This blog is a part of my efforts to provide a reference for some of the concepts found in traditional Chinese Medicine. This article was written by me, and first published in the June 2018 issue of the journal Healing Springs. Please see my article on The Five Movements for an overview of the Five Movement Theory (a better translation for what is often called the Five Element Theory)
Finding the Fire
Create the experience of being a part of natural grace within your mind. Picture yourself as the plum blossom tree of the meditative garden. Your roots are strong and healthy, your leaves full and at their ease as the wind describes and defines their movement. The light of the sun warms and gives itself to you in a deathless gift of life and vitality. The moisture and nutrients of the soil that hug and protect your roots rise within to meet this penetrating starlight as you embody the joining of the heavens and earth. Life flows, moves and transforms.
Something moves to the forefront of you—a drive to expand, to rise up and to continue the life that was entrusted to you by countless ancestors. At the very culmination of your woody branches, you bloom. Vulnerable, delicate petals unfold to show the world your very essence in a courageous call to the wild: see me, come to me. Life recognizes life, the industrious buzzing of small wings carry pollen from stamen to pistil, and life moves forward into its next incarnation.
This sort of movement within a living being corresponds to the traditional element, or movement, called fire. Fire tends to be warm and move upwards, it has an intimate role in our relationships and interaction with the world outside of ourselves, and has more to do with truthfulness than toughness. In traditional Chinese medical thought, it is associated with the human heart.
The Heart of the Matter
In Acupuncture and traditional Taoist texts, the heart is the receiving place of our intuitive and internal knowledge of virtue, and the way to live a good life. It is the seat of our interaction and understanding of the natural world, and the gateway through which we can experience that natural world at the most intimate level. It is likewise the place where we can receive the most intimate of connections with the natural world—our relationships with family, loved ones and friends. The closer we are with each other in pure, truthful and sincere terms, the more our fire burns with one light, and the more we are aware of that connection.
Simple Joys and Complex Problems
The emotional experience traditionally associated with the fire movement—joy and contentment—is not surprising considering the above. When we are in harmony with our natural environment and surrounded with healthy and honest relationships, it is a natural outcome to feel warmed and deeply peaceful. This is the precise reason why many traditional teachings from China and southeastern Asia deal with the elimination of desire and fear.
When we are concerned with personal gain, competition, greed, fear and the like, then our attention is focused on these things to the point of obscuring our connection to the heart, and the freedom of the fire movement to glow throughout the being. When we choose to deny something our heart knows to be true, we necessarily create a shadow within that connection to our heart, as well. The song of nature is most often experienced as a soft and fluid melody within the heart, and requires a special sort of focus and courage to listen to consistently. The quieting of the rational mind and disciplined management of desire and selfishness opens the way to hearing the song more clearly.
When fire movement is too hot and is flaring, we may feel manic and jittery, and our sleep may be disturbed. When fire movement is stifled and obscured, we may feel a lack of joy or zest for life, and a sense of isolation or disconnection. If fire movement and the heart are stifled strongly enough, we can also feel lost or without direction.
Fire and the Other Four Movements
Other than keeping the heart free of the haze of wanting and denial, what else is crucial to the healthy movement of fire within us? In the phases of the Five Elements, or Five Movements, fire arises from the wood, and is kept in check by the water. Keeping these two movements healthy is a powerful way of balancing and supporting our fire. Please join me in the next issue of the Healing Springs Journal to explore these other ancient movements, and continue our journey toward balance with, and within, all five.
