Actuality and Reality in the Buddha’s Teachings I was surfing the net and came across an image of two sign posts, each pointing in an opposite direction; one direction pointed to Reality and …
Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section
Thoughts about The Buddha’s Teaching: Seeing Without Illusion
18 JanThe Buddha placed primary importance on our thinking and volition. In fact, our difficulties arise when our thinking is unwholesome, in the past and in the present. Our citta or heart/mind is our kingdom or our own mentality. It is our private place where the swirl of thoughts continually passes across our mind. No one but yourself can know what truly goes on there. There is both privacy and the possible control to think the thoughts you want. You can choose which thoughts to accept or refuse. Whichever thoughts you allow will shortly be expressed through your volition in the outer environment. Once you think the thoughts, you can not take them back. Your choice lies in thinking or not thinking them in the first place. The more you think unwholesome thoughts, it is like taking a substance that will sicken you both physically and mentally. What your mind dwells on will sooner or later become your ‘world’ and you will attract those energies to you. To entertain and encourage thoughts and feelings of anger, jealousy, resentment, greed, etc., is certain to not only damage your health in some way but also cause a lot of trouble and suffering in your life. So the Buddha taught you to be Mindful or aware every moment onwards, to watch even your habitual thinking with utmost care and nurture and promote only wholesome and skillful thinking. May All Beings Be Well and Happy.
The Buddha emphatically declared that the first beginning of existence is something inconceivable.“When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When
this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases, namely: dependent on ignorance, arise volitional formations … and so on … Thus is the ending of this whole
mass of suffering.”There is a flux of
psychological and physiological changes, a conflux of mind and body (nāma-rūpa).Anamatagga Saṃyutta, S II 179
And even now in physics, they say that ‘Now’ is not something that moves forward but it is the empirically-always-present field of change which is the domain in which events are created. Therefore, the future is always indeterminate and creating new possibilities opening for genuine free will. Ruth E. Kastner
The young man said to the Buddha, ‘I will take up the Eightfold Path when I am older, but first I want to enjoy myself and have fun.’ Many people have this idea that by following the Eightfold Path they will be giving up things like intense sense pleasures and self-importance as well as riches and beautiful objects that they will regret not having experienced later. Instead this misses the big picture which is that what one truly comes to sacrifice by personal development through the Buddha’s teachings is selfishness, fear, alienation, insecurity, physical malady, unwholesome pleasures, pride, vanity, doubt, jealousy, self-pity, cravings, anger, hatred, etc. and, instead, what one gains through the Bhavana training includes immeasurably more happiness, peace, joy, compassion, bliss,serenity and vastly improved relationships with all sentient beings as well as oneself. So only giving up things that are not truly worth having and instead of gaining that which is, is the final ample compensation for proceeding diligently on the Eightfold Path until achieving Enlightenment.
The Buddha gave to all a practical method (Eightfold Path) for the development of the mind and heart for the shaping of our lives to eventually achieve Awakening or Enlightenment. He did not teach theology or doctrinal orthodoxy. The Buddha understood that all religious doctrines and theology are human inventions built up by the particular authors out of their own mentalities and foisted on people’s minds from the outside. Instead, The Buddha was the teacher who gave the lessons and, if we so want, we are the ones who practice sincerely what he taught and thereby develop our own insights and knowledge of especially the primary Three Universal Truths of Impermanence, No-Self and the existence of Suffering. In Buddhism, this is entirely a matter that each individual has to settle for him/herself. But if one makes the effort sincerely- the benefits appear immediately.
A wonderful and powerful practice is with especially people we have difficulty with but also all people- when you see or interact with that difficult person imagine seeing their living Buddha Nature and then you will see the layers and type of ignorance with which you are interacting. This practice is good for not only maintaining our own composure but also helps in our judgment of the difficulty of the situation. With metta.
The Realms or Worlds from ‘hell’ to ‘heaven’ are commonly described as extra-human realms but they are also instructive to us when viewed as all of our ranges of mental experience created by our conscious as well as non-conscious mental or cognitive processes.
Whatever we give our attention to, is what governs our life – mentally and physically. We have freedom in our ability to choose what we direct and maintain our attention on. What we consistently pay attention to becomes our ‘world’ and habitually dominates it. If we constantly direct our attention on the ever-changing, impermanent outer world we suffer anxiety and uncertainty; if we direct our attention on nothing in particular then nothing, in particular, is expressed in our life with uncertainty and boredom. If we direct our attention to the four divine internal states and eventually arrive at Emptiness we experience happiness/bliss, good health, compassion, wisdom and certainty in the Truth of the Four Noble Truths.
Metta (loving-kindness) is defined as follows: Loving-kindness has the mode of friendliness for its characteristic. Its natural function is to promote friendliness. It is manifested as the disappearance of ill-will. Its footing is seeing with kindness. When it succeeds it eliminates ill-will. When it fails it degenerates into selfish affectionate desire. Eventually, one can begin to practice loving-kindness towards a dearly beloved companion, and then towards a neutral person as very dear, or towards an enemy as neutral. It is when dealing with an enemy that anger can arise, and all means must be tried in order to get rid of it. As soon as this has succeeded, one will be able to regard an enemy without resentment and with loving-kindness in the same way as one does the admired person, the dearly loved friend and the neutral person. Then with repeated practice, jhana absorption should be attained in all cases. Loving-kindness can now be effectively maintained in being towards all beings.Ñanamoli Thera
However, those who believe in a soul only too often override the limits set by experience and concern themselves with “something completely unknowable,” as Bertrand Russell says. Moving along these wrong tracks of thought, they readily admit that all cognizable and experiential constituents of the “personality” are subject to constant change, to an unceasing rise and fall; and for that reason, they, of course, cannot be considered as an abiding ego. But it is, so they believe, just from behind or beyond the cognizable and experiential components of the personality that the true eternal self or soul appears which, naturally, must be beyond cognition and experience. What is wrong in such a position and in these conclusions, has chiefly to be attributed to the fact that an empty concept has been raised to the dignity of man’s true essence or core—a concept obtained by mere abstract ratiocination, having nothing in common with observation and experience. The futility of such a play with words has been shown by Kant. For him, a way of thinking that transgresses the limits drawn by experience is playing with ideas, and the alleged vision of something imperceptible is “a poetic fiction transcending everything imaginable, a mere whim.”The Buddha and his monks, however, are no dreamers chasing after metaphysical phantoms. They are sober realists who will not admit such groundless speculations even to the range of their considerations or refutations. Dr. Anton Kropatsch, Vienna
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all -Joni Mitchell
This is the true question that the Buddha’s teachings really address – ‘Do I Really Know Life At All?’ And in investigating the question, the answer becomes quite clear- for the uninvestigated mind, No…I don’t. All existence is much too complex, interrelated and deep for us prideful humans to truly comprehend and indeed mystery is the result. But this is not a defeat but an affirmation of our embeddedness and interrelatedness with All of other existence. Not the folly, alienation and separateness of the conceit of humans being the supreme being of the universe or even earth but the authentic identification of the true ecological, co-arising nature of all things. You will hear people say, ‘I am trying to find myself.’ But if you want to find yourself, then transcend yourself. When we transcend our-self, we truly find each other and our interconnection with all. We are not alone! Just look around you, there are creatures of life everywhere. If we feel alone, that is our blindness to life all around us, our suffering of alienation created by the illusion of separateness and ‘I’.
The Buddha understood how humans create “conceptual proliferation”- thinking, a representational and abstracting process that they believe and attach to. This is another way to speak about that:
When the animals evolved the talent to produce a virtual presence, they acquired a soul.
Then there was a God to be adored.
And an Adam was created.
As production of virtual presences increases, man’s tie to the Real decreases. Soon, he praises innovation and inhuman courage. He invents thrills and excitements. He relies on myths and mysteries. He downgrades Nature with a reckless chisel. Life becomes the Grand Illusion. With a facility in the manipulation of the virtual presences, the primal Superman was born. With perfection in the art, a second Devil took charge. It was then that man came to defy the God. The interminable conflict thrusting the virtual presences against the real intensifies. R. G. H. Siu
Upon Awakening the Buddha realized emptiness and the illusion of duality and a substantial Self- the consequences of the ignorance of dualistic thinking is expressed well in the following quote by Professor l. k. Tong-‘And so you opted for the substantialist’s art of self-making, Cutting off all umbilical cords to the Mother of Field-Being. You first dignify yourself in the kingly robes of an independent entity, enthroning yourself in the lonely kingdom of ego-substance. Then with the projective magic of your subjective substantiality, you objectify everything on your way to Godlike rigidity. And with the pointing of the substantializing wand, a bond was broken; a shade of mutuality has withered and waned. Now everything becomes merely external and separate from everything else. External is your objective world, you objectified a God, and your objectified self. Anything you cannot safely possess and control you relegate to the dark side of the Other, the Hell, the objective pole, And condemned it as ugly, or evil. Oh, in carrying your Godlike rigidity to all eternity (as if you were in fact rigidly eternal), you, a virtuoso in dualization, have created the most unhappy situation.’
In the Kalamas Sutta, the Buddha said, ‘Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.’
