Taoist Path

Walmart is planning on taking over healthcare in the US- run for the hills…no really- and pack a Paleo lunch

Pedram — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:18:03 +0000

There are many ways to “fix” an old broken train…little tweaks here and there…just enough to make sure the thing keeps moving along so the passengers don’t really get too stirred and start to question what’s going on. You can essentially fool the people into staying ignorant about the inner workings/problems by watching their movies or playing cards. All the while, the engineer knows there’s a very very big problem yet the boss demands that the show must go on. Why? Because there’s money to be made! Lots and lots of money. What the passengers don’t know won’t kill them…well, actually it will but it’ll be a slow and morbid death where they will willingly give up all their money, assets, and freedom just to “get better” which can never happen.

What am I talking about? Healthcare. The broken system which is better called “sickcare” in this country.

Walmart has recently made moves to become the nation’s largest healthcare provider- putting clinics in their many locations. With their efficiency and super buying power, they’ll be able to drive down costs of prescription medications and push more and more volume through for the over-worked doctors they employ to see. Sounds great at first glance right? Save people money on their drugs?

There are pot dealers on every block making similar claims.

Here’s the issue-

Walmart is really smart. They’ve built their empire on the backs of Americans buying cheap stuff and destroying local economies but that’s not the main point of contention here. The issue is that, right there, in the very store which is now claiming to be the new health Mecca, all you have to do is wander 30 feet into one of the aisles where you can buy your “Little Debbie” cream filled cookies, your 36 pack of Coke, and lord knows whatever garbage is available.

Walmart has made a killing selling America the worst of the worst in processed foods. Plastics that leach into your body and cause cancer, preservatives, sugar on top of sugar, white breads, energy drinks, and oh yeah, neuro-toxic chemicals in all your household products are are readily available for CHEAP at Walmart. The very causes of many of the lifestyle diseases of modernity are available right down the aisle from the “health clinic” which is nothing more than a store front for Big-Pharma drugs that are designed to down-regulate, inhibit, or block the systems of the body that are reacting to the poisons we are putting in.

So where’s the problem? We all have choice right? Yeah sure. Poor people have so many choices. Junk food is cheap and organic healthy produce is not. What choice?

It is a trap to keep poor people sick and dependent on the healthcare they receive from either the government or their companies. That’s how people get stuck…swallow your pride when your nasty boss says something mean to you because you need the job to keep your insurance. How else can you stay alive with your diabetes and heart disease?

The problem with Walmart Clinics is that the concept perpetuates the nation-wide problem that is endemic…namely, that you can live/eat/drink how and what you want and there’s some magic pill out there that’ll fix it. AND…now we can get you your MUCH NEEDED medicine for a discount. How heroic.

The healthcare crisis is a LIFESTYLE crisis and no pill is going to fix that. The whole system is wrong and Walmart’s is no solution- just another band aid over a broken system.

Do you want to get healthy? Get outside and move around. Eat organic produce-lots of veggies and only free-range organic meats. Sleep when tired. Remember to play. Lift weights a few times a week and stretch daily. Do yoga and Qi Gong. Meditate.

There’s no replacement for good clean healthy living- just a bunch of lies about drugs that’ll save you. It is a false promise.

Life is not a spectator sport – get out there and live it and get your Vitality back.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Meditation- why sitting around is somehow a good idea in our crazy busy lives

Pedram — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:53:56 +0000

The idea of just sitting around seems very alien to us in the modern world. It seems boring- like a total waste of time. We’ve all got so much to do and not enough time to do it. So why sit around and waste such an already precious commodity that seems to be lacking in all of our lives? Why practice meditation at all?

Meditation is more than a technique- it is a way of life. It is a way for us to see the Universe and “hold audience” for the millions of bits of information that are passing through our minds in any given moment. We can all relate to that…noise everywhere…noise all of the time.

So how do we get rid of that noise? We don’t.

We cannot make the noise go away. It is a reflection of all of the processes of life as the nervous system is firing and communicating with the body all of the time. To stop the noise is to stop life. You’d have to go brain dead and stop your heart. Last I checked, that isn’t a leading wellness practice.

So what’s all this talk about meditation and how it helps calm us down and “stop the noise”? The answer lies in the photo you saw at the beginning of this post. Meditation is about acceptance of Reality. It is about learning to observe phenomena come and go without reacting to them. To meditate is to maintain equanimity in all affairs and to watch circumstances come and go without getting mentally and emotionally attached to them. We cannot stop our minds.

Can we at least calm our minds then? Yes.

Meditation can help drive energy back to the parasympathetic nervous system which helps with digestion, immunity, sexual function, and, in short, the body’s healing and self-regulating capacities. It helps blunt the release of the stress hormone cortisol and, in turn, helps regulate the sex hormones and our stress response. This can help calm the body and mind and make it a lot more quiet upstairs but not all-together silent.

There is, however, silence to be observed. Music is the silence between the notes they say. In meditation, we learn to see the empty space between our thoughts as they come and go. We can observe it in the void at the bottom of a breath. We can see it in the stillness of the Universe which sits at the heart of all movement. Stillness with movement?

Think of it this way: If you are on a train and it is moving, you’re moving with it so you don’t really notice the movement unless you look out the window. Most of us go crazy in our heads because we’re looking “out the window” for answers and see the world zipping by at too fast a pace. But what if you were to focus on the train itself? What if you relaxed into the ride and harmonized your breath with the very movement of the train? Then it can lull you to sleep- you move with it and it carries you. This is a way to look at how we relate to our Universe.

