The 3 Dantiens and the Chakra System - Conversations with Healer Darren Orr

Question - When you study the healing process from the Taoist perspective, you study the three major energy centers or three dantiens. When you study from an Indian perspective, you study examine the chakra system or even the microchakra system. Chakras seem to be the prevailing perspective that most people are familiar with. What is the difference between the daintiens and the chakras? Do they complement each other? Does one act as an overlay for the other? Is one method more precise for healing then the other?


Darren - The chakras come from the Ancient Indian science of life called Ayurveda. They are widely known in America because they have been in the consciousness since the first Yogis  from India brought Yoga to the US in the late 19th, early 20th century. Buddhists also use the chakra system because Buddha was an Indian prince. A commonly known modern day energetic practice with Buddhist connections is Reiki. But in both the Hindu and Buddhist sacred texts they do commonly refer to the sacred 3 centers within their understanding of the energetic matrix. They call them Granthi. They are 3 energetic or psychic knots that need to be untied, unwound and unbound before Awakening can occur. On a physical and spiritual plane, I'm almost positive there was cross cultural diffusion between the ancient Indian and Chinese models, which would explain why they have so many similarities.


The  Daoists are widely known to utilize the 3 treasures of Jing, Qi and Shen located within the 3 Dantiens. For those in the West familiar with the terms, it comes primarily from the growing influence of Medical QiGong and the internal martial arts.   Many are unaware of QiGong because it's relatively new. The word QiGong was coined in the 1960's, prior to that, for thousands of years in China it was referred to as Dao-yin or Do-In.

I think what needs to be understood is that there is an energetic matrix. It is designed to be intertwined, interconnected and interwoven like a spiders web. The different systems don't compete with one another they complement each other to achieve balance, homeostasis, and health. One system is not the end all and be all.  Not the chakras, dantiens, acupoints, marma points, Zang Fu organs, meridians, 8 extraordinary channels, Lao, Sinew, Divergent channels etc. It's not so much about their differences but rather how they harmoniously communicate and integrate that is most important because it allows your physicality to be and you to live.

The dantiens and chakras are individual systems within the energetic matrix. They work harmoniously with one another like the different physical systems of the body, such as the respiratory and circulatory systems. The physical matrix can't be understood or diagnosed by studying 1 cell, organ, system or brain synapse (even though our western medical model is set up that way and we like to try too). In my clinic as a Doctor of Medical QiGong, it must be taken into consideration how all the different energetic systems interrelate and integrate with one another and how that energetic matrix is influenced by that persons unique Mind and their different life experiences.

Both the 3 dantiens and 7 chakras emanate from the TaiJi Pole which is the deepest energetic structure within the body. Its actually a hologram that reflects the Divine within the center core of your body/mind. The dantiens  overlay, encompass and are slightly deeper than the chakras. To use a metaphor the chakras are like geysers that connect the external Earth to the internal, the dantiens are the deep internal reservoirs or aquifers and the Tai ji pole is the emanating source.

Both the 3 dantiens and 7 chakras  extend out from center core of the Tai Ji pole through the body and out into the Wei Qi, aura or energetic fields. Both systems can be palpated and used to asses what is going on with someone. Some break up the Wei qi or aura into 7 fields to treat, which I find personally too complex.

In my clinic simplicity is power.  I utilize the depth and breath of the Daoists understanding of the energetic matrix by taking into account everything. I utilize the chakras and dantiens as well as many other energetic systems, most importantly I intuitively use my Shen.
 
When treating and how I sense it is that just like the interior, the dantiens encompass the chakras within the external fields.  Assessment wise the dantiens are more important because they are the reservoirs of your life force energy. If any are depleted then the treatment will be less effective
and healing virtually impossible no matter what energetic system is used.

I'm a Reiki Master and have experienced many different forms of energy work. For years before I became a D.M.Q I worked on people just utilizing the chakras but I intuitively knew there was more to it than just that. My search led me to Inner-Strength and Formless Daoism, where I began my Doctoral training with Dr. Ted Cibik. Through Medical QiGong and a living, breathing Master,  I truly began to understand the energetic matrix, not from an intellectual level but from a visceral, experiential and intuitive level.  There is so much depth and breath to it that it boggles my mind and baffles me how someone can proclaim to be able to treat people energetically with an online course, 1 day class or even 2 week intensive.  It's simply impossible because it's a life long learning process of inner self cultivation. 

In order to fully understand what you are feeling you need to be a clear vessel and channel which requires a daily, dedicated, disciplined self cultivation practice over many years before you're even ready to begin treating people. If one doesn't self cultivate first they will attract those who reflect their issues and more seriously they'll  simply be transferring their deviated Qi to their client which is horrible for the client and harmful to the practitioner.    

Many energetic systems taught today only deal with one small portion of the energetic matrix ie only the chakras or dantiens or acupoints. They tend to emphasize the newest, greatest, best, new technique, energetic recipe or cookie cutter formula without being able to feel Qi and without an appreciation and understanding of the depth and profundity of what they are teaching and doing. At that point they have lost the lineage. All new systems of energy healing usually stem from 2 sources, Ayurveda and Classical Chinese Medicine.

