Spring is half sprung….Fire Rooster Year 2017 is crowing. It’s a great time to in-FUSE the explosion of FEELING ENERGY rising like sap into your vital organ spirits. Reserve your spot: Fusion of 5 Elements Emotional Alchemy — Mar. 4 & 5 in Asheville. (image: Teeters, arrowofmoonlight.com)
MY NEW WORDPRESS WEBSITE IS LAUNCHED!http://www.HealingTaoUSA.com
My goal was to make my Taoist cyber-home more spacious, inviting, less overwhelming. A vibrant purple cloud that will be easier, more fun to visit, yet an energizing place to hang out in.
The new purple cloud space is still in transition. My old site was huge, 20 years history, a lot to move. The new webmaster is Chris Lombardi, very talented and tuned in.
The old Forum – with over 20 million views! – has unfortunately been delayed from re-launch. But it is our top priority to get a new, better, more user friendly forum up ASAP.
The Free Chinese astrology calculator is next. Not all products are up – you can also call 888 999 0555. Digital audio and DVD downloads, and a Tao-Wow blog are coming eventually.
Meanwhile, beyond the web, the Way of Self-Cultivation in everyday life, continues to unfold….
Asheville workshops: contact Jan: 888 999 0555 or info.healingtaousa@earthlilnk.net
1. March 4- 5, 2017 (Sat/Sun): Asheville. Fusion of the 5 Elements 1: Emotional Alchemy.
2. April 15 – 16, 2016 (Sat/Sun): Asheville. Fusion of the 5 Elements 2 & 3. Psychic Alchemy Opens MACRO-cosmic Orbit, 8 Extraordinary Channels.
3. April 28-29, 2017. NYC Open Center (212 219 2527). Fri 7-10p: Sexual Energy as Taoist Alchemical Elixir. Sat 10a-5p: Tao Cosmology of Self-Love, Inner Smile & Red Dragon Orbit
4. May 12-14, 20-21: Romania. Primordial Tai Chi, Wudang Orbit, Star Stepping Qigong. contact: Andrew Fretwell <tao.alchemy@gmail.com>
5. May 26-29, 2017 (Fri – Sun): Omega SUPER QI SUMMIT. https://www.eomega.org/workshops/superqisummit?source=fweb.winnm.ws
6. June 16 – July 18, 2017: Asheville. Five Weeks of Tao Summer Retreats. see below – or visit http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com. You can book 2017 retreats online. $150. deposit saves your spot.
FEEL FREE TO HIT REPLY and RESPOND. I love hearing from you!
Dear Lovers of Our Ability to FEEL,
Since Winter Solstice 2016, I feel the planet is shifting energetically into a new, higher gear. It’s not just super-sensitive me. Many folks around me have commented on how their own body-earth seems to be shifting to new ground. Their sense of appetite may change. Or they notice an uneasy feeling inside, as if slightly nauseous, but never actually sick.
The ride on Planet Earth could quickly get exciting…IF we keep our personal Energy Body attuned and well-grounded. We need to be in I’m-ready-to-play mode. Otherwise, the higher vibration Qi field could cause a short-circuit in our nervous or meridians system that nourishes our vital organs.
Is our planet opening up its inner heart, that will usher in an era of peace & love?
In sync with this larger long term planetary shift, the Year of the Yin Fire Rooster 2017 is a year generating a strong impulse to GET CREATIVE. The Rooster is also depicted in some Chinese calendars as a Phoenix. Either symbol is emblematic of celebrating fresh new energy of the rising sun, or of Nature re-birthing itself eternally.
Reactive vs. Responsive Feelings
So how does this play out in everyday life? I’ve been thinking and feeling into that question. It boils down to whether we are REACTIVE in our feelings or RESPONSIVE.
