UNTOLD MEDICINE
Come with me on a journey to the unexplored side of medicine where we speak with rebel doctors, radical herbalists, unorthodox healers, and patients who have healed themselves. Explore the intersection between science & spirituality and discover the power within you. Hosted by Dr. Michele Burklund
UNTOLD MEDICINE
Dr. Alex Feng: Unearthing Taoist Secrets and the Healing Power of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Embark on an intimate exploration of healing and spirituality as we sit down with Dr. Alex Feng, a Taoist priest and traditional Chinese medicine doctor. His life, woven with threads of ancient wisdom and transformative personal experiences, unfolds to reveal a tapestry of profound insights. From his early days, cured of asthma through Qigong, to his evolution into a doctor, Dr. Feng's narrative bridges the gap between the mystical underpinnings of Taoism and the grounded practices of TCM.
Delve into the heart of healing with Dr. Feng, as he recounts the early days when practicing traditional Chinese medicine in California when it was actually illegal. Learn his journey from one of the first acupuncturists licensed in the state to a pillar of Eastern wisdom.
Dr. Feng's storied experiences illuminate not only the philosophical aspects of Taoism and meditation but also the essential human element in the art of healing. His stories pull back the veil on the delicate balance of energy and presence that a practitioner must master.
Closing our interview, we reflect on the vast landscape of medical traditions, what conventional medicine really is, and his stories and hidden teachings found everywhere from the markets of Hong Kong to the serene movements of Qigong.
Dr. Feng, through his workshops and teachings, ushers in a blend of learning methods, inviting you to discover the meditative harmony within Gong sounds or the fluid grace of Tai Chi. Join us as we traverse the dynamic interplay of learning, meditating, and finding stillness, guided by a master who embodies the wisdom of an ancient practice in our modern world.
Want to watch the video version of the interview? Click here.
Welcome to the podcast Medicine Untold and come with me on a journey to the unexplored side of medicine, where we speak with rebel doctors, radical herbalists, unorthodox healers and patients who have healed themselves. Explore the intersection between science and spirituality and discover the power within you. I'm your host, Dr Michelle Berklin, licensed naturopathic doctor, botanical outcomeist and practicing physician.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone. Today we have a guest. We have Dr Alex Fang. So thank you very much, dr Fang, for joining us, and I'll go ahead and read a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2:Dr Alex Fang is a Taoist priest, medical, qigong grandmaster, traditional Chinese medicine physician, acupuncturist, herbalist and feng shui master. He was born in China, where he was immersed in the three pillars of Taoism physical strength and well-being, healing and spiritual development. Dr Fang was trained by his father, dr Wei Ren Fang, a well-known scholar and spiritual leader who descended from a long lineage of Taoist philosophers, scholars and healers. He was ordained in Z Taoism in the 1970s. After immigrating to the United States, dr Fang continued his studies in Taoism and martial arts, focusing on both his physical and spiritual development.
Speaker 2:Dr Fang studied at UC Berkeley and the New College of San Francisco. Then he graduated with his doctorate in Oriental Medicine and PhD from Samra University in Los Angeles, and he became one of the first practitioners to be licensed when acupuncture was legalized in California in 1976. Today he is the founder of the Clinic for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Berkeley, california. Dr Fang and his wife also founded the Z Tao Guan Taoist Center in Oakland, california, which is the first major center devoted to Taoist arts in the Bay Area. Welcome today, and the first question I have for you kind of goes into how this journey began for you. So it seems as though this journey began for you at a young age, when you were eight, and so can you tell us more about the experience you had at this age that kind of helped define your life path?
Speaker 3:I love that question. So age seven, eight, eight, was afflicted with severe asthma. I was missing school three months to six months at a time. So one day I picked up a book on Qibong. I read the book and actually realized how to do Qibong cured myself of asthma at age eight.
