The foundation of Taoist theory stands on three pillars: heaven, earth, and man. From heaven and earth all things are created. Heaven is pure yang energy, while earth is pure yin energy. It can be concluded that humankind is a combination of the two pure energies. The result of the combination of heaven and earth is a duplicitous soul: hun and po.
Hun: Solar Yang Soul
Yang energy is attributed with solar energy. In the Taoist soul, this energy is called Hun. Hun governs higher conscious (spirit) knowledge. Hun is pure energy generated from heaven, and associated with male energy.
A Taoist aspirant seeks to vanquish the heart, mind, and body of impure energies, cultivating the pureness of heaven and of spirit. To cultivate hun properties in the soul means to create and foster the balance of yang energy to appropriately counter yin energy. But that does not indicate that higher conscious knowledge is without yin energy.
Within the I Ching, the hexagram of fire represents higher this conscious knowledge. The hexagram represents light on the outside and dark on the inside, meaning: yang energy on the outside, yin energy on the inside. Taoist thought is based on duality: inner to outer, yin to yang, and hun to po.
Po: Lunar Yin Soul
Yin is attributed with lunar energy in Taoist thought. Po energy in the soul is the manifestation of earth energy, or impure yin energy. It is also attributed with female, or receptive energy.
The physical form of man is constructed and manifested in po. Po develops the physical form of the fetus while in the womb. It is of animal nature. This physical nature possesses what Taoists refer to as, real knowledge, or earthly knowledge.
The hexagram of water in the I Ching represents real knowledge; that is dark on the outside and light on the inside. This is represented with yin on the outside and yang on the inside.
The Duality of the Taoist Soul
The soul, constructed from the two distinct energies of heaven and earth, is being pulled by those opposing forces. Taoist thought emphasizes the mastery of firmness and flexibility. Firmness arises from hun energy, while flexibility arises from po energy. Too much of either will throw the soul off balance, possibly leading the aspirant far off course from the Way.
Hun energy is associated with movement, and po energy is with stillness. Within firmness is movement, and within flexibility is stillness. This is the conundrum of Taoist duality. The Taoist aspirant strives to cultivate harmony between all dualistic forces. These forces change and fluctuate according to the flow between that which is external and that which is internal.
Upon death, hun energy returns to heaven and po energy returns to the earth, where they are regenerated and renewed by the Tao.
Parallelisms of Hun and Po to the Judeo-Christian Belief Systems
The human soul in Judeo-Christian theology is comprised of divine and human natures, and between the body and the soul. The believer is mandated to temper the cravings of the flesh, while fostering the qualities of the divine, and ascending closer to God. There is the physical body and the soul itself, married together through a mystical union.
As with Taoist concepts of death, the Judeo-Christian soul departs the body and rises to heaven, or descends to hell, based on the morality one abides by during mortality. The divine nature returns to heaven, or God, and the body returns to the earth: “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
The Taoist believer, too, must eradicate po energy—their human nature—to ascend to the realm of the Immortal. To become an Immortal in Taoism the initiate must cultivate and sustain only pure solar yang (hun) energy.
Sources:
Chang Po-Tuan, The Inner Teachings of Taoism, Shambala, 1986
Eva Wong, Cultivating Stillness; A Taoist Manual for Transforming Body and Mind, Shambala,1992
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