Everyone knows about REACTIVE: it feels like someone pushed our EGO-buttons, and we react instantly and play out some unconscious feeling before we’ve had a chance to reflect on it. Reactive self is a stuck self, stuck in the past. Stuck in defending old beliefs. Reactive = victim of outside forces, constant struggle to defend against an enemy or the evils of the world.
Reactive self is also the path of Aging Quickly. Reactivity = Rigidity. We don’t allow the Life Force to flow through us like a child, fluid and flexible in our feelings, changing in the moment. We are living a fossilized version of our self from the past. As Lao Tzu puts it in the Tao Te Ching, the old tree blows over in a storm – even though it is large and looks strong, it is rigid. The young willow sapling yields to the wind, and springs back.
Awareness of the pitfalls of Reactivity is not new or particularly Taoist. Lots of us have been TRYING to clear out old resistant patterns. We do tai chi or yoga or qigong, we meditate, read self-help books, attend relationship workshops or hire a therapist and healers to help us change.
Winn family, 1961, on a visit to Holland. The nine of us did our best to blend in with the locals.
Or there’s another solution, the one my parents chose. They had seven kids. so all their reactive buttons got pushed continuously. Eventually they achieved Parental Equanimity, a special kind of enlightenment where you play the Mini-Creator and have to deal with the consequences in real life. Everyone is really doing this, in their own mini-Creator Way. In the Tao, your life IS your path. You unfold yourself, not follow someone else’s doctrine of salvation.
Multiple Layers of Reactivity Embedded in Humankind
I’ve been counseling my students for 35 years. I’ve noticed that lots of people discover that despite great spiritual progress, there are still MORE REACTIVE LAYERS than they could have possibly imagined. That is why One Cloud (and the Taoist tradition of inner alchemy) had so many formulas. Each stage would peel off another layer of reactive patterns:
1. personal reactivity ACQUIRED this lifetime, embedded in vital organs.
2. bloodline ANCESTRAL reactive patterns trapped in time cycles of Sun-Moon-Earth,
3. resistant issues from the COLLECTIVE of humanity (planetary-archetypal), Racism, nationalism, greed, power struggles, victim-victimizer patterns, etc.
4. Spiritual CHALLENGES downloaded from the Stellar or oversoul level, designed to speed up humankind’s rather slow evolution. Stuff like splitting us into separate male and female bodies, to put us into a super-charged reactive-responsive state.
(for full description of all One Cloud alchemy formulas: https://healingtaousa.com/tao-articles/one-clouds-9-stages-of-alchemy)
No matter how “high” you climb up the spiritual ladder, there is more “reactive stuff” to be processed.
So what does it mean to be RESPONSIVE? It means we are FEELING and LOVING the PROCESS of solving the seemingly endless layers of Reactivity. To actually Respond, you have to first be PRESENT in the moment to the person, situation, event or feeling arising within your own body. From Self-Awareness to Creative Shaping of Reality
We have to actually feel what is happening in THIS moment, and separate it out from all our un-conscious or semi-conscious reactive stuff. That is easier said than done. But that is just the half of it. After feeling what is happening – a kind of instantaneous assessment that can only be made from a strong and clear neutral space – we have to GET CREATIVE.
Responsive = using our Free Will to change or influence what is happening. It’s not enough to just notice our “stuff”, we have to re-shape our feelings, which is a creative act.
This is why I modified the Taoist process called Fusion of the Five Elements, and integrated it with Western psychology. I call it Taoist Depth Psychology. There exist a plethora os Western psychological maps, therapies and theories about fixing the dysfunctional human personality.
But the Taoist approach is fundamentally different, because it is Qi-based. Qi, Chi, Ki, all the same thing: it means living subtle breath. I discovered the Taoist Qi model gave me access to the very MEDIUM of consciousness itself, rather than struggling to manage the endless layers of reactive CONTENT – what most psychology is focused on.
Every psychological method has its benefits and seems to work to some degree. But psychological “maps of the mind” are akin to building castles in the air.
