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The Souls of the Organs

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The process whereby we take birth into this human life begins when our parents engage in the cosmic dance of sexual intercourse. They stir up a vibrational frequency that attracts some bit of Spirit that desires the experience of embodiment, specifically to have these two people as parents who can offer the home and cultural setting that will satisfy the needs of the new being to learn, grow, and evolve. As the vibrational frequencies coalesce they bring with them the cosmic influences present at the time of conception, to meld with the combined Essences of the mother and father. The new being’s life, or destiny, will be shaped by the physical essence of the parents’ DNA, as well as the vibrational influences from the cosmos at the time of conception, and subsequently during delivery into this world.

The destiny so formed is a representation of the emergence of Kidney Yang from the Water element, the chaos where all possibilities exist.

The Spirit/“Big” Shen and the Soul/Ling

The Big Shen, or Spirit, is the Shen that we know from our earlier discussion of Jing-Qi-Shen. This Spirit is vast, undefined, and undifferentiated. For Spirit to experience physical life it needs a container in order to give it shape and direction. This container is the Soul/Ling. The belief is that as the vibrational frequencies of the Soul/Ling become slower and more directed, they become dense and finally become the body. Our physical manifestation is constantly influenced by vibrational frequencies surrounding us.

The Soul imparts certain qualities that are required for managing our lives. The most fundamental of these attributes is the will to live a life in the physical body, not just the initial spark of desire to incarnate but the continuation of that willingness throughout life.

The Soul has other characteristics that allow us to engage with the world:

Each of these qualities is a small soul within the larger Soul and is housed in one of the Yin Organs. They are nourished by the circulation of Blood to the Organs.

The small souls are called the Zhi, the Po, the Yi, the Hun, and the Little Shen; each is associated with an Internal Organ, and hence one of the Five Elements.

In modern Chinese medicine the qualities assigned to these small souls are referred to as the Five Attributes, and they are associated with our psychological, intellectual, and emotional development.

The Zhi—Water Element: Kidneys

Will to Live

This is the willingness to live life in a physical body as our means of expression. The Zhi emerges as an energetic vibration from the chaos of all possibilities, the Water element, and joins with a resonant vibration associated with the Metal element, called the Po, to begin the development of a new physical being.

The Po—Metal Element: Lungs

Earthbound Soul

The Po is often translated as the earthbound or corporeal soul. In the evolution of the Spirit, the Po is the soul that initially engages with the will to initiate a destiny and the process of becoming an actual physical being. Its association with the Lungs gives it the ability to be completely present with the breath.

The Yi—Earth Element: Spleen

Consciousness and Intention

With birth into the postnatal world, a destiny is further defined. With its first independent breath the new being comes into immediate contact with the outer world, the postnatal world, represented by Earth.

The Earth contains our boundaries. The Spirit/Shen can conceive of and know everything, but we are born with a consciousness limited by the preordained goals of the life we are about to enter. The Yi imparts the quality of our intelligence and the degree of mindfulness we need to accomplish our destiny.

This first trinity—Water, Metal, and Earth—represents the first evolution of the Spirit as it enters into physical experience.

The Little Shen—Fire Element: Heart and Pericardium

Curriculum

This Shen, housed in the Heart, is called the Little Shen to distinguish it from the vast Shen from which all else emerges. This small Shen carries the entire curriculum of our life—all the lessons we have to learn. Hopefully we will pass these courses with flying colors before our lives are over, because we need to graduate before we can move on to new challenges, in this life or the next.

The Hun—Wood Element: Liver

Past and Future

The entire lesson plan brought in by the Little Shen is also known to the Hun. The Hun’s responsibility is to reveal the various lessons at the right time and place. It resides in the Liver, the organ responsible for the smooth flow of Qi and the management of Blood. As the Liver releases its stored Blood to the Kidneys, our lessons are doled out, assignment by assignment, in the proper order.

