The winter season is upon us with unique
challenges and opportunities. In the West we usually think of the winter
solstice as the beginning of winter. However, given the four seasons of
the year with three months to a season, it is easy to see why the ancient
Chinese considered the three months of winter to be December, January and
February. As the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice marks the
turning point of the winter season. It is here that the waning life force
begins to return after having reached its minimum.
In nature one can see this process in the
deciduous trees which lose their leaves in fall, lie dormant throughout
December, and then slowly develop their buds in January and February as
the light force returns in preparation for their opening in spring. In the
same way that trees gather and store their vital force in winter, the fire
of life in humans slowly consolidates within.
The fire of life is the human spirit, and
is considered yang. It emerges from the yin of emptiness and non-being,
and enters the physical body (also yin) at the time when yin changes to
yang, the winter solstice. One aspect of spirit, destiny, comes into us
from heaven at this time to become the infant spark of life potential that
activates all other movement in the body/mind. If this spark is carefully
nurtured, it will grow into the fully matured spirit six months later at
the summer solstice when the yang-ch'i is at its peak. In order for this
development to occur, the winter solstice has always been treated in
ancient China as the resting time of the year when this dynamic life force
could be strengthened and renewed.
These ideas are set forth in many of
ancient China's classical texts. For example in the Tao-te ching,
the classic of the way and its power, a manual for aligning spirit with
daily life, the winter solstice is the time when humans can most easily
return to their source. It is here that they gather support from their
unity with all things. The Lieh-tzu, a fourth century text named
after the legendary Taoist sage, associates the human spirit with Source
by calling it the "unborn" and "unchanging," and
recognizes its development between the spiritual to the mundane as
occurring, like the seasons, through cyclic progressions.
Tao, the way or source, manifests through
all things, and remains with them, though not always perceived, as the
"unborn" spirit throughout life. Attempting to remind us that we
all have this spiritual aspect, the famous Zen koan asks, "Who were
you before you were born?" We forget the answer to this riddle to the
degree that we get caught up struggling with mundane affairs. In order
remain whole, each person needs to return periodically to Tao so that they
can stay connected with the source of life, the unborn and unchanging part
of ourselves. As pure potential, this universal source becomes destiny
within each individual person. We are supported by heaven, who sends us
beneficial influences, rewarding us for embracing our destiny, while those
that turn their backs on Tao and destiny suffer and perish prematurely.
In Chinese medicine, the place in the human
body where the primary fire of life as source and destiny resides is the
kidneys. The kidneys correspond to the winter season and the winter
solstice where one can most easily restore and recharge themselves.
Simultaneously, it is the time where this
energy can be most easily depleted. The kidneys store all of the reserve
energy in the body/mind so that it can be used in times of stress and
change, or to heal, prevent illness, and age gracefully. This reserve
becomes will on the psychic level. It is absolutely essential that this
reserve is not dissipated through frivolous or extraneous activity,
especially in the winter months, and most dramatically in the two week
period before and after the winter solstice.
In the I-ching Book Of Changes, an
ancient divination text and repository of yin-yang philosophy, the energetics
of the winter solstice is symbolized by the hexagram Fu or
"Return." Hexagrams are six-lined figures comprised of yin
(broken) and yang (solid) lines. The hexagram Return has one solid yang
line under five broken yin lines and emerges from the hexagram K'un,
the "Receptive Earth", which is comprised of all broken yin
lines and symbolizes maximum yin and the early part of December. The yang
fire of life returning to us at the winter solstice is described by the I-ching
as having the power of thunder hidden within the earth. This
"thunder" is the divine power of one's potential and is
synonymous with source and destiny. It commands one's being to spring
forth from spiritual quiescence into mundane action in accordance with the
will of heaven and the cycles of the seasons. Thus, the hexagram councils:
"Turning away from the confusion of
external things, turning back to one's inner light. There is the depths
of the soul, one sees the divine, the One...to know the One means to
know oneself in relation to the cosmic forces. For this One is the
ascending force of life in nature and in man."
[I Ching. Wilhelm, Richard. 1967. New York: Bollingen Foundation, p.
505]
To the ancient Chinese, this return
promises hope of new life. The complications of life cause one to lose
touch with the "unborn" and "unchanging" part of
oneself, which is what Taoists call "primal simplicity," p'u.
The Tao-te ching admonishes one to be familiar with the
activity of the world, but to hold on to the inactive, to the quiet
feminine that forms the wellspring of all creativity, and to return to
primal simplicity and Oneness. In its most fundamental aspect, healing
with acupuncture is based upon this principle. The Taoist persona for one
who attains this goal is the woodcutter, the one who chops wood and
carries water, and attends to the simple essentials of life. His mind is
unencumbered by extraneous thought and worldly attachments. In the Tao-tealso
attains harmony with all things.
When one is in a state of harmony with all
things, one no longer has to try excessively hard to be themselves.
Instead, one is free to accept the positive reality of oneself, and to
offer that reality spontaneously to the world. Taoists maintain that we
are all children of heaven, and that our needs can be met simply in
abiding by heaven's will — that we simply be who we are. Psycho-physical
health is a side-effect of cultivating this state.
Chinese medicine holds that human beings
are a microcosm of the universe. This means that our body/mind follows the
same patterns as those of the universe at large, and that we are all
connected to each other and to the greater whole. In order to maintain or
recover health, we must, therefore, embrace this whole by placing
ourselves in harmony with it One of the most obvious ways to do this is to
harmonize ourselves with the changing seasons. Therefore, at the winter
solstice we should loosen our grip on the world, and place greater
emphasis on the return to our inner self. Rather than obscuring the voice
of truth within by rushing madly about, we should instead pay homage to
this inner voice as it links us to our destiny and provides the only real
fulfillment in life. This inner voice is the yang solid line at the bottom
of the fu/Return hexagram. It is the essential movement within life
expanding out to reach the world. The paradox of life and of the season is
that, for this connection to occur, one must sacrifice the world to listen
instead to the truth of inner reality. Then, once this voice is heard, one
can re-align oneself and one's activities during the coming months with
the truth one finds.
The Tao-te ching says that
from the quiet, feminine, mother aspect of the universe (yin) the actively
moving spark of life comes forth (yang). In homage to this principle,
Chapter 42 says,
"The Ten Thousand Things carry yin
on their backs, and embrace yang in their front, Blending these two vital
breaths to attain harmony." [Tao-te ching. Chapter
42, my translation]
The Fu/Return Hexagram of the I-ching,
gives instructions as to how to go about restoring the true spontaneity of
one's life by discarding the outworn, and introducing the new:
"Thunder within the
earth:
The image of Return.
Thus the kings of antiquity closed the passes
At the time of the solstice.
Merchants and strangers did not go about,
And the ruler
Did not travel through the provinces."
[Wilhelm 98]