Psychology doesn’t have a firm ground in the BELOW, our biology, our body, and the field of physical reality. This they leave to the “hard” sciences. Psychiatrists over-compensate in this realm by giving folks too many drugs to change the biology affecting the psyche. Alas, the second leading cause of death in the USA is side effects from multiple drugs.
Psychology doesn’t have a solid ground in the ABOVE, in the ethereal spiritual realms. This they leave to religion. Some compensate by recommending meditation or yoga for stress relief, which is very positive. But sitting quietly and relaxing and stretching the body doesn’t penetrate deep enough to really clean out the core reactive patterns. I recall the story about a well-known New York zen master who, after suffering for 15 years, finally went into therapy for his problems. Meditative self-awareness is great, but often not enough to shift deep reactive stuff.
In the Taoist Qi model, the three realms – below, above, and the human middle – are all governed by the same patterns of Qi. Once you understand the operating system, basically comprised of three patterns of Qi, you can manage all three levels of your reality. The three patterns of Qi are:
1) neutral state of oneness (Yuan Qi),
2) polar states (Yin-Yang Qi),
3) seasonal cycles (Five Elements/Phases Qi).
The five phases of Qi map can be applied to both spiritual-causal and biological systems.
We now have a map of human nature and outer Nature operating as one system. We have a universal medium (Qi), and with Taoist Fusion of the Five Elements you have METHOD. Together these give you a GROUND to operate on each of the three levels – below, above, within. The alchemical secret to dissolving reactivity is to grow the amount of neutral force (Yuan Qi, Original Breath) in our body. The more neutral our energy field becomes, the harder it is for polarized patterns of reactivitiy to control us.
This is HUGE. It allows INTEGRITY of our horizontal (relational self) and our vertical (spiritual Self). Most important, it is practical – IT WORKS. It just needs to be explained in psychological terms that allow us to RESPOND CREATIVELY to the feelings that arise within us. Taoist principles, applied to Western body-minds.
That is what my Fusion of the Five Elements: Emotional Alchemy seminar is about. Check it out, more details below. If you cannot make the live seminar, learn it from audiotapes. But you’ll want the skill set from Medical and Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals first.
I hope you embrace the feelings rising up like sap within your body this spring. Please use that gift from the Qi field to dissolve old reactive patterns and birth a long-lived and well integrated life.
Emotional Alchemy: Fusion 1 – March 4 & 5 in Asheville
• EMOTIONAL ALCHEMY: FUSION OF FIVE ELEMENTS 1
Cultivate Your True Feelings & Dissolve Negativity
with Michael Winn
• March 4 & 5, 2017 (Sat/Sun) in Asheville, N.C.
Sat 9-6; Sun 9:30 am – 6 pm.
Fusion of 5 Elements Nurturing Cycle (outer circle) and Control Cycle (inner star).
One Cloud’s 9 Alchemy Formulas: www.healingdao.com/tao_alchemy_formulas.html
Emotional alchemy – energy science of managing your feelings.
Take charge of your psychic inner weather.
Clear & center feelings with a body-centered process.
Fusion meditation = “Taoist Depth Psychology”.
• Transmute negative emotions into positive feelings
• Talk with your 12 vital organ intelligences, in their 5 Elements language
• Fuse your soul essences into a radiant Pearl
• Spiral Love in Creation Cycle Qigong
• Cultivate “de”, the hiiden spiritual power of your True Self / Soul.
Learn practical Emotional Inner Alchemy methods for managing the feeling layer of your soul’s Energy Body.
This is part of Taoist adept One Cloud’s foundational Inner Alchemy 9 Formulas. It integrates 5 phase Qi (chi) cycles in your emotions with your biological and spiritual life. Learn to control your inner psychic weather, nurture your inner powers and natural virtues. Most important, learn how to “eat” or dissolve negative emotion and egoic reactivity. Find out where your feelings originate and their true purpose.
