I have a question.
The eight,
The seven,
The golden lotus form,
Right?
Yes.
How is it designed to like ideally what's the,
Is it a daily practice?
Is it that kind of?
So in Taoist practice we can look at the methods in two ways.
So one is we have to understand the tradition in the past had a kind of practice of secrecy.
So really in the past you couldn't learn a lot of technique or even maybe a master would just teach you one exercise.
It was this kind of a tradition.
I was fortunate to have a lot of masters but three main Taoist masters and they taught me a lot and very systematically.
One of my masters he taught all of the steps and really as a system and he always stressed this idea of systematic training and levels that you progress through.
And so from that point of view at a different stage you have a different practice.
But a person to move through stages you have to want to practice and go through that development.
And so for some people perhaps if they're just looking for a basic health practice or something to keep their body fit or like this,
The golden lotus can really seem like a big piece of work and really like a life practice and maybe they can't even quite go through it every day.
But if you're really looking to move through stages then you would learn something like the golden lotus and then you would do it every day.
But you would say for example three months or maybe six months or a period where you commit to doing it every day and you go through this full process of kind of unlocking the different components that are contained in the movement for the exercise.
And during that time you would also really have a discovery of what the different movements do to the body or to a meridian system and then it becomes like a tool.
So for me I don't do that every day but sometimes you know I've had spinal cord injury and different things sometimes weather changes and maybe something feels a little imbalanced in my physical,
I can say oh I should do this movement or this exercise and I adjust my body.
And like I stressed in the beginning my system is based on this practice of inner alchemy meditation.
And so inner alchemy is about really working directly with your energy.
It's kind of beyond the physical and so it's really a meditative work but in the beginning of inner alchemy we have to transform and change the physical and there can be different ways to do that.
So I think it depends on the person and a person's capacity but we're gonna learn a few different this kind of method can be called like a preparation method or body body transformation method but it's really designed around the idea of like dantian or energy meridian five energy gates.
It's not just a purely physical exercise.
And so if we look from that point of view generally most Taoist practices and what we'll learn about three types.
There's a line practice,
A standing practice and sitting practice.
And then within both of all of those three components there can be movement practice and also stillness practice.
And that's kind of how we would look at the different ways to practice.
So we'll learn quite a few depending how the group progresses but some different standing methods.
And we also have sometimes in Chinese it's called Nei Gong.
In the West people have kind of given that term different meanings but the way I was taught is Nei Gong is something I put strength development or it's almost like a power training.
So it's energetic like Qi Gong but it has sometimes a different strength development and connect connected development within the physical body and using energy and physical together.
So some of the standing methods are a little like Nei Gong and they can have some slight physical challenging like this.
And so we'll learn some things like that later.
But it's very good of course for longevity,
For maintaining health but also good as a preparation for the meditation.
And for me when I was under apprenticeship with my first master he was really focused to try to teach these advanced practices so he always discounted movement training or was like don't don't do those Tai Chi forms.
Do what I'm teaching you gain these abilities.
And so I really kind of for really a long time I would say probably seven or eight years I really gave up most of my movement that I had learned from my previous teachers.
But then I gained the mastery of what that teacher was sharing but later I also came to the honest understanding of myself that I love movement.
And it's fun it's very fun for me you know when I was young I did skateboarding I've done surfing.
And so if you like movement then there's such a wonderful vocabulary within the Taoist tradition.
And so we'll we'll try to explore some of that after we get through the Golden Lotus and different movements and those things.
And you know really to change the body and to open the readings you don't need a lot of tools.
You don't need to do because this is a many thousands of years tradition in the Taoist work so of course there's so many different types of movement traditions and different movements.
And so you can really get caught up in trying to collect different forms if you're able to find teachers or different movements and you become like a collector.
And you really see this if you start to meet other people.
I can do 20 different kinds of Tai Chi form these kind of people.
And but they didn't really uncover the energetics or the process of changing or transforming the energy.
And so I really try to present a balance of both as we can learn a variety of movement and really explore that.
And also we really understand the theory of energy development.
So so and the term I think that's important here is this term called a Gong like a Qi Gong,
A Mei Gong.
So Gong means a simple explanation of that word means work or a practice or an effort.
But Gong is really something that it more has an image of a skill or even we can use the word attribute that is only developed over time through repetition.
You're just like repeating again and again and again and again and again.
There's something special that is born out of that.
