Taoist Master’s Ancient Teachings for Humanity with Master Mingtong Gu

Alex Ferrari 0:00
What do you feel modern humanity has forgotten that these teachings were meant to preserve?

Master Mingtong Gu 0:06
And we're losing the deeper connection of this body, but some point, we'll swing back. Have to swing back. A lot of us to know we've been missing this disconnection, missing this connection based on misconception. The internal art of Qigong is working with energy, yeah, for longevity, for healing, actually, for immortality, the idea of living forever. And obviously, you know, no one can truly realize that in human history, by this legend, people live beyond not only 100, 200 even 300 years old. These are true stories.

Alex Ferrari 0:53
How does ancient wisdom define real energetic evolution?

Master Mingtong Gu 0:57
You know, we speaking of consciousness important? Yes, it is important, but when you...

Alex Ferrari 1:08
Now, before we get started, I want to thank you so much for clicking on this video and getting ready to watch this amazing conversation we're about to have. But one thing I've noticed is that about 40% of you who are watching are not subscribed. It is the easiest way to continue to support the work we're doing at next level soul, and it has been the joy of my life to have these amazing conversations with some of the most remarkable and profound souls on the planet. So from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you so much for giving me the ability and the privilege of doing this work for you. So please just hit the subscribe button, hit the like button, and it really, really helps us out a lot. Thank you so much. And let's dive in.

Alex Ferrari 2:01
I like to welcome to the show Master Mingtong Gu, how you doing Mingtong?

Master Mingtong Gu 2:05
I'm doing so great. Thank you. How are you, Alex?

Alex Ferrari 2:09
I am doing fantastic, my friend. Thank you so so much for being here. I am. I am. I don't think I've had a Taoist on the show before, so I've been a, a big fan of the Tao Te Ching, since it was one of the first books I ever wrote, read in the spiritual space, other than, other than being forced to read the Bible when I was in Catholic school. But that book is so kind of unassuming, because it's a small book. It's a very short read, but every sentence is like his sledgehammer. It is so dense and so deep of a well of information, and it will take you a lifetime to discern but yet, the lessons in it are so powerful, so profound and so timeless. So I am. I'm truly looking forward to diving in a little deeper into that and your work and how you got here, my friend. So thank you for being here.

Master Mingtong Gu 3:08
I'm so delighted. So looking forward to conversation. Yeah.

Alex Ferrari 3:11
So you've been trained as a Taoist in a Taoist traditions that are as a tradition of 1000s of years old. But what do you feel modern humanity has forgotten that these teachings were meant to preserve