Many honest seekers today of the Truth, like the Kalamas, become confused and worried by the many conflicting and inconsistent sects and theologies that are pronounced daily by so many people calling themselves the ‘light to follow’. The Buddha provided a simple and direct test to guide us to know the truth of his teaching: trust yourself, your own experience, and through your experience of the correct teachings which you have found to be reliable and insightful – follow and use. Those people who are “the wise” will teach with the plan that you will see the benefit for yourself through your experience and transformation and not through blind faith and, therefore, you don’t become a slave to their wisdom, instead, you use your reason, your common sense, and your own experience as the ultimate guide and confirmation. So you develop insights for yourself ultimately. While you can benefit from reading books and listening to teachers, etc, your true reliance is upon your real understanding created through the real work that must ultimately be done in transforming and purifying our individual mind. In the end you know for yourself the confirmation of the Buddha’s teachings – there is suffering and the ending of suffering- and this is the only authority needed or desirable.
‘To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one’s mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.’ (Dhammapada 183.) Throughout human history, innumerable plans and schemes and doctrines have been invented to make people happy, serene and compassionate by making changes in human’s external conditions while leaving the quality of the mentality untouched and the result has over and over again been the same- failure. The Buddha taught that this failure is so because the very nature of our external existence is only changed by the purification of our conscious awareness. The difficulty for human history and never finding the key to happiness and compassion is that purification of one’s mind takes effort, diligence and devoted practice to be successful. We must have constant unceasing vigilance and mindfulness to break the old unwholesome mental habits which are so troublesome. The Buddha understood this but also understood the benefits that arise when we do the Eightfold Path with the result of Nibbana. ‘This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Nibbana.’— AN 3.32
To purify our mind as the Buddha taught, we need to release any anger or resentments toward others or our self. When we experience hurt, disappointment, deception, etc, from other people, these feelings sink into our memory and cause inflamed and festering emotional/psychological wounds of anger, resentment and possibly revenge. To purify our mind, we need to forgive. Forgiveness is a conscious, willing decision to release any feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. Forgiveness is difficult and it does not mean condoning or excusing offenses nor does it does obligate you to reconcile with the person who harmed you or releases them from accountability. Instead, forgiveness brings the forgiver peace of mind and frees him or her from corrosive anger and resentment. Forgiveness involves letting go of deeply held negative feelings but also maintaining a feeling of at least neutral goodwill toward everyone who may have injured you in any way. In that way, you to recognize the pain you suffered without letting that pain define you, enabling you to heal. By forgiveness, you set yourself free from the attachment to the link that you maintain even mentally to the past and the negativity. Setting yourself free from the attachment, releases you. This includes forgiveness of oneself for actions you did that you now understand was unwholesome and unskillful. Through purification and letting go of the guilt or resentment, happiness and peace will follow as well as increased wisdom and equanimity.
The Importance of Personal Refinement
14 Dec- This blog is about the topic of refinement in a personal sense.
I have read in different sources the difference between people who have developed a “refined” behavior, comportment vs. others who haven’t. For example, recently, I read a book on Haiku and there was a passage about Matsuo Bashò – the famous Japanese poet – in which he had expressed his thoughts on the nature of refinement and the nature of high art. He had written “Through the waka of Saigyò, the renga of Sògi, the painting of Sesshù and the tea of Rikyù, one thing flows. People of such refinement submit to nature and befriend the four seasons. Where they look is nothing but flowers, what they think is nothing but the moon. Perceiving shapes other than flowers amounts to being a barbarian. Holding thoughts other than the moon is akin to being a beast. Come out from barbarians, depart from beasts. Submit to nature, return to nature.”
I must admit that for some reason, when I was growing up, I had not learned well the importance and self-efficacious nature of refinement. I had approached the topic with suspicion and trepidation. I had associated it with pompousness, exaggerated ego and elitism. It appeared to be a behavior of the upper class not necessary or desirable for the working middle class. It was a bother like music lessons. Now I see this erroneous attitude of mine had to do with an understanding/approach to myself.
Growing up in the USA, a perspective I had learned was that I should be simple, plain, and not self aware to any great extent, not taking pleasure in the appreciation of my own development needed in personal refinement. Much of my distaste for personal refinement was a psychological attitude toward myself fostered by a Protestant ethic of simplicity, sameness and plainness. While I certainly was taught good manners and etiquette in my family as well as encouraged to appreciate art and music, etc, my mental block toward fostering personal refinement was the attitude toward the self. Simplicity was equated with simplicity of self as from a Protestant perspective. Now I see that as an American, the cultural linage from the Quakers, Amish, Baptists and other moral but stern Christian people have been a pervasive cultural baggage that significantly influenced my psychological development.
Max Weber had written extensively on the Protestant ethic and the following quote exemplifies this ethic’s approach to the Fine Arts. “But the situation is quite different when one looks at non-scientific literature and especially the fine arts. Here asceticism descended like a frost on the life of “Merrie old England.” And not only worldly merriment felt its effect. The Puritan’s ferocious hatred of everything which smacked of superstition, of all survivals of magical or sacramental salvation, applied to the Christmas festivities and the May Pole and all spontaneous religious art. That there was room in Holland for a great, often uncouthly realistic art proves only how far from completely the authoritarian moral discipline of that country was able to counteract the influence of the court and the regents (a class of rentiers), and also the joy in life of the parvenu bourgeoisie, after the short supremacy of the Calvinistic theocracy had been transformed into a moderate national Church, and with it Calvinism had perceptibly lost in its power of ascetic influence.
The theatre was obnoxious to the Puritans, and with the strict exclusion of the erotic and of nudity from the realm of toleration, a radical view of either literature or art could not exist. The conceptions of idle talk, of superfluities, and of vain ostentation, all designations of an irrational attitude without objective purpose, thus not ascetic, and especially not serving the glory of God, but of man, were always at hand to serve in deciding in favour of sober utility as against any artistic tendencies. This was especially true in the case of decoration of the person, for instance clothing. That powerful tendency toward uniformity of life, which today so immensely aids the capitalistic interest in the standardization of production, had its ideal foundations in the repudiation of all idolatry of the flesh.”
Also as David Kelley wrote, perhaps my coming of age in the ‘60’s had important consequences to my attitude toward the self discipline needed to refine one’s mental culture and behavior. “Rousseau hated the cosmopolitanism and refinement of Enlightenment life and vehemently criticized inequality, which he thought was an inescapable consequence of civilization. He offered an idealized image of primitive man not yet corrupted by civilization and of life in a nature not yet polluted by cities or machines. The source of those primitivist views was Rousseau’s antipathy to reason. He felt that emotion and instinct should be our guides to action. In this respect, he was the father of the 19th-century Romantic poets and of the counterculture of the 1960s, with its demand for sexual liberation, its contempt for “bourgeois morality,” its emphasis on self-expression rather than self-discipline. The Age of Aquarius sought release from the constraints of reason through drugs and New Age religions. Like Rousseau, it rejected the cosmopolitan modernism of the Enlightenment and praised the authenticity of primitive modes of life.”
Whatever the influences, it wasn’t until I started to explore other cultural points of view that I began to experiment with new ways of approaching myself. A significant influence for me became, and continues to this day, Buddhism with its emphasis on mental culture and etiquette as a means of better comprehending and relating to one’s self and the world. Etiquette became for me a practice which, in general, is concerned with the refinement of human behavior in its relationship with other human beings. Instead of being a system of self approval and haughtiness/superiority- ‘my etiquette is better than yours’-, it is a method of self refinement done in humility.
With my study and practice of Buddhism, I slowly began to approach my thoughts and behaviors in a manner that fostered refinement with humility. The results were satisfying which continued to encourage my practice. The use of meditation, esp. mindfulness, opened a new experience. As Robert Bogoda wrote, “The particularly important method of experiential verification necessitates consistent Buddhist practice—usually contemplation and meditation-as this refines the ability of a person to trust his or her senses through the cultivation of awareness and the implementation of mindfulness in everyday life. Buddhists posit that cultivated awareness is a requisite for trusting the information gathered from the senses, so that emotions and prejudices do not cloud one’s judgments. The refinement of one’s ability to accurately perceive the world and thus trust his or her senses is a primary reason why meditation is central to Buddhist practice.
Sati or bare attention is an important aspect of mindfulness. Sati is the objective seeing of things stripped bare of likes and dislikes, bias and prejudice. It is viewing things and events as they really are — the naked facts. The ability to do this is a sign of true Buddhist maturity. The principle of bare attention should be applied vigorously to everyday thinking. The results will be: clearer thinking and saner living, a marked reduction in the pernicious influence of mass media propaganda and advertisements, and an improvement in our inter-personal relationships. “
The Buddhist approach teaches that progress along the path does not follow a simple linear trajectory. Rather, development of each aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path encourages the refinement and strengthening of the others, leading the practitioner ever forward in an upward spiral of spiritual maturity that culminates in Awakening. Put briefly, it states that action is real, effective, and the result of one’s own choice. If one chooses to act skillfully and works to develop that skill, one’s actions can lead to happiness.
Now I think that refinement corresponds to sensitivity and comprehension. An increased sensitivity which of course also means an alteration in the self. The self is ‘entangled’ – (I borrow a term from quantum physics which means, ‘a system (relationship) containing two or more objects, where the objects that make up the system are linked in a way that one cannot adequately describe the state of a constituent of the system without full mention of its counterparts, even if the individual objects are spatially separated with the other.’ The division of self/object is absent and both are one interacting experience. It is a sense based experience.
