Solar Eclipse–New Moon in Scorpio on October 23rd, 2014

Sorry I didn’t see your post earlier.

Care to share what happened?

Whether you quit smoking or not, that’s not the important part.
The important part is whether you learned something new and interesting about yourself. 🙂

Maybe I’ll wait for you to share before I comment further.

S

Hi Fool Turtle,

OK. You asked. But be careful what you ask for. 😉
I’ll just pour out everything that comes to mind, and you can sift or ignore at your leisure. 🙂 I’m going to try to be comprehensive so that if this issue arises again, I can hyperlink this post for others. 😉

I notice you make comments about “thorns” and “getting rocked from the boat” . . . is that a subtle statement that you are expecting to be judged negatively? I assure you that my lack of immediate response was due to me being away from the forum and then subsequently my desire to write up a comprehensive response–not out of some “holding back” of a negative review. Even if it were true there were a negative judgment (fyi: there’s not), ultimately my opinion doesn’t matter in the slightest . . . no one knows *your* life, better than *you*. 😉

Let me take a moment to explore the nature of addiction to smoking a little bit. I’ve said some of this before, but it never hurts to repeat it . . . and then maybe give you some pointers as to how you can see new revelations in your own situation.

Ultimately smoking addition is the result of a defect in the liver (wood system).
There is an instability in the relationship between the virtue of kindness and the negative emotion of anger/frustration, both governed by the liver. This expresses itself in the form of too much negative hyperactive wood qi, and the liver is not appropriately transferring its excess qi in the creation cycle to the heart (fire system). Thus consequently while the wood system is hyperactive, the fire system is being starved.

Nicotine is the perfect medicine for this defect. Pharmacologically, it acts as a liver sedative. In fact, there have been studies done on “never-smokers” whereby they’ve been given nicotine patches and put in stressful situations. In such double-blind studies that included fake nicotine patches (controls), those folks with the active nicotine exhibited less signs of stress, frustration, and anger than the folks with the patches devoid of nicotine. In short, regardless of smoker or not, the chemical puts the liver to sleep.

It’s kind of like a screaming, crying baby. All you want is for it to be silent. So you give it a toy, and it stops screaming. Unfortunately, when the child gets tired of the toy, it starts screaming again. This is the addictive cycle. When you deliver nicotine to the body, the liver’s hyperactive energy is channeled into detoxifying this chemical. It is happy and content, so long as it is busy detoxifying the chemical. Eventually, the blood nicotine levels drop low enough that it is starting to run out of nicotine to detoxify. The liver starts to panic. It says “hey, what’s going on! where’s the nicotine that you gave me the job to detoxify? what am I supposed to do now, and is there something wrong?”. It starts screaming and acting hyperactive again, which sends alarm signals to the brain that tell you . . . “hey, you better hurry up and supply some more nicotine, because the liver is getting out of hand again and it is threatening to shut down the whole system.” “‘Getting things back to normal again’ is highly desired, so I’m going to make smoking (say) irresistible (the body says), so you can fix this problem.”

Delivering nicotine through smoking tobacco is an even more efficient delivery mechanism for solving this liver problem, because not only does the nicotine put the liver to sleep (calming it down), but the process of smoking brings in the fire element into the body, which the body is being starved of. So the body treats this as “manna from heaven”. There is absolutely zero reason why your body is going to allow any funny ideas from the brain that you are going to quit. It doesn’t matter how much your mind is determined, your body will overrule you every time.

Thus, in a strange way, “smoking” is NOT the problem. It is no more the problem than ibuprofen (that a person takes for a painful headache) is the problem. In fact, just like ibuprofen is “healing medicine” for the painful headache, so is smoking a “healing medicine” for the liver sickness. Smoking, itself, should not be judged as something “bad” . . . in fact, in this case, it is something good that your body desperately needs as medicine in order to provide relief from the sickness.

Of course, the long-term result of smoking is damage to the lungs and the possible manifestation of cancer (which is ultimately the end result of unhealed repressed anger) . . . however, it is not really the smoking that is doing this, it is the underlying unresolved liver sickness that is. The smoking is just really delaying the inevitable.

