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Dragon Herbs
Dragon Herbs
Ron Teeguarden founded Dragon Herbs so he could have a way to use his vast knowledge of TCM culture. He has also been dedicated to creating high quality medicines that are of great benefit to everyone.
Dragon Herbs is a great brand that sells many different products based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) preparations. All of their items are very high quality compared to what other TCM companies are providing.
[Check out the Dragon Herbs Store here]
Dragon Herbs has a special priority where they set their sites on the best quality compared to other Western companies.
Dragon Herbs constantly endeavor in their goal of gathering herbs from their genuine original sources in the world. In TCM there is a moto for this called Di Tao. This means “Earth Tao” and also it means “the authentic true source”.
The same herbs coming from one region of the world will differ from another region, even if they are exactly the same herb. This is because things like the soil that brings them up, the water that nourishes them, the weather, and the microorganisms that they live with all have their own properties.
So some companies will try to get away with cheaper products created in mass farms when the original herb might come from a place in the forest for example. The qualities of the two herbs will be incredibly different, with the natural herb in the forest being much better. This is what makes Dragon Herbs so great is that always try to make the best quality decisions when choosing what herbs to include.
[Check out these different Dragon Herbs medicines here]
All About Malas and Rosaries
All About Malas and Rosaries
Malas and Rosaries are very important on your spiritual journey and they are a great support to helping you progress on the path. In Buddhism, generally a mala is a set of 108 beads, but it can also be used as a smaller bracelet. The word “Mala” is Sanskrit for “garland”. You can also call them japamalas or yoga beads. The reason for 108 beads is that it is an auspicious number.
Your mala is very useful for helping you keep track during meditation and if you are chanting you can use it to count your recitations. The longer you wear the same mala everyday, the more of your spiritual energy will accumulate on the mala, making it a great support for your spiritual journey.
The most standard and popular malas are made out of Sandalwood. Sandalwood comes in many different variations, such as Brown, Red, Green, Black and so on. Some malas are very cheap while others can be very expensive. What you decide on getting is up to you.
[Check out this Sandalwood mala.]
Different items in this world have different properties, some examples:
1) Silver –Is very protecting, it also helps and assists the bodies digestive functions.
2) Green colored jewelry – Such as Jade, helps you look younger from a distance, also makes your face look younger.
3) Red Coral – Attracts wealth (attracts beings called nagas who provide the wealth).
4) Turquoise – Makes your body appear more youthful.
5) Sandalwood – Helps your bodies energy channels to be more healthy, Sandalwood is also known as a neutral type of wood, meaning you can use it for both peaceful and wrathful practices in spiritual traditions.
6) Things made of bone – Helps your bodies skeletal system to be healthy and strong, is also used for more wrathful and intense practices in spiritual traditions.
7) Lapis-lazuli – This stone is known as the stone of the Medicine Buddha. It has very many healing properties.
8) Black Sandalwood – This is good for both peaceful and wrathful practices, red and black type items are useful for scaring away negative energy. Black Sandalwood also has warming properties and can be useful to wear if you live in a colder area.
9) Pearl – Useful to help relieve headaches.
10) Quartz – Any type of crystal you might wear like Quartz, Rose Quartz, Jade and White Jade and so on will have cooling properties, which is good if you find yourself too hot often.
11) Rose Quartz – Useful for attracting romance and relationships, this is true for the pink color in general.
12) Rudraksha seeds – These seeds are wrathful and are used in wrathful practices. They will scare away negative energy.
[Check out this cheaper mala here.]
[Or you can grab a whole set of cheap malas.]
If you are crafty enough, you can also make your own mala. You can find loose beads in many different places, all you have to do is grab 108 pieces. It is up to you if you wanted to add spacer beads and additional flair. Spacer beads are great for helping you keep track during meditation. Also, the finish of every mala should be the Guru Bead.
[Check out these Loose beads here.]
[There are various places to grab Guru Beads on the Internet, but here is one Tiger Eye Guru Bead.]
