July 31, 2025 • 28 mins
Autumn isn’t just about falling leaves. It’s a quiet invitation from nature to slow down, reset, and realign. In this heartfelt episode, I invite you to step out of the daily rush and into the deeper rhythm of the season. We explore how autumn calls us to shift from outward momentum to inward reflection, and how embracing this transition can bring more balance, clarity, and calm to our lives.
With insights drawn from the ancient wisdom of yin and yang, we talk about energy conservation, letting go with intention, and creating space for what truly matters. From simplifying your surroundings to preparing your altar for the autumn equinox, this episode is a gentle reminder to move with the season rather than against it. Join me as we rediscover the beauty of slowing down and the power of seasonal alignment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
This is Bronwyn Iowa coming to you with the seasonal
podcast series.
These are talks designed tohelp us attune more to the
cycles of the seasons and what'shappening in our earthly
existence, and this is oftenleft out of Western thinking.
(00:59):
And this is often left out ofWestern thinking we're kind of
expected to go and do and beworking and producing just as
hard all year round, and thishas been an opportunity for us
to really be integrated intonature, to be a part of nature
and to be impacted and impactingnature in that way.
The beginning of autumn beginshalfway between summer solstice
(01:28):
and autumn equinox.
So summer solstice is theheight of summer.
It's the longest day of theyear.
In the West you think of thatas the beginning of summer, but
it's actually the beginning ofthe end of summer because after
that the days start to getshorter, shorter, and autumn
equinox is the height of autumn,when the balance between light
and dark is equal.
So this is the halfway pointbetween summer solstice and
(01:50):
autumn equinox, making it thebeginning of autumn.
Many of these teachings comefrom my teacher, lu ming, and he
would say that this time ofyear is the most important time
to pay attention and it's thehardest time to do so.
So it's the most important timeto pay attention because if we
(02:11):
don't, we keep going with thiskind of pernicious yang, this
doing going outward up andbusy-ness, which is easy to do
once it gets going, becausethat's the nature of yang.
It's not a listening kind ofenergy, it's a doing, going,
running, directing kind ofenergy.
(02:33):
And so the yin that's coming inhas this softer, quieter
listening.
It's like a shouting person.
It's difficult to get ashouting person to start to
listen.
It takes some intention toreally drop into allowing the
yin to envelope us.
So, yeah, yang's dominantenergy needs to be subsided,
(02:55):
needs to be directed towardssomething softer and quieter.
And because of this doingness,if we have a really busy summer,
it's easy to fail to notice thechanging of the light, the
increase in the wind and thegarden that's ready to harvest.
This is especially true forpeople living in more tropical
(03:17):
or in California, where it canactually get very hot this time
of year.
But the heat is not the same asthe qi.
The weather report is not thesame as the qi report.
The qi is what's actuallyhappening rather than the
temperature.
It doesn't need to be a harshkind of renunciation of in the
(03:41):
autumn, it's simply a quietdirecting the chi from outward
to inward moment, and a lot ofthese, these teachings, it's.
You know, it's really vitalthat we keep these teachings
alive, for for the nextgeneration, and it's it's a way
we can take care of each otherand take care of our planet.
(04:02):
Seasonal wisdom is all butforgotten at the onset of
machinery, artificial lights,industrial agriculture.
So the energy that's happeningright now is that of gathering
in, repair, prepare, reviewingand conserving.
It's not as busy as summer,it's a slowing down and it's
(04:28):
what is preparing us for thisawesome stillness of winter
that's super quiet, three monthssurrounding the winter solstice
.
The idea is to start thinkingabout the work as being
completed, and Looming wouldtalk about it as the mind begins
to close and floats in anddownward as the yin envelops us.
(04:54):
A story Looming would tell usthis time of year is about these
generals.
So generals meeting likeelderly, young generals in their
conference room, and they'vebeen at war all summer, and
they're sitting together talkingabout the next battle and what
they're going to do and theirstrategy.
And they're going and out ofnowhere, someone's granddaughter
(05:16):
runs into the conference roomyelling Grandpa, grandpa.
And all the generals turn tolook at her, so that
granddaughter is the little yinthat was birthed at summer
solstice.
She's five years old now andshe runs in.
And if the generals stop, ifshe manages to interrupt them,
(05:38):
if they take the time to stopand turn their focus towards
this five-year-old granddaughter, they remember.
Oh, the men we are fighting arefathers.
Oh, wouldn't it be nice tospend some time with family, to
have some time to be with mygranddaughters?
(06:00):
Wouldn't'd be nice to slow down?
And what is it that we've beenfighting for?
We've been fighting for a timeto actually stop and rest.
That's what all this doing andbusyness of the summer has been
about, so that we could actuallyenjoy our lives.
