This may be a shorter, one off post than some of the others. . .

Taoists (as well as people from many and most other practices) generally consider the human body to be a micro-cosm of the universe.  A universe within a universe. 

You may have heard an expression like “As above, so below” but haven’t given it much thought.

Take a minute to cue up your minds eye and visualize the rotation or orbit of the plantes in our solar system around our sun.  Now think of the orbits of protons and electrons around a neutron.  As above, so below.

What I am about to suggest to you requires more of a leap of capacity than faith, but it’s a leap that most normal people aren’t ready to make.

let’s start out with a simple illustration:

12345

What’s so special about this number?  Nothing, really.

But we’ll use it as an example. 

So we could read this as 1-2-3-4-5 or we can read it as twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five.

In this example, 1 is part of twelve thousand three hundred and forty five.  2 is part of it also.  So is 3 and 4 and 5.

However, the opposite is not true.  Twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five is not part of 1.  or 2.  or 3. 

Are you with me?

So . . . Quarks, Neutrinos, Protons, Neutrons, electrons, molecules, planets and galaxies are all part of our universe.  That’s not to say that our universe is part of any of those particular items, though, right?

Smaller systems are incorporated and are a part of larger systems that are similarly structured and follow similar laws

A man or a woman is part of a society.  A society is part of a species.  Etc.

So lets assume that the traditional Taoist view of the human body is correct, and that it is in fact, a micro-cosmic model of the universe.

Albert Einstein said that the most important decision you  make in life is whether or not you believe that the universe is a “friendly” place.

Of course, it’s friendly and unfriendly, just like the rest of nature.

But it leads to an interesting question . . .

“Are YOU a friendly universe?”

Again, if we assume that the historical Taoist cosmology is basically correct and that you are indeed a microcosm of the universe, than it makes sense that YOUR universe is teeming with life - or at least has life or capacity for life in much the same way as the larger system that you yourself inhabit.

Do you shake your head in agreement with Al Gore documentaries and chain smoke cigarettes while watching?

Do you purposely go out and through violence, over exertion, or whatever - destroy large amounts of your body or tissue before it’s natural time to die off and be replaced?

Do you live a life of physical, emotional, and psychological excess, or do you try to achieve a more homeo-static grounding?

This is a wake up call to people who know better but aren’t doing better

Preserve your body to follow its natural course.  Control your emotions to avoid the pollution of harsh neuro-chemicals into unknown worlds.  Take it easy, and when you “do unto others” remember that others might not just be the ones you see at your own level.  You are part of something bigger than yourself, and ultimately a bigger context for things that are smaller than yourself. 

Today someone asked me at my Myspace Account about cultivating the Tao here in China, and about the place where I am now (Yunnan) in particular.

I was going to type this long reply to him, because I think that it’s worth explaining my thoughts on this subject, but I decided I would do it here, too because I think lots of people have these sorts of “crouching tiger” dreams about what Asia will do for them.

Upon arrival, it will probably mystify and enchant you. . .

Give it a year and you’re likely to be climbing the walls, and find yourself incredibly frustrated.

As many of you know, I’ve lived in lots of different countries here.  3 years in India.  4 years in Thailand.  A year in Korea, and now China. . .

One thing that I consistently see is people looking for this sort of mytherial “Asian” experience.  You know - The kind of stuff you see in movies, with sagely old men who reluctantly agree to show you “the way”, and bamboo forests, and lots of “spiritual” people.

 So without further Adieu, here are the top things spiritual/philisophical searchers need to know about Asia before they show up:

1.  It’s mostly corrupt in ways that you’re not accustomed to
2. The ideas that you hold dear, like the significance and value of the individual, don’t exist here for the most part
3. It’s generally dirty
4. People are generally MUCH more materialistic than in the West
5. There is no feeling of boo boo headed mysticism circling through the trees.  There is yellow dust, massive amounts of industrial pollution, and a sort of cut throat, dog eat dog selfishness that pervades almost everything

 With that being said, and with some clarity in mind - Let me tell you why Asia is awesome:

•  The social environment is terrible
• The moral quality is very low
• The environmental pollution is generally out of control
• Your limited only by your imagination in how evil you become and to what extent you surrender to your base nature if you have a bit of money

At this point, you’re probably wondering if I’ve lost the plot while you’re reading this right, or at least - “Where the hell is he going with this?” - right?