 No 1 is reinventing the wheel when it comes to energy medicine. Its been around for well over 8,000 years.  We should give respect to all the teachers, healers, shamans and warriors of all cultures  who dedicated their lives and in many cases died so this knowledge, wisdom and information could survive. When people aggrandize themselves for profit as the creator or inventor of an energetic system that utilizes elements of Ayurveda or Classical Chinese Medicine or Indigenous Medicine they lose the lineage and all the power that comes with that. Medical QiGong and more specifically, Classical Chinese Medicine, is the foundation of most modern day energetic systems including modern day TCM and acupuncture.  Anything that claims to be newly discovered usually takes 1 aspect of Classical Chinese Medicine, Indigenous Medicine or Ayurveda and puts their name on it claiming they created this great energetic system. 

 Medical QiGong is the root and foundation of Classical Chinese Medicine. It is a complete healthcare system incorporating the prevention and treatment of disease, with a primary emphasis on educating and actively teaching the patient how to empower themselves by learning tools to release stress and promote health and healing. In contrast most modern day, recently "invented"  energetic practices are just modalities.  In many cases, even though well intentioned, the person treating often becomes a drug substitute for their pharmaceuticals.  If all one wants is the client to return back to them over and over without training them to not need them at some point then it's an ego trip and a huge disservice to the client or patient.  

If one really wants to heal, feel whole, decompress, de-stress and learn about how energy truly works than take a cue from a Daoist and study how the Earth loves all life unconditionally, mimic it...then use the harmony of Mother Nature as your preacher and teacher. 


 Thank you Darren!

Darren Orr is a Doctor of Classical Chinese Medicine in Medical QiGong Therapy with a specialization in Dao-yin. He is currently training in ShenGong to be a Formless Daoist Priest. He is a Medical QiGong Master, nationally certified massage, bodywork and somatic therapist, Reiki Master, sound healer, Dao yoga, Dao Yin and meditation teacher. Darren is an A-Z practitioner specializing in life-altering illness, palliative care for the terminally ill, bereavement services for family, cancer, PTSD, fibromyalgia, addiction, mental/emotional imbalances, chronic pain and stress management as well as preventative medicine. CEU courses, lectures, workshops, seminars, classes, qi parties, and corporate wellness programs also available. Serving the tri-state area in a triangle from Philadelphia to NYC to Atlantic City Nj. Long Distance therapy also available.

You can contact Darren at:  d.orr333@gmail.com 

You may also be interested in reading our interview with Darren about healing and the practice of Qigong.

Also his articles for our blog include:

Shedding Our Acquired Life Roles and Medical Qigong

Spiritual Warrior 
Manifesting Destiny 



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Karen's beautiful work in available in her shop on Etsy

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Manifesting Destiny - Conversations With Healer Darren Orr

MBS:  I was having a discussion with some people the other day, and someone made the off handed remark that because of the way that a mutual friend had acted, they predicted that a certain future outcome was inevitable for them.  Another person who was standing with us then made the statement, "you better watch what you say, or you will manifest it."

Will the event really become manifested, or are you really predicting something that's going to happen anyway?  OR, if you really want to expand on that thought, does it have to do with time lines? Could it become manifested on this time line but not another?? Or does it even get that involved at all???  lol

Autumn Decor, Tree Reflection Print by Jude McConkey

Darren:  Yes it gets that involved and everything you mentioned is factored into the equation and outcome and probably alot more haha! You are doing both: it's being manifested because you said it and you are seeing the fruition of a habitual pattern not in balance with your friends destiny.

Everyone has a destiny--a reason why you were born, a reason why you are living at this time on Earth. We can go into this deeper from a Classical Chinese medicine perspective but it must be in person because truth cannot be expressed in words on paper or over the cloud, only through a direct vibrational experience.

Yes, you are predicting something that is going to happen. If you are friends with someone else and overtime you come to understand their mind (patterns, behaviors, habits) then it is relatively easy to predict outcomes based on past behavior. What do most people use as the basis of their current experience and future decisions?---their past. So the past, for most, informs their future without them ever being present of the only moment that they are alive---now and now and now!!  Or, for most people, even being aware that this pattern exists - which is most unfortunate. As my teachers teacher states "anyone who doesn't live in the present moment is committing a form of spiritual suicide" and thus cannot fulfill their mandate from heaven or destiny in this lifetime. 

The question becomes, are your choices and actions in life based on your true nature and your own spirit?  That truthful internal voice?  Or, is your truth stifled and unduly influenced by external sources ...ie family, friends, media, Internet, society, religion, culture???  Or, are you simply an amalgamation of these factors?  Or... have you even bothered to take the time to understand your own mind???
That is an important question to ask oneself.