So even these, this old,eloquent young, can be unseated
by little girls.
(06:20):
It's like the balance of poweris turning from big warrior,
general, manly focus to, oh, thelittle five-year-old girl, and
generals pay attention.
And generals pay attention.
Then this potentiallypernicious young like this,
(06:42):
going and going and going.
And now the generals actuallywant to become the emperor and
they want to like, roll the rollover, and that's like the, the
liver wants to become the heart.
Right, the heart's the emperor,not the, if they actually
surrender to this oncoming smallyin.
There's health in the body.
That the emperor gets to reign,not the general.
Emperor is the heart and thequietness starts to seep in.
(07:07):
However, you know, thegranddaughter runs in, grandpa,
grandpa, and the grandpaapologizes oh, I'm so sorry for
this interruption of mygranddaughter.
He treats her as anembarrassment and kind of pushes
her out the door so they canget on to their very important
strategizing.
That is the malignant young.
That is what we see in theleadership of the country, of
(07:31):
the US and many other countries,where there is just simply a
pushing, a going, a doing.
Little girls are anembarrassment.
It's not important, they'rereally important things.
Or what's happening with themen.
You get the idea.
So we need to calm down theambition and the pernicious heat
(07:51):
and that intense direct focuswith this blossoming yin wisdom
of the granddaughters, with thismindfulness that comes in with
the autumn.
There is the possibility ofregret embedded in this kind of
yin sensibility.
The generals can really wonderlike what have I been doing?
(08:14):
Killing all of these men?
What have I been doing runningaround?
I've missed.
Oh, oh, she had a birthday.
I forgot about this birthdaywhile I was off, warring oh, I
didn't show up for familydimmeries or whatever the thing
is, and this is the same for us.
We have the opportunity now tonotice how we may have lost our
(08:35):
innocence or a sweet openness,an undefended heart.
How have we armored ourselvesto keep going with this
ambitious summertime doingnessand how can we stop back and
find a more humble, open,undefended heart as the center
(08:59):
place of our lives, undefendedheart as the center place of our
lives?
The neijing, which was writtento maybe 200 bc, maybe older,
says the three months of autumnare called the period of
maturation and harvest.
The growth of the summer hascompleted all shapes, what has
(09:20):
ripened is gathered in.
People, like all phenomena,should follow the seasonal chi
to preserve vitality.
The wind pervades autumn andclears away all dullness.
One should retire early,avoiding the night winds, and
rise early in the morning toenjoy the crisp autumn air.
(09:40):
We should keep the shen, or theheart, calm, or the mind, the
breath regular, just the lung,and practice neidan.
The energy should be turnedinward and one should avoid
anxiety and impulsiveness.
In this way, no harm comes tothe lungs, which is the metal
element, if our progress hasbeen really successful since the
(10:02):
lungs, which is the metalelement, if our progress has
been really successful since thespring, right.
If we've been like, oh, I didall these things and I wrote the
book and blah, it's easy toforget that there is a need to
stop and rest.
It's actually wonderful to havethis reminder in our midst of
our busy doingness, to rememberto slow down this river of
ambition and take some time toharvest the fruits of your
(10:25):
spring ideas and summer laborand actually enjoy the sweetness
of them.
This is a wonderful time toactually stop and enjoy and slow
down.
And the idea is, when we cutdown these fruits or harvest in
the cucumbers or the pumpkins,what we harvest is cut off from
(10:47):
the vine or the tree so it nolonger has availability, that
nourishment.
They can't keep expanding andgrowing and doing it now.
It's time for it to be ingestedand nourish our bodies, not
keep growing and expanding anddoing.
This is the nourishment time.
It's the the time to stop, nottotally stop.
(11:12):
We'll stop when we get to likenovember 9th ish, when it's
actually the beginning of winter.
But this is the time to harvestand complete all the projects,
not the time to plant new seedsor have new ideas or start new
things.
Complete them now.
(11:39):
Take the time now to finish allof the things and begin to
simplify your life inpreparation for the winter
months ahead.
So storing resources, harvestingand storing the resources and
this is the traditionally, whenwe do all the canning right of
the vegetables, we start to umdry the apricots.
You find ways to take thisbeautiful bounty of the summer
and the autumn and keep it forus for the winter.
(11:59):
This is also a wonderful timeto take any abundant financial
resources and freeze them in anaccount, a retirement account,
for example, to save them forour winter months or our winter
years of our life, the lateryears of our life.
Store it, freeze it, save it soit can nourish us when it gets
(12:21):
to be a quieter time, whenthere's less abundance.
And beginning to edit down toessentials means okay.