Speaker 3:So I said if I can do it, then they change. Anybody can do this. So that's a life-changing part of my life is that if you have intuition and you have a willingness to dive into knowledge of yourself, you can make changes. One important piece of my life is that I was climbing a mountain in Taiwan, where I grew up, and I was sitting there looking at the sky, looking at the earth, saying to myself what am I doing here? Why am I here on this thing between heaven and earth? Who am I? What am I? What am I doing? And at the same moment I looked across the mountain there's a Buddhist temple and there is chanting going on, there's smoke coming out of the temple, and immediately realized that moment ah, that's why I'm here. So those are the two components of my life that mold me into who I am.
Speaker 3:My parents were my mother's German, my father's Chinese, so it's a cross-cultural environment. Where I grew up, we spoke many languages and my father was definitely a Taoist. My mother was a Christian. She took me to Protestant church, catholic church, to Taoist temple. So, like this is what spirituality may look like, what is it that you want? So it puts me on the path of discovery what is spirituality, what is my spirituality? And my father said something that's really unique, that influenced my life. He said that God in your heart is your God.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's the beginning story of my life, and I realized at a very young age my mother was a healer, my father was a healer of a different sort. My mother was a physical healer, my father was a spiritual healer. So I grew up with that environment around me and both of them were professors in the university, so I learned how to teach and learn how to learn. I was a terrible student because when they tried to cram things into you, it just didn't make sense. You have to allow feelings and thinking to come out from the individual, you have to draw it from the individual and we become who we are through that, not through implant, implant, implant. So, briefly, that's my history. Yeah.
Speaker 2:What an interesting childhood too. You had all these different influences, but not having everything pushed on you. You really found your path your own way and you knew it.
Speaker 3:It is because so much was pushed on me. I had to survive that to find my way. Pressure is not a bad thing, it's just temporary. You have to realize it is what we call gates that you've got to go through. In many cases we have to go through emotional gates, hereditary gates, physical gates, intellectual gates, so on and so forth. We have to go through these gates to realize who am I and the mist of all of that, yeah, very true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the next question I have is kind of it's hard to put in words and Daoism has a really special place in my heart too, but I know this is going to be a difficult question. Can you tell our audience kind of the philosophy of Daoism and really what it is for people that have never really heard of it before or might just know a little bit about it?
Speaker 3:Okay, two aspects. Number one when Confucius went to. Laozi, who was like the head of Daoism knowledge and lineage. He says what's Daoism? And Laozi said. Confucius asks again so what is Daoism? Laozi once again replied in silence so it is. You know, the first chapter of Daoism. Dao Dajin says that which can be spoken is not definitively what is. So. Words are not explained the way you like what you do, your relationship with your husband, your feeling for him passing doing what you're doing now none of that can be expressed.
Speaker 3:It would take too long.
Speaker 1:So it is a feeling, it is a present that you recognize what Daoism is.
Speaker 3:Another aspect the character Dao, the radical Dao, in Chinese is written as self that moves in harmony, or transcendence of Yin and Yang. Alpha Divert is a Self, the Self. We have a dragon tail that runs next to the Self meaning movement. Movement and the dragon also represent transformation. The Self that moves in transformation comes to a place of understanding two components If you are in harmony, you are in doubt, or you are able to transcend even harmony. You become understanding of Yin and Yang, is or is not. So the Self that moves in harmony, or transcendence of differences, is in the space of doubt.
Speaker 2:Very well said for something that's hard to say. Moving on to the next question, can you explain what the three pillars of Taoism are too? The?
Speaker 3:what.
Speaker 2:The three pillars.
Speaker 3:Well, three pillars, eight pillars, five pillars, two pillars. These are just references. You can choose any pillars you like. They become your three pillars. So at some point I must have said something about spirit, body, well-being, healing. All those are pillars. So Buddhist have pillars, christians have pillars, thousands of pillars. Those are academics. You can choose anything you like for your essence. We say there are three treasures.