Learn to reverse the loss of Qi / chi flowing out thru your senses, how to alchemically gather an Inner Pearl, the essence of your original self. Very powerful tools for working on yourself, and centering the energy body. Course is mostly meditation, plus “Nourish the Five Shen” Qigong for emotional body.
Pre-req: Fundamentals 1 & 2, live or audio-video. Good to have Fundamentals 3 & 4 if possible, as solid physical rooting is very helpful in managing emotions.
I edited the original Fusion of 5 Elements book for Mantak Chia. But he added a lot of stuff that was not part of Fusion, shifting the practice from a psycholigical-energetic method to a cosmic energy map. My feeling is one cannot manage the cosmic Qi flow uintil one manages the flow of Qi and reactive feelings inside one’s body.
The 9 Major Benefits of Fusion of the Five Elements #1:
1. Learn a practical way to stay emotionally neutral while being body-centered and fully present – and still feel what is happening in any situation. “Neutral” is way to describe “centered”, a neutral feeling space from which we can express strong feelings – without falling into the illusion that temporary feelings make up our self-identity.
2. Open up communication pathways between the five inner “body gods” of our heart-mind (“xin”) and your outer sensory perception. These are the five spirits or vital organ intelligences embodied in our heart, spleen-pancreas, lungs, kidneys, and liver. We learn how to reverse the chi normally flowing out our tongue, mouth, nose, ears, and eyes so that it flows instead inward to nourish the inner organs.
3. This one simple technique can cure the exhaustion that plagues so many people! Instead of constantly spending energy out your senses, you absorb chi into your sensory and vital organs from the larger chi field of the environment. What used to be “stress” is now “food that recharges”.
4. Elevate the harmonizing power of your Inner Smile to a deeper level. Smile to your body spirits, support them in turning the wheel of the “creation” (sheng) cycle, the pattern of nourishing chi flow between the “five sub-personalities” of our inner soul team.
This deeper, more collective Inner Smile allows us to shape the flow of archetypal forces hidden within the sacred space inside our body. The creation cycle is a foundational principle of classical Chinese medicine. It empowers us to diagnose and heal a wide variety of biological, emotional, mental, and spiritual disorders.
5. Explores how feelings arise, how they control us, why we wrongly worship feelings, even in the context of personal relationships. This draws a clear distinction between what I call Taoist Depth Psychology and most popular forms of western psychology. Western psychology is mostly based on managing feelings; feelings are the “highest authority of the psyche”. Fusion is based on contacting the Qi underlying our Original Feeling, beyond the feelings of the personality. This allows us to shape the Original Qii matrix underlying our feelings, thoughts, and sensory perception.
6. Where does our “dark side” come from? This course details the developmental pathway of the Five Body Spirits (“wu jingshen”) from the pre-natal realm of the Original Spirit, how they emerge at birth and gain power in childhood. It is a major revelation to discover how our very own body intelligences begin as guardians and end up as “the Resistance” creating struggle, disease and failure in our adult life.
7. Learn the secret of “eating” negative emotional energy, blending it in a “cauldron” at the navel. The yin Fusion practice gently embraces negative emotions and slowly “dissolves” un-centered or dis-harmonious feelings back into the belly center/dantian. I call this emotional resolution process our “inner soul theatre”. At the same time this heart-centered process grows a powerful internal Energy Body as the ego-self is healed of its fragmentation and struggle.
8. Explore the option of using the bagua shape to capture unconscious negativity, strip off the negative charge, and thus convert it into positive energy. The yang Fusion practice uses high speed “chopping and blending” of negative thought/feeling forms using spinning bagua shapes. This is extremely useful in quickly resolving highly negative or overwhelming situations that yin methods are too slow to handle.
9. Practice a powerful method for absorbing the hidden innate virtues that connect you to Original Spirit and the Tao. Even if you have not been very loving or kind in life, this allows you to tap into the infinite ocean of potential love, kindness, wisdom, strength and trust and accumulate their essence in your body-mind. What you absorb inside you will later radiate out into your life.