So when we harvest a crop ofpeaches, for example, we don't
want to bring in the rottenpeaches and pickle them or drown
them in the same jar as theripe ones that are beautiful and
(12:44):
squishy and ready to eat.
It's important to sort out therot from the good.
We don't want to harvest in thebugs or the weeds or the sticks
or the leaves, only the fruit.
This is the time to go throughall of your possessions and get
rid of everything that is notessential.
It's go through all the kitchenthings.
(13:07):
Get rid of all the randomspecialty items, all the herbs
that have been sitting there forseven years, that are dried and
no longer beneficial, all ofthe extras that have somehow
made them way into your house.
Let those all go.
This is in preparation for adeep, quiet stillness for the
(13:29):
winter, a non-doingness in thewinter.
There's no opportunity likewintertime to nourish the yin.
It only comes once a year.
So now is the time to preparefor that stillness, that it can
actually be that stillness.
There's actually a reallybeautiful relaxation in this
(13:52):
preparation, this, this slimmingdown, this trimming off this
deep house cleaning, and toreally reflect on what is
actually important to us in ourlives.
This could also be in terms ofrelationships or anything uh
weird that has come off.
To go ahead and resolve thatconflict, resolve all the the
(14:14):
strangeness.
It's very beneficial for familyrelations to be really clearly
in harmony right now.
In ancient china, this is thetime when executions took place,
where they would go into thejails and be like, okay, all
these prisoners, they just timeto go and.
And they would kill everybodySimilarly if they haven't been
(14:39):
pardoned.
Like, either pardon or kill issort of the idea in our lives.
Obviously, I'm definitely notfor capital punishment on any
level, but that idea of what doyou want to forgive and just be
okay with and make peace with,and what do you want to forgive
and just like be okay with andmake peace with, and what do you
want to sever ties with.
Autumn is the lung element andthe lung elements are the metal
(15:03):
element, which includes thelungs and large intestines.
This is our boundaries.
So if we think about our lungs,that the air comes in, okay, is
this air me or is it theoutside?
Same with bowel movements.
Right, as we have a bowelmovement, it's like, okay, wait,
this is part of me.
No, it's not part of me.
(16:18):
Like, who am I?
Was this me or is that me?
Is this not me?
And this is the samedecision-making precision that
we need to get rid of, thethings that aren't valuable to
us.
It's this discernment, thismetal element, healthy
discernment.
Discernment, this metal element, healthy discernment, mature,
wise, yes, no, ness that comesat this time of the year.
It's different than a young atthe early time of the year where
(16:41):
it's just doing and doing andmore.
It's just a mature decidingtime and you know, if we don't
(17:04):
do, how autumn progresses for usdepends on how we behaved over
the last six months.
It can be difficult to slow down.
It's like trying to slow down aspeeding train, but shaliar to
do this is how the illnessesarise.
The pernicious yang that cancome from a failure for us to
start to complete and slow downcan manifest as a worsening,
(17:25):
conflicts with family members,an overusing of various services
.
It can look physically in thebody like a lung ailment in late
autumn.
It can look like febrilediseases in the winter.
If we remain in this aggressiveyoung state for a long time, it
becomes increasingly harder tostop each year.
It's not that this is some kindof punishment from our distant
(17:48):
god about our misconduct.
This is simply a resultant.
How we behave directly impactsour health, which is completely
left out of allopathic medicine.
It's like they don't ask youwhat you're eating when you it's
like no, just take this pill.
It's always just.
You know a lot of people aregetting that now, but it's like
nothing to do with our behavior.
So this is, this is a directresult.
(18:09):
Our conduct is a direct resultof our our health.
Of course there's exceptions tothat.
I'm not meaning it in any kindof anything other than we have
the agency to impact our livesby following the seasonal chi.
Looming would say there's twomajor causes of death.
(18:30):
The first is birth.
The second is not aligningourselves with nature and what's
happening in their environment,with our practices.
If it's qigong, yoga, dance orkung fu, the qi is best at about
three o'clock in the afternoonfor the next few weeks, and then
five o'clock and then seveno'clock.
It's okay to stop and startyour practices throughout the
(18:52):
day.
Come and go with them.
It's fine.
Face southwest for the mostoptimal energy and don't
overexert yourself or sweat.
It's wise to use the chi thatwe have available to us right
now to move the blood andtransform nutrients and digest
all of this food that we'rebringing in, rather than
overexertion and exercise.
(19:12):
Dress lightly but make sure tobe well covered from the sun and
it's said in the Neijing tostroll about in the morning to
avoid the jam.
For food-wise, it's best to eatwhat's seasonally happening, as
always, eat two meals a day andmake sure to chew the food
(19:33):
properly.
It's important to rest afterlunch.
