Three Treasures

In long-established Chinese traditions, the "Three Treasures" are the essential energies sustaining human life:

    •    Jing 精 "nutritive essence, essence; refined, perfected; extract; spirit, demon; sperm, seed"
    •    Qi 氣 "vitality, energy, force; air, vapor; breath; spirit, vigor; attitude"
    •    Shen 神 "spirit; soul, mind; god, deity; supernatural being"

This jing-qi-shen ordering is more commonly used than the variants qi-jing-shen and shen-qi-jing. I can only surmise this is so because "jing" is related to that energy that brings breath to life and leaves when death occurs. The other two are a part of that life span which regulates how life is lived, etc.

When the ken-po goku-i, referred to as "gokui" for the remainder of this article, mentions a person's heart, blood circulating, drinking/spitting for hard/soft, body balance, and both the eyes and ears we can relate this to the three energies or treasures of the Ancient Chinese.

My theory, which remains fluid as I study, is that "Jing" is similar to the reference of the "one" or the "Great Tai Chi" which manifests into the duality of Yang-Yin  and so on as related by the I Ching and the tri-grams/hexa-grams.

The Qi and Shen make up the Yang-Yin of our bodies, mind, and spirit where a balance brings about health and well being which by their actions provide a longer life which is in direct relation to how much Jing we have at birth. It is believed that there is a finite amount of Jing in all of us yet through Qi and Shen we can extend it a bit.

When Jing runs out, death occurs. I would also have a theory that depending on how we manage Qi and Shen during our life spans also determines our Jing.

We promote a balance of these three treasures by such things as how we handle daily stresses, illness, the foods consumed, stimulation form such as exercise and meditations, etc. We begin to see the relations of the gokui in its inference of body and nature, i.e. Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon, etc.

If today's martial systems is truly the descendants of those passed down from the Ancient Chinese then the connections and relevance applies warranting a bit more effort to study this esoteric aspect of the Way.