“Deciding to quit smoking”, when looked at from strictly the behavior point-of-view, is actually the wrong approach. For starters, it is focused on the symptoms, not on the cause. It also mistakenly treats the smoking as “bad”, when ultimately it is actually acting as a “loving healing medicine” to the body. It also creates a subtle tug-of-war with the Tao itself. Ultimately, “desiring to quit” is really a self-judgment that your behavior is “bad”. It reflects an underlying lack of self-acceptance and lack of “what is”. It is basically saying “I don’t accept myself the way that I am, and I (ego) want something different than ‘what I am'”. When you are sending a message to the universe “I don’t accept myself”, why would the universe respond back and support that? You see the problem? The more the mind is determined that “you need to change”, the more the universe, the Tao, and the body will create a counter-force to fight you every step of the way. You need to work with the Tao, rather than try to fight against it.

Native Americans have long used the smoking of tobacco as a spiritual tool to gain deeper insight into the deeper aspects of self and of spirituality. Like all tools, they have their place, and once it has achieved its goal, like all tools they are discarded without effort when no longer necessary.

What I’m basically getting at, is that I recommend you completely restructure your attitude toward your smoking habit from something “bad” to something self-loving . . . self-loving in the sense that it not only is providing you with “healing medicine” for your liver sickness but is also providing you with a rare opportunity to dive into deep aspects of yourself and root out disharmonious areas. I recommend you re-frame it in positive way, and when you smoke, to send a subtle message of “thank you” to both the tobacco leaf and your own body-mind for providing you with a form of self-love toward your own growth.

Does this mean that I recommend that you smoke forever? No, of course not. Instead, I recommend that you look at this as an opportunity to root out the underlying issues that you likely have been hiding from. The smoking is simply pointing out that you have lessons yet to learn. In that sense, it should be looked at with a sense of gratitude.

If you are able to root out the underlying issues, and restructure yourself to be more in harmony with your higher self, then your body will no longer feel the need to smoke. It will fall away on its own. Just like if you root out the cause of constant recurring splitting headaches, you no longer need the ibuprofen. So long as they haven’t been rooted out, and your body calls on you to smoke, then you should have the attitude that the smoking is a self-loving action not unlike the taking of ibuprofen for a headache.

I’m spending a lot of time talking about re-framing the attitude toward smoking as a positive thing, because while counter-intuitive, it is actually a pointer toward eventually letting it go! This is part of the paradoxical nature of the Tao.

Ultimately this lack of self-acceptance (say in the direct example of “wanting to quit”) is really a major player in the liver sickness to begin with. So let’s talk about that aspect a little more directly . . .

Now, I don’t know you, so I’m going to just speak about some things in a general way. They are more meant as a means of self-reflection and introspection, and not meant as any kind of personal review on you. There are many possibilities–some of which may pertain to you and some of which may not pertain at all–it is up-to-you to examine them and see if any relate to your situation. Ultimately the only one who knows “you” is you, so the answers can not in any true sense come from my comments. They can only help point you in a direction or give you a head-start to uncovering things on your own. So let me just list some of the aspects I’ve found that can be contributing factors, and just meditate on them and see if any resonate with you. Understanding is the first step; you can’t reveal your own inner truth and align with it until you do this.

As I said, the ultimate source is a defect in the wood system (liver). It is hyperactive, expressing itself negatively, and also not feeding its excess to the fire system (heart).

Here are some sources of this, some of which may apply to you and some may not:

1. Do you feel as if you are living from a true expression of your heart’s inner wish? Or do you feel as if you are doing things that you don’t want to do, simply because you feel “you have to” . . . either because you are afraid of hurting the feelings of others, or because you are afraid of what others might think of you if you behaved differently? If this latter case is true, then this creates an unresolved sense of frustration and anger that can not resolve itself. It creates a feeling that you need to repress your happiness. With this unresolved frustration having no place to go, the liver is hyperactive and has no means to “heal” its frustration. The only loving thing to do in this case is to “calm it down” and “put it to sleep” via smoking.