The Universe is in perpetual motion. Everything is moving at all times. Things are expanding while others contracting. Change is everywhere. Our fear of change is likened to us trying to fix our gaze on an object through the train window and freak out that is has left our visual field. We get up and run to another window to still see it, but, alas, it will pass and mourning its loss is the state of human affairs.

Finding stillness inside is about syncng up with the movement of the universe and moving WITH IT. Then, we can smile happily on the train and enjoy the ride. We can let go of needing to fixate on objects out the window and go with the flow. When the first monk tells the other that “this is it”- he’s right.

This is it.

Close your eyes and feel the movement of the entire Universe and you won’t know stress or strife. All meaning and purpose can be found in the living breathing present moment but we have to sit still and look within to get it.

Here are some free meditation tracks for you if you need some help getting this- http://taoistpath.com/members/

Pedram

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Redefining Medicine- let’s take a serious look at what the score is

Pedram — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:45:24 +0000

If you look at the rising cost of healthcare and the way the nation’s health are going, you have to understand that this “plan” simply isn’t working. Obesity and childhood diabetes are reaching epidemic levels. Heart disease and cancer are ravaging our population. More and more people are getting chronically ill and our current healthcare system is ill-equipped to deal with this crisis.

Why? Well to start, according to the CDC, 90% of today’s illnesses come from stress…yeah stress. Sound familiar? Yeah, its the hectic pace of today’s lifestyles coupled with the top-down debt slavery model cleverly imposed by the Fed and big banks which has people freaking out. Most people are only a couple of months away from being out of their houses, getting their cars repossessed, and, frankly, having nowhere to really turn. Does that make you eat your words when your nasty boss says something disrespectful that you’d otherwise not tolerate? Of course it does.

Meditation has been relegated to another stress management technique in our culture and that’s a tragedy. True mediation means self analysis and honesty about our current situation. It requires us to understand the essence of our being and shows us how to see life differently. That’s not good for an enslaved population- stay asleep and take these pills we’ve got for you…that’ll solve all your problems.

If you look at the disease processes that are killing America, there is one commonality which remains consistent with all of them. They are all diseases of lifestyle. How we eat, exercise, sleep, and manage stress are the critical components in this. To maintain our Vitality, we need to have lifestyle under control.

Until we do so, there really isn’t any form of medical intervention that’s actually going to work to resolve this issue. We can come up with expensive drugs that have side effects or costly surgeries which offset some of the damage, but, at the end of the day, it is our LIFESTYLE which begets our Vitality and it is the lack of Vitality which makes us sick.

Let’s delve into this because it is an argument which is the crux of our redefinition of healthcare. Our current medical model is a disease-based model. We kill bugs, we cut out lesions, we shut down systems that are overactive. It is great with trauma and microsurgery but, let’s face it…it has utterly FAILED in keeping our population healthy. By 2020, 20% of our GDP is going into this broken system with no foreseeable end in sight. It is an utter disaster.

But what do we see on TV? Sexy doctors sleeping with each-other in sit-coms. We have “House MD” diagnosing the 1 in a million weird diseases and hailing him as a hero while the system itself is an absolute failure. Don’t get me wrong here…HOUSE is doing his job but the show itself…propaganda people. The medical industry uses lots of this type of propaganda to keep people’s faith in their priests in white coats. Drug companies spend countless millions on ads trying to convince you that their products are the answer to your problems.

Here’s the rub. Most of the medical education in this country is sponsored by these drug companies. The well-intentioned kids going through medical school are so busy pulling all-nighters and being slaves to the fraternity-like system that they don’t have time to think. They come out being drug dealers for the Pharm industry by following their algorithms for care. Even if they realize something is wrong, they are so tied down with student loans that they have to suck it up and follow the money. You want patients? Good- follow our rules and we’ll refer them to you. You’ll have to see 60/day to make a living and you’ll be so tired when you get home from work that you’ll lack the Vitality to think about anything. In fact, from the start of their medical education, they are so beaten and robbed of their Vitality that they lose their point of reference to what true health really is.

So what is true health?

True health is the body’s resilience and Vitality working to offset disease. True health is the homeostatic mechanisms of this miraculous thing called life all working together to function well as a whole system. True health is the connection of mind, body, and spirit and a life that has meaning and purpose. Vitality comes from within. It is the by-product of a robust connection with the Life Force which emanates out of all us. This Life Force is found in plants, minerals, and natural substances that traditional doctors have been using for thousands of years effectively. It can be drawn from the breath and cultivated in practices like Qi Gong and Yoga.

I’m currently filming a Naturopathic doctor who treats the majority of an island population (with horrible diets) with 97% natural medicine at a fraction of the cost and is keeping the whole island healthy. He has health ministers from all over the world consulting with him on how to fix the failing medical systems in their countries. Long story short- the writing is on the wall. Natural medicine is both safe and effective and is exponentially cheaper than conventional medicine.

So here’s the switch- The fact that we call the broken system “Conventional Medicine” and all the natural systems “Alternative Medicine” is also a product of the broken system’s propaganda machine. It is time to redefine these terms and put things in their right place. I propose we call natural medicines (Naturopathy, Acupuncture, Homepathy, Chiropractic, real Osteopathy…) “NATURAL MEDICINE” and I propose we rename conventional medicine “DRUG MEDICINE”. Or how about real “Healthcare” vs. “Sickcare”?

It is time to redefine a broken system that has not served the population well. There’s still plenty of room for these interventions in trauma and acute care but, let’s be real here, the broken system has failed us in primary care. We will be bankrupted by the special interests and lobbies that propagate this lie if we don’t take matters into our own hands. Find a “NATURAL MEDICINE” doctor today and start working on getting your Vitality back. A healthy population is what makes America strong…not a horde of broken slaves.

