guide to 60 transformational acupoints companion book 360_class+3.pdf · 4 | guide to 60...

© bigtreehealing.com1 | Guide to 60 Transformational Acupoints

Guide to 60 Transformational Acupoints

Cindy Black, L.Ac., LMTFounder of Big Tree School of Natural Healing

Class 3: Companion Book


Guide to 60 Transformational Acupoints

• Lesson 1: The Five Transporting Shu Points• Lesson 2: Yin Shu Points• Lesson 3: Yang Shu Points

Class 3: Lesson 1The Five Transporting Shu Points

This entire Class is about the Transporting or Five Shu Points. You might be thinking, we already did the Shu Points. Well, we covered the Back Shu Points. However, those are completely different than these Five Transporting Shu Points.

This is a very old way of looking at meridians and points. It’s an ancient perspective that compares meridian flow to the way that water flows in a stream. Once we understand the flow of Qi from this perspective, we then combine it with the Five Elements; this perspective is fun to know. It will serve you no matter where you roam in the world of meridians and points.

Once again, these are NOT the Back Shu Points. Those are a completely different set of points.

This set is referred to as the Five Transporting Shu Points. There are five of these points on every meridian. So, five points times twelve meridians, gives us sixty points. I’m going to explain all of these points to you and then I’m going to filter it down to the points that are most frequently used.

Let’s get a handle on the background of these Five Shu Points. Qi flows through the meridians just as water flows through a river bed. I think you’ve heard that a couple of times by now. Let’s take this concept a little deeper.

We have to realize that a river starts out really small and then it gets bigger and bigger. Here again we see the basis of Classical Chinese medicine coming straight from nature. The more that you can go out to explore nature and contemplate these things, the richer your experience and knowledge of the meridians and points will be.

So, we ask ourselves: “Where does a river begin?” It begins at a little spring. Even the huge, massive Amazon River starts out in a really small place; I looked it up on Google. It’s an interesting thing to do, to look for the head waters of rivers. It will help us understand where the ancients were coming from since they were out there observing nature. So, we have to go back out there and do the same thing. We can do that anytime. Even if we don’t live near the Amazon, we have Google.

A river begins at a spring. Then it bubbles up out of a spring, which is often called a well.

Class 3: Lesson 1


I found this picture of a spring coming out of the Ozark’s here in the US. The water is emerging there out of the left, and it’s just gurgling up out of the ground. Then it continues to get a little bit bigger. All that water is pouring out and eventually becoming a large river.

We have to wonder where all of this water is headed. We have a big stream here and it’s headed toward the sea. Rivers and streams are always headed toward the sea. They just merge in with this massive body of water. Now, we compare the flow of rivers to the flow of Qi. The Five Transporting Points are all located from the tips of the fingers and toes, back to the elbows and knees.

This direction of flow may confuse some of us...“Wait a minute, the Yin meridians all flow upward and the Yang meridians all flow downward!” Yes, that’s all true. A fascinating thing about Chinese medicine is that it is thousands and thousands of years old. So, there are many different theories and many different ways of looking at things.

So, we’re just going to suspend that prior information and look at things this way for now. Once you understand both theories, you can play around and see what works best for you.

Naming the Transporting Points

Each of the Transporting Points has a name that reflects the movement of water as it grows larger from a well, to a stream, all the way out to an ocean. The order is: well, spring, stream, river, sea. The idea is that it’s getting a little bit bigger, and bigger, and bigger; until it eventually dumps into the ocean.

Now, let’s make sense of the name. “Pinyin” is the phonetic system used to transcribe the Chinese characters. The Chinese language is written with characters, not letters. The translation from the character into the Roman alphabet is called Pinyin. We’ve been using Pinyin throughout this Class. For instance, “Zu San Li” is the name of ST 36. Zu San Li is the Pinyin spelling of the three characters that mean “Zu San Li” in the Chinese language. However, we are not going to get into all the details of translation.

Jing means well.Ying means spring. Shu means stream.Jing here means river. He means sea.

You will often see Transporting Points names written as “Jing-Well,” “Ying-Spring,” etc. because this shows the Pinyin and the English translation. Chinese is a tonal language, so a different tone changes the meaning of a word. Even though we’re spelling it Jing, when it is pronounced with different tones it means completely different things. I can’t really tell you which tone that is because it’s not my area of expertise. But, this is why you see Jing-Well and Jing-River.

Let’s get practical!


The idea is that the Qi is emerging at the tip of the thumb in this case. (See the picture above) This is the Jing-Well point. The meridian is getting a little bit bigger because the Qi is gaining and gathering as it gets to the spring. Just like a river, the water emerges from a well to a spring to a river, and it gets bigger as it goes. This third point is the Shu-Stream point. As the pathway grows, we have the Ying-River point. Then finally, we end with the He-Sea point.

