上德不德 Superior virtue does not virtue
是以有德 Therefore it has virtue
下德不失德 Inferior virtue does not lose virtue
是以無德 Therefore it is not virtue
上德無為而無以為 Superior virtue does not act nor act by it
下德為之而有以為 Inferior virtue acts and acts by it
故失道而後德 Thus Dao is lost and thereafter is virtue
失德而後仁 Virtue is lost and thereafter is benevolence
失仁而後義 Benevolence is lost and thereafter is righteousness
失義而後禮 Righteousness is lost and thereafter is ritual

《道德經 • 第38篇》 Chapter 38, Dao De Jing, “Scripture of Way as Virtue” translated by Paul C. Wang

Texting the Dao

Even in this text compiled millennia ago, the risk of virtue signaling and moral posturing are implicated as traps.

Real (superior, primary, natural, spontaneous) virtue or 上德 Shàng Dé does not try to be virtuous for external validation nor internal satisfaction. Moreover, such a state does not even recognize (literally, “think again”) that it is virtuous. However, false (inferior, secondary, artificial, calculated) virtue or 下德 Xìa Dé seeks gain such as favor, fortune, fame. This is virtue as performative transaction. In other words, when no others are looking, one quickly drops the exhausting virtue mask and defaults to easy vice.

The 道德經 title itself encodes an alchemical formula. 德 Dé (see analysis and synthesis below) emanates when 道 Dào is embodied. When the latter is forgotten, the former fades.

We can tie in 經 Jīng, which besides “text, scripture, classic” connotes “experience, undergo, passthrough”, even to “bear, endure, withstand”. In textiles, 經 Jīng are the “warp” or static, vertical, longitudinal threads through which the 緯 Wěi “weft, woof” or dynamic, horizontal, latitudinal threads are drawn.

Etymologically, 經 consists of 糸 Sī “silk” and 巠 Jīng, which means “subterranean watercourse network”. It dissects into 一 Yī “one”, 巛 Chuān “river”, and 工 Gōng “work”.

經 Jīng can represent the layered and textured spacetime fabric of daily life. Perhaps including its powerful undercurrents working subconsciously beneath superficially ordered appearances. Like our forebears, we forbear experiences that stress and strain our virtue. Ideally, the warp holds upright without snapping as waves of weft weave into reinforce or rend it. Is the result a colorful intricate masterpiece or a frayed matted mess?

If 道 Dào is the source and 德 Dé is the force then 經 Jīng is the sink. (In electronics or ecology, a source outputs a quantity of quality such as voltage or population surplus into a sink.)

經 Jīng has two more intriguing physiological meanings to consider that sync humans and nature, moon and earth:

It refers to the menses. This profound ebb and flow of blood and tissue happens near the center of mass and gravity of a female body. This adds hematology, lunation, cyclicality into our understanding of 經 Jīng. Finally, it refers to the meridian lines of our bioelectromagnetic anatomy. They traverse between head and foot just like the meridian lines of our planetary body traverse between North and South Pole to map geoelectromagnetic patterns.

Thus, our virtue and body are somatopsychically interdependent. Virtue without body is philosophy. Body without virtue is pathology.

We live (經 Jīng) by virtue (德 Dé) of the way (道 Dào).

Virtue Cues

Actually, the Daoist lament having to mention virtue. Why? Because that predicates its absence. If everyone was living virtuously there would be no need to discuss let alone prescribe it. Only upon noticing detrimental consequences of its lack do we seek to call virtue back.

In Chapter 38 of the Dao De Jing above, virtue is the first (1) of four (4) steps away from Dao (0):

0. 道 Dào as intrinsic virtue (undefined)

1. 德 Dé as natural virtue (defined)

2. 仁 Rén as cultivated virtue (prescribed)

3. 義 Yì as adoptive virtue (proscribed)

4. 禮 Lǐ as ritualized virtue (performed)

However, this regression assumes we accurately diagnose virtue deficiency as the root etiology of cultural illness. Once 德 Dé is explicitly invoked, our identity with 道 Dào is already injured. Each step down worsens prognosis towards mortal wounding.

To simplify the relevance, without key virtues such as integrity, honesty, reliability then trust is rapidly lost and relationships fracture. In other words, trust is proportional to presence of virtue. Therefore, virtue atrophy amplified will kill societies, empires, civilizations. Perhaps it even leads to biocide.

Thus, for our personal health, communal wellness, ecological survival, virtue is imperative.

Stay tuned for Dao of Virtue (Part II). To not miss it:

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What makes a human? That can be answered in myriad ways:

— A soul within a body.

— 37 trillion cells (plus 40 trillion bacteria).

— The quality of our relationships.

At this moment, our simple reply is:

— Water.

That is a fair assertion, for most know we are 60-70% water by volume. But few know that we are 99% water by number of molecules!