From another perspective David L. Barnhill wrote, “Phenomenological hermeneutics focuses on experience, seeing it not as a subjective being experiencing an objective reality but rather a mutual implication of subject and object. That is, subject and object are not separate entities but part of a single field of experience, like poles of a continuum. What the author (for example Bashō) experienced was his particular being-in-the-world, not some objective reality. The text arises out of that experience and is itself a presentation of a mode of experience.”
Several examples of this experience are the following translations of a haiku written by Bashò:
Thinking to gaze at them, I drew extremely close to the cherry blossoms, making the parting ever so painful. trans. James Brandon
Gazing at them, these blossoms have grown so much a part of me, to part with them when they fall seems bitter indeed! trans. Burton Watson
“Detached” observer Of blossoms finds himself in time Intimate with them– So, when they separate from the branch, It’s he who falls…deeply into grief. trans. William R. LaFleur
So to conclude, I now understand better and value highly what Bashò wrote regarding refinement, however, I would not be so strong in my characterization of people who haven’t yet come to understand the significance and transformative nature of personal refinement –“barbarian”. I like better the terms skillful vs. unskillful.
O’ GREAT SPIRIT help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence. Cherokee Prayer
IS QI/Ki/CHI REAL or only a NEW AGE FANTASY? 2
14 DecTo continue this topic—
There is no longer any doubt that electrical currents do flow through the entire body in an intercommunicating network [54], and these electrical currents can indeed be detected as ultraweak magnetic fields by the SQUID magnetometer.
Acupuncture meridians were observed to have the properties of electrical transmission lines [46, 47]; by contrast, acupuncture points typically exhibit 10 to 100-fold lower electrical resistances compared with the surrounding skin. Acupuncture points may correspond to singularities or gaps between collagen fibres, or where collagen fibres are oriented at right angles to the dermal layer. Indeed, acupuncture points tend to be located along cleavage planes between muscles, or between muscle and bone or tendon [48]. Acupuncture points may also represent important junctions between channels and can thus simultaneously influence distant sites, as for example, sticking a needle into the acupuncture point at the side of the little toe could either be stimulating the eye to create signals in the visual cortex of the brain, or else it could be stimulating both eye and brain at the same time.
The conducting water channels in the connective tissues are continuous with the ordered hydrogen-bonded water proton wires – in the ion-channel proteins of the cell membrane. There is thus a direct electrical link between distant signals and the inside of every single cell in the body, capable of causing physiological changes inside the cells, including all nerve cells. This electrical channel of intercommunication depends on the mechanical continuity of the connective tissue matrix, a continuum that always changes as a whole. Mae- Won Ho
————————————————————-
It is important that you know about the progress that has been made by modern science in the study of Qi. This will keep you from getting stuck in the ancient concepts and level of understanding. In ancient China, people had very little knowledge of electricity. They only knew from acupuncture that when a needle was inserted into the acupuncture cavities, some kind of energy other than heat was produced which often caused a shocking or a tickling sensation. It was not until the last few decades, when the Chinese people were more acquainted with electromagnetic science, that they began to recognize that this energy circulating in the body, which they called Qi, might be the same thing as what today’s science calls bioelectricity. We must look at what modern Western science has discovered about bioelectromagnetic energy. Many bioelectricity related reports have been published, and frequently the results are closely related to what is experienced in Chinese Qigong training and medical science. For example, during the electrophysiological research of the 1960s, several investigators discovered that bones are piezoelectric; that is, when they are stressed, mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy in the form of electric current. This might explain one of the practices of Marrow Washing Qigong in which the stress on the bones and muscles is increased in certain ways to increase the Qi circulation.
It is understood now that the human body is constructed of many different electrically conductive materials, and that it forms a living electromagnetic field and circuit. Electromagnetic energy is continuously being generated in the human body through the biochemical reaction in food and air assimilation and circulated by the electromotive forces (EMF) generated within the body.
In addition, you are constantly being affected by external electromagnetic fields such as that of the earth, or the electrical fields generated by clouds. When you practice Chinese medicine or Qigong, you need to be aware of these outside factors and take them into account.
Countless experiments have been conducted in China, Japan, and other countries to study how external magnetic or electrical fields can affect and adjust the body’s Qi field. Many acupuncturists use magnets and electricity in their treatments. They attach a magnet to the skin over a cavity and leave it there for a period of time. The magnetic field gradually affects the Qi circulation in that channel.
Alternatively, they insert needles into cavities and then run an electric current through the needle to reach the Qi channels directly. Although many researchers have claimed a degree of success in their experiments, none has been able to publish any detailed and convincing proof of the results or give a good explanation of the theory behind the experiment. As with many other attempts to explain the How and Why of acupuncture, conclusive proof is elusive, and many unanswered questions remain. Of course, this theory is quite new, and it will take more study and research before it is verified and completely understood.
Much of the research on the body’s electrical field relates to acupuncture. For example, Dr. Robert O. Becker, author of The Body Electric, reports that the conductivity of the skin is much higher at acupuncture cavities and that it is now possible to locate them precisely by measuring the skin’s conductivity. Many of these reports prove that the acupuncture which has been done in China for thousands of years is reasonable and scientific.
Although the link between the theory of the Body Electric and the Chinese theory of Qi is becoming more accepted and better proven, there are still many questions to be answered. For example, how can the mind lead to Qi (electricity)? (Of course, we know that there is no separation of mind/body- so there is no mystery- Rodger)How actually does the mind generate an EMF (electromotive force) to circulate the electricity in the body? How is the human electromagnetic field affected by the multitude of other electric fields which surround us, such as radio wiring or electrical appliances? How can we readjust our electromagnetic fields and survive in outer space or on other planets where the magnetic field is completely different from the earth? You can see that the future of Qigong and bioelectric science is a challenging and exciting one. It is about time that we started to use modern technology to understand the inner energy world which has been for the most part ignored by Western society.
This article is a direct translation of text from the book Taijiquan, Classical Yang Style by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming. YMAA 1999
theoretical incompleteness
14 Dec- That the human mind does not perceive what is “there”, but what it believes should be “there”. H. von Foerster
- “The Theory is only proposing a more detached view of the place in which our Consciousness is spacing; it is meant to be a more holistic kind of Physics. On the other hand, we must accept the fact that all theories, including the present one, are only approximations of the Truth. Only if Man had an infinite mind he/she would be able to grasp Total Reality. By just verbalizing something, we have already approximated it. Math comes closer, but it is still an approximation, because Nature has too many domains from which it emanates. The fact that it is open-ended at its outer edge doesn’t allow us to take seriously any Theory of Everything.”R. Lampis
- Thus it is most likely the case that no human endeavor is immune to theoretical incompleteness. This would then imply that any idea or concept cannot be completely defined, axiomatized or contextualized. It would also mean that a general correspondence theory of truth is unattainable and, moreover, that the notion of truth, itself, is undefinable. J.Mathen
- Vasubandhu writes “Thought involves a transformation of consciousness. For that reason, what has been thought does not exist. Therefore, all this is mere concept.” There is no denial of an object here. What is denied is the existence of a real object that is reflected “as it is” in consciousness. The fact that consciousness, while reflecting the object, has passed through several transformations makes it impossible for the object to be known “as it is.” For this reason, all that is available is a “concept” (vijnapti), not an ultimate reality or substance, either in oneself or in the world of experience. D.J. Kalupahana
- Basic reality, i.e., reality which exists independently of the observer, is in principle not accessible in any DIRECT WAY. Rather, it is observable or describable by means of pictures on different levels, i.e., levels of reality. W. Schommers
- Everything is located in the head, not only the products of fantasy and scientific laws, but those things which we understand as “hard” objects. This is because we do not have the “hard” objects actually in front of us but “only” their pictures. W. Schommers The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment. B. d ‘Espagnat
- When we reflect we abstract, that is, we divert attention from all that does not concern our purpose, and we generalize and construct in reflection only under the logical conceptions which are appropriate from our standpoint. Thus we study a living being from one or another outlook. It is sheer fallacy to assume that because one of those views is itself justified the others are therefore false. Reality is more than what in each case it has taken by abstraction to be, and if it is so no single order of conceptions is adequate to complete explanation. Viscount Haldane
- “The entire universe has to be understood as a single, undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status.” Bohm
- The reason we see our world as we do is because of what we use to observe it. The human body is a just barely adequate measuring device. Quantum mechanics does not always wash itself out, but to observe its effects for larger and larger objects we would need more and more accurate measurement devices. We just do not have the sensitivity to observe the quantum effects around us. In essence we do create the classical world we perceive, and as Brukner said, There could be other classical worlds completely different from ours. Brukner and Kofler
- There must exist, beyond mere appearances (…) a ‘veiled reality’ that science does not describe but only glimpses uncertainly. In turn, contrary to those who claim that matter is the only reality, the possibility that other means, including spirituality, may also provide a window on ultimate reality cannot be ruled out, even by cogent scientific arguments.” B.d’Espagnat
- David H. Wolpert, a physics-trained computer scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, has chimed in with his version of a knowledge limit. Because of it, he concludes, the universe lies beyond the grasp of any intellect, no matter how powerful, that could exist within the universe. Specifically, during the past two years, he has been refining a proof that no matter what laws of physics govern a universe, there are inevitably facts about the universe that its inhabitants cannot learn by experiment or predict with a computation.
