Much disease is triggered by stress, an unhealthy environment. To be healthy we need a tranquil mind. If you adjust the mind, the lifestyle, you can extend your life. Seek the Void. How do you find the Void? Stop, be still, take a good deep breath, look inside.

Be stillness. Look inside. Stop! Free the emotions, let go of the ego, accept the nature of self and follow the flow of life. Are you a practitioner or an observer? When you achieve 80% tranquility you will have total healing, curing, and prevention of disease. Achieving 60% tranquility allows you to maintain your self.

If you let go of the ego then you no longer have fear, desire, etc. Accept the nature of the self. Rather than saying “I could be better” say “I am better now!” We keep chasing the shadow of the self – be happy with who, what, where you are. Stop stressing yourself; take the stress off!

Until you are a practitioner life is passing you by. If you take action now you can change your life, discover that life is full of joy!

When we are conceived Yang Qi and Yin Qi combine. The new life has no spirit yet, just form. On the day of birth the spirit from the Tao enters the form and it has true meaning. The spirit enters based on the balance or level of Yin/Yang in the form. The spirit enters when the eyes open. The spirit is pure Yang – heaven is Yang, eart is Yin. Ren and Du channels are touching when we are in the womb. Once we open our mouth they disconnect and we go to post-heaven Qi.

To preserve life we must lose the desire to extend life. You can rebuild Yang Qi by practicing Qi Gong and meditation to create Jing. Sex is the first threat to human life. It depletes Yang Jing which is life power. You can’t screw all the time and have a long life. Dedicated Qi effort can rebuild Yang Qi. In 100 days can rebuild one Yang. In 600 days can rebuild entire Yang energy foundation. This is produced by a peaceful mind.

Practice virtue; disciplined practice! Be a nice person! Introspect and take the mask off even though it is painful. It takes wisdom to know that it is beneficial to remove the mask. Every time you put a mask on you are committing spiritual suicide.

Pre-heaven Qi is our basic life force. It is in the kidneys. Kidney deficiency shows as low back pain, plus more, and eventually death. You must learn to “tune up” your engine and cultivate kidney energy. No matter what stage of life you are in, you can improve. To have an efficient rebuild of the essential energy, the mind and technique must be in synch. The mind must be calm. The mind must be in the same path. The mind is primary. Release the concept of who “I am". Naming limits the spiritual ability to reach out.

Live in the philosophy without trying to explain it. Use a high degree of intuition. After we are born, over time, the Shi Shen becomes stronger, Yuan Shen gets reduced, we lose our intuition as we “educate” our mind, as intelligence takes over. At night the Yuan Shen, the true intelligent spirit, takes over in our dreams. The psychic ability takes over. We don’t remember our dreams when our Qi is not strong enough.

The road to health, long life and immortality is the transmuting of Jing to Qi, Qi to Shen, returning Shen to the Void and uniting Void with the Dao. How to start? Be still, look within, stop the emotions, be happy, save Jing. The Daoist Priests’ daily “mantra” is Wu Wei Er Wu Bu Wei – Do Nothing and Leave Nothing Undone.

Be still – mentally, physically, emotionally.
Look within – remove the masks,
Stop the emotions – let go of desire.
Be Happy – flip the coin and enjoy every moment
Save Jing.

Tranquility is the root of the Dao, the root of healing without medicine.

The Dao De Jing was written about 2500 years ago, during the Zhou dynasty, by Lao Zi. There are many opinions but little fact is known about Lao Zi. All agree that he worked in the Imperial library. He was responsible for documenting Chinese history. He eventually left the Imperial employ and went west to Hangu Pass. It is believed that he was already immortal.

Lao Zi’s student Yi Xi was his successor. Yi Xi went to the gateway and awaited Lao Zi’s arrival. He waited for seven days. Lao Zi arrived riding on his bull. Yi Xi knelt to him and requested that Lao Zi teach him the knowledge of immortality. Lao Zi agreed to stay and teach. They went to Shang Xi Province to Lou Tai Guan Temple and wrote down about 5000 words – the 81 chapters of the Dao De Jing. Then Yi Xi passed down the writings.

