Channel—a term that is used to name the qi flow pathways, and capture the characteristic aspect of a vessel that carries a substance from one place to another. The image of a water channel, or a TV channel are both useful in using this term to describe the energy flows in the human body.
Inferior—an anatomical term that refers to a place on the body below, beneath, or closer to the earth than the point or anatomical landmark it is being compared to.
Jing—the most dense material aspect of the essence of spirit as it manifests in the tissues of the body.
Lateral—referring to the side aspects of the body.
Medial—referring to the aspects of the body that are toward the midline of the body.
Meridian—“an imaginary line on the surface of the body,” which in this context was a misused term used by European mariners upon first learning of the acupuncture meridian lines of Chinese medicine
Pathway—a trajectory of the qi flow as it expresses itself along the surface of the body.
Qi—the “stuff” of the universe, the universal life energy force, a force so vast and varied that no simple definition could ever possibly convey its deep meaning.
Qigong—Literally “qi cultivation” this term refers to any conscious exercise that is used to raise the awareness and work with the flow of qi energy in the body, heartmind, and spirit.
Shen—The most ethereal, illusive, and ephemeral aspect of the essence of spirit.
Superior—An anatomical term that refers to a place on the body above or closer to the sky than the point or anatomical landmark it is being compared to.
Yin and Yang—Terms used to ascribe the two relative, equal, complementary, relative, and polar opposite forces of nature and the cosmos.
Yin—The earthly, physical, dark aspects of the universe.
Yang—The heavenly, ethereal, light aspects of the universe.
Zang/Fu—The Chinese term used to identify the organ networks of the body, of which the meridian channels are the energetic expression running through the cutaneous regions of the body, and the actual physical organs and their functions are the internal energetic expression. Zang refers to the yin organ networks or viscera, and fu to the yang organ networks or bowels.