Speaker 1:The three treasures are your essence your energy and your spirit.
Speaker 3:So cultivate those and you have your three pillars. Or you have avenues in your life that you can cultivate. You can cultivate your energy, health. You can cultivate your essence, essence, essence. What is your essence? So that takes a little while, it's just oh, it is my essence anyway. And then your spirit. Spirit can some people say the mind, some people say it's beyond the mind. The mind can keep you like a monkey very busy. Beyond the mind, you have to discover who you are, where you are, what you are, whatever. This consciousness is all about Wuji. That was the foundation of nothingness. A great, great, great boy, great nothingness. Some people call it a black hole. You go in and disappear or whatever. You transform into something else and from Wuji you have a consciousness that you have awareness. Ah, I am in nothing, I am nothing.
Speaker 1:Everything is nothing.
Speaker 3:That awareness separates you from nothing. You are now having a young differences you and me, space, time, colors, age, sex, whatever Differences. A differences is relative. If you call this young, then this is you. If you call this young, then this is you. It's relative. It's a way of identifying this and that we say go back to the origin of nothing. Then you recognize the true self.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's really the beauty of Taoism too. Is that space?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and people always talk about mindfulness, mindfulness Often that's what teaches mindlessness, and that doesn't mean you're stupid. It just means you don't let your mind and your thoughts govern who you are. You need to go beyond that.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. So. Then the next question I have for you is that you stated you were mentored by leading Chinese philosophers, martial art teachers, chinese medicine practitioners and Taoists, sometimes listening to seven hours a day from the great grandmas or Wei Reng Bang. So can you tell us first, to our audience, what is lineage and why is that important Because I think it'll be probably like the first introduction they might hear to that term and then, secondly, the philosophy behind the lineage that you were trained in?
Speaker 3:Those stories. I have a Tai Chi teacher by the name of Wang Peikun. He's a very high ranking, one of the highest ranking in China, same as Jethly's teacher. He says to me I said one day I want to be your student, I want to be your disciple, I want to learn from you. He said I take no student. I've been studying with you for 20 years. I take no students, but if you treat me like a teacher, then I'll be your teacher.
Speaker 3:So lineage is something that if you're lucky, you'll have marvelous, marvelous influences. I'm very, very lucky, for whatever reason I've been exposed to, like world-class teachers Judo, tai Chi and martial art and Jujitsu and medicine and yoga. I'm like a lucky guy. So if you have good influences, we say, when you drink the water, remember the source. You give gratitude to the source that has nurtured you. That's what a lineage is.
Speaker 1:Lenege is also something you're.
Speaker 3:It's time, time spent with knowledge, with struggle to figure out, to dialogue, to debate, to question, to understand, to realize, to live in your own realization from the teaching Lenege is about teaching. It's not about me, you, him or not about that. It's about the principle of teaching. And the principle of teaching comes from you, comes from me, comes from everyone. So everyone is a teacher, but you choose one that really like, lets you look at the horizon and beyond and someone can do that for you. Take them as your lineage. So that's it. Some cultural lineage is really important, but it's not about pedigree. You know, my dog is a shepherd.
Speaker 3:You know, it's not like that it's like knowledge, it's like essence, what you have received. I was in a yoga retreat and the teacher but I knew who my Shivalasa Nanda, and she's a yoga teacher and we were doing meditation and I fell into this space of Woji and I thought to myself that's second, wait a minute. Here's an Indian woman exemplifying what I grew up with in Taoism. Wait, is this 30 dollars? Is it Indian? Is it Christian? It's none of it. It's who you are and what you experience. So when you experience that, that you are no different than all of this you are, you know the Indian have a saying now or at that that's Taoism. You are that, that's Taoism. That's it Enough. I think we need to go a little bit more.
Speaker 2:No, no, that's. That's excellent. I think it's a great way to explain lineage and the philosophy behind it too, and I know Taoism can be approached from many different ways. To to find that path too.
