Chinese Dictionary

Chinese medicine (Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM): Ancient holistic system whose basics include herbology, nutrition, and the concepts of acupuncture meridians, the Five Elements (Five Phases), and yin and yang.

Traditional Chinese Medicine theory posits both Organs (the Triple Burner, for example) and Substances (such as Shen, or Spirit) for which scientific evidence is absent. Variations and hybrids of Chinese medicine include Korean medicine, Tibetan medicine, and Vietnamese traditional medicine.

Chinese medicine probably originated about 2,000 years ago, but it became dogmatic and stagnated for centuries; overall its development has been slow. It probably stems from shamanism. The basis of Chinese medicine is Taoism, a religion according to which spirits (shen) inhabit the human body and take care of its functions. The foundational text of Chinese medicine - known as the Classic of Internal Medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, the Inner Classic, the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, the Neiching, the Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor's Classic, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon - was completed by the first century C.E.

(See also: Chinese medicine , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

system of divination that uses yarrow stalks or coins Changes inscribed with hexagrams

(See also: I Ching, The Book of Chinese , Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

Chinese System of Food Cures: Anthology of dietary prescriptions set forth by Henry C. Lu, Ph.D. The appropriateness of specific foods for particular symptoms, conditions, and diseases is based on three classes of food attributes: flavor, energy, and movement.

The system associates flavors - pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty - with different internal organs. Energies - cold, hot, warm, cool, and neutral - determine the ultimate effect of ingesting specific foods. Movement refers to the tendency of different foods to move in different directions in the body: outward, inward, upward, or downward.

(See also: Chinese System of Food Cures , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese physiognomy: Diagnostic method of Chinese medicine whose principle is that areas of the face correspond to internal organs.

(See also: Chinese physiognomy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese auricular therapy (Chinese auricular acupuncture, traditional Chinese auricular acu-points therapy, traditional Chinese auricular acupuncture, traditional Chinese auricular therapy): Group of TCM techniques whose channel theory differs from that of body acupuncture. Its apparent principle is that several areas and more than a hundred acupoints on the auricle (the outer portion of the ear) interactively relate to other areas or to diseases. The fetuslike contour of the auricle inspired the distribution of points thereon. Chinese auricular therapy, which differs from auriculotherapy, includes: auricular analgesia, auricular diagnosis, auricular magnetic therapy, auricular massage, auricular moxibustion, auricular point injection, the auricular point laser-stimulating method, bleeding manipulation, and the seed-pressure method.

(See also: Chinese auricular therapy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese herbalism (Chinese herbal system): Form of herbalism with three fundamental classes of herbs. The Inferior Class consists of assistants: herbs that, control the curing of illnesses and are advisable to remove cold, heat, and other evil influences from the body. The General Class consists of herbs that control the preservation of human nature. The Superior Class consists of rulers (see Superior Herbalism).

(See also: Chinese herbalism , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Buddhism: Basic Buddhist Dictionary

A basic dictionary of Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

Kundalini Dictionary

Dictionary over terms related to kundalini and kundalini awakening. Please note that words in grey like " Kundalini " are links to archives with related articles.

Chi

(Chinese, "ether," "matter-energy," "vital energy," "material force")

An important and multifaceted term in Chinese religion, philosophy, and science, the root meaning of which is "moist vapor" or "breath. "

• Early Chinese teachers spoke of chi as a vital spirit or energy that animated living beings. As such, it had to be properly nourished.
• For Confucians, that required moral cultivation so that one's chi, undistracted by external things, would conform to the dictates of will.
• For Taoists, it required mastery of the self through meditation, breath control, diet, yoga, and other techniques so as to harmonize one's chi with the material force of the universe ordered by the Tao (undifferentiated unity).

Traditional Chinese medicine attributed illnesses primarily to imbalances in the chi that pulsed through the body. Acupuncture, moxibustion (placing burning cones made of the dried leaves of the Artemisia moxa plant on the patient's skin), and other techniques helped to restore its balanced circulation.

Chi was also an important concept in the correlative philosophy that blossomed in the early Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 8) systematizing the correspondences between like things that explained their mutual interactions.

In the Neo-Confucian metaphysics of the Northern and Southern Sung dynasties (960-1279), all phenomena were said to be manifest through the intrinsic relation of principle (li) and material force (chi). Li constituted the essential, unchanging, perfect nature of all things, while chi represented their corporeal, transitory, and potentially flawed aspect. Individuals were instructed to perfect their humanity, to purify and harmonize their chi with their true Heavenendowed nature through the external investigation of things and mental introspection. Also Ki.

(See also: Chi , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Chinese Diet for Weight Loss: Part of the Chinese System of Food Cures. Examples of suggested measures to lose weight include:

(a)           eating meat cooked in a sauce whose warm, hot, and pungent ingredients have rendered it very yang; and

(b)           increasing the burning fire of one's kidneys by ingesting a yang tonic, such as liver, pork kidneys, mussel, shrimp, walnuts, or dried green raspberries.

