An Overview of the Twelve Regular Meridian Channels
We start the process of opening your meridians by tracing the pathway of qi through the entire twelve meridian sequence with beginning and ending points, following the direction of energy flow and the body’s major landmarks. In later sections we’ll break it down even further and go through each meridian in greater detail.
The Twelve Regular
Channels as One Meridian Flow
In order to see the whole rather than the part alone, it is useful to embrace the concept that there is really only one meridian. Qi energy flows through this one meridian, fulfilling its task of animating all the functions of the body, heartmind, and spirit.
As I describe the way qi essence flows through the body, I want you to begin to see the living expression of your life energy as it is expressed through the various parts of your body and the way in which those various body parts are a direct reflection of the tasks that you perform in life. As the qi of life takes on each of the various tasks of life, we find a fully interconnected holistic pattern of energy flow. In this flow, all the functions have all the energy they need. As we look at these varying functions, we find distinct qualities for each of the twelve regular channels, we see each as distinct “functional units” of energy, yet at the same time, we must always keep our mind open to the deep interrelationships of all the units into one whole flowing system.
Following the traditional trajectories of each energy flow along the surface of the body, from one functional unit to the next in accordance with the daily cycle of energy flow, and seeing how its pathway is a direct reflection of its purpose, we also find that where one meridian ends, the next one begins in close proximity. Like transfer stations in a subway system, connecting vessels between the meridians takes the energy from one channel to the next, making for a seamless flow. As a result, the twelve regular meridian channels link together into one meridian flow.
We’ll start with quick, broad brushstrokes, following the meridians in the classical direction along the daily cycle, to lay in the overall pattern of the one meridian flow. As we progress deeper in this work, we will explore the functions of the major body parts through which they flow and correlate these parts to the overall function of each channel. We’ll stop at many traditional points, exploring names, meanings, and usage as an illustration of the functional range of the meridian. As the journey unfolds, the multi-layered intelligence of the system reveals itself in profound and beautiful ways.
Think of the meridian system like a subway map of a modern city. Indeed in ancient China the system of qi channels in the body was conceived during what is now known as the Canal period of Chinese history, that is, a time when a canal system connecting the entire kingdom was created so that goods from one region could be transported to others. This transportation system assured the overall health of the whole kingdom by allowing each to draw from one another’s strengths in times of need. So too in the human body can we see that all systems working harmoniously together makes for optimal health. When one system is suffering, another stronger system can assist and support. The meridian system links all the working systems of the body into a coordinated whole.
The coordination of the body’s meridians isn’t willy-nilly but actually vastly sophisticated. Chinese philosophers observed many natural cycles, among them the natural rise and fall of energies of the day and night that correlated to the body’s natural functions. What resulted is what we know today as our internal clock or the circadian rhythm of meridian energy flow.
Thinking of the meridians as a series of one-way subway lines, let’s take a journey through the pathways, following the daily clock cycle as they move through the body. As you do this, become acquainted with the beauty, thoroughness, and sophistication of the channel system. Later we will fill in the details of each meridian’s range of functions. You’ll begin to awaken a deep and brilliant awareness of the way your body and all its systems work together in an intricate harmony.
Channel 1, Lung Line
We start our subway ride through the one meridian flow by jumping on the Lung line, a traditional starting place. The lung is said to be the most evolved of the internal organs, and it is the one whose functioning marks the beginning of our life journey as independent human beings, when we take our first breath. It’s a good place to begin.
The Lung line trajectory first manifests on the surface of the body in a point called the Central Treasury, our starting point. It lies on the front, upper torso, just under the clavicle, in the pectoralis major muscle just outside the second rib. From Central Treasury, the Lung line rises up to the clavicle, moves out through the anterior deltoid muscle of the shoulder (the front of the shoulder pads) to the front edge of the biceps, crosses the elbow crease, and runs down along the radius bone where you can see a color change line, from elbow to wrist. It crosses the wrist and runs through the muscle of the thumb to its final point, the Little Merchant, the last point of the Lung line at the base of the thumb nail.
