by Michael Winn
Dragons are real masters of concentrating and directing chi flow, using the fluidity of water and internal spiral power. Humans can capture this same dragon power – IF they commit to a Natural Way of self-cultivation (Tao) that helps them unfold their true inner nature. Dear Lovers of Dragon Spiritual Power, The Year of the Black Water Dragon is starting to warm up. I can feel it is a very special dragon year, not an ordinary one. That means it is a time of extraordinary opportunity – IF we rise to the occasion and use the Dragon chi flowing all aorund us to achieve our highest destiny. I am still studying the magnitude of this Dragon Chi and what it means for us in the upcoming year. I will devote an entire newsletter to the astrological reading. But you don’t need that information to commit to cultivating your highest spiritual power. Are you ready to merge with this dragon chi, to let it move INSIDE of you? This requires some training, and a lot of grounding to handle. The thing I’ve found is that if we don’t merge with what is flowing in the larger field, and learn to work with it, then IT WORKS US OVER. We become at risk of feeling like a victim of it, of having a “what hit me?” moment. I’m seeing a lot of people get hit hard with sudden changes that can be quite bewildering. It’s much more pleasant and fun and creative to harness the power of the changing cycles of Nature. As Taoist cultivators, we become Change, before Change is forced upon us. This is the essential wisdom of the 3000 year old ancient Chinese oracle, the I Ching, the Book of Unchanging Change. There are basically two types of cultivators. One practices for their own health and well-being. This is a follower of the Way. The other practices on themselves, and then shares it. The second is a teacher of the Way. In either path, the best Way to learn something is to teach it, even if it is only informally shared with friends and family. That’s why I encourage folks to get certified at least as an Associate Instructor of the Healing Tao, as it will focus your Chi training and put you through some very life-enhancing “chi hoops”. It improves your health, your ability to flow with your life, and to get what you truly need from your life. Lots of instructors don’t necessarily plan to teach professionally, although many end up being guided to do that. The requirements are listed below, and posted on https://healingtaousa.com/instructorbecome.html. Getting certified aligns you energetically with a fantastic global community of other Tao instructors. You become part of a smaller family of teachers of the Way within the larger family of followers of the Way. That’s why I invite everyone to at least consider certification. The Healing Tao is probably the oldest school of Taoist cultivation in the West to offer a high level certification training – we’ve been at this for 30 years. There are many different tracks you can specialize in – medical qigong/energy healing, martial arts, meditation, etc. This Dragon Year has some perfect opportunities to explore that possibility. If you are already an instructor, and want to upgrade your level of certification, there is a special once every 4 year event on Friday June 15th in New York City – a meeting of all the North and South American instructors. This grand event, along with a gala dinner and film showing of the final cut of Healing Tao: How It All Began, is sandwiched in the middle of a special two week teacher training (June 9-22) by Mantak Chia, founder of the Healing Tao system (Universal Healing Tao overseas).
Mantak Chia founded Healing Tao in 1980 in New York’s Chinatown You don’t have to be an instructor to attend this event. All courses are open to the public. But those on the instructor training track will be invited to special warmup sessions in the morning and special evening sessions as well, and have Senior Instructors supervising and testing them for what ever they want to get certified in. See link below for full details or go to http//:www.universaltaonyc.com This New York core training is the two weeks before the Healing Tao USA summer 25-retreat annual program begins on Friday, June 22, 2012. The schedule is arranged so that you could do both programs, or either, as the summer retreats also offer full certification and Senior Instructor trainings in a wider range of topics at Mars Hill, near Asheville, N. C. (see http//:www.HealingTaoRetreats.com). Seniors Marie Favorito, Minke de Vos, David Twicken, and Michael Winn will be at BOTH the NYC and Mars Hill retreats. The North Carolina retreats are a bit less expensive than the NYC program with Mantak Chia, but everyone should decide based on geography, convenience of schedule, and personal training needs. The NYC event is a special opportunitiy for all instructors to fuse their chi, and I’m one of the co-sponsors and will be there for the June 15 meeting. If you want to catch Grandmaster Mantak Chia this year, the NYC training is the place to do it. Other Dragon-cultivating opportunities abound this spring. ASHEVILLE, North Carolina MARCH 10 & 11: Fusion of the Five Elements 1: Cultivate True Feeling and Dissolve Negative Emotion . Hit reply, or call Jan at 888 999 0555 to reserve a space (still plenty of room). We’ll send you a list of local hotels if needed. It’s open to anyone who has studied the Microcosmic Orbit and Healing Sounds. I call it Taoist Depth Psychology – it allows you to get in much deeper energetically than traditional psychoanalytic methods. The Fusion 2 & 3 Macro-Cosmic Orbit training is April 21 & 22. Both Fusion weekends can be used a pre-requisite courses for certification in NYC or Mars Hill in the summer.