The Hun is referred to as the component of the Soul that is collective. It gives us the ability to collect experiences not only from this lifetime but also from prior and future lifetimes. In the larger framework, the Hun is the collective consciousness.

The Obstacles to Freedom

Spirit/Big Shen has no shape, no vibrational frequency. When a Soul has its first inkling to incarnate it brings with it the vibrations of unfinished business. It takes these vibrations from a memory bank of unresolved lessons. Although the Soul seeks to be free as it enters a new physical life, it has nevertheless taken on the remembered remnants of matter.

The first three steps of the Soul’s evolution move from Water (all possibility) to Metal (embodiment) and then to Earth, where our birth into the physical world is already bounded by the actualities that will, to some extent, control our lives.

The Obstacle of Judgment

Once we make our initial contact with the world we encounter Fire—our desires and passions. We discover what we like to feel and what we do not like to feel, what we like to eat and what we do not like to eat. As newborns we respond instinctually and spontaneously, but as the new sensations of our experience become familiar we discover our likes and dislikes. This occurs because the Hun gives us the ability to remember past experiences—how good that taste was, or how bad—and a future to anticipate. We look forward to “good” experiences and avoid or resist “bad” experiences.

But where does this quality assessment of an experience come from? The Lungs are content in the present moment; the Kidneys bring the willingness to exist in a physical body; the Spleen gives us the parameters we can expect from this life. The Heart has no judgment of good or bad—it loves everything equally, impersonally. Where does the judgment come from?

In the earlier discussion of the Internal Organs we examined the close relationship of the Heart to its minister, the Pericardium or Heart Protector. The Little Shen includes both of these organs. The Heart searches for the experiences that will satisfy its quest for the completion of its curriculum, and the Pericardium protects the Heart from pain.

The Pericardium teaches us how to behave in the culture into which we are born. Based on cultural conditioning, it imposes its own values and judgments about life experiences. More and more our desires become the wants of a personality shaped by these values and judgments, not by the values necessary to fulfill our individual curriculum. Very often our desires are completely unrealistic given the limitations of our circumstances. We look for experiences and possessions that have no relationship to either our spontaneous needs or the lessons of our curriculum. We forget about, or even resist, our Yi—that is, the boundaries we have been given in order to complete our work.

The Obstacle of Time

The concept of time is another pitfall. The Hun, with its relationship to past and future, can be caught up with events of the past or anticipations of the future. This pitfall involves not only time but also the story lines created by the Pericardium’s manipulation of memory. The memory of one brief negative episode in childhood can consume the rest of our life. Being stuck in time implies that the Liver is congested, unable to smoothly release its Blood or regulate Qi, making it virtually impossible to be in the present moment.

The Hun sends our past memories and future anticipations to the Little Shen in order to satisfy its desire for experience: “That concert, that party, that evening with friends was so wonderful, we can do that again!” With that memory, with that desire, we are no longer content with the Po, the present moment—but the Little Shen is satisfied because it has been given the possibility of more experiences.

The Po, the earthbound Soul, is associated with the Lungs, the breath. As we breathe we have access to the present moment. If we are totally focused on the breath, with each exhalation we let go of the past; with each inhalation we lose interest in the future. The present moment is continually flowing. It never stops. If we hold on to a sensation, whether sound or touch or taste—if we hold on to it beyond its actual experience—we have already entered the past. There exists a constant conflict between the Lungs and Liver, between the continual flow of the present and the latching-on to a particular thought or sensation, whether pleasurable or painful. If we are able to consciously release our attachment to the past and the future it becomes much easier to be continually in the flow of time.

The Yi, the soul that defines our boundaries and our unique capabilities, does not have to be aware of time. The Yi’s awareness exists no matter what time it is. It receives the ability to have memories of the past and to create dreams for the future from the Hun. The Yi’s relationship to the past and future works together with the present-moment consciousness of the Po. The awareness of the present moment gives us a choice. With that awareness we realize that we live our lives relying on our consciousness of the past and future, and that we have to take responsibility for it. The Hun, with its ability to look at the elements of time, gives us the opportunity to realize that our past and future are our own creation. And when we begin to take responsibility, we can begin the process of letting go.