Let’s wake up our citizenry.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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100 Day Gong Application – How to set intentions and manifest items in 2012

Pedram — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:19:31 +0000

Happy holidays!

I’m just working to finalize a few parts of the new 100 Day Gong app so we can launch it in the new year. We’re almost there

I’ve just put together a “how to” video for you so you can fill out out Life Manifestation Workbook correctly. This is really important as it is a contract with YOURSELF so I walk you through the thing and help make it clear. Go ahead and download the Ebook and the Gong Grid before you watch the video so you can go through it with me. If you have questions, we’ll answer them in the weekly calls once the app launches. It’ll probably be in the second week of January so start thinking about what you’d like to change, work on, correct, and manifest in your life!

Here’s the video- enjoy.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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What’s happening in the stars right now…the astrological story of Christmas and the Good/Evil Debate

Pedram — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:17:22 +0000

Sunset at Stonehenge

The Winter Solstice has now passed and we are in a very interesting time of the year. To ancient cultures, the Winter Solstice marked the “death” of the sun. It was the shortest day the year where the YIN energy in the Northern Hemisphere came to maximum expression and the re-emergence of the YANG energy returned coming from the Taoist traditon. This transition is marked by a very interesting phenomena where, perceivably, for three days (Dec 22, 23, 24), the sun stops moving. This is because we can’t see the subtle movement as it dips below our horizon. During these three days, the sun resides in the SOUTHERN CROSS and then, on December 25th, it moves north one degree…signifying the return of our Savior and forshadowing warmer, longer, and more fruitful days taking us into spring and summer harvest.

The brightest star in the sky (Sirius) aligns with the three brightest stars on Orion’s belt (Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak) on December 24th heralding the “return” of the sun and the forces of “good”. The three “wise men” which were the ancient names for the stars on Orion’s belt follow the “star in the east” and this marks the celebration of the “birth” of Jesus in our modern mythology. It turns out Christmas is more than just a story but a deeply ingrained understanding of the movement of the stars and cycles of nature as understood by the ancients.

We are in that period right now…the great transition where Yin and Yang expression have shifted with the emergence of Yang energy rising back into dominance (marked by the Spring Equinox and Easter- the rebirth of the Lord). This three day period is kind of like having the clutch popped in and things get back into gear on the 25th..just in time to open your presents and drink the egg nog.

I’d like to get into this discussion of “good” and “evil” in relation to this dialogue as it has been a conversation happening since the beginning of civilization. If you’ve ever been camping, you are already know the significance of the sun…especially in the cold dark winter. As soon as it sets, it gets uncomfortably cold and you have to huddle together and build fire for survival. Think cavemen. No fireplaces or central heating. Maybe a straw hut or cave with predators on the prowl and it is freezing.

I remember climbing a 20,000 foot mountain in Bolivia several years back. We camped on a glacier about 18,000 feet up on the final night and were to rise and hike to the top- summiting just after sunrise. I was shaking violently from the cold in my crappy rental sleeping bag…miserable. That is where I really understood this ancestral reality. I PRAYED for the sun to rise…PLEASE, please, please come back and make it warm up because this sucks. Imagine living like that all winter. No wonder they used to say “I don’t think he’ll survive another winter”. People died in the cold…overwhelmed by the forces of darkness…the Yin outweighed the Yang and offset the vital balance that keeps life going.

So to our ancient ancestors, the return of the sun and warmer days meant literal salvation. Thank God (most ancient cultures personified the Sun as the head Diety for good reason)…I am saved. Literally.

So how has this bleed into our cultural fabric? Its all over the place. The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia expanded on this concept and personified the forces of Light and “goodness” with the deity ”Ahura Mazda” while the forces of Dark and “evil” were controlled by “Ahriman”. The Egyptians called “Horus” (the anthropomorphized sun) the “Lamb of God” while “Set” personified the underworld and the forces of darkness. The list goes on and on…same old story: Light vs. Dark.

This binary opposition then, has become the fabric of the global mythology upon which all of our more complicated stories are built. In Taoism, the Great Tao is split into “Yin” and “Yang“- the forces of light and dark which are always swirling in balance…always working together to make up the emanation of all things. The Taoist concept of Yin and Yang permeates all aspects of reality as one cannot exist without the other. What is up without down? Left without right? They need each-other to exist…together they make up Reality. It is like reality itself hit a prism and differentiated into 2 expressions OF ITSELF- needing each-other to be whole.

So how does this fit into the “good and evil” debate? Well, I’d like to start by saying there are various schools of thought among Taoists and that I am BY FAR not a traditionalist. In fact, I came to Taoism because it was a cool way of looking at Reality- not some new Chinese identity I needed to take on so I can be different and run away from the dogmatic world of my parents. It is a framework through which to look at Reality but once you jump into dogma, you’re lost. Self analysis and objective inquiry is the key. That’s why I like the Buddha. When asked whether there is a God his reply was to show them a meditation technique that allowed them to observe their own consciousness and essentially…”you do this and discover it for yourself…you tell me”. The basis of enlightenment is self discovery…leaping into the Mystery behind the Mystery.

That being said, I like the following two statements from PF Case of the Western Alchemical tradition-

“He who is consciously aware of the true nature of the Self is preserved by that knowledge from all evil.”

and

“The Only evil consists in the belief that one can stand still.”

