THE THREE LEVELS AND FIVE ASPECTS OF MINDMental activities and experiences occur at three levels, again proceeding
from the more tangible to the more intangible: sensations
and perceptions, thoughts and ideas, feelings and emotions.
Sensations and perceptions arise from specific parts of the soma: skin,
muscle, viscera, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and tongue. Thoughts and
ideas arise from the psyche: imagination, dreams, memory, attention,
and reflective contemplation. Feelings and emotions are the
outcome of our responses to sensations and perceptions, those that
arise inwardly, and those from the outside world that enter our field
of awareness.
Furthermore, whether we deem our experiences to be
physical or mental, somatic or psychic, our capacity to recognize
their influence is rooted in the physiological structure and functional
processes that correspond to five organ systems referred to as
the Five Organ Networks (Kidney, Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung) that
govern all internal events and outward expressions. That is to say,
how the Qi moves in each of the Organ Networks and how they
interact from moment to moment is what determines the nature of
our life experience
HOW THE FIVE ORGAN NETWORKS ORGANIZE OUR MOTILE, SENSORY, AND COGNITIVE LIFEAll activity is an expression of the movement of Qi occurring in
various layers of the organism. At the level of sensations and perceptions,
Qi manifests as the qualities of movement associated with
muscles, nerves, and sense organs. At the level of thoughts, ideas,
and images, Qi manifests as intellectual activity of the mind, or
cognition.
At the level of our response to sensations, perceptions,
and thoughts, Qi assumes the form of feelings and emotions that
are experienced simultaneously as physical and mental events, actions,
or movements. Qi organizes that which moves, and all movement
is a manifestation of Qi. Fundamentally, motility is Qi, and
what is motile is alive.
When we consider the role of the central nervous system as it is
defined in Western terms, we think of the organism’s ability to
regulate and coordinate a myriad of complex and interrelated functions
including locomotion, perception, cognition, circulation, digestion,
elimination, detoxification, reproduction, regeneration,
growth, maturation, and even degeneration and dying. All of these
processes involve patterned movement at the macroscopic level of
organs, muscles, nerves, and vessels as well as at the microscopic
level of cellular metabolism. In the Chinese view, it is the Organ
Networks that modulate and coordinate all these processes.
I won't post it all, but there is a wealth of information here:
http://www.chinese-medicine-works.com/pdfs/chinese_med_and_the_mind.pdffor anyone who is interested.