5 shen and dementia

I cannot put it in terms of the shen but having lived through ten years of my mom’s slow departure from memory before she passed on constantly opened she and I up to deeper ways of being together.

As you spend time with these relatives they will affect you deeply especially if you have significant past memories with them because it is as if that ceases to exist.

In this way it frees up the level of the heart which lives in the present moment. My mom became a much happier person- she sang all the time- though she hurt a lot and I found it easier to speak with her in the inner spaces where the monkey mind gets in the way.

I am sorry you have to experience this sort of loss with those close to you though. It is at times really difficult. Share what you learn. barry

In my other life as a nurse I worked a lot with dementia patients and I once asked to same question on this forum about the shen and cultivating our essence. What happens when your brain is dying, what is left of that cultivation?
No answers then… and still I have no answer.
Looking at my mother-in-law (second wife of my father-in-law) who has a severe form, going very fast, I again observe and have no answer. What is there without the brain, again the question is to be asked, what are we without a brain?

It is a very hard thing to see loved ones slipping in this state. I wish you courage and enjoy every single moment of her being ‘present’ in this dimension.