Classic symbol of Taoist inner alchemy: vesica piscis with Fire below, Water Above, and the trinity of True Yang Breath, True Yin Breath, and Original Breath spiralling in the center. Breath = Chi, or Qi. Did you know Dragons can breathe pure yuan chi, Original Breath? It’s possible because they are natural adepts of inner alchemy. HOLLAND in MARCH. There is still some space left at my Dutch retreats, which I really love as they have a very high level of Taoist adepts attending, some training for 15 years. The Congress of Heaven & Earth is about participating in the multi-dimensional sexual process of this Cosmos. It opens up communication with the Three Pure Ones (san yuan). If you’re in Europe and been waiting for an opportunity to learn this profound level, this is the only likely opportunity for some years. If you’ve taken the Star Alchemy pre-requisite by home study, you are welcome to attend. If you are ready for the Kan and Li levels, jump into the Inner Sexual Alchemy retreat. Details below. LOS ANGELES or NEW YORK CITY in APRIL.I’m teaching Primordial Qigong/Tai Chi for Enlightened Love in both cities. See details below. Los Angeles is full 2 day certification training April 7-8. NYC is one day training April 28, with certification for those who took it previously. Inner Smile training on Friday eve. April 27. JUNE-JULY: 25 SUMMER RETREATS in Mars Hill/Asheville, NC. The summa-cum-laude training for Western Taoists. I’ve enclosed that schedule below for easy reference. Note that Lee Holden has moved to Week 4 from Week 5.
Of course, the REAL GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER DRAGONS are hanging out in China, deep in their lair on Flower Mountain, where I’m getting married on June 3 to Jem. There are still a few places left for some lucky body who leaps on this unique opportunity to ride the Dragons IN their homeland in the Middle Kingdom. See https://healingtaousa.com/chinatrip.html for amazing photo preview of this trip. I hope that everyone can feel the Dragon chi this year, and with a little support from your friends and teachers, capture its amazing power! Blessings on your Way, Michael
Contents:
? June 9-22 NYC Teacher Training with Mantak Chia ? Instructor Certification Requirements ? Holland Inner Sexual Alchemy, Heaven & Earth Alchemy ? April Los Angeles & NYC: Tai Chi for Enlightened Love ? 25 North Carolina Summer Tao Retreats ? Diving into the Pool of the Tao (photo) June 9-22 NYC Teacher Training with Mantak Chia
Here’s a letter from Marie Favorito, the co-Chair of the Healing Tao Instructor’s Association (HTIA):
Dear Healing Tao Instructor, This is a special invitation from Grandmaster Mantak Chia, the Healing Tao Instructor’s Association, Universal Healing Tao (UHT), and co-sponsors Marie Favorito (Boston Healing Tao), Sharon Smith (New York Healing Tao), and Michael Winn (Healing Tao USA) to come together for the first time in many years to train with Master Chia and your Healing Tao family and colleagues. Master Chia will be offering a UHT Instructor Training in New York City, June 8-22, 2012 Scheduled to happen only ONCE every four years, we encourage you to come and reconnect with all your old friends and meet the new generation of instructors. There are lots of exciting things happening – the planet is waking up, and the Healing Tao is expanding its vision to match the spiritual expansion of our planet. It’s time to improve our outreach efforts and raise our personal standards of excellence in teaching. In this spirit, we invite and encourage you to take advantage of this rare opportunity to train, review and upgrade your certification by attending this awesome two-week event! See the schedule below for details and visit the website for more information on upgrading and certification requirements. http://www.universaltaonyc.com/ Don?t miss the Annual HTIA Instructors meeting on June 15th. We will all meet together to discuss what’s going on in the UHT as well as share a group dinner and view the movie, “How It All Began”. We will be discussing many issues that face Healing Tao instructors locally and internationally. We need your ideas, your energy and your help to accomplish this goal. Come co-create a new vision for the future. In addition, there will be an important gathering for all North and South American Senior Instructors who will be meeting separately to discuss the reorganization and integration of the Healing Tao in North and South America with the UHT. Phase 1 Friday, June 15 ? Morning ? Testing for interested candidates; Phase 2 Sat.