When you make your mala, you will need a string. Every bead is going to have a different size for hole, so make sure you find the matching string. Sometimes beads have too small holes for a real mala, this is because if you use too thin string for your mala it is break a lot faster than a more regular sized string.
A decent size for mala strings is 0.8mm or 1mm.
[Check out this 2mm cording string]
[Check out this 1mm cording string]
Goji Berries for Good Health
Goji Berries for Good Health
Goji Berry (Lycium barbarum) are an excellent superfood with a large variety of benefits to our bodies. These berries have been used for thousands of years by the peoples of Asia and especially China. Eating a handful a day will help your body fight stress, gain strength and preserve its youth.
Goji berries also have a load of antioxidant effects as well as a high concentration of Vitamin C, E, and A, and zeaxanthin, carotenoids, beta-carotene, lutein.
Goji Berries in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) give these benefits: builds blood, tonifies Jing and Qi, enhances Shen, benefits the eyes, benefits mood. It goes to these Meridians: Lungs, Kidneys and Liver (LU, KD, LV).
The recommended amount of Goji Berries to eat daily is one or two handfuls.
[Check out these Organic Goji Berries by Terrasoul Superfoods]
In TCM, Goji Berries are described as Tonic Herbs for Yin Deficiency. So these are very excellent for people who might be feeling very burnt out or exhausted. Apart from herbs, it is very important to get good rest every night as well if you are experiencing things like this. They are also known to be very beneficial to martial artists.
Chrysanthemum Tea for the Summer Heat!
Chrysanthemum Tea for the Summer Heat!
Chrysanthemum is a great tea to drink for its many healing properties. It is a great strengthener to our bodies Yin energy and it also clears wind and heat and benefits our eyes. It has a Cold Temperature and a Sweet/Bitter flavor.
If you have ever been feeling overheated and exhausted from high outside temperatures then it is definitely a good idea to give Chrysanthemum a try. This excellent flower is a great medicine for helping us harmonize with the outside weather. In many parts of Asia and China, Chrysanthemum has always been the go to tea for hot summer weather.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the term “wind” refers to a pathogenic force that can invade the body from outside or be generated internally. It is one of the causes of many diseases and it can disrupt your bodies Qi flow (energy flow) which can affect the organs and body functions. So drinking Chrysanthemum is a great cure to preventing any type of “wind” problems.
Chrysanthemum is called “Ju Hua” in TCM and the textbooks give it these benefits: Nourishes Yin, disperses ascending false Yang, disperses wind and minor, occasional irritation (especially from the face, head and upper body), and calms and cools the liver in normal healthy individuals. It goes to these Meridians: Lung and Liver (LU, LI).
How To Set Up Your Meditation Spot
How To Set Up Your Meditation Spot
Many people who are beginning to meditate might have a lot of questions about what they might need for setting up their meditation spots. In general, your meditation spot should be in a very clean area and not have many distractions. So if possible, to stay away from computer and television screens. It is also important to put your cellphone somewhere else so you will not be tempted to break your meditation so easily.
Your spot does not need to be incredibly fancy or special. Meditation can be really done anywhere at anytime, but having a well setup place is very useful.
Your meditation spot should have a comfortable cushion or chair, based on what your needs are. There are many different options for cushions, some are called Zafus and are packed with buckwheat and give a very solid feel, or you can try something else with its own approach. One idea is to stack folded blankets, this feels very stable and concrete.
[Zafu Buckwheat Meditation Cushion]
[22 inches Floor Pillow for Adults – Large Meditation Cushion with Thick Foam]
Whatever you choose, make sure you actually enjoy the feel of the cushion and accept it so you will be drawn to meditating more! If your spot is on the ground level, then you can use something like a Breakfast Table for your meditation tools and texts.
[Check out this Breakfast Table here]
Before starting your formal meditation session, it is very nice if you can purify the room with some incense. Whatever incense you pick, make sure it is very calming and refreshing to you.
