The 3 Treasures - How to Guard the Spirit (Shen) from Leaks?

[daomon]

The Journey to the West (late 16th century CE) novel refers to the Three Treasures when an enlightened Daoist patriarch instructs Sun Wukong ("Monkey") with a poem that begins:

Know well this secret formula wondrous and true:
Spare and nurse the vital forces, this and nothing else.
All power resides in the semen [jing], the breath [qi], and the spirit [shen];
Guard these with care, securely, lest there be a leak.
Lest there be a leak!
Keep within the body!

— Journey to the West, translated by Yu 1977, p. 88

1. Guarding the Jing:  Don't Cum

2. Guarding the Breath: Don't breathe dirty air?

3. Guarding the Spirit (Shen):  How do you do this?

 

So guarding the jing and breath (qi) are clear to me, but how do you guard the Spirit (Shen) from leaks?

[exorcist_1699]

Shen builds up on jing and qi  , so the loss of jing and qi also means the lose of shen which is easy to understand and identify . However , shen can also  leak directly  from its own activities via our eyes and the projection of our spirit : worry too much about matters in life  , read too many books , play too many online games , do too many intensive  reasoning , say programming ..etc

 

Notice that 3 yang :  stomach, bladder and gallbladder    meridians  all originate from our eyes and they run through  most parts of  the body , so they can be  the exits of shen and qi (via shen ) ;  this is why  although many people  not addicted to sex, wine or  irregular lifestyle ,  without losing much shen via jing and qi aspects ,  most of them  still  get back pain , feeble  knee , deteriorated eyesight  ..etc after entering their 50s . 

 

Evade doing those things that hurt our eyesight and  drain our mental energy are  solutions to it .  But most importantly is the ability to consolidate some kind spiritual oneness , which safeguards  our shen  , lifts and keeps  it at a much high level that it  now no longer projects outside and dispersed . Although the body is said to  be safeguarded by a shield of defensive qi , it is the shen , now in the form of consolidated oneness , that determine the boundary of it  , say whether it closed or open to external energy ..

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by exorcist_1699

[Sahaja]

I think using the term semen (jingye) for Jing (vital essence) over simplifies things and may send some down the wrong road. Here is an article that describes one view of the nuances of the Jing -qi shen interaction based on a different classic text that I think gets at your question https://lotusneigong.com/the-classics-of-breath-and-qi-consolidation/