每到過年前，家家戶戶總會清出大量垃圾。大型家具與家電堆放在社區門口，整座城市的廢棄量彷彿瞬間增加了好幾倍。

丟掉不再需要的物品，帶來一種難以言喻的輕快感。我向來是丟棄頻率很高的人，家中的垃圾平均三天就會整理一次，洗衣的節奏也大致落在三到四天之間。

然而，再怎麼清理，來家中打掃的婦人仍覺得我的東西太多。她大概很少看見一個屋子裡擺滿書籍，還有一箱又一箱的唱片、卡帶與錄影帶，那些被時間收藏的記憶。

如廁是生活中最尋常不過的日常，把腸道的廢物排出，是身體自我養護最基本的動作。我們熟悉走出廁所時的那份舒暢，卻很少意識到，那正是身體最真誠的回應。

身體其實不斷在釋放訊息，只是我們極少真正理解它的需求。我感謝斷食，因為斷食讓我有機會重新認真照顧身體。

身體的核心工程是平衡；而達成平衡的前置作業，就是移除不再需要的廢物。只要身體仍具備能力，它就會竭盡所能的傾倒垃圾。

我們渴望把家裡打掃乾淨，與身體渴望淨化自身，其實是同一個道理。身體看待它的家，正如我們看待自己的家，本質無二。

 

再次感謝斷食，使我釐清了「自己的定義」，也同時看見了「身體的定義」。因為真正的我們住在身體之中，而身體，就是我們最安全的居所。

提到本我、提到靈性，人們往往先想到修行；也常把道場的修行與養生分開，專注於靈性，卻忽略了身體。就像明明擁有一個家，卻讓它既不安靜，也不乾淨。

當我們從潰堤的免疫系統往回追溯，會看見無所不在的睡眠債，也會看見無所不在的不快樂。

而這些問題的根源，多半來自於對「自己」的模糊定義。我們誤以為自己的家，是有門牌號碼的那一棟房子，而不是這個有名字、有生命的人身。

現代人普遍不快樂，往往因為把自己等同於名片上的頭銜，把自己看成每個月領多少薪水的那個人。人世間的角色扮演，遮蔽了我們對自己的深刻擁抱。

在某些場合裡，我們被迫說出違心之語：有時是阿諛奉承，有時是低頭迎合。那份隱約的不舒服，來自我們與真實自我的距離。

 

我們談再多養生之道，只要是為那個有身分地位的自己養生，只要是為那個背負沉重財務壓力的自己養生，終究都只是在外圍摸索，這正是多數人在醫院與家之間來回奔走的處境。

許多醫院檢查不出的疾病，其實源自當事人本質上的不快樂，因為所做的一切，都不是為真正的自己，而是為那個必須賺錢養家的角色。

多少現代人的共同劇本是：為了擁有一個溫暖的家而購屋，接著被龐大的房貸逼迫兼兩份工作，最終犧牲睡眠，賠上健康。

於是，真正的家，反而毀在那個被寄望帶來安穩的家。

當我們看清人類健康的整體圖像，再放眼民間每一個汲汲營營的身影，就會明白：

在認清「自己是誰」之前，健康的定義，必然莫衷一是。

若兩個家都能兼顧，當然最為圓滿；但當必須取捨時，人身這個家，往往最先被放棄。而這樣的劇本，從不會有真正圓滿的結局。

這正是現代人最難修正的一課：家的定義。身體是家，身體是自己的家，身體是必須被妥善照顧好的家。

 

既然身體是家，我們也必須重新認清它的主人。身體的主人從來不是大腦，事實上，大腦常把局面攪成一團迷霧。

身體真正的主人，是免疫系統，是菌腦腸軸，是與生俱來的生物設定，也是維繫生命的生物本能。

療癒，是身體的天賦；健康，是身體的天職。這句話誕生於十年前，源自我斷食八年的體悟，指向的正是：身體這個家的根本任務。

身體無時無刻都在釋放訊息，那麼，誰聽得見？誰應該聽見？誰真正有能力聽見？如果我們聽不到自己身體的聲音，又如何與身體合作？

同樣的，真正理解「做自己」全貌的人，必然也是能聽見自己聲音的人。

我們其實都渴望做自己，也渴望成為內心最想成為的那個人，只是多半被現實緊緊綑綁。

肝膽淨化與斷食，都是身體真實的需求。「自律養生」所宣導的，正是守護「身體這個家」的重要性，並把人與身體的真實定義，紮實地教育、傳承下去。

這不只是生活方式，而是身為人不可違逆的原則，也是身體這座大自然始終堅守的法則。

 

（如果你不把自己的身體照顧好，請問你要住哪裡？）

 

One’s Own Home

As the Lunar New Year approaches each year, every household begins clearing out large amounts of waste.
Bulky furniture and old appliances pile up at the entrances of residential communities, and the city’s discarded volume seems to multiply overnight.

