'Li' and health

The third element of 'wu chang' (five natural states or conditions) is 'li' or manners. 'Li' is related to the heart, order,fire and summer. It always goes upwards. The heart is the master of the body. It is open-minded and the 'qi' always flows outwards. "Li' also signifies order and progress. The progress of a nation is gauged by her well-mannered people. Well-mannered refers to law-abiding and disciplined.

The opposite of open-mindedness is hatred. The 'qi' of hatred flows inwards and causes the heart to suffer from heart diseases such as uneven heart beat and so on. According to the Chinese physician who gave the talk on 'wu chang' and its relationship with the five organs in the body, a patient who harboured hatred came to consult him. She suffered from pain all along her arm. The flow of blood along the vein connected to the heart was not smooth causing pain.

The lady was cheated by a man who took her 20,000 yuan away. She hated him since the day she knew she had been cheated until she came to see the physician. This feeling of hating has caused qi to flow and accumulate in the heart causing the above condition.

The physician advised her to forget about the 20,000 yuan which could not be recovered and stopped hating him so that health would be returned to her. She really listened to the advice and stopped thinking about the loss and the man associated with it. After two weeks, when he telephoned her to find out her condition, she told him that all the pain along her arm had gone.

Hence, we should not harbour hatred towards others in order to protect our dear heart.