Dec. 8, 2008
Inside Chi Flows Naturally:
Thoughts on the Way of Giving and Receiving
9 Tao Gifts that Heal and Transform
Contents:
? The Way of Giving, Receiving & Thanking
? 1. The Ultimate Dream Gift – a Trip to China
? 2. A Fabulous Tao Summer Retreat at Heavenly Mountain
? 3. Michael’s Qigong DVD & Homestudy Courses – BIG DISCOUNT!
? 4. Tai Chi Dynamic-Sit Sexy Ball Chair – Only 9 left on Planet Earth!
? 5. “My Body Moves Easily” — Joyce’s NEW Feldenkrais Audio CDs
? 6. Goji Super Tonic: Feel “Healthy, Happy, & Horny”
? 7. Livia Kohn Daoist Book Bonus – Free $25. book While They Last
? 8. Total I Ching: the Gift of Divination
? 9. Jade Egg – Elegant, Sensssssuous Womb-enhancing Gift
? 10. If you are totally broke, give away this FREE.Book.
The Way of Giving, Receiving & Thanking
Tao, the Way, can be described as a path for humans to experience three fundamental virtues:
Giving, Receiving, and Thanking (Gratitude).
I personally am deeply thankful for all that I have Received this last year — appreciation from you, my dear reader, love from my family and friends, my students, the powerful energy fields we’ve created together on retreats. I am thankful for the elementals in my home and surrounding Nature holding the form of all beauty and space for all process.
I am grateful for all the marvelous wonders I encounter daily on my path and the pleasures and pains in life that motivate me to continue changing. I’m especially thankful to my partner Joyce for sharing her amazing spiritual journey with me. A letter on that coming shortly…the perfect bedtime story for Winter Solstice.
I am equally grateful for all I have been privileged to Give, in large and small Ways, to creatures tiny as an insect and huge as a planet, to the flower bulbs donated to a voracious woodchuck so fat he now waddles about my property; for human lives I’ve helped transform in a few miraculous moments; for the gift of my unique soul’s Presence felt in seen and unseen worlds.
Most Taoist viewpoints are framed as a trinity, and this trinity of Giving, Receiving and Thanking is as holy as any. Giving and Receiving could be seen as an expression of yin-yang theory. You are moving yang chi out when you give, and allowing yin chi to come in when you receive. Finding the right balance between the two is a lifetime art. Give too much and you exhaust yourself. Take too much and you are bogged down by possessions or worse, greed limits your ability to love.
Thanking, or feeling gratitude, is a kind of neutral constant, whether giving or receiving or hanging out in stillness. It is a kind of primal feeling I hold for the Life Force, which empowers everything in Heaven and Earth, including the Original Spirit or Creator God of this Cosmos, who I am certain feels, on some multi-dimensional scale, humble gratitude for the Wuji, its own Unknowable Source or Godhead.
As we approach the Winter Solstice, the natural day of Holy Darkness and deep silence, and its myriad cultural and religious expressions (Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, etc.), people naturally feel gratitude. Why now, more than the rest of the year?
By Taoist (northern hemisphere) thinking, the chi of Nature is moving into the heart of Mother Earth very deeply as we approach the Great Yin moment of Winter Solstice. That inward flow naturally connects humans to a deeper level of inner heart-mind and core light or flame of the Self, which emerges renewed from the darkness. Those in the southern hemisphere will be on an opposite cycle.
That heart felt gratitude for life overflows into human culture as the giving of gifts and the receiving of them, just as the primordial-yuan chi or neutral force is always birthing the yin and yang movement of creation. So if you can tap into that natural feeling while both giving and receiving gifts, this holy-day season will be a much deeper experience.
Gifts can be of many different kinds – practical, aesthetic, sentimental, edible, playful-toys, educational, etc.
I personally prefer to give gifts that transform and heal. That just reflects who I am.
So I am grateful to have this opportunity to remind you of some meaningful gifts that you might enjoy giving. Taoists love Trinities, and also love to Triple the Trinity. 3 x 3 = 9, the prime number of completion, a kind of super-Trinity. So I am offering 9 gift ideas to complete a range of budgets and preferences in giving.
The 9 suggestions are some of my favorites from the maze of great products my website….. plus a 10th gift idea that is totally free, one that I am giving away constantly. Ten is the number of rebirth, 1 + 0 = 10, a higher octave of The Original One.
I know some people are fearful because of the bad news they hear about the economy or the shrinking size of their savings. I went through the Black Monday stock crash in 1987 and had my life savings (worth $750K in today’s dollars) wiped out because the credit crunch that followed destroyed my real estate deals.