Over the years the meanings for the Chinese characters have evolved. In addition no punctuation was used in the original text, so many translation and interpretation versions have been generated over the years. The characters have changed as well.

The Dao De Jing is the “Bible” of the Taoist religion. There are few translations that have been done from the nourishing life perspective. The translations done from the internal alchemy perspective vary based on the level of the practice of the translator. There are different “key holes” of perspective because the post heaven intelligence is at work when translating. The Dao cannot be understood empirically.

For 500 years after Lao Zi passed down the Dao De Jing and disappeared there were reports of him being seen. Sightings still occur today – like a Red Dragon.

The Dao De Jing unfolds the secret of immortality in the first chapter. In 2500 years fewer than 100 people have broken through the code. It takes either great, great intelligence or to be a super dummy to break through.

De=Virtue. People who break through have great virtue. The whole book speaks of only two things – The Dao or cosmos and Virtue or what life is about. It is a scripture about Dao and Virtue: the cosmos and life. Dao and Virtue are the origin of the cosmos and life. Dao is the path. Follow Lao Zi’s practice and never fail: the law, principle, rule of the cosmos. De is virtue – the application of the rule or principle of the cosmos by a person or living being.

Lao Zi used himself to know the cosmos. The most perfect instrument that we have is the body. Your body is the cosmos. Your spirit body is the Dao. The physical body is the vehicle for the spirit body, a container. Dao plus container –the method to be used with the body is meditation –through a special technique Lao Zi consciously entered the world visionary stage, the stage between yes and no, the border between reality and non-reality, the void, emptiness, no-time, no space, the direct sensing stage. Xiu Dao = Practice Dao – to directly experience and recognize the Dao. Practice of Dao changes the mind and body. The body changes as a side effect of the practice. Practice the Dao of Nourishing Life. Hair loses grey, senses become sharper.

There are normally three methods of research by humans: study of the material world, study of the spiritual world, study of both, all using knowledge, theory and logic. This only scratches the surface. It is limited. It only reflects the surface of reality. To gain direct knowledge you must put mind and soul into research and study to get non-relative perception, non-judgmental awareness. The methodology is written in the Dao De Jing.

The Principle of Polarity is in the Dao De Jing. Human is physical body and spiritual body or life force. Living person has life force, Shen or spirit and Ming or physical body. The container or body gives the Dao a condition to see its effect. Dao is not visible but is active all around us. We see it in the procession of seasons, growth of a seed, birth of a baby.

The human body has living power and intelligence or wisdom. The passion of the Dao is Virtue. We are the power of passion. The Chang or cosmos field and the living physical field are the polarity in which we exist. Attachment to emotion makes the polarity become visible: the seven emotions and 6 desires. Thought vibrates the energy field. We become controlled or affected by our thoughts and emotions. The way to have stillness in the energy field is to reduce thought to a minimum. We must go back to the origin of thought. For example you have to look at the origin of anger in your heart. Take a step back and you own the ocean and the earth, take a step forward and you will not have even an inch.

The Dao is like the ocean, each of us is like a wave. Stillness creates the wave. The harmony, unity of balance is the Dao; non-polarity and balance. Become desire-less, look inward, stay with the spirit and regulate the breath, stay with the conscious mind, drop the eyelids, seal the ear, enter the stage of the visionary – between black and white!

