shen

The Spirit of Heart-Shen

Shen is the ebullient spirit of the Heart. Shen embodies mind and thought and is reflected in our higher consciousness. Shen was first discussed in the Huangdi Neijing medical classic in the chapter called the Root of Spirit:

 

‘Heaven abides so that we have virtue;

Earth abides so that we have Qi;

When virtue flows and Qi is blended there is life.’ 

 

Sentient beings synchronize to the energy of their environs. The capacity for synchronization is fundamental. Electromagnetic fields encompass ‘information’ and once synchronized there is a rapid flow that is energetically exchanged. A person uses part of the healthy patterns of the places and people with whom we share resonance to solve concerns and health conditions, and to form connection and a compassionate context. The fundamental nature of Heart resonance allows a person who is ill a pathway to cultivate truth and healing. In clinical practice of Chinese medicine this puts focus on the practitioner to embody the essence of Chinese medicine including its spiritual context.

The Heart creates unity through connection. The brain, different from the all-knowing of the Heart’s compassionate nature, can help us to understand but it can also separate us from the essence of true knowing with its causal/scientific/analytical process of creating distinctions and its drive to deny there is anything outside analytical sense. The mind and its collection of facts vies to become master although it is indeed the servant of the sovereign  Heart’s heavenly status as ruler. Heart is like an aperture that allows us a state of resonance, rapport, and connection with everything else. Harmonious resonance with one’s place in the Universe is the ultimate expression of the state of one’s Shen.

 

Posted by Wendy in analytical

Alchemy of Chinese Herbs

Photography Wendy Brown

Herbs and roots are life-nourishing.

They are sustenance as well as medicine,

and convey nature’s forces. 

Through their connection to the natural world, herbs and roots of Chinese medicine imbue their resonance with these forces within us.

Regulated by the rhythms of Yin and Yang, influenced by the 5 elements (sun, soil, minerals, water, and other trees and plants), and through their ability to adapt to the climatic factors of heat and cold, wind, dryness and dampness, herbs renew our resilience. 

The immortal Mágū, collecting medicinal roots, fruits and plants

Immortal Mágū collecting medicinal roots, fruits and plants

Chinese medicine has a long history of practices that propagate life; practices to nourish and prolong life through our mental-physical-spiritual oneness with nature. Such concepts and knowledge of creating rarified, spiritual states of being and longevity have passed through Taoist lineages, preserving the Three Treasures Jīng, Qì and Shen.

BURDOCK ROOT

The energetic nature of herbs and other organic substantive matter, in their particular parts, collected and prepared specifically to confer the essence of their elemental forces, guide and help to make whole.

 

 

 

Posted by Wendy in analytical

Incense and Rooting the Spirit

✍️Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.

The sense orifice of smell can have strong effects on the aspect of Spirit known in Chinese medicine as Shen. Burning clean, resinous incense can open the Heart-Spirit, and in part, enhances our remembering of what is important. Incense prepared with quality medicinal substances has the ability, as thought in shamanic and alchemical traditions, to sedate the illusory, fleeting, there-then-it’s-gone-again nature of wind. Resinous materials can help to seal ‘holes’ or chinks in our protective Wei aspect of QI, while profoundly stabilizing our inner world and anchoring the Spirit.

Meditative practice is useful to guide awareness toward releasing the longings, set-backs, temptations, ideas, belongings and so forth, that cause the Shen to be stirred. The transformative properties of burning medicinal herbs and materials in the form of incense is a harmonizing backdrop. With understanding from a settledness of Spirit we may more wholly embrace worldly existence.

www.ElementalChanges.com IncenseThe following link offers incense recipes. 

http://bearmedicineherbals.com/incense.html

Important Note: Resin is an immunological secretion used by trees to help protect the tree from potential pests and pathogens, often secreted after the outer surface of the tree has been breached. Harvesters, please respect the importance of resin for a tree and refrain from *ever* ripping off chunks that may endanger it! Resin, differentiated from sap, is found deeper inside the tree and transports water, nutrients, hormones and other vital fluids through the tree.

Sit gracefully with a single stick of incense; drift among the white clouds wild as a river heron. -Loy Ching-Yuen, Book of the Heart.

Sit gracefully with a single stick of incense; drift among the white clouds wild as a river heron. -Loy Ching-Yuen, Book of the Heart.

Posted by Wendy in analytical

Heart Relationship to Sense Organs

The five sensory orifices, referring to the nose, ears, eyes, lips, and tongue, are each paired with specific visceral organs. In particular, the Heart, regarded as ‘the emperor or sovereign ruler’, gives residence to Shen – a level of ‘Spirit’ which activates all mental activities, as well as perceives the emotional stimulus of all of the organs. The Heart has relationships with the other orifices beyond its own link with the tip of the tongue.

Heart is the only organ with insight to do that.

www.ElementalChanges.com Heart Sense Organs

For example, the eyes are related to Liver, but are also related to Heart. The Heart supplies blood, and blood vessels supply the eyes. According to the Su Wen 素問, the first medical text to address basic questions, theoretic foundations and diagnostics in Chinese medicine, excessive use of the eyes injures the Heart as well as the blood of the Liver. Diagnostically, the eyes are the most important window of Shen (or Spirit) that is inherently stored in the Heart, and although the eyes are particularly the orifice of the Liver, sight is a manifestation of the function of Heart.

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Well-Wishes to All

Posted by Wendy in analytical

Stillness of Heart and Mind

The Heart never stops storing impressions and yet it also knows emptiness. From birth, we have the capacity to know things by creating distinctions, differentiations, divisions, partiality, and thus duality; and yet also the Heart presence knows unity. In its experiencing, the Heart keeps moving, and yet also knows stillness. When the mind is used, it reflects. When the Heart sleeps, it dreams. When it takes its ease, it indulges in wandering in reverie. The pure essence of the present instills unification of Heart and mind.

Posted by Wendy in analytical

The Pivotal Role of Emotions

How All Disease Is a Matter of Heart-Spirit, According to Classical Chinese Medicine 

The defining classics of Chinese medicine establish that it is the invisible forces of Shen [Heart-Spirit] and Qi [vital energy] that rule matter. While western medicine is rooted in the modern science of matter analysis, modern and ancient physicians of classical oriental medicine view nature, energy, and consciousness in the relationship of matter..

“Heaven comes first,” states the Ling Shu, “Earth is second.” Or in the more elaborate words of Liu Zhou, a 6th century philosopher: “If the Spirit is at peace, the Heart is in harmony; when the Heart is in harmony, the body is whole. If the Spirit becomes aggravated the Heart wavers, and when the Heart wavers the body becomes injured. If one seeks to heal the physical body, one must therefore first regulate the Spirit.”

Chinese medicine asserts that discovering well-being comes from appreciating the real goodness inherent in very simple experiences, pivotal to emotional wellbeing.

Posted by Wendy in analytical