The Amazon River starts out very small and grows larger and larger, before it merges back into the Sea. These Transporting Points follow that same pattern.

At the He-Sea Point, it is said that the Qi dives deeply into the ocean of Qi; basically, into the whole body of Qi. Each one of these points, because of their nature, (whether it’s a well, spring, stream, river, or sea) has a certain nature or flavor because of its location.

On every meridian, all of these points are located between the tip of the fingers and the elbows, or between the tip of the toes and the knees. The exception is KD 1, which is on the bottom of the foot.

The Transporting Point theory is a way of describing the flow of Qi emerging from those points; and the flow of Qi getting larger and larger as it flows back into the ocean. This is just another way of envisioning the flow of Qi in the meridians. Each of those points has a certain flavor.

1. Jing-Well Points relieve a sense of fullness below the heart and the area of the lower ribs. Like that hypochondriac point below the rib area. It doesn’t matter which meridian we’re talking about. If we’re talking about a Jing-Well Point, which is a point on the tip of the finger; this is the character, action, or indication of that point. When there is a sense of stuffiness, fullness, or any issue going on in that area, use a Jing-Well Point.

2. Ying-Spring Points are used to clear heat in some form or another. We already


learned a lot about clearing heat. We discussed taking the top off that boiling pot of water to let the extra steam out, which relieves excess heat. Keep in mind that “heat” could also be emotions like anxiety, anger, or when you are just really “wound up.” Heat is any kind of excess Yang energy.

3. Shu-Stream Points are used to relieve heaviness, dampness, and joint pain. Dampness is one of those external influences that can get into the meridian system and clog things up. Anything that clogs up the meridians is going to create stagnation and pain in that area.

Sometimes people have a tendency toward pain in their joints. Let’s think about arthritis. Frequently with arthritis, people will say they know when it’s damp out because the pain gets worse. Clearly, the ancient Chinese saw how the weather influenced us. 4. Ying-River Points are used to help relieve respiratory conditions. When there are issues like a cough, difficulty breathing, or shortness of breath, turn to that set of Ying-River Points.

5. He-Sea Points are used to soothe rebellious Qi. I always loved that term rebellious Qi. Rebellious Qi means that the Qi is moving in the wrong direction; it’s “rebelling.”

For instance, if you drink a glass of water then you want all of that water to go down to your stomach. If it rebels, then it comes back up in the form of vomiting. Rebellious Qi refers to issues where the flow is going in the wrong direction. Coughing is also a form of rebellious Qi because if you cough the air is popping up when really it should be going down. These are examples of rebellious Qi: burping, hiccups, cough, acid reflux, and vomiting. It’s all the “fun” things that we love to talk about. Use the He-Sea Points, to help relieve those rebel Qi issues.


Yin Shu Points

We’ve learned the five Transporting Shu Points and their general indications; depending on if they are a well, spring, stream, river, or sea. Now, we combine that with the Five Elements to make it even more fun.

Here is a reminder of the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The Generating Cycle or the Creation Cycle, moves in this direction (following the seasons): wood is spring, summer is fire, late summer is earth, fall is metal, and winter is water - around and around it goes. This picture shows the Creation or Generating Cycle of the Five Elements.

Now, we match up those five points to the Five Elements. It is different with the Yang Meridians, so we’re going to focus on the Yin Meridians first.

The way it works is that the Jing-Well point (tip of fingers and toes) of a Yin Meridian is the first point in the sequence and it is the Wood point. That makes the next point, the Ying-Spring, a Fire point. The Earth point is the Shu-Stream, the Metal point corresponds to the Jing-River, and the Water point corresponds to the He-Sea.

You may have heard someone say: “Oh, that’s the Water point and that’s the Fire point.” This what they are referring to. I’m really excited to teach it to you because now you will understand what’s going on. Depending on how you practice, you want to be aware of working with these points, based on the Five Elements.

Get ready because a whole bunch of points are coming at you! Just relax and know that I’m going to work through each of the Yin meridians in this section. At the end, I’ll clarify which points are the most relevant.

Class 3: Lesson 2


Let’s look at the Lung meridian as an example.

The theory is to start on the tip of the fingers with the Well points. Well points are on the tip of all five fingers. For the Yin Meridians, Well points are going to correspond to the Wood element. So, we say that LU 11 is the Jing-Well, Wood point on the Lung meridian.

LU 10 is the Ying-Spring, Fire point on the Lung Meridian.


