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The article on Ni Hua Ching is by Mark Johnson and is entitled 'Ni Hua-Chings Americanization of the Eternal Breath of Dao'. It can be found in the 'Journal of Daoist Studies - Vol 3' as YMWong stated. Mark Johnson has a more detailed account of his experience learning under Ni Hua Ching in his book: Life Is Divine Play: My Life and Training with Enlightened Masters According to this article, Ni Hua Ching was a doctor of TCM and martial arts teacher and he also taught daoism in Taiwan. Mark Johnson was initiated into Ni Hua Ching's daoist sect in Taiwan before returning to California to help set up Ni Hua Ching's new center there. Here's an excerpt: "His lineage was called the “Union of Dao and Man” (Daoren heyi 道 人合一) while his particular sect went by the name of the “Eternal Breath of Dao” (Da Dao hefeng tang 大道和風堂). It was an eclectic mix starting with his father, Ni You‑San, a well‑respected physician from southeast China who taught Master Ni most of his medical knowledge. Master Ni’s earliest ties with formal Daoism came from a temple near his hometown where he trained as a teenager. I once visited that temple outside Wenzhou (see Fig. 1). The abbot told me they had strong ties with the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing. Master Ni also claimed an unbroken succession through various later teachers to the medieval Highest Clarity masters Sima Chengzhen (647‑735) and Tao Hongjing (456‑536). He certainly knew innumerable styles of taiji quan, gongfu, and bagua zhang, and had unrivaled knowledge of acupuncture, herbal medicine, Chinese astrology, and the Yijing. He also believed in a strict daily regimen with high ethical standards. Our practice in Taiwan was punctuated by a slew of psychic phenomena. Master Ni would regularly intrude on our dreams and on several occasions was seen in several places at the same time. Once he killed a rat by just pointing his sword of exorcism at it. And once a turtle arrived in the mail, sent by a construction worker who had never heard of Master Ni but he sent the turtle because the turtle spirit told him to do so in a dream. Then there was the time when I fell asleep on the floor after editing for nine hours and had a vivid dream of Master Ni leading me to a high spiritual realm and putting me on trial. After many arguments back and forth, a decision was handed down that I could continue training with them. When I woke up, I saw Master Ni was standing over me. He said: “You were allowed to stay with us by the skin of your teeth.” With that, he turned, went into his room, and never mentioned that incident again. Having completed the basics of our training, we were finally ready for initiation in the spring of 1975. It was a very formal event. We started the ceremony at 2 a.m. since it was the most auspicious time astrologically. We brought flowers, food offerings, and spirit money to the altar, where we offered them with numerous prostrations. Then we entered the altar room on our knees with a letter of petition on our heads that evoked a host of deities. Master Ni touched each of us on top of the head and we walked around in an altered state for a few hours. After our initiation, we began a new regimen that involved daily exercises; the reading of incantations, and participation in a formal weekly ceremony. Soon thereafter, we returned to the U.S. to prepare a medical clinic and spiritual center for him. This resulted in Master Ni’s main center, the “Eternal Breath of Tao” in Malibu near Los Angeles."

Hi iamtheare. It is good to hear that your family is there for you. Maybe you don't need to struggle at all. Just giving love and being yourself should be enough. Everyone sees and does things in their own way. We can't change that. Just being yourself and being loving and accepting may be enough for others to understand you and accept you more in their own time and their own way, and vice versa. It can't really be forced. They may not ever fully get you but it seems they have already accepted you.

For those who are so inclined, a place to express your meditation experiences. Express your experiences in whatever way you wish. thoughts, like blowing leaves from whence comes the wind? -

There is a lot written about the MCO, and if you read from various sources you might find that there is sometimes conflicting information as well. As near as I can gather what different sources describe as the MCO, right or wrong, is not always the same thing. Also, there is medical qigong, martial qigong, and spiritual qigong. They are all connected but views and approaches can vary quite a bit. In Taosim one takes the natural approach, so if you are trying to deliberately direct qi in some way to open the MCO then that would seem not to be such a natural approach and it could potentially lead to problems if something is not done correctly. The MCO can open naturally on its own by sticking to basic practices and allowing progress to come naturally. Since there are many different approaches and goals, it would seem best to stick to one particular approach and also learn directly from a teacher that you trust, if possible. Mixing approaches may have the potential for problems. If you can't learn from a teacher in person, if the teacher at least makes themself readily available through workshops and email or phone, at least you still have guidance available. If the teacher teaches mainly through books and DVDs and is mostly unavailable otherwise, then that may not be so good. What do you do then if you have questions or run into problems?

