What is Shen Gong?

Shen Gong is the cultivation of Self. In Daoist thinking, Shen refers to spirit and Gong refers to skill developed through practice. The spirit is already there. We aren't trying to create Shen. We're developing our relationship with it through the cultivation of Self.

This means working with both the congenital Self and the acquired Self. The congenital Self is what we arrive in this life with. The acquired Self is shaped by our experiences, relationships, environment and everything we encounter as we move through life.

Shen Gong gives us a way to become more familiar with both. We learn to notice the patterns, conditioning and energetic influences that shape our experience of ourselves, rather than simply being carried along by them.

This also involves working directly with the mind and the mental field. As we learn to expand and clear the mental field, our perception changes. We become more able to sense beyond the habitual activity of thought and access subtler frequencies of energy and consciousness.

That's where Shen Gong starts to become more than what we might think of as personal development. It's a practice of developing our capacity to perceive, understand and work with the Self.

From Qigong Into Shen Gong

Many people come to Qigong because they want to feel better physically, reduce stress or develop a regular practice that supports their wellbeing.

As we become more familiar with Qigong, our awareness can naturally begin to open and we start to notice that there is more to the practice than the physical aspect or health benefits.

We become interested in what we're sensing, how we're experiencing ourselves and what sits beneath the surface of our everyday thoughts, emotions and reactions.

This is often when we unknowingly step onto the path of Shen Gong.

Shen Gong invites us to turn towards the Self with greater curiosity. We begin to notice what we're sensing, what we're responding to and what lies beneath our habitual ways of being.

This isn't about endlessly analysing ourselves or trying to fix everything we find. It's about developing awareness and discernment. We become more able to recognise what is actually happening within us rather than simply being carried along by it.

This is the skill of the spirit and the path of the heart — what I call the Dao of the Heart.

Working With the Self

Working with the Self isn't simply about thinking about ourselves or analysing why we are the way we are.

Shen Gong develops our capacity to experience and perceive the Self energetically.

In Qigong, we work with vital energy. In Shen Gong, we're working with the astral field and the energetic information within it. Part of developing this skill is learning to discern different qualities and frequencies of energy.

Jing, Qi and Shen can be understood as different aspects of this spectrum of energy. Jing relates to vital essence and the more substantial end of the spectrum, Qi to the astral energy of the Self, and Shen to more subtle frequencies of spirit and consciousness. As our perception becomes more refined, we can begin to notice these differences for ourselves.

This is part of what makes Shen Gong a practice of cultivating the Self. We're not just becoming more psychologically aware. We're developing our sensitivity to the energetic information that shapes our experience of ourselves and our relationship with the world around us.

We might become more aware of our thoughts, emotions, tendencies and patterns, but we can also begin to notice the energy underneath them.

What am I actually feeling?
What am I responding to?
What am I carrying?
What belongs to me and what am I picking up from somewhere else?

This is where discernment becomes important.

As we become more familiar with the different qualities of energy, our experience becomes more nuanced. We begin to recognise that what we once experienced simply as "how I feel" can contain many different layers of energetic information.

And that is a big part of the skill we are developing through Shen Gong: learning to perceive what is actually there.

Working with Mind Substance

A big part of Shen Gong is learning to work consciously with mind substance. The mental field is constantly active. Thoughts, emotions, memories, beliefs and impressions are moving through it all the time. When we're caught up in all of that activity, it becomes much harder to perceive what is actually happening beneath the surface.

Through Shen Gong, we learn to work with mind substance deliberately. We expand and clear the mental field rather than simply being carried along by whatever is happening within it. This isn't about making the mind blank or trying not to think. It's about learning to work with the substance of the mind itself.

As the mental field becomes clearer and more spacious, our perception changes. We become more sensitive to the energetic information within and around us and better able to discern the different qualities and frequencies we're experiencing.

This is where our relationship with Shen can begin to deepen.

We're not practising Shen Gong to chase particular experiences or reach some special state. We're developing our capacity to perceive more clearly, discern more accurately and work more consciously with the Self and the energy we're experiencing.

This is a lifelong process. The more familiar we become with ourselves, the more we begin to notice. And the more we notice, the more skilfully we can work with what is actually there.

If you're interested in exploring the path of the heart, self-development and the deeper dimensions of Qigong, I share new writing and reflections by email.