Channel 2, Large Intestine Line
Following the daily cycle flow, the next manifestation of the one meridian is the Large Intestine. And so to continue the flow, we make a transfer from the Lung line over to the Large Intestine line. We hop on the line at its first point, the Yang Merchant, at the base of the nail of the index finger. From there it flows back up the arm along the brachio radialis muscle, crosses the elbow, rises along the upper arm between the bicep and the tricep, and crosses through the deltoid muscle into the shoulder (you can hear the squealing wheels of the Lung line running the opposite direction as the two lines come very close to one another in the shoulder). The Large Intestine line then crosses the front of the neck, passes through the jaw, and finally reaches the end of the line at its last point, Welcome Fragrance, a point just lateral to the nose.
Channel 3, Stomach Line
From there, we transfer to the first point of the Stomach line. We have to walk a little bit between stations from Welcome Fragrance to Tear Receptacle, the first point of the Stomach line just under the eye. From the eye, the Stomach line carries us down the face past the nose and the mouth, loops around through the jaw line (you can hear the mastication, as the teeth do the first job of bringing food into the body), and then rises up to the temple where we notice our mind deciding whether what we have is good food to eat. Having decided in the affirmative, the Stomach line then progresses down again passing through the throat, the breast, traversing the belly, and sweeping out to proceed down the front of the thigh into the leg. It reaches its final destination at Severe Mouth, the nail bed of the second toe.
Channel 4, Spleen/Pancreas Line
From Severe Mouth we hop over to the big toe to pick up the Spleen/Pancreas line at its first point, Hidden White. Here at the base of the big toe’s nail we begin our ride on the Spleen line. This line carries us back up the leg, right along the trough between the shin bone and the calf muscle into the knee joint, continuing up onto the front aspect of the thigh. It crosses over the Stomach line as it moves through the inguinal triangle at the hip and continues to rise up through the abdomen, into the chest, skirts around the breast tissue almost reaching up to the Central Treasury point, but then tails down to its final destination point, the Great Embracement in the side ribs in the sixth intercostal (between the ribs) space on the midaxillary (straight down from the center of the armpit) line.
Channel 5, Heart Line
We’ve now completed the Spleen line run, so let’s transfer over to the Heart line at the point known as Highest Spring to continue our one-meridian flow. From the Highest Spring at the center of the axila (the armpit), the Heart line cuts along the underside of the bicep, passes through the inner elbow, rides along the ulna (the forearm bone on the pinky finger side) to the wrist and hand, reaching its last point, the Lesser Rushing at the base of the pinky finger’s nail.
Channel 6, Small Intestine Line
Transferring to the next line in the journey is a simple hop across the nail bed of the pinky finger. We jump from the Lesser Rushing to Lesser March, the first point on the Small Intestine line. Beginning with the pinky finger, this line runs us back up along the ulna to the elbow, crosses into the triceps to ride up to the shoulder, crosses through the shoulder blade, curves over to the top of the back to the spine, rings around the neck to go through the jaw line, enters the face, and finally ends its run at Palace of Hearing, just outside the ear.
Channel 7, Bladder Line
From the Palace of Hearing, we have another small little walk to continue our journey through the one meridian. We need to cross from the ears to the eyes once more, this time to the inner eye and the first point of the Bladder line known as Bright Eyes. From this auspicious starting point at the inner canthus of the eye, we ride the Bladder line up the forehead, over the top of the head, and down the back of the head to the base of the skull. At the base of the skull the line splits into dual channels on each side of the spine, and flows strongly down the back in four lines (two on each side of the spine). The lines pass through many points in the back of the torso and careen on down the back of the thigh to rejoin at the back of the knee. The unified Bladder line then crosses down the calf along the outside of the foot and comes to its final stop at Extreme Yin, at the base of the pinky toe’s nail.
Channel 9, Kidney Line
Here at the bottom of the body, we’ll now need to make our way back up. In the one meridian flow, our next journey will be on the Kidney line. We take our transfer from Extreme Yin to Bubbling Spring, the first point on the Kidney line, found at the very bottom of the foot.
From there the Kidney line carries us up through the instep, to the inner ankle, up the inner calf, and into the deep inner thigh. From deep in the thigh, it crosses forward to the pubic bone where it carries us on a journey up the front of the abdomen, just a half-inch off the centerline. At the rib cage it widens out to the sides of the sternum, and we make our way to the end of the Kidney line at the Elegant Mansion, nestled in the edge of the sternum above the first rib and just under the collar bone.
