The prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer recognizes
himself
or the fact that he is praying.
(St Anthony)
What is shen?
Shen is usually translated to mean
'spirit'.
It is considered to be the driving energy
behind mental, creative and spiritual existence.
The common
cliché "That's the spirit!" is often applied to people who
really seem to be putting all their effort into an activity.
Their
actions are fuelled by shen.
Shen is a vitality that can be seen shining through a person; it enlivens
the body and refreshes the mind.
The eyes look expressive and alert.
Emotional content
Emotion is considered to be a form of energy.
Until the emotion is labelled 'anger', 'fear', 'upset' etc it exists in a
latent state within the body.
Channelling of emotion through the medium of
physical movement is one way of utilising shen
but this requires a balanced emotional condition to begin with.
Emptiness and
detachment are paramount.
Being angry, agitated or excited precludes any possibility
of using shen constructively.
A tai chi person needs to sustain a natural condition of emotional
balance at all times.
Immersion
For shen to manifest, a person
must
lose all self-consciousness.
Instinct
must replace
intellect, and thought must give way to feeling.
The divide between themselves and the activity must end.
A flamenco dancer, lurking under a shadow, prepares for the terror of her
dance.
Somebody has wounded her in words,
alluding to the fact that she has no fire, or duende.
She knows she has to dance her way past her limitations,
and that this may destroy her forever.
She has to fail, or she has to die.
I want you to imagine this frail woman.
I want you to see her in deep shadow, and fear.
When the music starts she begins her dance, with ritual slowness.
Then she stamps out the dampness from her soul.
Then she stamps fire into her loins.
She takes on a strange enchanted glow.
With a dark tragic rage, shouting, she hurls her hungers, her doubts, her
terrors,
and her secular prayer for more light and spaces around her.
All fire and fate, she pins her enigma around us,
and pulls us into the
awesome risk of her dance.
She is taking herself apart before our sceptical gaze.
She is disintegrating, shouting and stamping and dissolving the boundaries
of her body.
Soon she becomes a wild unknown force, glowing in her death,
dancing from
her wound, dying in her dance.
And when she stops
- strangely gigantic in her new fiery stature
- she is
like one who has survived the most dangerous journey of all.
I can see her now as she stands shining in celebration of her own death.
In the silence that follows, no one moves.
(Ben Okri)
Page created 28 January 1999