Speaker 3:There are many people who claim by fathers, always like be aware of what hat you're wearing and who gave you the hat. Oh, I graduated from blah blah blah. I am blah blah blah, blah, blah blah. Waste of time. Waste of time. If you have the knowledge, share it, that's it so. They're as simple as that, and don't think that you're always a teacher. You have something to share and you're vibrate. I think Buddha just said out of the retreat that vibrate with thoughts, good will and good teaching out of the retreat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Can you tell us to go a little bit deeper, in the 1960s you and your family you immigrated to America where your father or where Dr Wee Ren Fang organized?
Speaker 3:Where you read. And also my name is actually Fang. When I came to this, I was at the ENG, so the ENG stays in China. It's Fang, but my name could be spelled F-O-N-G, f-u-n-g, f-e-n-g, fang, fang, fang, but my name is in Chinese. It's Fang. My father's name is Fang.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I know I put the Americanized version of that a little bit too. Somebody tells you so your father organized lots of different training for you and you had such a unique upbringing, and he also helped you study the physical aspect of things beyond the spiritual, like in Qigong, jiu, jitsu and yoga. Can you tell us more?
Speaker 3:Jiu Jitsu didn't teach me yoga. I had other teachers for that.
Speaker 2:Right, he arranged different teachers and brought in Influenced me, right. Can you tell us a little bit more about that experience and how it influenced you?
Speaker 3:I'll give you a story of my study in traditional Chinese medicine. I was at UC Berkeley studying psychology. Not happy Back in the 60s, 68, 69, I didn't like the system we were approaching with psychology. So I said to my father you know, I want to study something traditional, something with healing something that has history, something that has value.
Speaker 3:He said well, come with me, let me introduce you to my friend, dr Darius Hall, who is a very well-known traditional Chinese medicine doctor. He was giving a class. In the class there was an old man sitting there reading a textbook called Nen Ji Internal Classical Yellow Input, and it's a very sophisticated language, very sophisticated thought. That goes back like 3,000 years, approximately 3,000 years. So my father said I want you to go over now so men can translate for you. So I went over there and the man was translating this internal classic to me and I realized that second that I knew more than he did and I was in my 20s.
Speaker 3:So I said, maybe this is something that's innate within me All these years of listening to my father talking about philosophy, maybe all of that stuff and I want the healing people, maybe all of that stuff is meaningful to me. So I go there to traditional Chinese medicine and at that time it was actually still illegal in California. But something says you know, the universe offers for you. These people are in front of you and take advantage of it. You have no choice. So a lot of things with that was you have no choice.
Speaker 3:You're very sure you have no choice, then you know who you are. So I studied and that time, with tumultuous people getting arrested for practicing illegal traditional Chinese medicine, my colleagues were getting arrested. So I went to my teacher. I said you know this is happening. He looked at me and he said do you want to do this? Yes, do it. He walked away from me. So it's about your calling, whether you're doing what Shaolin is doing. What we're doing, the universe opens up the door. So it was illegal. I dove into it. It became illegal. I became one of the first in California that got my license and I was bilingual so I was able to translate for teachers at that time coming from China Teaching Chinese medicine. I was able to translate. I had to first send knowledge. All heads of department of all kinds.
Speaker 3:And I also went to Hong Kong, and in Hong Kong you probably know it's a conglomeration of everything. Most street cleaners can speak seven languages. So I was able to see modern, traditional Chinese medicine. Modern medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, electro stimulation, east West combined medicine. So I saw the world of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. I also studied Japan or Korea. Wherever there's something interesting, I want to take a look. Can I benefit from this? Can people that I know benefit from this?
Speaker 1:When my students ask me.
