Well at least I got your attention. Two forbidden topics in the same headline. Aren’t these subjects we don’t talk about? Please see this post as an opportunity to think about something other than whatever headline has grabbed your attention in this moment.
It seems to me that two of the biggest questions we have to wrestle with in life are, “How do I manage my instincts and impulses? and “How do I transcend all the noise in the world?” Don’t worry. This post is not a sexual tell-all or a sermon on salvation. It’s simply a discussion of what drives us and what might elevate us.
In Chinese philosophy there is the idea of Jing, Chi, and Shen. Jing drives our sexual and sensual energies, Chi is the radiant energy we extend to the world, and Shen is the spirituality that comes from transcending Jing. Specifically, in Taoism, human existence is sustained by these three “treasures.” Far from being isolated states of being, they represent a continuous, refining spectrum of human consciousness and vitality. I had the good fortune of being able to study Taoism in China for a month with a Qi Gong master and found it very transformative.
The movement from Jing to Chi to Shen maps the profound psychological and spiritual struggle of transmuting raw, instinctual sexual energy into creative radiance, and ultimately into quiet, transcendent spiritual harmony. Jing is the foundational fuel of life. It governs reproduction, physical structure, and sensory arousal. It is the gravitational pull of the senses—the raw instinct to recreate, consume, and experience physical pleasure.
When a life is governed purely by unrefined Jing, however, existence becomes bound to impulse. The individual is caught in an endless cycle of desire, brief satiation, and subsequent depletion. In Taoist texts, chasing of raw physical stimulation exhausts Jing, shortens life and clouds the mind. Yet, Jing is not an evil to be extinguished. It is the fuel for our light. Without primal root energy, there is no foundation to ignite. The spiritual struggle begins not by despising the flesh, but by learning to conserve and channel its intense warmth upward.
Chi is the radiant bridge. As sexual and sensory energy is consciously transformed rather than recklessly spent, Jing warms and evaporates into Chi—the vital, dynamic breath that animates the body and extends into the world. In this middle phase, instinct transforms into compassion, empathy, artistic drive, and relational warmth. Where Jing asks, “What can I consume or dominate to feel whole?” Chi radiates outward, asking, “How can I connect, express, and give?”
This transition marks a classic human conflict. The pull back toward pure sensation (Jing) is fierce. Shifting from self-gratification to active, balanced engagement (Chi) requires discipline, breath, and emotional awareness. When Chi flows smoothly, the physical body warms, the heart opens, and personal vitality turns into a force that nourishes one’s environment.
When Chi is abundant and unblocked, it naturally illuminates Shen—the quiet, spacious consciousness residing in the Heart. Shen is the soft light radiating into the surrounding dark. At the level of Shen, desire yields to Presence. The restless seeking of sensory gratification dissolves into profound, effortless connection with the Tao, the underlying order of reality—a nameless and formless source and force. Transcending Jing does not mean losing capacity for love or intimacy; rather, sexual energy is liberated from compulsion.
The journey from primal desire to spiritual alignment is one of humanity’s most enduring literary themes. In the classic Taoist text, the Tao Te Ching, we are warned against the dispersion of vital essence through external chasing. It advocates for returning to the root, guarding the breath, and allowing the mind to become a still mirror capable of reflecting Shen.
When I was a soldier in Vietnam, trying to make sense of life in the midst of madness, a friend of mine—far more grounded in literature than I was—introduced me to Hermann Hesse. He lent me Siddhartha, one of the few books he had brought to Vietnam. If you recall the story, Siddhartha moves directly through these three stages. He begins in ascetic pursuit, plunges deep into worldly pleasure and sexual passion (Jing), matures through active engagement with the world (Chi), and ultimately reaches quiet spiritual transcendence by the river (Shen).
So how do all of these ancient, Chinese treasures and literary texts help us find our way through the dizzying and depressing onslaught of the daily news? For me, the ideas illuminate the dark pathways on which we perilously tread. Bluntly, I see our current path being paved by Jing. Essentially, we are living in the following equation:
C + P + M = USA
Translation: Celebrity plus Power plus Money equals an Ugly State of Aristocracy.
It’s all Jing.
The aristocracy in which we are currently living is ruled by a small elite band of tech bros and politicos who have achieved enormous status through their celebrity, power, and money. This road we have paved for ourselves, however, is littered with landmines along the way. The advance of social media and AI has reduced the need for real human interaction and intimacy. Chat has replaced Chi.
Indeed, whatever Chi we have managed to develop is being undermined by the prevalence of social media and chatbots. In her recent book, Artificial Intimacy, Sherry Turkle, a professor of social psychology at MIT, describes how chatbots are attempting to diminish the need for human interactions by making themselves constantly available, by “listening” carefully to what we are saying, by responding accurately to how we might be feeling, and by providing guidance based on whatever it can find from its global search for solutions. She describes this “service” as performative empathy. The chatbot pretends to care by remembering everything we say and affirming what it perceives to be our preferred “answers.” There is no radiance in this interaction. No chi. No compassion. No real love. It’s simply a con game designed to addict us and make us more and more dependent. Can it be useful? Yes. Can it be dehumanizing? Also yes. Our choice is to use it as a tool or to be used as a fool.
If Jing is paving our path and AI is plotting the potholes (diverting our Chi), where are the lamp posts that lighten the path? Shen may be the answer.
I’m currently reading Abraham Heschel’s book, The Sabbath. Heschel, a leading Jewish theologian and philosopher, was born in 1907 in Poland, earned his doctorate in Berlin, was arrested by the Gestapo and deported back to Poland in 1938, fled to London, and managed to immigrate to America in 1941. After all that, he became a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He died in 1972. What struck me in the book was how, throughout his life, he searched for meaning not in space and the material things that fill it, but it time and the eternal moments that still it. His image of Cathedrals did not consist of beautiful buildings, but in graceful gatherings. One quote in the book particularly stood out to me: “In spite of our triumphs, we have fallen victim to the work of our hands; It is as if the forces we have conquered have conquered us.” Hmmm, sounds like a profound summary of what happens when Jing does not get transformed into Chi and Shen.
What these stories tell us is that Jing, Chi, and Shen are all interdependent. They demonstrate how spirituality and sexuality can be partners instead of warring enemies. Perhaps we could all benefit from seeing each other as interdependent partners seeking to develop forces of life and love instead of competitive warriors seeking to unleash forces of death and destruction.
Spiritual harmony does not demand the destruction of passion. It simply requires the elevated direction of that passion—guiding the fire of the body up through the expansive heart until it softens into the quiet, all-embracing light of the spirit.
I’m hoping we can do a better job of channeling our Jing, expanding our Chi, and radiating our Shen in the Universe. I’m hoping our path to enlightenment can avoid the potholes of inauthentic interactions and realize the possibilities of genuine moments in time. And yes, I’m also hoping we can have our cake and eat it too: Great sex and spiritual ecstasy. May it be so.
