Taming the Monkey Mind

It’s been called the monkey mind — the endless chattering in your head as you jump from thought to thought while you daydream, analyze your relationships, or worry over the future. Eventually, you start to feel like your thoughts are spinning in circles, and you’re left totally confused.

One way to tame this wild creature in your head is through meditation. Although the paradox is that when you clear your mind for meditation, you actually invite the monkey in your mind to play. This is when you are given the opportunity to tame this mental beast by moving beyond thought — to become aware of a thought rather than thinking a thought. The difference is subtle but significant. When you are aware of your thoughts, you can let your thoughts rise and float away without letting them pull you in different directions. Being able to concentrate is one of the tools that allows you to slow down your thought process and focus on observing your thoughts.

To develop your concentration, you may want to start by focusing on the breath while you meditate. Whenever your monkey mind starts acting up, observe your thoughts and then return to your breath. Some breathing meditations call on you to center on the rise and fall of the breath through the abdomen, while others have you concentrate on the sound of the breath. Fire also can be mesmerizing, and staring at a candle flame is another useful tool for harnessing the mind. Keep the gaze soft while observing the color, shape, and movement of the flame, and try not to blink. Close your eyes when you feel the need, and continue watching the flame in your head. Chanting, singing, and mantras can also still the mind. However you choose to tame the monkey mind, do so with firm kindness. The next time the chattering arises, notice it and then allow it to go away. With practice, your monkey mind will become quiet and so will you. 

Winter Solstice 2024

 The Winter Solstice December 21, 2024

Tomorrow, December 21st, marks one of the most powerful and transformative days of the year. It’s the perfect time to align your heart and mind, and connect deeply with the energy of the season. 

To truly understand the significance of the solstice, we must first recognize the balance of Yin and Yang—the two fundamental energies that shape everything in the universe. These energies are in a constant dance, always shifting, growing, and transforming. Twice a year, we experience their peak and deepest shift—tomorrow is one of those days!

 In the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the Winter Solstice, when Yin energy is at its peak. It's a time for stillness, reflection, and nurturing the deep wisdom that comes with this quiet energy. Embrace the calm, protect your energy, and connect with the quiet power of Yin.

 In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the Summer Solstice, when Yang energy is strongest. It's a time for active celebration—get outside, enjoy the warmth, and let the vitality of the sun fill you with joy and energy!

No matter where you are, tomorrow is a perfect time to protect your energy and honor the balance of Yin and Yang. Here's how you can make the most of this powerful transition:

 Nurture Your Energy

Eat or drink something hot and sweet; Making something hot and sweet for yourself can be very nurturing for your system and very helpful in getting your energy grounded. (Hello, Hot Chocolate!)

Chinese medicine says that December 21, if you can eat or drink something sweet and hot it will help you get through the months of winter energy dominance much better, with fewer colds or other winter illnesses. Chinese medicine also advises you not to drink too many cold things this time of year and to keep your body warm. 

Keep your feet and Head Warm; When you go outside keep your feet and head warm for the protection of the vitality of your body so that when spring comes your health is much better.

Meditate; Especially on the 21st if you can, do lots of meditation. Since yin and yang are each at opposite points this day it is a great time to meditate. This is a very powerful switching point so when you do a meditation on this day you help yourself get more energy and balance your energy quicker.

Limit Excessive Exercise Activity; The yang energy is very weak on this day. It is like a teeny baby just ready to be born. It is weak so you need to protect it. On this day, do not do a lot of exercise and get sweaty. This over activates your yang, which is much too delicate and weak now. Stick to slow and relaxed forms of exercise, such as yin flow yoga or Qigong. 

Stay away from Spicy Foods; Spicy foods can over activate your yang energy, which is much too delicate and weak right now. 

In fact, in China on that day, qigong masters, tai chi masters, martial arts masters and others who are greatly knowledgeable and paying great attention to longevity don’t do anything on that day. They simply stay home and have something warm to relax, celebrate the day and be happy.

Of course, not everyone can do this. Not everyone even knows this. Not even every master knows it but people who do are very careful to honor and protect their yang energy on this day. By doing so they help the yang energy to grow and help the body to balance.

Many Blessings, 

Chunyi Lin and Tom Pasley

YaoGong Qigong Practice

                                                            MASTER ZHONGXIAN WU

YaoGong 藥功 Qigong Practice:

Your body is like a musical instrument that is made of the Five Qi-strings. Practicing a Qigong form is like playing a song with your body-instrument.

In my tradition, we always start our practice by tuning the Five Qi-strings – our  body’s “tuning keys” – our Five Qi-needles.

