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From Dr. Love
The Embodiment of Mind and Spirit
in Chinese Qigong and Philosophy
(心灵在中国气功和哲学中的体现)
by George Xavier Love, O M D
According to classical Chinese medical thought, fluids and energies constitute the
body and are especially stored in the bones and internal organs. The mind permeates the
body and is contained in the blood and Qi that are circulated throughout. Although body
and mind possess their distinct functions, they are understood to be a fluid continuum.
The following paragraph from the Guanzi, a syncretic text composed between the
first and fourth centuries B. C.E., equates the circulation of energy with that of the mind:
When the mind opens up and energy expands we speak: of the circulation of energy. This
movement of the mind is as ceaseless as the continuous revolution of the cosmos. (in
Ishida, Kohn, Ed., 1989:49)
Not only the mind, but also the spirit (Shen) accompanies the blood and Qi through
the body. This can be explained in part by defining Xin and Xue. Xue is often translated
as “blood.” Misha Cohen provides a more thorough definition: The Chinese word Xue
(sch-whey) is a much more precise description of this bodily substance than blood, which
is the common English translation. Zue is not confined to the blood vessels, nor does it
contain only plasma and red and white blood cells. The Shen or spirit, which courses through the blood vessels, is
carried by Xue. Xue also moves along the channels in the body where Qi flows. (Cohen, 1996:14)
Xin means heart, heart/mind or emotional mind. The heart is closely allied with intention and the will, in the sense
of will-to-life and a deep and vital inner knowing. “It comes from the guts and lower belly but resonates perfectly with
the Intent and with the Heart.”
Elizabet Rochat de La Valle’ & Claude Larre1, my teachers at the International Institute of Traditional Chinese
Medicine in Montreal attribute the following attributes and responsibilities to the heart: Heart, spirit, intimacy,
intelligence, thought, mentality, moral conscious, feeling, emotion, humor, intention and attention.
The authors describe the heart’s establishment of order that is maintained with the help of the blood: The circulation
of the blood under the heart’s authority carries regularly, everywhere, the double maintenance of life, which is both
nutritive and spiritual. It reconstitutes vitality while also permitting sensitivity and the going and coming of information
between the inside and outside. The quality of the blood and its governance by proportioned breaths are judged by the
pulsations of the network of animation, which are the pulses, and by the color of the face (complexion). (Rochat & Larre,
1995:174)
Reaching an enhanced quality of stable awareness in which the energy of the mind fills the entire body is called the
“complete mind” which manifests on the outside of the body as a radiance:
The complete mind cannot stay hidden in the body. Rather, it takes shape and appears on the outside. It can be
known from the complexion of the face. When people meet someone whose appearance and mind are full of positive
energy, they will feel happier than if they had met their own brother.
On the other hand, when people meet someone with negative energy, they will feel more hurt than if they had been
confronted with arms. His words without words (his radiance) will sound better and farther than an eight-sided drum.
When the complete mind appears on the outside, it shines brighter than the sun, and people recognize such a person
easier than their own children. (Ishida, Kohn, Ed., 1989:57)
As the flowing complete mind infuses the body with spiritual sustenance, so does energy fill the void. Confucius
wrote: Such is energy. It is exceedingly great, and exceedingly strong. Nourishing it straightforwardly without harming
December, 2011 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) 49