I am deeply grateful for that experience of sudden loss, because it taught me to live by a new mantra: “I am NOT my money”. The truth was, it freed me, by helping me notice the gap between the bliss of my Tao inner alchemy meditation and the chaos outside. I decided to identify with my inside self, and it has served me well. It inspired me to shift from real estate to the much more challenging business of Self-transformation.Self incarnates on earth in order to experiment and discover new ways to love itSelf, but that process is a bit scary for many.
So my philosophy now is that money is best spent on self-healing and self-transformation rather than having it deflated, inflated, or dissolved into the thin air of the stock market. You cannot take your money with you at death, only the refined essence of Self and its wisdom will pass through the Veil.
Life goes on, even during Recessions and Depresions, so the best time to transform your life or help those you love to transform is always NOW. The Universe invariably supports you when you invest in what is essential in yourself and others.
Onto those nine divine gifts…..
1. The Ultimate Dream Gift – a Trip to China
China Dream Trippers falling in love?with China.
If you really want to wow someone, send them on the China Dream Trip next May 8-24, 2009. No-cost financing is available for those who need it. A $600. deposit reserves your gift spot on the best Taoist sacred mountain trip to China available. Some people have given this to their spouse as a gift, and sometimes people give it to themselves for a birthday present.
Anyone who loves spiritual adventure and seeks a life-changing experience will be totally thrilled. We’ve got four people who already took the Dream Trip coming back in 2009, testimony to its value.. or read the iinspiring testimonials on my site
This year includes a visit to Tao Garden in North Thailand with a short training in Pole Star meditation; we’ll practice two powerful qigong forms in different sacred sites. One site is the fabulous Taoist Tang dynasty temples at Mt. Weibao in China’s magnificant Yunnan Province. We also visit my favorite, the wooden walled ancient town of Lijiang; pandas in Chengdu, and three days in the Celestial Cave Monastary, on one of the oldest Taoist sacred mountains in China.
Get the full juicy detailed itinerary & photos from past Dream trips: www.healingdao.com/chinatrip2009.html
Questions? email me by replying to this email.
Michael Winn, holding a rare Red Panda (click box to show if photo does’t appear)
2. A Fabulous Tao Summer Retreat at Heavenly Mountain
Click small box or X to enlarge (even if photo is not showing)
Photo: Attune your Soul Crystal to world’s largest Amethyst, at Heavenly Mountain.
We’ve just posted the 2009 Summer schedule of 25 retreats. We have something for everyone, from energy healing, qigong, martial arts, sexual energy cultivation, weight loss, to alchemical meditation.
Heavenly Mountain is located at a cool but sunny 4000 foot elevation in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. These are FUN, low-cost, high-energy, top quality retreats that will transform your life and deliver you a spiritual community to love for the rest of your life. I believe it is the biggest and best program of Tao Arts in the world, with an amazingly diverse and talented faculty. Mantak Chia kicks off the first week with Qigong Healing with Planetary Spirits.
Tuition has not been raised, and they were already a bargain. No-cost extended payment plans and workstudy are available. Give yourself or someone else the gift of self-transformation, only need a $100. deposit at: www.HealingTaoRetreats.com.
You may also email the registrar at: retreats@HealingTaoUSA.com.
3. Michael’s Qigong DVD & Homestudy Courses – BIG DISCOUNT!
Voted “best qigong art” in America….but can you judge a DVD by its cover?
I have been refining and improving my integration of qigong and Taoist inner alchemy for 30 years. You are safe in giving either an introductory DVD (only 24.95) like Five Animals Play the Six Healing Sounds. Or give a more in-depth course as a quality gift, like the medical and spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2. It may deeply change someone life or give them the tools to improve their health.
To make it easier financially, and celebrate the era of Obama-nomics, I’m offering big discounts on the already heavily discounted web prices. I have kept prices low and offer periodic discounts because I prefer that everyone be able to afford these precious giftts of cultivating the Life Force. I know some folks are on a tight budget, so I hope these hefty discounts will allow them to stock up on a year’s worth of spiritual homework.
On any order of Michael Winn DVD or homestudy audio courses. Sale continues until midnite Jan 20, 2009, the day Obama is inaugurated.
1. 15% off any order of $75. or more (before s/h).
2. 20% off order of $150. or more.
3. 25% off order of $300. or more.
4. 30% off order of $600. or more.
