All About Tears

All About Tears

Course Overview

Only humans cry. This reflects the virtue and the pain of man.

The emperor said “the heart is the specially concentrated essences of the five Zang, the eyes are its orifices… Thus when man has virtue, the Qi is harmonious at the eye, but if he loses it, then grief is seen on the complexion…” (Nei Jing)

Tears are drained from the acupuncture point Bladder 1 (Jing Ming). This point manifests the power of the Jing and brightness of the Shen in the eyes. Jing Ming is the connection of purest Yin and purest Yang in the body, here the Shen meets the Jing. There are different kinds of tears such as tears of the heart – tears of joy and tears of sadness. tears of anger and frustration, even tears of fear.

Western research found that “tears can provide powerful pain relief”. Crying is one of the signals that tell the brain it’s time to begin releasing chemical compounds. Now it is known that different compounds have different effects on the body.
Tears also play a very important part in healing and expressing one’s deep feelings, they are the meeting of water and fire – Shen and Jing.
Tears bond us, crying has something to do with human connection, with touching this deep reason of being a human.

This TCM.ac Talk has been produced from materials recorded at the ICCM Congress. The ICCM arranges a yearly outstanding international TCM gathering which is held in Tel Aviv during the Vernal Equinox, in March, every year.