Summary: You’ll learn to fuse the soul essences that control your destiny into a single radiant golden “pearl” – the first stage of allowing your true self to embody and express itself from the space of Original Feeling. This process is the foundation for the higher alchemy formulas.
Contact: info.HealingTaoUSA@earthlink.net or call 828-505-1444 to register.
Cost: $144. Reviewers: $90. (if Certification course, it’s full price).
Convenient Location in downtown Asheville – plenty of free parking.
Asheville Training Center, 261 Ashland Ave., Asheville NC. 2 long blocks south of downtown. Enter alley behind Town & Mountain Realty from either end of the building.
Are you ready to quicken your path to radiant health? Want to relax in a sunny mountain setting, while you have fun learning Tao subtle energy healing and meditation arts? Curious to learn the science of inner sexual alchemy, and self-generate a feeling of “whole-body bliss”? Want to permanently “breathe” 6 to 10 lbs. of fat away each week with weight-loss chi kung? Want to feel your body move gracefully in a tai chi form? Seeking a new career in energetic bodywork and personal development? Interested in taking charge of both your worldly and spiritual destiny?
If you answer “YES!” to any question, our summer retreats are the right place for you. Whether you are a beginner who wants guidance from top masters or a professional seeking to refine your skills and gain certification, at Mars Hill you will receive the best possible training at the lowest possible price. The Healing Tao USA retreat program was described by one student as “the most fun, the most grounded, the most effective, and the most advanced energy body work on Planet Earth”.
With 15 retreats, we offer the largest summer program of Tao Arts & Sciences in the world. Even in China you cannot get under one roof what is offered here – and its in clear English! We have a faculty of ten top tai chi, chi kung (qigong), energy healing and meditation masters that collectively have over 500 years experience. These Healing Tao retreats have a 20 year history of success. I began them after Mantak Chia moved to Thailand in 1994.
Regardless of age, sex, race, or spiritual path, you will be welcomed into a warm and friendly community of Tao practitioners that laughs a lot and knows how to have serious fun. Laughter centered in your belly happens to be a great way to circulate your chi and stay healthy. Along with the serene Inner Smile, these are two typical Tao methods – so simple a child can master them, yet powerful. Many people think they cannot meditate. But when they try an easy body-centered meditation – sitting, standing, or moving (tai chi or chi kung) – they quickly feel successful, and their chronic diseases and emotional problems magically melt away.
Enjoy a Spiritual Learning Vacation
These Tao summer retreats are not for austere monks. They are more like a spiritual summer fun or a “learning vacation”. Yet the incredible experience people have at these retreats is beyond words. The chi field we cultivate during our retreats is very focused and coherent, unlike retreat centers that sponsor a mishmash of dozens or hundreds of different teachings – causing the chi to get mixed up.
Tao Summer Retreats surrounded by gorgeous Blue Ridge mountains.
We cultivate a chi field at the retreats that is unified and far more potent for healing or self-realization. Every course you take – even if years apart – builds and adds onto what you’ve already learned. It is one reason why so many students return. You don’t need to work at figuring out how everything fits together – many seekers struggle to re-invent the wheel. A wide array of body-mind-movement arts have already been integrated by Chinese masters over the last 5,000 years! Each retreat you take will polish another facet of the same jewel.
Tao may be the oldest living tradition in the world. Its simplicity and wisdom has been hard-earned over the last 5,000 years. Called the “pathless path”, Tao embraces all paths. Tao is pronounced “Dao” and spelled that way by modern scholars. The term Tao historically functioned in China as a kind of divine natural umbrella embracing all religions and all seekers.
Qigong (Chi Kung) means “skill at cultivating the subtle breath or universal life force”. Taoist “chi cultivation” is the grandparent of many Chinese arts: acupuncture, feng shui, martial arts, nutrition, massage, herbology, meditation and sexology. Yin-yang and five element/phase theory of Qi field behavior are the fundamental principles unifying all Chinese culture and are in the process of being recognized by modern natural sciences..