And this is the concept of Gong.
And that's very important.
So like you asked well how do you practice the Gong and notice well this is it's a Gong.
So once you learn it,
Then you if you have the discipline you repeat it every day or five days a week or six days a week.
And then one month,
Two months,
Three months,
There's things that are uncovered or even attributes that are you are born out of that repetition.
And everything that we teach is like that.
This is how the Chinese arts are really designed.
This concept of a Gong.
And so because of that sometimes something looks simple.
And it doesn't seem like much is there but then if you repeated that simple thing again and again something very profound is born from that.
Okay.
Thank you.
That's great.
Anyway,
We'll get started today so we don't run out of time.
And today we'll go over section one again.
And we'll go into sections two,
Four,
And five.
And we'll experience that.
And so if you have a good good flexibility with your muscles,
Because I know that you teach yoga,
You want to in one way really feel your tendon and also the level of bone,
Try to go a little deeper than your muscle in some of these postures and see if you can reach the mindfulness or the awareness of these deeper level or and the tendons,
Which include the fascia band for the Taoists,
That's all kind of together.
It's not separate things to let tendon ligament fascia are one issue.
And they talk really in ancient times about the meridian lines of these tendon fascia connections.
But we want to gain the ability either in a posture movement where it feels elongated.
And we hold,
You know,
Like this one here,
We reach a point where it's really elongated and taught,
And then we relax it.
And these tendon and fascia lines are directly related to the meridians.
Meridians are young,
They're non physical,
The tendon fascia lines are physical.
And so then that's also a big part of any of these exercises or movements is working with these tendon fascia lines.
And also as you learn more breathing technique,
You would section seven,
Naturally extend that time longer,
More centering and stillness and engaging in breath work.
And this is a we use the term energy cultivation.
So after some time,
You're familiar with practice,
You're more working with every day,
The quality of your energy,
And you're balancing the energy and nurturing the energy and also the energy is being developed.
And really at that stage of practice to will become much more aware of our emotions.
And it also becomes a process of tempering and transforming the emotions because that's really maybe we build up a beautiful quality of the energy in practice.
And especially in like the spring and the summer season,
We will develop a lot more energy.
And,
But maybe we have a outburst of anger or fear or worry or different negative emotions.
And depending the level of the reaction from the emotion will like burn up our energy,
It gets like evaporated.
And so then maybe we are reaching,
You know,
This kind of conditions,
And we a little drop down,
Like,
Then we start building back up.
And so then that becomes and we'll learn some of the numerology and also the symbols that relate to this process of energy transformation.
And this is a really interesting teaching from the the Taoist school about the transformation of emotions,
And the relationship of the emotions to aspects of consciousness and also our organ system.
And so this is a later when you really build up energies from doing this kind of practice,
Lifestyle,
But especially emotion,
We is how we lose lose these energies,
And then that becomes part of the practice,
We,
We have an inner practice,
Which is this,
You know,
We're really internal,
And we're just in a wonderful practice state,
You know,
No disturbances.
But then the outer practice is really when we're at the supermarket or with family or friends are working.
And that's when we can have a stimulus stimulation of emotional reactivity.
And then that can be when we really,
We lost our center,
And the energies will get lost.
Sometimes they use the term,
The thief,
For these emotions,
They call them a thief in the Taoist description,
Because the emotions really can even damage our organs,
And really,
Like steal this energy that we're developing in practice.
So anyway,
Yeah,
We'll learn about that they have a lot of theory based on five elements,
And even a new numerology,
They show that these trends transformations that happen.
And the interesting thing for the Taoist,
It's not really,
You know,
Good and bad,
But it's more about polarity.
And so for example,
Hate,
Or the kind of irritation,
This is a fire element,
But it's a yen,
It's a damaging or negative.
But then the opposite polarity,
The young would be the spiritual qualities of love and compassion.
But these are paired.
And so it's really like one,
One energy,
It's the same energy.
But depending on the state,
It can transform to these different qualities.
And when we're in in this loving and compassionate and also empathy,
This kind of condition is very spiritual.
It also empowers our energy,
We get more energies from that.
And it's a very centered and aligned.
But this other polarity of hate,
Frustration,
This is not healthy,
And then we burning up and we losing energy,
And it's out of alignment.
So that's that becomes a very important concept.
But also it's a practice,
It's later part of the practice.
And all of this,
When we learn the theory and the numerology,
It's all really based on the earth element and the Dan tien.
