The Eight Cognitive Shen, Six Sense Organs, Congenital Nature & The False Heart
There are all together six kinds of senses having their origins respectively from Eight Cognitive Shen - which are called Cognitive Shen by Shakyamuni, and the Nine Caldrons by the Yellow Emperor, who is recognized as a common ancestor of all Chinese and an ancient founder of Taoism.
The first Cognitive Shen charges itself with the task to produce the sense concerning sight, the second hearing, the third smell, the fourth taste, the fifth touch, the sixth - the most important and intelligent one - of producing all consciousness or mental sense.
The seventh is in charge of carrying on communication between the first six Cognitive Shen and the eighth Cognitive Shen.
The seventh is very slow in its movement, and the seventh Cognitive Shen is often mistaken for that which produces consciousness itself, thus gaining the name of “the idiot.” It is considered the cause of all egoism and individualizing of people and things. In other words, it is the cause for the formation of the ego sense.
The eighth Cognitive Shen always comes first to attach itself to Congenital Nature, and it is the last to depart from Congenital Nature. It thus lays a good foundation for the other seven Cognitive Shen to loosely connect to and commune with the Congenital Nature.
The sixth Cognitive Shen serves as the master of the first five Cognitive Shen. The eighth serves as the origin of all consciousness in the world and possesses the "seed" of all phenomena. Some people call it the “mind ocean”. Then there is the Congenital Nature, – also called Eternal Nature or Primeval Qi – which is the ultimate source of all phenomena. It never falls into contact with anything, being free from all cause and effect and from all birth and death. It remains absolute and is constantly self-existing.
The first five Cognitive Shen are of the nature like wind, always drifting away here and there. The sixth has the nature of an individual wave, the seventh expresses the nature similar to a train of waves, and the eighth is of a nature similar to that of a boundless sea. We then have Congenital Nature, which remains as the source of all.
The eight kinds of Cognitive Shen dominate over human beings from birth until death. As a result, the Congenital Nature, coming from infinite emptiness, becomes obscure and buried in complete oblivion. The Congenital Nature, in general, hardly presents its existence in one’s daily life except when people are having sexual intercourse and climaxing and also when people are passing away.
The eighth Cognitive Shen always wanders around and runs without any beginning or ending. Thus, we may call it Impermanence Nature. When Impermanence Nature combines with Congenital Nature - Also called Eternal Nature, or the Primeval Qi, which is free of birth and death- the other seven Cognitive Shen come into being.
In the endless vicissitudes of changes and transformations there exists an eternal dominator, which is never subject to any transformation or change. We call it Primeval Qi, Congenital Nature or the True Heart.
Also, in the endless vicissitudes of changes and transformations there exists an ever-changing dominator of the evolution of Qi. We call it Acquired Nature, Constitutional Nature or the False Heart.
Salvation which is advocated by any school of religion would be doomed to suffer the same fate as a water bubble once it encountered the False Heart.
The function of Constitutional Nature upon the physical body is called Life Force.
Sometimes, we call the True Heart, “the Magical Self”, while the False Heart “the Corporeal Self.”
The Magical Self never experiences any birth or death while the Corporeal Self suffers endless births and deaths one after another.
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