Speaker 3:Dr Thang. Dr Thang, I want to be like you, Be a healer. I hit two questions. You need to answer the number one are you comfortable around people who don't feel well? If you're not comfortable, don't do it, it's not for you. Do something else Just as well. Number two do people get well without you doing anything? And that is the crust of healing. It's not about what you do, it's not about what you do, it's who you are, what you present, your vibration and all that Something, what you do. So I remember my yoga teacher said it's not what you do, it's the Shakti, it's the energy that has its own life. It will carry you. You will heal who you need to heal. We're not able to. Don't take blame. You're able to. Don't take the fame. Just do what you do. Be normal, because Chinese is normal. Be casual, be ordinary. Then answer the question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. I mean, that's exactly what I believe about medicine too and the true essence of it, so we definitely have some synergy in our beliefs and the real meaning of medicine. It took me a while to find that too kind of in my studies and my practice. What does medicine mean? Where is the essence of it? And you said that perfectly.
Speaker 3:Recently, the last 15 years, I've been working with Dr Amy Mataki. Dr Mataki is a Chinese doctor who came from China. She's a Western doctor from China. She came to this country, made herself a Western doctor again and then she also went to the acupuncture school, became a TCM practitioner and she has this vision of integrated medicine. So the last 15 years we've been working in the hospital looking at Western medicine, looking at traditional Chinese medicine. How can we?
Speaker 3:merge them with the benefit of the patient. So it was a great exploration, great frontier, because it doesn't happen everywhere. But no medicine is perfect. There will be no sick people, so take medicine as what it is the best of what it is for what you need it for.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. I have another tough question which is hard to explain again. Can you tell us I know that you've been teaching it as well can you talk about Taoist meditation and why it would be important for our listeners to practice this? And I know it's hard to say. Well, having expectations of the meditation or benefits in itself is hard to explain when we're discussing the essence of meditation. But I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 3:You don't want to meditate, you meditate. You don't want to meditate, don't meditate Like what you know. Meditation is not what you do. Meditation is a state of being. You're meditating right now. I'm meditating right now.
Speaker 3:No like I have to sit here for five hours or three hours and fast on vegan food or vegetarian food or no food at all. It's not about any of that, sitting in certain posture, cross-legged leg over your head. No, it's about a state of being. What is a state of being? And I'd rather say recognize the self, the self between the breath, the self it resides within you not trouble bother, afflicted with the Buddhist call of the red dust.
Speaker 3:So pretty, so pretty. This world so pretty, Don't be involved with that. Meditation in Chinese is called Jing Jing. Means still Quiet, without struggle To amin sit or in the seat of meditation, and how do you go about teaching the meditation in your classes?
Speaker 2:Just it Right, well said, well said.
Speaker 3:Perfect, because what you do is really a state of being. There are many ways to get into the state of being. You can sing, get you into a chanting zone. You can go into meditation. That way you can close your eyes and just sit quietly Sitting in the seat of silence. No struggle, no, nothing. Just be calm, relax, pine to yourself, meditation. You can chat, you can count beats, you can count numbers, you can count thoughts. You can go, dive into thoughts, dissolve thoughts. There are many ways to get into this space. A basketball player that makes a three-pointer from the way back there, they're in the zone. They're not thinking about people yelling at them. Whether the shoes are untied or not, uniform they're wear. There's just one thought Wham, I have a goal, I have a purpose. Wham, put a ball in the basket. That's my purpose right now and that's meditation. So if you're looking for achievement, you're looking for benefit, you're in the wrong place. Those things come with it.
Speaker 1:If you have a healthy body.
Speaker 3:So many good things come with it. You have a clarity of mind, clarity of consciousness or conscience. You're free. So many things come to that. Wonderful people come to your life, wonderful knowledge comes to you. You don't have to like, oh, what can I get? What can I get? I want to be wealthy, I want to be famous, I want to be pretty, I want to be smart. I want so much work. Let it come to you. Learn to absorb, learn to take. Who am I? Can I absorb this? I played kongal drum, african, cuban kongal drum. Seven years, after seven years, my teacher of the day says you're okay, you're okay, I'm okay. That's the way I am, I'm okay, that's it. I'm not a superstar. I can't play in the band. I can't jam with you know, santana no, I'm not at that level, but I'm okay.
