Health through Balance

Chapter 4 -- Wind, Bile,!and Phlegm pp. 45-51

WIND The life-sustaining wind is located at the crown of the head, and it mainly courses from that area through the chest. With respect to its functions, it enables the swallowing of food, inhalation, spitting out saliva, burping, and sneezing. It provides clarity to one's mind and to the sense organs and holds life in the sense that it provides the physical basis for the mind. The location of the ascending wind is the breastbone. IT courses or functions principally around the nose, tongue, and throat. Its functions are that it enables speech, provides physical strength and tone, empowers effort in the sense of stimulating activity, and gives clarity of memory and attention. The pervasive or diffusive wind has its location in the heart. Though its basic site is the heart, it pervades every part of the body. Its functions are to perform flexion and extension of the limbs and the opening and closing of the apertures of the body such as the mouth, eyes, and so forth. Thus, most muscular actions are controlled by the pervasive wind. The fire-accompanying wind has its locus in the lower part of the stomach and courses through all the hollow places -- the intestines, gall bladder, channels in the heart, and so forth. Its functions are that it helps digestion, or metabolism, in the sense of ripening nourishment and separating refined and unrefined portions, and it consequently develops the respective colors of blood, bile, and so forth. The stomach is divided into three parts: the top is the location of the decomposing phlegm; the central part is where the digestive bile works, and the lower part is where the fire-accompanying wind works, so called because it is involved in the process of digestion which is like fire. The downwards-voiding wind is located in the region of the genitals. It functions throughout the lower abdomen: the large intestine, urinary bladder, genitals, and thighs. Its functions are to control the mechanism of releasing and retaining semen, menses, feces, and urine. It also holds the fetus in the womb and releases the fetus in childbirth. BILE The Bile humor, having a nature of fire, also consists of five types. The first and most important is the digestive bile; it is very influential. Its location is in the stomach between the not yet digested and already digested food, that is, in the middle of the stomach. Its functions are that, like fire, it ripens or digests food, separates the refined and unrefined portions of food, produces bodily heat, activates and assists the other four biles, and provides bodily strength. Next is the color-regulating bile. Its locus is mainly in the liver, but it functions throughout the body. It regulates color in the seven physical constituents Ð nutritional essence, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and regenerative fluid. For instance, it makes blood red, bone white, bile yellow, fingernails clear, and so forth. Third is the determining or achieving bile. Its locus is at the heart, and its functions are to provide determination, decisiveness, and self-confidence in performing actions and in accomplishing your desires, preventing discouragement. In a negative way, it causes generation of overly assertive states of mind, such as pride. The fourth type is the seeing bile, responsible for sight. Located in the eyes, it enables you to see. The last, the complexion-clearing bile, is located in the skin; it provides skin tone, a good complexion. The characteristics of bile, which basically has a nature of fire, are oiliness, sharpness, pungency (hotness), lightness, possessing a strong odor, a purgative quality, and moistness. PHLEGM Phlegm is also of five types. The first is the supportive phlegm, located along the breastbone. Its main function is to provide moisture throughout the body, such as saliva in the mouth, but it also provides cohesion, that is, holds the body together and provides support for the other four types of phlegm. Next is the decomposing phlegm, located in the first part of the stomach, where the undigested food first localizes. Its main function is to mix and decompose the food that has been ingested. The experiencing phlegm is located in the tongue. Its function is to provide the capacity for taste of the six types: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot, and astringent. The satisfying phlegm, located in the brain, brings satisfaction. For instance, when the eyes see an object or the ears hear a sound, it is that factor which brings satisfaction. It also provides for deciding, for instance, that a taste is sweet or sour, that an odor is fragrant or not, that a sound is pleasant or unpleasant, that a form is good or bad, etc. Finally, the connective phlegm, located in all the large and small joints, functions in connecting the joints and enabling flexion and extension. Phlegm has the characteristics of oiliness, coolness, heaviness, bluntness, firmness, smoothness, and stickiness. Altogether there are twenty characteristics of the three humors.

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