Dao, the Wisdom of the Ancients
Originally Posted on Dr. Aihan Kuhn's Website.
When I talk to people about the Dao (Tao), most people from Western countries don’t understand. When I talk to Chinese people, many don’t understand either. To me it is like a lost art, or lost wisdom.
The one thing I want to mention is that even though many Chinese don’t understand much about the Dao, they do practice it to some extent. It certainly does still show in the culture.
Why do I promote learning about the Dao? It is the philosophy that helped me the most in my life. It is also a method that I introduce to my patients and my students, and they get a great deal of relief from their physical and emotional pain.
In some ways it is even better than medicine. I have seen my patients and my students transformed by practicing the Dao.
What is the Dao? It is a natural phenomena and natural energy from the universe that is always there, but we cannot see it or feel it. It is a philosophy of wisdom for living, a way of living, and the way of being.
There is no clear explanation. But you can feel if you are with the Dao or you are not with the Dao. When you don’t feel right, something is telling you that things are not flowing; when you feel right, you know you are with the Dao.
If you suffer from illness, you know something is not right and need to make changes. If you are not willing to make changes, you will be suffering, maybe for a long time.
Daoism teaches us to enjoy life by simplifying life, and not to make our life more complicated. Whereas the western culture emphasizes “more” and “more”.
Why does it seem Canadians and some Europeans are more relaxed? They are happy with what they have, they are content, they go with whatever flows. Even though we don’t have the public/social benefits like they have, we can still be content, satisfied, and live with less.
I often hear people saying “I have to pay the bills”. But I see that it was not just about paying bills, it is the extra pressure and stress that is driving them. Yes we can have those extras, if those extras are not making us crazy and stressed.
If you feel stress because of your desires, you are not with the Dao, you are against the Dao. By removing the extras you remove the stress. Desire less, we gain more: more time, more freedom, more appreciation for our own spiritual and wellness practice, more time for fun and more joy.
Desire less, we have less stress, less worry, less clutter in our brain, and less waste of our energy. We can breathe better!
The Dao teaches us to go with the flow, letting go of the things that are meaningless. Therefore we can move forward, not backward or stuck in place.
For the past 30 years, I have seen so many patients suffer from various ailments. One thing in common is that they did things against the Dao, not with the Dao, not with the wisdom.
Dao is like a “Bible of Wisdom”, a way of living, a road to happiness. As a president of Tai Chi & Qi Gong Healing Institute, I highly recommend that everyone should start to look into Daoist practice.
The institute has two locations for Daoist study: Sarasota, FL, and Framingham, MA. We are looking for more people to be regional executive members who can host Daoist study meetings. For more information, please visit website: www.taichihealing.org
“Better to stop in time than to overfill a vessel.
Over sharpen a blade and it will soon lose its edge.
A store of gold and jade cannot be protected.
Pride in wealth and rank brings calamity on oneself.
Withdraw when the work is done.
This is the Tao of heaven.”
-----Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)
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