-Sun June 23-24 special CNT Training with Karin Sorvik Many of you have friends and relatives in NYC but if you don’t, you can download a list of accommodations in the area of the training by clicking here, http://www.universaltaonyc.com/accommodations/. We are asking for your commitment ASAP so we can better plan the event. Sharon Smith is the On-the-ground organizer in NYC. Her email is taosharon@earthlink.net. If you are interested in a flyer for your students, please contact Sharon. Otherwise please send your interested students to: http://www.universaltaonyc.com for all the information about the training. So please come, join us for this “Tao Extravaganza” in the Big Apple next June 2012! Looking forward to hearing from you soon! Just hit REPLY if you have questions. Blessings on your Way, Happy Year of the Dragon, and many joyous experiences with it! Marie Favorito Co-President of HTIA Instructor Certification Requirements
Are you considering becoming a Healing Tao Instructor? Welcome to the wonderful path of sharing the Tao, the Natural Way to health and spiritual wholeness!! Healing Tao USA is eager to train more Instructors in the Taoist movement, healing, and meditation arts. We feel this is one of the most worthwhile things a person can do with their life ? empower others to become more healthy and live in greater peace, harmony and balance. Tao is a direct and natural path to fulfilling both your worldly and your spiritual destiny. It focuses on what is practical and most effective. No dogma, no gurus. A wide variety of trainings that let you focus on what suits your nature best. ASSOCIATE INSTRUCTOR: The “fast track” training program is to first become an Associate Instructor. That certifies you to teach the Qigong Fundamentals: Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds, Microcosmic Orbit, and core qigong. BENEFITS: Associate Certification carries the same benefits as Full Instructor Certification:
REQUIREMENTS:
These requirements can be met by:
HTIA – FULL INSTRUCTOR Certification Requirements Full Instructor Certification enables one to test for further certification in the core Healing Tao courses – Tai Chi Chi Kung, Iron Shirt Chi Kung, *Fusion, and *Healing Love. Full Instructor candidates need the equivalent of 4 weeks of training (140 hours). 2 of these weeks (70 hours) must be with Master Chia (could include both phases of this training session – June 9-21, 2012). The other week (or weeks) must be in the core Universal Healing Tao courses including Healing Love, Fusion, Tai Chi Chi Kung and Iron Shirt Chi Kung. New applicants for Full Instructor Certification must have completed 70 hours of Universal Healing Tao training prior to the Teacher Training within a period of not less than one year. This can include private study and training hours with Senior Instructors in the United States as well as abroad in addition to study with Master Chia. Taped instruction is not applicable. Private lessons, weekend workshops or regular classes can be counted. 35 hours of training will be equal to one full retreat week of training. Associate Instructors receive an automatic upgrade to Full Instructor status after completing three additional weeks of training (equivalent to approximately 105 hours) Note that two of these weeks (70 hours) must be with Master Chia (could include both phases of this training session – June 9-21, 2012). This requirement is about to change to allow any Senior Instructor to fulfill the four weeks training, but you will still be required to train with Mantak Chia at some point. Your other week (or weeks) must be in the core Healing Tao courses including Qigong Fundamentals (Orbit, Healing Sounds, Smile), Healing Love, Fusion, Tai Chi Chi Kung and Iron Shirt Chi Kung. Kan and Li courses do not count for core certification, only apply to higher level. This can include private study and training hours with Senior Instructors in the United States as well as abroad in addition to study with Master Chia. Taped instruction is notapplicable. Private lessons, weekend workshops or regular classes can be counted. 35 hours of training will be equal to one full retreat week of training. Upgrading Your Full Instructor Certification Full Instructors must be certified for each separate Healing Tao course that they are interested in teaching. Initially, this includes tests for Tai Chi I, Iron Shirt I, Healing Love, and Fusion I. It is important to keep in mind that it is not necessary to rush into testing. It can happen anywhere with one Senior and one Full Instructor anytime you feel you are ready. $50 per test is required for additional tests and upgrades. Holland Inner Sexual Alchemy, Heaven & Earth Alchemy