So far we’ve ridden eight of the twelve lines, a full two-thirds of the journey through the one meridian flow. It’s nice to take a little rest at the Elegant Mansion before we continue our journey.
Channel 10, Pericardium Line
Take your time, remember to hold on to your transfer, and when you are ready we’ll take a little walk from the collar bone down to the breast. There we will find the first point of the next line at the Heavenly Pool, just an inch to the outside of the nipple. We note that this is the Pericardium line. Coming very close to the Lung line, the Pericardium line crosses over the anterior deltoid muscle of the shoulder, traces a course right through the middle of the bicep, through the middle of the forearm, crosses the wrist to the center of the palm, and finally reaches its terminus at the Central Hub in the belly of the flesh at the tip of the middle finger.
Channel 11, Triple Warmer Line
From the Central Hub, we simply skip with our transfer one finger over to the ring finger. Here we hop on the Triple Warmer line at its first point, Rushing Pass. The journey starts up the back of the hand, the backhand stroke of the arm, to the belly of the tricep, to the shoulder where we cross the great trapezius muscle and rise up the side of the neck. From there we travel behind the ear all along the hairline until we reach the temples where we cross over to the final point on the line, the Silk Bamboo Hollow at the end of the eyebrow.
It’s been a long journey around the whole body (a total of ten lines behind us), we’ve almost covered every surface region of the body from front to back to side, and now we only have two lines left to complete our journey through the entire one meridian.
Channel 12, Gall Bladder Line
With barely a half-inch to go, we transfer to the first point on the Gall Bladder line, the Pupil Crevice, just outside the orbital socket of the eye. And we’re off, for the ride of our life down the Gall Bladder line.
We now wend a jolly path back to the ear, up into the hair, back around the ear to the base of the skull, coursing back up to the forehead, then switching back over the top of the head again to the base of the skull, and down into the shoulders. From the shoulder, Gall Bladder line drops down into the torso to continue its switchback trajectory.
First it crosses the pectoralis and crosses over the Lung and Pericardium lines to points in the side ribs at the breast line. It then jogs out to the front ribs, just under the breasts in the seventh intercostal space. Next, it switchbacks again to the back and the tip of the twelfth rib, and then it crosses forward again through the waist to the front of the hip. With one more switchback it curves around the hip line to the dimple in the buttocks, and from there the Gall Bladder line’s tale of switchbacks settles down, and it runs straight down the side of the thigh along the ileo-tibeal band, crosses the side of the knee and follows the fibula down to the ankle, and makes its way down the top of the foot. It then completes its thrilling trajectory at the final point, Yin Portal of the foot at the base of the nail of the fourth toe.
Channel 12, Liver Line
Taking a deep breath, we’re ready for the last run of the one meridian journey. We make our transfer over to the great toe once more where we catch the Liver line at its first point, the Great Pile. From the Great Pile the Liver line carries us back up the body, traversing the top of the foot, up the shin, and back into the middle of the calf to the inner knee and up the inside of the thigh to the groin. Passing very near the Spleen line, it crosses the inguinal triangle veering out toward the tip of the eleventh rib in the side body. It then continues by narrowing toward the middle of the torso once more, running to the sixth intercostal space in the lower rib cage just under the breast in line with the nipples. Here the Liver line completes our entire journey through the one meridian at the final point, the Gate of the Cycle.
The cycle now complete, we can rest once more but only for a moment. From here our one meridian rises again to continue on from the first point on the Lung line. When ready, we transfer our attention over to await the next train out from the Central Treasury, and the flow continues.
The Keys to Unlocking the Pattern
As we look at this continuous flow from one channel to the next we see a fascinating repeated pattern as the one meridian transfers from a yin channel in the arm to a yang channel in the arm, and from a yang channel in the arm to a yang channel of the legs and from there to a yin channel in the legs, and back to the next yin channel in the arm. This pattern repeats three times over to cover all twelve of the regular channels of energy flow. The energy matrix is vast and detailed, and takes time to understand and assimilate. So, please don’t worry if you are a little confused right now. We will go over this pattern several times in several ways throughout the course of this book, and in the repetition of the basic pattern you will find your way into the system and make it your own.
