Taoist Healing Arts & Their Transformative Effects
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Written by Tristan Anderson
Introduction
Where did the universe come from? What is its activating principle? How were beings formed? What is a human's purpose? How can humans achieve this purpose? These are questions that humans have struggled with from time immemorial. Religion, philosophy, science, and other branches of human understanding have all shared their insights into these questions with the hope of finding meaning in life. There seems to be a common thread among humans throughout time that links people in a profound search, a search for an understanding on how to live in harmony with the universe. The Taoists in China, who first theorized over five thousand years ago, were some of the originators of the above questions and found their answers through centuries of looking within and without the body. Today, Taoists still seek to refine their understandings, which have been passed down over millennia.
Once the Taoists had found their answers to these questions, they wanted to share them with others to help them find meaning and harmony. In doing so, they found that most people did not have meaning in their lives and did not live in harmony with the Tao, which is the natural way of the universe, Taoist's discovered. The philosophy they shared was inspiring for people, but it was not enough to keep people always in harmony with the Tao. This could only be achieved through a personal transformation of body, mind, and spirit into the body, mind, and spirit of the Tao. With this realization, the Taoists began to formulate practices, which anyone could do, that would elicit this transformation. These practices are known today as the Taoist healing arts. This course will explore and define three of these healing arts: Chi Gong, T'ai Chi Ch'uan and meditation. It will also show what Taoist teachers have said about how these practices transform the body, mind, and spirit.