shen theorey

hi mla7

Personally, I like to think of the shen as a metaphor, rather than ‘real’ ghostly spirits living inside your organs. A metaphor is much more flexible – sometimes the shen theory reminds me of Jungian psychology and the archetypes that drive us, sometimes I think of the shen as ‘parts’ of my unconcious, at other times I think of the shen as the microcosmic mirror image of the 5 phases (or cycles) in nature.

I generaly think it’s counterproductive to try to mentaly pin-point what exactly the shen ‘are’ (and imho it’s impossible) – it’s far more beneficial to experience them and the roles they play in your body and all around you in nature.

hi bagua

I generaly consider that whatever influences me *is* me. Philosophically speaking there is no way to prove that anything but me exists outside of me – since whatever I experience is filtered through my own subjective world-view, and there is no way for anyone to experience ‘reality’ otside of their subjective world-view.

I dont think the five shen as seperate from me, but I think of them as aspects of myself that can be neatly seperated into 5 seperate elements (although I dont think of them as seperate – but as phazes of the same flow). I also I sometimes think of them as the five drivers of my subconcious and my emotions… some people’s ‘drivers’ all seem to be driving in different directions, and I reccon Fusion helps to get them going in the same direction.

From a daoist point of view, the fragmented shen that have not integrated go back into the pool of collective shen and are then picked up by other beings manifesting into the physical plane in a different configuration, where they will hopefully achieve resolution.

Since I dont really believe in shen as some seperate ghostly entities I dont currently have an oppinion as to what happens to the shen when we die.

The cosmology basically says that the source beyond limit (wuji) manifests and the original self divides itself out, and steps down its frequency in order to function in formless and physical planes (wu-shen-qi-jing). The manifestation of the division is into the five streams of consciousness known as the five phases.

The original self divides itself out and the process of alchemy is meant to integrate them back in (jing-qi-shen-wu) because of the separation and unconsciousness in the physical plane that makes people think they are separate from their source. The process of integration is a natural progression as a person assimilates and refines all their experiences of consciousness in their physical lifetime, but alchemy is an acceleration of that process.

In the situation of death of the physical body, from my understanding the term “fragmented Shen” means those aspects of personality (such as the Hun and Po souls, wood and metal elements) that are not able to integrate themselves into the original self during the physical lifetime for various reasons. These unintegrated aspects are still feeling attached to the earthly or heavenly aspects of the physical plane, and end up in the lower astral in a collective pool of (un)consciousness patterns that have not integrated back in to the original self, still containing the incomplete parts from their experience in the physical plane, waiting to be cycled back into the physical plane to be ultimately integrated.

Of course the “fragmented shen” are still part of the original self as everything that exists is.

There is an everpresent inner witness, a “conscious” part, and an unconscious part of our existence. I think this is a big reason why many spiritual paths think they have reached the original self, when they have just cultivated the “conscious” part of their being.

There is always room for interpretation.