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 Yuan tradition 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.

BELOW is a List of the traditional forms, practices and principles, theoretic foundations,

and Breathwork skills that are included in this training. 

BELOW that, The rest of this page describes the course breakdown and dates in more detail.

TAP HERE for a PDF of the complete course contents, dates, and details.

Traditional Qi Gong, Dao Yin, and Nei Yang Gong Forms you will learn

The Willow Dance – Standing and Seated Qi Gong

(Tangibly learn and interact with your 12 Regular and 8 Extraordinary Meridians)

Nei Yang Gong – Inner Nourishing Qi Gong

(The Classic 12 Gesture Standing Qi Gong Form)

Tai Li Fa – Greater Regulation Form

Tian Di He Yi Fa Form

(Restoring Harmony between the Land and Sky)

Five Elements Qi Gong Form

13 Posture Daoist Heavy Hands Form (Dao Yin and Nei Gong)

Ba Duan Jin Review and Nei Gong Integrations

Primordial Qi Gong

(Excerpts of Hun Yuan Qi Gong Form)

Micro Cosmic Orbit – Xiao Zhou Tian

(All Sixteen Passes/Levels)

Seated Nei Yang Gong

(Bathing and Restoring – Pulling the Golden Cord)

Shaolin Chan Seated Meditation

(The classic five Wall Staring and Breathwork methods)

This is a Six Month Immersive Training Opportunity

Including Over 45 Hours of LIVE Classes and Conversations

What is Nei Gong?

Nèi Gōng 内功 can be translated as ‘Inner Practice or Cultivation’, subtle skills, or what happens beneath what can be seen. The Term Nèi 内 also implies the boundary between Separation and Non-Separation – an essential aspect of Daoist Cultivation.

The term Nèi Gōng can be used in a martial arts, a Qì Gōng 氣功, a meditation, or in any other spiritual practice context. For the purpose of easy communication, I will refer to Nèi Gōng as if it is a distinct branch of practice that focuses on Cultivating Inner Awareness.

With regular Nèi Gōng practice, you are beginning the journey of re-discovering your Innate Experiential/Existential Nature (Xìng 性) and your Aliveness Potential (Mìng 命). This practice also brings your subtle Energy Systems, Internal Organs, Meridians, Energy Centers (Dan Tian), and your Six Innate Minds (Yuán Xīn 元心), as well as your Energy Gates into balance – (including specific Acupuncture points, trees, rocks, waterfalls, or other places in Nature that feel just right)

This training begins with the Daoist Willow Dance, one of the most fun ways to learn the Chinese Medicine Meridian system – tangibly inside your body. (see below).

The Chinese Characters for your Meridians, in general, are Jīng Luò 經絡, which can describe the tension and integrity of the warp and weft of a cloth, the obvious and subtle aspects of circulation, the collagen matrix of your connective tissues and membranes, or perhaps even the fabric of Space-Time.

Each of your Meridians expresses a core instinct and is connected with innate gestures based on ancient animal reflexes, human body language, as well as the behavior, expressions, and experiences of your Ancestors. These subtle, sensual, emotional, and instinctual, qualities of your Meridians also affect your posture, some physical characteristics, the health of the tissue of your whole body, and the free movement of Qi and Blood throughout all your body’s physiological and conscious activities. Finally, your Meridians express the vitality and functional health (or the challenges) of your internal organs.

I often use the metaphor of wire and electricity to describe the importance of an abundance of Jin – contractile tissue and Jing – the Inner Adaptive Capacity or Mojo of the tissue aspects of your Meridians. Physically, and clinically, a Meridian’s health includes the nutritional status, inflammatory status, circulatory capacity, vascular health, muscle tone, flexibility, fascial membrane integrity (on some very deep levels), and of course the collagen matrix of every cell of every part of your body.