Snacks of fruit, especiallypears, which guide the lungs,
are helpful on hot days and youcan drink green tea or
chrysanthemum tea.
A vegetarian light savory soupis wonderful for evening meals.
It's important to sleep and goto bed not long after dark.
(19:58):
It's a great time right now torest and relax.
There's so much support for that.
Actually, when you drop in andtune in to the chi of the
environment, there's actually alot of support for rest, and
failure to have adequate rest,as we talked about in the autumn
and winter, can have long-termeffects.
So what I see in my practice ispeople who are going all year
(20:21):
round.
They often come in in theautumn and like, oh, I'm tired
and something's wrong with me,and they want me to boost their
energy.
You don't boost qi this time ofyear.
We want to actually allow theyin to envelope.
So when we boost qi this timeof year by drinking too much
coffee, by taking herbs thatjust help us keep going, what it
(20:43):
does is every year we have alittle bit more insomnia, or
every year a little more neur,or just a little harder to calm
down, a little more low-levelanxiety, and it becomes a little
more severe every year andslightly more difficult to treat
every year that we don'tcultivate the yin.
(21:03):
Nourishment, rest and deepreflection are what we need.
There's an unparalleledopportunity right now to harvest
a yin, have our environment toallow this yin to actually take
the shape in ourselves.
And taking this time to reflectis part of being a human being.
(21:23):
If we only like the outwardgoing party and not the quiet
middle of the night,contemplative, wondering what
we're doing with our lives,moments we're out of balance.
Human being is not simply to goand do.
It's ghostly behavior actuallyto just be out, not listening to
(21:44):
the inner self.
So in order to actually be inthe fullness of human-like
behavior, of being a mensch, ofbeing a human being, we need
some withdrawal and somequietness and some
self-reflection and some sittingin the unknown.
This is what actually causesyoung to finally succeed is
(22:07):
simply the deep listening ofyoung.
So you could think if there's ashouting going maniac right at
some point they're going to justlose steam and then they'll
notice that there's a wholebunch of five-year-old girls
sitting quietly watching them.
It's a kind of embarrassmentactually to be this outward
going doing when we notice thatthere's a quiet, calmer,
(22:31):
softness, that available to us,that's indicated in in the chi,
everywhere, this quiet,observant energy, the.
You know, the investigation ofyin in daoist alchemy is
profound.
It's unparalleled in India orTibet.
It's like there's a particularkind of quality of noticing the
(22:55):
yin.
We need very little yang tobalance yin, yang is very potent
and concentrated.
We don't need equal yin andyang.
Equal yin and yang is basicallyyang derangement.
If you have white paint and youadd a little bit of black, you
(23:19):
only need a little bit of black,although usually black is
inferior to yin.
But in this context you onlyneed just enough warmth so that
things don't become overly coldand stagnate, just enough yang
to keep moving through our days.
You don't need a ton of yang.
It looks like mania.
It's crazy.
It's living on, rising.
We start running aroundshouting at people.
(23:40):
Just a tiny bit to keep theblood moving, just a little bit
to keep the energy of our livesmoving forward.
So, even though the yin is onlybeginning at this time of year,
there's a way where we candeeply rest into sensing and
feeling the approach of winter.
It's like, oh, it's like thefinish line, okay, the end is
(24:03):
near.
Like we can start to movetowards pacing ourselves,
towards completing, finishing,allowing and doing the final
touches on all of the thingsthat we began.
And it's this amazing thing nomatter how much the planet has
misconducted itself the entireyear, or in our case, quite a
(24:29):
few thousand years, the yinstill comes, she still starts
rocking up with her quiet waveof stillness.
It's like it's still going tohappen, whether we pay attention
to it or not and fry ournervous system.
Or actually allowing thatnourishment she's still coming
in, or actually allowing thatnourishment she's still coming
in.
So there's something verycomforting to me about thinking
(24:55):
about it in those ways, of howthe yin just kind of quietly
envelopes.
Thank you for listening, thankyou for taking the time in your
life to slow down and tune intoopportunities to really
harmonize with the nature andthe environment and just to keep
(25:18):
these teachings alive.
It's important as far as aritual for the autumn I like to
do this every six weeks, butespecially in the autumn.
Go through your altar, like allthe things that have sort of
started to accumulate, therandom things that someone
dropped off or left behind orsomehow are still there in the
(25:41):
rock, that you know like they'reoff the altar completely, and
one by one, look at all of youraltar items and just decide what
is actually no longer needingto be a part of your altar.
What medicine upgrades can youdo to just allow in a simplicity
in your practice, simplicity inyour altar, a quietness, a
(26:03):
spaciousness, a tuning in?
The more spaciousness, the lesscluttered.
