Shen is the third Treasure. Shen is the guiding spirit, which directs qi. This is ultimately the most important of the Three Treasures because it reflects our higher nature as human beings. Chinese masters say that shen is the all-embracing love that resides in our heart. Shen is the spiritual radiance of a human being and is the ultimate and most refined level of energetics in the universe. Shen is not considered to be an emotion or even a state of mind. It presides over the emotions and manifests as all-encompassing compassion, and nondiscriminating, nonjudgemental awareness. Shen is expressed as love, compassion, kindness, generosity, acceptance, forgiveness and tolerance.

Even though nature manifests dualistically and cyclically, often obscuring our vision and creating illusion, shen is our higher knowledge that everything is one. It manifests as our wisdom and our ability to see all sides of all issues, our ability to rise above the world of right and wrong, good and bad, yours and mine, high and low.

The Ling-chih (Reishi), or sacred mushroom of longevity, was important in Daoist beliefs in its ability to tonify jing, qi and shen, the Three Treasures. Illustration from the Ming Dynasty

Certain true shen tonics encourage the opening up of shen. There are also shen "stabilizers" which help stabilize our emotions so that shen (our higher self) can rule our lives. The emotions are allowed to play themselves out, but not to dominate our lives and become obsessions or addictions. Shen tonics have been used by the great sages of the Orient to help in their quest for enlightenment and harmony with God, nature and all of mankind.

Tonic herbs can be categorized as jing (yin and/or yang), qi (energy and/or blood) and shen (opening and/or stabilizing) by virtue of which of the Three Treasures they tend to nourish and develop. Applying the principle of the Three Treasures is the highest form of herbalism. In the Orient it is called the Superior Herbalism.