The Practice

Stand with your feet together and imagine you are a new sprout, springing forth from the ground.

Relax your eyelids to bring your eyesight within.

Look within.

Listen within.

Tuning the Fire Qi-string:  Straighten your neck and head as though you are being pulled up towards heaven by the hairs on top of your head. The hair on top of your head is your Fire Qi-needle.

Tuning the Earth Qi-string: Lift the Earth Qi-needle, the tip of your tongue, and gently touch it to the tooth ridge behind your upper teeth.
 

Tuning the Metal Qi-string: Tuck in your lower belly and lift your perineum, the Metal Qi-needle. 
 

Tuning the Water Qi-string: Keep your teeth together, the Water Qi-needle,  and keep your mouth closed.

Tuning the Wood Qi-string: The Wood Qi-needle includes all the nails of your toes and fingertips. Grab the floor with all of your toes while allowing your harms to hang down naturally, with your palms open and fingers straight. Feel your fingertips penetrating into the center of the earth.

Next, please turn your arms slowly about 180 degrees. Raise your hands from both sides till your arms form a V-shape, like lotus petals.  

With your palms facing each other, feel your fingertips touching heaven.

Imagine you are a new sprout growing into a giant tree. Hold this posture as long as you can.

Focus on your breath.

When you can not hold the position any longer, gradually bring your hands down to the front of your belly. Your palms are facing your belly, your thumbs and index fingers gently touching.

Hold this posture for a few minutes and continue looking and listening within.

Observe your breath through your heart.   

Balance Liver Energy by Strengthening Lung Energy in Springtime Master Chunyi Lin

As April unfolds, the dominance of spring energy heralds a period of renewal and vitality. Following the hibernation of winter, plants and trees awaken, bursting with life and energy.

This season exudes happiness and excitement, offering us an opportunity to embrace new beginnings.

Spending time in Nature

To fully harness the rejuvenating energy of this season, immerse yourself in nature. Step outside and breathe in the fresh, invigorating air released from the awakening ground. Spending time outdoors with loved ones amplifies the benefits, fostering connections and shared experiences amidst the vibrant backdrop of spring's renewal.

Moreover, as trees and plants awaken, they emit an abundance of pure, positive healing energy. It's essential to immerse ourselves in this spring energy to absorb its healing essence fully, fostering harmony and alignment with nature.

Engaging in outdoor activities and exercise allows us to maximize the benefits, promoting overall well- being, particularly beneficial for the liver.

The Healing Color: Green

Surrounded by lush greenery, especially in spring, offers profound healing benefits. The abundant green color, characteristic of this season, exerts a soothing influence, particularly supportive for liver health. Since liver energy manifests in the eyes, absorbing green hues from nature nurtures and rejuvenates this vital organ, contributing to overall well-being.

Grounding: Walking Barefoot (only if it's warm enough)

When possible, take a moment to walk barefoot outdoors, provided the weather permits. Alternatively, if it's still chilly outside, opt for indoor barefoot walks, ensuring a warm environment.

Ordinarily, the soles of your shoes act as a barrier between your energy and the earth, which can be advantageous. However, during this time of year, the earth's energy intensifies, emanating palpable sensations from the ground. The most effective way to connect with this energy is by walking barefoot, though it's essential to ensure warmth to avoid discomfort. If the weather isn't conducive, it's best to wait until conditions improve.

Strengthening the Lung Energy to Balance Liver Energy

During this period, Spring Energy is on the rise, marking the peak of liver energy's strength. As liver energy, associated with the wood element, tends to dominate, maintaining equilibrium becomes paramount. Increased coughing in spring is often attributed to the overpowering nature of liver energy.

While the lungs, governed by metal energy, attempt to regulate it, they may lack the necessary strength, particularly during spring.

To restore balance to the liver energy, it's imperative to fortify lung energy.

That’s another reason why you need to get outside and breathe, deeply, gently, slowly, as often as you can.

We can strengthen the Lung Energy by...

Get outside in nature, be active and sweat.

Regardless of whether you're indoors or outdoors, it's crucial to engage in exercise until you break a sweat. Sweating plays a pivotal role in strengthening lung energy, essential for balancing the overwhelming liver/wood energy.

Sweating facilitates detoxification by expelling toxins through the skin, reinforcing lung vitality as the skin is intricately connected to the respiratory system. Both exercise and sweating contribute significantly to bolstering lung energy. Therefore, strive to work up a sweat daily to support lung function.