On my journey from the place of my birth to the temples of Wu Dang Mountain we would sometimes sleep in run down temples, other times we would sleep outdoors, sometimes under a roof and sometimes we would sleep right on the mountain or right on the hillside. At times we received an act of kindness and would be invited into somebody’s house, then we would just take a corner and lay down, or we would gather some grass or straw and make a bed and lie down and rest. We never had to worry about what to eat. We always trusted that there would be food available from nature or from people who gave it to us. Sometimes we didn’t have food and then we would just not eat for a day or two. This was in China during the Cultural Revolution when people were starving. When we had nothing to eat, occasionally we would eat grass roots, or we’d pick wild fruit and wild vegetables. We managed to cook, and we may not have eaten much, but people are kind and they would share some soup or some sweet potato with us as we traveled through the towns. You know, your shoes would break and you’d have bruises and calluses all over the feet. I never felt bad or worried because my teacher was strict and kind at the same time. He was very strict with me, but kind, teaching me and encouraging me. I felt secure. We traveled like this for over three months and it was fun! I was young and so my mind or intelligent spirit had not come to rule my original childlike spirit. My spirit allowed me to be free and have fun because my mind had not learned to fear the unknown.

The Yuan Shen is original spirit; it does not recognize time or place. The Shi Shen is intelligent spirit. At the beginning of human life there is no existence of a Shi Shen or intelligent self. When humans learn the access to the material world this gives birth to the Shi Shen. Humans are meant to evolve from the innocence of a newborn baby, to the intelligence of youth, and on to the wisdom of the peak power of the Shi Shen. At the same time Shi Shen is evolving, Yuan Shen starts from a birth of spooky capabilities and evolves towards numbness or unawareness of its true ability in most people. Yuan Shen and Shi Shen are like master and servant living in the same room with their position and power changing all the time. The wise man learns to be a dummy and the intelligent man fights for an empty statue of “self.”

Sometimes Shi Shen says things that may conflict with the Yuan Shen. That is, the mind conflicts with the original spirit. The Yuan Shen however, never gives up on the pursuit for purity. The original spirit is kindness, which we never give up. However; the Shi Shen sometimes contradicts this original spirit. The Shi Shen may not allow the Yuan Shen to speak or act freely. We must learn to live and let live! Live and let live is equal to unconditional love. Once you are able to love unconditionally then you will break out of the cycle of living in the expectations of others. Learn to forgive yourself of being a victim. Only then can you overpower your pains and aches. Stupid people look for perfection in themselves, others and the world. Life is not perfect! If you always try to defend yourself for being a victim, then you are already a victim again. There is no need to defend yourself! Give up the will or desire to “win.” Give up the fear of death. There is no need for offense or defense. Life is merely a puzzle. Welcome your opportunity to solve this puzzle. Always look for the other side, the dialectic side of “me". If you can know one side of “me” then you can know other side of “me". Strive to understand the opposite of what you are feeling. However, always be consistent to what you believe. Walk The Talk! What you believe can change but until then, walk the talk for what you believe today! Do not blame and become a victim.

In the beginning of my cross-country journey to the temple, I had a few early nights of regret, but during the daytime I always said, “I’ll be okay, I’ll be fine.” The desire to learn overcame my fear. And I trusted that I would be brought to this mystical place, this mystical mountain to meet this mystical person who chose me to learn something spooky. I could learn Kung Fu from this mystical old man. So you know, just even that desire, that motivation kept me going. We traveled three months to come to this mountain.

You must follow your head, heart and gut. The root of knowing comes from the gut. This is where instinct is born, in the Dan Tian, located about an inch below the navel. This is the furnace where Jing and Qi are purified to be transmuted to Shen. In China they say we have become stupid because at birth we are cut off at the gut, our umbilical cord is cut there. In today’s world our external environment influences us too much and as a result we are working only from our head and heart. You need to go deeper, to your original condition, your Xing or essential nature. You need to find your eternal life or Ming. You were once one with eternal life. Separation comes with the separation of Xing and Ming. Separation from eternal life makes us a slave of our emotions. Vulnerability is created from this separation.

Right now the master within is your intelligence. This is a fake master. You need to find the original true dragon, merge the black and the white of Yin and Yang to find the mystical dragon. This comes from the pre-heaven stage before birth mother and father merge. The true dragon has to come from the Yuan Shen, from the original spirit. This is the dragon that creates your life. Before birth you spend nine months in darkness and stillness to nurture your true spirit. Then birth happens.