It's a way to go with our livesand also let that be reflected
in your altar space as well, andyou can start to pass on things
that are no longer part of youraltar to people who it would
mean a lot to to receive theseitems.
Keep it clear, keep it simple.
(26:26):
Thank you for listening andI'll be back and turning to the
autumn equinox.
Okay, be well, blessings onyour quiet journey inward and
all your time completing yourprojects.
This is Bronwyn Iowa coming to you with the seasonal
podcast series.
These are talks designed tohelp us attune more to the
cycles of the seasons and what'shappening in our earthly
existence, and this is oftenleft out of Western thinking.
(00:59):
And this is often left out ofWestern thinking we're kind of
expected to go and do and beworking and producing just as
hard all year round, and thishas been an opportunity for us
to really be integrated intonature, to be a part of nature
and to be impacted and impactingnature in that way.
The beginning of autumn beginshalfway between summer solstice
(01:28):
and autumn equinox.
So summer solstice is theheight of summer.
It's the longest day of theyear.
In the West you think of thatas the beginning of summer, but
it's actually the beginning ofthe end of summer because after
that the days start to getshorter, shorter, and autumn
equinox is the height of autumn,when the balance between light
and dark is equal.
So this is the halfway pointbetween summer solstice and
(01:50):
autumn equinox, making it thebeginning of autumn.
Many of these teachings comefrom my teacher, lu ming, and he
would say that this time ofyear is the most important time
to pay attention and it's thehardest time to do so.
So it's the most important timeto pay attention because if we
(02:11):
don't, we keep going with thiskind of pernicious yang, this
doing going outward up andbusy-ness, which is easy to do
once it gets going, becausethat's the nature of yang.
It's not a listening kind ofenergy, it's a doing, going,
running, directing kind ofenergy.
(02:33):
And so the yin that's coming inhas this softer, quieter
listening.
It's like a shouting person.
It's difficult to get ashouting person to start to
listen.
It takes some intention toreally drop into allowing the
yin to envelope us.
So, yeah, yang's dominantenergy needs to be subsided,
(02:55):
needs to be directed towardssomething softer and quieter.
And because of this doingness,if we have a really busy summer,
it's easy to fail to notice thechanging of the light, the
increase in the wind and thegarden that's ready to harvest.
This is especially true forpeople living in more tropical
(03:17):
or in California, where it canactually get very hot this time
of year.
But the heat is not the same asthe qi.
The weather report is not thesame as the qi report.
The qi is what's actuallyhappening rather than the
temperature.
It doesn't need to be a harshkind of renunciation of in the
(03:41):
autumn, it's simply a quietdirecting the chi from outward
to inward moment, and a lot ofthese, these teachings, it's.
You know, it's really vitalthat we keep these teachings
alive, for for the nextgeneration, and it's it's a way
we can take care of each otherand take care of our planet.
(04:02):
Seasonal wisdom is all butforgotten at the onset of
machinery, artificial lights,industrial agriculture.
So the energy that's happeningright now is that of gathering
in, repair, prepare, reviewingand conserving.
It's not as busy as summer,it's a slowing down and it's
(04:28):
what is preparing us for thisawesome stillness of winter
that's super quiet, three monthssurrounding the winter solstice
.
The idea is to start thinkingabout the work as being
completed, and Looming wouldtalk about it as the mind begins
to close and floats in anddownward as the yin envelops us.
(04:54):
A story Looming would tell usthis time of year is about these
generals.
So generals meeting likeelderly, young generals in their
conference room, and they'vebeen at war all summer, and
they're sitting together talkingabout the next battle and what
they're going to do and theirstrategy.
And they're going and out ofnowhere, someone's granddaughter
(05:16):
runs into the conference roomyelling Grandpa, grandpa.
And all the generals turn tolook at her, so that
granddaughter is the little yinthat was birthed at summer
solstice.
She's five years old now andshe runs in.
And if the generals stop, ifshe manages to interrupt them,
(05:38):
if they take the time to stopand turn their focus towards
this five-year-old granddaughter, they remember.
Oh, the men we are fighting arefathers.
Oh, wouldn't it be nice tospend some time with family, to
have some time to be with mygranddaughters?
(06:00):
Wouldn't'd be nice to slow down?
And what is it that we've beenfighting for?
We've been fighting for a timeto actually stop and rest.
That's what all this doing andbusyness of the summer has been
about, so that we could actuallyenjoy our lives.
So even these, this old,eloquent young, can be unseated
by little girls.
(06:20):
It's like the balance of poweris turning from big warrior,
general, manly focus to, oh, thelittle five-year-old girl, and
generals pay attention.
And generals pay attention.
Then this potentiallypernicious young like this,
(06:42):
going and going and going.
