“Yes, Hu,” confirmed Sensei grinning. “Under Hu ancient Egyptians meant initially reasonable force which by its influence on the body was comparable only with the notion of Ba. Later this term was transformed into a ‘not the best part of the soul’ which lives due to Khat and Ka and dies together with the physical body, that is, with Khat. In our understanding, it’s an Animal nature.”
Kostya uttered amazed, “Does it mean that the notion of the Animal nature was known still in such ancient times?!”
The seniour guys couldn’t help laughing either because of this question or because of this surprized and funny expression of Kostya’s face, and Eugene added with enthusiasm, “What do you want? Hu is hu in all times and among all peoples! As it was Hu, it remains Hu, you can’t do anything with it.”
After these words our group fell about. And most of all laughed Sensei, so to say, ‘until cries’. The guys began to cast Kostya with their jokes until at last Nikolai Andreevich renewed the conversation.
“I have met already somewhere this notion, ‘duality of the soul’, but I don’t remember where exactly.”
“Well, there are a lot of mentions of it in teachings of different peoples of the world,” remarked Sensei. “For example, in India people practicing a religion of Jainism have such notions as the jiva, that is the soul, spiritual nature, and the ajiva, that is material nature. These people consider that in surrounding world jiva is always connected with ajiva and not just connected but encapsulated and enslaved by it.
“Or let’s take the conceptions of ancient Chinese about the human. They thought that there two special souls in the human, beside other souls: Hun and Po. The Hun soul, in their opinion, manages the spiritual nature of the human and is connected to it by ‘Yan’ forces. After death of the body this reasonable nature turns into the good spirit Shen, and after some time, it flies to the sky. The Po soul manages the human body, that is his material, animal essence, and it connected with ‘Yin’ forces. This is a lower sensual nature which dies together with the body and remains with the corpse as a Gui spirit until its total decay, then it goes to the ground and dissolves. Whereas the live body of the human is the only thread which connects Hun and Po together. Death of the body leads to their division. By the way, at certain time ancient Chinese had mass spring rituals during which they called upon to Hun and Po. At the heart of these rituals there was a popular belief that namely the union of Hun and Po gives life and of course the fertility.”
“And what other souls were there except these two?” asked Victor.
“Almost the same as Egyptians had, just in some different interpretation. Lin, for example, according to ancient Chinese believes, is a soul which exists in all beings and things, qi is a vital force. There are spirits of all inner organs and parts of the body. And also, as you have already heard, Shen is a good spirit of the dead, Gui is the evil spirit of the dead.”
“Now it’s clear,” nodded Victor.
Eugene hemmed and uttered with a note of humour in his voice, “Now I see why Chinese have such names as Hun Lin and Hun Po! I thought that this is the way they swear and use bad language. I thought one should really love someone to call with such a name! But in fact, there is quite another reason!” And looking aside at Stas, he added with a smile, “Well… So, Stas, if you were born in China, you would have now a more proper name, for example, Stas Hun Po!”
“You know, Hun Eugene Po, I’m already fed up with your propaganda of your historical Motherland!” grinned Stas.
“Of my historical Motherland?!” Eugene whose figure in no way reminded the inhabitant of China gave a start with his patriotic feelings. But he immediately calmed down and narrowing his eyes began to bow and friendly nod to Stas, “Welcome… to visit us, well…”
“Well?! Ah, you are the Chukchi man! Sorry, brother, for insulting you. I thought however that you are a Chinese,” Stas laughed together with everybody.
“You are rong, no … wrong! I’m a Chinese Chukchi man, well!”
Eugene again made us laugh by his clownery. He was cast by a gust of jokes but the guy bravely countered them playing the role of a ‘Chinese Chukchi man’. These five minutes of fun were over so sudden as they began. Nikolai Andreevich asked Sensei about something concerning the spiritual nature. Unfortunately because of the guys’ laugh to one of Eugene’s answers I missed what was this question about. But answering it Sensei said the following, “Perhaps I will share this topic a bit more time and will tell you a Chinese legend about it…”
The guys calmed down and began to listen to the legend with interest.
“Once upon a time a wiseman called Tang Qiao. He lived many years, knew a lot about what is going on the Earth and among the stars. But he was considered to be the wisest among people because he knew a lot about what is going on inside the man. Once his disciples came to him and found him to do something unusual. Tang Qiao finished to dig a tomb for himself in the garden near the tree where he often used to have a rest and reflect. The disciples got frightened and began to ask why he had done it before his death, before the term determined by the heaven. The wiseman answered, ‘In order to remember about the Peace.’ The disciples were surprised and asked Tang Qiao to clarify the meaning of his wise words. And he told them the following story. ‘Today I sat to have a rest near the tree and began to reflect on my life spent on this earth. And I got so deep into reflections that I have seen how a good spirit Shen parted from my Hun soul, and an evil spirit Gui parted from my Po soul. They sat opposite to each other and began to talk.
Gui suggested to Shen temptingly, “It would be nice to live one more time!”
“What for?” the Shen spirit was surprised. “Only the fool after finishing his fatiguing and hard way and coming to the door of his home, returns in order to overcome this way again.”
“Nevertheless, it would be nice to live one more time!” said merrily Gui.
“What for?” again asked tired Shen. “To jump like a marmot out of the cradle in order to hide in a tomb? No, I wish I could finish soon this miserable existence.”
The Gui spirit sighed dolefully and said, “Still it would be nice to live once again!”
“Tell me why? To perceive again what is suffering, diseases and privations? Since life is an eternal thirst and unspeakable suffering!”
The Gui spirit burst into tears, “It would be nice to live one more time!”
Listening to them, I felt for an instant sorry for the Gui spirit since it will die together with the body and will dissolve in the ground irretrievably. And that very moment I thought, “Right, it would be nice to live one more time!” At once I was as if fallen into a dream. The Gui spirit picked me up and merrily carried through the darkness into the new life, whispering to my ear, “Yes, yes, yes! It’s nice to live one more time! I will bring you back your youth, will fill your existence with joy, will give you such knowledge and will teach you such skills, arts that our life with you will run in luxury and pleasures.”
“But which payment will you take for this?” I asked with fear. “Will it be my Hun soul?”
“Oh no!” with triumph exclaimed the Gui spirit. “The Hun spirit is yours! Don’t worry about it. It will follow you and you will pass your life without fear and anxiety. But I have one rule, one condition: I will always go one step in front of you.”
I reflected a while. And not seeing anything bad in it, I agreed, “Alright.”
We immediately happened to be in primeval forest, in the most impassable thicket. The Gui spirit was bravely going ahead, moving apart for me prickly branches, so that I was able to advance freely, without injuring me even one time. And I thought, “How stupid is my Gui spirit. Let him go ahead. It’s even very good for me. Let him do all dirty work for me, and I will just enjoy the life.”
We reached the abode of the powerful dragon. The Gui spirit came close to him first and the last one touched him with his sting