How to Advance in the Tao

Recently, I spent a couple weeks at Master Chia’s intensive Dark Room retreat, practicing the advanced Taoist practices of the Lesser and Greater Kan & Li. I attend this retreat every year and this was again a truly amazing experience for me. After attending this retreat, I wanted to give my students more information about how to advance in the Taoist practices and what you can learn in the more advanced courses. I hope the information below is helpful, and I’d also like to invite all students to join me at the Tao Garden this May for Female Healing, Fusion I and Fusion II & III retreats.

Sexuality & Cultivating Original Force

The Female Healing or Men’s Health practices are the best practices to begin in the Tao. Through these practices, we are able to cultivate more life force energy, also known as original force. This is the energy we have received when we were born and it is the solvent between our body and our soul. Eventually, this practice will allow us to grow in our spirituality and more Chi (original force) will accumulate in our lower TanTien. At that point, we are ready for the advanced sitting meditation: Fusion of the Five Elements.

The Fusion Practices

In the Fusion practices, we tune in further to our Internal Alchemy and focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the source of negative emotions and the transformation intro positive virtues.

The concept of Internal Alchemy is grounded in the Taoist belief that the inner universe within our bodies is identical to the outer universe. We are the microcosm in the macrocosm.The knowledge of the Internal Alchemy is a necessary step in becoming connected to the outer universe, from which an unlimited power can be derived for one’s individual benefit.

We focus on balancing and condensing our pure internal energy and then we work to open channels in the body to circulate the powerful energy. Throughout the practice, we connect with the Source and download the information from the Universe. As we advance, we begin to transform our energy back into our original blueprint, the energy we had when born, and we free ourselves from our past karma. At this point, we are able to tap into a much greater state of awareness and intuitive understanding.

The practices of Lesser, Greater and Greatest Enlightenment of Kan & Li

In these advanced practices, the formulas are mainly taught in the darkroom and involve the inversion of water and fire and a literal steaming of the sexual energy into life force energy. We focus on creating a deeper connection to the north star and receiving the violet light for further healing and transformation.

We cultivate the root (Hui-Yin), more sexual energy, and combine this energy with the heart center to further develop love and compassion. This powerful compassion cultivated may be compared to the Buddhist sense of compassion for all sentient beings or the Christian universal love. These practices increase our original force, and because our energy is so powerful at this point, we can begin to draw energy from any energy source such as the Moon, the Sun, the Stars, the Planets, Wood, Earth, Flowers, Animals, Light etc.

There are nine levels of transformation, the goal at the final level is overcoming reincarnation, and the fear of death through Enlightenment.

Upcoming Workshops & Retreats

There are many levels to this practice, which is why I love the Tao. There is always something to work toward and a way to develop yourself and your spirituality.

Join me at my upcoming workshops in Europe March – May and my retreats at the Tao Garden in May – June, and I hope some of you will join me for the Fusion practices.