And the earth element is the mother element.
So when we're able to hold this center that also can balance out the other elements and also transform our emotional state.
And so it's interesting,
They really have a very like very scientific way to explain these processes.
And about especially about transformation and change.
And yeah,
It's interesting.
We'll learn those things slowly.
That's great.
I have a question about the left and right.
Is there a specific,
Do we start when we practice alone,
Do we start with the left?
So the simple answer is it doesn't matter.
Okay.
But traditionally,
We usually will start anything on the left side.
Okay.
Because the left is linked to,
And the that was,
You have to say,
You have to ask why.
So the,
When we'll learn a little bit more about yin and yang.
Okay.
But generally we can understand yin is still,
And yin is something unmoving.
And yang is a creative and beginning and motion.
Okay.
So when we start to divide and understand the yin and yang aspects of physical,
For example,
If we use the waistline as a dividing point,
This upper part of the body is yang,
Then the lower part is yin.
Okay.
Or we think about here,
This arm,
This inside part would be our yin.
This is our yang.
Or like when we're massaging today,
This inside part is the yin,
This outside part is the yang.
Okay.
When we,
If we split the body down the middle line,
The right side of the body is yin.
The left side is yang.
And for most Western people,
It's a little confusing.
We ask why.
This is a little complicated and I have some diagrams.
I'll post it much later when we get into detail,
But it's understanding the directions and the orientation of our physical body from the five elements or point of view with the North,
South,
East and West.
And when we align our physical element with the elements of the direction,
Which would be this alignment of nature and human being,
The sun rises to our,
On this side of the body.
This is the orientation of East.
So from that kind of a cosmological view,
Because the sun should be oriented to this side of the body,
They call the left side is yang.
It gets kind of complicated.
But later you learn,
You learn all of it.
It's just that this is,
I call the Taoist view.
This is the Taoist view of things.
And a lot of it is about orienting our body with nature or orienting our body with directions or with time or with the moon and the sun.
And they really,
The nature and our body,
They start to orient these things.
And so later when we learn more about five elements and yin and yang,
That those are kind of maps and they give us,
They give us just these lists of things and colors and directions and the planets and the seasons and all of these things.
But it's really showing that there's outside things and these outside things have a direct linking to our body.
Okay.
And so if you ever like see Tai Chi,
If you watch like a Tai Chi forms that they have mostly yang style Tai Chi,
We can learn some Taoist Tai Chi in our classes.
It's a little different,
But in any Tai Chi form,
Whether it's a kind of the yang style,
Which is mostly what you see in the public or a Taoist style,
They always,
The first movement is they raise the left leg,
They raise left leg up and they step out.
And this is,
Is that ancient theory of the yin and yang of the body.
And we always begin with the left side.
And so usually we do that.
So like in swimming dragon form,
And as a teacher,
I'm kind of doing this opposite to teach you guys.
And so like,
You know,
I'm holding this hand,
But you're holding your left or I'm moving to my right,
But you follow me like a mirror,
You're moving to your left.
I have something because,
Because I teach through zoom and there's a beautiful function on zoom that mirrors your screen so that you don't really,
Yeah,
It's just in preferences video,
You just hit mirror and then I don't have to worry anymore about right,
Left,
Left,
Right.
I'm doing my right.
They're doing the right,
But they're seeing the left,
You know what I mean?
But I think for me from teaching so many years in the physical,
I'm used to teaching like that.
So maybe that,
That would confuse me at this point.
Yeah.
I'm,
I'm just,
When I go into teaching mode,
I already have it opposite.
And,
And that's depending how you want to master these things.
It's also good in any form.
Maybe once you mastered the basic version of a form,
You can,
You can do everything opposite also.
Right.
It just depends as a practitioner,
You know,
Everyone has a different level of potential,
But like for me to anything I learned,
It's like,
What are,
What is the opposite?
You know,
I,
I went into that kind of exploration myself in my own learning.
And so that depends,
You know,
With any of these movements,
You can really,
There's a many varieties and you can do opposite or you can find some transitional movement and all of these things.
And that's a,
Can be the,
At the stage of exploration once,
Once you learn the basic patterns and then that's a,
You would reach maybe some different understanding yourself about your own body and even about these movements.
But basically we begin on the left and that's a yin yang theory.
Great.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
It's fun.
Good questions.
You always have.
Okay.
So thank you guys for today.