Contemplative Exercise 1

Experience how you feel and shift internally as you repeat the statement:

I am water. I am water. I am water…

Water as Virtue

The 道德經 Dao De Jing states:

上善若水

Shàng shàn rùo shǔi

Superior good is like water.

善 Shàn can also be translated as “virtue, benevolence, kindness, charity, aptitude”.

What can we learn from water as our exemplar?

Be Like Water

Let us become students of water. What can its ways teach us?

• Polarity: Water is a dipole with a relative positive (hydrogen side) and negative (oxygen side) charge.

  • Inquiry: How do you acknowledge and balance your dualities?

• Adaptability: Water has no shape and can evolve to current conditions and any container.

  • Inquiry: How flexible are you, especially in unexpected situations?

• Transparency: Water has no color because it allows visible light through without absorption.

  • Inquiry: In what ways are you an open book versus a black box?

• Capacity: Water has a high specific heat, which is the amount of energy required to raise its temperature.

  • Inquiry: What is your tolerance of stimulation, pressure, and input?

• Humility: Water always goes with gravity to the lowest place closest to earth (humus).

  • Inquiry: Are you more floating up in your head or grounded down in your gut?

• Solution: Water is known as the universal solvent because it can dissolve almost any substance.

  • Inquiry: What harmful or beneficial influences do you allow in or keep out?

• Conductivity: Water without solutes is an insulator but with solutes is a conductor of electricity.

  • Inquiry: How well does energy (including every emotion) move through you?

• Viscosity: Water has low resistance and can easily flow without friction.

  • Inquiry: When do you hold on tightly or let go lightly?

• Simultaneity: Water is the only substance that exists as solid, liquid, and gas on our planetary temperature and pressure range.

  • Inquiry: Do you move well among your various roles, responsibilities, and identities?

• Delocalization: In confined spaces, water molecules can exist in multiple positions via quantum tunneling.

  • Inquiry: Can you hold multiple opinions, perspectives, realities in mind?

Contemplative Exercise 2

What aspects of water do you want to infuse into your life?

Hope you enjoyed this watering of wisdom! May it hydrate your blessings, buoy your burdens, and flourish your being.

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Introduction

We take for granted how fast and cheap information is transmitted and obtained nowadays.

It seems possible to access more in a single day than our ancestors did in an entire lifetime! Is this good or bad for our minds, emotions, bodies, relationships, societies?

The potential for learning and progress to improve our lives is present more than ever at our very fingertips. Yet, has this led to actual learning and progress?

Watch What You Watch

Many neglect to consider side effects of hoarding too much (and the benefits of offloading) mental inventory. A primary symptom in our Information Age is memetic gluttony. As a wordsmith, I shall call this glut of and greed for information: Infobesity.

Indeed, physical obesity is multifactorial including circadian disruption, financial access, and emotional trauma; however, one compound issue is improper input, inefficient throughput, and insufficient output.

Metaphorically, just like we can carry extra grams of fat in our bellies from excess bites (especially intaking manufactured foods indoors under blue wavelength dominant LEDs, particularly after sunset), we can carry excess bytes of data in our brains; in either case, more than is necessary let alone beneficial.

We need not shame or hate ourselves for indulging sugary meals and silly videos on occasion. Nevertheless, we rarely feel stellar afterwards. Moreover, we displace capacity for imbibing more edifying alternatives. Ideally, given an almost unlimited 24/7 menu to order from, best to watch, limit, pause what we intake with our eyes, ears, mouths alike.

More Is Less

The five colors blind our eyes
The five sounds deafen our ears
The five flavors numb our mouths
Galloping hunts craze our thoughts
Rarifying products harm our actions

五色令人目盲
五音令人耳聾
五味令人口爽
馳騁畋獵令人心發狂
難得之貨令人行妨

Dao De Jing 道德經
Chapter 12 第十二篇

(Translation by Paul C. Wang)

As one example of media production quantity, how many hours of content are uploaded to YouTube per hour? Estimates vary, but some sources say 30,000 hours! And that is on a single content creation website before the burgeoning tsunami of AI fabrications fully floods.

Speaking of, I recently heard of the term “AI slop”, which reminds me of made-up, semi-edible, low-quality, food-like material bulk ladled to livestock in farms, students in schools, patients in hospitals, or prisoners in jail. It may look, smell, and taste good, though be deceptively devoid of bioavailable nutrients for satiety and wellness.

Ponder another perspective of our roles as commodified participants in late stage capitalism. Are we consumers? Or are we being consumed — our attention, time, energy, identity, sanity, humanity.