- Continuous time then appears epistemologically as a heuristic abstraction just as are ALL concepts describing reality. H.D.Zeh
- As Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, puts it: “That your predictions about the universe are fundamentally constrained by you yourself being part of the universe you’re predicting, always seemed pretty obvious to me.”
- According to classical physics, the universe consists of bodies in space. We are tempted to assume, therefore, that we live in a physical world consisting of bodies in space and that what we perceive consists of objects in space. But this is very dubious. J.J.Gibson
- The objective reality of the universe, if such can be supposed to exist, must forever be unknowable to Man as to Microbe. Wei Wu Wei We are only aware of that aspect of the universe of which the senses we possess are able to inform us. Wei Wu Wei
- A man has six senses – as oriental psychology has always understood – for he is aware of that aspect of the universe which is his mind. If we had further senses we may suppose that we should become aware of further aspects of the universe. To imagine that the universe is restricted to that of which we are aware is probably as ill-founded in our case as in that of the insect. Wei Wu Wei
- In this post-modern world we must update the old positivistic, reductionist, deterministic, non-duality paradigms. Rodger
- Bohm termed the world of the “implicate order”. While the explicate order deals with seperateness and independence, the implicate order is holistic and mutually enfolding. To lapse into “explicate language” for a moment, the implicate order is much vaster than the explicate. It is like a great ocean reaching below the surface of the explicate. The fact that our world appears stable is not so much that objects remain static in our world, but that the same patterns are constantly being born again only to die away as fast as thought.Only limited aspects of the implicate order can be made explicit, one at a time. Thus the entire implicate can never be totally accounted for. F. David Peat
- …all knowledge in the conscious content is a differentiated system that cannot by definition articulate the universal principle of order. M Kafatos, R Nadeau
- The observer as an observer necessarily always remains in a descriptive domain, that is, in a relative cognitive domain. No description of an absolute reality is possible. Such a description would require an interaction with the absolute to be described, but the representation which would arise from such an interaction would necessarily be determined by the autopoietic organization of the observer, not by the deforming agent; hence, the cognitive reality that it would generate would unavoidably be relative to the knower. H.R. Maturana
- Somewhat ironically, science, having set out to know the ultimate nature of reality, is discovering that not only is this world beyond any direct experience, it may also be inherently unknowable P. Russell
- Human thinking can only imagine reality, just as a portrait represents a person. And as a portrait is not “the person” it represents, likewise any theory is not “the reality” it describes. We then must humbly recognize that our minds’ coherence and logic do not necessarily match the consistency of reality. And that also entails that reality does “occur” and that we cannot conclude it is an “illusion of our minds” simply because we cannot make sense of it. Henri Salles
- If the thing and the thought about it have their ground in the one undefinable and unknown totality of flux, then the attempt to explain their relationship by supposing that the thought is in reflective correspondence with the thing has no meaning, for both thought and thing are forms abstracted from the total process. The reason why these forms are related could only be in the ground form from which they arise, but there can be no way of discussing reflective correspondence in this ground, because reflective correspondence implies knowledge, while the ground is beyond what can be assimilated in the context of knowledge. D. Bohm
- “When you perceive intelligently, you always perceive a function, never an object in the physical sense. Cameras always register objects, but human perception is always the perception of functional roles. The two processes could not be more different…. Stanislaw Ulum
- The primary source of our confusion in analyzing the results of the experiments testing Bell’s inequality is that we have committed what Whitehead termed “fallacy of misplaced concreteness”. We have accepted abstract theoritical statements about concrete material results in terms of single categories and limited points of view as totally explanatory. The fallacy is particulary obvious in our dealings with the results of the Aspen and Gisin experiments. Although the results infer wholeness in the sense that they show that the conditions for these experiments constitute an unanalyzable and undissectible whole, the abstract theory that helps us to coordinate the results cannot in principle disclose this wholeness. Since the abstract theory can only deal in complementary aspects of the complete reality disclosed in the act of measurement, that reality is not itself, in fact or in principle, disclosed…. With the discovery of nonlocality, it seems clear that the whole is not identical to the sum of its parts and that no collection of parts, no matter how arbitrarily large, can fully disclose or define the whole. R. Nadeau,M.Kafatos
- …WE ARE LED TO UNDERSTAND NATURE IN TERMS OF AN INEXHAUSTIBLE DIVERSITY AND MULTIPLICITY OF THINGS, ALL OF THEM RECIPROCALLY RELATED AND ALL OF THEM NECESSARILY TAKING PART IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING, IN WHICH EXIST AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF RELATIVELY AUTONOMOUS AND CONTRSDICTORY KINDS OF MOTIONS. AS A RESULT NO PARTICULAR KIND OF THING CAN BE MORE THAN AN ABSTRACTION FROM THIS PROCESS, AN ABSTRACTION THAT IS VALID WITHIN A CERTAIN DEGREE OF APPROXIMATIONS, IN DEFINATE RANGES OF CONDITIONS, WITHIN A LIMITED CONTEXT, AND OVER A CHARACTERISTIC PERIOD OF TIME. SUCH AN ABSTRACTION EVIDENTLY CANNOT REPRESENT AN ABSOLUTE TRUTH; FOR TO DO THIS IT WOULD HAVE TO BE VALID WITHOUT APPROXIMATIONS, UNCONDITIONALLY, IN ALL POSSIBLE CONTEXTS, AND FOR ALL TIME. HENCE, ANY PARTICULAR THEORY WILL CONSTITUTE AN APPROXIMATE, CONDITIONAL, AND RELATIVE TRUTH….(NATURAL) LAWS HAVE AN OBJECTIVE CONTENT, IN THE SENSE THAT THEY REPRESENT SOME KIND OF NECESSITY THAT IS INDEPENDENT OF OUR WILLS AND OF THE WAY IN WHICH WE THINK ABOUT THINGS. D.BOHM
quotes about Unity of mind/body, consciousness, universe, 6th sense,synchronicity,choice, intention
14 Dec
..an order parameter isomorphism connects mind and body, will and brain, mental and neural events. Mind itself is a spatiotemporal pattern that molds the metastable dynamic patterns of the brain. Mind-body dualism is replaced by a single isomorphism, the heart of which is semantically meaningful pattern variables…. we sould take Sherrington’s “enchanted loom” image of the brain very seriously indeed. To provide a comprehensive online resource for those interested in learning about a sixth sense we call the squiggle sense. Why? Although all human beings possess the squiggle sense, most are unaware that they do. JA Scott Kelso
Choice is the degree of freedom of potential action of a quantum coherent organism which is maximally spontaneous and free. Rodger
The “self” is a representation of the autopoietic life experience of the quantum coherent human organism. Rodger
The “mind” is not distinct from the body. There is no mind/body dualism. The mind is the embedded consciousness of the quantum coherent organism. Therefore, the “mind” is intimately responsive to the physical aspects of the body-at all levels. Rodger
Intention is the innate autopoietic matrix of the quantum coherent organism. Rodger
Can’t have our cake and eat it too: The price we pay for living/activity is the arrow of time. Rodger
Consciousness emerges as a manifestation of the dissipative quantum dynamics of the brain. Professor Abrams
What does all this mean for consciousness? It simply means that reality, as empirically and mathematically demonstrated, does not exist in terms of a separately existing thing from which we take data. It means that reality is a question of a great number of configurations in which consciousness, the measuring device, and the thing measured exist in a configuration in which consciousness is an innate and intimate element. It means,… that consciousness is a necessary and original aspect of the universe as a whole and that consciousness is not merely an epiphenomenon piled on top of some material complexity, but that it was always already there in some aspect yet to be determined; … it means that the intuition of Nietzsche, the cosmic will to power, as described in Beyond Good and Evil, section 36, reflects a quantum mechanical view of the world. Nietzsche’s BGE 36 does nothing less than raise the question, consistent with the cosmology of his cosmic will to power, of the inseparability of perception from the material-energetic universe, a world which is not really external anymore–… it is, I believe, the most astonishing page in the history of philosophy… This is an ontology in which the stuff of the universe, whatever we may call it, has the element of consciousness. You cannot understand this statement if you insist on adhering to the idea of local and pre-existing reality for which you have been prepared by 2500 years of Platonism. What does this have to do with the macroscopic world? Let us turn to the idea of “coarse-graining”, a good introduction is found in Gell-Mann’s The Quark and the Jaguar. And let us remember that reality exists as a series of configurations and not as pre-existing and absolute local reality on which we will exercise our unprejudiced, scientific method. To put it another way–there are a great number of parallel universes and no original created and absolutely existing universe to which we blithely apply the scientific method in order to find out the truth. William Plank
It is clear that in some way, human nature is nature observing itself. This involves a self-referential recursion that must somehow be drawn from the wellsprings of its own nature. Human beings can be thought of quite literally as the complementary nature observing itself. This indicates that nature must entail some kind of non trivial self-reference. JA Scott Kelso,DA Engstrom
The universe must be self-reflectively aware of itself as reality-in-itself to manifest the order that is a prior condition for all manifestation of being. Since consciousness in its most narrow formulation for human beings can be defined as self-reflective awareness founded upon a sense of internal consistency or order, we can safely argue that the universe is, in this sense, conscious. Complementary constructs appear to be as fundamental to our conscious constructions of reality in ordinary and mathematical languages as they are to the unfolding of progressive stages of complexity in physical reality. The suggestion is that human consciousness infolds within itself the fundamental logical principle of the conscious universe, and is thereby enabled to construct a view of this universe in physical theory which describes the unfolding of the cosmic order at previous stages in the life of the cosmos. M Kafatos, R Nadeau
Reality… is pictured as a limitless series of levels which extend to deeper and deeper subtleties and out of which the particular, explicate order of nature and the order of consciousness and life emerge. Synchronicities can therefore be thought of as an expression of this underlying movement, for they unfold as patterns of thoughts and arrangements of material processes which have a meaningful conjunction when taken together. F.D. Peat
In discussing singularity,”…the expansion is better envisaged as that of space itself, carrying the galaxies along for a ride. So when all the matter of the Universe was gathered together, that was because the space between galaxies was shrunk(or rather, not yet expanded). Space itself, and time, were created, like matter, in the big bang; there was no ‘outside’ into which the explosion expanded.”Davies/Gribbin
“In physics, combination of space and time used in the theory of relativity. When developing relativity, Albert Einstein showed that time was in many respects like an extra dimension (or direction) to space. Space and time can thus be considered as entwined into a single entity, rather than two separate things.” Dictionary
“Within other rhetorical contexts, Dogen goes to equate time with one’s body and mind, ….These kinds of identification between time and the world suggests that space and time are inseparably interconnected and interpenetrate each other. In fact, Faure observes that Dogen’s ontologization of time is simultaneously a spatialization of it.”C.Olson
“The space/time continuum -A very simple definition: space and time considered together as one entity.”D. Faige
“The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.” –Hermann Minkowski
“This being present, that arises; without this, that does not occur. Everything is interconnected. If you were not, at this moment, and did not tie up or ever tie up all the aggregates or constituents that make you up, then those aggregates or constituents either might not have ever existed, or if they did, would be split up and used somewhere else, bumping everything from where it is to some other place…because if you were not, that is, never existed, then everything and every part that ever proceeded leading up to you being you would not have unfolded the way it has or be where it is or was or be impacted by what you are or have done or will do.”