And now the generals actuallywant to become the emperor and
they want to like, roll the rollover, and that's like the, the
liver wants to become the heart.
Right, the heart's the emperor,not the, if they actually
surrender to this oncoming smallyin.
There's health in the body.
That the emperor gets to reign,not the general.
Emperor is the heart and thequietness starts to seep in.
(07:07):
However, you know, thegranddaughter runs in, grandpa,
grandpa, and the grandpaapologizes oh, I'm so sorry for
this interruption of mygranddaughter.
He treats her as anembarrassment and kind of pushes
her out the door so they canget on to their very important
strategizing.
That is the malignant young.
That is what we see in theleadership of the country, of
(07:31):
the US and many other countries,where there is just simply a
pushing, a going, a doing.
Little girls are anembarrassment.
It's not important, they'rereally important things.
Or what's happening with themen.
You get the idea.
So we need to calm down theambition and the pernicious heat
(07:51):
and that intense direct focuswith this blossoming yin wisdom
of the granddaughters, with thismindfulness that comes in with
the autumn.
There is the possibility ofregret embedded in this kind of
yin sensibility.
The generals can really wonderlike what have I been doing?
(08:14):
Killing all of these men?
What have I been doing runningaround?
I've missed.
Oh, oh, she had a birthday.
I forgot about this birthdaywhile I was off, warring oh, I
didn't show up for familydimmeries or whatever the thing
is, and this is the same for us.
We have the opportunity now tonotice how we may have lost our
(08:35):
innocence or a sweet openness,an undefended heart.
How have we armored ourselvesto keep going with this
ambitious summertime doingnessand how can we stop back and
find a more humble, open,undefended heart as the center
(08:59):
place of our lives, undefendedheart as the center place of our
lives?
The neijing, which was writtento maybe 200 bc, maybe older,
says the three months of autumnare called the period of
maturation and harvest.
The growth of the summer hascompleted all shapes, what has
(09:20):
ripened is gathered in.
People, like all phenomena,should follow the seasonal chi
to preserve vitality.
The wind pervades autumn andclears away all dullness.
One should retire early,avoiding the night winds, and
rise early in the morning toenjoy the crisp autumn air.
(09:40):
We should keep the shen, or theheart, calm, or the mind, the
breath regular, just the lung,and practice neidan.
The energy should be turnedinward and one should avoid
anxiety and impulsiveness.
In this way, no harm comes tothe lungs, which is the metal
element, if our progress hasbeen really successful since the
(10:02):
lungs, which is the metalelement, if our progress has
been really successful since thespring, right.
If we've been like, oh, I didall these things and I wrote the
book and blah, it's easy toforget that there is a need to
stop and rest.
It's actually wonderful to havethis reminder in our midst of
our busy doingness, to rememberto slow down this river of
ambition and take some time toharvest the fruits of your
(10:25):
spring ideas and summer laborand actually enjoy the sweetness
of them.
This is a wonderful time toactually stop and enjoy and slow
down.
And the idea is, when we cutdown these fruits or harvest in
the cucumbers or the pumpkins,what we harvest is cut off from
(10:47):
the vine or the tree so it nolonger has availability, that
nourishment.
They can't keep expanding andgrowing and doing it now.
It's time for it to be ingestedand nourish our bodies, not
keep growing and expanding anddoing.
This is the nourishment time.
It's the the time to stop, nottotally stop.
(11:12):
We'll stop when we get to likenovember 9th ish, when it's
actually the beginning of winter.
But this is the time to harvestand complete all the projects,
not the time to plant new seedsor have new ideas or start new
things.
Complete them now.
(11:39):
Take the time now to finish allof the things and begin to
simplify your life inpreparation for the winter
months ahead.
So storing resources, harvestingand storing the resources and
this is the traditionally, whenwe do all the canning right of
the vegetables, we start to umdry the apricots.
You find ways to take thisbeautiful bounty of the summer
and the autumn and keep it forus for the winter.
(11:59):
This is also a wonderful timeto take any abundant financial
resources and freeze them in anaccount, a retirement account,
for example, to save them forour winter months or our winter
years of our life, the lateryears of our life.
Store it, freeze it, save it soit can nourish us when it gets
(12:21):
to be a quieter time, whenthere's less abundance.
And beginning to edit down toessentials means okay.
So when we harvest a crop ofpeaches, for example, we don't
want to bring in the rottenpeaches and pickle them or drown
them in the same jar as theripe ones that are beautiful and
(12:44):
squishy and ready to eat.
It's important to sort out therot from the good.
We don't want to harvest in thebugs or the weeds or the sticks
or the leaves, only the fruit.
This is the time to go throughall of your possessions and get
rid of everything that is notessential.