We Are Fired (and Fried)

Another neologism I minted as a conceptual exercise is: Informitis. Its suffix refers to inflammation, which is a normal immune response to threat or damage from a pathogen or injury. This displays fourfold as 紅腫熱痛 Hóng Zhǒng Rè Tòng, Rubor Tumor Calor Dolor, or redness, swelling, heat, pain, respectively. A fifth sign is loss of function.

When we burden our psychosomatic systems with more information than they can sustainably metabolize, symptoms arise to alert us, akin to triggering a fire alarm which first buzzes then blares. Our cornea reddens, our nerves distend, our face flushes, our neck aches. And our sense of discerning reality from virtuality malfunctions or even downright fails.

Chronic inflammation degrades immunity. Similarly, Informitis makes us more prone to cognitive infection by external influences such as headlines, soundbites, advertisements, propaganda, deepfakes, simulacra, psyops, groupthink, doublespeak, gaslighting, strawmanning, fearmongering, false flags, mass formation, social contagion.

There is a healing antidote to discern these tactics but we have dismissed her medicine.

Cursing the Cure

Comorbid with Infobesity and Informitis is atrophy (wasting away or literally “no food”) or anorexia (incapability to ingest or literally “no appetite”) of wisdom.

This realization prompted me to create another portmanteau: Sophiatrophy. Sophia means wisdom in Greek and is personified as a goddess. Although she still patiently sits at our modern table, few acknowledge or consult her. Because she seems quaint, outdated, foreign, like an immigrant in a strange land, most shun or scorn her. Hence, she is severely malnourished and nearly in need of emergency resuscitation, perhaps eventually miraculous resurrection if we wait much longer.

Sophia is us; as an aspect, characteristic, feature of being human that requires gradual cultivation to bloom within. Her archetypal wisdom is a skill, art, virtue. One we have neglected or delegated.

Ignoring Ignorance

Just like a calculator displaces our mathematical proficiency and GPS erodes navigational competence, are we also sacrificing our reasoning, linguistic, artistic, creative aptitudes by hiring surrogates to think, read, write, speak, draw, compose for us? What if how to choose and feel become outsourced because moral decisions and empathic awareness are deemed too difficult or inconvenient?

Wisdom is costly and slow to gain. Information may be easily and rapidly accumulated. However, this outer knowledge of quantitative information is incomparable to inner knowing of qualitative wisdom.

Now, nothing is wrong with information per se, except there is little guarantee of its accuracy, potency, relevance. It is mere raw material. Wisdom is the mature ripening of carefully curated information into embodied integration and relational application.

Lamentably, what most people look for is information and not wisdom, with a false equivalency of the two. Not recognizing the difference, we can spend years searching but never finding. This is because what we crave is random, immediate, newfangled, entertaining information, even if what we need is patterned, seasoned, timeless, meaningful wisdom.

I think of the vast difference between a rehydrated bag of instant noodles inhaled on the go versus sitting down to savor a multidimensional bowl of sublime black garlic sapporo tonkotsu simmered overnight at my favorite ramen shop.

Kingdom of Wisdom Within

The suffix -dom means “the state or condition of”. We use it in free-dom, bore-dom, star-dom. Can you imagine growing wide your wisdom into a kingdom of the wise, by the wise, for the wise?

This energy field of radiant wisdom is stable, grounding, quiet yet powerful, whereas the energy signature of grasping information is frantic, dizzying, noisy yet unsatisfying. What type of energy do you embrace and emanate? Is it from your head and heart? Will it help you but hurt others? Does it invoke fear or love?

On that note, allow me to share one final coinage that came to me: Sophilia. Philia is a kind of love present in true friendship witnessed as an affinity of mutual reciprocity. Therefore, if Philosophy is “love of wisdom”, then Sophilia is “wisdom of love”.

Conclusion

Due to overexposure, many of us develop a sort of information allergy with negative reactions such as inflammation, hypertension, depression, anxiety, even AI induced psychosis.

Perhaps a remedy is more “(g)no-ing” rather than more “know-ing”.

A solution to both Informitis and Infobesity is reduction and regulation of information in(di)gestion. If slurping digital gloop is like gorging on processed junk food, then healthy eating would be (ana)logging offline and absorbing Nature. Basking sun, barefooting earth, breathing trees are directly anti-inflammatory.

The age old method of fasting is also germane. When ill, even wild animals instinctively do so according to their natural intelligence. In Daoism, an analogous psychospiritual practice known as 心齋 Xīn Zhāi is sacred abstinence of cerebral rumination in order for silent wisdom to dawn. Thus, treasure teachers, elders, masters, communities, cultures who incarnate this luminosity.

And become wiser yourself!

Our Yin Yang Dao Dance

Daology unfolds the mystery and mastery of our story. To help navigate change, clear blocks, avoid detours, reverse dead-ends, fulfill destiny in your lifelong journey, I heartfully handcraft these Dao articles based on three decades of training, treating, teaching thousands worldwide.