It sounds like you are doing well. Just gently bring your attention back to your breath when you realize you drifted off into thoughts and don't worry about it (it's normal), and stay relaxed and keep going. Also, just observe and avoid trying to draw any conclusions, during or after. What we might think is going on or not going on at any point as we practice meditation over time is just more thoughts. More clutter. Let those thoughts go as well. Just continue to observe and avoid trying to analyze what might be going on from day to day and week to week and month to month, etc. This would seem to be the essence of meditation as is described from various traditional sources. In the West we tend to want to analyze everything to pieces, but that takes us away from meditation, IMO. It seems it is about letting go and just experiencing and observing (or not) without any attempt at all at directing or judging or analyzing and without expectations. Well, that is how I understand the essence of what is written in some traditional writings on meditation practice anyway.

Rushing water never runs very deep and shallow water is not hard to fathom if we pay attention and take our time. Welcome to the tao bums.

I mentioned this in another discussion, but I think this book is interesting enough that I would post it here so it is easier to find. There is a very interesting book written by a modern day Taoist, from Lao Shan I believe, that describes many of the views and practices of his particular sect of Taoism from Lao Shan. It is a very interesting read since this book, translated into English as a PDF downloadable E-Book, describes forms of Taoist practices and many of the author's personal experiences that many in the West are probably not familiar with. The practices described seem quite different than what many people may be familiar with in regards to Taoism. Some people might even find it quite eye opening. Keep in mind that there are many different groups within Taoism so what is described in this book might not necessarily apply to other groups within Taoism: Dao and De: Life and Afterlife This book is by an advanced practitioner in this particular tradition and not only are practices and theory described in a lot of clear detail, but the author also describes various personal experiences of his with these practices. Well worth the read in my opinion. You can find a short excerpt and the table of contents of the book here: http://qi.org/daoanddesample.pdf

He was traching workshops in the US some time from about 1993 to 1997, from what I can gather, but he apparently went back to China in 1997 to continue his personal cultivation. I have not heard about him since then, so not sure where he is these days.

Yin is yin and yang is yang, however not everything is pure yin and not everything is pure yang. Not everything is wholy bad and not everything is wholy good. Because of this we are sometimes faced with having to make judgement calls where may have to try to decide if the good outweighs the bad enough in some certain circumstance to justify it. We may have the situation where we hold ideas or concepts about things and want to superimpose these ideas or concepts on the world and try to make the world conform to our concepts, rather than just observing how things really work naturally. If we say we shouldn't differentiate between negative and positive for example because in our mind we think that this is being biased or judging, then we may miss out on lessons that we could otherwise be learning through direct experience and observation. We have become stuck with a concept we are holding in our mind and have instead possibly closed our 'eyes' to experiencing and observing the way something actually is. In the Tao Te Ching it says something to the effect of: "One strips oneself of passion in order to understand the sessence One regards life with passion in order to see its manifest forms" There are various translations of this but this seems to be the general idea. I have observed that meditation tends to make me more positive overall. I don't seek this but it just occurs naturally. By just observing I note this is occuring. If I try to impose a mental concept on this that one should ideally be neutral somewhow so how could it be that one could be drawn towards the positive without intention of some sort? Shouldn't one be neutral and make no differentitation between negative and positive? I think this confusion arises because of people missing the principle outlined in the passage quoted above. Such things are hard to describe in words so I find it easier to say that in this universe yin is yin and yang is yang. Yin is not sometimes yang and vice versa, but there are many combinations of yin and yang in things. Another way to say it is most people would rather not have something very bad happen to them if they are being honest, even though at the same time they may struggle with concepts in their mind of whether one should really differentiate between yin and yang or good and bad. This I think is the difference between directly understanding the workings of form as it really is in this universe through experience and observation and trying to impose a concept held in our mind on the universe (form). When something is clearly bad we for the most part have little trouble recognizing that it is bad and not in ours or others best interest, but when yin and yang are mixed in closer proportions we may have more trouble distinguishing. This doesn't mean that there is no difference between yin and yang however and thus we should not differentiate between them. Sometimes we can get too far into ideas and concepts and thus we can miss what is right in front of us if we would instead just observe the way things really are. This is how I 'see' it anyway.

