A common thread that runs through conversations with Daoist practitioners is the healing of the body, and a common way into Daoism for many people is through the personal experience of the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine. Often these personal experiences lead people to investigate Daoism, because it shares many common elements with traditional Chinese medicine, such as an emphasis on balance, on the healthy circulation of vital energy (Qi) throughout the body, and the personal experience of the transformation of the body.
When watching the following three clips on healing, note down your answers to the following questions. Not every question will be applicable to each clip. Your answers to these questions will be used as the basis for discussion at the end of this section:
This section of the website begins with Bill Frazier's account of how practicing Taiji quan helped to heal his back.
Bill Frazier introduces some of the most fundamental elements of Daoist cultivation, which he came to through practicing Taiji quan (Tai-chi). Originally a martial arts practice popularized throughout China in the nineteenth century, Taiji quan has come to represent the basics of Daoist cultivation in the slow, graceful form that it takes today. The basic principle of Taiji is that of a dynamic balance, a harmony of yin and yang that is maintained not by standing still but by maintaining a constant fluidity in the body. Chinese medicine explains the healing benefits of Taiji quan through the concept of Qi (vital energy), which flows throughout the body along specific pathways known as meridians. Bill went to acupuncture school to learn more about Qi; acupuncture aims to promote the healthy flow of Qi throughout the body by stimulating it at certain points where it flows close to the surface of the body, especially the ear lobes, the face, hands and feet. Traditional Chinese medicine forms, such as acupuncture, aim to heal the body through the flow of energy. Qi cultivation practices take this one step further by using the Qi to transform the body at a more psycho-energetic, spiritual level. All Daoist cultivation involves the cultivation of Qi, but not all Qi cultivation can be considered a spirtual or religious acitivity. However, this form of cultivation is popular in the west because of its emphasis on personal growth and transformation.
Jeff's experience is similar to Bill's: a severe physical injury was cured through a patient process of Taiji and other practices that aim to stimulate the flow of Qi. In Jeff's case what is interesting is that his problem took the form of a severe blockage that had to be forced to the surface and overcome. Traditional Chinese medicine, like Daoism, teaches that Qi must be permitted to circulate in order for a dynamic homeostatic equilibrium to be maintained in the body. When Qi stagnates, pathologies develop. An interesting footnote to Jeff's story is the fact that he encountered Chinese medicine through his Chinese girlfriend's family in Jamaica, a former British colony. The transmission of Chinese cultural traditions throughout the world largely bound up with the history of Western colonial powers in China. In the nineteenth century many Chinese people were dispersed throughout the British empire as the indentured servants of British colonial families. In the twentieth century Chinese emigration was fuelled largely by the establishment of the People's Republic under Chairman Mao Zedong in 1949, and the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
In this clip, Michael Winn speaks of Qi cultivation in social-psychological terms rather than physical terms. The inflexibility of the muscles and the skeleton that caused so much pain for Bill and Jeff is here understood in terms of the social rigidity that limits people's personal freedom and creativity. Michael understands Qi cultivation in terms of cultivating a fluid relationship with the whole of the Qi-field, that is the sum total of energy that forms around the body. He further speaks of this as an alchemical transformation in which the energies of the body and of the surrounding environment are refined and transformed into something more profound and mysterious than people ordinarily experience. For Michael, Daoist cultivation is fundamentally a form of energy communication that permits this deep transformation to take place.