(See also: Chinese Diet for Weight Loss , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese dietotherapy: preventive and therapeutic system that involves: (a) prescribing medicinal foods and mixtures of foods and drugs, and (b) proscribing intake of particular foods. , the curative effect of a food or food-drug mixture depends on its nature and flavor. The natures are: cold, hot, warm, and cool. The flavors are: salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and pungent. Practitioners seek to neutralize illness by prescribing foods and food-drug mixtures whose nature and flavor antagonize the nature and flavor of the disease.

(See also: Chinese dietotherapy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese Qigong massage (An Mo, Chinese massage, Qigong massage): Component of Traditional Chinese Medicine that emphasizes the proper level, quality of circulation, and preventive uses of Qi. The categories of Chinese Qigong massage are amma, Tuina, dian xue, and Qigong therapy.

(See also: Chinese Qigong massage , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese traditional food therapy (Chinese food therapy): Form of food therapy of ancient Chinese origin. According to its theory, food can fortify the vital force and one can nourish any unsound internal organ just by eating the corresponding organ of an animal. (See Chinese dietotherapy and Chinese System of Food Cures.)

(See also: Chinese traditional food therapy , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese Energetic Technique: advanced form of Qigong created by Kam Yuen, D.C. it is a means of directing powerful energetic corrections to one's body.

(See also: Chinese Energetic Technique , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chinese aromatic Qigong: Mode of manual exercise that generates various aromatic fragrances.

(See also: Chinese aromatic Qigong , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Treatise on the Discipline for Attaining Enlightenment, The

(Chin.: P'u-t'i-tzu-liang-lun; Jpn.: Bodai-shiryo-ron)

A Chinese translation by Dharmagupta (d. 619), a monk from southern India, of a treatise consisting of original verses attributed to Nagarjuna (c. 150-250) and a prose commentary added later. It sets forth the six paramitas and other practices for bodhisattvas that are conducive to enlightenment.

(See also: Treatise on the Discipline for Attaining Enlightenment , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Treatise on the Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment, The

(Jpn.: Bodai-shin-ron; Chin.: P'u-t'i-hsin-lun)

A work attributed to Nagarjuna (c. 150-250) and translated into Chinese in the eighth century by Pu-k'ung (Skt Amoghavajra). Another account attributes the work itself to Pu-k'ung. No Sanskrit version is extant. The Treatise on the Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment teaches the important Buddhist concept of aspiration for enlightenment and encourages the development of a mind that seeks Buddhahood. It defines three aspects of a mind that aspires for enlightenment, from the standpoint of Esoteric Buddhism: (1) great compassion to save all living beings, (2) great wisdom to know what sutra is supreme, and (3) meditation. The work also explains various kinds of contemplation put forth in Esoteric Buddhism. Kobo, the founder of the Japanese True Word (Shingon) school, valued this work, and it was widely studied in his school.

(See also: Treatise on the Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

tai chi (tai chi chuan, Tai Ji, tai ji chuan, Tai Ji Juan, tai ji quan, Taiqi): A variation of self-healing. Tai chi is an ancient, yoga-like Chinese system of ballet-like exercises designed for health, self-defense, and spiritual development.

Practicing tai chi facilitates the flow of chi (life energy) through the body by dissolving blockages both within the body and between the body and the environment. Traditional tai chi involves about 108 to 128 postures, including repetitions. The difficulty lies in concatenating the postures into circular movements. Quan means boxing.

(See also: Tai chi , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

pneumo-acupuncture: Technique described in ancient Chinese literature. It involves injecting air under the skin.

(See also: Pneumo-acupuncture , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Maitreya Buddha (Sanskrit). The same as the Kalki Avatar of Vishnu (the "White Horse" Avatar), and of Sosiosh and other Messiahs. The only difference lies in the dates of their appearances. Thus, while Vishnu is expected to appear on his white horse at the end of the present Kali Yuga age "for the final destruction of the wicked, the renovation of creation and the restoration of purity", Maitreya is expected earlier.

Exoteric or popular teaching making slight variations on the esoteric doctrine states that Sakyamuni (Gautama Buddha) visited him in Tushita (a celestial abode) and commissioned him to issue thence on earth as his successor at the expiration of five thousand years after his (Buddha’s) death. This would be in less than 3,000 years hence. Esoteric philosophy teaches that the next Buddha will appear during the seventh (sub) race of this Round. The fact is that Maitreya was a follower of Buddha, a well-known Arhat, though not his direct disciple, and that he was the founder of an esoteric philosophical school. As shown by Eitel (Sanskrit-Chinese Dict.), "statues were erected in his honour as early as B.C. 350".

(See also: Maitreya Buddha , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)