2. Relating to the kindness virtue of the liver vs. the negative frustration tension: Do you feel as if you are continually sacrificing your own needs, because you see that others “need your help” and so you give of yourself out of love for them, while meanwhile this sacrifices your own inner longings? This frustration that “others always need you” and you give into this, while continually ignoring what you need, is another source of unresolved frustration. Again, with no place for the frustration to go, the only way to silence the hyperactivity of the liver, is to give it medicine to put it to sleep.

3. Sexual expression and love: Wood is the energetic phase of the expression of sexual energy. This expression normally–in a healthy way–feeds the heart (fire system) to give you a feeling of love. Do you feel that you are unable to express your sexuality in a way that feeds your heart? When I say this–while it could have issues to do with sexual orientation–it need not be so prosaic . . . it could simply be that you have a deep yearning for sexual bonding to express love, and for whatever reason, you are not feeling satisfied in that arena. This inability to express your sexuality in a way that is a deep calling from your heart, starves the heart and keeps the wood qi unresolved in a turbulent way in the liver. Again, if this is an issue, then with this unresolved, the only way you can silence this frustration and help your heart feel love is by providing the love that the tobacco leaf provides without preconditions. Before you might dismiss this third item out of hand, you might ask yourself if you feel a deep sense of loneliness (which is a characterization of a starved heart). If so, there may be more truth here than you might be willing to at first admit.

4. Frustration surrounding “how you are perceived”: Do you often feel as if you are being judged? Do you feel frustrated that you are not “good enough”, or that somehow you have to hide who you truly are, because you feel that people won’t like you if they “knew the real you”? This is ultimately a frustration of “lack of self-acceptance”.

5. There can also be Scorpion issues here at play, of a burning desire to know the nature of reality, and the frustration that you have not reached enlightenment about the nature of life, death, the universe, and deeper meaning. The lack of acceptance that life is infinitely mysterious can be deeply frustrating for a Scorpion type, who yearns for the answer to life’s mysteries. Unresolved frustration–is again, unresolved frustration.

These above five items are–by no means–exhaustive, but I think you get the idea. At the very least they form umbrella items that cover a lot of deeper issues, and while I don’t claim that all of them apply, I’d be surprised if meditation upon these items don’t trigger light bulbs to go off . . . or at the very least, movement toward you finding your own truth. In fact, I’d be so bold as to say that virtually everybody has these issues to some extent, albeit they tend to be more intense with people who have found “medical solution” through smoking.

I would encourage you to explore these issues deeply and if there is any truth to what I’ve said–or at the very least if it points you to your own truth–I would encourage you to try to move toward making bold shifts to harmonizing these aspects, no matter how challenging they might seem.

In the meanwhile, I would not cast judgment on your smoking habit. Instead, treat your habit as a gift that the Tao has given you to help “force” you to address these issues head-on. When a craving arises, give in and give thanks rather than judgment for this behavior. When you have harmonized these issues enough so that they are no longer overwhelming, your body will not ask for nicotine anymore. But until then, don’t judge it. If a craving arises, don’t try to fight it and say “I’m going to root out issues instead” . . . at that point, it is too late, you basically just need to listen to the body (in my view)–the time for introspection is during the periods when your body is not wanting it. That’s also not to say that when you do finally let it go that your body won’t feel withdrawal, but the difference is, is that your body won’t care . . . you’ll pay as much attention to the physical withdrawal as you do the air that you breathe.

Now a few brief words as to your experience and to your oracle reading . . .

First, your oracle reading:
I don’t wish to try to analyze the entire oracle reading, as I’m not an expert on this divination system and moreover, I don’t really know “you”. Let me just point out two things:

The first positive thing listed:
>>>Of great importance to you now is…
>>>…joyful fulfillment of your desires.

I.E. This is “what you most want”. This again speaks to the heart feeling starved, and likely the underlying frustration that this is not currently being met.

The first negative thing listed:
>>>At the moment you feel most anxious due to your…
>>>…gruelling test of nerves.

The nervous system is regulated by the liver! The “stressful circumstances” it describes are all aspects of frustration, some of which I suggested in my itemized list.

Without getting into a whole analysis, it looks very likely that what I mentioned is a big player . . .