Congress between Heaven and Earth Thursday March 22 till Monday March 26, 2012 from the Dutch Healing Tao team: Over the years Michael Winn not only developed a whole new way for the Kan & Li meditation-techniques, he also developed a deepening formless way to give form to the 8th Formula: Congress between Heaven and Earth. Our connection with the Tao will be more transparent, ?nd we get a deeper psychological insight in how to apply this deep connection to Source/ Way/Tao in our daily lives. The Lesser Kan & Li workshops are open for people familiar with Fusion I, II, III. The Congress between Heaven and Earth workshop is open for those who followed Michael including Star Alchemy. Lesser Kan & Li Michael Winn says: ?When primal fire and water chi are ?steamed? in the belly, it produces Original Chi that dissolves deep genetic patterns and false yin and yang syndromes in our personality and body. It opens our Inner Eye at all levels of the body?s core channel, thus enhancing our ability to ?see? inside our body and matter. A special Black Pearl meditation allows us to dissolve our shadow side?s Inner Demons, by taking them on a journey into the pre-natal portal. The Kan & Li method of ?spiritual self-intercourse? couples primal Fire and Water chi in the body. This is the first stage of dissolving the personal mind-body split and its resulting diseases. We unify all male and female soul fragments in the lower belly cauldron. This alchemical internal sex-practice clears out all our old outer sexual relationship patterns, and creates a feeling of spiritual pregnancy: the ?immortal embryo?. This practice involves a shift from horizontal Fusion of the Five Elements to vertical axis coupling of Three soul aspects: Inner Male, Inner Female, & True Earth-Portal of Self-Creation.? March 20, at 18.00 hrs. Location (intern): Mennorode, Apeldoornseweg 185, Elspeet http://www.mennorode.nl/component/option,com_google_maps/Itemid,29/ Costs workshop and accomodation: ? 550,- for a 2-person-room and ? 650,- for a single room. This is a friendly price, to encourage everyone to join the Lesser, Greater and Greatest Kan & Li in the upcoming next three years. You can now apply here: MichaelWinn@healingtao.info and mention: MW-Lesser 2012 Please pay the full amount bef?re March 1st, 2012 at Postbank nummer 3172012 to Stichting Healing Tao in Rotterdam, mentioning payment MW-Lesser 2012. For further information and questions: info@healingtao.info Congress between Heaven and Earth Heaven & Earth Alchemy: Marriage of Form and Formless Michael Winn says: ?This practice explores the origins of human love and how it serves to integrate the Three Treasures. We couple the Early Heaven or formless Self with the Later Heaven Earth or physical Self. The Self here identifies itself with two dimensions that co-exist and co-create: the ?formless form? of our being and the ?substantial form? of our becoming. These two polar dimensions of our greater Self engage in cosmic sex. They couple in order to re-open the portal to their Original state, or ?Pre-Self?. The Three Pure Ones or Three Originals (san yuan) of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity are gathered in the three body cauldrons as original jing, original chi, and original shen. This practice creates a tonal double vortex spinning faster than the speed of light within the void of space. This opens up fully the Music of the Spheres, the cosmic subtle bodies in harmonic play. Into this symphony is fused our inner sage?s immortal presence, the quintessence of humanity meditating on unconditional love in the center of a cosmic torus (spiritual black hole). We must enter this primordial sound portal to complete our journey of Return to the Origin. Only those who have taken Star Alchemy are eligible to take this course.? Data Congress between Heaven and Earth: Locatie (intern): Mennorode, Apeldoornseweg 185, Elspeet http://www.mennorode.nl/component/option,com_google_maps/Itemid,29/ Costs for workshop and acconodation: ? 610,- voor een 2-person-kamer en ? 710,- for a single room. You can now apply here at : MichaelWinn@healingtao.info and mention: MW-congress. Please pay the full amount bef?re March 1st, 2012 at Postbank nummer 3172012 to Stichting Healing Tao in Rotterdam, mentioning payment MW-congress 2012. For further information and questions: info@healingtao.info April Los Angeles & NYC: Tai Chi for Enlightened Love