[Tibetan incense is great for your meditation sessions.]
When meditating, it is nice if you can wear or use prayer beads. The Buddhist tradition uses 108 beads on one necklace (mala). When you do your prayers on the same beads overtime, they will accumulate your prayers and become like a protection and good luck charm for you.
[There are a variety of prayer beads here.]
Whatever your religion may be, if you have a shrine available to you that is always nice to meditate in front of. If you don’t have a shrine it is not necessary, but you can always make one yourself! Any space you designate as holy and pure is very useful for developing your spiritual qualities. It will become a great support to you and your journey. You can place what items you want on your shrine that have a positive spiritual influence, like a statue of the Buddha and so on.
During your meditation sessions, be sure to wear comfortable clothing as well. Whatever it is you wear, make sure it not tight and constricting, but rather loose and easy.
[These pants are great for meditation]
Also, a quick note: It is good if you can meditate in the same spot instead of using a variety of spots. This is because you will accumulate spiritual energy wherever you meditate, making it better to just do it in one spot.
All About Incense
All About Incense
Incense is a great spiritual tool used for many different reasons. Incense is great if you need to purify certain things like a room, a shrine, an object, or a person. It can also be used for making offerings to certain deities.
There are many types of incense, some examples are: sandalwood, frankincense, sage and sweetgrass. Incense is generally used in: sticks, cones, coils and raw items.
Two stick incense we will be talking about today are Tibetan Incense and Japanese Incense.
Tibetan Incense is generally more rough and produces a great aroma, but a good amount of smoke. Japanese incense is made very delicate and thin, it produces almost no smoke but still gives off a great deal of fragrance.
The practice of using incense in Tibet dates back to the 7th Century and encompasses knowledge from ancient Tibetan Kings and great Indian Buddhist scholars. These formulas have been preserved and are still being used today for religious offerings, meditation and for overall mental and physical well being or simply to purify and refresh rooms.
One of the Tibetan varieties is called Potala Incense. Potala Incense is very fragrant and feels very spiritual. It is used by many Buddhists as a tool for making offerings to deities and shrines as well as a protection against infectious diseases and negative energy.
[Check out this Potala Incense here.]
Potala incense is a pretty economical buy and will get you a good value, but there is also this brand from Men-Tsee-Khang that is even more value for the money.
[Handmade Tibetan Incense By Men- Tsee Khang]
Traditional Japanese incense has been engineered to be created in an almost perfect way. It is very elegant and precise. It definitely enhances your meditation rooms serenity and tranquility.
There are many types of Japanese Incense and it is hard to say which one to pick but the number one thing you should be using most of the time is Sandalwood. Sandalwood is great for carrying your prayers and purifying the area.
[Check out this: Nippon Kodo – Morning Star – Sandalwood]
Another type of Japanese Incense to enjoy is this blend called Moss Garden.
[Check out this: Shoyeido’s Moss Garden Incense]
It is nice if you can find a decent holder for your incense.
[Check out this Incense Holder here]
Sage is a tool for smudging and dispelling energy. It is very much recommended to use Sage alongside Sweetgrass. Sage is known for clearing out all energy while Sweetgrass is used for bringing in positive energy.
Sweetgrass was traditionally used by Native Americans as a great tool for ceremonies as a way to bring in positive energy and in general as a type of smudging. It should not be mistaken for a typical sage smudge as it definitely has different spiritual properties.
[There is some Sweetgrass here.]
Palo Santo and Sage are very similar. Palo Santo is used for smudging and clearing out energy. It is a lot more woody item while Sage is more of a bush.
[Check out this Palo Santo Incense Powder]
If you use powdered incense, you can light two small broken off stick incense and put them underneath the start of your powdered incense and they start the “burn-chain” of your incense line. It is nice if you can put your powdered incense in a straight line with however much you are using.
Just a quick note: Many people complain that Indian incense brands like Hem are too synthetic and irritate their senses.
