Visiting the Tibetan Astrology Institute in Lhasa

Last September I visited Tibet with a group of friends. Our program was quite full, but I still managed to find some time in the last day in Lhasa to find and have a talk with the scholars of the Tibetan Astrology Institute, just 2-3 hours before my flight back to Shanghai.

The Tibetan Astrology Institute 西藏天文历算研究所  is part of Mentsekhang - the famous Tibetan Medicine Hospital in Lhasa. Mentsekhang (sman rtsis khang) literary means "Medicine and Astrology House", where 'sman' is medicine and 'rtsis' stands for  astrology and divination calculations. Astrology and medicine have always been very close together, considered by some as one whole body of knowledge. As the Tibetan saying goes, "‘In order to be a good physician, one has to be a minor astrologer, and in order to be a good astrologer, one has to be a minor physician". No wonder some of the greatest doctors in Tibetan history are born into families of astrologers.

There are twelve scholars working at the Tibetan Astrology Institute. Every month they have to prepare a meteorology forecast report for the whole Tibet area, which is then sent to the Meteorology Department of Tibet. This monthly report is highly prized by the meteorologists, because it surpasses in accuracy the modern scientific methods of meteorology forecast. It gives valuable information for the weather forecast for every day, including information for possible natural disasters that may occur in certain direction during the certain time of the month. 

The scholars of the Institute have predicted the Great 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in Wenchuan well long before it happened. One year earlier they have already sent their written report to the Meteorology Department, with all the specific information of the scale, direction and most possible location of this devastating earthquake. 

Astrological manuscript from Potala Palace, Lhasa

 One of the main current projects of the Institute is to collect all astrological manuscripts from monasteries from all over Tibet. 260 astrological manuscripts have been collected and scanned from Potala Palace for further research.

Every year the Tibetan Astrology Institute issues a Tibetan Almanac, which exceeds 200,000 copies annually. The Almanac is used in the Tibetan regions in China as well as in many other countries. It provides a valuable information for the farmers and other people of different spheres of life.

Last preparations and editing of he Tibetan almanac for 2014

Feeling thankful for the Tibetan almanac I got as a present 
from the Tibetan Astrology Institute

Calculation of the sun eclypse of 26 April 2013 (in the Tibetan almanac)

Tibetan astrology originates more than 2000 years ago. It incorporates three main astrological systems:
1. nagtsi 黑算 - "black calculations", based on the Chinese astrology and metaphysics
2. kartsi 白算 - "white calculations", based on the Indian astrological system Kalachakra Tantra.
3. local Tibetan astrological methods.

The principles of  Yin and Yang, five elements, 10 stems and 12 branches, the planets of the Solar system, rahu & ketu, Yi Jing 易经, 9-star ki, 28 constellations all are used in Tibetan astrology. A Tibetan system of symbolic stars 神煞 was developed as well. It is a complex method, which deserves more attention and research.

Yi Jing trigrams used in the Tibetan astrological manuscipts

Zodiac information for every month and day in 2013 (in the Tibetan almanac)

Information of 'luck' in the different aspects of life for the 12 zodiac signs (in the Tibetan almanac)

     It was a honour to talk with Mr. Tsetop - la, deputy director of the Tibetan Astrology Institute and a very kind and humble person.

  Mr. Tsetop-la  showing some old Tibetan manuscripts, which are using different metaphysical methods.

Tibetan sand tray board used for astrological calculations.

 The scholars of the Tibetan Astrology Institute are working on several interesting books, which would be available in both Tibetan and Chinese language. It's important to mention - they need financial support for their further publications, so any help in this regard will be appreciated.

Location of the main 14 stars in Zi Wei Dou Shu 紫微斗数

In Pole Star Astrology (Zi Wei Dou Shu 紫微斗数) there are 14 major stars. It's very interesting to see where is their location on the sky.

 Here is a simple chart, which I have used for my Zi Wei Dou Shu class some years ago:

 
And here are the proper names and positions of the 14 stars:

The Little Dipper constellation
The Pole star 紫微 - Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris)

Big Dipper constellation
Tan Lan 贪狼 --- Dubhe (Alpha Ursae Majoris)
Ju Men 巨门 --- Merak (Beta Ursae Majoris)
Lian Zhen 廉贞 --- Alioth (Epsilon Ursae Majoris)

Po Jun 破军 --- Alkaid (Eta Ursae Majoris)
Wu Qu 武曲 --- Mizar and Alcor (Zeta Ursae Majoris)

Sagittarius constellation ♐
Qi Sha 七杀 --- Polis (13 Mu Sagittarii)
Tian Xiang 天相 --- Kaus Borealis (Lambda Sagittarii)
Tian Tong 天同 --- (Phi Sagittarii)
Tian Ji天机 --- Nunki (Sigma Sagittarii)

Tian Liang 天梁 --- Hecatobolus (Tau Sagittarii)

Tian Fu 天府 --- Ascella (Zeta Sagittarii)  

Tai Yang 太阳 --- Sun 
Tai Yin太阴 --- Moon

Searching for the lost spirit of Chinese medicine

  

Searching for the Lost Original Spirit of Chinese Medicine 《寻回中医失落的元神》 by Pan Yi  潘毅 is a new book, which I found during my recent visit in Beijing.

