Yuan Shen

[Sudhamma]

Shen in Chinese means, God, Spirit, and a person's alertness (?). Yuan, is primodal, and original. so, putting these to words, Yuan Shen together, does it mean the primodal spirit that comes with the conception of the foetus? What is Yuan Shen to your understanding?

[Starjumper]

Uncarved block.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Shen also means consciousness, specifically the combination of Xing (nature) and Qing (emotion).

So in this world view, consciousness, or perhaps I should say the conscious mind, is made up up of our nature and our emotions, so that covers Shen.

Shen is located in the heart and is constructed of the fire element, with the outer two yang lines being our nature and the inner broken line being our emotions (there are other ways to look at this, but this is the most germaine to our discussion).

Yuan shen is the time when Qing is replaced in the centre line of fire by the living jing essence of the water element (the solid yang line between two broken lines) and then it becomes the Qian trigram representing the heavens.

So Yuanshen is the mind of pure yang energy, the original mind, and the mind before it has been affected by outside influences.

This can be further defined into Yuan Xing and Yuan Qing (Shui Jingzi wrote about this in Qing Jing Jing Tu zhu), which is still the Qian trigram, but it recognizes that the original Xing is still the two yang lines, but the yang that enters from the water trigram is called yuan qing.  that kind of theory is a bit complicated and didn't become as popular as the simple one I described before (which is from zhong he jin by li dao chun).

 

Simply put, Yuan Shen = pure consciousness.

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For me it means some conscious part of a person that is permanent to all his other essenses. This is to my understanding something that is a part of us and that can control all processes in a body and mind, in case it is freed from our mental consciousness (called shen). Unless we have strong mind it generates miriades of thoughts and it blocks yuan shen. As well as a body lackes energy and therefore is filled by thoughts.

Rgrds, Ilya

[Sudhamma]

".......Contrarily, in Taoism’s paradigm consciousness pervades the universe.  Consciousness permeates space and time, and consciousness shapes matter.  Consciousness is collective and it is intrinsic to the human condition.  At conception, the classic Taoist meeting of heaven and earth, a new human life is seeded with congenital or “pre-heavenly” yuan jing and yuan shen, instilling a foetus with information and instinct.  Yuan shen is seeded directly from collective consciousness.  Unlike our acquired or “post-heavenly” shen, jing, and other resources, yuan shen does not recognize time or place.  Yuan Shen is undifferentiated information: there is no cognition, memory or analysis which is borne of the post-natal human psyche (Lifang & Garvey, 2006).

There is a distinction between yuan shen, which we attribute to Tao’s pervasive or collective consciousness, and the consciousness we attribute to our lifetime’s “acquired” psyche.  For the purpose of this piece “psyche” would comprise our senses, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.  At conception, the “san bao”, or three treasures (jing, qi, shen), govern our pre-natal resources.  As our development moves into a post-heavenly phase which we recognize as physical existence, our originating yuan shen differentiates into “wu shen” (five spirits), which mirrors the development of the “wu zang”.  This is the manifestation of the organ systems known as the Zang fu, driving cognitive processes of consciousness called “si shen”. (Lifang & Garvey, 2006).

Put another way, yuan shen is delegated at conception, becoming jing shen in our physical development.  Shen then manifests in the Zang Fu – our solid organs – heart, liver, lungs, spleen, and kidneys, according to the following associations: "

 

The above is an extract from the essay (link: taiji-online.co.uk/content/essays/yuan-shen/)

Yuan Shen

Taoism’s concept of Yuan Shen

This essay appeared in Lotus Nei Gong’s Spring 2012 newsletter.

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I'd better follow classic Taoist concept about 3 treasures - jing, qi and shen. In its 'yuan' condition shen seems to me an initial spirit that comes to a body when it is only have been created by future parents.

Rgrds, Ilya

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

 

Shen.

 

 

 

yuan shen.

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To my understanding a torn line in the middle of the first trigramm means smth like a broken whole or smth divided or unperfect. This schematic visualization does not give a description but shows the difference.

Rgrds, Ilya

[Sudhamma]

The unbroken line represents the positive/yang energy and therefore, the broken line represents the negative/yin energy. There are three lines in each segment of the trigram, the top line represents Heaven, the bottom, Earth, and the middle, Man. To digitize it, the unbroken line is '1' and the broken line, '0'. The 1-0-1 formation in the post-heaven trigram is 'Li' with light-giving attribute and is associated with the fire element. My knowledge is most elementary and could not go further to understand nor explain why it is 'Shen' (spirit, consciousness) and th 1-1-1 formation of Qian, Yang-shen. Perhaps sillybearhappyhoneyeater or any knowledgeable 'bums' here can do us the honor.

[allinone]

the other end of your attention. Barrier broken then its awareness, a empty sky, it gives birth to a world a big ocean or sea, its starts to heat, creatures will move to live on land.

[dwai]

Yuan Shen is Pure Awareness - Dao

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Then a question "what is awareness" arises. As well as what is pure. My understanding is that it is a sort of self understanding or essential and constant self identification as it is, untouched by mind, thoughts and not involved into myriads of things happening each moment.

Rgrds, Ilya

[dwai]

Then a question "what is awareness" arises. As well as what is pure. My understanding is that it is a sort of self understanding or essential and constant self identification as it is, untouched by mind, thoughts and not involved into myriads of things happening each moment.

Rgrds, Ilya

Pure awareness is the Dao

[Mig]

For me it means some conscious part of a person that is permanent to all his other essenses. This is to my understanding something that is a part of us and that can control all processes in a body and mind, in case it is freed from our mental consciousness (called shen). Unless we have strong mind it generates miriades of thoughts and it blocks yuan shen. As well as a body lackes energy and therefore is filled by thoughts.

Rgrds, Ilya

I am perplexed at how some terms are defined. I hear often, "for me" is that what the original definition in Chinese says? If that what the Chinese text says, could you provide the source or text in Chinese?

Thanks

[exorcist_1699]

___

_  _

___      is  a trigram called " Li"  ('離'), which symbolizes ' Fire'  , the post-heavenly , upper , spiritual status

 

             of humans ;

 

 

_  _
___

_  _　is  a trigram called " Kan"('坎'), which symbolizes ' Water'  the post-heavenly , lower , physical status

 

          of  humans ( more precisely speaking for men ) ;

 

 

A combination of them ( both belong to those eight  basic  trigrams )  gives you the status of our  whole : Upper Fire,  lower Water.   Fire always goes dissipative and upwards like our spirit ; water always goes down and becomes dirty like our jing .

 

 

Without Taoist cultivation , they always go further apart  from each other as  we  age , and death is the only possible result . In daytime we use our mind to work or entertain , spiritual energy is wasted; in night time we are drown by sex and trapped by nocturnal leakage .  Taoist cultivation , therefore , is just to make them meet and intercourse , arising from it  a " Yuan Shen" , some  kind of mindless Mind , to take charge of our whole practice  so that aging will be stopped and reversed , and everlasting youth,  not only afterlife eternity, becomes  possible.

 

First  , you have to extract that middle  Yang  from the "Kan"  trigram ; please notice that   the precondition for such an extractionn is  to make  'Water' not so dirty , much cleaner...for  dirty water is the main cause of  jing leakage , no matter it is in an  awaken or sleepy status .

Edited March 16, 2017 by exorcist_1699

[allinone]

Yuan Shen is Pure Awareness - Dao

 

if to practice only awareness, then there is a risk of becoming a ghost, not have name and title. And not able to go through the darkness. Need to wait another change to born as a human.

 

Awareness is like a world, you are in it as a layer within and you can fully let go of the borders and feel like floating on water.