The Hun and Symbolism
The Hun is our ethereal soul. It expresses reality by
employing the creative, the symbolic, the metaphorical and the
poetic. Its opposite is the Po, our corporeal soul. We can
interpret reality through our Po or through our Hun.
Within the West, there exists an over tendency to interpret
reality through the limiting perception of the Po. The Po
employs our 5 senses and analytical mind. It has a propensity
to separate, dissect, segregate and categorize the world. The
Po speaks in language. The Po is corporeal and ceases at the
time of death. Its faculties are the 5 senses, the emotions,
personality, mind and the ego which also cease when the
physical body perishes. These faculties all limit and reduce
data received from the world into manageable packets.
In Contrast, the Hun connects to the unlimited. It can
directly intuit a meaning of a concept, and does so through
less restrictive language such as a symbol, a metaphor, an
allegory, poetry or art. The Hun has no limits and accesses
information directly, without spatial or temporal context;
allowing a ‘knowing’.
East verses West
In order to follow the Daoist path we need to balance our Po
and Hun souls; our emotions and our nature. This entails
familiarising ourselves with our own nature, our Hun souls.
The table lists qualities of the Hun and the Po souls.
Hun
Po
Mythical
Analytic
non-linear
Linear
Integrative
Analytic
Pictograph writing
Phonetic language
Relationships between
objects, event and
experiences
Deductions
Coincidence of
connections
Isolated incidents
Patterns
Cause and effect
totality
Separation
Holistic
Predictive
Creation manifests in
patterns & cycles
Creator God
Poetry
Logical
Symbols
Directed thought
Creativity
A single objective
Dreams
Focused, pinpointed
Energetic system
Anatomy & physiology
Meridians
Organs
Qi
Surgery
The Western scientific mindset tends to deduce, separate and
categorize. Its analytic process focuses on cause and effect;
whereas, Eastern metaphysical systems operate with totalities.
Eastern philosophies assert that no single part can be
understood, except in its relationship within the whole.
Overall patterns, rather than linear cause and effect
relationships, are the prime factor in understanding. This
fundamental difference in understanding is reflected in the
metaphysical systems found in the West and the East. The
Western tradition proliferated religious beliefs in a divine
being who created the manifest universe at a specific time.
The Buddhist and Daoist traditions view creation as
continuously manifesting in patterns and cycles within the
world everywhere.
The two divergent logics are also reflected within medical
systems. The West isolates specific diseased areas in the
body, whereas the East deals with a person’s totality. This is
why, in the West it is so important, not to allow the Western
medical tradition to reduce Chinese medicine to a cause and
effect diagnostic treatment.
Language
According to Chinese mythology, language was a gift from the
gods in prehistoric times. The Chinese characters were
regarded as nets in which the light of spirit could be
gathered. I like this notion, because writing in pictographs
is richer and more multidimensional than our own sentencebased alphabetic writing. Pictographs are immediately
perceived wholes, which unify a host of related impressions
and ideas. Each character is a symbol. Take the character for
the sun, ri.
ri, Chinese character for sun.
This symbol for sun not only says sun, it combines multiple
impressions of the sun, including roundness, centrality, and
also means day. A character or symbol condenses many layers of
meaning and related expressions. They reflect universal
archetypes. Two or more characters can be combined to portray
new meaning. For example, sun and moon together, can be
translated as brightness. Yet, inherent in the combined
character, is so much more than our English word “bright”.
Images of a dazzling shiny sun in a perfect sky, or a perfect
full shining white moon, are conjured in the imagination.
Pictographs or symbols are powerful
motifs for conjuring within us the archetypal meaning. The
symbol creates a resonance that vibrates through time and
space to affect our experience on subtle levels. Asiatic
people who translate their written word in this manor are in
contact with
counterpart.
their
Hun
soul
more
than
their
Western
The Po soul employs the five senses and controls the five
emotions of the Wu Xing. Hence, the Po controls the classical
meridians. The Hun soul controls our essential nature, and
hence, our congenital meridians. The Po’s experience is
limited by the transient sense faculties. To experience
reality through the Hun soul is therefore to experience
through the congenital meridians and energetic system. The
congenital meridians process a direct link to the energies of
Earth and Heaven. Our central chong mai meridian acts as an
antenna conducting the information drawn down from Heaven. Man
is positioned as a conduit between the forces of Heaven and
Earth.
The chong mai extends outside our physical bodies, and this
energetic field feeds back information to us, which is sensed
intuitively, via our energetic system. The Daoist practice of
Shen Gong utilises this facility, allowing us to sense the
energies within nature and other people. The practice of Shen
Gong allows us to connect with a tree and feel its Wood energy
rising and pushing out. Linking our energy systems to the
energy of Nature gives us direct energetic experience. For
example, a blossoming flower may create an expansive radiance
within the middle dan tien, as it is an expression of Fire
energy.
Whilst connecting to energies in this manner we can also
receive relevant information that speaks in the language of
symbols and metaphors. Our rationalistic Po soul will see a
tree with our eyes, possibly smell it with our nose and hear
the wind blow through its leaves. The Po will possibly
categorises it, by giving it a name, or judging its size
against another, or identify its leaf shape. On the other
hand, our Hun soul, will read the tree in symbols that speak
to us on a more personal level.
“He who sees the infinite in all things sees
God.
He who sees the ratio sees himself only”
from
There is no Natural Religion
by William Blake
Symbolism
Mandelas, sacred symbolism, emblems, talismans, poetry and art
are often utilized in religious and esoteric philosophies.
This is sometimes to hide information but invariably it is
because far more information can be conveyed than through the
rationalistic narrowly defined nature of the written word.
Daoism makes use of several symbolic images to portray its
cosmological metaphysics. The yin/yang divides the universe
into two forces. The five phases of the Wu Xing has its
elemental forces and cycles. The Chinese calendar represents
seasonal and planetary rhythms and patterns with totemic
animals. The Yi Jing encompasses a detailed outline of
alchemical timing and provides a diagrammatic blueprint of
Cosmology and Alchemy.
The Wu Xing embodies far more than at first appears. The
colour, flavour, direction, season, tone, smell, emotion and
force are grouped together, because they each represent the
same vibration in reality, but perceived by the senses, in a
different form. The symbolic representation allows for a more
profound understanding of reality on a more ephemeral level,
than a linguistic description could achieve, through the
engagement of Po cognition. For this reason knowledge is
transmitted to spiritual students via the use of the abstract.
Within Alchemy, the symbol is not only an approximate
description of inward processes it is also a revelation,
giving us profound insight.
“Things in our world today are conceptualised as
nothing more than ‘objects‘ by our language and
rational perspective. Although this makes it simpler
to deal with the world around us, it has stifled the
changeable or ‘living aspect‘ in everything”
Masunaga, 1987
Sources of reference
Burckhardt, Titus. 2006. Alchemy – Science of the Cosmos,
Science of the Soul. Louisville : Fons Vitae, 2006.
Dechar, Lorie Eve. 2006. Five Spirits. New York : Lantern
Books, 2006.
Reichstein, Gail. 1998. Wood Becomes Water. NY : Kodansha
International, 1998.