Speaker 3:So don't try to achieve, grab things that make you feel you have a bigger hat or shiny or something. You know the king was no role. He had beautiful role. Don't let that fool you. Don't let my up to you Know yourself, meditate on yourself, for yourself. Everything else will come. You're giving, you're taking, you're sharing. All that will be there. Don't work at it. Anyway, that's Taoism.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said it absolutely perfectly. There too, it's not doing. And the emptiness and that space where there's the real power.
Speaker 3:I remember once I was in a, I was in a hospital and my wife and I walked into the elevator and one room we can tell the other person the elevator at worst and super distressed, just sad face down. My wife, without saying anything, went over, just gave her a hug. That was it, a simple act of kindness, recognizing and doing something about it. And she says to me, she says you know, kindness is very inexpensive. Taoism Be kind 100%. Simple things.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, thank you. Thank you for explaining all those things too. I I always have a problem trying to explain those concepts to people, and I think you did a perfect job of explaining the unexplained experience.
Speaker 3:Now that you got it, you use your experience to express stories. I love stories because stories you have to think about it. It's not something just I said to you and you got it. You have to like what, what does that mean? And that process? It lightens you.
Speaker 2:It reaches you. Yeah, it really does. The next question I have for you is Like moving on a little bit from Taoism is to discuss the philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine and then how how that differences or what's a different idea behind that then conventional medicine. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:You have both conventional medicine traditional Chinese medicine, western medicine is conventional medicine.
Speaker 3:That's about 200 years, maybe 300 years. Traditional Chinese medicine conventional medicine has probably 5000 years. So Another story I went with my father to Hong Kong when we went to the outdoor market and there was a guy there with his carpet and false teeth Laying on the carpet. I said what's he doing? What's this guy doing? He's a dentist. He makes false teeth for people. Well, don't you need light chairs, equipment, oxygen. You're making false teeth and Outdoor and the carpet for people. My father smile. He says you know if it didn't work.
Speaker 3:Do you think people let him be there? So medicine is something that work to save people. Whatever work with his African, eastern, latin American, european we as human being learn to heal ourselves and others. That's a foundation of healing. There is no difference in the foundation. It's getting well Different perspective. Some look at.
Speaker 3:My pro scottie cells, a cells, diseases on a cellular level. And some people look at your health. How do you present your health? Your color, your pulse, your tongue, you know what you eat. So different ways of looking at the same being Give you different approaches for healing. Tcm comes from observation and empirical experience, but I put myself right here in my arm, my fever goes away.
Speaker 3:Maybe this thing here they touch or poke or pressure or needle makes a difference to my whole body in fever. Well, this goes on for like two thousand years. Everybody collect this information. Next thing you know there's a system. Doing this point will release your constipation, diarrhea and fever. Wow, maybe there's a. There's something to that. Can you find the occupant? Your point, with what machine, what? What instrument?
Speaker 1:me up.
Speaker 3:Can you find your mind? With what instrument, what machine? No, it exists on another plane. It's another way of looking at the body, of a Energetic perspective versus a cellular perspective. All good, just different. Blood tests allow you to tell the tell whether you're in the middle, not looking at the tongue, your eyes, your pulse, your lips. Underneath the eye, we can tell. Are you in the big other?
Speaker 3:same thing Pulse it. You have high pressure. High blood pressure also reflect that if you study, pulse. So Tibetan medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, use a different Assessment technique versus allopathic medicine. Just different, all good.
Speaker 2:Right and yeah, I mean, I. I mean I feel like Chinese medicine. It ties it back to the person more, and an allopathic which is a better way than saying conventional Um is more looking away from the person, looking at tests, looking at diagnostics, rather than looking inward to see all these things and looking at that knowledge. So that's why I really feel that Chinese medicine has has some real power. I remember I took just a couple Chinese medicine courses when I was in med school and what am I? Professor said it could take 10 years just to learn how to really read the pulse and to understand that level and to really read the body, and so I think it's really impressive.
