Taiji on Maui   Balance and Harmony for a Better Life

Announcing NEW Nei Gong Class at Kaunoa Senior Center
Thursdays at 12:30 PM

Nei Gong
Taoist internal qigong. All levels of students can enjoy these simple therapeutic Dao Yin sitting exercises, and learn the secrets of the sages, embryonic breathing, microcosmic orbit, internal alchemy, Taoist Zouwang “sitting and forgetting” meditation. Find an inner peace and openness, freedom from emotions and evaluations, access internal energies, transform your body and your mind.

The Taoist creation story reads like this, first came the One, from the One came the two, and the three, thus were created the “ten thousand things.” To unite with Tao, is the path of return, return to the primordial… From the ten thousand things, find the three, and then the two, then return to the one. Only the One can return to the source of all things.

A long time ago in a land far away, great sages lived long and happy lives. Seeking immortality, many Chinese people have lived to be well over one hundred years of age. One man, Li Ching Yuen, is documented to have lived to the ripe old age of 256 years. There are undoubtedly many such individuals that lived that long before the government started keeping any records. Blessed with herbs, spices, silk, art, and abundant natural resources, the Chinese people had most of their needs met by nature. While Europeans were busy building ships and exploring the world in search of such things, the Chinese devoted their time to the quest for longer lives to enjoy their blessings.

Li Ching Yuen, at 256 years, he is the oldest (documented) human known

The quest for longevity and even immortality was sort of a national past-time in China. Leading the way in this adventure were the Taoists, although they were not called that in the beginning. Taoism is not so much a product of Chinese thought as Chinese thought is a product of Taoist philosophy. The ancient Taoists were experts in all the sciences, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. They knew that all the really important answers could be found in nature. Living to at least one hundred years of age was considered normal, using herbs, certain diets, Daoyin exercises, meditations, and philosophy, they developed longevity techniques that have not been improved upon by any modern science.

Modern science sometimes seems to be used against us, by deceit and unethical people, for example the United States government still recommends an unhealthy diet that was forced upon us by politicians. There is no money in giving people free information that can extend their lives. Instead, pharmaceutical companies can sell you a pill, and the government tries to force doctors to deceive patients as they often are unwitting accomplices plied by outdated “scientific evidence”.

Modern humans, it seems, need to look elsewhere for their health; heal thyself. The best place to start would be to go back in time to before the days of chemicals and agriculture, a time when we lived long healthy lives. Living close to nature is the Taoist ideal. If you could live in such a way, you would wake at dawn, sleep at night, eat a natural diet of real food, and spend time meditating, and doing moderate exercise.

Taoist health and medical practices and inventions, such as Qigong, Herbal medicine, Tui Na massage, and Acupuncture, are the four branches of traditional Chinese medicine. Longevity is so much more than “health and medicine” however, yet unfortunately that is the mind-set in western societies. I dare say, you cannot live to be over 100 years old with just health and medicine. It takes something more, another level of health, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Most of the suffering I see is caused by emotional excess and this leads to mental instability, and when the mind and emotions are in turmoil, your spirit suffers. When these things happen, and it may or may not make you “sick,” but you will live a shorter, less happy life. Being angry, always evaluating every situation to the point of emotionality, holding resentment for supposed past wrongs, and over-thinking, all leads to hidden stress that can shorten your life on Earth.

If there was a philosophy, where you would stop judging others and yourself, allowing you to enjoy the beauty around you, and if you could avoid the thinking/feeling/reacting feed-back loop that leads to slow self destruction,  if you could learn to forget, you could share your gifts with all the world.

If there was a way of viewing yourself as a divine creation of Heaven and Earth, and to visualize nature’s grand design, you could see how your hormones, emotions and mind can combine to jerk you into altered states or take your spirit to heaven while your’re still in your body!

If you could eat a healthy natural diet full of healthy fats and low carb vegetables, avoiding grains, and getting the right amount of protein and 8 hours of restful sleep, your mind would be clear of the glucose induced brain fog, and your liver would be free of toxins, and your moods stable.

If you could do simple enjoyable exercises that tone your internal organs as well as the “superficial body,” you would be making neural transmitters and life sustaining hormones. If you could find and open all the areas that hold stuck energy, and open the blockages on your spine, you could open the path to the spirit as well as lower your blood pressure without raising your heart rate.

What if you could let go of your own mind, perhaps you could comprehend all things…

Welcome to Inner Alchemy, the ancient tradition of Nei Gong. Start by laying a foundation of Dao yin exercises, focused breathing and building your body’s internal medicines such as hormones. Then you could see how you are connected on the inside, energetically, from the bottom where your earth nature dwells and hormonal chemistry supports your basic essence. Learn to connect the energy centers from bottom to the top. At the heart center, where we have our heart-mind, emotions and such, there are mechanisms that can control our hormones and neural transmitters. Learn to feel the energy that connects the lower regions with the brain, your spirit center.

There can be no direct explanation of where we end up. That is the great mystery of all mysteries. Developing coping strategies for life will help us lead a longer happier life; these same skills give us the patience that allow us to appreciate all of life and prepares us for the unknown.

Nei Gong is a way of life to guide you back to the source of creation, and yet it is very simple. It is a progressive transformation that is totally natural, and if followed with vigor and passion you may attain Tao itself.

The great Taoist sage Lao Tzu said, “My way is simple, but no one can follow it”.

Imagine returning to a place free of thought, free of bodily pain and emotions. Floating in the womb of the great mother, an embryo, adrift in time upon and endless sea, One with all of creation; a place of infinite possibilities and peace.

Copyright Cory Williams 2017

Get a grip on reality, read “Nature is Reason”

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