Managing Student Stress With TCM Formulas Part 2
In this second edition of Chinese Medicine formulas
that can assist with your mental work, we have the legendary Tian Wang Bu Xin
Dan. Again, this article is not intended to diagnose or prescribe the use of
any herbs, it is only intended for educational purposes. Let’s get to the
formula!
Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan:
The name of this formula translates to “the Emperor of
Heaven’s Special Pill to Tonify the Heart”. The story of who exactly received
this formula is debated, but it is still a fun story. From Bensky’s Formulas
and Strategies (2015) “It is said that once, when the Buddhist monk Zhi
Gong was exhausted from the chanting of scriptures, he was given this formula
in a dream by the Heavenly King Deng…Although (this) account is mythological,
(it) refers to this formula’s magical effect in treating exhaustion from too
much thinking.” Whether or not you believe that a divine Emperor can appear and
dispense herbal knowledge, the fact that this formula originated from Buddhist
monks, a career that requires years of very long days and nights of
philosophical debating, shows its effectiveness for those doing mental work. A
break down of how this formula works first requires a dialogue on the Chinese
Medicine understanding of the Heart and its functions in the human body.
Every
function of the human body can be broken down into the basic, yet infinitely
complex, dichotomy of Yin-Yang. The Heart is the Yang organ, Yang is
characterized in the Heart as Fire. The Heart houses the luminous light that is
our consciousness, our Shen-Spirit. The Heart governs Blood, if the Heart is
weak then blood cannot travel to where it needs to go, i.e. the extremities.
Because our Shen-Spirit is housed within and travels with our blood, wherever
our Blood travels, we have consciousness. Consider this; on a cold day when
your hands are cold, its hard for you to feel and move the tips of your
fingers. Also, we do not bleed when we get our hair cut and we are not in pain
when it is cut, why? We have no blood within our hair follicles. Furthermore, because our Shen-Spirit is housed
within our blood- which is governed by our Heart- when our Heart is weak, that
subsequently makes our blood, then our Shen-Spirit weak. When our Shen-Spirit
is deprived, we suffer from “mental-emotional problems, poor memory, dull
thinking, insomnia or somnolence and in extreme cases, unconsciousness,”
(Giovanni, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, Pg. 110). This is one of the many
reasons why our Heart is so special, any other organ can become run down and we
will notice as time passes, but the Heart as the Emperor will not make it a
secret when it is deprived, your experience of consciousness will be quickly
changed.
Because
everything must be balanced, the Heart-Fire is controlled by Kidney-Water: “The
correlate of the heart are the vessels; its splendor appears in the complexion;
its ruler are the kidneys”(From HuangDi NeiJing SuWen Ch.10). The
Kidney’s are the Yin-Water of the human body, they are the “Cold Water of the
North” where our Fire-Spirit descends into every night so we can enter a deep
and restful sleep in the inactivity of Yin. An issue that can arise when the
Heart is deficient is that the Heart-Yang will not have the strength to make
the journey down to the Kidney-Yin at night, we call this insomnia in the modern
world. When this happens, our Shen-Spirit that rides with our Heart-Yang gets
stuck between waking and sleeping, further depleting our Yang. This is the type
of insomnia that is characterized by a difficulty to fall asleep. When
our Kidneys are deficient and cannot contain our Heart-Yang at night, that is
insomnia characterized by a difficulty with staying asleep.
Now lets get into how the herbs in this formula helps
our Heart and our ability to study. First off is the Chief herb: Sheng Di Huang
nourishes Kidney Yin (water) and clears heat. This ability helps the Kidneys to
control the overheating Spirit while also producing more blood for the Spirit
to reside within. Then there are the three Deputy herbs: Tian Men Dong, Mai Men
Dong and Xuan Shen. All three of these herbs enrich the yin, clear heat and
calm the Shen-Spirit. The Assistant herbs are in four separate pairings:
1) Dan
Shen and Dang Gui tonify blood to nourish the Heart while also moving the
blood.
2) Bai
Zi Ren and Yuan Zhi calm the spirit
3) Ren
Shen (Ginseng) and Fu Ling assist the Heart Qi
4) Suan
Zao Ren and Wu Wei Zi prevent the leakage of Heart Qi and Yin water.
Finally, the Envoy herb: Jie Geng guides the other
herbs to the Heart, and thus the Spirit. An herb that is no longer used due to
its extreme toxicity but is traditionally apart of this formula is Zhu Sha
(Cinnabar) whose function is to anchor and calm the Shen-Spirit.
All of the herbs in this formula could have pages of
explanation for why each are so unique and effective for this situation. As
time goes on, I would like to dedicate individual blog posts to each of these
herbs but for now let’s look at them as a collective team. From the above
descriptions for each grouping, we can see that the primary focus of this
formula is to build up the Kidney-Yin and Heart-Blood first, with calming and
heat clearing herbs being of a secondary importance. This is due largely to the
function of Kidney-Water and its role in ruling the Heart; when the Kidneys are
empowered in their function, they can contain the Heart-Fire and provide it the
space to calm down and rebuild itself. The Heart is aided in its recuperation by
the Blood building herbs in this formula as well.
After all of these herbs have joined forces to rectify
the misfunctioning of our Heart-Kidney axis, we can get back to studying with a
clear and focused mind! This formula is incredible for those who read frequently
and also have problems falling asleep. Before trying this formula for yourself,
go see a Chinese Herbologist and see if it is right for you!
Thank you for reading!
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