Speaker 3:Well, yes and no is the answer to that, because we all have gifts. For example, you articulate very well, some people can see very well, some people can smell very well, some people can touch very well. All diagnosis is a gift. Some people are Mozart, some people are like ACDC. Different aspect of being able to assess. So, yes, post diagnosis in itself is a unique technique that takes time and sick people To assess.
Speaker 3:All this big sick person has this kind of post and when there was a post I had a patient that pericarditis. I've never had a patient with her pericarditis. A touch of post pericarditis, oh my god, it was like rain on the tin roof. For the first time I recognize what that means for the person's heart from the post. So you have to have the experience, so you're right. But if you're changing medicine like a more holistic approach for the individual and there's different ways to read aura, read the tongue, read the post, listen to the voice, I remember once with about the arms, how I was apprenticing with him and and we're apprentices with him. You sit next to the doctor. People come in and take the policy where to put strip and go. Five dollars at that time was five dollars, I was cheap so literally took a few minutes. When it comes in, go to them, take a post to the stripping, go fill it. When it comes in, didn't ask any question, didn't look at them, didn't take the post right, put strip in here five dollars. I said teach her, teach her. You never look at them to know to the post. You never ask any history question. Yeah, I didn't even ask.
Speaker 3:With His primary Problems issues, are he's a few full? Then you hear him cough. Next door, bing Horizon, open a cough. A mother can tell a cough, a child, how serious the problem is why you tune in to the whole being and the meditation of illness or help. So it opened my eyes, my ears up Just to listen. So in our class we have a way of checking your cheek by a young. To a long the phone reverberates and sings back to you. You have cheap.
Speaker 3:So it's a different way of looking at energy. Testing energy, assessing when the imbalance may be between me and young. What's the menace is just as good you're gonna have blood that you have MRI. If somebody falls down you need to see whether the lead or whether it's a clot. You need to know these things. I have great medicine with your clock boom 30 minutes. You say otherwise your paralyzed. Great stuff, you know. And some immunity stuff, great stuff and safe people, thousands of people, millions of people, generations of people, this stuff. So I have a good friend who is head of China very famous Maldon hospital. He says he was trained in Japan's watch it ahead of tradition Chinese medicine but also Western train. He says don't fight, in the beginning I was fighting with Western medicine, all you know good.
Speaker 1:Way better.
Speaker 3:And now, why? No need to fight. Find the best in both world and use it for the benefit from the video, and it takes a brilliant mind Togetherness to make that happen. No, I'm better than you. The worst of me. Those kind of ideas Don't get you anywhere. What is best from my experience? What is best in your experience? Can we combine the two? In what way can we? In a way we should move. So, for example, the herbal medicine. If somebody is a Blood deficient or losing blood, you have to be careful not to give him herbs. That makes him lose more blood. That moves the blood much greater. So you have to know this person taking Western medicine is in the blood and you then apply traditional.
Speaker 3:Chinese medicine To work with that particular issue, but the blood was gonna be thin. How do you then tone of other blood? Good question how do we work together? Chemotherapy Should you do herbal medicine with chemotherapy? Some people say no, you affect the chemotherapy. Some people say no, you need to prepare yourself for the chemotherapy. Some people say you need to do it concurrently with chemotherapy. Some people say you need to do it after chemotherapy. Hey, it all exists. People choose different methods depending on the individual need and philosophy.
Speaker 2:Exactly Now. I agree with you 100%. I always say stay in the middle of the circle. You know like, see the benefits of everything and the excess of anything you get. You become unbalanced in that too much of too many antibiotics for too many elements or different things like that. There's that issue. But there's benefits to all and all is needed and it's just it's finding that balance and treating the individual. So you said it very well there.