Guess what’s next? The next point is LU 9, which we have already covered as one of the Influential Points. Now you see that LU 9 is also the Shu-Stream, Earth point on the Lung Meridian. Then we go to LU 8, which is the Jing-River, Metal point. Remember that water comes out of the well, and gets bigger and bigger. Now, we move to the He-Sea point. It’s all the way back at the elbow, which is LU 5.

We mix the qualities of the first set that I gave you, using these for fullness below the chest. The Ying-Spring Points are for relieving heat, and the Shu-Stream Points are for relieving dampness and heaviness. The Jing-River Points are for respiratory issues and the He-Sea Points are for rebellious Qi.

Now, combine that with the Five Elements and the meridian.

To relieve a cough, use LU 5. Why? A cough is rebellious Lung Qi. The Qi is moving in the wrong direction. That would be one application. Here it is without the Five Element aspect added to it, so you can see these points on the Lung Meridian more clearly - according to the Transporting Point theory. And then here it is, with just the Five Elements.

I made a little chart for you (see below). We are going to take our time and fill in the whole thing. We have six Yin meridians to do. As a little reminder, there are three Yin meridians on the arm and three Yin meridians on the leg. First, I’ll proceed with the meridians on the arm and then we’ll do the meridians on the leg after that.

I am not going to go through every tiny little detail about each point. The first layer is for you to see these points and to get a sense of the rhythm. The second layer is to know where the points are located and remember that they’re all located between the fingertips and the elbow.

Points on the arm:The order starting from the finger tips is: Jing-Well, Ying-Spring, Shu-Stream, Jing-River, and He-Sea.


Pericardium Meridian

These are all the numbers of the points on the Pericardium meridian. I keep putting them into this chart. This chart is going to get really busy but that’s the beauty of taking a class on your own and working at your own pace. You can just take your time. Hang in there with this and start playing around with these points. What you’re going to see is that this is a really important classification of points. This classification system will help you understand their nature.

Part of the nature of LU 9 is that it’s the Shu-Stream, Earth point. Part of the nature of P 7 is that it’s also a Shu-Stream, Earth, point. What makes them a little different is that this is the Lung meridian and this is the Pericardium meridian. So, you take your knowledge of the character of the different meridians, and start mixing it with the Shu-Stream application and then the element of Earth.

Ask yourself: “What would the Earth point be like on the Lung?” Keep in mind that the Lung is the Yin, Metal meridian. The Lung corresponds to the Metal element and here we have an Earth point on the Metal element. Take your time. Meander through these points, giving yourself plenty of time to contemplate and absorb this information. From your experience, you’ll start to create a relationship with the points.

Heart Meridian

Here’s the Heart Meridian, also a Yin meridian, coming down on the pinky side of the forearm. These are the corresponding Heart points: 9, 8, 7, 4, and 3.


In the west, we’ve learned the points according to the numbers. So, we think the meridians are supposed to flow from the chest out to the fingers. In some cases, that is true. However, the numbering system has limited our ability to really get to the nature of the points. Remember, they were originally named according to the: place, location, flavor, nature, quality, action of the point, and a lot of different things. We are working with a really old system. We have to keep breathing and take our time with it.

Spleen Meridian

The Spleen meridian, as you know, is on the leg. The points are between the tip of the toe and the knee. So, we add this to our chart. One cool thing about the chart is that when you look at it, you see all of the Wood points, then you can see all of the Fire points, and so on. If you are drawn to the Five Elements, this is going to be a really awesome reference for you.

Liver Meridian

The Jing-Well is out here on the tip of the big toe, opposite of SP 1. By massaging your toes and the tip of all your fingers, you’re activating the Jing-Well Points on all of the meridians.

I just love doing that! Don’t forget that KD 1 is not on a toe, it’s on the bottom of the foot. It’s the only exception to the rule. That’s okay, you just go right around and get that Jing-Well point on the bottom of the foot.

Kidney Meridian

Start at KD 1 and follow this all the way up to the He-Sea point (KD 10).

The concept is that the flow of the energy, is emerging at that Jing-Well and then flowing toward the He-Sea. It’s flowing toward the inner, then going deep, and then going really deep. That makes sense since there is less tissue on the fingers, toes, forearms, and lower legs. Physically, the limbs get larger as we get closer to the trunk.


Now, imagine how the Qi gets broader and bigger as it gets closer to the trunk. Imagine yourself as a big sea of Qi, with many springs and rivers drawing and pouring into your center.

Let’s have a look at that chart. We’re all done now. This is now your reference for all the Shu Transporting Points that are on the Yin meridians.