He is writing from his own experience, not just speaking of concepts that were passed on to him, so I think that is what makes this book so interesting. He is describing his own direct personal epxerience and observation with these sorts of concepts. I think this is why he is emphasizing that what he practices is not superstition, but his system is actually based on direct experience and observation as a way to learn about and understand these concepts. Of course no one can get fully get away from imposing their own personal views and concepts on their observations and experiences, so nothing is completely neutral.

Yes, but if there was resistance it would be more equivalent to the world glowing. Anyway, it is more the general idea of slowly becoming more positive overall that I was getting at. I can't really explain why, but that is the effect it seems to have on me.

Yeah, there are some unusual concepts in this book for sure. It outlines quite a different world view than the way most of us would normally look at things.

Ok, I see what you are saying. All I can say is my experince is that I slowly seem to be feeling that I am becoming more positive and viewing things more positively overall as a result of regular meditation practice. In other words I slowly seem to be becoming a more postive person overall. Maybe we are really saying the same thing but just expressing it a bit differently. This may really have nothing to do with anything, but as a sort of analogy when a circuit is completed between the negative and positive terminals of a battery, the negative electrons always flow towards the positive terminal. The electrons don't think about it (actually, who really knows?) and decide to do so and they don't make any judgement call about it at all either. The negative electrons just naturally are pulled towards the positive terminal of the battery because it is their nature to do so. It is only if there is some interference introduced to this system such as breaking the circuit connection will this natural flow stop. Maybe meditation is akin to completeing the circuit in this analogy? Ok, maybe that is a not really a valid analogy at all but it sounds good.

Meditation is also no form. It is also no action. If we can keep that with us then our life is always meditation. Easier said than (not) done though, I think. Butterflies are our teachers, like all things in nature.

Your thoughts are my thoughts.

Yes, I agree that they do. What I have noticed however is that through the practice of meditation I have been slowly starting to see the world more and more continuously from towards the most positive perspective although I am at the same time fully aware of and involved in all the other stuff that goes on. It is like meditation slowly takes us to the more positive perspective while at the same time increasing our awareness of both perspectives. Our awareness of the overall taiji increases while at the same time we naturally are pulled towards the most positive portion of the taiji.

I posted this in another thread earlier, but I guess it fits here... After finishing my evening meditation this evening I was just sitting and relaxing. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular but I became aware of an interesting dichotomy. From one perspective the world can seem random, out of control, stark, relentlessly harsh, and even a downright nuthouse , and from another perspective the world can seem perfect, complete, always providing exactly what is needed exactly when needed, always in perfect balance, and a beautiful comedic symphony, all at the same time. The difference is in perspective but the viewer has not moved. Strange, but not strange. It really seems true. Yang always must be counteracted by yin in this world. It is as it should be, but it is also not. -

if one is searching for a map one is lost -

After finishing my evening meditation this evening I was just sitting and relaxing. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular but I became aware of an interesting dichotomy. From one perspective the world can seem random, out of control, stark, relentlessly harsh, and even a downright nuthouse , and from another perspective the world can seem perfect, complete, always providing exactly what is needed exactly when needed, always in perfect balance, and a beautiful comedic symphony, all at the same time. The difference is in perspective but the viewer has not moved. Strange, but not strange. It really seems true. Yang always must be counteracted by yin in this world. It is as it should be, but it is also not.

I see what you mean...

Well, I see topics like this can sure bring them out of the woodwork. Where's the button I click to alert the men in the white?

I am actually just stating my point of view and opinion, as you are. It's called a discussion. My view is based on direct personal experience, as I have explained. I think people can emit qi in different ways over a distance because I have experienced this personally on a number of occasions. I am also familiar with some of the training techniques for this. Just because someone tells me that they believe it can't be done does not change my experience. From a few of your other posts that I have seen it seems you have some real issues. Not really interested in wasting my time on this sort of silliness. You'll have to look somewhere else to try to stroke your ego.

double post.