HT-5 Tongli - Penetrating Inside

Opening to inside and outside, like a gate that allows movement between Yin and Yang; it lets energy in or out based on need, and brings energy down into the Heart, the physical and the spiritual heart. This point increases control, stabilizes the Heart and takes the person deep inside themselves. It penetrates to the very soul, re-energizes body, mind and spirit, and brings back peace and happiness. It is more effective on the spirit than on the mind or body. It reaches past the social mask of the Heart Protector, and past whatever façade covers the person's essence, such as a title, an addiction, a personality or a behavior, to what is truly happening deep inside, letting a person touch the very core of the spirit. Its warmth is a deep, penetrating warmth toward the world rather than intimacy, and it helps a person reach into their own heart and contact something greater than the self. This point is like a seat in the front row, a private meeting with the king: a glimpse of God and a chance to know the spirit of the God within.

• Worsley reads the junction point Penetrating Inside as the practitioner arriving like a visitor who seeks an audience at court, asking that the treatment be carried right to the patient's heart. The name itself, he says, should remind us of the deep respect we owe the Supreme Controller even while we treat.

Location: On the front of the forearm, over the ulnar artery, 1 ACI above HT-7, in the furrow where the artery runs between the tendons of flexor digitorum superficialis and flexor carpi ulnaris.
Needle depth: 3 fen
Moxa: 3-5 cones

• When the spirit trails behind
• For the person who is hot on the surface yet says they feel empty or cold inside
• For the patient who holds back and is always frightened; outwardly they may look perfect, yet deep within themselves they are rotting and dying
• When you feel unable to get behind a person's mask and discover what is really wrong
• When a person longs to shed their mask but cannot, being cut off from their true self; it connects them with what is really going on in their life, and the mask can then be released with confidence
• For going deeper into our journey and our path, to go into who we are and be able to be who we are
• When a person keeps retreating from life and can't stand their ground
• For dormant, deeply rooted illness, as a way through when the person is bound up and holding too much control
• For someone hard-hearted and controlling: it softens the Heart, lessens the need for control and makes the Heart more malleable
• For someone who looks for connection through sex; it lets feeling into the Heart
• When a person is too attached to their outer trappings
• For the patient who habitually closes their Heart to intimacy, or longs for intimacy but is too out of touch with themselves for it to happen

• Junction point, connecting the Heart with the Small Intestine
• Use it to take a treatment deeper inside, when the treatment is not reaching what you want it to reach
• Can be used if HT-7 changes the pulses but brings no change in quality (the original notes question this)
• Tong suggests quick, clear thinking and communication, pointing to this point's role in sharpening the mind
• As the junction point it can call on help from the Small Intestine to sort what truly matters, separating coarse from fine and pure from impure, which brings order and balance
• The name points to interpenetration: being in such communication with a principle that understanding follows. It lets the Heart's fire reach a person's depths