Use the charts, do the exercises, find the points on the channels, and awaken a multi-dimensional understanding of the system. Learn to see the points not just in space but also in time. See them as treasure troves of information about the movement of body, heartmind, and spirit throughout a lifetime. When you can see the meridian channels not so much as nouns but as verbs, the system will begin to come alive for you. After all, it is a living system best discovered through your own felt experience. Following is an example of this multi-dimensional approach from my own experience.
I was once hiking in a beautiful tropical wilderness. I wasn’t wearing the proper footgear for the terrain; that day, I was wearing rope sandals! If I’d just been hanging around the beach, I would have been fine, but I was in the backcountry hopping from boulder to boulder. Sure enough, one particular boulder had a nice, smooth, inclined face, and my rope sandals turned into mini-sleds. I slid off the boulder to an eight-foot drop and I landed flat footed.
Oh, my ankle screamed at me! (It wasn’t both ankles, just my left.) Luckily nothing was broken; I could still hike my way out of that canyon but it was painful as could be. After my return to civilization, I went to a bodywork therapist who applied some brilliant acupressure to a point on my injured ankle. This particular point is on the Gall Bladder meridian. Now, the Gall Bladder meridian as we’ll learn below has everything to do with the acts of decision-making, responsibility, reliability, and to a certain extent, flexibility. As the therapist held this point, slowly the many stories of injury to my left ankle came up for review. It was like my ankle tissue was the repository for a cellular-level memory of a whole continuum of accidents and injury. And it became fairly clear fairly soon that each incident had to do with some level of rather poor decision-making on my part.
The healing revealed that it was time for me to finally take some responsibility. As the therapist stayed with the Gall Bladder point and all these memories came up for review, slowly the pain in the ankle began to release. At some point, moisture gushed out of the point like a spontaneous sweating, and then the pain was completely released.
The thing to note here about this healing is that the point was not just simply like a bad part in a machine. Rather it is a living, growing, evolving structure and function that changes, grows, adapts, and heals over time. When you begin to look at each and every point on the body in this way, you open up the capacity to truly come to know the pathways of qi as a powerful reflection of all the multi-faceted aspects of your life and experience.
Let’s explore this system in more detail by looking at the terms “yin” and “yang” and their usefulness in describing the nature of phenomena. Through this, we will also be able to see how an understanding of yin and yang helps us understand the manifestation of the various qi pathways and their functions.
Yin and Yang: The Great
Ultimate Nature of the Universe
Yin and yang are terms used to describe all the phenomena in the universe we see, feel, and experience, within, through, and all around. In the very earliest usage, yin referred to the shady side of the hill and yang to the sunny side. From this perspective, you can see that yin and yang are inseparable and co-create one another. We only need open our eyes and ears and feeling senses to awaken the personal experience of yin and yang in life. Yin and yang are the equal, complementary, relative, polar opposite forces of the universe. Together they make the whole.
In a basic body sense, think of internal and external aspects of your being. The internal we see as yin, the external as yang. Take a look at movement and stillness. We see yin as stillness and yang as movement. Extend that to active and inactive. A dormant volcano is yin, an active volcano is yang. Yang and yin complement one another and one does not exist without the other. “Yin” and “yang” are terms used to describe various observed and experienced phenomena and the nature of interconnection. Sleep is less active and therefore yin, and it is coupled with the nighttime. Wakefulness is more active and therefore yang, and correlates to daytime.
Now it is true also that in their co-creativeness, yin and yang are also infinitely divisible. We may say that night is generally yin, but within the night are the nocturnal creatures that become active. We would call this yang within yin. And so too, even in the daylight one may lie down and take a nap, and we would call this yin within yang. And in these examples I invite you to begin to open yourself to the idea that yin and yang are not absolute but exist upon a gradient that moves through time.
The day begins before the dawn with the breaking of the light in the east, and this movement progresses through to sunrise. Still the day is just dawning and then growing until it reaches high noon, and the shadows are at their smallest. Then as high noon passes, and the shadows lengthen, day is waning, and night is beginning. And so night begins with the long shadows of dusk, the setting of the sun, the lingering light deepening slowly into full darkness. And at the fullness of the moonless night, the stars shine out brightly until the sun approaching from the east once more calls forth the dawning of the new day.