While spending time in a steam room or sauna can offer benefits, exercising until you perspire is the most effective method. Make it a daily goal to break a sweat to uphold your overall well-being.

As you immerse yourself in the revitalizing energy of spring through walking, playing, and exercising, remember to always wear a smile on your face. Allow your love to blossom and extend to others and everything around you, including our beloved Mother Earth. While spreading love is essential in every season, it holds particular significance during spring's rejuvenating embrace.

*** For those residing in northern regions like Minnesota, where winter persists with its prolonged and frigid embrace, it's advisable to refrain from venturing into the woods for several weeks yet. The lingering energy imbalance necessitates waiting until the weather has remained consistently warm for an extended period. This

allows ample time for the energy in the woods or forest to harmonize and come into balance, ensuring a safer and more harmonious experience.

Adding a little more spice to your food.

Now is the perfect time to infuse your meals with a touch of spice to balance the liver and enhance the lung energy. Incorporate ingredients like ginger root, green onions, garlic, and onions into your dishes. Additionally, consider adding hot red peppers to your diet once a week, if you're comfortable with them, as they provide excellent protection and immune support.

Hot red peppers boast detoxifying properties, aid in flu recovery, and promote digestive health. If spicy peppers aren't your preference, opt for more green onion, ginger root, and garlic instead.

Green onion and ginger root are particularly effective in strengthening lung energy, supporting digestion, and warding off colds and flu by activating lung energy. I highly recommend incorporating these ingredients into your meals as often as possible, even in small quantities, for their significant

 

Easy way to Detox the Body

 

4 POINTS FOR DETOXIFYING THE BODY

 

Bladder Energy Points

 

There are 4 Key Energy Points for Detoxifying the Body’s energy Two focus on the Bladder Channel which begins just off the bridge of the nose.

The 2 Points you want to stimulate to activate the Bladder Channel’s energy are located higher up - where the Eyebrows Begin just off the bridge of the nose.

 

This channel, the Bladder Channel, goes back to the back of the head, running down the outside along the spine, then out through the leg all the way down and out through the little toe.

Press on these points with your thumbs or fingers. You can press and massage in a circular way.

Or you can press deep.

 

When you massage deep you will feel a little depression there – when you press on it don’t do it too long. 5 seconds and then release and wait like 2 or 3 seconds and do it again. But, don’t press it too long.

This energy channel has the most acupuncture points or energy points or any energy channel in the body - more than 60 points, the others are like 14 or 20. This channel has more than 3 times as many points among the 12 major energy channels.

This channel helps to collect all the junk stuff, or blockages, or energy garbage from the Lungs, from the Liver, from all of the major internal organs and then releases it all out through the little toe.

This helps with sinuses, allergies, headaches, migraine headaches, dizziness, eyesight problems, fever, coughing, lots of things connecting to any of the major organs.

That’s why these 2 points are very, very important. Massage and give a little pressure or give more pressure as it feels comfortable to you.

You can massage these points as often as you like. Try to massage for at least 30 seconds each time - longer if you have more time.

 

Stomach Channel Points

 

The second set of 2 points are on the cheek bones, directly below the center of the eyes.

These points are where the Stomach Channel starts.

When you massage these points you can press massage with your fingers or thumbs - or you can tap them with your finger tips. Tap it firm to the level that feels good to you.

Tapping or massaging these points can help you to take care of your runny nose, or allergies.

It also helps to open all the energy blockages in the front of the body – down through the chest, breasts, to the lungs, the liver, from the thighs and way, way down to the second toe – releasing the energy out through the second toe.

You can massage these points as often as you like. Try to massage for at least 30 seconds each time - longer if you have more time.

By tapping these 4 points it helps you to clear all of the energy blockages in the body. These are the 2 major energy channels for helping to dump the garbage out.

It’s like what the liver does with the physical toxins in the body – these 2 channels take all the energetic “garbage” out.

Foods for Fall - Keep your energy strong

A Pear a Day...

 

There is an old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” But this time of year, pears are the thing. Pears are very good for fall. Eat them raw or steamed. Pears help with the lungs and throat. They help with your tongue, help with thirst and help with any toxins in the lung and skin. If you eat 1 or 2 pears a day they can be very beneficial for your health this time of year.

 

For those who have lots of coughing, steamed pear with brown sugar to your taste can help even better to clear your coughing. Steamed pears are also good for relieving anxiety or frustration, and they can help with red eye or puffy eye. And they can be helpful in relieving constipation.

 

If you enjoy apples you may want to cut back on them in autumn. Apples are especially good for you in summer but in autumn you should cut back on apples eating maybe just one small apple a day.