Master Mingtong Gu 3:26
I think that is the most powerful question to start with. It's great timing to ask that question right now, and especially when we're facing so much challenges, stress, tension, trauma and disconnection, all the disease, all the mental health issues, all the crisis happening around the world. I don't have to make all the list, and I see this as all symptoms, human symptoms, whether it's happening, physically, emotionally, mentally, even spiritually, you know, socially, economically, practically, culturally, it's all happening. It's all like symptom symptoms now it's even amplified by the technology. On one hand, technology bring has so much efficiency and comfort and even promises. On other hand is causing so much destruction, addictions and loss of meanings and burnout, all that. So all the problem is amplified. But when I see all these symptoms, I have to ask the question, you know, been asking deeply for all these years, particularly last two years, I would just say, after the pandemic, I started asking the question more deeply and in the last two years. Also, in ironically, after being working with AI extensively, and this like asking that deeper question, you know, like, when is like, Okay, what is the worst outcome of humanity, especially in this time of in this age of AI? And the answer was shocking, simple and profoundly true, at least one option is happening now. Is not just for the future. Is humanity is going slow, slow by choice, without knowing. And that was shocking, but mostly shocking because it's true, and all the reason I don't need to explain all that we experiencing that right now. You know, by outsourcing our creativity and dependence on AIS and any technology, especially AI and but also is really outsourcing our own purpose, meaning of life, focus on mental only focus on performance, only focus on functionality, only focus on more and more faster and faster than we losing the deeper connection of this body, this body. And the second question asked is, What is the best outcome of humanity in this age of AI? It's also profoundly shocking but exciting. It's also can be true. AI can help us to mirror back our humanity, yeah, what are we lost? Losing? What are we are? Yeah, amplifying here. So basically, as outcome of that can, on one hand, is bringing us clarity also amplify our creativity. That's the only reason I want to share some song video created by AI otherwise, which is not possible because I'm an artist and I create a lot of stuff, you know, visual video and stuff, but still limited, but we are expanding my capacity Yeah, without losing my creativity, so to speak, yeah and but also the capacity to awakening, awakening, I think many of us right now feels like we the pendulum of humanity is going to win direction to to extreme, the extreme of suffering, extreme of quality, extreme of conflict, extreme of you know, addiction, so to speak, yeah, but some point was swimming back. Have to swing back when we experience enough pain, enough suffering, the only choice waiting for us is wake up. Waiting for is changing. You know what is not working anymore. But among all that, asking the question, how I we? How I can help others, as a teacher, as a leader, to move from the worst outcome to the best outcome. The conclusion is so simple when I'm when we see all the problem is so complex. All the problem caused by this, caused by that, you know, brain means this. Brain means that, history, technology, human greed, you know, all that stuff, right? Power, control, you know, always, never satisfied. All that is true, right? But the deeps the cause of all these suffering, all these problems, all these addiction, all this health issue in the world internally, around the planet Earth, is a disconnection of the mind body, our own disconnection of our own mind with our own body, the mind Living in the you know, in the mental world, concept, story, problem solving, you know, wish for thinking, what have these concepts, good and bad, right, wrong. Shouldn't you know judgment, you know all that, history, story, whatever identity, belief, you know, then without Connect. In the body. It's like has its own world, living the own world, and the whole world is based on, like, how your mind is functioning. You know, identify yourself just as purely as a mind. You know existence as even the idea of consciousness is like, as if the consciousness existing by itself as a human being, and then it's like the next one is like now the digital the mind is hijacked by the digital world we're living in. The digital world spend so much time on the screen, whatever way, scoring, scoring, distracting, distracting, addiction, addiction, and then all the time we lose what? Who am I? So deeply, what I'm have been discovering is like we slow the human history. Now even worse at the time is this total disconnection from this body, from this body. So what I'm realizing, without this body, without this body, I do not exist as human being. Without this body, you do not exist as a human being, right? We don't realize that truth we lost in thinking. We lost in the digital world. We lost looking for whatever things we want outside of us, yeah, without realizing this body is a living temple. This body is not only part of us, but this body is carrying everything. Who am I? Yeah, everything the physical, the emotional, the mental, the spiritual, the sub energetic. That's what are we working as in Qigong. Yeah. And second truth is, without this body, I cannot experience life as human being. Period. I cannot experience life as human being no matter what, how much you talk about mind, concept, spirit, you cannot experience life as human being when I'm living here on the planet Earth, yeah, we're talking about life as a concept. So experience, the direct experience, can only possible with this human body existence. I see the phenomena slow, the eyes of my body. I hear the sound slow, the air of my body. I touch life slow. The hands skin on my body, yeah, I feel life slow. Everything inside of me. This body is more than just the physical machine. That's something we can explore whole life. And the third truth is, without this body, my soul cannot evolve in this lifetime. No matter how much you talk about the soul, I define the soul experiencing whatever the soul levels, you know, struggle and so on. The truth is, without this body, my soul cannot evolve in this lifetime.

Alex Ferrari 3:26
Very, very true. One thing I wanted to ask you, from your point of view, because the path of you've walked is one of and please correct me if I'm wrong, but one of discipline, one of not falling completely into the world of comfort, which is where I believe that we have lost our way a bit because we have exchanged or given power to comfort. It's all about comfort. It's all about staying safe. It's all about everything has to be perfect. It's all about I need to have AC all the time. I need to have three to five meals a day all the time. I need to have this house in this car and this if the car doesn't have this, oh, it doesn't have heated seats, how am I going to live in life it doesn't have heated seats? And now it's just and like, and now we have everything ever created visually at the on a phone, yeah, every every movie, every TV show, right? Every video, all of the ancient wisdom that has been digitized and translated, and it's all at so we I feel that, and this is again, my personal take. I feel that we've given our power away to comfort. But the older ways, the ancient ways, didn't have that option, and it allowed us to. Focus more on the journey and focus more on the body, focus more on the mind. What's your take on that?

Master Mingtong Gu 11:17
Yeah, you're right on you're right. So that's one of the biggest problem. So number one problem is disconnection of the mind body, and from there, the second problem comes implied from that is resistance to discomfort and wishing life is about comfort. We spend so much time, so much energy, so much resources, the whole life, including the whole technology, is created to create more comfort, to run away from any discomfort. But the truth is, no matter how much comfort you create around you, comfortable condition you're creating around you, when you go into the body, you are going to experience discomfort. No question about it, somewhat later, no matter how healthy you are, how young you are, how beautiful you are, you know, how perfect you are, whatever your story might be, when you go into the body, you're going to experience discomfort. Yeah, anytime you see something you dislike, you just dislike your body, experiencing contraction discomfort, anytime you experiencing the weather other than what you expected, you can experience discomfort. Anytime you know when you experience something other than you expected, other than you feel perfect. You can experience discomfort, and that is the nature of life. Life is about change, about nature. Nature of life, you go to the to the nature, you can experience that, right? But when you hiding in the comfortable home, creating the most comfortable condition, temporarily, you're not experiencing it. But when you go into the body, you're gonna discover discomfort is there. You're trying to avoid it, avoid it, just missing it, yeah, overriding it, running away from it, by the external discomfort condition you're experiencing, especially the addiction. What's the cause of addiction? Simply, we often experiencing, yeah, not only the body experiencing the discomfort, but we don't want to face it. We don't want face it. We don't want to experience that truth, and obviously in this body experiencing both discomfort, comfort, pain and joy, yeah, love and hate, fear, power, you know, all the both paradox. Yeah. So more you want avoiding what do you label as negative, bad? Yeah, more you could avoid experiencing of joy, the positive stuff inside of you, too, so you don't know how to experience life directly, then using the substance to numb it, to replace it, including the digital. The digital. You know how often you know, honestly you know, including myself, when I feel stressed and comfortable certain way, physically, emotionally, mentally, we go this, yeah, seeking for some release, destruction, temporary numbing, that feeling, but that feeling is still there someone later will get hitting us. So come back to you know my life, I experienced a lot of discomfort growing up childhood, you know, including adopted from young age, actually from nine months old, then lived with two adopted family, and then eventually came back to my birth family. So this is obviously, you know, not an ideal childhood,