Now to your experience on the eclipse day:

It sounds as if you made some important self-discoveries. Perhaps just the tip of the iceberg? Ultimately I think you reached–through your own investigations–much of the issue that I’ve already gone on about. The lack of self-acceptance and the frustration surrounding it.

The only remaining questions are . . . how do you root out and resolve these issues that are causing you to feel a disharmonious connection? I don’t have a simple answer for this, other than to say that I can offer some suggestions that can help move you in a direction of greater harmony.

1. Spend time on the Inner Smile
Focus not just on the mechanics of the meditation, but try to get really deeply into the feeling qualities of the five shen–the vital organ spirits. Allow them space to speak their truths, but also convey the sense of self-acceptance and loving kindness–the same way that you would show love to child that is going through pain. Simply be there with no judgment, and allow whatever arises . . . to arise. Do not allow anger to turn inward onto the liver from some judgment that it is acting “dysfunctionally” (i.e. “you still want me to smoke”) . . . instead, treat it with loving kindness and offer your support. Let it know that you are here for it and that you will try to support it to reach completion on that which it feels it can not resolve. Do so in a way that does not reflect desire from a starving heart, i.e. one of impatience that it is not resolving faster or that it is “bad”.

2. Spend time doing grounding practices
Standing meditation, preferably rooted standing meditation . . . and Tai Chi, if you know it. The process of getting grounded becomes more cumulative with time, and as you get more deeply grounded, you become more able to “detach” from your emotional body and act more as an outside observer. This allows you (not to ignore or repress your emotions) but to allow them to manifest freely without being hooked by them, and thus you can provide more support to your inner body-mind in a neutral but loving way.

3. Investigate the possible issues I’ve raised in my itemized list . . . through introspection and through meditation. When such things are identified, strive to have the courage to make shifts bringing you into more harmony with the inner callings of your soul, regardless of what that may mean–or what others may think of you–living from a space of deeper truth.

4. Supportive qigong: This won’t necessarily address the disharmony issues, but will provide support as you do #1-3. Good choices are Primordial Qigong and Deep Healing Qigong.

I think I’ve probably given you well more than you ever wanted, probably even too much . . . so at this point, I’ll simply be silent on this topic and let you digest it.

ALSO: If this post is NOT helpful, feel free to ignore it.
No worries or judgments on my end.
In particular, I don’t *know you*, so anything I say doesn’t mean terribly much in the scope of life. 🙂

In other words, don’t take what I say too seriously. 🙂

Keep smiling,
Steven

Different hair corresponds to different organs.

The hair on the top of your head corresponds to the Heart.

S

Hi Fool Turtle,

I’m not exactly sure what your comments after the video were about.
Were they about the singer, or was it a subtle commentary about yourself in reference to my original post regarding the possible sexuality component in my tips of self-evaluation? No judgment either way . . . just unclear of your intention.

By the way, I find the “official” standpoint on homosexuality from various religions to be quite ridiculous. There is no one alive (or previously alive) that can know the nature of our existence, so some kind of judgment on homosexuality is mainly a combination of human ego, a thinly disguised self-insecurity, and some core immaturity.

Obviously it is perfectly fine, as it is here and is a natural manifestation of the Tao. How could it be otherwise?

If it does pertain to you, I suggest you release any self-judgments. You’d be much happier if you released that.

If it didn’t pertain to you, just ignore this.
I just wanted to reply via this post because I know that sometimes people have a cryptic way of expressing themselves on this topic, usually in an attempt to override some self-fear process of external judgment from others . . . and I try to pay attention what people are trying to say “between-the-lines” because often people want to be heard but are simultaneously afraid of this very same thing. 😉

Just as a general statement, not having anything to do with sexuality per se: There are 8 billion people on this planet, not one of whom knows the true nature of reality. If you meditate on this for a moment, you’ll recognize that the opinions of others don’t mean much at all. Often we give too much power to others by not recognizing this basic fact.

Live in your own truth without caring what others think about you.
Once you truly embody this, you have true freedom. Then self-acceptance is a natural consequence.

My best to you,
Steven