By now, you know about tai chi and have contemplated the five elements. You may have identified a dominant aspect of the five elements within you that could do with some work, and may be ready to get started, but what now?
There are three straightforward ways in which you can use the five elements. Each will take a little thought and imagination to apply, but, with perseverance, results can be good.
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1. Work on the Weak Element
The obvious solution is to work on the weak element. Meridian stretches and meditation on the element are straightforward ways of hitting the problem in this way. For example, if you decide that your water energy
needs working on, try the stretch on page 66. It will loosen and gradually strengthen your back. Try imagining yourself floating in the sea—listen to music that helps you to relax. Think of your own associations with the water element and use them.
2. Use the Creative Cycle
There is a phrase in Chinese healing that can be roughly translated as “When the child screams, treat the mother.” The logic here is that the energy from the creator (the mother) needs to express itself as the child. The mother will not be greedy and keep all of the energy, but will pass it on to the child in a way that can be accepted.
Returning to our example of the weak water element, think about why the element may be weak. It could be that you are just tired. It could follow that you are not sleeping properly because you are worried about things that have happened during the day.
If you can reinforce your metal element by having some kind of ritual that divides your sleeping time from your thinking time, you could get a better night’s rest and thus pour
strength into the water element. Try different approaches to beat your tiredness.
3. Use the Controlling Cycle
Returning once more to the water element, it is possible that the level of the water has been raised by the addition of some earth.
The earth element manifests itself in the muscles, among other things. This is especially true for the leg muscles because the classical meridians for the earth are in the legs.
If you can work on your leg muscles and make them stronger, they will support your body better and will assist the water element in its supporting role. This will usually be accompanied by a feeling of being more grounded, which will also help you to relax more.
These are just three of the many ways in which you could look at the five elements.
For example, the water element could be weakened by the fire element or the wood element. Try to think of creative ways of using this tool for self-analysis.
Working the leg muscles can help the earth element.
Liang Yi
This kind of binary representation has resonance with modern computer technology.
A binary word on a computer is made with binary digits, and the characters of the I-Ching are made in the same way.
yang yin
Si Xiang
By adding another line to liang yi, we derive four different possibilities or combinations.
These four combinations are collectively called si xiang.
Ba Gua
The addition of another row gives us three lines, which are commonly called “trigrams,”
so giving eight possibilities, or eight characters, as shown on the next page. These eight characters are called ba gua in Chinese.
The I-Ching
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The five elements are just one of the Taoist methods of explaining the universe in which we live and our interactions with it. Just as there are no absolutes in yin and yang, so there are no absolute theories in Taoism, either. No single approach is described as
“the one,” and it is useful to have more than one way of observing the universe.
Another approach is that of the I-Ching, or “Book of Changes.” Like the five elements, the I-Ching was used during the Zhou Dynasty around three thousand years ago. In excavations of a Zhou Dynasty site, turtle shells were found with markings that suggested that they had been used for I-Ching divination. It is known that turtle shells were used as money, but the markings suggest that the I-Ching was already well established by that time.
The theories of the I-Ching are connected with the Taoist idea of creation. From the original source, wu chi, come the two opposites, yin and yang, also known as tai chi. From the polarity of tai chi comes liang yi. This is a binary representation of yin and yang, with an unbroken line representing yang, and a broken line, yin.
Each of these trigrams has its own name, such as ki, li, and kan, and each has been attributed different qualities, such as heaven, earth, thunder, and so on. The attributes are based on the balance of yin and yang within each trigram. These trigrams are the fundamental building blocks of the I-Ching.
In the I-Ching, greater subtlety and complexity are gained by linking two trigrams together. The trigrams are then grouped as an “upper” and a “lower”
trigram, known as a hexagram. Grouping the trigrams like this gives sixty-four (8 x 8) different hexagrams in the I–Ching.
An interpretation of any hexagram is made by looking at the two trigrams from which it is created. The position of each trigram is important here: the lower trigram represents the internal, or hidden, part of a situation, while the upper trigram represents the external, or visible, part of a situation.
A central tenet of the I-Ching is that everything is in flux—all is changing, and
nothing can stay the same. This is represented in a hexagram by having “old”
and “young” lines, which are determined when the hexagram is cast, by using either sticks or coins.
An “old” line will change, that is, yin will become yang and vice versa. Therefore, if a hexagram is cast that has “old” lines, they will transform themselves into the opposite polarity, thereby giving a new hexagram.
The first hexagram, or the one that was cast, is said to represent the situation as it is, and the second hexagram—the one that has evolved—represents the situation as it may be.