How to communicate with the Shen?

[sean]

I have a private back and forth with Michael Winn through email recently, looking for advice on how to work his stuff into my three day jing-chi-shen spiral. He wasn't really feelin' all that, but he did suggest I work to develop a relationship with my shen and ask them how to proceed with my alchemy every day. Which is of course the approach our very own taobum genius Peter Falk has done with incredible results.

 

So my question, to Peter Falk and anyone else who wants to chime in, is how do I cultivate this type of communicative relationship with my shen? What is the process you go through to develop this and how do you refine your intuition to distinguish between mental garbage and genuine messages from the shen.

 

Thanks,

Sean.

[Cameron]

Michael isn't really a fan of systematizing or organizing practice schedules too much . I remember kind of rigidly asking him how long should you do certain practices and what time of day is best and so forth and he kind of gave me a blank stare. The whole idea with his approach is to get into a realationship with the 5 shen and open up the communication. I think all of the stuff he teaches basically has this goal. Right from the qigong fundamentals class he is talking about the 5 animal movements and inner smile being a way to open up communication with the shen. Then his fusion and Kan and Li are just more involved methods of accomplishing this.

 

In other words..from my understanding..every single thing Winn teaches now has as it's goal to get into communication with the shen in some form or another..just from different angles.

 

My guess is if you really get the system down and internalize everything then all of it becomes second nature and from his theory your shen more or less take over the practice for you. You sort of elarn to trust them and they have the information(7 formulas) to balance you out.

 

I have has positive experiences with this and may cycle back to it but I am going with zazen type stuff for awhile. Though I find the shen often do the practices without my conscious intent.

 

Or you could say just knowing the HT practices gives the shen the information they need to organize things without you having to sit down and really do too much. I am still exploring these things myself but that's my present take on it.

[sean]

Cameron, I think this aspect is finally starting to click for me. The dialogue I had with Winn made me realize I was trying to hard to impose an intellectually-developed structure on this type of alchemical work, which like you said isn't what it's really designed for at all. I'm not abandoning my Jing-Chi-Shen spiral yet though, mainly because it's working great so far for my strength, flexibility and movement goals. But based on my very first attempt tonight (right after my post above actually) to work with the shen more spontaneously, I'm really excited about this approach and think I will play this way for a bit and see where it takes me.

[Cameron]

Exactly. Where I am at with stuff is trying to go beyond the intellect or see through the intellect as mostly an unreliable filter of things that are basically beyond the intellect. I am all for intelelctualizing things to a point and sharing experiences other wise I wouldn't bother posting here but I agree with the Zen/Tao path as an experience involving deeper parts of the mind/body than the thinking or rationalizing self.

 

Another way of putting it is if someone where to ask me what spirituality/Tao what have you is all about I would probably point to my heart rather than try to break it down intelelctually. As you said it can become a trap.

[Yoda]

Michael isn't really a fan of systematizing or organizing practice schedules too much . I remember kind of rigidly asking him how long should you do certain practices and what time of day is best and so forth and he kind of gave me a blank stare. The whole idea with his approach is to get into a realationship with the 5 shen and open up the communication. I think all of the stuff he teaches basically has this goal. Right from the qigong fundamentals class he is talking about the 5 animal movements and inner smile being a way to open up communication with the shen. Then his fusion and Kan and Li are just more involved methods of accomplishing this.

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Awesome post! I'm trying to figure out what planet Peter is on, and that was very helpful.

 

Thanks,

Yoda

[peter falk]

well first of all, i aint no genius. i've had a lot of guidance and help on this path from michael, my shen, and all of you. as well as others.

 

i think my relationship with the shen really took off when i stopped doing the animal forms and started doing sitting practices, or even laying down practices with them. the sounds really help conect you, and the quieter you make teh sounds, the deeper you go, until in silence you are deeply connected.

 

every time you do a practice aske the shen how its connected to them. f or example, fire water alchemy makes liberal use of the heart and kidney shen. fusion makes liberal use of earth, white tiger green dragon really employs the metal and wood shen.

 

doing my core channel experiment i've noticed that the shen as the fusiojn mandala are deeply connected to the core channel. it's actually not unlike the sephira in kabala tree of life, if that helps, since you seem to really like that imagery.

 

most of all, treat them like regualr people. however you deal with your friends, deal; with the shen. they are you, they manifest your jing, the friends you have and your personality are determioned in large part by the shen. so just treat them like the rest of your friends.

 

you should hear the conversations i hafe with them:

 

"fuck that shit!"

 

"hahaha! you'd like to. but it ahs to be done to get to the next level."

 

"what the fuck are you talking about?

 

"the wood element brings shit in from early heaven to manifest here physically in later heaven."

 

"really?"

 

"yes really, you mullet head! then it passes it on to the otehr shen to balance out create shit with."

 

 

and so forth. i find this to have been more helpful than anything. sounds crazy, but it's true.

[peter falk]

shit, after reading your blog it doesnt sound like you neede any help at all. that is some coolass shit, man!

[...]

"how do you refine your intuition to distinguish between mental garbage and genuine messages from the shen."

 

 

Id kind of like to repeat this terrific question to emphasize... its terrific-ness. if you ever get an answer, I hope you will share it.

 

my experience with shen... I wasnt adept enough to distinguish between types of zen... what I experienced I called hun and p'o. ( forget which is which, now...)

anyways, one of them (I think) correlates with shen, at least imho. and this shen... it was to to be communicated with... becuase it is.... tao? I guess you could say?

 

uh well anyways thats probably worthless rabble but I post mainly to re-ask that question...

[sean]

i think my relationship with the shen really took off when i stopped doing the animal forms and started doing sitting practices, or even laying down practices with them.  the sounds really help conect you, and the quieter you make teh sounds, the deeper you go, until in silence you are deeply connected.

 

every time you do a practice aske the shen how its connected to them. f or example, fire water alchemy makes liberal use of the heart and kidney shen.  fusion makes liberal use of earth, white tiger green dragon really employs the metal and wood shen.

 

doing my core channel experiment i've noticed that the shen as the fusiojn mandala are deeply connected to the core channel.  it's actually not unlike the sephira in kabala tree of life, if that helps, since you seem to really like that imagery.

 

most of all, treat them like regualr people.  however you deal with your friends, deal; with the shen.  they are you, they manifest your jing, the friends you have and your personality are determioned in large part by the shen.  so just treat them like the rest of your friends. 

Thanks for these very useful tips!

 

shit, after reading your blog it doesnt sound like you neede any help at all. that is some coolass shit, man!

Thanks! This experience I posted in my blog effected me deeply. It has really changed and revitalized my attitude and approach towards my practice completely. I'm really happy about this. And you have been a gigantic inspiration for this. Thank you.

 

Id kind of like to repeat this terrific question to emphasize... its terrific-ness. if you ever get an answer, I hope you will share it.

Will do, dots. Yeah, that's a tough one. Perhaps we can never really be certain.