Alex Ferrari 5:35
Traumatic, to say the least.

Master Mingtong Gu 10:06
Right, separation, abundance, you know all that, yeah, and but also, I grew up with disease such as, you know, diagnosed as incurable disease, asthma, sclerosis, low back pain, you know, really low energy and so on. So going up to childhood like that. So feel life is very contracted, limited and the feeling the way I grew up is like the sense of deep sorrow, deep sadness, feeling of lost, feeling absence of happiness. Something is missing, not quite know what it is, yeah. So slow my journey of wisdom, healing, Qigong, as you said, practicing diligently for about three years, and I was able to recover from all these so called inculable condition. Later discovered the words inculable is just a label by medical system, which means, according to the conventional medical system, the doctor cannot help you kill or recover from this particular condition. You know, by using conventional approach, yeah, drug, surgery, whatever might be, right, but that doesn't mean the condition itself is incurable, and I lived with that label for half of my life without any hope to change it until start practicing Qigong. In the beginning, I didn't know even if that is possible, I was practicing Qigong, actually more like for spiritual purpose, a sense of meditation, calmness, sense of connection, actually, the first time, you know, when I took a class, actually with my friend, and she's Actually Western, white skinned woman, and teaching Tai Chi Qigong in Columbus, Ohio. And she introduced me to Qigong. And honestly, I never heard of Qigong. I was at my 30 already. I was in graduate school for fine art, you know, photographer in the video as a crazy artist and exploring, you know, who am I? You know, what is life and so on, was deeply meaningful, rewarding and adventures. And so she introduced me to this form of Qigong when I was taking first class with her for first time my life, I feel sense of like calmness, more like internal subtleness, internal subtleness. Then she gave me book about history of Qigong, and obviously that's in Chinese. So when I read it, I was totally surprised. You know, I grew up in China, you know, until, you know, 23 years old, came to the US, but never heard of Qigong, and I heard of Tai Chi. And I tried Tai Chi, I couldn't do it for obvious reasons, health reasons, and also it's too complex. Yeah, too complex. It is honestly I did.

Alex Ferrari 10:06
I remember I did God when I was doing tai chi, I think was like an 89 or 90 position. Yeah, what are those forms? And I remember, I'm like, Good lord, this is gonna take me forever. Let me, can I tell you a story about, can I tell you my Qigong story?

Master Mingtong Gu 11:02
Absolutely you love to hear.

Alex Ferrari 11:04
So when I was in God, I must have been 20, maybe maybe 19, something like that was either late teens, early 20s, and I was already exploring at that young age, different modalities, and I was always searching. Was always a seeker. So I got myself some audio cassettes on Qigong. I'm like, Oh, this seems kind of cool. Let me right. Pre, this is pre internet, pre, anything. So I just audio audio cassettes, and I start listening to it in my room, and I start practicing. I'm sitting down in a chair, and I'm practicing. I don't remember what it was, but I was using my mind. That's all. I was very sitting it was almost like, almost like a meditation, but it was a sit down meditation. I was like, focusing my mind and where the mind and I was focusing my energy on where the energy would flow, yeah, yeah. And then all of a sudden I start focusing my energy to my arm, and as and my arm starts to heat up, but it's not hurting, but the fire, it felt like I was on fire. It was the craziest thing I'd ever felt. This is my first time doing Qigong ever. And my arm, I still remember it to this day. I'm like, I'm conscious. I'm focused on, like, in the back of my head, my little voice is going, Dude, your arm is on fire. I'm like, no, no, I'm okay. It doesn't hurt. It just but I felt this heat, and then it started on the hand, and. Just started to grow, and it was starting to go up my arm, and then I freaked out. I was like, You know what? I think I need to stop this. I don't know what's going on. I had no guides. I had no information other than this Qigong tape. But that was my first experience with Qigong, and it introduced me to the idea of the mind body connection, and that there was something deeper behind the matrix, if you will. This is pre matrix, too, so totally before 1999 but there was something beyond this reality. There was something different than what I had been told. It was a it was a doorway into exploring more. It was a breadcrumb that the universe gave me, but it scared me because I didn't know what it was. And again, there was nobody guiding me, no information, but I kept going. So that's why I went to Tai Chi, I went Akito. I did all sorts of different modalities trying to find it. But it was very, very interesting to me, what that going back and thinking about it again, what it did for my life, that one moment of Qigong opened up a realization that that the world is not what it is. I was told it was, yeah. Does that make that makes sense?

