Shen, Soul and the Great Sleep

[Guest guest]

Hi All, & Hi Holmes,

 

Holmes wrote, as usual most poetically. However, some poetic

ideas must be challenged!

 

> The mind which you have grasp on, is notoriously upbeat, and feeds

> you tales of life after life, a great Sleep, being in an astral

> body and so on. One must see through this fraud, and look inside

> where sight is blind.

 

Fraud, Holmes? Can you be sure?

 

We are a very mixed list, from many nations and cultures. Many of

us believe in an astral body, life after life, reincarnation of the soul,

etc.

 

I know that there is a great gulf between science (so-called

" objective reality " ) and belief (subjective reality, usually learned by

enculturation, but sometimes by a spiritual experience that may be

meaningless to hose without that experience). And I accept that

none of us can prove the existence of any of these things, let alone

prove the existence of G-d. But many (I suspect most) of us believe

in a G-d, creator of all Substance and Qi.

 

> When one says, Shen, it says When. It uses one's will to create

> complacence and kills when one is not looking. In every sense, we

> die by our own hand, and the ones who know the least, fade away

> the most helplessly.

 

Shen (and Yi, Zhi, Hun and Po) leave the body shortly after its

clinical death; their permanent leaving is a sign of death, but is it

really Shen that kills? IMO, no.

 

IMO, death occurs when the Qi-Xue (especially Qi) cease to flow,

when there is no more polarisation / interaction between the body's

Yin-Yang.

 

AIR (a form of Qi) is the most vital of the five main necessities for

life (air-Metal, water-Water, food energy-Earth, shelter-Wood and

warmth-Fire). On being forced into this world, the first thing that a

baby needs is AIR; without its first breath, it will die. Shortage of air

kills in minutes; shortage of water kills in days and shortage of food

kills in weeks. Also AIR is vital for LU Qi, without which the Guqi

and KI Qi cannot form the other vital forms of Qi, and without which

Xue cannot form or flow.

 

Xue cannot flow without the motive force of Qi; Qi cannot flow and

activate cell function without the transporting and nourishing

functions of Xue.

 

In an ICU, we can find people whose respiration and blood

circulation are maintained artificially, and who die shortly after the

respirator or noradrenalin-pump is switched off. One might argue

that one can maintain a brain-dead patient for days or weeks

artificially. In that sense, one can argue that death already has

occurred before the Qi and Xue cease to move. But do not some

" brain-dead " [flat EEG) patients not recover after a period on life-

support machines?

 

> Shen kills in sleep, at work, while having sex. Sometimes it turns

> virulent and kills at the altar, many a times it kills when one,

> with limited HT Qi, laughs more than one should, and fall dead on

> the lawn, with the smile frozen on the face.

 

Yes, death comes in many disguises, but IMO, it is not Shen that

kills, as discussed above.

 

> Shen is Shen when you have a grasp over it, else it is the

> deepest, most never ending of Sleep. When Shen wakes, it is life,

> when it decides to do otherwise, it is untimely, unseemly death.

 

Death, like night and winter, is essential for new life to flourish. But

diminished (or even absent) Shen need not cause imminent death.

Some seriously ill, even catatonic [absent Shen] patients survive

for a long time before death.

 

> Every wrinkles is placed by the same Qi which once gave the rosy

> cheek and flaxen hair. Qi is in a sense a capability. Once this is

> lost, one will be wafted wherever the errant Winds will take us.

 

Here, I agree!

 

It is Qi (and Xue), rather than Shen, that dictates life and death.

We can delay ageing, or at least help ot to happen more gracefully

and with less wrinkles, if we know how to keep the Qi-Xue moving.

Disturbed Shen usually is a sign of Stasis/Stagnation of Qi, Xue or

Phlegm.

 

> If things sound hopeless, it is simply a reflection of what one

> does not know of one's own self. The flesh knows how to heal. Let

> it. That is wisdom.

 

Agreed. And we can " nudge " the body's healing / adaptive

mechanisms in the right direction if we have learned the ways to do

that.

 

> The Soul stands apart, and smiles, and at times jeers. Especially

> when one is certain one opened one of the Ninety Nine Doors.

 

Holmes, please explain! What ideas lie behind the expression " one

of the 99 Doors? What is your understanding of Soul? Does it

survive bodily death, the " Great Sleep " ?

Best regards,

 

Email: <

 

WORK : Teagasc Research Management, Sandymount Ave., Dublin 4, Ireland

Mobile: 353-; [in the Republic: 0]

 

HOME : 1 Esker Lawns, Lucan, Dublin, Ireland

Tel : 353-; [in the Republic: 0]

WWW : http://homepage.eircom.net/~progers/searchap.htm

 

Chinese Proverb: " Man who says it can't be done, should not interrupt man doing

it "