One more time just to send this theory home. This is the order: Well, Spring, Stream, River, and Sea. This order is the same order that water would emerge from the ground. It comes up out of the ground, and gets bigger and bigger as it gets closer to the sea. All of these points are access points to that “river” (meridian) along the way.

The order of the elements is always going to be the same for all of the Yin meridians: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. It’s the same flow as the seasons beginning with spring: spring, summer, late summer, fall, winter, and then back to spring.

That’s the Generating Cycle. This order will always carry through. We just match it up and spend a lot of time contemplating.

This is the order of the Five Elements as it relates to the Yin meridians.

It is different with the Yang meridians. I will save that for the next exciting Class.


Jing-Well Ying-Spring Shu-Stream Jing-River He-Sea

Wood Fire Earth Metal WaterArm Meridians:

Lung LU 11 LU 10 LU 9 LU 8 LU 5Pericardium P 9 P 8 P 7 P 5 P 3Heart HT 9 HT 8 HT 7 HT 4 HT 3

Leg Meridians:

Spleen SP 1 SP 2 SP 3 SP 5 SP 9Liver LV 1 LV 2 LV 3 LV 4 LV 8Kidney KD 1 KD 2 KD 3 KD 7 KD 10

Yin Meridian Shu Points

I want to celebrate a little bit! We got through the Yin Meridian Shu Points! Oops - I forgot to narrow down the Yin Transporting Points, so let’s do that now:

Yin Shu Transporting Points Commonly Used:

ARM

Lung 5, 9, 10

Pericardium 7, 8

Heart 7

LEG

Spleen 9

Liver 2, 3, 8

Kidney 1, 2, 3


Yang Shu Points

You see them all on the Lung, Pericardium, and Heart. These are the points that I’ll speak to you about in more detail in the next Class. I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know it’s a ton of information.You have plenty of new words, points, and concepts to figure out! Here is a reminder for the Yin meridians: the Jing-Well point is Wood. The rest of the Shu Points follow the order of the Five Elements from Wood to Fire to Earth, etc. Let’s get to the Yang meridians! On the Yang meridians, the Jing-Well point is the Metal element. This means that the tip of the finger and the tip of the toes on the Yang meridians correspond to Metal. The rest of the Shu Points follow the order of the 5 Elements: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth.

We will start on the arm, just like with the Yin meridians. First, we’ll do the three Yang meridians on the arm, and then we’ll go down to the leg.

Notice that the Jing, Ying, Shu, Jing, and He-Sea points have the same order as the Yin meridians. The only thing that changed was the Five Element order. That is a big change between Yin and Yang.

Large Intestine Meridian

Here we have the Large Intestine meridian, which is the Yang meridian of the Metal element.

LI 1 is at the corner of the nail bed where all these first points or last points are located. If you grasp the edge of your finger with your other thumb and forefinger, you can squeeze right in there and you’re activating these Jing-Well Points. Activating these points wakes up the entire meridian. You can get six meridians going simply by massaging the tip of all of your fingers.

Let’s see this without the Jing-Well information and look at the Five Element correspondents.

Class 3: Lesson 3


We're still going in order: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. You may be used to seeing the Five Elements in a circle; here we just stretched them out in a line. Although it’s still fall, winter, spring, summer, late-summer, and then back to fall. These numbers are the numbers of the Large Intestine points. You have your handy dandy chart (see below), so you can rest assured that all the material is organized for you. You can see the order: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. The points are put in for you.

San Jiao Meridian

The San Jiao Meridian is in the center of the back of the arm, and you know the back of the arm is the Yang surface. That's where we're going to find all three of these Yang meridians and all of these Yang points. And look, it's matching up the elbow to the tip of the finger. The He-Sea point is just proximal, right behind the elbow.

Here we see the progression of the points from the Jing-Well all the way to the He-Sea. If you want to find the Water point on the San Jiao meridian, all you do is look at the column for Water; then come down until you see San Jiao and see it is San Jiao 2.


Small Intestine Meridian

There is one more meridian on the arm and that's the Small Intestine. We see the same rhythm going on;Jing-Well, Ying-Spring, Shu-Stream, Ying-River, and He-Sea. All of the point correspondences are there for you. Let's take a look at these three meridians on the back of the arm, which are the Yang Meridian Shu Points. You'll notice that I have changed up the chart because we needed to start with Metal. On the Yang meridians, the Jing-Well Points correspond to Metal. Just take it through that same rhythm and fill it in with the spring, the stream, the river, and the sea points.

Stomach Meridian

The Stomach is a Yang meridian, on the outer side of the leg. You'll notice the numbering because many times we say the Stomach meridian starts at the eye, comes down, and ends at the foot. In terms of one theory, that's true. However, in terms of this theory, it’s thrown out the window.