Master Mingtong Gu 25:36
Beautiful, totally. You know this experience. You know sometime as an accident, but most time is when you explore something, learning something. Suddenly, experience arise beyond our old perception, our old assumption, or, you know, whatever knowledge base, then we become really curious, because it's experience is undeniable. It's a parable, right? You know, what do you experience this inner fire, inner fire. So it's not like the fire from the sun, this fire you're touching on, you know, hard stove is the inner fire. So it's like the energy we experience outside of us, we often, you know, beyond, you know, what do we see is energy, but also, beyond what do we see is also sort of beyond that is this subtle energy. You know, the fact, for example, the light, the light from the sun, you see it, but actually you don't see it. Why? Because, what do you see is only refraction of the light on the form, but the light is in the space. For example, this moment, you see the light behind me in this image, yeah, but in front of me, my hands. You see my hands. So you're convinced you see the light. Yes, if I take my hands away, the light is still there in the same space my hands occupied. But when I'm taking the hands away, you don't see the lights at all, which is a visible light, but your visible eye, unique eye, still cannot see the visible light. So imagine that. So that is the limitation of perception. Yeah. So what outside of us, visible? Invisible is also existing. What's inside the body both visible, invisible. So the science study the visible part of inside of us, yeah, the tangible, the somatic, physiological, Biological Chemistry, so on, which is important. But beyond that, visible, physical, tangible, measurable is this invisible, imaginable? That's the mystery. That's where, you know, people feel like acupuncture is like a mystery. You know, you cannot truly scientifically validate, but you can measure the result scientifically and but that's only simple example, but this energy feel inside of us is much more, bigger, deeper than acupuncture. Meridian channel system is this energy field, this energy field, you think about that every cell has its own energy field. Then training cell inside your body together formulating an energy field, and that expanding beyond this physical boundary of this physical body we see tangibly, that's the energy field. And that energy field is not only responsible for function of health, physical function that is beyond electrical magnetic field. It's the living energy field that's including your consciousness. So it's really encompassing the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual dimension of who we are. So we speak of wholeness. Wholeness of who we are is the wholeness. Of this body, including every aspect who we are. So when you tap into that, able to not only experience it as you you know illustrate this experience can be totally surprising, but you can cultivate this energy field consciously. Yeah, and you're walking with energy anyway, but you're not aware of it. This means you're unconscious of it, yes. So the difference between practice not practice, is when you practice, you're consciously working with energy. So it's not a belief system. Believe energy existing or not now scientifically validate, especially according to the quantum physics, we know everything is made of energy, including this body, yeah, and this knowledge is well known in many ancient traditions, including Daoist tradition in China, you know, 5000 years ago, not only Dao De Jing, but yellow Emperor's bible of Internal Medicine. And the whole Chinese culture actually, is based on this idea of Qi. Qi. We speak of Qi all the time. You know, angry means the QI arising, yeah, happy means the Qi is opening. So speak of Qi all the time, and that knowledge is there, but hardly anyone practice. So the reason I didn't know about Qigong until I came to us because later I realized Qigong has been the main underground in Chinese culture until 60 years ago, even in China, even in China, has been available as internal alchemy, immortal, immortality. Practice, okay, and but what's known is like a martial art is more like strong energy practice, one form of Qigong, but it's more like martial art Qigong, so to speak. Yeah, it's different. So the internal art of Qigong is working with energy, yeah, for longevity, for healing, actually, for immortality, the idea of living forever. And obviously, you know, no one can truly realize that in human history. But it's this legend people live beyond, not only 100 200 even three years old. These are true stories,

