http://www.blogtalkradio.com/qigongmasters/2012/03/06/interview-with-dr-pedram-shojai?fb_ref=.T1Vt6oRlsQQ.like&fb_source=other_multiline

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

No related posts.

He taught me about a particular network of veins called Batson’s Vertebral Plexus. I remember studying this in school but the implications did not strike me at the time. Batson’s plexus is a venous channel which directs blood flow from the pelvis/sacrum back up the spine and up to the brain.

  “The plexus comprises the intracranial-cortical veins, dural sinuses, cavernous sinuses and ophthalmic veins and the vertebral venous plexuses which freely anastomose with the intracranial venous system.”

Huh?

It is a blood pathway which rises up the spine and dumps into the brain- especially the pineal gland. What makes this particularly interesting is that this becomes the preferential pathway for blood’s return to the brain with abdominal pressure.

Where am I going with this? Taoist Alchemy of course.

If you look at the ancient traditions of Kundalini Yoga and Taoist Nei Gong, you see an emphasis on breathing to the low abdomen and the contraction of the pelvic floor. It is said that by increasing pressure in this region, we can draw our energy up the spine and into the spiritual centers of the brain…leading to self realization and enlightenment.

There are various techniques to do such a practice but the essential mechanism is the same, breathe low and draw the pelvic floor up- exactly what helps drive blood and energy from this region up the Batson’s Plexus and into the cerebro-spinal fluid of the brain. In fact, this is the same mechanism that is used in Cranio-Sacral Therapy which has reported miraculous results with patients over the years.

It appears that our ancient ancestors had figured this out and had developed yogic practices to enhance the vitality (and virility) of the system by using this pathway. Bringing blood and energy to the brain and pineal gland thus becomes an important part of the alchemical process.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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.

Wisdom from: Taoist Path

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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

No related posts.

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

No related posts.