Healing Tao’s Blue Ridge Mountain Retreats are a virtual “cauldron of transformation”. Choose from thirty different six day or weekend retreats. All this at a remarkably low cost – multiple tuition discounts go as low as $80 a day. To reserve each retreat (choose one per week), a deposit of only $150. is needed. As a non-profit (501c3) spiritual university, the low cost of retreats can be further reduced by taking a 40% tax deductions.
Add in a lot of friendly, good-hearted people, great food, a sunny Blue Ridge mountain setting – and bingo! – you have a WINNER. Some people come to take a personal retreat only, but still enjoy at meals interesting conversation with the wide range of independent-minded spiritual seekers who are attracted to Healing Tao Retreats.
Getting there is easy – just 30 minutes by taxi from Asheville Airport. If you have a car, you can take the Skyline Drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, widely considered the most beautiful drive in America. A car is also useful to visit the many beautiful nearby sites, such as Hot Springs’ natural thermal baths, Laurel River trail, Craggy Gardens overlook, Mt. Mitchell (highest peak on east coast) Linville Falls, white water rafting, fabulous hiking to various waterfalls within a hour+ drive. Asheville itself has many attractions, most famously the Biltmore Estate, America’s largest private home, a 275 room chateau. Others will enjoy the 20 micro-breweries and the art-deco architecture.
I guarantee you that these retreats will be the energetic highlight of your year. I personally feel a super-high energy charge from them that lasts the rest of the year. I know many others have a similar experience. You will leave feeling younger, healthier, and more enlightened. Weekend workshops in cities are convenient and valuable, but the live-in experience of these retreats is of a much higher order. Folks coming here breathe chi, eat chi, and dream chi together.
Morning Qigong captures the Fresh Rising Qi
The full description and date of each retreat is posted on our main Retreat Listings page.. Many people buy my home study audio-video-DVD courses & books in advance to get a head start, which I highly recommend. You’ll be able to absorb a lot more chi at the retreat if you have already absorbed the background information. Check the product listings after each retreat for special offers on some home study courses – up to 50% REBATE on a homestudy course if you take the retreat within the year.
Feel free to call our registrar at 888-750-1773 to get some expert advice….
I am looking forward to Smiling and Laughing with you this summer.
I am especially excited about the amazing experiences you will have feeling your chi flow in so many healthy and enlightened new ways!
Michael Winn
Founder & Director,
Healing Tao University
15 Amazing Summer Retreats to Choose From
Learn from top Qigong, Tai Chi, meditation & healing masters!
Join the largest and most diverse Tao arts community in the West!
Rachel Harding, Registrar
Call her for help! 828 713 2996
“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
Register online for on Healing Tao University,
the largest Tao (Dao) Arts & Sciences program in the
West with 15 week long summer retreats featuring “chi kung”
(qigong) and inner alchemy (neidangong) training. For
more info, see http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com
Or visit http://www.HealingTaoUSA.com, to
order books/videos/tapes from the Tao Home
Study program. Call the Healing Tao USA Fullfillment
center at the Mystical Number 1-888-999-0555 or more
ordinary numbers: 828-505-1444, or email
info@HealingTaoUSA.com
Visit http://www.Taichi-Enlightenment.com for a glimpse into
the world’s most magical spiritual tai chi form.
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2b. Fusion 1 Emotional Alchemy + Iron Shirt 1 Rooting
3a. Tai Chi Qigong #1 Rooting + #2 Fast Energizing Form
3c. Chi Nei Tsang 1: Deep Organ Massage
4a. Fusion 2 & 3 Macro-Orbit + Iron Shirt 2&3 (Bone Marrow Washing)
4d. Chi Nei Tsang 2: Chasing The Winds
5c. Tai Chi & Bagua: Fusion of Internal Body Mechanics, Qigong & Meditation
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