We all know that Santa lives at the North Pole (myth stolen from Finnish Saami shamans). Did you know that China’s classic Lao-tzu Longevity figure, with his long white beard and beaming smile, is known as “South Pole Sage of Long Life”? I guarantee that all gifts ordered from my site will be delivered by a smiling Lao-Tzu riding his team of five-colored dragons from the South Pole.
Go to my homepage: www.HealingTaoUSA.com and browse down the center column…. see what attracts you.
4. Tai Chi Dynamic-Sit Sexy Ball Chair – Only 9 left on Planet Earth!
The Tai Chi Dynamic-Sit Sexy Ball Chair?
You may racall that they stopped making the best ergo chair on the market, the only one that allows you to do qigong while sitting. I immediately bought up the entire world supply because I thought they were so great and wanted them for my students and friends.
Now we are down to the last 9 ergo-chairs. These make a great gift, great for your healh of your back and plus they are pure fun to bounce around on and have ergo-asms!
If you order these they go out Fedex overnight the same or next day. If you’ve been thinking about this one, don’t hesitate.
They are a bargain, compared to what people pay for far inferior ergo chairs…. a really unique gift.
see www.healingdao.com/ballchair.html (It’s also a fun read – and you might learn something new about posture)
5. “My Body Moves Easily” — Joyce’s NEW Feldenkrais Audio CDs
My Body Moves Easily: I Feel Graceful and Light by Joyce Gayheart
These wonderful guided super-learning Feldenkrais-Qigong audios by Joyce Gayheart have taken a long time to get to market.
People have been demanding, even begging for them, for years. Finally, they are here, specially adapted for Primordial Qigong (aka Tai Chi for Enlightenment), but suitable for helping any Tai Chi form become effortless and graceful.
Joyce weaves her magic mostly while you are lying down, with no struggle against gravity. She’s intertwined her knowledge of qiqong and Alexander and Feldenkrais and decades of studying movement arts and expression into these masterful guided exercises.
You can buy the CDs individually or get a $20. discount by getting the 4-CD set. If someone doesn’t have the Primordial Qigong DVD, or tits Advanced Level audio training I packaged together for a big saving, you might consider giving those as well. Or buy the package, keep the Primordial DVD for yourself, and give the Audio CDs away…. after listening to them first.
www.TaiChi-Enlightenment.com/#JGPF
I will sneak in a mention here of two other fabuous gifts from Joyce. One is her Divine Love Elixir ($30), 72 alchemical flower essences in a single bottle that really open the heart. www.healingdao.com/JoyceGayheart/flower_essences.html
The other is one of the most interesting books on fate and destiny ever written. It’s by 12 astrologers blindly reading Joyce’s chart, called Under One Sky ($24.95). Joyce’s life story is along their readings, so you can compare and decide if astrology is true or not. www.healingdao.com/JoyceGayheart/Joyce_Book.html
note: her site was just posted. If Order links don’t work, call 888 999 0555.
6. Goji Super Tonic: Feel “Healthy, Happy, & Horny”
Goji plump red berries are appropriate to the holidaiy season because when fresh picked they look like mistletoe’s red berries. It is festive drink, mixable with just about anything. The Total Goji (thick sauce like pulp of the berry) is the healthiest topping you can put on yoghurt or ice cream – a great replacement for sugar addicts.
Last year I gave a bottle of goji to each of my six siblings, except one sister, who got something different for her kids. She pined so loudly about not getting the Goji fix that I had to later give her some for her birthday….
This is a great edible or drinkable gift to give someone who is trying to wean themselves off coffee and caffeine and sugar. Goji juice gets you high – permanently. No crash. and SUPER-nutritious, the highest ORAC (anti-oxidant count) of any food in the world. It is the one of the major tonic Chinese herbs for building your kidneys and liver. The list of health benefits is so long you’ll never be able to remember it all – but I do give 34 of reasons to drink goji on my website.
This is currently the only food item on my site, and its because I am super-picky. This is the ONLY 100% organic natural nothing added Goji juice on the market. Nothing I’m saying about goji is hype (unlike some of the multi-level companies plugging fruit-juice sweetened goji). I drink this goji juice every day, and recommend it to all my students to offset the stress of modern life and poor diet. It’s far more powerful to drink the juice than to eat the berries or get it in powdered herbs.
I sell the goji at the lowest price the manufacturer will allow. If you order two bottles, you get free shipping, the saving amounts to almost 20%. So keep one bottle for yourself, and the other will look great with a red ribbon around it. The healthiest consumable ever grown, thank you China!
www.HealingDao.com/goji_berry.html
7. Livia Kohn Daoist Book Bonus – Free $25. book While They Last
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Here’s the deal: I sell six of Prof. Livia Kohn’s books on Daoism (preferred over Taoism by scholars) on my website. Plus a brand new 7th title – The Way of Highest Clarity by James Miller – that is not yet posted, but I have in stock (a really interesting book on visionary medieval Daoism).