The yang of day begins small, grows and grows to its fullness, and then wanes after its peak. The yin of the night also creeps up through the lengthening shadows, grows to its fullness in the deep darkness of the middle of the night, and then gives way once more to the yang rising of the new day. This whole cycle repeats and repeats and repeats in the roundness of life’s continuing flow.
You also see these gradual changes in the seasons of the year: the yang of summer gives way through autumn to the yin of winter, which gives way through spring to the yang of summer once more. And even in the winter we can have a summery day, (yang within yin) and in summer a wintry day (yin within yang).
We can also see this gradient in hunger and fulfillment cycles in our human life cycles. When we are hungry, we begin to eat, but the first bite does not satisfy. We continue to eat until we begin to feel satisfied, and then we eat until we are completely satiated. But as we leave the table, within a short while we may already be a little bit hungry, but we wait until we get a little bit hungrier still, until finally we are hungry enough to get food to eat again.
Emerging from these observations you see the yin-yang principle describing the three-part nature of flow: beginning, middle, and end; elder, middle, and youngest; child, adult, elder. Classical Chinese philosophy describes three aspects of yin and yang. For yin they are Tai Yin, Jue Yin, and Shao Yin—the greater, middle, and lesser yin. And for yang, the three aspects are Tai Yang, Shao Yang, and Yang Ming—the greater, lesser, and sunlight yang. Together these are known as the six divisions. They are the gradients of yin and yang, reflecting the way in which things change and move through time and space. These six divisions can be observed in many aspects of life. As we study the pathways of qi, they will show up for us here in the yin and yang gradients of the meridian channels in the front, back, and side meridian lines of the one meridian.
Yin and yang are continually chasing one another’s tail, following the endless principle of the way things change through time and space. Yin naturally becomes yang, and yang naturally becomes yin. As yin grows, yang diminishes, and vice versa. The channels of energy flowing through the body governing the various functions of our being are of both yin and yang qualities.
Within the twelve regular channels are six yin channels and six yang channels. The yin energies are more internal and relate to the internal functioning of our solid fu organs: the Heart, Spleen, Lung, Kidney, and Liver channels.
Figure 2: Here we can see the famous symbol of yin and yang is actually a flow chart depicting the movement of yin and yang energy transformations over time.
The yang energies are more external and relate to the functioning of our hollow zang bowels: the Small Intestine, Stomach, Large Intestine, Bladder, and Gall Bladder channels. These organ networks are further differentiated into the six divisions to distinguish from more superficial to deeper functions. For instance, the Lung and Heart channels are both considered yin but it is apparent that the Lung channel is much more at the surface of our bodies, interfacing directly with the air that surrounds us. The Heart channel lies deeper in the body, at our core, well protected from direct outside influence. So too, does a respiratory condition like the common cold seem more superficially distressful when compared to a condition of the circulatory system such as hardening of the arteries, or arterial plaque.
Remember in this discussion that there are only ten actual physical organs mentioned but twelve differentiated meridian functions. The missing pair of functions is worth special consideration on their own, and they represents one of the great gifts of Chinese medicine to the understanding of human functioning. They are the Pericardium and Triple Warmer channels. These two channels have no physical organ correlation (though the pericardium is often related to the muscle that surrounds the heart). We will explore the functions of this pair of channels in more detail later, but for now it is important to use them to make a distinction between meridians and organs.
A Meridian Is Not an Organ
A meridian in many ways is a nonmaterial energetic quality that has the task of animating and governing various functions in human life. For channels that do have a physical organ correlation, it is important to see that the organ was created in order to fulfill that function at the physical level. For example, consider Stomach: the stomach organ itself is responsible for breaking down food such that it is possible for the body to extract nutrients for biological functioning. But the Stomach channel is much more widely responsible for providing nourishment to the body, heartmind, and spirit overall. Beyond mastication and digestion of food, it is in fact in charge of the entire set of functions—acquisition, preparation, and delivery—of life sustaining product for the body. For that function to be fulfilled, many more aspects of the human form and function such as food crop cultivation, hunting, gathering, cooking, mastication, and swallowing, all are used to support the actual organ in the belly. These are all functions of the Stomach channel. Beyond physical food, consider also appetites we have for spiritual fulfillment, emotional support, intellectual stimulation, and sexual desire. All of these appetites are governed and animated by the Stomach channel.