Letting go of what is no longer needed brings an indescribable lightness.
I have always been someone who discards frequently—garbage in my home is sorted roughly every three days, and laundry follows a similar rhythm of three to four days.

Yet no matter how much I clean, the woman who comes to tidy the house still feels I own too many things.
She rarely sees a home filled with books, along with boxes upon boxes of vinyl records, cassette tapes, and videotapes—memories quietly preserved by time.

Using the toilet is one of the most ordinary acts of daily life.
Eliminating intestinal waste is the body’s most basic form of self-care.
We are familiar with the relief felt when leaving the restroom, yet seldom realize that this relief is the body’s most sincere response.

In truth, the body is constantly sending messages—
we simply seldom understand what it is asking for.
I am grateful for fasting, because fasting has given me the chance to care for my body with renewed seriousness.

The core work of the body is balance.
And the preparation required for balance is the removal of what is no longer needed.
As long as the body still has the ability, it will do everything it can to empty its own waste.

Our longing to clean our homes
and the body’s longing to purify itself
are, in essence, the same impulse.
The way the body regards its home
is no different from the way we regard ours.
—

Once again, I thank fasting—
for it clarified the meaning of “myself,”
and revealed the meaning of “the body.”

The real self lives within the body.
And the body is the safest dwelling we will ever have.

When speaking of the true self or spirituality, people often think first of cultivation.
They separate spiritual practice from bodily care—focusing on the soul while neglecting the body.
It is like owning a home, yet allowing it to remain neither quiet nor clean.

Tracing backward from a collapsing immune system,
we inevitably find sleep debt everywhere,
and unhappiness everywhere.

At the root of these conditions
is often a blurred definition of who we are.

We mistake our home for a building with an address,
rather than this living, breathing human body with a name.

Modern unhappiness frequently arises
because we equate ourselves with the title on a business card
or the salary we receive each month.
The roles we perform in society obscure our deepest embrace of the self.

In certain situations, we are forced to speak against our hearts—
sometimes flattering,
sometimes submitting.
The quiet discomfort that follows
comes from the distance between us and our true self.
—

No matter how much we speak about health,
if we nurture only the self defined by status,
or the self burdened by financial pressure,
we remain merely circling the periphery.

This is why so many people
run endlessly between hospitals and homes.

Many illnesses undetectable by medical tests
are rooted in essential unhappiness—
because everything being done
is not for the true self,
but for the role that must earn a living.

A common modern script unfolds like this:
we purchase a house to create a warm home,
then are driven by heavy mortgages to work two jobs,
sacrificing sleep
and ultimately trading away health.

Thus the true home
is destroyed by the very house
meant to provide stability.

When we see the full picture of human health
and observe the restless figures of society,
we begin to understand:

Before we know who we truly are,
the meaning of health can never be unified.

If both homes can be cared for, that is ideal.
But when a choice must be made,
the home of the human body
is usually the first to be abandoned.
And such a script
never reaches a truly whole ending.

This is the hardest lesson for modern people to correct—
the definition of home.

The body is home.
The body is our own home.
And it is a home that must be carefully cared for.
—

If the body is home,
we must also recognize its true owner.

The owner of the body has never been the brain.
In fact, the brain often clouds everything in confusion.

The body’s true guardians are the immune system,
the microbiome–brain–gut axis,
our inborn biological design,
and the instincts that sustain life.

Healing is the body’s gift.
Health is the body’s calling.

These words were born ten years ago
from eight years of fasting practice—
pointing directly to the fundamental mission
of the home called the body.

The body is always sending signals.
But who can hear them?
Who should hear them?
Who truly has the ability to hear?

If we cannot hear the voice of our own body,
how can we ever cooperate with it?

Likewise,
those who truly understand what it means to be themselves
are also those who can hear their own inner voice.

We all long to be ourselves—
to become the person our hearts know we are meant to be.
Yet most of us are tightly bound by reality.

Liver–gallbladder cleansing and fasting
are genuine needs of the body.
What Selfasteam advocates
is precisely the protection of the body as home,
and the faithful education and transmission
of the true relationship between human beings and their bodies.

This is not merely a lifestyle.
It is a principle humanity cannot defy—
and a law that the great body of nature
has always upheld.