The Interrelationship between Body and Mind

Blockage of the Heart Meridian — holding grudges.

Blockage of the Liver Meridian — anger.

Blockage of the Spleen Meridian — complaining.

Blockage of the Lung Meridian — sorrow.

Blockage of the Kidney Meridian — stress.

Blockage of the Pericardium Meridian — repression.

Blockage of the Gallbladder Meridian — anxiety.

Blockage of the Stomach Meridian — irritability.

Blockage of the Small Intestine Meridian — grief.

Blockage of the Large Intestine Meridian — vexation.

Blockage of the Bladder Meridian — despondency.

Blockage of the Triple Burner Meridian — tension.

Why can blocked meridians lead to various abnormal psychological and emotional states? Blocked meridians are a physiological phenomenon, while emotional disturbance is a psychological state; physiology and psychology mutually influence each other, and body and mind are interdependent.

Here the mind must refer to the manas, and only secondarily to the mind consciousness. However, when the mind consciousness at this time wants to control the abnormal psychological state of the manas, it is often very difficult; therefore it often happens that the mind consciousness does not want to lose its temper, yet the manas loses its temper anyway; whatever the mind consciousness does not want to do, the manas does anyway, and the mind consciousness can do nothing about it.

Whenever changes occur in the body, there are psychological reactions, which shows that the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can constantly know the condition of the body, discerning it very keenly; its power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) in this respect is not weak, and it does not necessarily need to discern through the mind consciousness. The vast majority of the time, the mind consciousness does not know what condition the body is in; it requires painstaking deliberation and perhaps may come to understand a little, or perhaps still cannot figure it out — many people, even when gravely ill, still do not know what is going on.

The manas is intimately connected with the physical body. First, because the manas grasps at the body, taking the physical body to be the self, even the slightest pain or itch in the body is important and worthy of attention, and hence there are all kinds of reactions. Second, because the manas issues commands and transmits information through the brain's neural tissues, once the meridians are blocked, the information cannot be sent out, and the manas will manifest various emotions. If one can cultivate to the stage of being unaffected by the aggregate of form, then no matter what condition the body is in, it will absolutely not affect the manas psychologically.