Essentially, self knowledge and discovery leads to understanding Reality for what it is…outside of the up and down cycles of “good” and “evil”. Yin and Yang are constantly in flux and the entire mythos of our culture is built on stories that track and follow this dynamic movement. To a primitive mind, Yin and darkness can be very evil as you watch your newborn baby freeze to death…not having enough food or shelter to do anything about it. Blame Set! Blame Lucifer! Blame somebody for your demise. It is not fair…life is not fair and it was some “evil” that killed the kid.

Cause of actual death – cold.

Now to the second statement- “The Only evil consists in the belief that one can stand still.”

This one really hits the mark in my opinion. It is our perpetual clinging that causes our suffering. Reality is so big and so seemingly out of our mental grasp that we have to create stories and excuses for things to explain why things happen and how things work when we do not understand them. We try to “fix” things or “set” them where they are in order to make SOME sense of this terrifying reality which we cannot grasp. Our inability to let go and flow down the river of life causes us to swim upstream and perpetually struggle. We drown of exhaustion and blame some “evil” for our demise. Essentially, we cannot accept the the Universe is constantly moving and we build fortresses around our shaky definitions of it in order to make things feel ok…help me sleep at night.

NOTHING stands still. The great machinery of this vast Universe is in constant motion as the forces of Yin and Yang (light and dark) are constantly swirling and interchanging.

Does this mean freak out and burn witches at the stake? Does this mean persecute Jews in the inquisition? Does it mean marginalize minorities who don’t fit in with our narrow stories? The only true evil stems from ignorance. Waking up to Who we truly are is the only game in town. Hey guess what?- the ancient (or “primitive”) people understood the movement of the stars and the great cycles of Yin and Yang. They knew when celestial events would happen and planned accordingly. The bad stories are what have been passed down through our dogma-oriented religious structures. Oh yeah- they used to chuck virgins in the volcano and sacrifice human hearts to their “gods”. Yes they did and they were WRONG for doing it. These were not the wise ancients though. These were the primitive minds who inherited a fragmented mythology that they did not truly understand from people who, at some point DID GET IT. The people who built the Great Pyramid and the Mayan, and Inca temples certainly understood the stars and these cycles. The ancient Wisdom Schools understood the cycles of nature and taught them well before these stories filtered down into our current myths. There was a “fall” and we’re still in it. We’ve forgotten vast amounts of knowledge and are piecing together stories to “make sense” of reality- killing and bombing each-other in the process. The Universe does not stand still- nothing does. Attempting to “fix” anything in place leads to this destructive tendency. Letting go and moving with it, however, there’s the real fix.

“Anica, anica, anica”- the famous saying of Sri Goenka from the Vipassana Buddhist meditation tradition. “Change, change, change”

Everything changes and it is our perpetual tendency to “cling” to that which has passed which causes our suffering. From here, we do not feel at ease because we’ve stepped out of the present moment (where all the power and peace of the Universe dwells) and we are forced to create story lines and dramas to somehow feel better…yet we do not. Ahhh, the birth of “evil”. It is not the darkness of a winter night but the ignorance of a deluded human that births true “evil”. It is our “belief that one can stand still” that starts the chain reaction.

So where am I going with all of this?

Simple. According to the Mayans, we now have less than ONE YEAR before their calendar ends…the end of this cycle…the end of “time” according to them. Much has been said and speculated about all of this and I will not weigh in on theories. What I’d like to put to you is this though- These guys understood the movement of the stars and the dynamic balance between Yin and Yang MUCH better than we do as a culture. We are asleep to the cycles of nature as we check the weather on our phones instead of walking outside and feeling it.

What if they are right? What if this whole game is ending in less than a year? The question is HOW would you live your life if that were the case and, more importantly, WHY are you not doing that right now? We can either get into some Babylonian orgy/war party and blow ourselves up or maybe return to some deeper understanding of Who we are and what this is about.

2012 is the year of enlightenment. This is the time to wake up and see Reality for what it is. It is a time of introspection and the expansion of knoweldge.

Let us do away with the myths that allow us to kill each-other in the name of “goodness”. Let us dispel the true evil on the planet which is the individual ignorance in our own consciousness. There are hundreds of wonderful books out on the cycles of the stars and their relationship to ancient monuments. There are thousands of places to go learn to meditate and understand your own consciousness. You have a choice and that’s the most important thing in the Universe. Are we going to evolve to what Alberto Villoldo calls “homoluminous” or shall we perish and watch the extinction of homo sapiens?

The greatest delusion of humanity is to think we are at the top of the evolutionary chain- that we have evolved to our ultimate form. That is the delusion of “evil” as discussed earlier.

The Only evil consists in the belief that one can stand still.

We we cannot stand still. It means that we must continue to grow and EVOLVE with this living breathing Universe. We are always evolving. To think otherwise is delusion and it leads to the fabrication of stories that fall further and further from truth. Keep growing this year. Commit to your personal growth. Understand the movement of Yin and Yang within your own consciousness and learn to understand the nature of your consciousness. When you tap into this Wisdom, there is no room for dogma and blind faith. You KNOW. Once you understand your connection with ALL LIFE and your essential importance in the very fabric of this infinite and wonderful Universe, then you step out of the world of “good and evil” and you are awake to the Truth of the One Identity of which we are all part.

Happy holidays. May you learn to love yourself and your fellow man this year. May you wake up to Who you truly are and come whole in 2012.