It's go through all the kitchenthings.
(13:07):
Get rid of all the randomspecialty items, all the herbs
that have been sitting there forseven years, that are dried and
no longer beneficial, all ofthe extras that have somehow
made them way into your house.
Let those all go.
This is in preparation for adeep, quiet stillness for the
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winter, a non-doingness in thewinter.
There's no opportunity likewintertime to nourish the yin.
It only comes once a year.
So now is the time to preparefor that stillness, that it can
actually be that stillness.
There's actually a reallybeautiful relaxation in this
(13:52):
preparation, this, this slimmingdown, this trimming off this
deep house cleaning, and toreally reflect on what is
actually important to us in ourlives.
This could also be in terms ofrelationships or anything uh
weird that has come off.
To go ahead and resolve thatconflict, resolve all the the
(14:14):
strangeness.
It's very beneficial for familyrelations to be really clearly
in harmony right now.
In ancient china, this is thetime when executions took place,
where they would go into thejails and be like, okay, all
these prisoners, they just timeto go and.
And they would kill everybodySimilarly if they haven't been
(14:39):
pardoned.
Like, either pardon or kill issort of the idea in our lives.
Obviously, I'm definitely notfor capital punishment on any
level, but that idea of what doyou want to forgive and just be
okay with and make peace with,and what do you want to forgive
and just like be okay with andmake peace with, and what do you
want to sever ties with.
Autumn is the lung element andthe lung elements are the metal
(15:03):
element, which includes thelungs and large intestines.
This is our boundaries.
So if we think about our lungs,that the air comes in, okay, is
this air me or is it theoutside?
Same with bowel movements.
Right, as we have a bowelmovement, it's like, okay, wait,
this is part of me.
No, it's not part of me.
(16:18):
Like, who am I?
Was this me or is that me?
Is this not me?
And this is the samedecision-making precision that
we need to get rid of, thethings that aren't valuable to
us.
It's this discernment, thismetal element, healthy
discernment.
Discernment, this metal element, healthy discernment, mature,
wise, yes, no, ness that comesat this time of the year.
It's different than a young atthe early time of the year where
(16:41):
it's just doing and doing andmore.
It's just a mature decidingtime and you know, if we don't
(17:04):
do, how autumn progresses for usdepends on how we behaved over
the last six months.
It can be difficult to slow down.
It's like trying to slow down aspeeding train, but shaliar to
do this is how the illnessesarise.
The pernicious yang that cancome from a failure for us to
start to complete and slow downcan manifest as a worsening,
(17:25):
conflicts with family members,an overusing of various services
.
It can look physically in thebody like a lung ailment in late
autumn.
It can look like febrilediseases in the winter.
If we remain in this aggressiveyoung state for a long time, it
becomes increasingly harder tostop each year.
It's not that this is some kindof punishment from our distant
(17:48):
god about our misconduct.
This is simply a resultant.
How we behave directly impactsour health, which is completely
left out of allopathic medicine.
It's like they don't ask youwhat you're eating when you it's
like no, just take this pill.
It's always just.
You know a lot of people aregetting that now, but it's like
nothing to do with our behavior.
So this is, this is a directresult.
(18:09):
Our conduct is a direct resultof our our health.
Of course there's exceptions tothat.
I'm not meaning it in any kindof anything other than we have
the agency to impact our livesby following the seasonal chi.
Looming would say there's twomajor causes of death.
(18:30):
The first is birth.
The second is not aligningourselves with nature and what's
happening in their environment,with our practices.
If it's qigong, yoga, dance orkung fu, the qi is best at about
three o'clock in the afternoonfor the next few weeks, and then
five o'clock and then seveno'clock.
It's okay to stop and startyour practices throughout the
(18:52):
day.
Come and go with them.
It's fine.
Face southwest for the mostoptimal energy and don't
overexert yourself or sweat.
It's wise to use the chi thatwe have available to us right
now to move the blood andtransform nutrients and digest
all of this food that we'rebringing in, rather than
overexertion and exercise.
(19:12):
Dress lightly but make sure tobe well covered from the sun and
it's said in the Neijing tostroll about in the morning to
avoid the jam.
For food-wise, it's best to eatwhat's seasonally happening, as
always, eat two meals a day andmake sure to chew the food
(19:33):
properly.
It's important to rest afterlunch.
Snacks of fruit, especiallypears, which guide the lungs,
are helpful on hot days and youcan drink green tea or
chrysanthemum tea.
A vegetarian light savory soupis wonderful for evening meals.
It's important to sleep and goto bed not long after dark.
(19:58):
It's a great time right now torest and relax.
There's so much support for that.