The book is in Chinese and has two parts: the first one is on Yi Jing 易经 and Dao 道, and the second part - on symbols and phenomena 象 related to the concepts in Chinese medicine.

Pan Yi is a professor at the University of Chinese Medicine in Guangzhou. When in the 1990s he started teaching Chinese medicine classes to his students, he wanted to add more content beyond the textbooks, so he started reading Yi Jing (the Book of Changes) and other classics, and then found that the standardized content in the textbooks is very shallow and have lost the original way (Dao 道) and spirit of Chinese medicine.  The current textbooks are serving to accomodate the technical approach to modern science and make it easy for the students to pass the exams, however they don't reach the level of effective depth that is inherent to the classical Chinese medicine.

In this book Pan Yi has made a thorough study of  how the Yi Jing hexagrams and the principles of the five elements integrate with Chinese medicine, i.e. the characteristics of the inner organs, the properties of herbs, the making of herbal formulas and many other related topics, using examples and quotations from different classics.

I highly recommend Searching for the Lost Original Spirit of Chinese Medicine to all who are interested in the topics of Chinese medicine and Yi Jing.

Here is a link to the author's blog with the table of contents of the book in Chinese:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_9617bd9e0101ahdj.html

Is the right bank of the river more auspicious?

Recently I read in some Chinese books and articles that the right bank of the river is better for living as it acummulates more auspicious energy (sheng qi 生气).  Right side of the river - this is the right from you when you look at the direction of the river flow.  An old feng shui saying goes: "The right bank of the river is auspicious, while the left bank of the river is ominous"  河右为吉，河左为凶.

Some relate this notion to the Earth rotation from west to east, which in the Northern hemisphere creates an offset force towards the right side of the flow of the river. The opposite statement will be valid for the Southern hemisphere, where the auspicious will be the left bank of the river.

It is considered that most of the cities situated on the right bank of a river prosper more. Given examples of such cities are Ottawa in Canada, Cairo in Egypt, Seoul in South Korea, Moscow in Russia, Hanoi in Vietnam, and also such cities in China as Nanjing, Luoyang, Xian, Lanzhou, Suzhou, Zhenzhou, Kaifeng, Chongqing and many others. Of course there are many cities that develop and prosper on the left bank of rivers as well and there are different factors contributing for this. 

In addition to this, in the old books of Tibetan medicine it is also pointed out that herbs growing on the right bank of the river have more healing properties.

It's interesting to note that the Russian scientist Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer (1792 - 1876) has examined that in the northern hemisphere, erosion occurs mostly on the right banks of rivers, and in the southern hemisphere - on the left banks. In geology this is known as Baer's law and Albert Einstain has explained this phenomenon in an article in 1926.

No demon can pass through a crooked bridge

  Who would believe that in the beginning of 19th century Shanghai county has been surrounded by this beautiful round town wall with 10 gates!
  The old stone bridges in Shanghai were accurately located by the principle of not pointing at the door of any building, which in feng shui is considered as bringing bad luck. There was only one exception, but soon the mistake was fixed: one of the bridges was pointing at the town wall gate and the people started complaining that this will invite Yin qi of the ghosts from the nearby graveyard to pass through the bridge and start making problems. So the design of the bridge was changed and since then it is known as the "Crooked Bridge". No demon can pass through a crooked bridge...

"Picking wormwood, if one day not seeing it is like three years"

“彼采艾兮，一日不见，如三岁兮.”
  - 《诗经·王风·采葛》

"Picking wormwood, if one day not seeing it is like three years".
-  from Book of Songs (chapter "Wang Feng. Picking kudzu")

This shows how important was the use of wormwood in ancient China.
The sentence has become a Chinese idiom and means something, which you like and miss a lot.

一日三岁 yī rì sān suì   "One day is like three years".

The Vernal Equinox and the Qi in the Body

   On March 20th is the March (Vernal) Equinox. The three days before and after the Vernal equinox are considered as a valuable time for more meditation. As the qigong saying goes: "the six days around the Vernal Equinox are the most important for the first half of the year".  This is a good opportunity to stimulate the opening of the meridians and achieve a better balance in the body.

The Governing and the conception channels form the Small Heavenly Orbit. At the different 15-day solar terms the energy is concentrated and active at a certain area on the Small Heavenly Orbit, thus making a complete circle in the whole year.
 At the Vernal Equinox the energy is concentrated at the Jia Ji points  (Hua Tuo Jia Ji points of the back). You can easily feel the flow of qi inside this area now.

Enjoy the meditation in the Spring!