Shen disturbance is difficult to treat, by any method Western or Eastern. This particularly the case when the structure of consciousness and its driving forces are poorly understood.

Most of Western psychotherapy explicitly supports the idea that the individual ego-identity is a necessary and beneficial part of being human. This, inevitably, leads to the standard therapeutic approach of stabilising the ego-construct in order that the client may get on with their life. It is not my intention to suggest that this is not a valid approach to many problems. It does however contain one or more, often unquestioned, assumptions that greatly limit the therapeutic effect.

To be more specific, in my own experience, the ego is not a singular thing; it is comprised of a variety of states or energies each with particular qualities. For most people this is not obvious; in part because the oscillations are not great enough to merit attention and in part because most do not question their beliefs, attitudes and behaviour patterns in any great detail. For me it was the root of a great many difficulties since my ego contained at least one section which wanted me dead and another

Emotions are the igniters of thought

It would be useful to look at some terminology at this point. Specifically, what do I understand by the terms Shen and Heart?

Some topics in this essay:
Qi Qi, Vitality Energy, Western Eastern, Consciousness Buddhist, Spirit Knowledge, Yi Earth, People Shiatsu, Whilst Shiatsu, Mandate Heaven, Five Souls, chinese medicine, mandate heaven, repository consciousness, patterns behaviour, yellow emperor, vitality energy, body muscular tension, treasures vitality energy, fixed patterns, various organs, earth shen, yi earth, vitality energy spirit, shen’s experience disharmony, traditional chinese medicine,