The Kidneys
Keep your back warm as the Kidneys are very important organs in Chinese medicine.
The Kidneys are associated with the Water element and in Masunaga theory they fall in the fourth stage of the life cycle; impetus. They run down the back pushing us away from danger. They are responsible for our basic constitution, bones, growth and development.
The Kidneys hold our reservoir of Ki. Some of this Ki comes from our parents and the rest is what we extract from food and the air and remains after fuelling our bodies. The fitter we are, the better food we eat then the more Ki we have to store. For obvious reasons our parental Ki cannot be replenished and it acts like a pilot light in the transformation of food and air to Ki. It gradually depletes and even though we keep ourselves healthy and our Ki store topped up, we run out eventually and that is the end of life.
Since we inherit Ki from our parents then healthy Kidneys are necessary to pass healthy Ki to our children. The act of passing on Ki, that is sexual activity, also depletes our reserves. We often see this in the hair, which the Kidneys control. A good head of hair is a sign of healthy Kidneys.
Tony Brown @ December 31, 2006