It (psychological phemomena)is, surely, an ecology(Gibson), a synergy( Haken), a Gestalt(koffka), a coalition (Shaw&Turvey), a communion(Buddhism) – a deep and inextricable interaction between organism and environment (if such a distinction is accepted, for reasons of scientific analysis. P. Treffner
Healthy Organs -Liver
12 DecTwo events promoted me to write this bog. First, in my last blog on Traditional Chinese Medicine, I was interested in how TCM places great importance to the health of the organs of the body through both diet and exercise. I noticed how this approach was quite different from the typical, popular health exercise and diet discussion in the USA and other western countries which almost never discusses the health of the body’s organs. However, I believe that the TCM perspective is valuable and so I decided to further explore what exactly Western health experts say about organ wellness.
Secondly, the other day I was talking to a friend about healthy living and I commented on how most Western health exercise programs emphasize only muscle/skeletal and in general cardio vascular exercise for fitness. I said we also need to be aware of the health of the body’s organs because actually most of serious health problems are located in the organs not in our muscle-skeletal system. My friend laughed and said “The organs, what can you do for the organs?” so, for the above two reasons, this blog explores what the American experts say about it.
If you need more info about this topic contact your health care professional.
Ways to Take Care of Your Liver
Health Lifestyle Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly help the liver to work well. Eating an unhealthy diet can lead to liver disease. For example, a person who eats a lot of fatty foods is at higher risk of being overweight and having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Eat foods from all the food groups: grains, protein, dairy, fruits, vegetables.
Eat foods that have a lot of fiber such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, rice and cereals
Limit the Amount of Alcohol You Drink Alcohol can damage or destroy liver cells. Liver damage can lead to the buildup of fat in your liver (fatty liver), inflammation or swelling of your liver (alcoholic hepatitis), and/or scarring of your liver (cirrhosis). For people with liver disease, even a small amount of alcohol can make the disease worse. Talk to your doctor about what amount of alcohol is right for you.
Manage Your Medications When medicines are taken incorrectly – by taking too much or the wrong type or by mixing – the liver can be harmed.
- Learn about medicines and how they can affect the liver
- Follow dosing instructions
Talk to a doctor or pharmacist often about the medicines you are taking
Avoid Breathing in or Touching Toxins Toxins can injure liver cells.
- Limit direct contact with toxins from cleaning and aerosol products, insecticides, chemicals, and additives in cigarettes
Do not smoke
- Take care with aerosol sprays. When you use an aerosol cleaner, make sure the room is ventilated, or wear a mask. Take similar protective measures when spraying insecticides, fungicides, paint and other toxic chemicals. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Watch what gets on your skin. When using insecticides and other toxic chemicals, cover your skin with gloves, long sleeves, a hat and a mask. Wash off any chemicals you get on your skin with soap and water as soon as possible.
- Eating healthy foods for the liver can improve and support liver function on a daily basis. Having a healthy liver results in greater energy and general well-being.
- A poorly functioning liver can result in tiredness, headaches, bad breath, allergies and intolerances, problem skin and weight gain.
Foods that are healthy for the liver fall into two main categories.
- First are those that promote the detoxification process of the liver. And second, are those that are high in antioxidants and therefore protect the liver while it’s carrying out its detoxification processes. Below is a list of the top eight foods that are considered to be good for your liver.
- GARLIC and ONIONS.
- Garlic contains allicin which is a sulphur-based compound needed by the liver for effective detoxification. Garlic helps the liver rid the body of mercury, certain food additives and the hormone oestrogen.
- CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage).
- These vegetables are very powerful detoxifiers of the liver. They contain chemicals that neutralize certain toxins such as nitrosamines found in cigarette smoke and aflotoxin found in peanuts. They also contain glucosinolates that help the liver to produce enzymes it needs for its detoxification processes.
- FRESHLY SQUEEZED LEMON IN HOT WATER.
- Drinking freshly squeezed lemon juice in a cup of boiled water first thing in the morning helps to cleanse the liver and promote detoxification. It also stimulates bile production, cleanses the stomach and bowel and stimulates a bowel motion.
- BEETROOT (BEETS). It’s a blood-purifying tonic that is also capable of absorbing heavy metals.
- HIGH-ANTIOXIDENT FRUITS.
- In a study done by the US Department of Agriculture at Tuffs University, it was found that the following list of fruits had the highest levels of antioxidants (in descending order): Prunes, raisons, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, plums, oranges, pink grapefruit, cantaloupe, apples and pears. Antioxidants help to protect the liver from the high levels of free radicals that are naturally produced during the process of detoxification.
- APPLES.
- Apples contain pectin that bind to heavy metals in the body (in particular in the colon) and help their excretion. This reduces the load on the liver and its detoxification capacities.
- ARTICOKE.
- Increases bile production. One of the jobs of bile is to remove toxins through the bowel, as well as ‘unfriendly’ micro-organisms. It has been suggested that 30 minutes after eating globe artichoke, bile flow is increased by over 100%.
Artichoke contains both liver-protective/restorative powers. It acts as a blood purifier and has been proven in clinical studies to lower cholesterol, triglyceride levels and other metabolic waste products
- BITTER LEAFY SALAD GREENS (dandelion, chicory, endive, rocket).
- The bitterness of these foods helps to stimulate bile flow within the liver.
Top 10 tips for a Healthy Liver and Lymph
Your liver has many functions; stores certain vitamins, minerals and sugars for use as fuel, cleanses/filters the toxins out of your blood and controls the production/excretion of cholesterol. Your overall health and vitality, to a great extent, depends upon the health of your liver. The thousands of enzyme systems that control virtually everybody activity are created there. If your liver fails to create even one of these enzymes, overall body function is impaired, creating greater metabolic stress on your body.
THE LYMPH composed of Lymph fluid consists of; the ’tissue fluid’ in which all of our cells are bathed, and the fluid within the ‘lymph vessels’. These are ‘blood vessel’ like tubes, which connect the lymph glands of the body. The Lymphatic System is also called the Immune System.
Modern lifestyles can overstress your liver. Alcohol, tobacco, environmental pollutants, food additives, agricultural pesticides, popular cosmetic ingredients, common household products, stress, pharmaceutical and OTC (over-the-counter) drugs (including oral contraceptives and caffeine), gallstones, home repair materials, artist materials, garden chemicals and building materials can all kill liver cells.
Symptoms of liver imbalance include headaches, bruising easily, anxiety, depression, confusion, fatigue, jaundice, impaired libido (sex drive) and mental function, food allergies, multiple chemical sensitivities and PMS, as well as conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. When your liver is damaged it cannot remove toxins, which then build up in your blood and eventually, your brain.
