Tune in today to listen to Mason wax lyrical about this lovely, sometimes slippery, concept. You will really enjoy this one!
The Fourth Treasure... we know about the Three Treasures: Jing, Qi, Shen. These are the three energies that make up everything. Humans, rocks, trees, the table... everything. (If you would like a reminder on the Three Treasures, head over here).
Everything that we are, can go into one of the Three Treasures. But today, we shift focus and talk about Zhi. It's more of a quality. It's the spirit of the Kidney. Our 'will'. This manifests as our purposefulness.
Mase explores this concept including:
- Why we refer to Zhi as the 'bonus' treasure
- How this treasure is more of a quality
- How this treasure is so fundamental to who we are
- Why it's so important to honor the process of Winter and be in synch with the seasons
Transcript
Hi everybody, so we've had some questions about the fourth treasure since we shared about it. Now, you all know about the, The Three Treasures, the three primary energies, substances, that from a human-centric point of view makeup what we are as human and also makes up what a rock is. And so it's made up from a Taoist perspective, of Jing, Qi, and Shen.
Now, the fourth treasure, it's an interesting little bonus treasure that kind of goes between what makes us, makes us up in our substance, in what we are. Like Jing, Qi, Shen, very clearly. It's the, that Jing essence energy, that Qi, that vitality and that Shen and that spirit, that's who we are. Everything that we are, can go into one of those three categories, but then kind of in that between that dimension of what makes us what we are, and then what the quality of a human is or anything else for that matter. is the Zhi treasure. And so a quality we say, would say be something like courage, and say is courage who we are. Maybe not, it maybe a quality of the human. And Zhi is kind of on the edge because that's our will, right? And so it's the spirit of the Kidney, every organ has a spirit. But it's so fundamental to who we are that that will.
And we know that comes out further, when we rest in the winter, and we develop, develop a flow through the Kidney system, we're resting in winter, we're meditating on who we are, we are gathering wisdom about ourselves, the spirit of the Kidneys comes forth, and that will really manifest as purposefulness for who we are and desire to take on responsibility, right? And so huge element of who we are and what's made us human. And then what happens when you get very purposeful in knowing who you are in your direction, you get on track to your own destiny. And that scene is so fundamental as who we are that it's in between that dimension of like what makes us in the actual substance, a human, and also as a quality of who we are as well.
That might be a little bit of a slippery concept. And that's why it's like this bonus fourth treasure on top of the three treasures. And so yes, we do have a fundamental three treasures and that will remain. But always be aware that there is that beautiful fourth treasure looming and that's why we say; get in flow with winter, get in flow with that Yin, downward, still accumulating energy. Don't buy into the go, go, go, hustle, hustle, hustle. And I'm pointing again, one finger at you and three back at me because, I'm really learning. This is why I'm trying to unlearn everything that I've learnt in the Western world about what it is to hustle and sacrifice.
Even though this is a time in life for me where I'm building something, I'm building a lot, but I'm trying to really get back in sync with the seasons so that I can get in the flow of that Kidney energy, that Yin descending cool water energy, and ultimately build that will, that purposefulness, that desire to take on responsibility so I don't end up in ambulances, if you can hear that in the background, when I get into my latter years extensively. And that when I can get into that space, the idea is we get into, we get into flow states because we know how to go and flow like water, and then that could be interpreted as me getting on path to fulfilling my destiny. And that's the fourth treasure. That's the Zhi. That's the spirit of the Kidneys.
