Tissue Layers

In addition to organ associations, each of the Five Elements resonates with a tissue, or layer, of the body.  As usual, these sorts of discussions tend to orient from the each element's yin organ.

element: organ - layer

metal: lungs - skin

water: kidneys - bones and marrow

wood: liver - tendons

fire: heart - blood vessels

earth: spleen - muscles

(By the way, jing - i.e., vitality, which includes sexual energy - is of the water element.  Jing naturally resonates with bones and marrow, which has to do with why marrow washing is such an important part of jing gong.)

You can use these relationships to access, activate, and improve health in these layers of your body.

One way to do this is by employing a variation of the basic five element meditation.  While meditating on each organ (in creation cycle sequence), include focus on that organ's layer of the body.  For instance, while meditating on the heart, specifically include the blood vessels in your awareness.

Also, the organs that are generally referred to are actually the yin organs of a yin-yang pair.  More formally, these pairs are referred to as the Zang Fu pairs of organs.  The "zang" organs are the more solid (yin) organs, and the "fu" organs are the more hollow (yang) organs.

metal: lungs - large intestine

water: kidneys - urinary bladder

wood: liver - gall bladder

fire: heart - small intestine

earth: spleen - stomach

Physiologically, the fu organs largely have to do with digestion, they "transform matter".  The zang organs essentially store the energy of what has been transformed, and power the body with what they've stored.  The fu organs also affect alchemy and emotional processing in ways that are beyond the scope of this essay.

Below are some of the zang fu sayings from the book, Statements of Facts in Traditional Chinese Medicine (here, zang is translated as "viscera" and fu is translated as "bowels"):

"The viscera and bowels are mutually connected."

"The six bowels transform matter but do not store."

"The bowels transport essence to the viscera."

"The six bowels fulfill their purposes when there is free flow."

"The five viscera store essence and qi and do not drain."

"The viscera move qi to the bowels."

(Note: In these sayings, the triple burner is considered a bowel, which explains why there are six instead of five.)

Similarly to the "layers", you can use these zang fu relationships to access, activate, and improve health in more areas of your body.

Zang Fu Pulsing meditation

Employ a variation of the basic five element meditation.  While meditating on each yin organ (in creation cycle sequence), include focus on that organ's paired organ.  For instance, while meditating on the heart, specifically include the small intestine in your awareness.

In addition to paired awareness (on the zang and fu organs), experiment with pulsing the paired organs.  For instance, with your awareness pervading both you heart and small intestine, simply intend a pulsing that includes both organs.  You might find that each element pulses at a different tempo.  I find this to be easiest with the heart-small intestine pair, the lung-large intestine pair, and the kidneys-urinary bladder pair.  (The other pairs, not so much.  Ah, well, can't win 'em all with every technique.)  Pulsing provides a simple yet surprisingly profound way of promoting healing.

      I'd suggest that for at least the first few times you try the pulsing, that you do only one zang fu organ pair per practice session.  Stay with the pulsing for a while; it tends to cascade into related areas, and can provide deep healing if you give it the space and the time.

      My observation is that the zang-fu pulsing assists in connecting upper and lower consciousness, and in harmonizing the upper and lower emotions (through the heart-sm.intestine and lungs-l.intestine organ pairs)...  along with the more physical benefits of circulation and nourishment.

      Some unpleasant emotional release may occur through the (heart -) small intestine and (lung -) large intestine.  All fine.  If, however, that goes on for too long it can be exhausting and disruptive.  I find that shifting my focus to the kidney related energies, including the front of the tan tien (the front few layers of the lower abdomen), hui yin (the bottom of the perineum) and just this side of the spine... all of that allows the water element to gently embrace the lower tan tien.  It brings in some denser energies, substance, which help to anchor and stabilize the consciousness of the small and large intestines.

      By the way, "heart" in this essay refers to the heart organ, not the heart center.  If the meditations' benefits cascade to the heart center (which they often do), very good, but the starting platforms for this set of meditations are at the layer of the physical organs.