Day 6 - 6th January 2015 - The Three Treasures

In learning about Qi cultivation, it is important to know about the Three Treasures,  JING, QI and SHEN.
By nourishing, preserving and fortifying your JING, you feed your QI. By feeding your QI, you cultivate your SHEN.

On Day 2 I explained Qi as the active life force principle; your life force essence, if you will.

"JING is akin to the body’s physical or vital essence; the materialized essence of the physical body’s vital force which  is found within all living cells.

SHEN is a non-material spiritual essence that belongs to the realm of the formless. The Yellow
Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine comments, “SHEN illuminates all things and when it becomes clear, it is as if the wind has blown away all the clouds.” Another Taoist text states, “SHEN is the awareness that shines out of our eyes when we are truly awake.” Hence SHEN has a definite correlation with the state of luminosity we refer to as transcendental wisdom, and for this reason Taoism often translates SHEN as “spirit” or “light.”" (Bodri 2003).

I am just commencing my study of these Three Treasures in detail. Ancient Chinese wisdoms have long understood, studied and documented the cultivation of these essences, as have other cultures, including Indian (Vedic) culture, where JING, QI and SHEN roughly equate to OJAS, PRANA and TEJAS. I don't know much, but what I do know is that one cannot be nourished without the other. All are interrelated. When  'alternative' medicine speaks of holistic therapies, broadly speaking this means therapies which recognise and nurture aspects of all three essences.

The cultivation of all Three Treasures requires right action and right thinking. Right action includes how and when one moves one's body, what one eats, how one responds to the physical environment, how one responds to one's own impulses. Right thinking includes modifying what one's mind dwells upon.

My initial cultivation this year is focusing on the techniques of Pranayama and Qi Gong, to rein in my 'monkey mind', sharpen my awareness to become wider and more subtle,  and prepare to go deeper down the rabbit hole.

Reference

Bodri, W. 2003, “Gong-fu” Transformations Within the Physical Body,
http://www.meditationexpert.com/Stages2.pdf