Nourish your 精

Jing food: a baked custard of raw, biodynamic milk, and chicken eggs from our friend’s farm

Jing, simply put, is the very precious substance given to us in vitro by our parents; it is the stuff of our physical nature. It is one of the 3 primal energies in Chinese Traditional Medicine. A cosmic energy, jing flows through everything, including us. It is the deepest stored energy in our bodies. Its home is the kidneys.

‘Jing’ translated means ‘essence’. We’re born with a finite amount of jing, but can amplify it throughout our lives through good nourishment and healthy stimulation (meditation, yoga, compassion). We are born with our allotted jing, and at death, our jing is completely exhausted. Its symbol in Chinese medicine is 精.

As a woman, I can attest to the profound effect that jing deficiency has on the quality of life. A tremendous amount of jing is lost in menstrual bleeding (for men, jing is lost in great quantity through ejaculation), and also in pregnancy. The amount of jing lost in menstruation can be debilitating. I always feel depleted and weak once my period is over. It often takes weeks of good nourishment and stimulation to reclaim myself.

But there are many jing-rich foods that bring us back to life. Winter is an especially tough time on jing resources. So, I turn to many of the most potent jing-rich foods to feed my husband, our dogs, and myself now. These foods are very suitable to cold weather: they’re often heavy, fatty, and protein rich.

Raw, biodynamic milk and fresh, local farm eggs are both strong in jing because they both emanate from the reproductive aspect – milk is the food of life for young, and eggs are the product of the reproduction process – both powerful jing foods.

Any food that is the product of the process of reproduction is amazing for replenishing jing – milk, eggs, seeds, nuts, fruits, royal jelly, beans, and pollen. For meat eaters, any manner of organ meat is a source of jing. I definitely don’t eat liver or kidneys, but they are said to be very jing-rich. Reishi mushroom is particularly jing restorative. I also eat fresh pine pollen from my pollen source, nyishar.com. Pine pollen is a fantastic source of jing-potent nutrition. I believe you can also get reishi mushroom from nyimar.

Yesterday was Sunday. It was rainy, foggy, windy and cold. We spent the day cocooning indoors: football, cuddling, laughing, playing with the dogs, and cooking. To boost our jing, I made a fresh, baked custard of raw, biodynamic milk, fresh eggs from our friend’s awesome chickens, raw sugar, sea salt, and vanilla. A very simple, healthful custard with a lot of jing potency.

An exemplary book on the subject of the Three Treasures (Jing, Qi, and Shen) is ‘The Foundations of Chinese Medicine’ by Giovanni Maciocia. It’s about $170 to buy, but it’s pretty much the bible of Daoist medicine. You’ll never have to buy another book on the subject.

When I think back to the months my husband spent in the hospital, and his health – he was grey, drawn, thin, dizzy, and painfully weak - it was clear that he leaked a dangerous amount jing throughout that ordeal. But he was home no more than a week before it was also clear that we were replenishing his jing quickly. Today, he’s positively robust. 

There are some that believe that the jing you’re born with is all you’ll ever get, that there is no acquiring jing. That’s completely wrong. We can replenish jing every day. And we should. Take good care of your beautiful temple.

ཞི་བདེ
Peace on Earth