  The truth is, Asia has produced some of the highest level human beings precisely because the environment is so problematic.

Lao Tzu.  The Buddha.  Confucius.  Guru Nanak.  Ghandi . . . The list goes on and on.

In order for me to continue along this line of thought, it’s important that we be in agreement upon two basic principles:

The way to ascend in cultivation practice is to:

1. Improve your morality
2. Eliminate your attachments

Are you still with me?  Ok . . .

As a tangent ninja aside, I always tell people that I think there’s a standard of human morality . . .

Wicked, immoral people - Let’s take for example someone like Hitler, or the Cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer - As a society and as individuals we always condemn the acts of these people as being “Inhumane”.

Do we literally mean no longer human?  Or below the moral standard for humanity?  I would say so.

I’de venture to guess that at our core - that part of ourSelves which hasn’t been totally eroded by socialization - we basically understand that these people have fallen below the standards of behavior and morality to even be considered human beings any longer.

Still with me . . . ?

If we assume that the equation balances itself, or that if Yang exists so must Yin, then it stands to reason that there’s a standard at the upper level, too.

That - quite literally there is an upper level standard for human morality, and that if someone transcends that standard, and they have improved their own morality beyond that point, and have eliminated enough human attachments - We also can no longer consider this person to be a normal human.

Again:  Lao Tzu . . . The Buddha . . .  Jesus . . .  Is there a reason that we hold these, who were born in flesh and blood the same as us in such reverence?

I’d say “yeah”.

If you want to make steel, you turn up the heat

To further illustrate the point that I’m actually trying to get to, I guess it’s best to use an analogy based on Alchemy.

Let’s assume that you have a lump of iron ore.  Full of dirt, debris, all sorts of roughage, oxidized and not at all pure.

How does this dirty rock get from being a dirty rock to being high quality steel?

It has to be tempered.  You put it in a cauldron or kiln, and you burn it.

Or better yet - how does a lump of carbon become a diamond?

You guessed it.  Through a long, protracted process of being exposed to MASSIVE heat and/or physical pressure.

Out Of The Frying Pan, and Into The Fire

So that brings us back around to the original point of all of this. . . .

In *MY* experience, Asia is a great place to cultivate.  Not because there is zither music floating around on the wind the moment you walk out the door, but because if you can resist the temptations that are all around you (From “Get in my Taxi” to “Buy my book” to “F*ck My Son”) -

And if you can remain compassionate towards life around you -

And if you can resist being pulled into the consensus reality which is HIGHLY materialistic -

Then you can make real progress.

And you can probably make it more quickly than you could in another type of environment.

Plan to burn, not “chill”

So for those people who are interested in coming here for spiritual reasons - I would say that you either have to have a realistic understanding of how things are here, or you have to have the emotional resillience to deal with a big “let down” when you realize that nobody is hovering about the bamboo forests, you won’t be shooting an qi balls at the bad guys (the bad guys will be your bosses, masters, landlords, political leaders, etc.).

But if you’re ready to do that . . . And if you can resist the consensus reality in one place, and then resist it in another, and on and on until you find that you’re so outside the realm of social human “groupthink” that even if you went home you would still be a foreigner - There’s hope for you yet.

Lao Tzu’s classic text, the Tao Te Ching is now up in the free members area.

This recording weighs in at 54 minutes and 47 seconds.

I wanted to get this thing recorded before we went any further with the Tao Te Ching video study group, in case there were some people caught in “analysis paralysis” or who don’t like to read much.

This is what I want you to do.  Just take action.  Download the free Tao Te Ching Audio book ( go sign up for free HERE if you haven’t yet to get it) .

Once you’ve got it, I want you to load it up in your mp3 player.  Do this before you do ANYTHING ELSE.  Stop whatever else you’re doing and then just do it.

