Daoist Embodied Meditation
Nei Gong – Cultivating Inner Awareness
This Course is Level Seven of the Soma Dao Qi Gong Teacher Training
Dates:
Wed. Nov 1st, 2023 – 6:00 PM (PST) – March 20th, 2024 – 6:00 PM (PST)
Daoist Cultivation (Xiū Dào 修道) involves several practices that focus on Embodied Meditation.
The two oldest, most comprehensive, and most common forms of meditation still practiced today are Chan/Zen (禪) and Nèi Gōng 内功.
In the Yi Dao Huan Yuantradition of Daoist Cultivation that I have learned and now teach, any committed meditation journey begins with the study of both, but with an initial dedication to the somatic, instinctual, visceral, and existential renewal of Nèi Gōng 内功.
A contemporary Nèi Gōng practice begins with learning about and embodying your meridians, exploring subtle aspects of Qi circulation, Qi wounds, and Self Healing (Nei Yang Gong),as well as connecting with your Energy Centers (Dān Tián 丹田), all while opening your Microcosmic Orbit and Energy Gates/Portals/Apertures (Qiào 竅), and becoming very skillful in several forms of Shaolin and Daoist Breathwork.
As these skills come together, you will learn how to ‘induct’ a refined state of embodied harmony and stillness – allowing you to enter into the Mystery Gate of Daoist Meditation. This opening is available to everyone, and is found through immersive states of profound coherence, tranquillity, stillness, and resolve.
While sharing these traditional skills and methods, I also like to include some clinical evidence on what is happening on the levels of physiology, hormonal and neurotransmitter balance, as well as the tone and resilience of your fascia, your immune system, and your nervous system.
Become a Medical Qi Gong Therapist
Additional 500 Hours
(over 1 – 2 years)
Welcome to the final phase of your Qi Gong training.
You do not have to teach large
Qi Gong classes to be a Medical
Qi Gong therapist. You will, however, need to be comfortable teaching your clients the exercises, forms, meditations, and breathwork to improve their inner vitality.
You will also need to have a regular, in-depth, and very well-balanced
Qi Gong practice to be a grounded and effective
Qi Gong Healer.
I am going to take a moment and speak to the
Qi Gong ‘experience’ and its potential. I will imagine that I am speaking to a person who is interested in going very deep into the
Qi Gong Universe, and who has recently invested a great deal of time and effort in becoming embodied, aligned, and playful, while opening to vulnerability, personal healing, and conscious transformation.
If you have:
- Opened your joints and can actively repair your body,
- Learned to assess, assist, and replenish your internal organs and meridians,
- Cultivated a connection with Qi awareness, energy centers, and energy gates,
- Found a seasonal balance with strength, flexibility, feasting, and fasting,
- Restored the innate structure of your bones and marrow.
- Learned to meditate like a Shaolin monk,
- Practiced Consciousness expanding breathwork, while being guided through your Inner Landscape and Innate Minds,
- Committed at least one Rite of Passage to a Shamanic Qi Gong practice for a Reunion with Nature,
- Learned how to release Embodied Trauma,
- Restored your innate internal circulation through the Microcosmic Orbit,
- and have explored Shaolin and Daoist Meditation, Breathwork, and Spiritual Practice or already participate in a Wisdom tradition,
…it is likely you will live a longer, healthier, and happier life.
Also, after all of that deep Healing and Spiritual work, you are probably capable of experiencing and conducting a great deal of ‘aliveness’ and vitality, or
Qi.
It is usually at this point that Qi Gong practitioners make a deeply personal decision.
Continue your journey and flow with life as you have and become an excellent Qi Gong teacher, or become a hermit or a monk and ‘Return to the Source’, or become a Healer and help reawaken this capacity in others.
Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! The 500 Hour, Professional Level Qi Gong Instructor program is meant to prepare you to be an expert in all aspects of Qi Gong Practice, Theory, History, Cosmology, Ontology, and Shamanic Healing practices. If you choose, you could teach at all of the above institutions, as well as travel internationally as a representative of the Soma Dao Process, or as a solo Qi Gong expert. Traditionally, a Qi Gong expert was also a healer. You are not required to help others in this way, but you may want to share those skills someday. If you are excited to learn the oldest form of healing in the world, you will have a skill that can heal others and support you long into your retirement.
Shaolin Strength and Longevity Qi Gong is a very effective and enjoyable way to strengthen your muscles, nerves, fascia, and bones, as well as ensure you do not lose your muscle mass as you age. Although most Qi Gong exercises look very relaxed and effortless, they can still improve your fitness because they activate, stretch, and tone almost every muscle and membrane in your body. If you think of your Qi and Meridians like electricity and the thickness of a wire, the more abundant your ‘wires’ are the stronger the Qi you can experience. This is especially true if you are a Martial Artist or Healer. Your meridians are made of and do many things. The vaster amount of what your meridians physically become, and what limits their function, is your muscles, tendons, blood vessels, interstitial fibres and fluids, as well as your many layers of fascia. Lengthening and strengthening all of these tissues equally and simultaneously is one of the most efficient and effective forms of Qi Gong for the health of the structural aspects of all of your meridians.