It is worthless to read and reiterate someone else's words, practices, forms, teachings. All of those came from one who originally thought outside the box, a true independent thinker. This is what my lineage, Formless Daoism and Inner Strength teaches as it's foundation--to be an independent thinker.  The most meaningful teaching comes directly from one's own experience. All else is fallacy and plagiarism. You must speak and live your own truth. You are utterly unique. Over 70 trillion combinations of genes and cells and you are a unique combination and manifestation never seen before in creation and never to be seen again.

So, why follow anyone but your own spirit?  The greatest master you will ever find resides inside your own Being.
The teacher is so necessary and revered in every culture because it points you back to your own spirit -- the uniqueness which holds and enfolds all which if you connect with it while living, will unfold and manifest your destiny in this lifetime.

Everyone is a creator. Everyone creates their own life.  Even if they abdicate that responsibility and play the martyr or victim role they still choose the filtered glasses with which they choose to see the world through and act upon.  It can become manifest in this timeline based on your friends choices or it can be manifested in another dimension or another lifetime.

At this point one needs to look to the highest form of science we in the west know of, quantum physics. We are finding with each new discovery that our most modern scientific method directly correlates to the ancient teachings of many cultures. As the famous physicist David Bohm states "the universe may be nothing more than a hologram of your own Mind".
This is exactly the 'Truth' that QiGong Masters pointed at 8,000 years ago using 'internal' technology.

What does that statement invoke in you?
Does it make you think? 

Depending on the quantum physicist you are quoting there can be anywhere from 3 to 26 dimensions or more. Your choices determine whether the unlimited field of potentiality and possibility is broken into a particle or a wave. Using the metaphor of the ocean, the quantum realm is an ocean of unlimited potentiality and possibilities where your choices take this unlimited wave and break it into 1 path, wave or particle that you surf and that 1 path out of many becomes your so called "reality".   But if there are other dimensions then potentially you are making different decisions in each dimension and each produces a unique outcome and destiny.

Think about that!

Here we can reference the Hiesenburg principle which states simply that the observer changes that which is observed. This has HUGE implications for healing from a medical QiGong perspective but even mores for our scientific method and how research is conducted.

Said in another way- what you give conscious awareness to, you change. Your intention in some aspects has more of an effect on the field of awareness and consciousness, that is life, than do your actions.

From a jing level physical matter perspective, everyone has a timeline. Life is a terminal illness.  From the moment you are born it is a countdown to your death. You only get so many breaths. Can you face that fact and live moment to moment with that awareness, not be fearful and use it to increase your presence in the eternal now?  It's the only thing one can truly count on.  If you are born you will die. The question becomes how are you going to live your death?? The way you live your life is the way you will live your death. We are born with a destiny, but our individual choices from moment to moment affect this destiny and our ability to fulfill and manifest it in our lifetime and within a given time line.  If you don't find the time to deal with and understand your mind in life, you WILL deal with at death, it's your choice.

This is why spiritual disciplines like Medical QiGong were created.  So you can keep your body as healthy, vital and supple for as long as possible.  Regulating the Mind, reducing stress, harmonizing internal and external energies into 1.  Honing your intention to awaken your spirit so you can manifest your own individual, unique destiny in this lifetime for the benefit of all life, both formed and formless.



Darren Orr is a Doctor of Classical Chinese Medicine in Medical QiGong Therapy with a specialization in Dao-yin. He is currently training in ShenGong to be a Formless Daoist Priest. He is a Medical QiGong Master, nationally certified massage, bodywork and somatic therapist, Reiki Master, sound healer, Dao yoga, Dao Yin and meditation teacher. Darren is an A-Z practitioner specializing in life-altering illness, palliative care for the terminally ill, bereavement services for family, cancer, PTSD, fibromyalgia, addiction, mental/emotional imbalances, chronic pain and stress management as well as preventative medicine. CEU courses, lectures, workshops, seminars, classes, qi parties, and corporate wellness programs also available. Serving the tri-state area in a triangle from Philadelphia to NYC to Atlantic City Nj. Long Distance therapy also available.

You can contact Darren at:  d.orr333@gmail.com 

You may also be interested in reading our interview with Darren about healing and the practice of Qigong.



Also his articles for our blog include:
Shedding Our Acquired Life Roles and Medical Qigong
Spiritual Warrior


 

Autumn Decor Tree Reflection print is courtesy of photographer Jude McConkey.
  Prints are available through her shop on Etsy.

   Follow the daily updates of the Mind Body Spirit Marketplace on Facebook and Tumblr.

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

Hong Kong, China

In case you are out and about on Saturday morning and see groups of people in the parks practicing some Martial Arts forms, April 30th is World Tai Chi and Qigong Day.  It is an annual event that is held the last Saturday of April each year to help promote the related disciplines of T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Qigong.  It is held in over 60 countries and has been going strong since 1999.

