Daoist Medicine III:
道医六个一
Daoist Medicine’s Six Ones
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(三) 一双手
(3) One Pair of Hands
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What could you do with two hands? You have one left and right, and there are too many things that you could potentially do with them. For instance Qi Gong needs One Pair of Hands. Acupressure, massage, bone-setting [zheng gu正骨] equally rely on them. If you are without Gong and skill, it is just a pair of hands. But if you carry an energetic field, when you give massage to someone, you take your Gong with you. Gong-Massage, however, is not the same as massage in society, as a cultivator’s goal is to heal diseases [zhi liao ji bing治疗疾病]. And consequently massage is not for a fixed time; maybe two minutes or maybe five minutes and it is over. Who would do massage for one hour?
Watch the massage in the city. It needs power [li qi力气]. How to train it? You should make steamed buns [man tou馒头] in the kitchen and knead its dough. However, this is unnecessary for Daoist Medicine massage, because it relies much less on force and is performed along the meridians. There are 
many types of Gong including acupressure, hitting, rubbing and tapping, they all use Gong. For acupressure skills train your Gong and Qi, to use it later when needed. Where does it come from? From health-preservation [bao yang保养], and communion [tong da通达]. Use as Sincere Heart-Mind [cheng xin诚心], use the true Heart-Mind [zhen xin真心] and Heart-Mind of Perseverance [heng xin恒心] in order to train and attain Gong. It does not stem from playing in an eight-star hotel. You must eat bitter. Could you endure it?
Perseverance is the key, as it is not the issue of training for one or two years and you pass the tests and exams. There are two types of tests: the tests of a person in form and the test of a formless person. This concept is very important. Without passing the tests no one is imparted these things, if the requirements are not met. What can we do? It is a constant struggle since the human body is resisting this process:
肉体太脆弱。
The physical flesh it too brittle and weak.
The body cannot endure being too thirsty, sleepy, tired, cold or hot. Inertia is originally ingrained in the DNA. The more comfortable the body, the better it feels, constantly asking for delicious foods to eat.
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Post-Scriptum: This article will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao》 by Xing De, a manual for refining Inner Nature based on Liu Yiming’s 50 Barriers.
