origami_itto wrote:That may well be the case. What I'm calling Shen here could be something else entirely. [...]
About the only thing approaching practical instruction is the story of the tea master who was challenged to a duel by a sword master over the affections of a beautiful young woman.
What?
origami_itto wrote:The specific "spiritual posture" maintained while engaging in alchemical practices influences the nature of the natural, comfortable, at rest spirit. It also increases the... Strength? Of the spirit overall but of that specific posture specifically as well.
Additionally it seems to increase the efficacy of the physical manifestation of spiritual impulses generated in that state.
All you need to do is know how to "tune in" to a particular frequency, so to speak, work the iron in that headspace, refine, and strengthen it.
So, like, is any of this tracking for anybody?
I don't think any of this has anything to do with shen. I've actually just received some info on shen, by chance, a couple of days before this post. That being said, I sincerely believe it's way beyond the scope of this forum. Hold that thought.
I've multiple times introduced and explained the six character formula 形勢意氣勁神 -- xing, shi, yi, qi, jing, shen. In general it seems people weren't ready to discuss that formula yet. Hold
that thought. Here's a different formula-- from the taoists -- 精氣神虚道. Now we see that jing (精) refers to the physical level, which is 形勢意 xing shi yi. Xu then in the jing (勁) stage, and after comes shen (called 虚). 道 dao means enlightenment.
SO what is shen? If you are familiar with the process, then you have one line (one poem) and anorther line (another poem) which intersect and thus create a single point, the meaning of shen. If you are unfamiliar with the process you have several options. One, ask your teacher (or find a teacher who can explain it to you). Two, don't worry about it, because you are climing a ladder and as you make progress you will eventually figure it out.
So basically having a definition of shen is not important, because you wil reach that stage out of regular practice whether or not you know what it is. Now, if you want to know what it is because you want to teach people, that's another story, but again that is something your teacher will likely have to pass on to you. It's a difficult topic to address in writing, because you have to be 'on board' with the standard classical definitions of
everything else to then understand shen as it is normally used. It's a lot of information to work out. Do you understand those formulas I posted?