This multinational effort is ongoing and it's purpose is to expose people to the growing body of medical research related to Traditional Chinese Medicine and to help them fine resources and teachers in their own towns and areas.  Our class in Montclair, New Jersey will be at Verona Park this year and among other forms will be doing the Circle Walk Practice of Ba Gua Zhang which we have been studying for the last few months.

Ireland

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day's stated goals are to:

 1) Educate the world about emerging medical research revealing health benefits that Tai Chi Chuan and qigong offer.

2) Educate about the increasing use of these ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine modalities in business, education, penal and drug rehabilitation.

3) Provide a global vision of cooperation for health and healing purposes across geopolitical boundaries, and also an appeal to people worldwide to embrace wisdom from all the cultures of the world.

New Jersey, USA

If you are suffering with medical issues, emotional difficulties or if you simply want to learn how to use Qigong, Tai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine to cultivate better health, prevent illness; while also embracing, enhancing, and celebrating your spiritual connection to heaven and earth...seek out classes where you live.   

~ diane fergurson

You may also enjoy reading:
From Jing to Qi to Shen: An Interview with Healer Darren Orr
Eating with the Qi Diagram
Qigong: An Interview with Joanne Kornoelje

photos courtesy of Wikipedia and the Mir-Yam School of Tai Chi, Chi Kung and Meditation

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Shedding our Acquired Life Roles and Medical Qigong

Conversations with Healer and Medical Qigong practitioner Darren Orr always prove to be an enlightening and informative experience.  The following discussion focuses on our acquired "life roles", our ability or inability to shed them, and how Medical Qigong can help in the healing process.
                                                                                                    ~ diane fergurson


MBS:  I've been reading recently about how sometimes people, deep down, don't really want to move completely forward after a death or unhappy life experience.  They resist the healing process because they have, in many cases, taken on a "life role" that they would find hard to give up.  For example, they embrace the role as the "survivor", the "widow", the "sick person". That's how other people identify them. That's what they talk about socially. They build their life and activities around that persona and really don't want to give it up 100% because then they would have to change who they are. Will you speak to that? 

Butterfly in Barely Blue by Nellie Levine

Darren:  Yes, the fear of changing that which they believe they are.  But what are we?  We cling to these identities or life roles so dearly. Why? We defend our positions, create lines in the sand causing strife, separation, division and dissension. We always want to be right and never wrong. Always want to feel pleasure, never pain. Always want to gain and never experience loss, only wanting the highs and never the lows. Never realizing and considering that the Divine flow of life is perpetuated by duality and dichotomy.
On the deepest level though duality merges into unity. We categorize, segregate, name, define, confine, dichotomize everything in our lives in order to try and understand it but in trying to understand it you lose the essence of simply experiencing the unity flow and harmony of each passing moment.

In the Dao de Jing Lao tzu talks about this saying the " the mind is like a knife always chipping away at the Dao trying to render it graspable and manageable, yet that which is formless is ungraspable and unmanageable. Nature is the best example of this and is why the Daoist's revered the harmony of nature as being the best expression of the Dao. The fundamental question of life is Who Am I? With that question comes a spiritual awakening and a rekindling of a fire that has lied dormant since childhood.

Who Am I? Sages from India and China, Christians, mystics, sufi muslims, indigenous religions throughout the world all use this form of self-enquiry to release the acquired mind/ego/false self and in doing so commune with the Source of life.

It is very true that people take on a "life role" that they find hard to give up whether that be survivor, widow, sick person or on a deeper level believing themselves to be the body. Everybody builds their life and activities around a persona whatever that may be, that is called the ego/false self/acquired mind. We all have it, all of us.

That is the essential point of self cultivation and Medical Qigong:

to refine the acquired aspects of your being in order see clearly your true nature. All the acquired negative, habitual habits, behaviors, thought patterns, attitudes and excessive mental/emotional templates that we all have gathered and carry around with us from birth onwards through living on Earth must be purged and purified through a form of self-cultivation before death. That is our real job in life, not what makes us money.

The idea of heaven on earth in the Christian tradition is talking about the same thing that the Chinese, Hindu, Native American and indigenous cultures are all saying: that when this acquired garbage is cleared heaven exists within ourselves.  If we clear out our story lines, identities, diseases, addictions, attachments, aversions, negative habits emotions and behaviors via Medical Qigong purgation exercises you can live from the heavenly bliss and happiness that has always resided within you while living on Earth.

The reason people have a hard time moving forward after death is because they believe themselves and the deceased to be the finite, temporal body/mind trapped in space and time of 3 dimensions. Yes very true, people sometimes don't want to move completely forward after a death or disease and thus resist the healing process because they have taken on a life role. People resist the healing process all the time due to subconscious issues about how we perceive ourselves vs others and the outside world. What we fail to realize is that the outside is a reflection of the inside which affects our perceptions, choices and decisions determining how we look at and feel about our experiences.

Then what often occurs is we judge, label and condemn ourselves for how we think and feel about our experiences. It's a vicious cycle.