If you received some learning, benefit, inspiration from reading, a consideration of any reciprocal offering within your means is infinitely and eternally appreciated!

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Breath like death is inevitable.

Throughout history across geography, many of our greatest teachers and deepest thinkers have noted their fundamental importance. At the same time, most of us usually neglect them!

In fact, they are closely related.

How you breathe is how you die.

Our inhale is how we take in and hold on to life. Is it rough with hesitation, or smooth with depth? Our exhale is how we give out and let go of life. Is it tense with resistance, or light with grace?

How does something so simple as breath have such significance? Because everything affects it. And it affects everything.

If thinking is wind and breathing is water, every thought ripples upon each breath. Some create small waves lasting seconds. Others create large waves lasting decades.

Conversely, speeding breaths can stir thoughts and slowing breaths can calm thoughts.

Similarly, breath carries emotion, which is energy. Hence, poor breathing may cause blocked emotion and low energy. Can we learn to breathe better for healthier emotion and more energy?

Moreover, breath is literally our voice.

It therefore affects our communication and thus our relationships: intrapersonal (with yourself), interpersonal (with others), transpersonal (with spirit). That is why speaking, singing, chanting, humming are such profound psychosocial practices.

There are thousands of techniques to play with breath! However, these lay in two main categories: we can direct breath or it can direct us.

One approach is changing the breath to effect results, such as decreasing blood pressure, relieving anxiety, reducing pain. Another approach is allowing, even trusting, the natural breath to change us.

The former is specific and goal-oriented. The latter is general and whole-oriented. Both ways are valid and useful by context.

None of the above is actionable without awareness.

Becoming intimate with breath — how it comes and goes, what it gives and takes, when it ebbs and flows, where it rises and falls, why it stops and starts — is essential to fully know, love, heal, realize oneself and others.

Outer circumstance is never in our complete control, whereas we can always chance to choose our inner state breath by breath. May we breathe our best, while we still can!

If you’re interested in enhancing your self-care skills, including safe and reliable methods to apply breath for wellness, join my monthly live online sessions (Daology: Spiritual Self-Care Cultivation Sessions) on second Sundays 9:00-10:30am. To gather for an upcoming in-person session, see Note 2 below. Meanwhile, please:

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Notes:

1. Please enjoy viewing the causal “car talk” above I did for a group (Hestia Magic) to receive mythopoetic inspiration for Seasonal and Emotional Alchemy.

2. Join a special training event in person with me on August 16, 3-4:30pm at 1471 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706. We will practice personal embodiment and interpersonal engagement skills drawn from martial, medical, mystical wisdom traditions. Transform stress, build confidence, move energy, feel safe, have fun! Email info@daocenter.com for details and to register.

Dear Friends, Family, Fellow Earthumans,

Looking around, what do you see, hear, feel…?

Many have been telling me “a lot”, “too much”, “chaos”.

Few have said “harmony”, “beauty”, “peace”.

So who is correct:

Those who observe and absorb the rampant vices, or those who notice and project the rare virtues?

Either/Or/Both/And

One of my oft auto-quoted memes is “Both/And”. Can it both be crazy and perfect out there? What about in here. That is, within our inner states and not just, say, the United States (the country where I live).

Another common auto-quote is, with a slow stroke of the beard on my chin, “It depends.” Depends on what? Well, we can call it self-mastery, awareness, or my favorite, cultivation, which is a botanical metaphor.

For instance, we may be surrounded by a desolate desert barren of living forms, yet our oasis is lush, vibrant, fruitful.

Why?

There must be a hidden spring of fresh water!

We cannot see it from afar, though this assumption is most likely true. Approaching, exploring, persevering, we finally find the liquid origin and quench our extreme dehydration. It has been so chronic, we no longer noticed we were actually slowly dying of thirst.

Illness/Wellness/Wholeness

Now, not only can we be physically parched, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually, ecologically, economically, politically, culturally, etc. Furthermore, due to our limitations and vocations, it is usually best to focus on filling your local cup first.

There is a Source that gives us the power to re-source from within.

Unfortunately, many do not know how.

Precisely because our modern society and conventional education does not value abundance of wellness and remembrance of wholeness. It runs on scarcity and partiality. And, illness is profitably monetized and therefore perversely incentivized.

So is there another way? One that empowers, emancipates, emanates, rather than emaciates our life force? Below is an energetic progress map to overview and orient ourselves:

Process of Formation

1. Con-formation: Set in old pattern (Energy stagnates)

2. De-formation: Break in old pattern (Energy leaks)

3. In-formation: Learn new pattern (Energy opens)

4. Re-formation: Do new pattern (Energy changes)

5. Trans-formation: Be new pattern (Energy integrates)

Note that gathering new information is not enough. It is just one step (#3) during which we expose ourselves to previously unknown possibilities. We read books, watch videos, seek teachers, take classes, etc.

