The Interrelationship of Body and Mind

When the Heart Meridian is blocked—holding grudges.

When the Liver Meridian is blocked—anger.

When the Spleen Meridian is blocked—complaining.

When the Lung Meridian is blocked—sadness.

When the Kidney Meridian is blocked—stress.

When the Pericardium Meridian is blocked—repression.

When the Gallbladder Meridian is blocked—anxiety.

When the Stomach Meridian is blocked—irritability.

When the Small Intestine Meridian is blocked—sorrow.

When the Large Intestine Meridian is blocked—vexation.

When the Bladder Meridian is blocked—despondency.

When the Triple Burner Meridian is blocked—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 mutually dependent.

This "mind" here must refer to the manas, and only secondarily to the mind consciousness. However, when the mind consciousness at this time wants to control the manas' abnormal psychological state, 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 it, and the mind consciousness is helpless.

As soon as any change occurs in the body, there is a psychological reaction, which shows that the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can constantly know the condition of the body; its discernment is very keen, and its power of wisdom in this respect is not weak—it does not necessarily have to discern through the mind consciousness. The vast majority of the time, the mind consciousness does not know what condition the body has developed; it requires painstaking reflection and perhaps can 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 closely bound up 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 tissue, once a meridian is blocked and the information cannot be sent out, the manas will manifest various emotions. If one can cultivate to the stage of being unaffected by the aggregate of form (rūpa), then no matter what condition the body is in, it will absolutely not affect the manas' psychology.