Try the following tips for a healthy liver and lymph:
Avoid any foods of which you suspect you may be intolerant: They will produce toxins in the gut that can cause stress to the detoxification mechanisms. Bacteria, viruses, too much alcohol, coffee and other caffeine-containing drinks, smoking and the medicines that have powerful effects on the liver, stomach and other parts of the body can prove toxic Chew your food well to help release the enzymes that aid digestion. Consume plenty of foods containing: Consume plenty of foods containing foliate, flavonoids, magnesium, iron, sulphate and selenium and B-vitamins 2,3,6 and 12, since toxicity in the body can be caused by deficiency of the nutrients that the liver needs for detoxification as much as by exposure to toxins. Think along the lines of salads, beans, fresh juices, stir-fries cooked in a little good-quality olive oil, nuts, seeds, yoghurt (full-fat is fine). Steaming is a quick and healthy way of cooking vegetables, and the only vegetables to avoid are potatoes. Aim for a diet build on complex carbohydrates (brown rice), lean protein (beans, lentils, eggs, chicken, fish and a little lean red meat) and organic fruits & vegetables. Cut down on stimulants: such as tea and coffee, and depressants such as smoking & alcohol. Aim at drinking at least 2.5 liters of water a day.
Eat foods rich in antioxidants: which aid the natural detox mechanisms like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts and Soybean products. Nutrients that enhance our immune system are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, the B-vitamins, Zinc and Magnesium. These nutrients are either potent anti-oxidants capable of stopping the free-radical cascade of tissue damage or are involved in the enzymes that help detoxify damaging chemicals. Rest and feel good! :
One more really good way to boost your immune system and it’s free.
Laugh, Rest and feel good!
A depressed mind can cause a depressed body.
Laughter actually increases production of an antibody that is responsible for our first line of defense against bacterial infections. Laughter, lovemaking and exercise are the best medicine of all! Laugh Over time, the health of the liver and lymph may be restored. Taking beneficial herbs regularly and following a detoxification process can help to provide protection to either the sick or healthy liver during the course of daily life. This stabilizes cell membranes and encourages the regeneration of liver cells destroyed during their normal functions. Overview Poor nutrition is rarely a cause of liver disease, but good nutrition in the form of a balanced diet, may help liver cells damaged by hepatitis viruses to regenerate, forming new liver cells. Nutrition can be an essential part of treatment. Many chronic liver diseases are associated with malnutrition. Watch the Protein To quickly determine your daily protein in grams, divide your weight in pounds by 2. Too much daily protein may cause hepatic encephalopathy (mental confusion). This occurs when the amount of dietary protein is greater than the liver’s ability to use the protein. This causes a buildup of toxins that can interfere with brain function. Protein is restricted in patients with clinical evidence of encephalopathy. However, controversy exists regarding the type of protein a diet should contain. Vegetable and dairy protein may be tolerated better than meat protein. Medications, such as lactulose and neomycin, may be used to help control hepatitis-related encephalopathy. Due to the body’s need for proteins, protein restriction should only be undertaken with a doctor’s advice. Watch the Calories. Excess calories in the form of carbohydrates can add to liver dysfunction and can cause fat deposits in the liver. No more than 30% of a person’s total calories should come from fat because of the danger to the cardiovascular system. To figure out your daily calorie needs, you’ll need a minimum of 15 calories a day for each pound you weight. Watch the Salt Good nutrition also helps to maintain the normal fluid and electrolyte balances in the body. Patients with fluid retention and swelling of the abdomen (ascites), or the legs (peripheral edema), may need diets low in salt to avoid sodium retention that contributes to fluid retention. Avoiding foods such as canned soups and vegetables, cold cuts, dairy products, and condiments such as mayonnaise and ketchup can reduce sodium intake. Read food labels carefully as many prepared foods contain large amounts of salt. The best-tasting salt substitute is lemon juice.
Watch Vitamins A and D- Excessive amounts of some vitamins may be an additional source of stress to the liver that must act as a filter for the body. Mega-vitamin supplements, particularly if they contain vitamins A and D, may be harmful. Excess vitamin A is very toxic to the liver. Beware of Alcohol -You’ll need to stop drinking completely to give your liver a break – a chance to heal, a chance to rebuild, a chance for new liver cells to grow. This means avoiding beer, wine, cocktails, champagne, and liquor in any other form. If you continue to drink, your liver will pay the price, and if your doctor is checking your liver function tests, it may be hard to determine if a change in a test means there has been damage to your liver due to the disease itself or because of the alcohol. Beware of Alcohol and Acetaminophen -Acetaminophen is an ingredient in some over-the-counter pain relievers, and is contained in many over-the-counter drugs used for colds or coughs. Taken with alcohol, these products can cause a condition called sudden and severe hepatitis which could cause fatal liver failure. Clearly, you should never combine these two substances. If you have any doubt about what medicines to take simultaneously, ask your doctor. Beware of “Nutritional Therapies”- Herbal treatments and alternative liver medicines need to undergo rigorous scientific study before they can be recommended. “Natural” or diet treatments and herbal remedies can be quite dangerous. Plants of the Senecio, Crotalaria and Heliotopium families, plus chaparral, germander, comfrey, mistletoe, skullcap, margosa oil, mate tea, Gordolobo yerba tea, pennyroyal, and Jin Blu Huan have all been indicated to be toxic to the liver.
Healthy Internal Organs- Kidney
12 DecHere is information about maintaining a healthy kidney. If you need more info contact a health care professional.
- KIDNEY
Given the extreme importance of the kidneys in maintaining good health, the topic of kidney health must be closely examined. Kidney care is extensive and incorporates principles of health that is not only confined to the kidney but impacts on a wide range of general principles of health. It is important to remember that the kidneys are only one part of a very complex human biological system. Each element of this system is in some way connected or related to the other elements within this system. In looking at kidney care, therefore, one has to expand the scope beyond just the kidneys. An example of these interactions is described by Andrew Davenport: The kidney and the brain play a major role in maintaining normal homeostasis of the extracellular fluid, and as such regulate intracellular volume, by controlling sodium and water balance. However, both hyponatraemic and hypernatraemic states commonly account for acute medical admissions, and also frequently occur during hospital in-patient stays. Both acute and chronic kidney damage can not only affect sodium and water homeostasis, but also the accumulation of uremic toxins; impairs cerebral higher functions and the ability of the brain to adapt to extracellular changes. Healthy Kidney Diet
Healthy kidneys ensure the removal of fluids and wastes from our bodies. Many vital body functions are controlled by the kidneys. A healthy kidney diet is important, because when the kidneys are affected by any disease, their functions begin to fail to the point of becoming fatal.
Our kidneys, that are located below the rib cage on either side of the spine, work as filters to remove waste products and excess water in the body through urine. Several symptoms may be noticed, if the condition of the kidneys begin to deteriorate for several reasons. Some of these symptoms are, itching all over the body, general tiredness, discoloration or blood and pus in the urine, reduced urine amount, appetite loss, nausea and vomiting. The hands and feet also tend to swell because of water retention. Muscle cramps and darkened skin are other symptoms of kidney disease. In order to control the deterioration of the kidneys, it’s imperative that one follows a healthy kidney diet. It is also important to understand when one may be at risk of developing a kidney disease, in order to be able to follow a suitable diet. When Are You at a Risk of Kidney Disease? One may be at a risk of kidney disease, when one suffers from any of the following:
- The most common way of contracting a kidney disease is when one suffers from diabetes.
- People suffering from high blood pressure may develop kidney problems.
- Chain smokers are bound to suffer from kidney dysfunction.
- If one has a family history of kidney disease, one is more prone to suffering from the same.
- Kidney disease is also common in people who are obese, and in people who are above 50 years of age.
By following the below mentioned diet for healthy kidneys, one may reduce the risk of contracting Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Even for those who already endure the same, this diet will help reduce the effects of the disease. Healthy Kidney Diet Persons with CKD are required to follow a diet low in proteins, which should also be low in sodium and potassium. For those who have diabetes along with CKD, one must also follow a low-carb diet. Mentioned below are some guidelines to avoid certain nutrients, and consume some others in order to be able to follow a diet for healthy kidneys. Sodium Sodium is a nutrient that controls blood pressure and also the fluids in the body. When the intake of sodium is high, it leads to water retention, thereby causing excess water to collect in the kidneys. Thus affecting the kidney functions. To control sodium intake:
- Limit the intake of table salt in the food you eat.
- Apart from table salt, there are various foods high in sodium levels such as crisps, crackers and processed foods. Try to avoid the intake of such foods.
- It is wise to read the nutrition facts of any food product before purchasing it. These facts enlist the exact amount of sodium present in the product.
Proteins Impaired kidney function is caused by excess consumption of proteins. It is true that proteins help build muscle and repair tissues in the body. However, excess proteins increase the stress on the kidneys and increase the risk of kidney dysfunction.
- Surplus proteins have been detected, mainly in non-vegetarians, as meat contains significant amounts of protein. As such, it is sensible to abstain from eating such products.
- By consuming more vegetables and fibrous foods, the kidneys can work towards eliminating the extra protein as well as toxins in the body. The intake of vegetables will also help lower the risk of high blood pressure and excess weight, two other factors that are responsible for kidney dysfunction.
Thus, limiting the intake of protein will help decrease the stress on the kidneys. Increased Water Intake: Kidneys tend to become unhealthy, when there is lack of water in the body, as their primary function is to filter wastes and eliminate toxins through urine. As such, they require enough water to perform this function.