Alex Ferrari 32:44
Yeah, Moses. Moses was 900 years old, apparently,

Master Mingtong Gu 32:47
Right, right. But they all have this internal cultivation to realize that. So that's also indication, indicating, as human being, we all have this potential beyond thinking these just region they are thinking these just superhuman beyond thinking they just echo, some spear came from the heaven down, then descending, you know, in whatever superhuman form. No, we all human here. We all carry the same potential, same genetic, that genetic is including or history, which including the limitation, but also including the potential of evolution for next stage of Humanity. That's all inmogenetic emotion, not only nowadays, we discover new the old idea of gene function is absolute is based on epigenetic. Yeah, how we think, how we feel, how we experience in life, how the energy feel in the body is the ultimate epigenetic for the genetic to function certain way limited our full potential. But the deep part is the genetic creating, I mean, carry the unknown potential, which is, you know, still waiting for to tap into. You know, as a you know, as example, I don't know the number percentage potential of a brain being used, like among 2030, potential right now, maybe Einstein tap into much greater percentage than average human being. So that means this greater potential, greater percentage awaiting us to discover experience. But how can you do that? You know, we speaking of consciousness important. Yes, it is important. But when you approaching consciousness as a separate entity, that's. Problem we're facing. We're not including this body. We're not including, you know, every aspect of who we are. So this disconnection between the mind body is causing not only limitation as human being, but also the suffering. So the healing, the medicine, the good news, or the golden key, in this case, is connecting the mind body, instead of just the body only or the mind only, or approaching just mentally, or preaching the body just exercises as a physical machine, as a tool, as a vehicle, as just biological that's very limiting perception. So by when you're connecting the mind body, realizing they're not only connected, they're inseparable, then deep meaning as human is to realize how the mind body can work together, not only collaborating, but deeper union. That's the mystical dimension as human being. So in the Daoist tradition, is about it's called Tian Ren li Yeah. Literally means, yeah, honoring the human being as a union of heaven to earth. You know, in this language, we speaking of Heaven Earth sometimes become like thinking about outside of us, become abstract, become overly spiritual concept. But what that means? It means within us, heaven is the mind, the body is Earth. When the mind body connected, you're experiencing the heaven to earth, uniting inside of you. So all the power, including in the martial art is about the mind connecting with the body. Yes, deeper union, when you experiencing that, the power come out there is beyond just power of the mind, beyond just power of the body, is the third aspect the union producing something new, which more than just one or two, just like the water, you know, h2 and you know, O is more than just h, more than just O, combined together become the water. That's the third is the ultimate union, the result of the Union, and that's what life is. That's its ultimate alchemy. Yeah, Yin Yang, uniting together, become one. That's how you returning to the oneness. That's how experiencing the oneness. That's how experiencing creation, transformation, evolution.

Alex Ferrari 37:58
An example of what you're discussing for people listening, a simple one, and a very famous one, is Bruce Lee's one inch punch. Is a combination of the mind and the body. Because when he did the one inch punch, which is very famously in that exhibition, he's sitting there with an open palm, and he's literally an inch away from the body, and he just does this punch, and the guy goes flying about eight or nine feet. That's not physically possible with an arm by itself, right? And especially his arm. He wasn't a big guy. He wasn't a UFC fighter that was 275 and had an amazing amount of physical prowess, but he did, because of this combination of the two and the sum of the parts, create something so much more powerful than one or the because he could have just sat there and thought about a one inch punch, and that's not going to do it. And he could have tried to do a one inch punch with just his arm, and it's not gonna work exactly, but the combination of those two created something, right? And I love the way you said alchemy. It is the ultimate form of alchemy. And I this is something, I think, as well, is that when when you go inside, which is what we've been discussing today, when you go internally, that is where you'll find the greatest power. Totally find the greatest. You'll find the greatest power, not only for your own life, but you. And I love to hear your thoughts on this. When you started to, I'm assuming you meditate when you started to meditate, when you started to go in deeper within yourself, to transcend the physical, and to not only go into the spiritual, but maybe transcend a little bit into the mystical, because it's it's natural when you start to go that deep, the mystical starts to present itself in all traditions. But you start to see the world, the physical world, the three dimensional world, differently. You start to see the code you are. You slowly become near. Out, you start to see, oh, that's what that is. Oh, that's what that means. Does that make sense to you?