The Purpose of Meditation
The Purpose of Meditation
Meditation can mean different things to different people, but the overall goal of meditation is that it used to improve a person’s mental well-being. There are different techniques in meditation, ranging from body postures, breathing patterns and even mantras that can be recited.
For many people who are new to meditating it can be difficult as it hard to calm your mind down. However it can be guaranteed that if you can meditate in small sessions everyday then you will slowly be making progress.
Many people get the idea it is possible for them to reach some type of spiritual qualities almost immediately, this is not the case though. It takes dedication from day to day, just like learning any other type of skill would involve.
The benefits of meditation are that you will feel less anxiety and stress. You will also get better at handling difficult situations, things that before might of seemed impossible to you will now be not a problem at all. You will also be enjoying more harmony, peace and calmness in your life.
The more you are able to meditate and hold awareness, the more you will be purifying your karma and mental afflictions. The ultimate goal of meditation is to attain the treasure of enlightenment, which is the eradication of all our suffering and sorrow.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Food Properties
Traditional Chinese Medicine Food Properties
Within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) there is a wide array of knowledge based on foods. This knowledge breaks down the elements of Yin and Yang and helps us figure out which foods we should be eating for our optimal health.
Each food has a temperature and can be measured on a scale to see how it affects the body. The scale runs from hot, warm, neutral, cool and cold. For example, an Apple has a temperature of Cool and is therefore more cooling to the body. On the other hand, if you were to eat Cherries, they would have a more warming effect.
The goal when you cook a meal should for it to have an appropriate balance based on what you need at the time. A person living in a very hot environment should be eating foods that primarily cool the body. The same principle for people in a cold environment should be eating foods that are warming. The same can be said based on what seasons a person is living in. Generally if it is winter, then you would want to be eating warming foods and if it is summer to eat cooling foods.
Not listening to what your body needs at the time can lead to a person developing disease and sickness. So it always important to pay close attention to what your body is doing and try to figure out the best path to it being in balance.
Each food also goes to certain organ(s) in the body. For example, eating an Apple will nourish your Lung, Heart and Intestines.
You can also change the temperature of your food based on the use of spices. Using Black Pepper on your food would make it closer to a Hot temperature.
Yin and Yang, the Principle of Our Universe
Yin and Yang, the Principle of Our Universe
The Yin and Yang originates from the ancient Chinese tradition of Taoism and it describes our universe in a type of way that helps us understand how things are opposite yet interconnected in a ongoing eternal cycle.
Within the Tai Chi symbol, the white area is Yang or Masculine Energy and the black area is Yin or Feminine Energy. The two work together in harmony at all times.
When broken down, everything can manifest as either Yin or Yang. For example, Yin means Dark, Cold, Negative, Wet while Yang means Light, Hot, Positive, Dry. Summer is Yang, Winter is Yin. Lying down and resting is a Yin activity, while getting up and moving around is a Yang activity.
There are many ways to continue describing the two: Earth is Yin, Heaven is Yang. Retreating from a battle is Yin, Advancing is Yang. The Moon is Yin and the Sun is Yang. Moving slowly is Yin, moving fast is Yang.
Even different objects all have a side of Yin and Yang. A tiger is Yin while a dragon is Yang. Water is Yin, Fire is Yang.
Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching says:
”All things carry Yin yet embrace Yang. They blend their life breaths in order to produce harmony.”
When you see the ancient symbol, you will notice there is a white dot in the black area and a black dot in the white area. This tells us that the two need each other in order to continue the cycle. There can be no Yin without a Yang and as well no Yang without a Yin.
It is important to keep the two in balance and harmony. Sometimes when this doesn’t happen you could find one with too much Yin which could be shown as them being too sluggish or lazy. And the opposite for Yang would be someone who is overly angry.
The full purpose of understanding the Yin and Yang is to see that everything should always be in a state of harmony and balance. When things are out of balance, then there will suffering for us to experience. However, when things are in balance then we will be happy and enjoy well-being.
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