Heart/Kidney Axis and Soul

Thoughts on the Heart/Kidney axis and the soul.

The heart/kidney axis can be thought of as a fuse that, early in life, blows out to protect the soul from harm in the face of circumstances too challenging for a young inexperienced mind to cope with. The heart/kidney axis is a physiological metaphor for the capacity to know truth as governed by the interpenetration of shen 神 and jing 精. This axis is in place in the infant and young child who manifests a natural state of spontaneity (ziran 自然). This means that the infant and young child express themselves unselfconsciously and draw no conclusions regarding the meaning of events in relation to a known self. This state ends in the face of an original shock that overwhelms the functional balances of the sheng and the ke cycles. At this moment communication is disrupted between the shen and the jing as the ego draws a conclusion about the meaning of the event in regard to self, life, and ultimately, the nature of god or the life impulse itself. In one moment the created self is born and one is bound to the cycle of samsara by fear and desire habitually trying to avoid and deny everything that suggests the conclusion that was drawn was delusional.

Such a fall from original nature is destined and we are plunged deeply into the illusion of a separate self that is seems to be in some way mysteriously separate from the entire process of universal development. The false self is born, the product of the ego personalizing all incoming experience in relationship to our emotional states, thoughts, and sensations. The ego is an illusion, albeit a very compelling one, and it demands 100% of our attention for the duration of the incarnation. The heart/kidney axis is like a fuse that blows to protect the soul from being damaged. The soul is that deepest part of the very best part of ourselves. It’s the part of us that isn’t confused and already knows the right thing to do. The state of the soul is determined by the sum total of all choices we’ve made. And the deepest most profound choice is on what part of our experience we put our attention. If we choose ego we will identify with it’s fears and desires and act out of them to create karma. When the fuse breaks, and the heart and kidney fall out of communication we lose functional contact with the soul and its voice of conscience. Karma is created ongoingly as we act out of ignorance having forgotten who, and what, we really are. The soul slowly withers and “dies” as our actions are governed by fear and desire and not conscience and the vision of what is right and true.An important distinction is that the soul is only twisted, I suspect, by the nature of the choices that we actually make. I also suspect that actions twist the soul in direct proportion to the harm caused by our actions and the precise degree to which we know better. This leads to an important distinction.

A person victimized by another may experience tremendous suffering in a way that causes them to lose connection with the soul. They may well become cynical. The heart and kidney may lose communication as a way of protecting the soul so that the damage does not penetrate to the foundation of true self. A person in the face of such trauma may draw the conclusion that they are “damaged” or “broken,” but the nature of soul is that the moment sincere attention is turned back toward it, it springs back to life. If we take one step toward soul it will take 10 toward us. Just as ego is made real be attention, so too is that deepest and best part of ourselves. As I said in the Introduction of my Clinical Practice text, true healing brings a patient to that moment where they realize that nothing ever happened to the best part of them. The patient has the overwhelming sense that everything is just as it should be and that he or she “would change nothing about the past if it meant not being here right now.” In fact, at the moment the ht/ki axis is rectified the vision of untouched and original nature is restored. Once you know, you know. The Ht/Ki is open, the capacity to know truth is restored, and turning one’s back on the soul in the willful disregard of what one has seen has dire consequences for the soul. Now Cynicism can poison the very core of self.

The victim’s soul is not damaged, I suspect, by experiencing the horrific. Why? Because they didn’t take an action to create the situation. On the other hand, the perpetrators soul is damaged because they have made a choice whether conscious or unconscious.Once we now, we know and what we do from that moment on has the utmost importance.

Some Characters to Consider

1. De 德 original nature (infant), Virtue (sage)
2. De 悳 moral
3. Zhen 真 True, real, authentic, a Spiritual Conversion (to reveal to the eyes that which has been hidden and the character for alter).
4. zheng 正 to travel from one shore to the next without stopping, going all the way, to rectify that which is bent.
5. zhi: 直 straight.
6. ting 聽 To listen