Chi and shen interact, and chi conforms to the behaviour of the structure it’s flowing through. Heart chi behaves differently than spleen chi, or kidney chi. The spleen is seen as the centre of the intellect. The heart as the centre of pure consciousness.

Ah, wouldn’t that be heart shen and spleen shen? Ah no, the shen is the structure itself. It’s the behaviour of chi that changes. Shen doesn’t morph, not normally. Should it change that would be harmful, the equivalent of brain damage.

So the shen is like a capacitor and chi is like the electricity collected in it. Indeed.

So chi exercises strengthen the various facets of shen or spirit. Chi is energy, shen is spirit. The word for spirit is very similar in Japanese as well. Shinto means spirit way in Japanese, roughly translated as way of the gods, and Shinto priests in their healing practices seek to interact with the gods in the body in their various temples. Seats of power in the body though these same spirits are present outside of and beyond the body as well.

The third element of neidan is jing. Essence, like the elements of western philosophy in a sense though the elements in neidan would be a combination of chi and jing, considerations of shen not withstanding.

When a fire is extinguished the chi is not destroyed, but the essence of that fire is lost. Likewise when your personal jing is depleted, you die. Your personal essence. Neidans optimal outcome is the preservation of personal jing.

Oh, so that’s like the soul? Soul would be the combination of jing and shen, thought and essence.

This is sort of like mana in a game.

Jing manifests in more ways than just bodily energy though. It also manifests in the nature of action, being aggressive, passive, or neutral for example. Whereas in your experience of shen, which is thought to require meditation to become acquainted with, your jing inclinations are more obvious. When someone if considered to be hot tempered for example, that’s a manifestation of jing rather than shen, and when there is disharmony between jing and shen, jing is depleted.

Ah, square peg in round hole.

When you think too much your innate nature is weakened. Shen is the imagination, jing is strength of will, which even contemporary science research has established to be a real factor, and one subject to depletion.

Ah yes, willpower can be used up. It’s been proven in experiments.

If shen is not kept clear, they speak of it as being empty, but their word for empty is more the equivalent of the western concept of formless or flexible.

Ah, your pipes can get clogged.

If your thinking is rigid, you weaken your essence which weakens your immune system leading to horrible outcomes like death from chronic stress related illness.

Above all, neidan seeks to preserve jing. Chi is omnipresent and continuously renewable. It just needs managing should it’s flow become disordered. When their chi is scattered both shen and jing get deranged thus the benefit of practices like tai chi or chi gong. They restore structure and strength to the chi flow, clearing out stagnation. You can’t think too obsessively about anything while practicing tai chi. I can say this from personal experience.

And Chinese acupuncture. Indeed, Chinese acupuncture can assist with issues stemming from that, though they will tell you that acupuncture is not meant to replace tai chi or other exercise. Acupuncture is a passive assist to what is ideally actively managed, consciously understood.

And tai chi also strengthens your internal structures and aligns.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~