Next, I want you to take the VERY NEXT available opportunity to listen to it.  If that means listening while you’re on your lunch break, or driving in your car, or instead of watching that stupid T.V. that’s trying to brainwash you - JUST TAKE ACTION NOW.

Now - I want you to make a committment to yourself.  The Tao Te Ching is one of the greatest texts of wisdom and living that has ever been written.  Maybe you don’t have time to read.  Maybe you’re not a reader.  Cool.  I’ve recorded it for you.

I want you to listen to this recording one time every day for the next 7 days.  Will you do it?  While you’re walking, before you go to sleep - whenever . . . Just tell me whether or not you will commit to listen to Tao Te Ching for a week with me?

What I want to do is meaure the results.  I want to know if it has any affect on you, and your life.  Not my voice, but Lao Tzu’s words and wisdom.

So, if you aren’t a member already, go to http://www.wudangquan.com and sign up for free, then download the mp3.  Then put it on your computer or mp3 player.

Now, what I want you to do is leave me a comment RIGHT NOW stating exactly *when* you will listen to the recording for the first time, and if you can commit to listening to Tao Te Ching once a day for the next 7 days.

Leave that comment below.

I recorded six new audio book tracks for myself to listen to while I excercise or walk, or ride the bus or whatevever so I thought you might like to check them out to.

Here is a list of the tracks included:

• Chi Wen Dong - The Red Streaked Cave
• The Pivot Of Jade
• The Hsin Yin Ching - Imprint Of The Heart
• Ching Jing Jing - Purity And Rest
• Tai Hsi Ching - Respiration Of The Embryo
• Universal Understanding<

The tracks are kind of rough, as they’re just for personal
use, and I stumbled more than a few times, but you can download and
listen to them HERE.

I went ahead and added a video site for non members.

You can find it here:  Wudang Videos

This is not the members content - It’s just some other stuff from youtube, etc.

If you want the WudangQuan.Com Membership content, you have to sign up.

Here’s a quick video from youtube where I talk about the free (physical products) that I’m going to give away for our members in the next week or so, and how you can claim them:

In the last few days, I’ve gotten a bit of negative feedback.

Not a lot, mind you, but from one person in particular.

The basic idea of the criticisms was:

• Wudang Culture should not be widely spread
• I say I don’t have alot of money, so how am I going to do it?
• Allowing people to see video from inside of Wudang de-mystifies and “cheapens” it
• And some criticism of me trying to pull off something like the TV show “Big Brother”

So let me try to address each of these as well as I can.

 #1.  Wudang culture should not be widely spread

This is pretty subjective, I guess.  If that’s what somebody really believes, than I guess that I won’t be able to change their mind easily.

Having lived in Asia for most of my adult life, I’ve taken more than a passing look at the major religious, and spiritual threads running through the history of this continent.  Buddhism, of course offers universal salvation to all.  The Tao (as far as my undestanding goes) is more oriented towards personal cultivation.

That being said - Wudang culture and Taoism, particularly are already quite spread out amongst the mainstream - We even have hip hop groups like Wu Tang Clan on MTV!

My goal is not to take away any of the mystery of Wudang, but to share the living tradition, founded by Zhang San Feng with others who would be interested - not the entire world.

And I think that there are alot of people like me out there.   Maybe they have a martial arts background, and maybe they are spiritual people - but they’ve let themselves get trapped in the quicksand of every day human society.

#2.  I say I don’t have alot of money, so how am I going to do it?

Well . . . I have a video camera.  :)  I will have computer access, and my housing and food are arranged.

Will I be able to afford expensive Kung Fu suits, weapons, and late nights at the KTV with beautiful women?  Probably not.

But my goal is not to live what I’ve talked about before as a successful life, but rather - to live life successfully.

For me, that means helping myself realize my own physical and spiritual potential, and helping, or at least encouraging other people to do the same.

#3.  Allowing people to see inside Wudang culture de-mystifies and “cheapens” it.

This is really the same argument as #1, but just phrased differently.

I have tremendous respect and admiration for the monks, both in history and today at Wudang.

The truth is though, that we live in a society where people are led along by their base instincts to do what others want, to their own detriment.

