The Life Cycle of the Amoeba - Stage Six

Stage Six - Choice of Direction

The final stage of the cycle is also the preparation for a new cycle. The amoeba has so far learned to exchange Ki with the Universe through it's border, to go forward to find nourishment and assimilate that nourishment, to save itself from danger, to adapt to changing environments and to live in community. The metabolic functions which which have evolved in parallel with these developments have ensured a reserve stock of nutrients and energy, but how to put them to best use?

It is the asking of the question, as much as the answer, which constitutes Stage Six. The Liver and Gall Bladder are the meridians involved, and they are at the sides of the body, enabling us to turn from one side to the other in order to weigh up the possibilities of different courses of action. It is easier to visualize the human body in this situation than the hypothetical amoeba embodying the horns of its dilemma as it wonders which way to turn.

The metabolic activities of the amoeba in its cycle so far have built up a store of nutrients in reserve for this moment, and according to Masunaga it is the Liver which stores them, and the Gall Bladder which distributes them. At lease in part, therefore, this theory accords with TCM, which has the Liver storing the Blood and ensuring the free-flowing of Ki, and with psychological fact, which is that the liver stores glycogen for energy, iron and vitamins, and that the gall bladder distributes bile. Thus in all three systems the combined activity of the Liver and Gall Bladder relates to storage and distribution of some kind. In Zen Shiatsu however, the principle energetic functions of these two meridians is to decide when to store and when to release these nutrients from storage for distribution around the body.

In Oriental medical tradition, the Liver is connected with planning, the Gall Bladder with decision making. If we use the military wording traditionally associated with these "resolute organs" to make an analogy; the Liver can be compared to a general, marshaling reserves according to long-term strategy, and the Gall Bladder to an officer in the field, making moment-to-moment decisions on the deployment of those reserves, based on the current situation.

The area of life in which these plans and decisions take effect is that of action, any action. The nature of the Liver and Gall Bladder energy is to decide upon action, ideally in order to express the life plan of the being at a given moment in time. The catchphrase for this stage in the cycle refers to the moment just before the decision to take action is made, while the options are still open; it is "irresolution".