Galery

1

Ivan Petkov

What do we usually wish for ourselves? It is to be alive and well. Regardless of age, society and culture, life and longevity are the two most valuable things for everyone. They are the main prerequisite without which everything else to which everyone aspires loses its meaning or becomes impossible. Life is our greatest asset! Other values ​​such as happiness, love, luck and all the other good things which we often wish for come after health and longevity. But how can we achieve all this?
            I would like to present to you a different perspective, namely that of the Universal Healing Tao system created by Master Mantak Chia. The system combines ancient Taoist practices which were developed more than 5,000 years ago and applies them to modern life.

Brief history of Taoism

            The history of Tao, which is one of the three most widely-spread and most popular teachings in China along with Buddhism and Confucianism, dates back to the times before the appearance of writing, to the dawn of human civilization. The people of the tribes who had settled around the Yellow River (Huang He) gathered around the fires at night and tried to understand the world in which they lived. The wisest of them, those who were able to heal, divine, make weather forecasts and read the signs of the earth and natural forces, were shamans of the tribes. The name of the legendary shaman, Yu, who, according to legend, could climb into the sky, travel among the stars and turn into a bear, is known even today. The steps performed by Yu to become a bear have remained to this day and some communities in China currently perform them as a ritual.

                                             The steps performed by shaman Yu to become a bear

            With the advent of ancient civilizations and a sedentary lifestyle in the age of literature about 5,000 years ago, shamanic practices had gradually become typical for the common people. Rulers and aristocrats began recruiting shamans as advisers, diviners and healers. Shamanism had become an institution with rules and duties including the summoning of spirits, interpretation of dreams and signs, causing rain, healing and astrology. During this period, southern China had remained wilder and uncivilized, and it was the homeland of Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism.
            According to some sources, Lao Tzu was influenced by the shamanic practices that had been preserved in their original form in southern China. Lao Tzu, whose real name was Li Er, was in charge of the repository of documents in the principality of Zhou, which was a modest administrative service. After leaving his office, he decided to retire and, while leaving the principality, a guard stopped him and asked him to write something about the teaching he was following. Lao Tzu had become known for his ideas of a natural lifestyle.
            According to legend, there was a meeting between him and another great contemporary of his, namely Confucius. After the meeting, Confucius told his students that Lao Tzu was scary and mysterious like a dragon. "Tao Te Ching", a work of 81 verses written by Lao Tzu, was the first written document about Taoism. Lao Tzu wrote it around 500 BC and presented in it his ideas of the Sage who follows the path, but without having to make any special efforts or to pursue any ambition. The Sage, according to Lao Tzu, follows the natural laws of the universe and is in harmony with it.

                                       Lao Tzu leaves the principality of Zhou and heads west

            In the following epochs, Taoism took on many forms and changed in accordance with the views of its followers. There was magical and divinatory Taoism whose followers were adhering to the practices of shamans. There were shamans serving emperors and nobles in search of "the elixir of immortality". The contact with Buddhism gave rise to religious Taoism, the purpose of which is enlightenment.
             Taoist hermits "gave birth" to styles of martial arts and developed Chinese medicine; they were natural scientists, alchemists, astronomers. The names of Ge Hong who, for the first time, described in a book the searches and the daily round of Taoist hermits, of Zhang Sanfeng who was the founder of T'ai chi ch'uan, the most popular martial art across the world, which has a therapeutic and meditative aspect, and of many others have lived through the ages.