Feeling Shen

[Anonymous]

HI I was wondering if anyone had any insight in how to feel Shen? I’m pretty sure I have an idea of what jing and chi are, the first one correlates strongly with lust and a sense of vitality, and the second can be felt as an energetic current that goes through the body. So, using the hierarchy of Jing Chi Shen, and presupposing that as the energies get more refined they become more subtle, I am hoping that someone can give me insight into what to look for as a marker of Shen. My thoughts are that it has something to do with the heart/mind connection that Bruce has elucidated, so that the degree of your heart/mind opening could correlate to the degree of your Shen activity. But this is just speculation on my part, because I am unfamiliar with the workings of the heart/mind and the workings of Shen. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi Ivan,

I’d recommend reading Bruce’s last book on meditation, Taoist Sexual Meditation. Even if you are not interested in the sexual work, I think it’s the best book that Bruce has written on Meditation.

The book is broken up into three sections, Jing, Chi and Shen. I think you’d find all the material that relates to Shen to be very interesting.

In Bruce’s system, energy is broken up into 8 types of energy or bodies. The 8 bodies are Physical, Chi, Emotional, Mental, Psychic, Karmic, Essense, Tao. This is the progression between Jing, Chi, Shen. I’ve heard Bruce describe psychic, karmic and essense energy as the energies that are thought to make up Shen.

I’ve asked similiar questions of my teachers. What do the higher energies feel like? How do I know when I’ve found them? Can you describe what they feel like?

The think the best answer that I’ve received was “I can describe what it feels like with all sorts of words, but none of my descriptions will help you find it. Often, the verbal descriptions can slow you down, because you’ll have some idea of what it should feel like and this will distract you from what it does feel like.”

Janak

[Author]

Posts