Brief Summary
This video discusses the concept of "essence" (vital energy) in traditional Eastern medicine and Qigong, explaining how modern lifestyles can deplete it, leading to exhaustion and a decline in overall well-being. It offers guidance on how to restore this vital energy through various practices, emphasizing moderation, aligning with natural rhythms, and cultivating inner peace.
- Modern lifestyles deplete vital energy, leading to exhaustion.
- Restoring vital energy involves moderation, aligning with natural rhythms, and cultivating inner peace.
- Practical steps include regulating habits, following the lunar calendar, prioritizing sleep, mindful eating, and specific breathing techniques.
Introduction: The Silent Drain of Vitality
Many people experience daily exhaustion due to a silent force that damages their vitality, leading to daytime drowsiness, nightmares, poor appetite and sleep, memory loss, and restlessness. Seeking solutions like supplements, vitamins, yoga, and meditation often proves ineffective because they address symptoms rather than the root cause: a lost connection to one's "essence" or vital spirit. The loss of vitality is likened to a tree losing its vigor, leading to a sudden collapse. The key is to rediscover and restore what has been lost, not through modern solutions, but through ancient practices that understand natural rhythms and Qigong principles.
The Dangerous Flow of Modern Life
Modern life exposes individuals to constant stimuli that deplete their vital energy. Bright screens, provocative images, irregular sleep patterns, and a hurried lifestyle drain the "essence," the root of life, without people realizing it. The ancients believed that essence nourishes the bones and spirit, and losing it leads to physical weakness, mental instability, and an inability to resist temptations. This loss occurs silently, and if unaddressed, it creates a downward spiral where one loses control of their fate.
The Essence of Vitality: Ancient Wisdom
Ancient Qigong and Eastern medicine offer ways to restore original Qi without supplements or expensive therapies. Essence, the original vital energy given at birth, resides in the kidneys and nourishes the body, mind, and spirit. An old Taoist priest exemplified longevity by maintaining his essence through simple living, drinking young tea, and meditating in the sunlight. Preserving essence involves moderating behavior, observing natural cycles, and cultivating inner peace.
What Damages Essence the Most?
Modern life, with its irregular relationships, late nights, exposure to stimulating content, and endless desires, drains vital energy. This leads to fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, and a loss of inner connection, eventually causing a collapse not due to illness, but due to the decay of one's fate. Ancient Qigong views these issues as manifestations of a body that has lost its essence, leading to a gradual decay of fate.
The Martial Artist's Secret
A once-renowned martial artist retired after realizing his "Yin Qi" was depleted due to a reckless lifestyle. He retreated to the mountains, meditated, regulated his breathing, and lived simply. After three years, his health and spirit recovered, teaching him that preserving life is more important than temporary victories. This story highlights how many people unknowingly lose their vitality and motivation.
Recognizing the Signs of Damaged Essence
Initial symptoms of damaged essence are often mistaken for modern problems like stress and insomnia. Common signs include waking up tired despite sleeping a lot, pale complexion, dull eyes, shortness of breath, lumbar region coldness, and disturbing dreams. These symptoms indicate that vital energy is insufficient to maintain a full life. The ancients could discern a person's declining fate through subtle signs like a fitful sleep or a confused look.
The Importance of Listening to Your Body
A man who appeared healthy and exercised regularly was always tired and forgetful, with a feeling of emptiness. A teacher revealed that he had been dissipating his vital energy for over a decade without realizing it. The body has its own voice, expressed through feelings, and it's important to pay attention to signs like a lack of natural excitement. The ancients adjusted their lives based on even the smallest fluctuations in their spirit.
The Strongest Medicine: Waking Up Early
If you recognize the signs of damaged essence, understand that recovery is possible. The key principle is to stop the loss before trying to replenish. Like a leaking container, no amount of replenishment will help if the leaks aren't fixed. The ancients focused on "calming the essence, removing disorder, and restoring the energy" by eliminating factors that disrupt internal energy.
Calming the Essence: Moderation and Mindfulness
To calm the essence, moderate intercourse frequency, avoiding it when tired, after drinking, or when stressed. Avoid erotic content and sexual thoughts, as essence is depleted through the mind as well as actions. Cultivate a pure outlook and stable mind. A rich man who was taking expensive supplements found his health restored by cutting out stimulating content and abstaining from alcohol and sex for 21 days.
The Rhythm of the Universe: The Lunar Calendar
After stopping the leakage of vital energy, the next step is to align with the rhythms of heaven and earth, particularly the lunar calendar. The moon's phases influence internal energy, and adjusting one's life rhythm accordingly can conduct vital energy without medicine. Establish a personal vital energy calendar based on the lunar calendar, observing and recording your body's condition to see the correlation between the moon and your vital energy.
The Power of the Lunar Cycle: A Woman's Story
A woman named Mai, who lived a healthy lifestyle, suffered from chronic insomnia and infertility. An old hermit advised her to keep a daily diary of her vital energy, follow the moon, and stop indiscriminate nourishment. By aligning with the lunar cycle, her sleep improved, her energy returned, and she became pregnant naturally. This story illustrates the body's ability to heal when aligned with nature's rhythms.
