Meditation/Exercise. Huang talks about the presentation of prac-tices in the ‘Door’ from his traditional perspective: “There are two exercises that belong to traditional practices, five animals and six sounds. The rest are conscious guiding practices that gear to awaken specific organs and parts of the body. From inner self to the highest virtuous gathering, the Tao of seed and the Te of virtu-ous love will become one, as if body and mind become one.
“I think that coming from the background where Master Chia has instructed in terms of exercises, it is a bit difficult to capture the exercise portion in the book. On the one hand, the presentation of exercises is sort of a reflection or revelation, and there are only two parts, or maybe three, which I just translated from the teach-ings of Hua Tue, one of the best known teachers in China; he is a Taoist and a Chinese doctor. The third one is from Master Chia’s Fusion of Five Elements. In Taoist tradition, we only reveal half of the meditation exercise in a pure literal presentation. The other half depends on the quality of the master and the readiness of the stu-dent. The purer the energy the master has within, the more power-ful the exercise will be.
“The most crucial part is that throughout Taoist history, there is no distraction or distortion upon the pure teachings, which are usu-ally related to the specific location, the power of earthly Chi, and the personality of a master. Unless the student’s background is
cleaned, which has to do with family and social life, and unless he or she shows enough virtue and integrity, the teaching cannot be revealed. For example, I cannot reveal the exercise on Bigger Dip-per unless s/he is under initiation and taking full responsibility for it.
I cannot tell a person based on social or family hierarchy.
“The third most sacred part of the teaching has to do with tim-ing, both the cosmic time and the readiness of micro-time within each person. Besides the micro and macro time factors, are the special influences of the Winter/Summer Solstice and the Spring/
Fall Equinox. These yearly time periods of significance reflect the four time periods within a day, which are 11:00 to 1:00 am/pm and pm/am, and 5-7 am and pm. This has been summarized in the phrase: ‘If you catch a day’s time, you master the entire year.’
“The most intriguing situation is the trinity of three dantians (tan tiens) in our Taoist tradition. Because of the Chi that circulates between body and mind, and is independent by itself, there cannot be a single exercise for all. There is no such thing as an exercise that can open everything. This is why all the pressure points must be opened, and all the five levels of organs, skin, muscles, zang fu (glands), bone and bone marrow must reach a final completion before enlightenment can be achieved.
“Because the body is so complicated due to the ancestral ill-nesses and social conditioning—and because of the interaction between body and universe, particularly the inner planets and close stars out there—each exercise must be treated specifically. It can be handled only through consideration of an individual’s quality. This is why in northern Taoist practices, we constantly use mind to guide the body, which generates movements or exercises as a result of experience. Also, when the two hearts reach oneness, you can-not tell which is which. This is the most difficult situation for me to explain—which part of the exercises are inherently Lao Tzu’s and which parts are my own understanding or reflection upon his teach-ings—or revelation. All the italicized words or phrases or sentences appearing in the book belong to the Tao Te Ching.
“If readers or students have any questions, they must find or approach us directly in order to clarify the problems. We cannot just give them the meal and feed them at the same time. Only the right person can get the essential pictures of exercises. Or, if they are advanced enough, by reading the words, they get an energetic vibration right away. Then, they do not need exercises since the
channels are opened already. The above are my suggestions and personal experiences according to our tradition. We never give everything away through words. If so, what do we have in order to live and exist and survive?”
Master Tao Huang’s Bottom Line: “In Taoist tradition, I have only one background, it is in the power of Lao Tzu. He chose me, and made me as a faithful dog, a devoted slave, a heart-connected student. If you question the materials in the Door, go directly and ask Lao Tzu, and we will reach a mutual silence—the heart-con-nected, stomach-drumming and brain-smoked passage of the Tao.”
Editor: Dennis Huntington has been practicing the Tao of Master Chia’s teaching since 1986. He became a certified instructor in the Universal Tao in 1992, and then began teaching while living in Ja-pan. He is now a resident instructor at the Universal Tao Training Center at Tao Garden Health Resort in Thailand. He returns to Japan regularly to teach, and he is Master Chia’s liaison assistant for affairs in Japan. He moved to Tao Garden in 1998 to enhance his practice and teaching of the Tao. He also assists in the pub-lishing area as a contributing writer and chief editor.
He had an inner voice experience when he was a young avia-tion electronics technician in the U.S. Navy. The inner voice expe-rience itself excited his interest, and so did the message—to write a book. Before he came in contact with Taoist teaching per se, he conditioned himself with yoga practice. He experienced kundalini energy as a result of his hatha yoga and pranayama practice. When he began doing a simple form of meditation, he experienced the manifestation of the third eye, inner visual experience, out-of-body and dream experiences before he met any of his formal spiritual teachers in the physical body. He then practiced meditation of the inner light and sound current with the guidance of masters from India.
After studying electrical engineering, science and math as an undergraduate student, and after a brief stint as an IBM sales rep-resentative, he entered graduate school at San Francisco State University where he studied English, creative writing, and educa-tion. He taught high school English in Oakland, California. While teaching, he also became involved in the Bay Area Writing Project at the University of California at Berkeley for teaching writing. He later lived in Tokyo, Japan, and taught English as a Foreign Lan-guage before moving to Tao Garden.
Reference Source:
1. Olson, Stuart Alve. The Jade Emperor’s Mind Seal Classic (St.
Paul, MN: Dragon Door Publications, 1993), page 37.
2. Legge, James. I Ching, Book of Changes (New York, NY:
Gramercy Books, Random House Value Publishing, Inc., 1996), page xix.
3. Griffiths, Anthony J. F. … [et al]. Modern Genetic Analysis (New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999), page 18.
4. Ni, Hua-Ching. Esoteric Tao Teh Ching (Santa Monica, CA: Seven Star Communications Group Inc., 1992), page 2.
5. Yan, Ph.D., Johnson F. DNA And The I Ching: The Tao of Life (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1991), page ix.
6. Griffiths, Anthony J. F. … [et al]. Op cit, page 27.
7. Schonberger, Dr. Martin. The I Ching & The Genetic Code: The Hidden Key to Life (2nd Edition) (Santa Fe, NM: Aurora Press, 1992) pp.9—10.
8. Schonberger, Dr. Martin. Op cit, page 153.
9. Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics, Second Edition (Boston, MA:
New Science Library, Shambala Publications, Inc., 1985), page 160.