Taoism and the use of the five elemental forces of nature for healing, says Gilles Marin, are esoteric, understandable only through daily experience with a knowledgeable mentor. Marin’s 25 years of clinical practice teaching the ancient Taoist method of Chi Nei Tsang, which uses hands-on techniques and Taoist meditations to help clients heal, uniquely qualifies him for the task. Five Elements, Six Conditions shows how simple and practical the ancient Taoist healing principles are and how effectively they deepen all methods of healing, including modern medical approaches. Step-by-step, he shows how to work with instead of against the body, whereby healing becomes not only possible but inevitable. His clear language, along with color-coded maps and diagrams, enables readers to understand the alchemical principles formed and refined over hundreds of years. Each chapter includes specific exercises and meditations to help anyone integrate the essence of the teaching and develop at the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels.
This is my reference book for understanding everything my Taoist medicine/acupuncturist has said to me once I get home from his office. I find it accessible, extremely interesting and easy to integrate into everyday life. It makes sense! I pick it up often.
This book could shake everything you know about complementary medicine, body wisdom, natural healing, visualization, meditation. It is an entity to read keep and read again and always. An intensive guide to our inner power to prevent and cure the disagreements of our bodies, minds and spirits.
At first this book threw me off, because the first half of this book had nothing to do with emotional healing at all. But the second half has a lot of good material on emotional healing. There is a great wealth of information here regarding the five elements, as well as a good basic introduction to the twelve meridians. I found this book invaluable because it really deepened my understanding of the five elements.
I would say that either this book is a bit lacking in organization structure, or that I was just not able to understand the organizational principles used.
I found the instructions describing specific meditation practices to be a bit awkward. These kinds of detailed prescriptions of a meditation session probably work much better when given verbally by an experienced teacher in a group meditation session, than they do in writing, presumably to be done by the reader on their own, based on their memory of the written description. I probably wouldn't attempt them without having received personal instruction in them first. They seem very detailed, with lots of steps. I just think it would be more fruitful for me to let my body, mind, and emotions take the meditation where it wants to go, rather than trying to memorize and walk through long procedures like this.
This is a great book overall, and I have added the author's previous book high up on my to-read list.