There is a unity to be found represented in the Chinese term shen. It denotes our eternal spirit, or something considered 
to be spiritual. For the western mind it’s hard to grasp the range of meaning of the word shen. It begins with our having a sense of respect for deities, those we regard as divinities, or spirits. The first meaning is a generic word for deities which are intimately involved in the affairs of the world, or spirits, such as dead ancestors, or those we might call “spirit guides”.
Shen can represent awareness, consciousness, i.e., everything found in nature, including us. It’s a small word with big meaning. It is the same spirits that generate entities like rivers, mountains, thunder, and stars as shen represents the interconnectedness of everything found within the ten thousand things in nature.
In traditional Chinese medicine, as well as Taoist, Buddhist, and Chinese folk religious traditions, maintaining the balance of yin and yang is key to achieving external harmony and internal health. This balance helps prevent injury, illness, or harm to the body, mind, spirit, and environment. It also reflects how shen manifests through universal vibrations we are attracted to and instinctively follow.
Over the ages and time, we would begin to call this Taoism, as not a singular belief, but as a window that enhances the world. Shen has a meaning that permeates all things and reminds us of our responsibility to all things found in nature. There can be no end to it. 
That when we look to love we can find love, and when we look to hate we can find this as well.
I don’t believe our lives are random or isolated events by chance. That we exist as spirits with memories we can choose to embrace or ignore. How Confucius and others have changed how we are to live and view our lives through benevolence and virtue with meaning in everything found in nature, guiding us to live with purpose and strive for our highest potential. Much of what we occupy ourselves with in daily life often makes little to no difference in the grand scheme of things.
By the same token we have something within us we call free will. Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to both choose between different possible courses of action and to exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral responsibility. To what I believe to be the ultimate source or originator of our actions. As we recall the axiom that states, “Life and death are governed by destiny, while wealth and poverty are determined by the times.”
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Six – Endeavor and Destiny
101. Valuing life and death
The Duke of Chi went on an excursion with three of his servants to review his domains and wondered how he could be so fortunate to have so much wealth and power at his disposal. Upon arriving at the thriving metropolis that was his capital he stopped and sighed:
“How beautiful the city, teaming and thriving. Why cannot this go on forever? To live with such splendor and respect by all those who surround me, how can I ever deal with death when it comes?”
Two of his servants Shih Kung and Liang Ch’u both agreed and cried in unison:
“We are lucky enough to have tough meat and course rice to eat, we too do not wish to die and therefore appreciate our master’s dilemma”.
The duke’s third servant, Yen Tzu was smiling to himself bringing the duke to ask him how he could be happy when he was melancholy. Because he would one day die and be forced to leave all this. Yen tzu responded:
“What can you possibly have to complain about? If it was by merit and worthiness your ancestors Tai Kung and Duke Huen would have lived forever. If by courage these two would still be alive. 
If one’s longevity was dependent on goodliness they would still be here, and you would be up to your knees in the rice fields wearing a grass skirt and bamboo hat.
Thinking only about your quota that you must meet with no time to contemplate death. It is only by their death that you have come to rule the throne. It was this thought that made me smile and question your desire to live forever”.
The duke became ashamed of his unworthiness and his forgetfulness as to his responsibility to the empire. From that point, while he cherished his good fortune at being born at the right place and time, the duke endeavored only to show his appreciation through good works and leaving things in a better situation than when he found them. He never again questioned the timeliness of his death, only the good fortune of his birth. 6/22/95
Number one hundred one of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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