Inside Chi Flows Naturally:
Life and death are one thread,
the same flowing line seen from different sides.
All things come into being, then return to their original state.
Plants flourish, then return to their root.
Returning to root is called tranquility;
Tranquility may be called fulfilling one’s natural end.
This fulfillment we may call the unchanging way.
– Lao Tzu
Dear Lovers of the Natural Way,
It’s a time for laughter through tears.
In my last email, I chronicled Ron Diana’s struggle with an
asbestos-caused cancer that had suddenly become active in the
last year. As a powerful healer and Taoist cultivator through
qigong and meditation, he bravely attempted to heal himself of
this “incurable” cancer.
Many of you responded to my request to support him by sending
laughter and loving chi. I forwarded all the emails you sent, and
they were printed out and read to him. He deeply appreciated the
emails with a big smile.
On Friday, July 1, 2005, Ron consciously surrendered his weakened
physical body and gracefully continued his journey as a wandering
Taoist, this time in the immortal realm.
At Dao Mountain on Friday night, we had a wonderful candlelit
circle of 35 people in a deep send-off meditation for Ron,
punctuated by funny stories, a guitar song, and touching moments
of grief. If you knew Ron, I urge you to have your own private
memorial, and open your heart to him while he is still near.
Karin is leading another meditation to release all of Ron’s
attachments to the physical plane on Sunday at noon (EST). Tune
in then, or later – its an ongoing process to help him shift
effortlessly.
I wish to share his partner Karin Sorvik’s description of his
rebirthing:
“Ron is at peace, and I’m at peace too. I had a wonderful time
with Ron until the very last minute with tons of love and kisses.
I did finally let him go, to free him to find out what the next
step of his journey is. That was the big question on his mind. I
felt a powerful transmission come into my hand as he shifted into
deep silence, and passed to the other side.
?Ron’s wish in this life was to be a Taoist wanderer, traveling
and teaching and enjoying life. He wanted to raise the
consciousness of the planet. He wanted to be remembered with
laughter, for all the good things that people were touched by,
not to cry at how we are going to miss him. Because each moment
that we think of him, he is always here with us.”
Easier said than done. Karin’s simple and elegant words made me
cry. I am overjoyed that Ron is flying free from the limitations
of his body. I know that death is illusory, that Ron is in the
process of joyfully rebirthing his unique essence within the
formless planes. Like Karin, I support him to fly as freely in
spirit as he did in earthly life. I am confident he will continue
mediating human individual existence with the Supreme Mystery
(wuji).
Yet all this cannot instantly dissolve my deep grief over his
departure. He was for decades one of my closest friends, and we
shared many spiritual adventures together along the Way. I miss
his wonderful smile, his enlightened belly laugh, his rootedness
in the earth, his direct simplicity as a teacher and healer.
I did tai chi this morning, and invited Ron’s spirit to flow with
me inside my bodily form. We had a wonderful communion. I
remembered doing tai chi with Ron atop the Acropolis in Greece,
and the great laugh we had when the guards stopped us, telling us
?that no strange religious practices are allowed here?. Ah, the
perils of being a Taoist.
I’ve been tuning in to Ron and holding open a portal of clear
light from my kan & li meditations. Just in case there were any
aspects of his soul team that wanted to stray. I also let Ron
know that I was going to be really pissed at him if he didn’t
reveal to me the punch line to the cosmic joke from his new
perspective in the formless. Ron let me know its easier to grin
when you’re in human form, and to enjoy it while it lasts….
Ron’s departure may appear as a great loss to the thousands of
people whose lives he lovingly touched. If we ?invest in loss?, a
Taoist term for surrender to the inevitable flow of chi, we can
temper our deep sorrow. From loss opens up a new vulnerability,
it deepens our inner space. In it can grow the joy and bliss
available from maintaining inner contact with Ron’s soul in the
next week.
Let Ron’s death, like every death in our lives, be a teaching on
embracing change. Eventually Ron’s “heart-mind” (the five vital
organ body spirits) will dissolve and merge into dimensions of
collective consciousness that may be a bit distant for individual
human contact. So send him all love on his new journey NOW, and
be open to receiving a glimpse of where you are someday headed.
Many will wonder at the unexpected turn of events, and it may
cause some to question the value of cultivation practice or the
dangers of healing work. Many high spiritual teachers have died
from illness; few of us will totally master the forces that
control the portal of death and rebirth. But our practice tempers
these forces, and allows us to gracefully flow with them. It is
important to remember that Taoists of the inner alchemy tradition
seek spiritual immortality, not physical immortality. Longevity
is cultivated only to allow us more time to integrate the
“alchemical golden light” of our original self.
We cannot know all the mysteries of Ron’s soul journey, and best
not to judge or surmise. It may be Ron’s illness came at this
point as part of a soul impulse to take him into working from the
other side as a spirit healer. Or it may have been Ron was pulled
by other forces. I spoke with Juan Li in Barcelona, Spain. He is
another of Ron’s close friends, who illustrated all the early
Healing Tao books.
Juan Li wondered whether a ?spirit flyer? had hooked Ron on his
visit to a hospital a year ago, when Ron had gone to see a friend
dying of cancer. Ron was emotionally vulnerable at that moment,
the asbestos irritation was lying in wait for 35 years, and
hospitals are filled with spirits eager to escort souls to into
the formless. That makes hospitals into a kind of portal that can
hook unconscious forces within us. Perhaps that is one lesson
here: stay conscious and centered when you enter such a portal
space. We cannot really know.
But we can know that Ron Diana cultivated a unique awareness here
on earth whose essence is immortal. He is still vibrating here. I
invite you to tune in and listen to Ron’s newly cosmic
belly-laugh. Let go of your tears and your fear of death. Enjoy
the free flow of consciousness that pulses between the form and
formless realms in each moment.
Ron’s wish was to have his body be cremated, and his ashes
returned to the earth. He asked they be scattered on a mountain
by the Seven Lakes near his home, with a simple Taoist ceremony.
Details will be announced, if family decides to make it an open
event. IRon’s instructions: send no flowers, lovingly plant a
seed, support new life.
Wishing you the deep peace of the Tao
that arises from beyond life and beyond death,
Michael Winn
“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change – is a Sage.”
— Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters
“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
– Taoist Sage, 200 B.C