Here are some free mediation tracks and Qi Gong set for you…http://taoistpath.com/online-tools/

I like these Qi Gong systems as they have been very helpful to me but they may not be for you. There are many ways up the mountain. Find what works for you and start the journey…

Pedram

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Winter Solstice Checklist

Pedram — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:44:38 +0000

Here’s a list of things you should consider for this year’s Winter Solstice:

1- Have you closed out your 2011 projects? What things do you not want to carry into 2012? What do you need to finish, schedule in, or simply drop in order to maintain your sanity? How important is it? WHY are you doing it and does it serve you/your family?

2- Have you spent time telling the people you care for that you love them? It doesn’t take long…do it now.

3- Have you slowed down and caught up on your sleep? If not, to bed early and rest as much as you can before the 22nd.

4- Do you know what you want the next year to look like? If not, read this page on GONGS- http://taoistpath.com/resources/gong/

5- Have you meditated on where you are in life and sifted through the noise to ask the important question of’ “Who am I?” If not, you’re wasting your time being told who to be by the media…snap out of it.

6- Have you taken on some life/health enhancing practices that you will do the next year? Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, hiking…just get out there and start living life like you mean it.

7- Did you spent enough time in nature this year? What are your plans to integrate more contact with nature for 2012? Our lack of contact with nature is directly connected to our willingness to look away while others destroy it.

8- Have you closed out energies that no longer serve you? Toxic “friends”, happy hour instead of the gym, the unspoken feud you are having with your spouse…whatever it is that is taking up your mental bandwidth and drawing down your energy…isn’t NOW a good time to drop that crap and get on with living a fully empowered life? You sure ain’t getting any younger and its funny how those things don’t “go away” on their own. Make 2012 about moving through those issues and coming whole.

9- What was your carbon footprint this past year? Can you commit to doing something awesome and bold this year? Here’s a suggestion- NO MORE WATER OUT OF DISPOSABLE PLASTIC BOTTLES. It takes 5x the water in the bottle to MAKE the damned thing and TONS of petroleum in materials and transport. It is absolutely insane. Try this instead- http://www.camelbak.com/Sports-Recreation/Bottles/CamelBak-Groove-6L.aspx

10- Are you still afraid of dying? Guess what its coming sooner or later and, like any other “problem” you have in life, it ain’t going anywhere if you run from it. Contemplate your mortality and find Who you are. Tap into your fear of death and find your Immortal Self on the other end. Learn to wake up to your essential self and you cannot be leveraged. The world needs you to wake up and be fully empowered in 2012.

What’s it going to be- hero or slave? The world could use you right about now

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Winter Solstice is upon us- why it is important to rest RIGHT NOW

Pedram — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:59:06 +0000

Dec 21 marks the Winter Solstice. This is a really important day in Taoist and Shamanic traditions because it marks a critical transition. This is the day where the YIN energy on our planet (Northern hemisphere) is at its highest (longest night) and YANG energy at its lowest (shortest day). [It is the exact opposite for the Southern hemisphere] Essentially, it is the endpoint in the “funnel” or “hour glass” of time as it moves through a 4 dimensional tauroidal field. Let’s take a look to illustrate:

You’ll notice how the Yin and Yang lines come together along the central axis and how they are the furthest apart at the height of their arcs. That’s exactly where we are right now. Here’s another way to look at it:

This is the famous Hour Glass Nebula. You’ll notice that all phenomena in nature are consistent from macro to microcosm and that we are an integral part of that whole system of emanation. Imagine the YIN energy swirling down to the center of the funnel and then the YANG energy emerging from it. That’s the dance of Duality. They intermingle and switch in dominant expression in nature. Yin does not GO AWAY in this model, it simply begins to decrease as the force of Yang increases in direct proportion.

So how does this apply to me you ask? Well…we are currently 6 DAYS away from the Winter Solstice. That means that for the next six days, the Yin energy on our planet is at its strongest and fullest expression culminating on the 21st when it slowly begins to wane with the emergence of the active and charged Yang energy. This is a slow process and transition but an important one. Why? Because this is a great time to catch the Yang wave and ride it into the next cycle. It is a wonderful time to lock in our dreams and aspirations and charge them with the primordial power of Yang energy which is emerging into our sphere. It is a great time to set a GONG and set your intentions for the way you’d like life to go for this next cycle by the way…

So why rest? Here’s the rub. Winter is for hibernation. It is a time to be introspective and to gather all of our Qi so we can recover from the previous season…so we can have the energy and wherewithal to consciously participate in life through the next season and fulfill our heart’s desires. So where’s the rub? Look around you. People spend the tail end of the year getting drunk with coworkers in ridiculous red sweaters and frantically racing through shopping malls looking for plastic things made in China that promise to make our loved ones happy. Nobody actually rests. Any wonder why most Americans are sleep walking through their lives?

This is the time- RIGHT NOW…to stop the world and allow your body and your mind to recover fully from a busy hectic year. Allow your energy to consolidate and wind down and inward with the Yin Qi through the 21st and really think through what you want the next year to look like. You’ll need energy and clarity to get there- neither of which you’ll gather at the stupid mall. NOW is the time to take a physical/mental/spiritual health TIME OUT and tell yourself and your loved ones that it is OK to be lazy. In fact, STRIVE to be lazy through the 21st. Sleep early and sleep in this weekend. Give your body the time and rest it needs to restore itself. Try some meditation or Qi Gong.