Master Mingtong Gu 40:08
Absolutely, absolutely. It's like this connection of the mind is truly the golden key to all the secret, all the mystery, and to everything we're looking for, basically. So one of the way, you know I can speak about experientially, is that you're discovering energy, discovering energy. So like beneath all phenomena is energy. So then you experience life differently, beyond the mental label of good and bad, right, wrong, should, shouldn't even perception of, you know, physical limitation or separation or conflict and our operating just from this conceptual moral, you know, dogma levels, you deeply experiencing the truth of life. Yeah, the direct experience of life is beyond all these concepts, beyond all these moral definition and so by doing that, you even go deeper, discovering you know who we are, who we are. So that is the ultimate journey, Alchemy, ultimate you know mystical journey is, is like simultaneously discovering who we are by going internally, this energy field encompassing the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and realizing how the mind body is interacting, connecting and experiencing this union. You know, sometimes we experiencing this mystical experience as union experience, like, as accident, you know, it's like you're doing something. Then you you just like, don't think about anymore. Suddenly, boom, you feel very different in the zone, for example, right? And then you feel like, suddenly, you connect with everything in life, yeah. So that, that release of the mental concept of separation or busyness or stressfulness, whatever it is, or totally occupied by your own mental construction of what should be, shouldn't be, whatever. Then you when you're letting go of that suddenly, oh, I'm here this moment. I'm experiencing everything existing and you start open to this mystical experience of oneness naturally then. So you like discovering who we are, that capacity of existence and experience, but same time, discover the nature of existence, of life. So that's what I love about. Is like In Taoist tradition, it's more focused on, you know, the Tao is speaking about nature of existence, yeah, the nature of existence, nature of creation, nature of life, nature of energy, nature flow and but also including the nature of this mind body when you do Qigong practice. So Qigong is more like a practice, experiential process for you to discover the tao, which is about the nature of existence, but you want to discover the nature of existence, you have to discover the nature of who you are, your own existence. You cannot excluding say, Oh, I'm just consciousness. I'm here. You know, consciousness trying to understand everything existing other than consciousness, discover the truth of that consciousness can only experience the true nature of life by uniting with existence of life.

Alex Ferrari 44:11
from from the Taoist perspective, the chaos that we are seeing around us, that you talked about earlier, we're All Seeing it around us, it's, I always try to picture, I try to frame it as, like guys, it's been worse. It's been worse in history. Let's just put it very.

Master Mingtong Gu 44:29
I agree. I couldn't agree more.

Alex Ferrari 44:32
I mean, it was worse. It was worse. In our lifetime, there were worse times, and definitely in over the last 6000 years, has definitely been worse, but I think we're hyper, hyper aware of all of this, because of social media, because of the technology. We're seeing everything all the time. Is what we're seeing an actual breakdown of humanity, or is it just part of a larger transformation of humanity's consciousness moving forward?

Master Mingtong Gu 45:03
Yeah, it's a good question. You know, we can look at both ways, yeah. You know, one hand is getting worse. On other hand, we can do whatever we can to wake up sooner than later. Let's, let's hope. Well, then another way we're looking at is like when we go to the pit the bottom of that eventually we have to wake up or just distinguish our humanity, which is more than possible right now, actually, I think, unfortunately, it's true, a lot of people in powerful place of humanity, right, choose going to that direction with this idea of implementing our Mind consciousness to a machine. So we don't have to experience this body anymore, this illusion of immortality existing in the digital machine. And so by doing that, this idea of immortality and this idea of don't have to experience this bodily imperfection anymore, this bodily you know, discomfort, this bodily disease, this bodily pain, this bodily love and the joy all that suddenly become like this consciousness, separate From the body and in the machine on one hand, I don't think it's totally possible. I don't think it's totally possible on the hand, if you make that happen, the outcome is not something I want for myself, for humanity, for my kids. You know, I don't want to live like in walking stick. You know, the head is super powerful as a machine. Then the rest are just like stick, walking stick as a robot. I don't think that is my choice of new humanity. I see that as distinguishing of humanity. So all these three things is happening, the distinguishing for humanity, on other hand, is the total suffering, destruction we're experiencing as we continuously experiencing now, without doing anything about it, until we have to wake up. But the middle way I'm choose to do. Let's wake up now. Do something now. And actually the most important thing to do, as I want to share passionately, that's the only thing you can do to save yourself, save humanity, is connecting with your own body, reclaiming your own body. This body is the embodiment of humanity. So the power you're looking you know, I'm not talking about external power, the inner power and the purpose, the meaning as human being. It's all existing inside of you, all the love and the joy and health, yeah, experience of, you know, fulfillment, all have to be experienced with this body. It's all inside of you. So simply put that, like when the energy of your body, you know, contracted, yeah, then the function of you in all level, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, compromised, limited, eventually leading to disease, yeah, burnout, emotionally, you know, whatever, depression, anxiety, you know, all the stuff come out, and when the same energy awakening, I'm talking about weakening here, is not as apt to a concept, you're awakening your body. Your means you're awakening the energy inside of you already, instead of the energy contracted numbed, you awaken the energy to move to open. So when the energy flowing in the entire system of your body, that means every part of your body starts to communicate more effectively, then naturally, health improve. What is health? Health means every part of your body is working in harmony with, yeah, communication of wholeness, not separation, not fragmentation, yeah, not, you know, disconnection or numbness. Yeah, that's what health means. Working. Wholeness. So when the energy of your heart opening, flowing again, especially the energy of your five organ system, which is associating with your emotional experience, heart, associated with love and joy, but the killing you associating with fear and also empowerment, strong will and the digestive system associating with worry, also confidence and the liver, including the immune system, purification system associated with the experience of anger and also courage, the long respiratory system associated with this feeling of sadness, grief, loss, but also compassion, compassion. So when you tap into not only into your heart, allow the energy of five organ system, awakening, opening, then you increasing your emotional capacity, experiencing all this human experience, as I named, without being stuck, without being stuck. So it's not about avoiding pain, avoiding fear. You cannot avoid it. You can suppress it. You can numb it. You cannot sink yourself out of it, because everything is in your body is real, no matter how much you want to feel or whatnot. You know it's like when tangible example, every day we experience stress, right? But often we feel like, okay, mental stress. I'm mentally stressed now chance find a way to release that mental stress, do something different, think something different, watch a movie, whatever, releasing some mental stress. But the truth is, your body is carrying the stress. Now how much you mental trying to avoid it, think yourself out of it, the body is carry the stress, the tangible experience of the body stress is a contraction, your shoulder tightening up over the time, your spine contracting, numbing and your hip pains that happen all these contraction eventually leading to physical issue, including pain, but that is too late. Yeah, when you experiencing that, but every day, the stress is in the body, but when you're not aware, you're not connected with your body, then you don't know how to take care of it. Then the stress accumulate over the time. Then eventually the body say no more. Then suddenly we diagnosed with disease, chronic disease, life threatening disease, even say incurable disease. Then we feel like shocked, like, Why me? But that's the result of decades, decades of stress, the result of contracting energy pattern in the body. So only way to take care of that is every day you're connecting with your body. Be aware of the physical contraction, sensation, discomfort, the emotional experience you're having, also the mental pattern you know in without knowing, then energetically do this practice, shifting the pattern from contraction to openness, yeah, from stagnation to flow, from disconnection to connection again, to wholeness again. And that is so simple. And including the practice so simple, it's like movement as meditation. You slow down the movement. So when you, for example, this moment, we can experimenting little bit, yeah, when you do kind of physical movement like this. You're spending energy, right? You feel good after a while, you exhausted, yeah, but if you move the arm like this, very slow, soft. You feel your arm slow the movement, you're releasing the tension, the physical tension, the physical stress as well the energetic tension, yeah, when you move slowly, so slow slow down. When you slow down, you also slow down. In your mind, you're releasing the fast thinking, the stressful thinking. Then you're connecting with your body. The more you slow, you move, more you start to not only connecting with your body, feel your body realizing, especially with the eyes closed, you start realizing. This arm is beyond just the physical arm. It's the energy arm. Yeah, and your thoughts affecting the experience of the arm. Emotion is affecting the experience of the arm, and the arm is carrying all this experience. And the most time you're not aware of it. So when more you're aware of it, more you do this gentle movement, then the energy just start to awakening, opening, flowing again. So that's just like one simple example. And obviously, yeah, we do other practice, such as sound vibration to awaken the energy of the hard five organ system, you know we do, sitting meditation, walking meditation, lying down meditation, pure consciousness, meditation. So this whole combination of all these activity allow you tap into the whole energy system of who we are.