If you order ANY one of those seven titles, I will ship you a FREE copy of Health and Long Life: The Chinese Way by Livia Kohn and Stephan Jackowicz. She overprinted, and thus I am able to make this generous offer.
The other titles would all make great gifts, about which you can read more on my website:
1. Daoist Body Cultivation
2. Daoism and Chinese Culture
3. Women In Daoism
4. Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood
5. Cosmos and Community:
6. The Way of Highest Clarity – not on the website, must be ordered by phone (888-99-0555)
Actually, since Jan in my fulfillment office has no way of knowing if you are responding to this offer, you must call her to place this order and ask for the free bonus book. Offer is good while supply lasts.
www.HealingTaoUSA.com/TopTaoismbooks.html
8. Total I Ching: the Gift of Divination
For $14. bucks, this is about as high a value as one could dream for. I think my book review on Amazon says it all. This version of the I Ching has achieved cult status amongst Healing Tao inner alchemy adepts.This book is not yet posted on my site, but I finally got a stack of copies in – so call 888 999 0555 to order it.
Reviewed by Michael Winn, 2004:
As a 30 year I Ching user, teacher of Taoist qigong and inner alchemy meditation, I was very skeptical when yet another I Ching translation arrived in the mail. But I knew Karcher’s scholarship was superb and was hoping for at least a few gems. Was I surprised to discover that this is the best I Ching I’ve ever used – it literally lives up to its name, The Total I Ching.
I used to consult both the Wilhelm (elegant, but too confucian) and Wu Jing-Nuan’s “shamanic” Chou version to get a full spectrum of readings. Karcher’s Total I Ching version is both elegant, scholarly, and shamanic. It brilliantly integrates in the living elements of the shen (spirits) who are actually the agents of change, we could say the “managers” of shifts in the larger chi field that play out in our bodies and lives.
There is only one test of an I Ching, and that is to use it in real life situations and see how “alive” and accurate the responses are for you. I found this version to be far superior to the other readings I previously used. Yin & Yang trigrams can be reduced to abstract and lifeless mathemtical symbols, or they can be experienced as living pulsations, voices from inner space. Total I Ching opens up the voices of the spirits, without losing the bracing clarity of the symbolic language.
I am thrilled to find such a breakthrough work in a field of translations that are generally lacking in spiritual brilliance. Total Ching is a must have for I Ching lovers.
———————
This books redefines the notion of “stocking stuffer”. i sent a copy to my family one year, and they are still chewing on it.
9. Jade Egg – Elegant, Sensssssuous Womb-enhancing Gift
Jade eggs have a high vibration. The Chinese have always valued jade more than gold because of its balanced yin-yang energy. Jade eggs are preferable because they are sturdy. smooth and non-porous.
Originally Egg Exercises were used for improving health, both physically and spiritually. The Jade Egg “sexercises” provide more power to the Chi Muscle to lift the sexual energy inward and upward, where it can be circulated to the other vital organs and help to balance the monthly flow of blood and daily cycle of hormones. Suitable for both younger women, those recovering from childbirth, and those dealing with menopause or later.
The womb of a female is the most powerful center of gravity in the body. Unfortunately. t he womb tends to concentrate unprocessed (often negative) sexual and emotional energy. The egg “sex-ercises” can help to move that stuck energy and help you to own the inner space of your womb, which is the core power of the divine feminine.
We recently found a new mine with much higher grade deep green jade eggs. The price has thus gone up (and shows in the shopping cart as $33.95, but not yet on the posted site price). We now also include a lovely silk bag for protecting and transporting the egg. This is an intimate, elegant, health-enhancing, and sexy gift.
www.healingdao.com/62c.html
10. If you are totally broke, give away this FREE.Book.
In gift-giving, it is the thought that counts. I invite you to gift to your friends my Free eBook,
Way of the Inner Smile: Tao Path to Peace & Self-Acceptance
Just go to my homepage www.HealingTaoUSA.com and enter your friends email address in the subscribe box on the upper left corner. Then email your friends and let them know it was a heart-felt gift from you. Please don’t forward the pdf without signing them in – it brings me into an unpaid relationship with them, which is why I offer the eBook.
And be sure to smile from that deep space within your heart, next time you see them….and anyone else!
Love, Chi, Blessings,
Michael