The Shensters ...

[el_tortugo]

[sean]

Hey, I moved this reply in the Everything Is Appropriate article in Contributed Articles to it's own topic here, because .... I think it's a great topic.

 

Let's talk about different ideas people have about what exactly "shen" is or isn't. I have some thoughts but it's past my bedtime.

[Yoda]

Monkey,

 

By shensters, I was referring to Sean's personal practice discussion where he chats with his 5 animals that are affiliated with the 5 healing sounds, 5 organ energies, etc. Shensters is a loose term for inner spirits.

 

Whether these dudes really exist or not I wouldn't know, but it looks like as Chris says, by anthropomorphizing these energies it makes it easier to interact with them.

 

Google for 5 healing sounds to get a basic overview of the theory.

 

-Yoda

[HaPPyMaraXXus]

Spirit (Shen) is a person's innate vitality. It can be considered the soul, but it also has a material aspect. When an individula has healthy shen, the eyes have the glow of life and the mind is clear. Since the heart is the resting place for the spirit, disturbances in shen are typically diagnosed as heart imbalances. The heart houses the shen (spirit) and mind. This function encompasses the full range of human consciousness, including emotional health, mental function, memory, and spirituality.

You can look into the eyes to assess the state of a person's shen (spirit) and thus acquire a general picture of the overall vitality and that person's potential for healing.

 

Will, life and eternal blissful states...

 

-Jessica

[peter falk]

my understanding is that there ae two shen--one is your spirit and the other refers to the 5 shen, or body spirits/intelligences.

 

to me the 5 shen are 5 good friends to hang out with and receive gudance from.

 

the other shen i don't feel entirely qualified to comment on much. we're not such good friends yet.

[el_tortugo]

Spirit (Shen) is a person's innate vitality. It can be considered the soul, but it also has a material aspect. When an individula has healthy shen, the eyes have the glow of life and the mind is clear. Since the heart is the resting place for the spirit, disturbances in shen are typically diagnosed as heart imbalances. The heart houses the shen (spirit) and mind. This function encompasses the full range of human consciousness, including emotional health, mental function, memory, and spirituality.

You can look into the eyes to assess the state of a person's shen (spirit) and thus acquire a general picture of the overall vitality and that person's potential for healing.

 

Will, life and eternal blissful states...

 

-Jessica

4550[/snapback]

 

 

this is how i understood it....

 

i can see the benefit of the 5 spirits... just never heard it put that way.

[Cameron]

I have heard/read different explanations. Obviously, Michael Winn has pretty strong feelings about what the 5 shen are and he really works with those alot in his practice . Basically the Interior Gods model that sees humans as a collective of hun and po spirits that have different roles.

 

One joke I remember Winn saying how these Shen work together.

 

" Your driving on a highway and a truck starts coming into your lane. The heart shen says " I am one with the truck driver" the kidney shen says " Get the hell out of the way!"

 

That makes sense since we can all relate to that. We seem to have these different aspects to our personalities that come into play. Is the part of me that craves sex the same part of me that craves love? Is the part of me that wants to get in shape the same as the part that wants to east Krispy Kreme's? These different aspects(or spirits) seems to be what constititues human beings.

 

Then of course the real questiona rises..how do I get these different aspects into one? How do I unify all these different wills and feelings? And that is what Taoist Alchemy by Michael Winn's teachings is largely about. After you merge or unify these personal shen through Fusion and lesser kan and Li you move onto the greater soul of the Sun and Moon .The Sun relates the the heart and moon to the kidneys. the greater and Greatest kan and li's supposedly merge the shen with early heaven and star qi.

 

You develop a pearl that acts crystalizes or congeals these shen into a single essence that can be moved down and merged with the earth or outside and into space(I think chia does that alot..from what I have heard)

 

Presently, I am just taking Ken Cohen's advice. If I remember correctly his book basically jsut says "Do Qigong and you shen will be happy". End of discussion.

 

But it is interesting if your getting into the Winn HT alchemy and is defiently a large part of his courses.

 

cam

[voice]

And, to add to the complexity, there are multiple Hun and Po souls. I can't remember the numbers that Winn gave, but a website suggested 3 hun souls and 7 po souls. So, not only might the kidneys and heart have a different take on things that needs to be resolved, but the 3 hun souls of the liver and the 7 po souls of the lungs have alot of things to work out internally!

 

The idea is that the different souls enter into the fetus at different times. This, Winn said, is a later idea in Taoism that developed in response to the idea of reincarnation from the Hindus.

 

So, it's all just a model to help us see the complexity, but not be overwhelmed by it.

 

chris

[voice]

And, to add to the complexity, there are multiple Hun and Po souls. I can't remember the numbers that Winn gave, but a website suggested 3 hun souls and 7 po souls. So, not only might the kidneys and heart have a different take on things that needs to be resolved, but the 3 hun souls of the liver and the 7 po souls of the lungs have alot of things to work out internally!

 

The idea is that the different souls enter into the fetus at different times. This, Winn said, is a later idea in Taoism that developed in response to the idea of reincarnation from the Hindus.

 

So, it's all just a model to help us see the complexity, but not be overwhelmed by it.

 

chris

[Trunk]

We seem to have these different aspects to our personalities that come into play. Is the part of me that craves sex the same part of me that craves love? Is the part of me that wants to get in shape the same as the part that wants to east Krispy Kreme's? These different aspects(or spirits) seems to be what constititues human beings.

 

Then of course the real questiona rises..how do I get these different aspects into one?

 

Good description.

 

imo, as I've said before, the centers provide a better map of this issue than the organs.

http://www.precisiondocs.com/~altaoism/ShenTheory26252.htm

 

The issue for resolution then becomes activating each center as a tan tien, a "medicine field", through its relationship with the deep-center, as well as the centers sharing medicine through the central channel.

[Cameron]

K,

 

The way I presently think about it is the tan tiens.centers are like the Tree of life. You plant the seed of health and vitality in the lower tan tien and through daily cultivation(Qigong) the seed grows and reaches the upper tan tiens and spreads qi through the entire body.

 

The spirit(Shen) is peacful and happy when the body is filled with qi and this ultimately helps you realize the Tao(Enlightenment).

 

Trees..you know..like your Avatar

[Trunk]

The way I presently think about it is the tan tiens.centers are like the Tree of life. You plant the seed of health and vitality in the lower tan tien and through daily cultivation(Qigong) the seed grows and reaches the upper tan tiens and spreads qi through the entire body.

 

The spirit(Shen) is peacful and happy when the body is filled with qi and this ultimately helps you realize the Tao(Enlightenment).

4582[/snapback]

 

Nice. Another good description.

 

The Tibetans describe cultivation similarly, using "the vase" metaphor; it fills from the bottom up.

[sean]

[voice]

Good articles by Twicken you found Sean. Relly interesting for me to see the linkage between the magic square and the 3 hun and 7 po - the extra numbers for them just seemed strange to me before.

 

Chris