity each day for optimum health. How far are you from that ideal?
Of course, managing health and lifestyle still has to be an individual solution. What suits the majority is unlikely to be perfect for us unless we are the statistical average in all respects. We can only find real balance by attuning to our personal requirements in this moment, which are bound to be slightly different even from yesterday and tomorrow.
Nor can we be healthy by simply attending to the body. The good routine, the pills, the gym work, the diets, the books and the medical interventions will have little lasting effect without awareness of our mental and emotional requirements as well.
In fact, the only guaranteed way to optimal health is to develop the habit of continuous self-observation, or what is sometimes called ‘mindfulness’. This may explain why research shows that meditators are usually much healthier than the average population.
When we meditate, we typically sit and do virtually nothing, while noticing our passing thoughts, emotions and body sensations. In time, we get a gut-feeling for both stress and inner balance, and we understand what causes them. This awareness almost miraculously dissolves the stress and enhances balance, and the effect continues long after the meditation is over. We become more conscious of that inner template of health that Benson called ‘remembered wellness’.
To be healthy, I need to get a clear picture of what optimal health actually feels like, for me at my age and with my history. So what is the feeling of health? The Chinese are adamant that ill-health is about rigidity and blockage, while health is about softness and flow.
When we relax, the body returns to homeostatic balance. The tension, rigidity, blockages and pain that are signs of ill-health start to dissolve. As the body softens, the ‘energy’ starts to flow. The breath becomes more fluid. There is an increasing sense of warmth and openness, comfort and space in the body. The body gently hums and tingles. We also notice that certain thoughts and emotions enhance this feeling of ‘good energy’, and others inhibit it.
Our bodies always have a clear image of what perfect balance is, in the moment. If we can also get a good mental picture of this, we can consciously adjust our behaviour towards it, as much as external factors permit. We will be able to eat, rest, work or play, be alone or be sociable, exactly as much as we need to in any day. We do have that choice.
It’s all a matter of listening to the messages of the body. The chi (or prana or soul or lifeforce or whatever we choose to call it) can be our constant on-line guide, if we wish. It is our internal doctor, physiotherapist, dietician, surgeon and personal trainer all in one.