Actually, when you drop in andtune in to the chi of the
environment, there's actually alot of support for rest, and
failure to have adequate rest,as we talked about in the autumn
and winter, can have long-termeffects.
So what I see in my practice ispeople who are going all year
(20:21):
round.
They often come in in theautumn and like, oh, I'm tired
and something's wrong with me,and they want me to boost their
energy.
You don't boost qi this time ofyear.
We want to actually allow theyin to envelope.
So when we boost qi this timeof year by drinking too much
coffee, by taking herbs thatjust help us keep going, what it
(20:43):
does is every year we have alittle bit more insomnia, or
every year a little more neur,or just a little harder to calm
down, a little more low-levelanxiety, and it becomes a little
more severe every year andslightly more difficult to treat
every year that we don'tcultivate the yin.
(21:03):
Nourishment, rest and deepreflection are what we need.
There's an unparalleledopportunity right now to harvest
a yin, have our environment toallow this yin to actually take
the shape in ourselves.
And taking this time to reflectis part of being a human being.
(21:23):
If we only like the outwardgoing party and not the quiet
middle of the night,contemplative, wondering what
we're doing with our lives,moments we're out of balance.
Human being is not simply to goand do.
It's ghostly behavior actuallyto just be out, not listening to
(21:44):
the inner self.
So in order to actually be inthe fullness of human-like
behavior, of being a mensch, ofbeing a human being, we need
some withdrawal and somequietness and some
self-reflection and some sittingin the unknown.
This is what actually causesyoung to finally succeed is
(22:07):
simply the deep listening ofyoung.
So you could think if there's ashouting going maniac right at
some point they're going to justlose steam and then they'll
notice that there's a wholebunch of five-year-old girls
sitting quietly watching them.
It's a kind of embarrassmentactually to be this outward
going doing when we notice thatthere's a quiet, calmer,
(22:31):
softness, that available to us,that's indicated in in the chi,
everywhere, this quiet,observant energy, the.
You know, the investigation ofyin in daoist alchemy is
profound.
It's unparalleled in India orTibet.
It's like there's a particularkind of quality of noticing the
(22:55):
yin.
We need very little yang tobalance yin, yang is very potent
and concentrated.
We don't need equal yin andyang.
Equal yin and yang is basicallyyang derangement.
If you have white paint and youadd a little bit of black, you
(23:19):
only need a little bit of black,although usually black is
inferior to yin.
But in this context you onlyneed just enough warmth so that
things don't become overly coldand stagnate, just enough yang
to keep moving through our days.
You don't need a ton of yang.
It looks like mania.
It's crazy.
It's living on, rising.
We start running aroundshouting at people.
(23:40):
Just a tiny bit to keep theblood moving, just a little bit
to keep the energy of our livesmoving forward.
So, even though the yin is onlybeginning at this time of year,
there's a way where we candeeply rest into sensing and
feeling the approach of winter.
It's like, oh, it's like thefinish line, okay, the end is
(24:03):
near.
Like we can start to movetowards pacing ourselves,
towards completing, finishing,allowing and doing the final
touches on all of the thingsthat we began.
And it's this amazing thing nomatter how much the planet has
misconducted itself the entireyear, or in our case, quite a
(24:29):
few thousand years, the yinstill comes, she still starts
rocking up with her quiet waveof stillness.
It's like it's still going tohappen, whether we pay attention
to it or not and fry ournervous system.
Or actually allowing thatnourishment she's still coming
in, or actually allowing thatnourishment she's still coming
in.
So there's something verycomforting to me about thinking
(24:55):
about it in those ways, of howthe yin just kind of quietly
envelopes.
Thank you for listening, thankyou for taking the time in your
life to slow down and tune intoopportunities to really
harmonize with the nature andthe environment and just to keep
(25:18):
these teachings alive.
It's important as far as aritual for the autumn I like to
do this every six weeks, butespecially in the autumn.
Go through your altar, like allthe things that have sort of
started to accumulate, therandom things that someone
dropped off or left behind orsomehow are still there in the
(25:41):
rock, that you know like they'reoff the altar completely, and
one by one, look at all of youraltar items and just decide what
is actually no longer needingto be a part of your altar.
What medicine upgrades can youdo to just allow in a simplicity
in your practice, simplicity inyour altar, a quietness, a
(26:03):
spaciousness, a tuning in?
The more spaciousness, the lesscluttered.
It's a way to go with our livesand also let that be reflected
in your altar space as well, andyou can start to pass on things
that are no longer part of youraltar to people who it would
mean a lot to to receive theseitems.
Keep it clear, keep it simple.
(26:26):
Thank you for listening andI'll be back and turning to the
autumn equinox.
Okay, be well, blessings onyour quiet journey inward and
all your time completing yourprojects.
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