You may be thinking- “Dude, its gonna take a hell of a lot more than 6 days to handle my fatigue…” well, sure but that’s like saying you stumbled in from a hike in the Grand Canyon and there’s only half a glass full of water…that’s not enough to quench my thirst so I’m not going to take that sip…

Your body is STARVING for that sip. Take a sip into the healing Qi of Winter and begin the process of recovery and rejuvenation. Do it now. If you can calm your mind and learn to breathe to your lower dantien and Kidneys, you can tap into the Universal Yin Qi which is very strong right now and can really nourish yourself beyond your imagination. That’s where Qi Gong and meditation can help. That takes disconnecting from the world and stepping into your inner realms though. Take 2 hours to shop on Amazon.com for your holiday gifts (get them an Ebook or or better yet make them something with thoughtful intent and love) and then take the next few days off…you owe it to yourself and to your dreams and aspirations.

You will be happy you did. Sweet dreams

Here are some free meditation tracks for you if you really don’t know how to chill- http://taoistpath.com/online-tools/

To learn more about Qi Gong, click HERE and you can check out some of our free clips and Qi Gong DVDs here- http://taoistpath.com/resources/qi-gong-tai-chi-energy-cultivation-secret-practices-dvd/

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Fire, Water, Steam, and Dew- The Essence of Taoist Alchemy

Pedram — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:45:48 +0000

Master Lu

Taoist Yoga has always been a bit weird. Swallowing spit, semen retention, tonic herbs, and lots of time alone breathing to the naval. The question is- what is all of this about and why practice in this way?

To understand Taoist Alchemy, Taoist Qi Gong, and the development of the Taoist Light Body, one must understand the relationship of HEAVEN, EARTH, Fire, and Water. There are different forms of Taoist Schools out there. My tradition (Tao Tan Pai) is a “Steam” based Taoist School. What does all of this mean? Let’s delve into it…

In the I Ching, there are a series of Trigrams which represent the various aspects or emanations of phenomena in nature. These are pictographically displayed by combinations of either solid (YANG) lines, or broken (YIN) ones. The various combinations of these lines create a complex binary system of relations and correspondences which equal the 64 emanations of the I Ching. People spend their entire lives studying this stuff and are still amazed by the depth of it. We’re going to keep it really simple here so we can better understand Taoist Yoga.

Notice how HEAVEN has three unbroken YANG lines and how EARTH has three broken YIN lines. These are the symbols for PURE YIN/YANG in Taoist Alchemy. Now, in the trigrams to the right, we see that FIRE is similar to HEAVEN but the central line is now a broken YIN line. On our plane of existence, the early Taoists observed that Fire always needed some SUBSTANCE to consume and burn- hence the YIN line in the middle- energy surrounding substance. The trigram for WATER looks like the EARTH trigram except the central line is now a YANG line. This is how water, being is soft and flowing as it is, carries the power to carve out the Grand Canyon. Force within softness.

So how does this apply to Taoist Alchemy and Taoist Yoga? Well, the essence of Taoist Light Body training is to return our human vehicle back to the state of primordial perfection- the pure Yang and Yin states of HEAVEN and EARTH- the fusion of which is Tao- Oneness with the Universe. There are many ways to achieve this according to the various Taoist Schools out there. Again, my system is a “Steam” based system- some cultivate Fire and refine it to its source HEAVEN energy and others work primarily with Water and purify themselves to connect with the primordial EARTH energy. In the Tao Tan Pai system, we use Fire and Water together to generate STEAM inside the body and use that steam to open up vital energy centers and awaken the spiritual third eye.

In Taoist Yoga and Taoist Qi Gong, there are many ways to cultivate the Qi energy and refine it into shen. However, in Taoist Nei Gong (or inner alchemical work), there is more going on than just circulating Qi. We create a powerful dynamo in the lower dantien where we house the fire. Then, with specialized breathing and mudras, we swallow the saliva in a certain way and allow it to “steam” up once it hits the lower dantien. This steam then rises to the third eye and drives the “Heavenly Dew” to descend from the Pineal gland and this creates a very powerful circuit of refinement and distillation of vital essences in the human frame. This is the basis of how Taoist Light Body work is started in my Taoist school. For the serious student, I refer you to this Ebook recently published on the Western Alchemical tradition (http://bookofaquarius.forgottenbooks.org/) so you can compare notes and see how in Taoist Alchemy, we internalize this process and bind or consciousness to it instead of an externalized -out of body methodology.

I’ve had many questions emailed to me about this subject recently so I hope this blogpost helps. The idea of an Online Taoist School is new and much of Taoist Yoga is taught through direct transmission but I find it cool to be able to share ideas and teach philosophy online. I hope this helps

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation- What exactly is it?

Pedram — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:29:08 +0000

Everywhere you look today, some expert is recommending meditation to people for a variety of reasons. Why? Because the world is crazy and we’re all wound up. According to the CDC, 90% of diseases today can be attributed to stress…yeah stress.

Meditation is an age-old, tried-and-true method which relieves stress…calming the body and the mind.

The questions are:

1- Why should I care?

2- Ok then so…how does it do this?

3- Why so many techniques?

4- How should I get into it?

5- How many minutes a day?

6- When will I see results?

7- Why am I having a hard time at this?

8- Hmmmm….interesting…I actually do feel better…now what?

Well, let’s start from the top…

1- Why care? Because we are all suffering from what I call “Time Compression Syndrome”- where we have too many commitments in too little time so we’re always stressed and out of time. That puts our adrenals on overdrive leading to some scary stuff…

a- weight gain (I put this first because that’s what everybody cares about in our society)

b- sympathetic overdrive- over-arousal of our sympathetic nervous system which leads to anxiety, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, poor job/sports performance, and a whole lot more- essentially, we’re at “war” all the time and not giving our systems a chance to rest and recover

c- elevated cortisol levels have shown to SHRINK OUR BRAINS- yeah- it will pull blood from the pre-frontal cortex back to the hindbrain so we can stay in “fight or flight” which is the state of being in our society

d- Your interpersonal relationships are at risk- yeah stress leads to more divorces than the courts can handle.