PRIMORDIAL QIGONG April 7th and 8th, 2012 aka. Tai Chi for Enlightened Love
A very magical, and powerful 800 year old lineage qigong ceremony 9am-5pm at Infocus Wellness Institute, 717 Broadway, Santa Monica Cost: $185. ($90 deposit). Reviewers (if have taken it live): $125. I go far beyond the DVD during this class, revealing many things about the inner sacred geometric structure of the form, and how to intensify it with toning and focused intention, how to use it or alchemical self-transormation. Includes Feldenkrais applied to Qigong for Super-learning, moving your body effortlessly. Note: course is the certification course for Wuji Gong/Tai Chi for Enlightenment. You receive a teaching certificate from Healing Tao University. Those seeking certification should have been practicing the form well in advance. Learn the original 800 year old lineage form of Zhang San Feng, the This form integrates the magic square of feng shui, the dynamic inner Mantak Chia learned this form from me on a China Dream Trip, and loved it! He has made it a part of the Healing Tao curriculum, so you can also now use this course as hours towards becoming a Healing Tao Instructor. For more info: https://healingtaousa.com/instructorbecome.html ——————————————— April 27, Fri. 7-10 pm: INNER SMILE at New York Open Center Easy, profound, life-changing transmission from a 30 year practitioner of the world’s most natural meditation. The Taoist Inner Smile meditation is an effortless and simple yet profound method of coming to peace with oneself and the world. It is a learned skill that taps into our natural ability to smile normally, outwardly, but allows us instead to focus our smile?s intent inwardly to embrace and liberate our shadow side, our pain and struggle hiding within the physical body. The Inner Smile is the soul’s heartfelt embrace of our body-mind. The technique teaches us how to systematically ?smile? into our deep qi channels, bones, organs and brain cells. It can radically enhance our internal energy flow, and permits us to find unconscious blocks and dissolve them. Come learn one of the fundamental cornerstone techniques of Taoist inner alchemy, an unparalleled way to dissolve stress and liberate our latent energy. The inner smile is a deceptively simple but potentially life-altering practice, a precious lifelong spiritual gift.
April 28, Sat. 10 am – 5 pm at New York Open Center PRIMORDIAL QIGONG / TAI CHI for ENLIGHTENED LOVE Contact: Open Center: (212) 219-2527. Magical, powerful 800 year old lineage qigong ceremony (a.k.a. “Tai Chi for Enlightenment”). Integrates the magic square of feng shui, the dynamic inner coupling of Taoist alchemy, the healing benefits of medical qigong, and the earthly transmission power of China’s original tai chi form! For more about the form, and numerous testimonials about how amazing the form is, please see http://www.taichi-enlightenment.com Note: The course is the certification course for Wuji Gong/Tai Chi for Enlightenment. Certification requires 2-day training. If you have taken the 1-day Open Center training in the past, and take it again now, you are eligible for certification. You receive a teaching certificate from Healing Tao University.
25 North Carolina Summer Tao Retreats
Note that housing costs are separate from listed tuition costs, and are $495. for room and board for one week. seehttp://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com
Diving into the Pool of the Tao (photo)
Loving this chance to dive into the Way of the Dragon-spiral, Michael Winn “Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home, “The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away. Register online for on Healing Tao University, |