At this level of interaction, the more ancient Dao Yin (Trauma Release, State Shift, Down-Regulation, Fascial Tensegrity) practices become essential. This can involve several forms of Breathwork and specific exercises to open each and every joint and membrane of your body. I will also introduce the famous Nei Yang Gong Form as a means to invigorate your body while deconstructing several layers of Embodied Instinctual and Emotional Distress

If you find that you need to go deeper into Qi Gong Healing practices, you can review and apply many of the skills from Level Five – Therapeutic Qi Gong.

To be successful in your Nèi Gōng practice, you will also need to connect with Nature and the Seasons (You will learn the Greater Qi Regulation and the Balancing Heaven and Earth forms), open your Three Dan Tian, connect tangibly with Qi, practice some traditional forms until they feel like home, and restore your Three Treasure (Sān Bǎo 三寶), or your Jīng 精,  Qì 氣, and Shén 神.

The Yi Dao Huan Yuan tradition of Chinese Medicine and Daoist Cultivation is a healing tradition. Before committing to a life-long meditation practice, the one meditating may need to resolve some Qi Wounds and some challenging conditioning.

Although each Dān Tián can be experienced as a location, it is more important to experience your relationship with the Aliveness Potential (Ming) and Innate Nature (Xing) of each of your Dān Tián – every day if you can. You may find the ‘location’ keeps changing.

The exact location and sensation will be subtly or surprisingly different in every practice. Keep the relationship alive and become a student of the language of sensation and all of the qualities of your Jing, Qi, and Shen.

Each Dān Tián also has a certain feeling tone of interaction with your physical body, your Somatic/Embodied memories, and any Ancestral traumas (and gifts) you may need to work with.

, a unique and powerful ally on your Regular and Extraordinary Meridian journey, as well as a ‘structure’ made of the warp and weft of the fabric of Space-Time or Dao.

Each of your Sacred Dān Tián is the Universe coming together into a kernel of energy and consciousness that you can learn to resonate with; reawakening an entire internal world of wisdom, healing, and potential self-cultivation.

Your Three Dan Tian

Your Lower Dan Tian – includes feeling all of your belly, between your belly button and back, and the space under your ribs on your left and right sides down to your pelvis, and every membrane and organ between your perineal floor and your diaphragm – at the same time.

This is your center of instinctual awareness and movement, physical and hormonal adaptability, and the visceral aspects of intuition.

Your Middle Dan Tian – includes feeling your entire chest, ribcage, front to back, left to right, from your collar bones, tongue, and shoulderblades to your diaphragm – at the same time.

This is your center of belonging, bonding, and trust, as well as self-regulation, social intuition, and emotional adaptability

Your Upper Dan Tian – includes feeling your nostrils, and sinus cavity (a fist-sized volume of sense nerves behind your eyes), your tongue, voice, facial expressions, upper throat, your skull, your brain and glands, your third eye,  and the muscles at the back of your neck that ‘keep your head on.’

This is your center of Existential awareness and truth, your mental and spiritual adaptability, and your openness to learning.

It just takes some time to become your meridians of Space-Time by dissolving into a reunion with Dao.

If you commit to an occasional ‘Rite of Passage’ with some advanced Dao Yin and Nei Gong practices, you can complete your journey of restoring all of your organs, Meridians, and Energy Centers to their optimal state of Being, Existence, Resourcefulness, Aliveness, Capacity, and Function.

Course Contents

Over the six months of this training, you will reconnect to your Inner Landscape (Nei Jing) through a committed practice of the following elements of Qi Gong and Nei Gong cultivation:

• The Willow Dance – a Meridian Activating and Harmonizing Qi Gong – this practice explores a series of postures and movements that help you directly interact with and open each of your Meridians (Jing Luo) and your instinctual and emotional connective tissue reflexes (Jing Jin). This very intuitive approach to interacting with each Meridian as a moment, as a need, as a posture and gesture, and as a quality of letting go, are all benefits of this easy-to-learn ‘wave-like’ dance.
• Nei Yang Gong – (the classic 12 gesture Inner Nourishing/Healing Form) – This ancient practice is one of the three original influences in the formation of Modern Qi Gong. In the process of Nei Gong cultivation, this gentle and whole-body series of exercises is used to move towards and through any Qi Wounds and Embodied patterns of Trauma and distress. This is an essential step in safely developing a potent Dan Tian practice.
• Reviewing introductory Joint Opening exercises, traditional forms, and other healing practices – with an awareness of your meridians will deepen your practice in many ways. This process is profoundly transformative and restorative, and is especially valuable if you intend to become (or are) a Healer of any kind. The best way to become sensitive to Qi and to another person’s Meridians is to completely open your own. This is meant to be a lifelong process.
• The Greater Regulation Qi Gong Form offers you an opportunity to interact with the Seasons, your Ancestors, and many animals while regulating all of your energy systems and your Three Dan Tian.
• Five Element Qi Gong exercises are a part of any comprehensive Qi Gong/Nei Gong practice. Sensitivity to, awareness of, and an experienced appreciation for the fundamental qualities (energies) of the Natural world around you and within you are essential to a complete practice.
• Daoist Heavy Hands Nei Gong Form is most often practiced to cultivate an Iron Palm for martial artists and for Bone Marrow Washing during the final stages of Yi Jin Jing practice. This form is a series of thirteen standing postures, each with unique interactive opportunities to take your practice inward – and beyond!
• Your Microcosmic Orbit (Xiao Zhou Tian) – with a deeper awareness of your Dan Tian and Meridians, you can now safely begin the process of opening your Microcosmic Orbit. This form of seated meditation usually takes a few months of patient learning and perceiving some new dimensions of Aliveness, Innate Nature, subtle aspects of circulation, and the energetic anatomy of the subtle body. Some of these practices are very refined and active, while most of the time you are sitting completely still experiencing Wu Wei – Effortless – Being.
• Opening Your Narrow Passes  (Guan – 關) – each Qi Gong and Nei Gong practice is learned and taught sequentially in Passes or sequential stages (Guan). The term Guan means a narrow pass through challenging, perhaps even dangerous terrain. As your meridians open and your Inner Orbits begin to turn on their own, you may find it necessary to open some ‘stuck’ places. In traditional Nei Gong/Nei Dan, there are usually between three and nine challenging Passes on the front and back of the body.
• Daoist and Shaolin Breathwork (see lists above) Learn several ancient monastic and ascetic Breathwork skills that can shift your state, and improve your circulation, while also restoring your innate nervous system capacity for both distress and extended periods of profound states of reunion with Reality/Dao.
• Interacting with and as your Three Dan Tian and your Six Innate or Unborn Minds (Yuan Xin). Although this aspect of Daoist practice is ‘Esoteric’ in nature, these experiences are also an invitation to feel where your Innate or Inborn ways of being may be out of sync with your environment or other aspects of living a modern life. These sources of contention with life can create instinctual, visceral, mental, emotional, egoic, and existential Qi wounds. Restoring your sense of trust and alignment with your Innate states of Being can often recover vast resources of Jing, Qi, and Shen.
• Nei Gong Induction practices are usually employed at the beginning of a longer meditation session. The way I was taught, it is the most effective to begin a 3-4 hour stillness practice with 45 minutes of active practices that assist in reorienting your posture and Inner Landscape (Nei Jing) awareness.
• Inner Reflection and Spiritual Recapitulation (Nei Guan 內觀) – is a form of daily practice, self-acceptance, self-reflection, and meditation. At a certain point, it becomes clear that some parts of your Spiritual journey are just beginning, and that the next ten years may be as profound as all the old stories about wandering hermits and shamans. Transcending the mundane and coming home to your Authentic Self has always been the Path. Spiritual Recapitulation is a partner practice involving a careful form of inquiry into the voices in your head, where they come from, and how to ‘employ’ them more skillfully in your life, and in your Mind.
• Qi Gong and Nei Gong for Women – at this level of Qi Gong practice, the distinctions between Male/Yang energy systems and Female/Yin energy systems become much more important. Throughout life, we all go through puberty, midlife, and menopause or andropause (menopause for men). If you want to teach Qi Gong and Nei Gong and ensure you are not creating imbalances, this relatively small amount of study could prevent many Spiritual accidents. Male and Female bodies have a different balance of Blood and Qi, Yin and Yang, as well as slightly different locations of focus during Inner Cultivation and Dan Tian practices. Qi Gong also has many specific circulation and activation practices to relieve painful menstruation periods, cyclic emotional overwhelm, and the symptoms (warning signs) of menopause. Qi Gong, fertility, and sexual vitality have a long history of working together and finding balance.
• Avoiding Qi Derangements and Deviations – regular committed Qi Gong and Meditation practice can be VERY powerful. Some practitioners, often because of pre-existing imbalances, can experience changes in their mood, sleep, focus, subjective reality, and ability to self-regulate. As you learn all of these powerful skills and practices, it is wise to learn how to avoid any of these rare ‘accidents.’
• A Shaolin Wall Staring Seated Meditation practice is the easiest way to begin a Chan/Zen practice. This is the simplest form of One-Pointed Mind/Body/Breath meditation practice in the world.
• Zuo Wang – or Sitting and Forgetting is a form of Daoist Meditation that can involve recapitulation practices or completely immersive ‘beyond causality’ forms of Mediation.
• Xin Zhai – or Mind Fasting is a form of Seated Meditation of Wu Ai Xin 無礙心,  ‘the immanent attrition of any obstacles in one’s Heart/Mind’. This practice is most often employed during extended retreats  (10-30 Days) from mundane daily life.
• Dian Gong – Floor/Mat exercises and stretches. A personal Qi Gong/Dao Yin practice naturally includes exercises that maintain good core tone, complete postural pliability, and the health-boosting benefits of elongating all of your membranes and meridians on a regular basis.
• Shou Yi – Conserving and refining Interactive Awareness. Your meditation practice is cultivated or limited by your capacity of Yi 意 (Interactive Awareness). Very much like balancing a broom on the palm of your hand, some aspects of meditation need to be ‘absolutely’ in the moment!
• Yang Sheng Fa – Nourishing Vitality and Longevity practices include balancing your diet, exercise, and entire lifestyle with the Seasons and with modern life. A dedicated practice of awakening and remembering one’s authentic nature will always flow with more ease with abundant health and a conscious relationship with addictive behaviors.
• Sheng Ming Zhi Dao – The Way of Spiritual Luminosity. It is reasonable to say that a life-long meditation practice would be gentler and more fluid with the presence of a good therapist. In the Yi Dao Huan Yuan tradition of Daoist practice, this understanding is honored through an honest reflection and reorientation of one’s social and emotional conditioning.
• Xing Ming Shuang Xiu – The Dual Cultivation of Innate Nature and Aliveness Potential. This is a foundational form of personal cultivation and applied empathy for others.