That’s enough there…point being- if you’re not managing your stress response, you are de-evolving into a fat primitive ape that yells at your spouse and is getting pummeled over by life- thinking another cup of coffee of a shot of Testosterone is going to fix it all…sorry but it is not.

2- Now that we’ve established that we all need to care about the negative effects of stress, let’s get into why meditation is good for you. Meditation helps calm the mind and stimulates the Parasympathetic Nervous System to come online. This directly calms the Sympathetic Nervous System (mentioned above) and helps us digest better, sleep, make love, and be less edgy. Meditation helps us step out of Time Compression Syndrome and back into the present moment where things are calm and the body can function normally. You see, the body is great at healing itself and regenerating but it needs a chance to do so.

When we live in “fight or flight” all of the time, we never get out of wartime economy and our systems pay the price. We don’t allow the detox

systems and the immune system to do their job when under stress because all of the troops are out on the front line “fighting” the lion that is chasing us…Lion? Yeah the same evolutionary circuitry that helped us run away from the Lion is what gets triggered everytime we sweat our bills and are late for something in a traffic jam. The body mounts up resources to fight this war and the internal systems that are responsible for growth and recovery are compromised.

Meditation helps pull us out of this “fight or flight” state of being and helps us relax into “non-stressed growth” which is where our bodies can recover, heal, relax, and be creative again. Coffee won’t do this.

3- Why so many techniques? Well, because there have been millions of people practicing meditation for thousands of years and, frankly, there are many ways to climb a mountain. There are hundreds of meditation techniques out there.

There’s Buddhist meditation, Taoist meditation, Zen meditation, Mindfulness meditation, there are mantras (sounds to chant), yantras (images to focus on), and a whole host of breath control techniques out there. Do they all work? Sure- but different strokes for different folks.

4- The trick is to practice a technique that you gravitate towards…don’t force it. If you are a visually-oriented person, the guided visualization and yantra meditation are probably right for you. If you’re a musician, then maybe mantra meditation.

There are meditation courses in most towns in the world at this point. There are meditation DVDs, meditation CDs, and tons of stuff on Youtube. Its out there…you just need to try it out and see what works best for you. (Here are some free resources for you)

5- How many minutes a day? Now that’s the million dollar question. My answer would be this- if you can step into the Eternal Present Moment and tap into the Source of all Creation and Wisdom, then a single second is like an eternity and you will be forever transformed. That’s the paradox. It is not time-based because what we’re working to do is step OUT OF TIME and into the present moment where time doesn’t exist.

“That doesn’t help me!”- ok touche. So how to resolve this paradox? The ancient masters have all kicked down different formulas. I know people that do their Kriya Yoga Meditation for an hour at sunrise everyday without fail. Cool. I also have patients who do 20 minutes on “lock down” during their lunch break…also cool. We set designated times in order to shock the mind into a new pattern so we can break old habits (like jumping into “fight or flight” without even noticing it) and establish new ones (like stopping our reactive nature and simply enjoying the present moment for what it is…here and now). I use a practice called a GONG for this- check out tools for this here. I like to tell beginners to dedicate 30 minutes a day so the new habits can form but the true realization is this…

True meditation is not a technique…these are tools that help us step out of a certain state of mind (pop in the clutch if you will). True meditation is AWARENESS ITSELF. It is our consciousness being fully awake, aware, and alive in the LIVING MOMENT which is HERE and NOW. True meditation is not in the DOING but in the BEING. That means, we employ all of these techniques (doing/action) in order to calm the mind’s re-activity so that we can become more aware of Reality itself which is always here and now…right under the radar of our crazy minds which are stuck in Time Compression Syndrome and “fight or flight”.

So how many minutes a day? As many as it takes to stop time and be able to sit and be without doing anything- finally able to observe reality for what it is and dropping out of the “Matrix” or “Maya”- the world of crazy illusions that is riddled with suffering and ignorance.

6- When will I see results? As soon as you understand point #5 above

As soon as you let go of taking your “meditation pill” and actually get into changing your understanding of reality, then you’re on the road to freedom and have learned to properly manage stress because you finally sit at the dial and understand what stress really is and how you are intimately involved in its presentation. Stress is based on our perception of reality. Who is doing the perceiving? Who is the observer and what is it “they” are observing? These are the real questions worth asking…not who’s going to win the Superbowl…

Think of it this way: Most people who adopt a meditation practice treat it like a desktop application. They download their new app (technique) and install it as a program on their system. Then, whenever they are overly stressed (if they even remember to do so) they “double click” the meditation icon and start to breath or chant or do whatever to pull them out of the “fight or flight” mess they’ve found themselves in. OK- pop in the clutch and change gears…cool but not the gold standard.

The real goal here is to make meditation part of your OPERATING SYSTEM. It is to constantly be running a program which does nothing but ask a simple question “What am I doing right now?”- and whatever that is, come back to the present moment and let go of whatever you are attempting to attach to. This essentially liberates us moment to moment and keeps us mindful always- establishing a state of being that is always aware and not reactive to the reality around us. From here, we begin to liberate ourselves from delusion and we quickly wake up to Who we truly are.

