DAO AND PRACTICES
Clarification: Daoist sects are not extreme sects but religious groups of teachers, disciples and monks dedicated to the pacific cultivation of the Self, teaching Daoist Arts, helping heal the ill and guide people in their spiritual journeys.
As I mention in the section about Dao, Daoism, as philosophy or religion, makes the person responsible of its own life, which means responsible of its conduct and attitudes, thus of its cultivation and illumination (ascension or immortality). As part of this vision, it offers a series of desciplines or practices to guide people in this process.
Within Daoism, physical, mental and emotional health is of great importance, among other reasons because taking care and cultivating your health implies that you value the opportunity of living using a body, and make the optimum use of it and your mind- as the condition of your body is a reflection of your mind. If your body and your mind are not healthy you use your energy to restore their health or even to make them worse, instead of using it for higher purposes. Many times, we want to help other people without taking the time to take care of our own house first. This is why cultivating a good physical and mental health is the foundation of practicing Daoism, and I would even say the practice of simply living in balance.
To heal, change your thoughts- Li Shifu.
Practices such as Qi Gong, Tai Ji and Daoist meditation not only allow you to keep a healthy or balanced state, but they are underpinned in a vital and tremendously powerful statement: our intrinsic capacity to be balanced, healthy and being able to heal ourselves, and potentially help others in their process to achieve balance or healing. And they go beyond, as their core is meditation, and it is through meditation that we rediscover our inner silence and connect consciously with our Spirit. The intention of these practices is to recover our absolute consciousness, manifesting it in our way of being and in our daily lives. This does not mean we will be "perfect" human beings by practicing them, but much more conscious, allowing us to change meaningfully for sure, and certainly connecting us with the perfect purity of our true Self.
Qi Gong, Tai Ji, meditation and other disciplines under the umbrella of the term Kung Fu, were developed in China thousands of years ago. They were practiced as a way of life (lifestyle, philosophy of life) and also as cultivation tools for teachers and disciples in Daoist temples. Qi Gong, for example, is considered one of the four pillars of Traditional Chinese Medicine (together with acupressure-moxibustion-cupping, chiropractice-massage, and herbs). The techniques and methods applied in Daoist Qi Gong, Tai Ji and meditation were refined over thousands of years, especially within the temples. Each Daoist sect developed its own style, integrating its own seal of particular knowledge, experience and ancient wisdom. This wisdom was secret and poorly transmitted -not to say not transmitted at all- outside the sects for thousands of years, due to internal restrictions and also due to the history of multiple wars in China, which implied the destruction of many temples and forced numerous teachers to migrate, taking secret refuge somewhere in the mountains or outside the country, unable to return to society and pass down this precious knowledge.
Nowadays, we must celebrate that slowly doors to this knowledge are being openned, as threads of light that are being revealed to us. The Five Immortals Temple (the origin of the Tai Ji, Qi Gong and meditation styles I teach and share here), is the only temple in China that allows foreigners to study with a real and reknowned Daoist Master: Li Shifu.
According to the teachings of Li Shifu, the key rests in perseverance and having certainty of our own power and path, managing to be a balanced person within our society, as it is in our society and not in a mountain temple where our greatest lessons await.