Moreover, we can flail and fail during any or all of these steps (#1-5).

Some drown in the flood of information (#3).

Some get lost at the breakdown phase (#2).

Some struggle at the rewiring phase (#4).

Some do not even realize they are stuck (#1).

Some are not able to sustain change (#5).

I’ve been honored to guide fellow Earthumans along this process, path, Dao for nearly three decades! It has been humbling and enlightening to teach in over twenty nations to thousands. Thus, with such broad, long, deep experience, I have been blessed to distill the essence of our common story, journey, myth.

For the first time, I have partnered with two colleagues, Belinda Liu (Sacred Land Steward) and Rebecca Kim (Spacetime Energy Healer) to co-create a formal online platform (a masters program or Jedi Academy, if you will, with a shoutout to the upcoming May 4th, “May the Force be with you.”) called:

School for Seasonal Living

If you can make it on short notice, we have a special Masterclass and Virtual Open House tonight April 30, 5:30-6:30 pm PDT. If you cannot make it, feel free to schedule a personal consultation call.

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May the Source be with you,

Dr. Paul C. Wang, LAc, DACM

P.S. Tune in to a recent Podcast with me on the Blue Beryl.

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Podcast Transcript

Welcome to Daology with your host Paul C. Wang. Thanks for being here to receive this download on the Dao of Healing.

To start I want to mention an upcoming Daology course called Emotional Alchemy during which I focus on how to gain understanding of and skill with the energy of our emotions, which are crucial for wellbeing. Please stay until the end for additional details on that.

So in this episode I want to give you a four-step map of healing. No schema is ever complete and everyone has a unique process. And yet there are principles that apply generally. I organized them for you using the acronym H.E.A.L. Besides an explanation, each also outlines an exercise.

Before offering you this H.E.A.L. framework let’s introduce some context.

Firstly, healing is not just for those who know they are sick with a diagnosis of some sort. The reason is because health is not merely absence of illness and its symptoms but presence of wellness of its signs. Moreover, wellness includes addressing mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, natural plus social, financial, economic, political, ecological dimensions.

Secondly, healing usually involves many layers we are not aware of. Thus, we can seemingly appear healthy but not sense aspects that are already awry. These unconscious factors in fact always affect us and profoundly so until they are realized and released.

Thirdly, healing is not easy nor linear to say the least. It can be a dizzying maze of fear, frustration, failure. It may bring up loneliness, desperation, even suicidality. However, there are moments of surprising beauty, grace, awe too. These arrive less as earthshaking epiphanies than as small wins, short glimpses, sacred whispers which slowly accumulate towards wholeness.

This is a good segue to present the H.E.A.L. model because the letter H stands for Hope.

H.e.a.l.

Hope

This is about seeing as healing.

Blind hope is criticized as wishful thinking. But sometimes imagination and faith are all we have and where we begin. Can we envision a different self and situation? Dare we believe in change or can we only conceive the status quo? Develop a growth oriented mindset. Connect to a greater purpose, power, possibility. Germinate the seeds of opportunities to rebirth yourself.

Practice: Look for examples of overcoming hardship. What films or books depict stories of redemption? Find heartful inspiration wherever and whenever you can as oases of light during those dark nights of the soul.

h.E.a.l.

Edit

This is about feeling as healing.

Acknowledge that our history led us here. And it will inevitably perpetuate if we choose to retell the same old story. Reality shifts when our identity does. Otherwise our past trauma automatically becomes further future drama. If these loops of karmic causality are not broken now then we can never heal. Furthermore, the knot we must most untie often lies below the surface and in the shadows. No multitude of angelic forces can save us if we deny confronting and negotiating our own inner demons.

Practice: Review exactly what happened. Analyze where are you stuck and why. Study your intense recurrent emotional reactions. They expose our strongest triggers rooted in our deepest wounds. Examine and rewire these patterns.

h.e.A.l.

Act

This is about doing as healing.

Proactively seek knowledge, support, counsel. Reduce playing futile games of blame and shame, excusing and escaping. Instead get curious and creative, even courageous and outrageous. Deliberately educate yourself on how to decisively engage change. Minute conscious actions moment to moment gradually compound into transformation.

Practice: Express your specific needs and directly ask someone for help (best from a real human and not Google or ChatGPT). Take what you’re shown and make it your own. Test and repeat and retest then reinvest results. There is a momentum within the wave of every breath to correct course.

h.e.a.L.

Let

This is about being as healing.

