Train the Brain
The mental activity of the brain can burn calories and spend the body’s energy at a magnitude much greater than the rest of the body. We don’t have to be consciously thinking or trying to solve a mental problem for our mind to wander to other places and times. This burns immense calories and can leave us exhausted.
Taoist practices are designed to build a healthy body and ultimately use the energy and vitality of health to cultivate spiritual virtue. These practices, such as the inner smile, iron shirt chi kung, tao yin, and others are designed to empty the energy of the brain into the organs of the body. Tremendous energy can be stored in the organs, bones, tendons, and more.
The body’s systems can not only store energy, but also refine and transform the energy. For instance, storing energy in the liver can transform raw energy into kindness. Storing energy in the heart can create love. Focusing energy in the bones helps develop the marrow and its blood-producing functions. We still need energy in our brain and the body’s energy can return to the brain, for mental functions, and the thoughts will be more focused, refined, and clearer than before.
It’s the night before Thanksgiving in the United States. For many years, mostly by myself, I thought about and studied Taoism throughout the day, into the night, and during my dreams. I am thankful for you and others that follow along to participate in these ideas and conversations. Thank you! ☺️