You want results? This is where the real results are. If you’re using meditation as another technique to meet your sales quotas so you can get that bonus and finally buy that boat you’ve always seen yourself in, well, it’ll work but you’ve allowed life’s delusions to pull you off on a stale exit when you could have kept going on the superhighway of awakening and enlightenment

7- You are having a hard time at this because you have probably moved in the opposite direction your whole life. That’s the human dilemma. Our faulty understanding of what reality is has led us away from the present moment and into worries about the future based on emotional ties with memories from the past. Our culture drives us to want to be the next Wall Street badboy, the next Poker Champion, or whatever…picture yourself by your pool with all your toys and beautiful people all around you- society has now validated your efforts. That’s all nonsense and if you look at the disparity and conflict in the world around us, you’ll quickly see that that promise doesn’t bring happiness and it breeds suffering and discontent. Is there anything wrong with money and things? No. Just don’t let your delusional fantasies convince you that any of that crap actually defines you.

Learning proper meditation is like learning to fly a plane in many ways. It takes practice and lots of attention. Every ounce of mental power you exert tends to move you in the opposite direction…that’s a habit. We need to learn meditation as a new habit and work to dispel old ones. Paradox again. I thought meditation was about “not doing?”

True. So practice that. How do I do “not doing”? Sit there and observe reality and do not react to it in any way.

What happens then? Well, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll realize that you probably failed within the first 10 seconds. That’s cool. We all do. The task is to understand that this is the nature of the human mind and to simply LET IT GO and return back to observing the present moment. That’s all we do. Not easy. Actually, it can get quite frustrating at first. The challenge is to not get down on yourself and understand that the Dalai Lama has the very same problem- he is simply more aware of this game and catches himself quickly as opposed to the beginner who’ll take a joy ride down a thought train for maybe 2 minutes before they come to their senses, realize what they’re doing, and come back to the task at hand which is to “be” in the present moment. Be patient- all the power in the universe awaits you on the other side of this

8- Ahhhhh…you’ve started your practice and are now feeling the benefits. Great! Now what? Keep going.

Once you understand the mechanism of suffering, again, just keep this mindfulness in your “operation system” as you’ll get better and better at this. The less energy you lose in the suffering process (inertia…riding life with your foot on the brake pads), the more you’ll have available to you on a daily basis. The more you can live in non-stress growth, the more energy you’ll have to heal your body and stay healthy. The more personal power you liberate from the bondage of stress and mental suffering, the more alive and effective you’ll be in the present moment and the more capable of a human being you’ll become. Then, money and things come with ease as you’ve mastered this thing called life. You can have (paradox again) the boats and cars but somehow none of that is really important to you anymore. You begin to see the spark of life in every human being around you and are aware of their plight- their suffering which comes from the very place you’ve just liberated yourself. From here, you become a beacon of Light and Love to all those around you, and, by example, you live a life that makes the world a better place.

So is there an end to this? Ha! This is just the beginning…Good luck and happy trails.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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Taoist Yoga, Taoist Alchemy, and Qigong Philosophy

Pedram — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:13:41 +0000

In Taoism, there are various traditions and schools of thought that have come along through history. Taoist schools are rare and hard to find because there are so few of them out there and most of the secrets of Taoist Alchemy are guarded and kept secret. Why? Because in the old days, knowledge of these arts led to incredible power so warlords and Emperors would make sure these secrets didn’t get into their enemy’s hands. In the West, the Knight’s Templars came back from Jerusalem with a mighty secret (Alchemy) and rose to power almost overnight. No wonder why the Church and ruling establishment went after them and killed them? Those in power like to keep it that way

The study of Taoist Alchemy is a tricky one. One must understand basic precepts of Taoism, Taoist tantric sex, Taoist yoga, and Qigong philosophy to have a foot in the door. Modern Taoist schools seldom teach all of this because most are either focused on scripture or on Qigong (Qi Gong) energy work alone. Qigong philosophy is important as is the practice but it is not everything. To understand Taoist Alchemy, we need to understand the underlying philosophy. We need to understand Who we really are in relation to this Universe and how things work here.

The Taoist way to attain the light body is a tried and true path which involves Taoist Yoga (Qi Gong), Taoist philosophy classes, Qigong philosophy, studies in esoteric Taoism, and, in some traditions, Taoist tantric sex practices. Different Taoist schools teach the path in various ways as there are many ways to climb the same mountain. What is important to remember is that the process is very scientific. We learn to use our body as the workshop and we test and analyze things within our consciousness. We take beliefs and prove them out- either dismissing them or turning them into “knowns”.

Qigong philosophy sits at the core of Taoism in that it teaches us how to move the energy within our bodies and to harmonize yin and yang with the Five Elements. Qi Gong is the core practice of Taoist Yoga and is taught in most Taoist schools. Taoist philosophy classes are rare and harder to find because very few people understand this stuff, let alone can teach it. I’m personally not a big scholar- I’ve read the scriptures but am more interested in the practice of Taoist Yoga and the understanding of Reality as experienced through my own consciousness. Does that mean scriptures are not important? Of course not. Some people gravitate towards the ancient texts and gain immensely from them. It is important to test these principles in one’s own life and to find and validate their truth in one’s practice.

Taoist alchemy and Taoist yoga are broad subjects that also involve healing, the martial arts, Feng Shui (geomancy), and the culinary arts. There are Taoist schools which teach various aspects of these and it is important to learn wherever you can. The Taoist way to attain the light body is a powerful one and there are many rewards along the way. The best way to get in is to start some aspect of the practice today. Most people start with Taoist Yoga (and the accompanying Qigong philosophy). There are Taoist schools which teach Taoist philosophy classes and I’m going to set up a page for resources and links shortly. There’s only so much you can get from a book- then you must find a master. There are good people out there- you just have to know where to look and what to look for.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

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