There’s this section in Chapter 9 of The Spiritual Axis (Ling Shu) from the classical medical treatise Inner Canons of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi Neijing), which in canonical versions is often designated as Verse 27 that I love for many reasons.
Nine universally applicable precepts of healing can be extracted from Verse 27. The way they’re worded, you can interpret them through different lenses and they still hold true. The verse functions as axiomatic to acupuncture, and to both the ancient and the modern healthcare provider.
You can read it through the lens of how to ensure physical health, and also how to ensure mental, emotional health, and — as to the primary scope of work I operate in — to spiritual health.
If you’re looking at it as a road map for your own healing journey, it works. If you’re a healer of any stripe, these are nine clinical axioms for guiding patient care. You can look at these nine precepts as applied medical wisdom, or heuristics for clinical decision-making. They work as key tenets for helping a practitioner refine their diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
And finally, in my view, these nine precepts can be instrumental to helping anyone set the foundation of their personal spiritual practice. It’s designed in such a way that you can account simultaneously for mundane physical health and hygiene tenets and for basic considerations in ritual or ceremonial magic.
I’ve created a supplemental guide you can print out and take notes on as you watch the video. The written guide is designed to provide a structured framework for your reflections, integration, and personal application of the nine precepts. As you engage with the lecture, take notes in the space provided.
Download the Supplemental Guide
DOCX | PDF
The content within the Nine Precepts of Healing supplemental written guide is free for you to use, share, adapt, and build upon in any way that serves you or those you serve. I wholeheartedly invite you to integrate this content into your personal practice, educational materials, workshops, or any other creative or healing endeavors. Whether you distribute the PDF or DOCX as-is, remix it into your own teachings, or translate it into other languages, my goal is for this knowledge to reach those who will benefit from it.
benebell wen 
There is so much wisdom shared here and there’s never been a better time to apply it. Thank you for your great generosity.
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Thanks, although, I’m healing in my own way… Inspiration from here and there.
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FANtastic as usual. Thanks you so much for this wonderful knowledge. All the Best Always… each step from wonder into wonder. bill
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I’ve watched the videos few days ago and now reading the post.
Couple years ago I approached the Yellow Emperor NeiJing SuWen trying to link that knowledge to my TaiJi Quan practice and it was a whole world of knowledge opening in front of my eyes.
Now this post is a very interesting syntesis of some important aspects of that knowledge and understanding better the 9 principles helps to clarify it.
Thanks for your teachings as usual: this blog is absolutely a treasure for everyone interested in Chinese culture.
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I wonder how many senses we could list…
…and on how many we could agree or disagree 😀
Sensory stimulation in various parts of the body, nerves and cells etc doing their thing.
Sight – Orientation
Smell – Position
Touch – Temperature – Pressure
Taste – Hunger – Thirst
Hearing – Balance
Add brain-gut stuff, inner organs and food and medicine, environment and company. 🙂
Not a complete list, and not in a well-organized order. But I guess our bodies themselves are not as organized as we would think either, at least if we look at the details close enough 😊
Can a simplified, less jumbled list of senses itself be a step toward mental calmness?
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Thank you very much. You are so generous and kind.
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