It all really comes down to Mind. That is what we work with most in Medical Qigong is the person's Mind. I utilize Qi and Shen to allow the clients mind the ability to see the unlimited possibilities, shifting and moving them out of the stasis of there "life role, sickness or affliction". This then helps them to see the root of the problem, disease or affliction, why certain patterns emerged and then giving them the tools to cut those roots thereby freeing their life-force energy and vitality allowing them to return back to homeostasis, balance and health.

The main message I would like to convey about death is that you do not die. I'll repeat that YOU DO NOT DIE. Your body and brain drop off like a discarded garment but your spirit is eternal. We all are an invisible indivisible eternal spiritual energy.

Like a butterfly breaking through a cocoon. At the moment of death we simply break free of cocoon of the body/mind and return to the spiritual essence and energy that we truly are. We are not our bodies, not our minds, we are not confined to space and time. We are not our thoughts, feelings emotions or information. We are not our name, what we look like or dress like, where we live, life role, social status, fame, wealth or power. Our spirit is limitless, beginingless and endless, a formless harmony of unity and oneness.

Most who walk the Earth live in ignorance of this principle which sustains and maintains them until they are at their deathbed. You can realize and actualize your spirit while still in the physical form full of health and vitality, but you must begin the inner self cultivation necessary to distill the divine elixir that lies within. That is the essence of my job as Medical Qigong therapist, to assist, shift and uplift those who come to me via affinity. Most often its for healing but deeper it is to give them the tools to dig deep inside and find, understand and manifest their destiny-which is always spiritual in nature.

You must delve deep into the depths of your being searching and yearning for the answer to the question Who Am I?  It doesn't really matter what label you place on the life role. Find out who the "I" is you are talking about when you say "I" went, "I" came, "I" did or "I" am such and such.

The idea of ever having security and being able to resist change is only going to exhaust yourself in vain.

Life is change. Buddhists talk about groundlessness, the Daoists about Chaos. Do you ever really have control over your life? You may think you do and it could go on that way for a very long time but sooner or later somewhere, something is going to flip your world upside down and knock you on your ass. The question then becomes are you going to just sit there and stagnate or get up and move? The idea is to not get trapped in stasis, not get bogged down in the negative mind chatter of judging and berating yourself that stems from the ego/acquired mind. Most people when faced with a trauma, death or life-changing event don't know how to deal with it. They don't know how flow with it, most people's first reaction is to resist which eventually leads to stasis.

We as a people need to learn how to let go of our mental/emotional baggage that we all carry behind us like a ball and chain. Medical qigong therapy is unsurpassed at showing us tools to get out of stasis and clear, release and let go of this acquired mental/emotional baggage so we can hear the silent song of our spirit and live it while embodied.

When you ride the tide in the Dao of now you flow effortlessly in harmony with the unity of life.


MBS:  Thank you Darren
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Butterfly in Barely Blue by Nellie Levine is available for purchase on Cargoh 

 Darren Orr is a Reiki master and teacher, a nationally certified massage therapist and a Medical Qigong therapist and teacher.  He specializations are in Oncology, chronic pain, stress management, life-altering illness and palliative care for the terminally ill. Darren recently completed his 2nd year of a 3 year Medical Qigong Program, a Graduate Degree of over 2,000 hours.
You can email him at: Bodhichitta8@hotmail.com
Last year we conducted an amazing 3 part interview with Darren on our blog:
"From Jing to Qi to Shen: An Interview with Healer Darren Orr".
If you missed it, make sure to check it out!

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Eating With The Tai Chi Diagram Part 3

A Strong Foundation of Common Sense

 “Eating with the Tai Chi Diagram I” concentrated on your starting point, acceptance, contemplating the Tai Chi Diagram, and creating small changes. “Eating with the Tai Chi Diagram II” presented the problematic nature of the market solutions, and suggested adopting the Tai Chi Diagram as a lifetime study with you as the master teacher.

I will now discuss some of the thoughts and actions I find helpful.

We hear a lot about “good” and “bad” foods yet the diagram is made of Yin and Yang, White fish, and Golden (or Black) Fish. Make a shift in consciousness from good/bad to yin/yang.

In the world of good and bad you look for information mostly outside of you. In the world of yin and yang you look for information mostly inside of you.

In the beginning you may want to find a teacher that can guide and help you in this transition,

Follow the law of nature:

 Follow the law of nature. Follow common sense. For example, here are three simple, common sense ideas:

1) Eat when you are hungry

2) Eat till you’re 80% full

3) Pay close attention to how food affects you. If a certain food feels not right for your body or mind, don’t eat it for a while

In most cases if you follow these three guidelines your weight will go down, your health will improve, and you will be happier. For some it is that simple, but if you find following the guidelines hard to do you are not alone. For some of us staying sane, healthy and happy is hard work.