How We Impede Our Soul’s Evolution

The overall effect of having a view of life at odds with our actual moment-to-moment reality is to diminish the Zhi, the will to live, the self, that bit of Spirit that had the initial glimmer of enthusiasm for life. The Pericardium evaluates past experiences and, based on its findings, projects a potential future. Its reasoning for what we feel in response to life’s experiences comes from this evaluation. Every feeling is associated with a judgment and a social value.

The Pericardium helps us by teaching us how to coexist with the world and by giving us coping mechanisms that prevent us from feeling bad about ourselves. If we feel depressed or inadequate, the Pericardium is failing in its responsibility. If we feel helpless to change a situation, we become pessimistic. Pessimism weakens both the Pericardium and the Lungs. Lung Qi deficiency leads to depression. If the Lungs cannot provide support by helping us stay in the present moment, the Pericardium steps in to fulfill its protective role, but pessimism trumps them both.

Physiologically, the Liver allows for Blood that has been infused with experience to blend with the Kidneys’ Essence. The Liver also releases Blood similarly charged with emotion and experience to nourish the Heart and the Shen. The Heart circulates the Blood now tainted with the Pericardium’s narrative, the limitations of judgment and fear, and the desire for life to be other than it is. Once a narrative begins, the Hun, through its function of retaining memories of the past, governs us; the present moment is lost. Instead of the physiological relationship between the Liver and the Kidneys, which allows our Blood and Essence to mingle, the Liver consumes energy intended for our constitutional Essence to keep the narrative alive.

The involvement of the Hun might be short-lived, with a mildly pleasurable memory of last night’s romance or party, making us only a little Kidney deficient. Or it might be stuck in a very intense narrative, causing a much stronger taxation on the Kidneys. The intensity of the narrative depends on our values. Regardless of the intensity, however, the Hun diminishes the will to live as it draws attention away from the present moment.

We further weaken the Kidneys when our relationship to society requires us to prioritize social responsibilities over our own unique requirements. We lose our awareness of the boundaries offered by the Yi, and we disperse our Essence.

Gradually we lose our enthusiasm for life, and we begin to feel helpless to make change; in the extreme we become hopeless of ever resolving a deeply rooted unhappiness that can plague us throughout life. Once we feel helpless, the capacity to live a fulfilling life is greatly diminished. If our Zhi/Will is severely weakened we become self-destructive, no longer wanting to live. We look for ways to hurt our Kidney Yang and Kidney Yin, which are the Root of Life.

A Path to Freedom

We say that Spirit implies endless possibility. Since we emerge from Spirit, it follows that we can change our concepts of self and the world. But how can we really change as long as we follow the social order? We require the cooperation and support of our coworkers. We crave meaningful interaction with our friends and families. We are dependent on the structures that provide us with the physical necessities of modern life—our food, fuel, and shelter. An integral part of being in society requires that we adhere to the societal “contract.” Based on this contract, we are programmed to believe and behave in certain ways. This is where we meet our resistance to change; it is this inability to change that causes us to suffer.

When we see that it is our attachment to concepts and our judgmental narratives that contribute to our habitual responses to life, letting go of those concepts and narratives is a first step to making change. So how do we do this? The easiest, most natural way is to be fully engaged in whatever task is at hand. It is not possible to know everything or to do everything. We need to be conscious of our immediate situation, of our immediate goals and priorities. Consciousness is the attribute of the Yi, the soul of Earth, and it is really the only quality of awareness over which we have control. We cannot control the future, we cannot control what is happening to our friends and family, we cannot control nature. Earth, however, gives us the boundaries we need to control where we consciously place our attention. The quality associated with the soul of the Spleen is intention, and intention can be brought to bear on the Hun, on the Po, on the Zhi, and on the Little Shen. With strong intention, we can change anything.

