the energy of the blood

   

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The foundation of the body is the heart, which is the residence of essence... By assembling essence in its residence, it will by and by enter into the blood ... 


—Dong Zhongshu
董仲舒 Han Dynasty Chinese scholar, 179 BC - 104 BC

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This description of essence as being first assembled in the heart and then passed on into the body allows the concrete understanding of the blood as energy and of the mind as energy in ancient Chinese thought. 

The mind is consequently thought of as fluid residing in one or the other organ and circulating freely around the body—carried, perhaps, by the energy of the blood.


—Hidemi Ishida
Body and Mind: The Chinese Perspective

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The goal of life is to match your heartbeat to the beat of the universe, 

to match your nature with Nature.

—Joseph Campbell 

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