If showing a viable alternative to that cheapens that alternative - than I will accept that guilt.

 #4.  Trying to do something like the TV show big brother

If the person means showing a lot of petty inter-personal drama, and trying to tittilate peoples worst instincts, they couldn’t be more wrong.

If they mean that I want to give normal people who can’t get away from their jobs, families, school, etc. and live at Wudang the opportunity to see the possibilities of REAL life change, and the profundity of Taoist thought and practice, again - guilty.

. . . And so.  I will go to Wudang regardless of what anyone tells me, because I know what I need to do for myself.

That being said, Even though 99.999% of my feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, I want to know what you think.

Should I close this project down, and just use WudangQuan.Com, WudangMountain.Com, etc. to sell other peoples expensive DVD’s and make a quick buck for myself?

Or are people really interested in this?

Click below to leave a comment, and I really need your feedback!

So I have a ton of GREAT martial arts and Taoist related domain names, but not the time to develop them.

I’m looking for some people that have a great idea, and want to run a site, that would like to use one of these domains.

Basically, I would just give you an FTP account, and you create whatever you want.

I’m soliciting proposals for:

Analects.Org (i.e. The Analects of Confucius. Good for a site about strategy, tactics, etc.)
Combative.Org (Probably best for a site about military hand to hand combatives, or RBSD)
DynastySwords.Com (Swords? haha)
KungFuMovieDo.Com (I bought this planning to do a martial arts movie and wuxia review blog)
SpiritualMartialArts.Com (could be used a number of ways)
TaiChiJourney.Com (would be great as a blog for someone begining Tai Chi, I think)
Vajrayana.US ( could be a forum, directory, or something related to Vajrayana Buddism practitioners in the uS)
WaterBoxing.Org (This is a great domain for a subject that people are always asking about, but there’s really no authoritative site on the web at the moment - Liu He Ba Fa)

If interested, drop me a line at Jonathan [@] IamJonathan.Com

So . . .

As I mentioned a while back, I’m busy buidling the backend for Wudangquan.com.  I don’t have anything ready to show anyone yet, but when it’s ready, I think it’ll be awesome.  Totally democratic, web 2.0 style site.

One of the projects I want to complete before launching the site is an intro/promo video for WDQ.C . . .

As you might have guessed, in addition to trying to create alot of content to help older people maintain their health, I’m also trying to produce material that will be inspiring to people of my generation, and younger generations.

These days, because of the prolific trend towards MMA and so called “no holds barred’ sports fighting, we’ve creating a generation of kids who think that the martial arts are about chest-thumping, being the biggest Man-Child on the block, walking around like a roided out, ego-maniacal freak, and so on.

I want the site/magazine to expose younger people to traditional martial culture, Taoism, ethics, xinxing cultivation, and so on.

And towards that end, along with having some awesome video of applied WudangQuan, I’m looking for a GREAT song for the video.

Now, I could just throw something together with some public domain mp3 of Chinese Zither music, or something like that, but that’s not really in line with my ultimate goals for the site.

I’m looking for something more modern.

So, if you’re a musician, know someone who is, or have an idea about music for this video, please send me a mail at jonathan@iamjonathan.com and let me know about it!

Also, if you’ve got some video clips . . . Specifically training videos, application videos, old videos of great martial artists (Tai chi, Bagau, Hsing Yi, and other taoist based or influenced arts), stuff related to Taoism, ethics, warrior culture, and so on - Again . . . Please send me a mail.

As I stated in my Post On How I Blog and Run The Site, I’ll give full credit where any is due, and for anyone that contributes.

Also . . . I’m now begining to look for some writers or videographers who really would like to help out with this project.  If you’re interested, drop me a line!

Right now I’m begining to build the actual site for WudangQuan.Com . . .

It’s all behind the scenes, and there’s nothing ready to show anyone yet, but what I’m starting out with are classic texts related to our subjects of Taoism, Martial Arts, Ethics, and so on.

 This is just a quick one off post to see if anybody has specific suggestions on material which should be included.

If so, please leave a comment and let me know.