Alex Ferrari 56:01
Well, the one thing that what you said was so beautiful, but, and I don't know how it is in the east, but in the West, we are basically trained to hate our bodies. It's never good enough. It's never it's never perfect enough. It's never because we're putting up us. You know, we're comparing ourselves to people who are either genetically perfect or are doing things that are improbable or impossible to maintain for long periods of time, like you know, and now it's starting to come out, some of these actors who on screen, they just look like Adonis is, but they like, yeah, I didn't eat or drink anything for 24 hours prior to that scene because I needed to dehydrate my body so much so I can show every single muscle and every single this or that, but the second I was done with that scene, I ate pizza. You know that there's a scene that in a recent movie, Top Gun, the last Top Gun movie, there's a very famous beach scene where they're playing football. They shot, everyone's shirtless. All the guys are shirtless, and all the guys, and it was a competition. They trained to see who would look best on screen after they shot it. Tom Cruise watched it. Didn't like it. He's like, we're shooting this again. And everyone already let themselves go. So they had to go back. And that's just an example of like, it's impossible to maintain these things. So what is that doing to us as as a society? Because people are if you hate, if you actually energetically look in the mirror and hate what you see. Are dissatisfied with who you are. You associate the self with the way you look. You know, as we get older, that starts to wean hopefully, though there's a lot of plastic surgery that would differ with what I'm saying, but generally speaking, as you get older, the body just goes, Look, you're not 20 anymore, and you're not going to look 20 anymore. That's just the way it is, Aging Gracefully. But there's this, this thing that people, I mean, I just want you to explain to people what it's doing to them. And I'm, by the way, you and me, I'm sure I don't want to speak to you, for you, but for me, I was raised in this world, and raised it and worked in Hollywood for 30 years. So even as a man, you look at your body and you just like, Oh, God, I don't look like Brad Pitt, because you're not Brad Pitt. I just saw Brad Pitt in the late in his latest movie. He was, he's 61 I think now he has a six pack. I'm like, God damn it, Brad, what are you doing, brother, but he looks great. God bless him, right?

