The Five Shen in Chinese Medicine. These are not so easy too explain. Shen or spirits are not everybodys cup of tea. Since I am talking about tea, lets continue on that theme. Tea is an herb with certain qualities. These qualities act on our body.
Of course the most obvious one is caffeine. So what does caffeine do? It helps to keep away predators like bugs. It is a defence mechanism.
So how in earth did this humble plant think of this defence of complicated molecules called caffeine. Well beats me, except if we allow ourselves to imagine a primordial intelligences or basic smartness of staying alive and develop, through a law of cause and effect.
These intelligences work with us, but it is our responsibility through choices to stay on the course, so these energies and qualities can serve us through maintenance of balance in our body, minds and soul.
Everything is energy. This fact has been demonstrated in western science and they are just beginning to understand it. In the Hindu scriptures they talk about there is energy in everything. They call it prana. So in the metaphysical world, this has always been known and the healing methods are based on to help these energies so they can do their work without hindrance.
Do the atoms possess intelligence? That is what Thomas Edison was saying. All energy has intellect. But then again this is all theory.
Heart-Shen
Shen the main one, which reside in the Heart, is responsible for sleep, memory, thinking and consciousness. It is in control of the other spirits. If the Shen is disturbed then all these factors are not going to work in harmony.
There will be too much sleep or too little. Memory will be bad. Thinking would be clouded or dull and there might even be loss of consciousness. So you can say it is the brain, in material terms. According to the Chinese philosophy then the brain is directly build with the essence from the Kidneys.
The heart and the Kidneys are connected through the vertical axis. The axis between heaven and earth. So clear pathway between heaven and earth is imperative for balance. Emotional stress affects the Heart and therefore the Kidneys and its essence.
Likewise if the essence are injured then the Heart will suffer and therefore the mind. All emotions affect the Heart, but for example anger affects the Liver in particular, since anger is related to the Liver.
Liver-Hun
Hun is the name for what in the west would be called soul. Hun has connection to the Liver and it is interesting to note that the Liver controls the eyes and often we say that the soul is reflected in the eyes.
Funny how our instinct tells us what is going on. If Liver blood is deficient than the Hun or the soul has problem to anchor itself in the body. In terms of relationship of the Shen with the Hun then we can say that when Hun coming and going is normal than the mind is stable. If it is going too much then there is mania. If it is going too little the there is depression.
Hun is the creative one. It has the capacity for ideas, inspiration, vision an so forth. It is the drive towards something greater and welcomes challenges of life. If this capability is over driven then there is more chaos than focus. Therefore this can be indication of what we call depression.
Lungs-Po
Po belongs to the Lungs. It is called in western terms the corporeal soul. Po has the role of survival. The lungs keeps us alive thorough breathing. If we stop breathing we die rather quickly. As well it helps us to desire and enjoy, like food, sex and gather materials.
This is all for basic survival. Maybe we can say that since sadness and grief is the emotions of the Lungs than we loose this way of survival. Po would be affected by these emotions and we find us to be less motivated to eat, wash ourselves and gather in terms of wages for work and so on.
Po is in charge of all physiological processes and it has strong connection to the essences. Blood for example is carrier of oxygen through the Lungs. Oxygen is catalyst for many effects in the body processes.
Now we get again to the connection with the blood. Po is as well responsible for feelings and sensations, which helps us to identify with the world. So Po is all about physical. It is possible to say that it cooperates with Hun and helps it to have connection with the physical. After death Hun survives but the Po dissolves after some time.
Spleen-Yi
The spirit of the Spleen is Yi. That stands for intelligent. It has to do with concentration, focusing, memorizing, applied thinking and generating ideas. So it has to do with studying. If the spleen is weak then ability to study would suffer.
Likewise if there is too much study or concentration in work then the spleen will suffer. Dull thinking and lack of concentration is spleen weakness. This is not to say that spleen would be the only organ involved.
The heart and kidneys play a role of memory and ability to think. Heart has to do with long term memory about events in the past. The kidneys help wit the memory of recent events.
Old people are more in connection with memories from the past, but are often forgetful about the present. This is due too the kidneys becoming weaker with old age and therefore recent events are easily forgotten.
Kidneys-Zhi
The Kidneys houses the Zhi. This has do with will power. It s the pursuing of an aim or goal. If the will is strong it will provide focus. If it is weak it will be harder to stay on the track and you might be more easily discouraged. There is aspect of motivation, so you can say that there is this element of so called depression. The Zhi also has to do with recall of memory or storing.