The Pericardium and Triple Warmer channels also serve their own wide range of functioning in the human form, but what they have to do simply does not correspond to actual, physical organs. The range of functions they serve are primarily in the realm of protection for the body and overall regulation of all the systems including the immune system, blood flow, organ interactions, and the emotional and intellectual matters of interpersonal communication. As we study we might wonder: if there was no correlative physical organ, how did the Chinese know these functions even existed in the body? In the answer to this question we come to appreciate that Chinese medicine is not so much a medicine of form as it is of function. As a culture, they were not anatomists—indeed there were serious restrictions on cadaver dissection. (When we see the ancient drawings of the internal organs, we are often amused at the fanciful figures drawn to represent the organs. Yet many of the drawings are remarkably accurate.) The point is this: Chinese medicine is much more concerned with function rather than physical form. And to guide their understanding of function, Chinese physicians applied their understanding of yin and yang.
As we look at the nature of the six divisions of yin and yang in relation to the channels, we find ourselves looking at the body and three relative corresponding regions of the “front,” “back,” and “sides.” The front is clearly visible when we look at someone face-on, the sides when they turn sideways to us in a striding position and we view both the lateral and medial aspects of their limbs, and the back clearly when we look at them from behind. Though there are some variations on the actual locations of the channels relative to these general bodily regions, the channels and their yin/yang designations generally correspond to the areas of front, back, and side.
The Tai Yin (greater yin) (Spleen and Lung) and Yang Ming (sunlight yang) (Large Intestine and Stomach) energies can be seen easily when looking at the head on approach or “front” portion of the body.
The Jue Yin (absolute yin) and Shao Yang (lesser yang)—related to the Liver and Pericardium, and Triple Warmer and Gall Bladder, respectively—lie in the lateral and medial or “side” aspects of the body. And the Shao Yin (lesser yin) and Tai Yang (greater yang)—related to the Kidney and Heart, and Small Intestine and Bladder respectively—can generally be seen from the “back” view of the body. The upper aspect of the Kidney meridian, with its many points on the abdomen and chest, is the clearest exception to this mapping designation, but even so we draw from the Kidney channel’s location in the feet and legs and the kidney organs’ position deep in the posterior anatomy of the body that Kidney is indeed a channel of the “back” body.
As we have traveled through the one meridian and seen the way in which the energies of the various channels flow through the body, we may be wondering why they flow in the direction that they flow. The answer to this lies in the classical understanding of yin and yang flow.
Yin energies are the energies of the earth and are said to rise up from the earth into the body. Yang energies conversely are the energies of the heavens or cosmos, and are said to descend from above and course down through the body. To bring that understanding into the flow of channel energy in the body, we need to understand that in the Chinese anatomical position, the arms are extended up over the head. The yin leg channels begin at the feet and rise up into the torso, and the yin arm channels begin in the torso and end in the hands. The yang arm channels begin in the hands and flow into the head and face, and the yang leg channels begin in the face and travel down the body to the feet.
So now we can see that the yin arm channels begin in the torso and flow to the hands. There they connect naturally to the yang arm channels that begin in the hands and flow to the face. There in the face, the yang arm channels connect to yang leg channels that begin in the face and run down to the feet. And in the feet the yang leg channels connect to yin leg channels that begin in the feet and then travel back up the body to end in the torso, where they naturally connect to the yin arm channels once more.
This endless cycle from yin to yang to yang to yin, from arms to legs to legs to arms carries on, day in day out throughout the life cycle of the human being. With an understanding of this natural flow of energy we can begin to watch for signs of the natural flow being disrupted, identify the disruption, and restore the natural flow.
As we have explored the meridians in the order of this daily cycle, we have seen that where one meridian ends, the next one begins in near proximity, supporting the image of one continuous flow of life energy throughout the body. Applying the understanding of the six divisions of yin and yang to the twelve meridians, we discover this revealing pattern in the way the pathway flows from one aspect to the next.