It’s all in the mind:

It is all in the mind and that is why the mind is a good place to start. Examine your views, attitudes and habits about and around food and eating. For example guideline 1 tells you to eat when you are hungry. Do you know when you are physically hungry? Have you ever been physically hungry? Can you tell the difference between physical hunger, and emotional hunger? Or habit hunger? Do you eat for recreation? Comfort?  Company? Instead of sleeping? To suppress sexuality? Because you’re angry, and lashing out is not an option? Because you’re sad, and crying is not aloud? The answer is simple: Eat only when your body needs food. Applying this principle to your daily life may take time and work. Contemplating it will lead to developing the awareness in your body, which will give you answers. Then you will need to go back to your mind where you will build acceptance, followed by creating and implementing small changes. The word “gong” (as in Qigong) means achieving/cultivating and it implies time accumulation. Take the time, do the work, don’t over do.

Of course the same line of thought follows for guidelines two and three: Can you sense how full you are while you are eating? Can you sense it after you’re done eating? How do you find 80% fullness in your stomach? What qualifies as discomfort? How do you know if that discomfort came from something you ate? And what was that something? Remember: Small changes! Rome was not built in a day; neither were your habits. Pick something that you can relate or connect to and slowly experiment with incorporating it into your life. Be creative, and be well.

~ Miriam Moran Shankman

Article Part 1
Article Part 2

Mir-Yam School of Tai Chi, Qigong, and meditation, offers:

• Weekly classes in Tai Chi, Qigong, Meditation: practice, theory, and applications
• Medical Qigong sessions
• Guidance in “Eating with the Tai Chi Diagram”
• Workshops and presentations

To contact Miriam, www.mir-yam.com, miriam@mir-yam.com

Also by Miriam:
Slow Down We Move Too Fast:  A Prelude to the Holiday Season


"Butterfly Summer" Photo Art Print is by artist Karen Casey Smith and available in her Etsy Shop.

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Part 2: From Jing to Qi to Shen, An Interview with Healer Darren Orr

Question 3:  What about people who won't let go of emotional pain?  I know you've come across may people like this in your private practice.                    

Answer:
I could write a book on this!!! lol. I like the progression of the questions from Jing to Qi to Shen.

Yes, I have come across many people in my private practice and throughout my life that struggle to let go of emotional pain. In our culture we are not taught how to deal with  stress and our subsequent emotions in a positive way... especially men...and we definitely are not shown how to release them and let them go. That is the main problem in my estimation. I feel people want to release stress and emotions they just don't know how. Our culture and society fails us miserably in this context because 70-90% of all disease is due to stress, so if we really want to change the health care system we need to learn preventative methods of stress management from childhood onwards. Sadly we don't yet have a system in place.

The inability to deal with stressful emotions stems from childhood where the root of our personality and emotional responses to stress are first learned, developed and practiced. When working with clients with anxiety, depression, rage, worry, fear etc.. you will hear them say it's just a part of their personality and the "way they are". That is so not true. All human behavior is learned. Scientific studies have shown that fear for instance is learned and ingrained into the brain through repeated exposure over a period of time, it is not innate.

At birth we are a blank slate and from the minute we exit the womb we are bombarded with external stimuli. In response to this stress and external stimuli emotions are created. As children we learn how to deal with stress, trauma, change and uncertainty from those around us (parents, teachers, culture, society). Usually though when a child is faced with trauma and stress they just want to survive it and thus develop coping mechanisms to get through that particular event. What happens is that oftentimes those coping mechanisms are not healthy ways to deal with emotions or stress and they become ingrained, go to the subconscious level and when as adults they face similar stress and trauma their habitual patterns, attitudes and behaviors are triggered and the brain goes on autopilot responding the same way you did as a child. So what often happens is either the person will stuff down and repress their emotions or they will lash out and displace them on other people. Neither of these ways are healthy, constructive or beneficial.

Emotions are there for one thing only so that we can move, change and get out of stasis. Again like physical pain they are a wake-up call, signal or beacon to pay attention, for introspection and as a way to understand your true nature. Often mental/emotional pain is worse and more insidious than physical pain and harder to release because the mind replays the past which continually illicits the same negative emotions over and over again and then projects them into the future. The energy of the emotions becomes stuck and traps itself within the cellular structure of the tissues leading to physical tension and pain, stress, tight sore muscles, restricted range of motion, and areas of the body that overtime become susceptible to disease or injury.

Our emotional template can be seen in peoples posture, the way they breathe, facial expressions and the eyes. Our emotions are the results of the beliefs we hold in our mind, how we interpret the changes that occur in our life, how we view ourselves internally and how we view the external world. So when treating and dealing with emotions what you are really treating is the person's mental habits, behaviors, patterns, attachments and aversions.  Alot of pathology can be traced back to imbalanced emotional states because they set up the beat and vibration that the body and mind responds to. Many times emotional pain is the root of physical pain, disease or illness.

Medical Qigong is unsurpassed in dealing with emotional problems because it is a complete and comprehensive system with over 5000 years of continuous empirical and practical use in keeping people healthy and free from disease. Most forms of energy healing are not complete systems. They take bits and pieces of medical qigong and the "creator" puts their own spin on it so they can market themselves and make money. The main emphasis in Medical Qigong therapy is placed on empowering the patient to take back control over their mind, body and emotions.

