On Reading the Huang Di Nei Jing (Ilza Veith translation)

There are many treasures shared from reading through the Nei Jing--if not an infinite number of gems; for it's like opening a book to read from the gestures of the cosmos and each bit of light needles the heart by way of the brain, by way of the eyes . In a practical sense, the Nei Jing is an understanding of the circular, multilayered philosophy of Yin and Yang and the 5-Elements principle. But I say one reads "through" the text because my experience is you can't just read it once or twice and then impress your friends for having kept such company as the Huang Di and Qi'Po. Depending on your state of mind, your development spiritually, philosophically, professionally as you read each chapter, you will be drawn as a wandering satellite to orbit a certain philosophical gem, a poetic gesture, a technical inquiry, an historical curiosity that reflects your current position with yourself in the world. The theory of Yin and Yang is simple and complex and I would love to understand it further and live by the 5-elements, but what moves me most right now as I read through it again is the relationship between Huang Di and his court physician Qi'Po. I think as students of body and medicine (though my studies so far are only amaturish) we all want that communion with our teachers: our childish enthusiasm to understand this theory and practice with question after question after question, trying to delve further and deeper so that we can be the best healers we can be and the teacher's unflinching patience to keep our head above water. It's a lot of information to try to ingest and keep put as if it had always been in us and/or accessible anytime (is it?). Qi'Po and Huang Di's relationship is about pacing and deep breathing with The Tao; otherwise you will learn nothing and never recognize the truth right before your eyes because you're struggling so hard to reach the bottom where the goal, the "truth", lies as fallen treasure to be had. I don't mean to say that the Nei Jing is a cautionary tale of the fallen student, Iquaris in the middle of an ocean metaphor, but I do mean to say that the magic of the body is a bottomless abyss and from reading through the Nei Jing I've begun to think that the best way to understand that bottomless abyss (ocean metaphor alert!) is to recognize our own bouancy in it. Once we learn how to be in the knowledge, then can we begin to mark distance in it.