- It is important to drink at least 8 glasses or 2 liters of fluid in a day. Doing so will help flush out all the unnecessary toxins in the body.
- Several fruits and vegetables are also high in water content. Some of them are watermelon, cucumber, zucchini and tomatoes, which have about 90% water.
An increased intake of these vegetables high in water content along with required amounts of fluid can significantly control any kidney problems and constitute the elements for a healthy kidney diet. Calcium and Phosphorus: These two minerals strike a balance when working together and help keep teeth and bones strong. When the kidney fails, there may be a collection of phosphorus in the kidneys, which is unsafe, while calcium may become low. As such, limiting foods high in the same, is essential.
- Some examples of foods high in phosphorus are almonds, meat, lentils, dried fruits and cheese.
- Similarly, foods high in calcium such as bananas, tofu, spinach and broccoli need to be consumed. However, dairy products should be avoided as they are high in phosphorus
- In some cases, additional supplements will be required to adjust the level of both calcium and phosphorus in the body.
Potassium: Potassium is a mineral that helps the kidneys function normally. When the kidneys fail, there may be a collection of potassium in the blood, which is bad for the muscles and mainly, the heart. As such, it is advisable to avoid potassium rich foods.
- Salt used to flavor meals, that are available in the market are very high in potassium. Try to substitute salt with other flavoring agents such as lemon and herbs.
- Other potassium rich foods to be avoided are papayas, white bread, oat bran, raw garlic and more.
Calories: Calories are important to health as they provide the energy that help us with our daily functions, and also help stabilize our body weight. When a diet is followed, it controls the risk of one becoming overweight, which in turn, helps control the risk of contracting kidney disease. In short, it is important to keep a watch on calories so as to control weight gain. Foods to be Included for Healthy Kidney Diet Here are some foods that you may include in your diet for healthy kidneys.
- Red Bell Peppers
- Apples
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Cranberries
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Asparagus
- Iceberg Lettuce
- Green Beans
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Cottage Cheese
- Eggplant
By including these foods in your diet, you will be able to control any kidney problems or dysfunction. By Puja Lalwani
EXERCISE TO HELP KIDNEY DISEASE
Physical exercise is another important factor to consider for optimum kidney health. It is a major piece of the health puzzle. Unfortunately, many of us sit behind a desk for eight or more hours almost every day. Further, when we leave our work places, we are so tired that it becomes easy to simply recline in our favorite chair and look at television.
This sedentary lifestyle contributes significantly too many health problems including obesity, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney failure. Without regular and consistent exercise, health cannot be optimized and disease cannot be prevented.
How can exercise help to optimize kidney health? Well in a number of way but especially by helping to lower or control blood pressure and increases insulin sensitivity, to prevent against type II diabetes (adult onset diabetes). As you might be aware, diabetes and hypertension are two leading causes of kidney failure. By implementing a program of regular exercise, you will help to prevent or control these two deadly diseases, and preserve and improve kidney health. Of course, if you think you have a medical problem, talk to a competent health professional about your concerns. Comprehensive-Kidney-Facts.com ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— While there are other organs in the human body these are the major ones. However, we must remember also that TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) rightfully emphasizes that the organs don’t work separately and that the health of one affects all. Remember the Kidney example: It is important to remember that the kidneys are only one part of a very complex human biological system. Each element of this system is in some way connected or related to the other elements within this system. In looking at kidney care, therefore, one has to expand the scope beyond just the kidneys.
Or this statement: There isn’t an organ in the human body that operates in a shell, without influences from other organs. Some very basic interactions include the nervous system and it’s interactions with every organ (sympathetic, parasympathetic) and of course musculoskeletal control. One of my undergrad prof’s used to call the liver the “most unselfish” organ, because almost everything that it does (gluconeogensis, metabolism of waste products, etc) is done for the benefit of other organs. The kidneys share also a very close role with the heart through the cardiovascular system.
However, in Western health, we still tend to separate organ functions but one sees a trend in all the examples of maintaining healthy organs. In short these are, avoid: excess protein consumption; excess sugar and salt; avoid excess alcohol; avoid toxins – both environmental and in the food or drink; avoid high fat food and trans fats; avoid being overweight and avoid excessive stress. On the other hand do eat a variety of fruits and vegetables daily; do eat fiber and whole grains; eat foods high in antioxidants; do gentle exercise daily; get a good night’s sleep; drink water often daily and eat “good” fats. Also, there are certain foods that are more directly beneficial for each organ.
While the emphasis and theory is different between TCM and Western health, one can still benefit by following examples given by Western health experts in the maintenance of a healthy body through healthy organs. Qi Gung exercise is an excellent source of “gentle” exercise for the whole body which, of course, includes the organs. I hope this blog brings to focus what can be done in a proactive healthy lifestyle which includes a conscious choice to consider the vital organs.
To end, I give this explanation on “fitness”: What does physical fitness really mean? Many people believe that physical fitness is building muscle and developing a well-defined figure. We tend to focus on the aesthetic benefits that we lose sight of the importance of getting and remaining “fit” on the inside, as well. Physical fitness means just that: fitness in every sense of the word, both internally and externally. Physical fitness is really about having all of our vital organs, bones, and blood circulation performing at their optimum and working together as a whole, achieving overall health. Often, we are not even aware that our body is not functioning at its optimum. We get an occasional ache and pain, and before long, we become accustomed to living with it. The 1996 Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health concluded that exercise is beneficial to almost every organ and system in your body. This includes your digestive system, your kidneys, your bones and your brain. Exercise increases intestinal motility, the speed with which food passes through the gut, and reduces the incidence of many gastrointestinal disorders. One can see a reduction in gallstones and diverticulitis, a painful inflammation that results when food is trapped in pockets in the intestinal wall. Exercise also cuts the risk of colon cancer by almost half. Audrey marlene
Healthy Internal Organs- Lungs
12 DecHere is information about maintaining healthy lungs- if you need more info, talk to a health care professional.
LUNGS
In today’s health conscious world, proper care is taken to decide what foods to eat for lung health. We all know that lungs help us in breathing. Even this simple act requires a lot of energy from our body. If we don’t eat well and don’t take healthy food, our body will find it difficult to provide that kind of energy for breathing as well as for all its other daily functions. Proper nourishing food should be taken in the right quantity for better health of lungs as this effects the body’s metabolism and even the amount of carbon dioxide produced by digestion whose excess can make you feel weak and fatigued.
For good lung health, we must take a nourishing diet. Unfortunately there is no food or food group that has all the nutrients required by the body. In a way it is good because it allows us to enjoy a variety of foods to meet the requirements. Therefore it is essential to combine three or four food groups in every meal. You can even have some healthy food snacks if you want.
Let us see some dos and don’ts about the foods eaten for lung health.
- Enjoying a variety of foods is a must. This will ensure proper nourishment for the body
- We all know that fruits and vegetables are very rich in nutrients. So it is important to include a generous serving of fruits and vegetables in your daily meal.
- Have plenty of cereals, breads and other grain products. This increases the fibre that is required by the body.
- Avoid oily and greasy foods and take low-fat dairy products. The foods high in calories will only harm the lungs
- It is better to have lean proteins such as eggs, fish, white meat chicken and turkey etc. Consuming lean meats reduce the intake of calories
- Excess of salt is very bad for lungs as well as the overall health. Limit the amount of salt consumed
- Cut your intake of caffeine and alcohol. These foods are very addictive and are bad for the lungs
- Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water or other healthy beverages every day. Its good for lungs and it also flushes out toxins from your body
- Don’t go for carbonated and sugary beverages. The foods with added sugar and refined starches such as cakes and candies should be avoided
- Don’t combine beverages along with you meals. Having them along with the meals increases the pressure on the diaphragm
- Avoid chewing gums as the air swallowed by us when we chew it causes bloating and gas
Besides having healthy eating habits it is also important to have healthy living style. You must be physically active and follow a regular exercise routine. Maintain an ideal weight. An overweight person carries extra weight around his stomach or the upper part of the body. It makes breathing difficult and puts strain on the lungs as well as on the heart. In the same way an underweight person will also face problems, as he will feel weaker and more tired easily. Therefore, you must try and maintain an ideal weight and take care about the best foods to eat for lung health and enjoy a long and healthy life.
More Best Foods For Lung Health
If you want to improve the functioning of your lungs, you need a list of foods that are the best foods for lung health and the appropriate way to eat those foods. People with damage to their lungs, COPD, often have a difficult time breathing after a large meal. Not only does the increased amount of food in your stomach require more oxygen to digest, it also takes more room and often pushes against your diaphragm. This makes breathing far more difficult. Beware of gassy foods, also. As your stomach fills with gas, it has the same effect as eating too much. It presses on your diaphragm and makes breathing far more difficult. Whether you have COPD, or simply want to improve the health of your lungs, you’ll find a variety of foods that can help you. The most important foods are fruits and vegetables. These foods provide plant fiber that helps you not only reduce your cholesterol but also move food through your system faster. Foods high in fiber include fresh vegetables, cooked beans, whole grains, dried peas and fresh fruit. Not only do these foods help reduce cholesterol but they also help control your blood sugar levels. Uncontrolled high glucose levels in the blood, diabetes, can cause damage to the lungs.