The ultimate goal of Chinese medicine is to help us rediscover our connection to Spirit, and to give us roadmaps to help us find our way. When we look at our lives through the lens of this model of the souls, our illnesses are seen as a reflection of imbalance as we evolve over the course of our life. Practitioners who work with this understanding treat disease not by physical intervention, but by encouraging their clients to cultivate the consciousness of how they contribute to their illnesses and to realize that they have the choice to heal themselves.

A More Specific Scenario

As we spend more of our lives fully engaged in our activities, without the need for thoughts of the past or the future or even the awareness of being present, we are in the process of transcending the Hun (the past and future) and redeeming the Po (the return to one’s nature). With the Po we observe the emotion, we have awareness of it, and we let it go.

If we are operating from the Po’s innocence and find ourselves challenged by some confrontation, we may fall back into our old habits. We go to the Hun to give historical context for our present experience, or to the Little Shen/Pericardium for advice on how to cope.

For example, we experience an emotional or physical assault on our dignity. We have been treated unjustly or demeaned. We are angry. Our anger arises as the instinctual response of the Lungs/Po. As we become conscious of the anger (still in the domain of the Lungs/Po), instead of letting it go we immediately begin a narrative (Pericardium). “That person hurt me! She . . .”

The narrative perpetuates the event. Our muscles begin to tense as the Pericardium influences the Liver, which governs the smooth flow of Qi. Then an innocent friend comes along and we take out our anger on the wrong person. The Pericardium has exacerbated the initial emotion with excess Fire. The anger we are carrying now is not the feeling that arose autonomically in the moment of the perceived attack. That initial feeling has been perpetuated by the Liver/Hun and has been aggravated by the Pericardium/Little Shen. It has increased the impact of the event by prolonging it.

The Pericardium is overbearing. How do we manage our angry feelings? It is difficult for us to love and forgive the people or experiences that challenge our Pericardium’s values. It is easier to rely on the Pericardium to perpetuate the anger than to let it go. The Pericardium creates repercussions because we do not have faith, the virtue of the Kidneys. The repercussions draw attention away from the self. We become more wary of the external world and lose awareness of the muscular tension in the body.

What breaks this habitual chain of response is the Heart/Little Shen. The Heart has no values, no judgment, no past memories. The Heart breaks the narrative because, when we tune in, we begin to cultivate love and temper anger. This process short-circuits our need for help, and hence the Pericardium’s hold on our relationship to life. The Heart offers hope from within.

Further completing this process, we detoxify our environment, both physical and emotional, of the things we really do not need via the Liver, which controls the smooth flow of Qi. This smooth flow is dependent on our noticing and acknowledging each moment of the day.

The Sensory Portals

Our physical body, the embodiment of our soul and, by extension, the Spirit, offers us the ability to perceive the world through the sensory organs of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. These are called portals because they are doorways to experiencing life directly, as it actually is, without analysis, without assessment or judgment—not as we “know” it to be, not as we “believe” it to be, and certainly not as we wish it to be. The Heart longs for the pure, direct experience of life, without the influence of judgments, and we have access to that experience through these doorways.

In this model for healing our lives, our first invitation is to unlearn rather than to learn. Most of us are dominated by our thoughts, which shape our experience of the world. The invitation is to understand ourselves not through knowledge, analysis, or judgment but through direct experience, by having our inner and outer senses open and alive to the present reality. From Spirit’s point of view, knowledge confines. The moment we define something, we no longer experience it. Instead of overthinking and becoming “neurotic,” we need to become more “erotic”—not in the sense of sexuality, but by tuning in to our senses. First, feel the experience.

We need the ability to both sense and think, but while we are unlearning our habituated relationship to the world, it is helpful to give priority to sensory perception.