Looking at these six divisions of yin and yang and how they appear in the meridian channels of the arms and legs and the areas of “front,” “middle,” and “back,” we discover the fascinating correlation between the functions they govern and the body parts through which they course. In doing so, we see amazing relationships between body surface and internal functions.
The “front” meridians naturally reflect things about us that are up front, the “back” meridians give us access to deeper aspects of self, and the “side” meridians relate to our flexibility and ability to move from side to side. The front meridians govern our boundaries and appetite, the back meridians relate to our self-awareness and deepest innermost feelings about life and death, and the side meridians govern our self-protection and decision-making faculties. The meridians flow through the body, one leading to the next in a continuous energy circuit, day in and day out for our entire lifetime. This one circuit of the twelve channels makes for one complete traverse of the yin and yang aspects of front, back, and side regions of the body, correlating deeply to the front, back, and side aspects of our entire life.
The Three Layers of Health
Thus the twelve regular channels give us a thorough mapping of the body’s subcutaneous energetic matrix and cover a vast range of the human functions. It is important to understand that the regular channels constitute only one major part of the whole system that the ancient Chinese pieced together to describe all the functions of life. To be clear, the regular channels do not cover the entire range of human functions. There are indeed other channel systems that together with the regular channels fully describe the many intricacies of human functioning. In Chinese medicine we additionally study twelve tendinomuscular channels, forty-eight connecting vessels, twelve divergent channels, and eight extraordinary vessels. In this book, our focus is on the twelve regular channels. Details of the other systems are simply beyond the scope of this work but bear mentioning so that you can see the full context in which the regular channels exist. A thorough working knowledge of all these functioning systems gives a deep and complete understanding of the entire range of human functioning, but because all the systems are interrelated and overlap, working with the regular channels alone can provide you with a most powerful tool for accessing all parts of your human experience.
To best understand the place of the twelve regular channels in the overall functioning systems of the human being, let’s look to the classical Chinese medical model of three layers of health. Seeing the three-part nature of things is a very powerful tool for understanding how things move and change over time and through space. Just as there are three layers of yin and three layers of yang, there are also these three layers of health. These three layers are known as the reflexive, the conditioned, and the constitutional.
The Reflexive Layer
The reflexive layer of health relates to our innate ability to respond to situations in which we find ourselves in an appropriate way. When we encounter something hot, we pull away. When we hear a loud and threatening noise, we jump. The tendinomuscle channels govern the reflexive layer of health. One could say that this is the most superficial of the three layers, but that is not to diminish its extreme importance. If your reflexes are compromised, it can put you in a very serious situation indeed.
The Conditioned Layer
The conditioned layer of health encompasses the entire range of our learned behaviors; the ways we were taught to behave in the various social and interpersonal situations in which we find ourselves. This layer is governed by the functioning of the twelve regular channels. You could say that this conditioned layer of health is deeper than the reflexive layer.
The Constitutional Layer
Finally, the third layer of health is the constitutional layer. In this layer we are looking at the range of functioning governed by our genetic and karmic endowment or predisposition. In short, it describes the inherent gifts we were born with and what are we meant to be doing in this lifetime with what we have been given. The eight extraordinary vessels govern this layer of health. And here it is easy to see that this might be considered the deepest of the layers of health.
With these three layers of health and the three channel systems correlating to them, we find powerful tools for understanding what is out of balance and how to best go about treating it.
As for connecting vessels, in many ways these can be seen functioning on all three levels, and the divergent channels offer a direct link between reflexive and constitutional layers, giving us the ability to respond in an instant from a deeply innate place. Ultimately all the systems overlap and interconnect, so in working with any one system the power of the whole is accessed as well.
Through this brief overview of the three layers of health, I hope I have given you a good idea of the power and usefulness of a working knowledge of the twelve regular channels of energy flow and how they fit into the picture of overall health. The conditioned layer of health and its many manifestations comprise the majority of our exploration here. So roll up your sleeves and get ready to ride deeper along our journey to help balance and harmonize the life conditions in which you have found yourself.
Developing yourself through balancing the flow of qi through the pathways can help you effectively triumph over adverse conditions and celebrate the arrival of advantageous conditions for all your life experiences. May this knowledge and wisdom help you flourish in all levels of your life experience, penetrating even the most difficult of issues and finding resolution and harmony for your greater happiness, wholeness, and well-being.