Relinquish assumptions of what was, is, and will be. Suspend fear-driven hyper-vigilance and make room for magic. When you have exhausted all options then pause and lay fallow. Get quiet and listen to silence. Surrender everything, even hope for what was so that what may be can appear. Allow synchronicities and serendipities that you cannot fathom to manifest from the uncertain and unknown. True independence is dependence on more than oneself. Grant space for grace. Acceptance, humility, patience, receptivity are practical virtues to embody.

Practice: Admit your limit. What is beyond my control to change? Remember instances when micromanaged plans collapsed and all actually worked out for the best. Meditate on these divine gifts to train trust in the mystery and miracle of life. This is an antidote to catastrophizing.

Ok I hope you found H.E.A.L (Hope/Edit/Act/Let) to be a useful mnemonic tool. In closing, I will frame a few final observations.

No human can be fully healthy alone. We ache to see and be seen, hear and be heard, touch and be touched by others, even the apparently invisible, inaudible, intangible. Isolation, solitude, cocooning are temporary medicines. Eventually we must emerge to merge with ecosystemic community.

That being said, any entity, such as gurus, guides, goddesses, can help suggest strategies, expand perspectives, bear witness. Their fire can reignite our dimming confidence and burn our blinding cynicism. However no matter how potent, they cannot substitute the mandatory daily ongoing work of healing for us. The web can hold us but we must weave it.

Ultimately, healing happens when our fractured facets — especially those we experience as painful, messy, bad — identify with and as the totality. Universal and personal partner into an undivided individual. Each one becomes a fractal reflection of the One. This internal integration then refracts outwards to bless the world.

Finally, relating organically to emotions is an indispensable aspect of healing. To learn more and dive deeper, join our 2023 Fall Daology course on Emotional Alchemy. We explore how to transmute energy, transform emotion, transcend ego from the view and through the tools of Chinese medicine, philosophy, alchemy. It runs four consecutive Mondays 5:30-7:00 pm PST starting August 1. If you cannot attend live recordings will be available.

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That’s it for now. Thanks for attuning. I invest copious time, thought, energy into every podcast with the intention of catalyzing more people like you. Feel free to post, share, review Daology on your platforms so we can amplify its message:

Cultivate nature to nurture culture.

May your kind generosity be beautifully multiplied to serve our collective healing…

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The journey begins inside each of us. Nurture your nature to mature our culture. As was said over two thousand years ago by a disciple of master teacher Kongzi (Confucius):

古之欲明               Ancients who wished to illuminate
明德於天下者       Enlightened virtue under heaven
先治其國               First regulated their nations
欲治其國者           Those wishing to regulate their nations
先齊其家               First ordered their families
欲齊其家者           Those wishing to order their families
先修其身               First cultivated their selves
欲修其身者           Those wishing to cultivate their selves
先正其心               First aligned their minds
欲正其心者           Those wishing to align their minds
先誠其意               First sincered their intentions
欲誠其意者           Those wishing to sincere their intentions
先致其知               First attained their wisdom
致知在格物           Attaining wisdom lies in patterning things

—《禮記·大學》曾子 Zēng Zǐ (曾参 Zēng Shēn, 505-436 BCE),
Disciple of 孔子 Kǒng Zi, Records of Rites, Great Learning,
Excerpt translated by Paul C. Wang

Wisdom allows us to see patterns. Recognizing connections helps us set proper intention and directs our mind to cultivate our best self. So our first task is personal mastery. Then our social virtuosity can serve to benefit others and nature. This is as true today as millennia ago.

But does it still matter?

Many of the most perceptive systems thinkers currently assert some version of the following observation:

They cite tipping points at multiple scales and scopes or even an existential metacrisis, not the least of which features the fracturing of an epistemic commons; that is, shared meaning making among members of society. This is despite, or perhaps because of accelerated access to more quantity, if not quality, of information than ever before.

Those with a religious view even invoke apocalypse. The word derives from the Greek apokalyptein. Apo means “remove, off, away from" and kalyptein means “cover, conceal, hide". Indeed we are witnessing an amplified revelation of both substantial problems and potential solutions.

I will not extensively elaborate the complex nature of our challenge at hand. However, an essential existential issue is the deployment of godlike technologies (artificial intelligence, quantum computing, genetic engineering, biometric surveillance, etc) without commensurate ethical prowess as moral parameters.

Have we massively powered up while barely growing up?

Moreover, most of the relationships we primally trusted for belonging and wellbeing such as to local landscapes, communal tribes, temporal cycles have disintegrated. The same is true for more modern structures such as the nuclear family, political group, religious affiliation.

Is there anything out there we can grasp onto for permanent security?

Likely not. Because everything that emerges faces emergency at some point and ultimately demise. If this holistic birthing and dying process is dismissed then we lose touch with the totality of reality.

How does this broken duality operate in our inner world?

Conflicts and contradictions must either be resolved within each of us through self-mastery or they will inevitably play out as catastrophes and calamities against one another. And the core of this projected drama concerns death phobia.

