Cultivating the Shen with Virtues

The Chinese word, "De-virtue" usually is translated as virtue or moral character, such as kindness, compassion, love, benevolence, humanity, integrity, dignity, and so forth. According to the ancient Taoist tradition, one of the ways of spiritual development is to express those noble natures and develop moral character. At the energetic level, the "De -virtue" means to be gaining energy, which represents the power of assembling. For example, Zhuang Zi said: "One’s life is the assembling of Qi. The assembling of Qi makes life vital and alive; the dispersal of Qi causes aging and death." This statement not only expresses Zhuang Zi’s understanding of the relationship between the Qi and physical body, but also emphasizes the relationship between the Qi and spiritual life. The specific code of virtues reside in the deep layers of each internal organ, for example, benevolence and love in the heart, conscience and justice in the lungs, integrity and loyalty in the liver, and so on.

However, the virtues are like great treasure at the top of high mountains. In order to gain the virtues, one has to overcome the obstacles and challenges of the mountain path and fight with the wild beasts and tame all of them in order to reach the top of the mountain and experience the power of the virtues. In other words, before one reaches the level of the virtues of the internal organs, one must work with the emotional layers of the internal organs that are the covers of the layers of virtues. During the process of internal cultivation, it is crucial to master the management of emotions in order to nourish the soul and develop the spirit.

With Qi-cultivation, practitioners gain experiential understanding of the functions of the internal organs at energetic, emotional and virtue-specific levels. For example, an internal cultivator may experience spontaneously-occurring diet changes at different stages of the internal cultivation process. She or he may experience how emotions (e.g. anger or fear, or jealousy) could cause a huge loss of internal energy and result in energy depletion, exhaustion, and fatigue, all of which could damage their spirit. On the other hand, an internal cultivator may experience how virtues (e.g. respect, integrity, dignity, harmony, compassion, justice, appropriateness) bring noble and nourishing energy into their energy system and result in greater health, internal joy, and peace. This experiential understanding of the difference between emotions and virtues helps internal cultivators to find the true path for nourishing their soul and developing their spirit.