 

Spinach is always good. This time of year carrots and white carrots are very good for you and also white mushrooms. This is the season for gathering nuts and walnuts are very good for you now because this is lung season. A couple of handfuls of walnuts a day are very good for the lungs and in helping prepare your energy for the fall.

 

As for cooking style this time of year, have more steamed or stir fried food. Generally it is better to avoid deep fried food. This is especially true in autumn. In autumn, lung energy is becoming dominant and too much yang energy is too dry which is not good, especially in early autumn because lung energy is very fragile. Right now yang energy in food is not good for you and deep fried food is yang.

 

This season lotus root and lotus seeds are wonderful for you. They have the best energy this time of year because all of the energy has gone to the root so have lots of lotus root and lotus seeds. They are very good for your lungs.

 

Blackberries are also very good for your lungs and throat. Your throat can get dry easily in fall.

 

This time of year try not to eat when your body is not ready. And try not to eat too much cold food or drink cold drinks because cold food and drink are more likely to create diarrhea at this time of year.

 

Instead drink warm things and eat more warm food this time of year. That is best.

  

Prepare for Fall - Energy Shift

 

The Transition Energy of August

By Master Chunyi Lin

 

 In life, as in nature, we have many peaks and valleys, bright days and dark ones.

Life, like nature, it is always in the process of Transition and Transformation. Some happen very quickly and some very slowly. Some are predictable and others come on suddenly. Whether we always recognize it or not, transition is always going on.

August is a transition month though we might not think of it as such. August is a month that can see some of the hottest days of summer while each day moves us closer to the start of autumn.

The signature of summer energy is fire, yang energy, always going outward wanting to expand and grow. But in August the energy signature begins to turn inward. You still see things growing in nature but the earth is already sending more energy to the roots, storing it up for the fall and winter to come.

August 8th is a special day because that’s when fall energy starts coming in and the transition is fully underway. The Energy Starts turning from Yang to Yin

 

The Energy starts turning from Yang to Yin.

When you look at a Yin/Yang symbol you will see what I mean. The transition point is the tail, very narrow but expanding very rapidly.

The energy transition from yang to yin will start moving very quickly now.

But, when you look at the full symbol you will always see the balance it has, the harmony.

This is our goal for life; to be in balance and live in harmony. Following the transitions of nature can help us do that.

 

Now is a time for us to start preparing for fall and winter and storing up our energy and not expending all of it. Expending energy in summer is very natural and that’s fine. Fire energy, yang energy is so intense there is always plenty there in summer. That will not be true much longer.

Keeping your emotions under control is very important.  As summer energy is fading, the effect on your emotions can be even more intense as we want to be out and accomplish and experience even more.

During the ‘Highest Yang’ many thoughts can flood your intellect and the energy of ‘over thinking’ can occur.

During time of the year it is important that we work to let go of anything that has us feeling overwhelmed and anything that is no longer serving our higher purpose. When we feel overwhelmed it generally means we have too much energy in our heads.

If the high yang energy is not balanced then its power can ignite feelings like worry, resentment, anxiety from over thinking and forgetting to bring love into action.

 

How do we Bring Balance to the High Yang Energy? 

 

 

Technique #1: Bring your Focus Down

Drop your shoulders, place your hands, on top of one another, and bring them to your navel.

Men: Left hand on navel, right hand on top of left hand

Women: Right hand on navel, left hand on top of right hand)

Focus on your belly button and take 3 gentle long, deep breaths.

 

 

 

 

Technique #2: Visualize the Yin Energy of Water

If you feel thoughts ignite into emotions of anger, you can bring the yin energy of water literally into your focus, your awareness.

You can do this inwardly by visualizing yin energy or outwardly like meditating with water, face the water, even a glass of water, or among living green plants. This is a simple way to find balance.

 

 Drink plenty of water, especially if you are going to be outside. The sun’s energy is actually more intense during August and you should avoid being outside from noon to 4pm, especially from 2 to 4. The light from the sun at that time is very dry and very invasive. People who have lung problems or skin problems should avoid being outside and exposed to the sun at that time. If you must be out be sure to protect your eyes, and skin and lungs.

 

August is a good time to start paying more attention to your lungs. The more focus you have on keeping your lungs strong now the better your lung energy will be for the fall and winter to come. This is very important. 

In high yang energy, your awareness of your vision, your attention and your qualification of the energy can become more known to you during this time. 

Life has many peaks and valleys but the more we live in balance and harmony the more rainbows we’ll have, even if only in our hearts.

Love & Blessings,

 

Chunyi Lin