This Shu-Transporting theory says that the Qi emerges here at the 2nd toe, at the Jing-Well point. It picks up a little steam at the spring, getting even bigger here at the stream. It is a river getting big and wide. Now it's getting very full as it heads toward the He-Sea point, Stomach 36. You've seen Stomach 36 and Stomach 44 before. I wonder where those could be.

Let's put these in our chart so everything is all nice and tidy.


Gallbladder Meridian

The Gallbladder is the partner of the Liver meridian. Here is GB 44 at the corner of the nail bed on the 4th toe. Start here with 44, 43, 41. It's hard to show you those points on this view, which is why I threw in the other view for you. Both of these images are on the right foot. GB 34 is the He-Sea point.

We're starting to understand how you get these different point categories, and you keep see-ing these same points showing up over and over again. That's what I wanted to get across in this Class: the layering and layering and layering; so that you can understand the nature of these points. That is how you build your sense of how to use them. It's not a matter of always trying to memorize that you use this point for that and this point for that. Get to know the character and flavor of those points. Then bring that into your own creativity - your own observations of yourself, nature, people, plants, animals, and bugs - and all of that becomes your living knowledge. Now the Gallbladder points are in the chart.

Bladder Meridian

Bladder 40 is the He-Sea point for the Bladder meridian. BL 40 is one of Ma Danyang's Heavenly Star Points showing up in a different category. It is same thing with Bladder 60. When you really get a sense of everything that those 12 Star Points can do for you, you see that they're a really good core group of points to know. You can accomplish a lot with them.

In the beginning of my studies, I wanted to know every single point! I wanted to use all of the points, all of the time. But the reality is, we are not going to use every single point all of the time.

You start to get a flavor and a working relationship with certain points. You don't just throw out the other points because you definitely want to know about them too. Yet with time and integration with your specific practice, you will eventually have a really good working set of points. Of course, you will keep referencing and refreshing your knowledge.


Yang Meridian Shu Points

We have finished the Yang Meridian Shu Points! Now you know all of the Shu Transporting Points. That's 60 points that you can play around with. I'm going to take you through it all over again; not in all that much detail but we're going to go through the chart in some other ways in the next Class.

To review:Let's say you are just all about the Wood element, and you really want to know what all of the Wood points are on the body. Go to your Yang chart, find the Wood element points on the Yang meridians. Then go consult your Yin chart and you find all of the Wood points on the Yin meridians.

As you do that as a form of study and contemplation, you'll start to see patterns. You will. It will start to fall into place. Soon you will see why certain points are used to relate to certain kinds of ailments. The more time you can spend wondering about things, the more fun it becomes.

We’re going to narrow down the Yang Transporting Points to those that are commonly used. You can do so much with just a few points. These are the points we’re going to go into more detail about in the next Class. For now, we are good to say that we’re done with layer one of the Shu Transporting Points.

Jing-Well Ying-Spring Shu-Stream Jing-River He-Sea

Metal Water Wood Fire Earth

Arm Meridians

L. Intestine LI 1 LI 2 LI 3 LI 5 LI 11

San Jiao SJ 1 SJ 2 SJ 3 SJ 6 SJ 10

S. Intestine SI 1 SI 2 SI 3 SI 5 SI 8

Leg Meridians

Stomach ST 45 ST 44 ST 43 ST 41 ST 36

Gallbaldder GB 44 GB 43 GB 41 GB 38 GB 34

Bladder BL 67 BL 66 BL 65 BL 60 BL 40


Yang Shu Transporting Points Commonly Used:

ARM

L. Intestine 11

San Jiao 3

S. Intestine 3

LEG

Stomach 36, 41, 44

Gallbladder 34, 41

Bladder 40, 60, 67

Review 12 Heavenly Star Points:

Before we finish up, let's go back to our handy-dandy 12 Heavenly Star Points and see what we need to add in. You have this chart in your written materials, and I know you've been following along with your webinar worksheet. There is a separate page that has this chart, so you can continue filling it in.

You want to add: Bladder 40 which is the He-Sea, Earth point. Bladder 60 is the Jing-River, Fire point. Large Intestine 11 is the He-Sea, Earth point. Gallbladder 34 is the He-Sea, Earth point. Notice how Gallbladder 34 is really beating the pack here with the claim to fame of being in a variety of different categories.

Have fun with your explorations and I'll see you back here whenever you're ready for Class 4.

guide to 60 transformational acupoints companion book 360_class+3.pdf · 4 | guide to 60...

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