Daoist Medicine II: 道医六个一 Daoist Medicine’s Six Ones 一碗水 One Bowl of Water (excerpt)

Daoist Medicine II:

道医六个一
Daoist Medicine’s Six Ones
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（二）一碗水
（2）One Bowl of Water (excerpt)
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The 《Dao De Jing》 praises water highly, in Catholicism the baptism utilizes water, and the native Americans tribes’ boiling of herbs cannot be separated from ritualistic water [1]. The reason is that the nature of water is very close to the Dao:

上善如水，
水善利万物。
无争。
The highest kindness resembles water.
Water’s kindness benefits the Ten Thousand Things.
[And it is] without contest.

The human body consists more than seventy percent of water，thus, there is no human being able to survive without access to water. The water in the spring behind the lavatories of Five Immortals Temple will eventually dry in the sun and its water will via the rains flow back to the oceans. Even if somebody drank it, it would complete the same cycle, when it is expelled from the person’s body through sweat, urine and faeces.
Water has no objection, as it does not want or pursue anything:

万物生长离不开水，
万物生长离不开道。
The growth of the Ten Thousand Things does not separate from water.
[And, thus, it] does not separate from the Dao.

The character of water [xing zhi 性质] is non-action [wu wei无为] and non-contest [wu zheng 无争]. Wherever you pour it, it will remain and settle in that place. There is a video called Water’s Knowledge [2]. The essence of this documentary is that Water is without its own set of thoughts; therefore it will adopt whatever thoughts you instill into it. After Daoism was established, priests and monks used water for healing. This method was transmitted all the way until present day. One Bowl of Water may be substituted by one mouthful of water [yi kou shui一口水].

In one instance, Tao Shi Fu [陶师傅] was the religious sister of Ren Fa Rong [任法融], the previous head of the Daoist Association, as their teacher had received two disciples as well as the abbess of Five Immortals Temple at that time. She used water to heal a poisonous snake bite injury witnessed years ago by Li Shifu. The injury was sustained by a grey snake, a viper, a poisonous earth coloured snake, however, its toxins are not very strong. Had it been a strong poison, the victim would have been dead within one to two hours as a consequence of the chemical poison. Nerve poison wreaks havoc much faster and renders the affected area rotten and swollen. Tao Shifu put a bowl on the table in the main altar, and covered it with the yellow prayer paper [huang biao 黄裱], followed by a step-by-step sequence of procedures. When she opened the bowl, the initially pure, transparent water had turned the colour of the water after you dipped an ink brush into it. In fact it was greyish-black. Moreover, she took some herbal medicine and rubbed it on the bite wound, then covered it with gauze. The victim was able to return home without any further complications. In the past, common doctors would often occlude and tourniquet the area, but nowadays in the hospitals they just inject anti-dotes. There is no way to talk about these ancient practices in society, anymore.

[1} https://upliftconnect.com/healing-with-water/
http://theconversation.com/why-is-water-sacred-to-native-am…
[2] This Chinese title refers to Dr. Masaru Emoto’s documentary Hidden Messages in Water.

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Post-Scriptum: This article will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Daoist Cultivation》 by Xing De, a manual for refining Inner Nature based on Liu Yiming’s 50 Barriers.