If you’re a smoker and have already done damage to your lungs, then the first thing you should do is to detox your lungs. Your lungs can go from black and clogged to pink and healthy by following a simple regimen
Get foods that contain plenty of vitamin D. Recent research shows that vitamin D helps to slow declining lung function in people with asthma. Scientists tested cell cultures from both asthmatics and non-asthmatics and found that calcitriol, a type of vitamin D, slowed muscle proliferation in airways. Muscle proliferation reduces lung function. Calcitriol, also acts as an anti-inflammatory. You can get vitamin D from exposure to the sun, but also from fish.
Look for colorful fruits and vegetables, which contain high amounts of vitamin A. Recent studies on lab animals indicate that a high intake of vitamin A can actually help heal the lungs. In addition, vitamin A also helps the body build more resistance to infections, including those in the respiratory area. Foods containing vitamin A in the form of retinol or beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A, include Apricots, carrots, asparagus, cantaloupe, tomatoes and watermelon, to name just a few.
Increase the amount of anti-oxidants in your diet. Vitamin C and E are powerful antioxidants. Besides being an antioxidant and enhancing the antioxidant action of vitamin E to protect the lung cells from damage from free radicals, vitamin C also plays a major role in building collagen and elastin, both necessary for the health of all tissues. A recent study showed that if both vitamin C and magnesium levels played important roles in maintaining healthy lung tissues. Foods that contain high vitamin C are citrus fruits, red peppers, cantaloupe, rose hips, tomatoes and cucumbers, among others.
Help your lungs by reducing the amount of sugar you consume. Sugar has a negative effect on the body’s immune system, lowering its efficiency. If you want to keep not only your lungs healthy, but also the rest of your body, reduce your intake of sugar and sugary products.
Cut down on fats and salt. Whether you already have a problem with your lungs, such as COPD, or simply want to live healthier, cut down on your intake of saturated fats and salty foods. Sodium causes you to retain fluids and people with lung problems find that makes it more difficult to breathe. Fats clog your arteries. When this happens, it often builds up fluid in the lungs.
Eat appropriately, exercise and lose weight if necessary. Running, bicycling, walking and other aerobic exercises help work your lungs, cleanse them and make them stronger.
Maintaining appropriate weight is good for not only those with lung disease but also those that wish to continue a healthy life. When you select from the list of foods to eat for lung health, exercise and quit bad habits such as smoking, you’ll not only improve the health of your lungs but also your entire body.
If you are looking for a great way to keep your lungs clean, you should try a lung exercise. This is will aid you in breathing better and just feeling better in general. When you can breathe easily you can better do the things you enjoy in life, and you’ll be more confident when doing them.
One great exercise for lung, that you may want to consider include are breathing exercises. When you practice your breathing by focusing on it, you are much more likely to enjoy healthier and cleaner lungs as a result of your lung exercise.
The way to lung fitness involves exercising them, and there are many great ways for you to do this through cardiovascular exercise. By working out and strengthen your body you are also doing exercises for your lungs.
Are you aware that exercises increase lung function? If you jog, or walk briskly this is considered a lung exercise and can dramatically increase the functions of your lungs by allowing them to be stronger and cleaner than they may have ever been otherwise.
By doing a lung exercise every day or at least three times a week, you can drastically improve the quality of you life as well as your health. Being able to breathe better is a one of the best reasons to do so, and can really allow you to enjoy your life better too.
If you intend to live a long, healthy life, you’ll need to have clean and healthy lungs to do so. There is no better way that can allow you the most stamina or endurance other than this, so you can see the importance of maintaining a lung exercise on a regular basis.
Now, that you have some important information on how to help your lungs stay healthy and strong through lung exercise, you may want to also consider another way to keep you body strong and you lungs clean. If you smoke, you must quit smoking to keep your lungs as strong as they can be. It’s imperative to your health.
When you smoke, you’re inviting thousands of cancerous toxins into your body and this can destroy all the good you may have done with your lung exercise. It’s not easy to quit smoking but it’s imperative to have good health and clean lungs.
By utilizing a lung exercise, coupled with a quit smoking program, you can the best lungs that you possibly can. This will allow you to have a high quality and hopefully a very long life as well.
When you practice a lung exercise you’ll not only improve the quality of your lung but the entire health of your body.
Achieve Healthy Lungs
If you want to be able to blow out all the candles on your cake when you’re 75 (assuming your family dares to put a candle for every year) not to mention climb three flights of stairs without needing oxygen, now is the time to take action. What, you’re wondering, could you possibly do beyond quitting smoking to get your bellows in better shape? Plenty. Although quitting smoking tops our list, we also found another 18 tips that will have you doing less huffing and puffing and protect your lungs from damage and disease. 1. Have a heart-to-heart with your bed partner. Key question to ask: Do I snore? If the answer is yes, make an appointment with a sleep specialist and get checked for sleep apnea. The condition, in which you stop breathing dozens or even hundreds of times during the night, can actually damage your lungs nearly as much as smoking. Fortunately, it’s treatable. 2. Make several trips downstairs to the basement every day. The kind of exercise that makes your heart beat faster, like climbing stairs, riding a bike, or walking briskly, is very important for keeping your heart and lungs in good shape. For instance, studies find that walking about 15 minutes at a time, three to four times a day, improved breathing in people with emphysema, a lung disease. 3. Pop a fish-oil supplement every morning. Most airway problems, including asthma, are related to inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids, which are the main ingredient in fish-oil supplements, reduce inflammation. 4. Breathe from your belly for at least five minutes every day. This kind of breathing, called diaphragmatic breathing, involves training and strengthening your diaphragm so it requires less effort to take in each breath. To do it, inhale deeply through your nose, filling your lungs from the bottom up. If you’re doing it right, your stomach will pooch out. Exhale and repeat.? 5. Expand your chest like a cocky rooster. To help your chest expand and boost your lung capacity, lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands behind your head and bring your elbows together so they’re nearly touching. As you inhale, slowly let your elbows drop to the sides so your arms are flat on the floor when your lungs are full. As you exhale, raise your elbows again. 6. Read the fine print on household cleansers. Some products, like oven cleaner, can be toxic if inhaled. And if the instructions say to open a window or use in a well-ventilated space, follow them, says Kevin Cooper, M.D., a Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center pulmonologist. 7. Enforce a no-smoke zone in your house. And avoid smoky bars and smoking areas in restaurants. It doesn’t seem fair, but secondhand smoke you breathe from these sources can damage your lungs just as much as the smoke from your own cigarette. 8. Wear a face mask or even a gas mask when working around toxic dust or fumes. “Occupational exposure is a major hazard to lung health,” Dr. Cooper says. Even simple household tasks like sanding paint could send damaging fragments into your lungs, he says . 9. Work in 10-20 crunches a day. Your abdominal and chest muscles allow you to suck air in and out. Strengthen them, and if you’re also practicing your deep breathing, you’ll have the breath power of a professional opera singer (or at least close). 10. Take your medicine and listen to your doctor if you have asthma. There’s some pretty good evidence that people with asthma eventually develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, a lung disease that strikes people 65 and older. There’s also evidence that keeping your asthma under control with medication and lifestyle changes can prevent the disease from developing. 11. Make spaghetti sauce tonight, tomato and basil salad tomorrow night, and roasted tomatoes over the weekend. British researchers found that people who ate tomatoes three times a week had improved lung function and experienced less wheeziness and fewer asthma-like symptoms. 12. Look on the bright side. So the stock market is down; at least the bond market is up. When Harvard researchers followed 670 men with an average age of 63 years for eight years, they found those who were more optimistic had much better lung function and a slower rate of lung function decline than the pessimists in the bunch. 13. Get at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day. A 1998 study found that high amounts of antioxidants found in such foods, including vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and beta-carotene, meant better lung function — even in smokers! 14. Have a glass of wine tonight. Drinking wine, particularly white wine, both in the recent past and over your lifetime, seems to help your lungs. It has to be wine, though. Researchers found no such correlation when they looked at the effects of other forms of alcohol. Researchers aren’t certain why, but suspect it may be due to high levels of antioxidants in wine that protect cells from the damage from smoke and air pollution. 15. Brush your teeth twice a day and floss after every meal. Seems the state of your gums makes a difference when it comes to your lungs. Researchers at the State University of New York in Buffalo found patients with periodontal, or gum disease were 1 1/2 times more likely to also have COPD. Plus, the worse the gum disease, the worse the lung function, suggesting a direct correlation between the two. 16. Say no to dessert. There’s a direct link between what you weigh and the health of your lungs. Having extra weight makes your respiratory muscles work harder and less efficiently, researchers found in a 2004 study. This, in turn results in shortness of breath, which makes it hard to exercise, which makes it hard to lose the weight. 17. In hot, dry, or very cold weather, or in dusty or polluted air, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Our nasal passages are designed to filter the air and regulate its temperature and humidity. If you breathe in through your mouth, everything — dust, coldness, etc. — goes straight on into the lungs. 18. Take it easy when pollution or ozone levels are in the red zone. The more you exert yourself, the more you have to breathe through your mouth to take in larger volumes of air. This, in turn, means less filtering of the air during some very dangerous air quality times.