Medical Qigong is one of the only disciplines, I'm aware of, where self-cultivation and purgation of the excess emotional baggage we have carried around since birth is paramount and given prominence in the treatment modality. It is not enough for the healer to clear the patient when treating, it is just as if not more important that the patient understands and undertakes the responsibility for doing the self-cultivation necessary to clear the energetic charges of the emotions from the body. Specific exercises, meditations, visualizations and sound prescriptions are given as homework in between treatments to the patient to clear out, release and discharge the built up emotional current trapped inside the cellular structure of the tissues and neural connections of the brain.

According to the ancient theories of classical Chinese Medicine emotions are connected to the qi or energy level at the middle dantien in the area of the heart. Each organ has physical, mental/emotional and spiritual components to it. Everyone is born with 5 pre-natal virtues connected to the 5 yin organs. But due to stress and negative experiences from our environment those positive congenital virtues are transformed into negative or acquired mental/emotional states. For instance the Kidneys give us the virtue of wisdom, willpower and enlightenment but through repeated exposure to stress and trauma those virtues become the acquired states of fear, terror, loneliness and insecurity. The Liver gives us unconditional love, compassion and kindness while the acquired states are anger, rage, jealousy, depression, frustration and irritation. The spleen's congenital qualities are trust, faith and acceptance due to stress it flips into doubt, worry, over thinking. The heart is born with the virtues of balance, order, and peace, yet through life it switches due to shock, trauma, over excitement. The lungs give us integrity, honesty, dignity and righteousness while the acquired aspects are sadness, grief, loss, longing, anxiety, guilt, shame and blame. Once the congenital yang virtues flip into the acquired yin states the emotions begin to fill the energetic channels creating blockages, disharmony and illness until or unless this emotional baggage is cleansed and purged from the body and mind.

The point of Medical Qigong and all my treatments is to empower and teach my clients simple, easy and effective methods to drop these negative acquired mental/emotional states and the baggage that comes with them in order to re-awaken the positive congenital prenatal virtues of the Wu Jing Shen that always reside inside ourselves. The acquired aspects can be looked at like clouds blocking the sun. Just because we can't see the sun due to the clouds doesn't mean it isn't there. The clouds are the acquired states and are cleared via purgation techniques so that the prenatal virtues of the wu jing shen can radiate out in all directions like the sun thus illuminating all of life.

Question 4:  .  Can you discuss the connection between emotional pain and physical ailments and some of the treatment modalities that you use...like playing the crystal singing bowls (vibrational therapy).

Answer:
All of the modalities I use to treat people have as their foundation qi or life force energy. Qi is the communicative aspect between the material (jing) world and the spiritual (shen) world. It is intimately connected with the mind and emotions and is called the Great communicator because it is the invisible thread that weaves together the web of life. Whether it's massage, medical qigong, reiki, meditation, dao yoga or quartz crystal singing bowls qi is used to purge negative acquired mental states, tonify and cultivate the congenital virtues of the wu-jing shen and regulate the mind, body and spirit into one integrated and cohesive whole guided by the Taiji pole and eternal soul.

The quartz crystal singing bowls (vibrational therapy) are an amazingly profound and unique treatment modality that I use by themselves and in combination with my classes, treatments and meditations to help my clients and further enhance their healing. The bowls are made of 99% quartz crystal and when played resonate a pure tone on the musical scale (do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti,) that reverberates through and balances the DNA, nervous system, endocrine glands, brain, bones and marrow, myo-fascia, internal organs, 3 dantiens and the 7 chakras.

Like the quartz crystal singing bowls our bones, DNA, brain and myo-fascia also are made up of a quartz crystalline structure, so when the bowls are played they become like tuning forks that transmit the healing vibrations deep into the DNA, brain, body, bone marrow and cellular structure of the myo-fascia thereby opening up the meridians, releasing tension, stress and adhesions, quieting the constant chattering of the thinking mind which allows the body to enter a profoundly deep state of relaxation, regeneration, peace and healing.

In our technological age, quartz is used as a transmitter of energy and information in such things as clocks, watches, electronic equipment, micro-chips and computers. An interesting fact is that computer companies were the first to create the bowls because they use the bowls as a habitat to manufacture their microchips. This ability of quartz to act as an amplifier of energy and information is further enhanced when the practitioner and client place their intention on the sound and healing themselves. The bowls correlate to a specific musical note, particular color, nerve plexus, endocrine gland, internal organ, meridian, dantien and chakra. So when all 7 bowls are played you effectively balance and harmonize every aspect of your being and in doing so are given access to your true-nature/spirit/soul. I offer vibrational therapy using the singing bowls in private one-on-one treatments and group sessions.

continued in part 3

Part 1

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From Jing to Qi to Shen: An Interview with Healer Darren Orr, Part 1

