Introduction:
What is the Healing Energy
of the Tao?
In the sixth century B.C., Lao-Tse began his classic essay, the Tao
Te Ching, with this admonition: “The Tao which can be spoken of is
not the Tao.” Loosely translated, “Tao” means “the way” or “the
power”. In early Chinese writings the Tao implied an understanding
of life which stressed individual harmony with the forces of nature.
The Taoist sages often became hermits that lived in the mountains
and disdained offers of power from admiring emperors, saying they
preferred the “Ruler of Nature” to the transitory “Ruler of Society.”
In the same tradition, “Awaken Healing Energy Through The Tao”
is rooted in the process of nature, our bodily nature. This healing
energy works independent of any particular belief or current scien-
tific concepts. It differs from the Taoist religions which grew up
around the original philosophy. In a nutshell, it is a subtle but verifi-
able experience of life energy, of “chi” flowing through the body in a
specific pattern. It was discovered by practical minded Chinese
sages, and is available to to any person of any age who cares to
train themselves to observe and use it. That this healing power is
compatible with different individual beliefs or religions is apparent
in the fact that the author Mantak Chia is himself a Christian, but
has used the traditional Taoist methods to help thousands of people
heal or improve themselves.
A person could study hundreds of volumes of the Taoist Ency-
clopedia in Chinese and commentaries on the Tao Te Ching or I-
Ching in a dozen languages without ever learning how to awaken
the much poeticized healing power of the Tao. It would be far more
useful for such a seeker to spend their time practicing the circula-
tion of the healing life force in the “small heavenly cycle” or “micro-
cosmic orbit” as described in this book.
Mantak Chia has read those hundreds of esoteric volumes, in
addition to receiving the highest oral teaching from Taoist Masters.
He believes the oral teachings are too important to be practiced by
Introduction