Chapter Fourteen: Chushu and the Cultivation of Body and Mind — The Way of Nurturing Gathering-In and Preventing Autumn Dryness

I. The Way of "Nurturing Gathering-In": The Proper State of Body and Mind at Chushu

Seasonal health cultivation has its own imperatives for each season. The Huangdi Neijing, Suwen, "Si Qi Tiao Shen Da Lun" (Great Treatise on the Regulation of the Spirit in Accordance with the Four Seasons) says:

"The three months of autumn are called 'form settled and level.' Heaven's breath becomes brisk; earth's breath becomes clear. Go to bed early and rise early, keeping time with the rooster. Let the will be tranquil, to moderate autumn's severity. Gather in the spirit-breath; let the autumn vital breath be balanced. Do not direct the will outward; let the lung-breath be clear. This is the response to autumn's vital breath — the Way of nurturing gathering-in."

The core of this entire "Way of nurturing gathering-in" is the single word "gathering" (shou) — gathering in the spirit, gathering in the will, gathering in one's routine, gathering in desires. This accords perfectly with Chushu's "stopping," with "heaven and earth begin their solemnity," with the Daoist se, and with the Confucian "reducing desires" and "knowing where to stop."

II. Why Must Chushu "Nurture Gathering-In"$20

Because the human body is a microcosm sharing the same rhythm as the macrocosm of heaven and earth. If in autumn one violates the Way of nurturing gathering-in and continues to dissipate outward as in summer, the Suwen warns: "To go against it will injure the lungs; in winter there will be diarrhea, because too little has been provided for winter's storing." Autumn's failure to gather means winter has nothing to store; winter's lack of stored reserves means next spring has nothing from which to generate.

III. Preventing "Autumn Dryness": The Relationship of Metal Energy, the Lungs, and Pungent Flavor

At Chushu, as humid heat recedes and Metal energy rises, the atmosphere shifts from "damp heat" to "dryness" — this is "autumn dryness." This dryness most readily injures the lungs (which, in later medical tradition, belong to Metal and correspond to autumn).

How to prevent autumn dryness$21 Here the "pungent" flavor comes into play. Though early autumn "has pungent as its taste," the health cultivation principle is actually to "reduce pungent and increase sour." Why$22 Because in autumn Metal energy (dryness) already prevails; adding more pungent flavor (which belongs to Metal and disperses, consuming fluids and exacerbating dryness) would "pour oil on fire." Instead, one should "increase sour" — sour flavor gathers and generates fluids, moistening dryness and restraining the lungs, precisely counterbalancing autumn's excessive Metal-dryness.

IV. The Most High's "Attaining Emptiness and Guarding Stillness" and Autumn Cultivation

The Most High said: "Attain the utmost of emptiness; guard the fullness of stillness. The ten thousand things arise together, and I thereby observe their return" (Daodejing, Chapter 16). "Attaining emptiness and guarding stillness" is the highest realization of autumn's "gathering in the spirit-breath" and "letting the will be tranquil."

He continued: "All things in their profusion each return to their root. Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to one's mandate of life." Autumn is precisely the season when all things "return to the root" — vegetation's vitality returns to the root, migratory birds return to their old nests, and the human heart should also return to its authentic nature. The state of "returning to the root" is precisely "stillness."

V. Master Zhuang's "Fasting of the Heart" and Autumn's Gathering of the Mind

The Zhuangzi, "Ren Jian Shi" (In the World of Men), records the Master teaching Yan Hui the "fasting of the heart" (xinzhai):

"Unify your will. Do not listen with your ears but listen with your heart; do not listen with your heart but listen with your vital breath. Hearing stops at the ear; the heart stops at matching things. Vital breath is empty and awaits things. Only the Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness — this is the fasting of the heart."

Note the repeated appearance of "stop" (zhi): "hearing stops at the ear; the heart stops at matching things." The practice of "fasting of the heart" is a progressive "stopping" — ceasing the ear's listening, ceasing the heart's chasing, ultimately returning to the emptiness and stillness of vital breath. This accords profoundly with Chushu's "stopping" and autumn's gathering-in.