What is the significance if “I” die? Well, it depends on who we algebraically equate with “I”.

If “I” am solely the body then its inevitable material end must be delayed at all costs or, perhaps worse, denied. This is mitigated to the degree that “I” can be expanded from personal to familial to social to biological to ecological to cosmological to universal to mystical identification.

No matter how much we try to control, there is never absolute safety in our conditional humanity and temporal world. Only when we develop a sense of the unconditional and eternal can our equanimity take root. This soul awareness of and absorption in spirit leads to true confidence. One that may then emanate to bless and heal others.

The above describes the most natural state everyone is endowed with yet few embody. Thus, the role of deliberate self-cultivation which matures to mastery, not over anyone or anything but, as alignment and attunement to sacred values is paramount.

Etymologically, the word master contains mas- which derives from the Proto-Indo-European meg- that connotes “great” as in mega or omega, even magnificent and major. In Sanskrit, this root is maha- as in maharaja (great king), mahatma (great soul), Mahayana (great vehicle).

So becoming a master is none other than being your greater self. Great as in remarkable and wonderful! Remember, this is simply actualization of the essence you already are.

Such an integrated individual is content, potent, present and lives with integrity, curiosity, creativity. This kind of person can no longer be the rare exception while dysfunctional models, outdated paradigms, stale stories crumble.

We need you to step up, because simultaneous to downfall are new opportunities arising to rebuild a beautiful collective masterpiece.

Hone your self-mastery with principles and practices to stabilize your center, balance your energy, reveal your gifts:

Join Our Self-Mastery Journey

Dance As Dualities (DAO) of beautiful balance between:

forced effort ~ fluid ease

future planning ~ full presence

filtered artifice ~ freed authenticity

Spring Equinox Retreat

Serendipity was first described over two and a half centuries ago as “accidental sagacity”.

It speaks to an awakened awareness attuned to meaningful coincidences.

When have you encountered the improbable if not seemingly impossible?

What is the alchemy of aligning with a wider world of wonder?

Stories of synergy, synchronicity, serendipity inspire us to trust life more deeply.

This is a healing salve to allay stress, anxiety, uncertainty, which plague many of us.

Practice: Open eyes and mind past old assumptions and default narratives.

Thanks for listening to this audio podcast. To view video version, please click:

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A healthy dose of productive stress (eustress) is beneficial.

Excessive destructive stress (distress), however, drains wellness, sanity, meaning from our lives.

There are three basic ways to handle stress:

1. Get rid of it (eliminate)

2. Move away from it (escape)

3. Shift view on it (enlighten)

The first two are more external state changes to create comfortable distance. Defending and departing are useful in some cases. What if those are not options?

The third requires internal dexterity. It focuses on how our subjective reality (perception) determines our objective response (projection), rather than vice versa. That is, often our objective reality affects our subjective response.

For instance, a failed plan may ruin our whole week or only two hours. Or the same flight cancellation may fully enrage one person while another is a bit sad. Or a diagnosis devastates one patient whereas another heals.

What do these drastic differences depend on?

Biography, trauma, society create our filters, contexts, interpretations. In short, our story. The question is: Can we awaken to our defaults, habits, reactions, which usually direct us unconsciously?

If no, then there is no hope to transform them. If yes, then how?

The latter is the basis for self-help, self-improvement, self-care. My preferred terms are self-cultivation, self-tending, self-alchemy. And by self I include our individual, relational, universal identities.

Thus, most essential is openness to learn, willingness to practice, courageousness to share.

To that end, I was invited back to present on these themes (watch full video above) at a Mindfulness Conference by Niagara University. It was a pleasure to offer memes that address the relevant, relatable, rampant theme of stress.

Stress does not have to rule us. That happens due to a disempowering fracture among our mental, emotional, physical dimensions, as well as how these pieces engage with the cultural, natural, spiritual worlds.

We can, we must, we shall integrate. I trust that truth. That is why Daology exists. Thanks for your support, sincerity, and synergy!

What will you fight for?

What would you die for?

Safety? Sanity? Sanctity?

Fame? Fortune? Freedom?

Love? Truth? Honor?

To help ask and address these inquires, Daology as a path of Self-Care Cultivation braids together three lineal threads:

1. Martial Self-Protection to reinforce our boundaries.

2. Medical Self-Healing to restore our balance.

3. Mystical Self-Awareness to realize our being.

In this episode, Sihing Ayron Johnson of WingChun Workout interviews Sifu Paul Wang about his martial story. Enjoy this conversation on the Warrior Dao 道 — our universal path of personal mastery. Selected topics discussed include:

• Why Sifu Paul began martial cultivation

• Choreography versus spontaneity in training

• Solo action related to partner interaction

• Five kinds of martial activity

• Philosophy of WingChun 詠春

Do you wash?