Speaker 3:Treating you, treating me. What do I need? What do you need as an individual Bastic people?
Speaker 2:Exactly and okay. So I have one last question, and we've discussed this a little bit, but really, how do you combine, like, how do you practice? How do you combine your spiritual knowledge and integrate that into your clinical practice when you see patients?
Speaker 3:No different than what you're doing right now. You are who you are. There's no difference in spirit world and this world, medical world, martial art world. There's no different. Everything for me is a spiritual practice. I'm learning how to do salsa dancing, but I do a Tai Chi style. It works for me. Do who you are the enlogamation of everything you learn and true to your nature. Be true to yourself no matter what other people say. No other people do Be true to yourself and move from there. Everything will you know it's not what you do.
Speaker 3:Everything will come. Everything will come. Everything will manifest itself. They're going to get well. They're not going to get well. They love you, they don't like you, they hate you. None of it is important. Be who you are from your heart. Combine with your intellect, with your mind.
Speaker 2:Well said, okay, I just. I have a couple more questions for you to start on. If somebody is more interested in studying Taoism or finding out more about this, how do they find you or what are you offering for our audience if they can get more information or find your classes, if you're doing Zoom classes right now, or different resources?
Speaker 3:If you definitely listen to you, you will tell them all that they need to know. What do they call it Media, blah, blah blah. So I have Zoom classes, I have in-house classes, but one of the things that I learned with my teacher is that just think of your teacher.
Speaker 3:Just think of what you want to learn, it'll come to you. There are many styles of Daoism, many styles, just like many styles of music or dancing or poetry. You need to find what comes to you and what fits you, what works for you. You can certainly Google me and find out what I offer, but I'm just one guy in this universe. You may want to find somebody close to you. You may want to look at my past presentation of Zoom of Daoist talk. We did it for years and my workshop.
Speaker 3:I recorded it so you can actually capture that and listen to it. It's very nice stuff. It's a combination of many kinds of thinking that's been churned in the process and delivered. So you can do that. You can look at the Zoom on Tuesday.
Speaker 3:We might do in-house in the hospital sponsored by Summit Hospital, the Terraria campus in Berkeley. So in-house, for those who live around here, we're going to do a hybrid. We're going to do Zoom and Qigong in-house with that. I teach a Qigong class on Saturday, I teach a Tai Chi class, I teach a Judo class. All that should be the website to get them to get it. If you're in this neighborhood, where are you anyway?
Speaker 2:Michelle, I'm based in Washington state, so I'm on the West Coast.
Speaker 3:You're the person to see me. It takes a little bit of effort, so this is the best way. Zoom is a good way. Look at some of my past stuff. I think I have some published stain on something I forgot where it was.
Speaker 2:You had some great meditation videos too that I found on your website, so that was a great sequence, and I'll be sure to list that as well.
Speaker 3:I also have a Gong thing, a meditation Gong. I love the Gong. The singing Gong is like a nice instrument that takes you places. You can travel with it. It takes you and if you played it with yourself, you have to resonate with the Gong and the Gong will tell you I like you, no, I don't like you. No, I don't like this part of you Very clearly as you play the Gong. Everything who you are manifest in the Gong. That speaks back to you.
Speaker 3:But that's another way of meditating, find some teachers, read some books. There are three ways to learn. Number one teacher. Number two scriptures, meaning what you hear, what you see, what you learn written, so on and so forth.
Speaker 3:Number three most important part Intuitive, the dog. You know it because you know, nobody's taught you, you just know. Those are the three ways. Find a teacher. Many teachers Find some things to look at, to read, to listen to. And there was three Kill into yourself and absorb the knowledge that comes to you. Three ways to learn Excellent.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for coming on today and explaining the unexplained Also, and I think this is a great seed to plan really for our audience to get that knowledge.
Speaker 3:Thank you for opening this mindset for people and allowing them to explore a different world. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.