I'm very pleased to have had the opportunity to conduct this insightful three part interview with my former teacher, Darren Orr.  I was fortunate enough to have studied with Darren for several years, both privately as well as in a group setting. Spending quality time and learning from this wonderfully intelligent, kind and loving soul is something I truly appreciate and will never forget.   
 ~ diane

Darren Orr is a Reiki master and teacher, a nationally certified massage therapist and a Medical Qigong therapist and teacher.  He specializations are in Oncology, chronic pain, stress management, life-altering illness and palliative care for the terminally ill. Darren is also currently enrolled in a 3 year Medical Qigong Program, a Graduate Degree of over 2,000 hours.  When he graduates in 2012 he will have become a Dr. of Medical Qigong. Darren also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and maintains private practice in New Jersey.  In addition he lectures, writes and teaches Dao yoga and meditation classes in which sound therapy is utilized as part of his sessions.



Question:  How did you begin your journey in the Healing Arts?

Answer 

I think it was a combination of affinity, synchronicity and my destiny.   I grew up living with someone who was in constant chronic pain, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.  I lived and felt firsthand the strength and weaknesses of our Western allopathic model of medicine.  I never realized that there were any other alternatives to surgery and the management of symptoms other then with drugs and pharmaceuticals. 
Later, as I got older, I had a former girlfriend who had just been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
I was holding her hand one day and I had an epiphany that changed my life and awoke my slumbering spirit. I felt my qi.  I had no idea what is was, I just knew I felt it. Over the next week we were doing research on the Internet about Fibromyalgia and kept coming across references to Qigong. We had never heard of Qigong before, but the articles kept saying that it was the root and foundation of Chinese medicine for over 5000 years and that its primary aim is to examine and get at the root cause of the disease thereby eliminating it.
The articles also referenced recent studies that showed that Qigong could treat and even “cure” so called “incurable” diseases that Western medicine could not.

This is where the synchronicity and affinity comes in. I happen to mention what we found to my mother, who is a labor and delivery nurse, and she said that the next day they happen to be having a nurse’s appreciation day at the Hospital where she worked.  They were giving a Qigong demonstration followed by Kirlian photography and a Reiki session.  Of course we attended, and the first thing we did was learn to feel our qi.  I immediately realized that this is the exact sensation I had felt a week prior, holding my girlfriend's hand.  It was almost like a light switch had been flipped on and I instantaneously knew that my life’s calling was to use this energy to help, assist and benefit not only people in their health..but the healing and well being of all of life and the earth as well.

Since that day I have been consistently and diligently studying and gathering, cultivating and regulating my qi... always eager to learn, grow and enhance my skill and mastery of the Great Communicator.

Question:
It's interesting that you bring up chronic pain.  I've had several people discuss pain with me lately.
Chronic pain and pain from injuries.  What insights can you give us about pain?  What are some things that you have found out in your practice and experience that can help people help themselves during rough periods?

Answer:
That's a big topic!   lol...
All beings suffer. No one escapes life without trials, tribulations and pain. Whether the pain is physical, mental/emotional or spiritual in nature, I feel it's a signal to slow down and become more aware, to pay attention and be present in this moment ...which is the only moment we are alive.
Pain is a wake up call.
For the most part, people tend to either focusing in the past or projecting into the future, very few actually are present with what's going on in their internal universe. Pain is a beacon or signal to begin introspection and to pay attention. Pain is also an excellent meditative tool that's been used for millenia by ancient indigenous cultures the world over to shift and uplift consciousness and spirit.

 Most people tend to grasp or cling to things that make them feel good and reject or instinctively push away that which is painful. That is the way of the ego. Yet pain is a wonderful teacher.  Pain teaches us acceptance and patience in the face of difficulty and if looked at properly, actually allows us to better appreciate the good in our life. I think the most important factor in dealing with pain is one's own mental attitude and how they choose to deal with it.

 Everything in life is a choice. We cannot control what happens to us in life because all life is in constant flux and change.  But, we do have control over the choices we make in response to those events particularly in dealing with pain. If we can embrace the pain and not push it away, it can be the seed from which a universal compassion can arise... because when looked at properly, you see that pain and suffering isn't just unique to yourself, but shared amongst all life.

The problem is that in our culture we don't have the tools to deal with pain. Everyone wants only good things to happen.  People fail to understand that pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin, yin and yang. You can't have one without the other, they are inseparable. Our culture also lacks the necessary tools to allow people to learn from their pain in constructive and positive ways. When faced with pain most people look to a magic pill to lessen the discomfort instead of looking for the root cause as to why the pain is there in the first place.

That is why the ancient awareness and healing disciplines of Qigong, meditation and Dao yoga are so beneficial and useful in this modern era. These techniques provide you with the tools and techniques to delve deep within the depths of your being to uncover the root causes of pain, illness or disease.

Question 3:  What about people who won't let go of emotional pain?  I know you've come across may people like this in your private practice.

to be continued in Part 2


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