Do you brush?

Do you wipe?

Do you try to wash your stress, brush your emotions, wipe your thoughts away?

Let’s explore some potent memes to expand the Who, What, Why of self-care hygiene! This is an insightful one worth a listen if you need clarity, inspiration, guidance on:

• Mapping your many identities

• Understanding spectrum of care

• How we constipate our energies

• Attuning spirituality anytime

• Preventing overdose and bypass

• Emotional enemy, friend, teacher

Learn More Skills

Welcome to the first episode of the Daology podcast! For this inaugural occasion, I briefly introduce Daology (Dao + Logos) then recite a piece of proetry (prose + poetry) inspired by my clients, patients, and students. They teach me so much about life via their personal stories and collective histories.

A common issue and considerable factor that determines our position on the spectrum of wellness or illness is the quality of our relationship to emotions — both our own (primary) and those of others (secondary). These interactions are diverse and dynamic. However, overarching principles apply and underlying processes unfold as a Dao of emotions:

Emotional Emaciation or Emancipation:
From Sealing to Revealing and Feeling to Healing

We begin to suspect our own feelings as wrong and even dangerous after being repeatedly blamed, criticized, punished for expressing them. Especially by authority figures and relational groups who we depended on for survival, meaning, belonging when we were just young, vulnerable, impressionable children.

Thus, reactively adapting to others and adopting their norms, we reliably abandoned our own beating heart due to the undue and unfair social pain and disdain it caused. Estranged from the rest of us, its vital beauty, power, sensitivity was numbed, starved, paralyzed.

However, since the solar soul which illuminates our mortal form essentially longs to dance free in full flow, this psychic amputation projects as disconnected relationships, unsatisfying vocations, fragmented lives.

Ultimately, no one, a guide, any guru, nor goddess is able to unlock this otherwise eternal, infernal, internal quarantine but ourselves. And above all, discovery of self-love is the master key. Each turn of it simultaneously requires and acquires: trust and truth, forgiveness and forbearance, courage and encouragement.

Because we become identically identified with repressed energies from ancient patterns, their catharsis will likely become so temporarily uncomfortable such that we may crave, negotiate, beg to mask up and shut down again. Spiritual surgery to extract old egos is excruciating!

Imagine what can happen when an innocent prisoner unjustly incarcerated for decades is finally released. Spasms of caged rage, grief, anxiety, terror are common and commensurate as the victim is allowed to end a withering jail-cell sentence and enter an enlivening new rebirth. Yet, when the latter becomes too overwhelming, return to the familiar limitations of being behind bars appears more appealing.

The difficult reintegration process — following severe prolonged disintegration — is often disorienting, bewildering, and apparently counterproductive. Things seem worse than ever before! We outright doubt our perception, choice, sanity. But if we can learn to accept and yearn to navigate these waves of emotion as indices indicating motion through purgatory to metamorphosis to resurrection to emergence from emergency then wholeness gradually and inexorably ripens.

Moreover, due to our universal intergenerational inheritance of epigenetic trauma, once we play out our personal drama then there is also accruing karma from past lineages to help pay off. Furthermore, even if that ancestry is cleared, we can build credit to benefit future descendants by nurturing better culture.

We may be wary and it may lay buried, but the way is always beneath our weary feet. And at any time we can reset upon the golden path even if beset by regrets we cannot forget. Yes, none of us escapes here unscathed nor perfected. Yet be not scared nor ashamed for our sacred wounds do not just scar but mark us as wise warriors, holy healers, sublime sages, magic mystics, spirit shamans.

Now, dear Dao friends, fellow earth angels! Let us walk onwards together, head held high, spine spirally aligned, heart broken open, eyes with gaze ablaze.

— Paul C. Wang 玄道 Xuan Dao

Join Me in Nature

For instance, when we are in planning mode time seems linear.

Whereas, if we enter a flow state, time becomes an ever present moment.

In this video, Dr. Aurélie Lun, MD from Grenoble, France invited me to talk about various ways we may relate to time.

Which “timeme” (a term I coined to describe a meaningful model of time) resonates most with you?

How does time change for you depending on context?

Thanks for watching!

Daology = Dao (way, path, meaning) + Logos (word, discourse, reason)

Daology is a synergy of East with West, mind with body, ancient with modern, science with spirituality, information with inspiration.

Welcome to Daology, a publication of articles and podcasts exploring the principles and practices of self-care cultivation to nurture your nature and evolve our culture.

We will weave themes such as meditation, breathwork, poetry, philosophy, healing, meaning, nature, and more as this journey unfolds.

The main author and content creator is Paul C. Wang, a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM) and practitioner of the Dao arts. For more information, please visit:

daocenter.com

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