Body | Qi

Looking at the human body through the eyes of a scientist reveals some remarkable things. The quantifiable, statistical picture of the human body shows us that the body has, typically, 206 bones together with adequate ligaments to hold them together; 640 skeletal muscles with more than twice that number of tendons; eleven organ systems; anywhere from ten to one hundred (depending on who’s opining) trillion cells; each made of multiple organelles which, in turn, are the product of countless chemical reactions using what amounts to only a handful of basic elements: primarily carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus.

From one point of view, the body is a type of jello—it’s mostly water, after all, with some other stuff thrown in the mix to make it a largely malleable semi-solid. However, consider this: if you were the proton in an atom of hydrogen, the electron encircling you would be miles away. Applying that concept to the atoms (which make up the molecules, which make up the chemicals, which make up the components of the cells...) within your body, it is also easy to see that the body is, in fact, mostly empty space. And yet, there your body is, occupying the volume of space that it occupies, at first glance, a single, solid structure.

From a single cell to the largest bone, each component plays its part. The heart beats; the blood flows; all of the anatomy, alive and in constant motion, fulfills its physiological imperative. Every tissue and structure, every individual cell, working on its own, participates in the larger function of the whole being. Through some miraculous process this physical reality manifests mental, emotional and spiritual realities as well, themselves part of the whole. Together with all the others, each of the component parts of the human body, including the ethereal ones, works constantly to maintain a state of balance among all of the component parts of the human body. When one is in a state of disharmony, the others are affected.

The human body. To each of us, it is everything. Seen by an electron microscope, it is largely nothing. It is a single organism. It is a group of components comprising a whole. Each component is integral, and it, as the saying goes, is all connected. In the end, it is all we have, and as such it’s a remarkable thing to possess.