TAP HERE for a PDF of the complete course contents, dates, and details.

Six Initial Grottos of Nei Gong

A Grotto, in Daoist practice, is a metaphoric cave of safety, beauty, and silence; or a crypt to place the aspects of oneself that have died away in meditation. A  Grotto can also mean an inner chamber of evolution – you only go in if you are committed to coming out transformed.

Each stage of this Inner Cultivation process is referred to as a Grotto because of the implication of change, the completion of a step on the journey of creative evolution, and the awareness that when you are ready, you can enter the next Grotto. And so it continues forever. The Six Grottos are sourced in the ancient source text of the Yi Dao Huan Yuan tradition of TCM and Daoist Cultivation.

The First Grotto – Life (Qi) exists between Yin and Yang (Sky and Land)

The Second Grotto – Who is Meditating on an Inner Landscape?

The Third Grotto – Many Minds, Many Bodies, and Many Ways of Coming into Being

Fourth Grotto – TCM Physiology of Inner Cultivation and Nei Gong Inductions

Fifth Grotto – Narrow Passes and Inner Openings

Sixth Grotto – Coming Home – Returning to the Source – (Huan Yuan)

Getting to this level of Qi Gong practice and experience usually takes a few years of dedicated and professionally guided practice. This course will give you the tools and guidance to begin and personalize this life-changing and life-extending practice.