The Hour of Essence Generation: Prioritizing Sleep
Prioritize sleep before and during the hour of Ty (11pm to 1am), the time of essence generation when kidney qi is strongest. Going to bed before this hour allows the body to relax, the mind to quiet, and the spirit to be at the dantian, naturally generating essence. Staying awake during this time interrupts the process of conducting qi, leading to essence loss.
The General's Secret: Living in Harmony with Nature
General Du Chinh Khon lived to 98 by going to bed before the hour of the rat, waking up before dawn, and living simply. His secret was never missing the golden hour for sperm production, which the ancients considered more precious than tonics. To re-establish the ability to nourish sperm through sleep, stop bathing late, put away your phone, turn off your computer after 9pm, eat dinner earlier, and get used to the darkness.
Nourishing the Essence Through Food
Food affects the blood, internal organs, and the generation or dispersion of essence. The spleen and stomach are the source of postnatal Qi, transforming food into blood and essence. Avoid too many dishes at once, as they create conflict in the stomach. Eat simply, on time, and avoid cold food and eating when stressed. Rustic dishes like barley porridge, steamed chicken eggs with honey, jujubes, and black beans nourish the blood and support kidney qi.
Eating Like Children, Sleeping Like the Elderly
A famous doctor advised eating like children (simply, when hungry) and sleeping like the elderly (early, according to the rhythm of heaven). In ancient medicine, tonics are only effective when the spleen and stomach are clear, sleep is peaceful, and essence is not lost. Each meal should be a time to transfer warm, light, and clean energy to the body.
Mindful Breathing: Returning Energy to the Dantian
Practice mindful breathing to lead energy back to the dantian, restoring weak strands of vital energy. In ancient Qigong, the dantian is the area below the navel that contains human vitality. Practice abdominal breathing every morning, inhaling slowly into the abdomen, holding it lightly, then exhaling, doubling the inhalation time. Imagine each inhalation pouring tears from the sky into a warm water pool in the lower abdomen.
The Dragon Gathers Energy in the Inner Tiger
When the mind stops wandering and breathing is even, energy is like a dragon flying back to its old place. Correct breathing makes the body calm, the mind bright, the essence flourish, and the spirit bright. Take 10 minutes each morning to return to your breath, feeling the warmth gradually rising in the dantian.
The Eyes as the Gateway to the Spirit
The eyes are the biggest gateway for the spirit to be lost. A person with bright, clear, and deep eyes has a still spirit, while dull and erratic eyes indicate a scattered spirit. Avoid exposing your eyes to thousands of flashing images from phones, screens, and social networks. Practice "Muc Thien," nourishing the spirit through the gaze, by looking at nature without judgment, bringing the spirit back.
Learning to See Like a Child Again
A man who was living in a dark, empty, and tired state found peace by sitting on his porch and looking up at the sky. He learned to see like a child again, just looking without thinking, and his eyes regained their light. Nourishing the essence through the eyes involves looking in the mirror each morning and observing the brightness and clarity of your eyes.
Welcoming the Morning Sunlight
Receive the purest source of yang energy from the early morning sunlight, called pure yang celestial light. From 6:30 to 7:30 a.m., sit still, face the sunlight, relax your whole body, and meditate on absorbing the light. Imagine your body as an empty vase, receiving every ray of morning sunlight that permeates every organ and gathers at the dantian.
Living Like a Tree: The Story of Mrs. Kamiko
Mrs. Kamiko, who lived to be 103, lived like a tree, basking in the early morning sunlight. She sat in front of her yard, facing east, her back straight, her eyes half-closed, breathing steadily. This meditation doesn't require much, just regularity and punctuality.
Notes When Practicing: The Journey to Restore the Origin of Energy
Nourishing the essence is a journey to restore the origin of energy, not a quick solution. Let your body have time to remember its original rhythm. Choose one method and persistently practice until the body responds. Avoid combining too many methods at once, and listen to your body's signals.
The Three Periods of Vitality: Restraint of Desire, Heart, and Speech
The three periods of vitality are restraint of desire, restraint of the heart, and restraint of speech. A person who can maintain these three periods will have a strong essence, stable energy, and a bright spirit. Live more concisely, more deeply, less but more fully.
Gathering Light Reflecting the Essence
Nourishing essence is not only about maintaining health but also a way of life, a path of practice, a return to the essence. Restore the body, mind, and whole destiny. When the original Qi is depleted, the mind will be in chaos, but if the essence is full, the Qi is stable, the body will be healthy, and the path of life will be gentler and more harmonious.
The Greatest Practice: Knowing When to Stop
The greatest practice in the Tao of energy lies in knowing when to stop. Stop when your heart is aroused, stop when your mind starts, stop when your words are about to go beyond the limit. It is in that stopping that essence is retained, energy is stabilized, and spirit is preserved.
Conclusion: Choosing to Live According to the Tao
Restoring the spirit is not just healing a tired part of the body but opening a stage of life where you clearly feel a source of life rising from within. Keep this video as a handbook of destiny so that when your body and mind are in turmoil, you can return to listen to each word slowly, finding a solid direction from within.
