Tao Te Ching - 3

If a country over esteems its leader,
People will fight for leadership.
If a country over values what is scarce,
People begin to steal it.
If a country does not show off what is desirable,
People will not lose their conscience.

The Master leads
by emptying people's ambitions
and full-filling their inner-core,
by reducing their desires
and increasing their true strength.

When there is no need for deceit or greed,
The cunning ones shall restrain themselves.

Practice non-doing,
and everything will be accomplished.



Revised and translated by Chiyan Wang;
Editing credit to Robert H. Smitheram Ph.D.

Tao Te Ching - 2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.


English by Stephen Mitchell

Tao Te Ching- 1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the unknown.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet realizations and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called mystery.

Mystery within mystery.
The gateway to all wonderment.


English revised by Chiyan Wang

edited by Robert H. Smitheram

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Lao Tzu and Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu named Li Dan, was a philosopher credited with founding the philosophical system of Taoism. He is best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching translated as “The Way of Virtue.”

Tao, literally means "way", where it implies the essential, mysterious process of the universe.

Te, means "virtue", "personal character", "inner strength", "integrity", "divine power", or "healing virtue”, as well as the modern meaning of "moral excellence" or "the highest goodness."

道德 Tao Te together literally means "ethical principles."

Ching, means "canon", "great book", or "classic.”

Lao Tzu, the Buddha, and Confucius were contemporaries.

Taoism - Lao Tzu (571-471 BCE) 100 years old

Buddhism - the Buddha (563-483 BCE) 80 years old

Confucianism - Confucius (551-479 BCE) 72 years old

The three lived around the same time in history!

Confucius Met Lao Tzu

The story of the meeting of Confucius and Lao Tzu in the state of Zhou, while Lao Tzu was curator of the royal archives was published by Si-ma Ch'ien Historical Records.

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Confucius went to Zhou wanting to ask Lao Tzu about the Tao three times. Lao Tzu once told Confucius:

Let go of the arrogance, desires, pretentious demeanor and unbridled ambition. None of these is good for health."

Confucius came back and told his disciples, "As for birds, I understand how they can fly; with fish, I understand how they can swim; and with animals, I understand how they can run. But when it comes to dragons, I cannot understand how they ascend into the sky riding the wind and the clouds. Today I met Lao Tzu, and he's just like a dragon! He is a real master.”

Confucius then concluded, “Having heard the Tao in the morning, one may die (content) in the evening.”


Reference: Robert G. Henricks - Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, Columbia University Press, 2000.

Editing credit to Rhonda Richey

Qi State

 The Qi State is called “Qigong Tai” in Chinese.



This term was originally defined by Qian Xuesen, a brilliant rocket scientist trained at the California institute of technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and who was later regarded as the Father of China’s space program.


Qian is the main supportive force that made many people practice Qigong. During his period of advocating for Qigong, one in every five people in China were practicing Qigong daily. He encouraged scientists to conduct more research on Qigong, especially young scientists to remain open-minded and have the courage to study the unknown. He firmly believed that science needs courage and leadership without fearing others’ criticism and doubt. He stated that science cannot explain every Qigong phenomenon, but that it does not mean that Qi doesn’t exist nor does it invalidate its healing effects and power.

There are many phenomena in the Human body and in our world that science just can’t explain, yet. He believed that through Qigong cultivation, people become able to regulate the activities within their body so as to keep it in balance. From 1983 to 1987, Qian gave more than a hundred lectures on Qigong as well as on the human body’s transcendental abilities through Qigong practice in universities and at the CNSA stadium hall, where he worked (CNSA stands for China National Space Administration, it’s the equivalent of NASA in the US). Based on his studies and lectures, he published a book titled Human body science and modern technology (1998).



Qian started Qigong when he was 19 years old, after he got typhoid. He was treated by an herbalist first but the effects being limited, he then went to see a Qigong master and experienced external Qi transmission with remarkable, immediate, and tangible results - He quickly and completely recovered. So, he decided to start practicing Qigong on his own, and since then, he kept his daily Qigong practice until his passing in 2009 at the age of 98.



According to Qian, the human body has a normal state; but when one cultivates Qi, one can enter into a different state. The mind is in between sleep and awake, it enters into a relaxing and meditative state while still being fully aware. The brain waves in that state are different from when people are asleep or awake.



 When you are practicing Qigong for self-healing, you can enter into  internal Qi State; when you are conducting healing for others, you enter into external Qi state. In both scenarios, you can use the human body’s potential and access the source of the energy from the universe to heal yourself and others.



When cultivating Qi to a certain level, Qi state is the most blissful and comforting experience: the mind is calm and crystal clear, heart energy is soft and expanded, every cell is livened, clean blood circulate in joy, and the body moves on its own with full freedom surrounded with warm and breezy life-force (Qi), you feel fully alive and unite with heaven and earth into oneness.

Editing credit to Simon Rimbert

Signs that one might be off-track from the practice (Copy)

Tao - The Way

How far have you come?

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True cultivation is not mysterious at all; it is mainly about letting go...


Based on Fengshui, 2020 is an intensely conflicted and destructive year, but it is also a chance for cultivators to make changes to transform negative habits into positive characteristics. Now is time to evaluate how we are doing with our practice, and how we can do more letting go.


The following are the signs when one practices Tao incorrectly or is off track, especially if it keeps getting worse.


1. Feeling confused a lot with a foggy brain (Qi scattered, Qi leaks out the head)


2. Always feeling the need for more different styles of practice from different teachers (not following the Tao-inner path)

3. Having a sense of urgency to get it and get it now (ego/self energy centered)


4. Health conditions becoming worse or more weakened (usually because of the mixed practice of two conflicted Qigong styles)


5. Always feeling self-righteous towards others who become the target of blame (still hooked in drama)


6. Being unable to contain anger and raw emotions such as irritation (lack training on the wisdom eye)


7. Still being driven by addictions (looking for comfort from the outside rather than finding inner peace)


8. Always looking to calculate or bargain for almost anything (mentally stopping the natural flow)


9. Remaining mentally rigid rather than being flexible; having hardened energy rather than soft (energy is put to use in wrong areas)


10. Constantly pushing and doing, which makes things more complicated or difficult (not finding effortless doing)


11. Thinking of oneself as unique, awakened, and knowing of “the truth”; while others are still asleep and being fooled (deviation in views)


12. Feeling that one is so advanced, beyond teaching; seeing how the teacher or others have so many problems (arrogance creates trouble for the self; the more correct the practice, the more humble one becomes)


If this happens, one might need to reset the practice.

Editing credit to Robert H. Smitheram

Services are all going ONLINE

For the best of everyone's safety and well-being, please be aware that due to much worsened pandemic scenario in California and Santa Barbara, all Taoist Light Qigong Training including Healer Training group on July 18 and Level I training on July 19, Sunday will be conducted Online only.

We have had many successful Online trainings in the past dozens of years for students from all over the world.

We look forward to meeting new comers and walking in the light of Tao.