Master Mingtong Gu 58:45
Yeah, good for them, right, right.

Alex Ferrari 58:48
But he did say, but he did, but he did say in an interview, he goes, he goes, how you looking so good. He goes, looking so good. I have to get up three times a night to go to the bathroom. I don't know what you're talking about.

Master Mingtong Gu 59:01
Love that, right?

Alex Ferrari 59:02
Isn't that great? It's just like, bring it back to reality.

Master Mingtong Gu 59:06
Totally, yeah, I'm so grateful you bring up these, you know, really, most important question, deep issue we're facing as human being, you know. So it's not just like the Western thing, I think everywhere nowadays, especially now with digital media errors. You know, actually, it's worse in China, it's like this app help you to beautify your look. So the filters, yes, yes, oh, my God, you know. So it's not just in the West everywhere, and not just the young generation, you know, not just in the celebrity world. It's like identifying the look and as if that is determining who we are without, you know, go deeper. Beyond the skin, beyond the surface. You know, experience your horror is nothing about your look. Experiencing your relationship or life, these all these feelings is in your body. Experiencing the truth of who you are is beyond just how you look. And so the two thing is, like, so inseparable, connected. Yeah, it's like the separation from the mind, the mind the body. So when you identify your body just by the look, you're not really connecting with your body deeply, the truth of your body is more than look, yeah. So that is one thing. But secondly, it's like when you disconnect with your body, then you have this misunderstanding of the body, assumption about the body, even wrong belief about the body, even in certain spiritual religious tradition, think of the body's sin, body is bad, body is evil, yeah, and that's causing so much unnecessary suffering the whole life, they couldn't get away from that belief system. You know, have the students from Jewish tradition. I'm not saying this belief come from Jewish tradition. But for her, in the case whatever the way she grown up, she thought about this body is bad. She thought, especially the hip area. When we move in, the hip, connecting the energy of the hip, she's like, Oh no, I don't want to go there. That's the part I was told is bad. So over the years, she progressed gradually. You know, in the beginning she feel better about overall of the body and herself. Then go deep into the horror, discovering more joy, more energy flow, more connection. And she was in the 70 already, and like feel loss of meaning of life, and she discovered the new meaning of life by connecting with herself through her own body. And then eventually, in the third year, she was a very dedicated practitioner. She silently, she told me. She called me, you know, Master min Tong, out of respect. She's like, Oh my god, Master, master. Finally, I can feel my hip now peacefully, joyfully, and that moment, I realized that is so important for her, and it's so important for most a lot of us, to know we've been missing this connection, missing this connection based on misconception. So simply put it. You know, over the years, working with 10s of 1000 students, including intensively in a retreat. You know, the most intense retreat we offer is like 30 day of retreat, 30 day of non stop, coming back to this body, again, again. Slow, all these practice, slow teaching, slow personal mirroring, slow self refraction of their own journey of history and so on. You know, formulating these belief patterns, and eventually go to the place of releasing these belief systems. So there's a five different kind of assumption about this body. One is think of the body as object, and therefore we focus on the look. So the main woman relationship based on object causing so much dysfunction, so much suffering, so much problem in human relationship, particularly between men and women. Yeah, as well aging. Yeah. And second misconception, think of this body just temporary vehicle. It's a toll. It's a vehicle. This popular analogy is called rental vehicle. This body is rental vehicle, temporary. So I just use up. So the implication is like, oh, it's not functioning. You give this body to someone else to fix them. You're not responsible. So we do not claim or birth right responsibility. This body is your own responsibility. It's you more than just a vehicle. And the third misconception, you think of this body as a machine, not just a vehicle, a machine to study, to control, to, you know, to the biological machine. You know, chemistry, whatever. That's how the medical system approaching it like study the body. Body as corpse, as if the mind is not in the equation, energy is not in the equation, we gain a lot of knowledge about the physical aspect of the body, machinery, aspect of the body, without realizing what are we missing is energy, consciousness, wholeness, oneness and another misconception is also based on our human experience, particularly trauma. We think of this body is a prison. We can only experience freedom by getting rid of this body by bypassing this body, even spiritually, the idea of enlightenment without this body, the idea of transcendence, saving the body so can be free. It's like crazy making what's the point of you coming here as a human? What's the point if you want just realize enlightenment consciously without this body, then you go somewhere else. You don't have to be in this body. You come all the way wherever you come from, suddenly being human form with this body. Now you want to get rid of this body so you can be free again. What's the point of being this journey, this Lean connection? Think about that it's like. So it's all come from this avoidance of this comfort, avoidance of true humanity, even spiritually, even religiously. We're doing that without understanding, without understanding. So you know, honestly, I see this problem through the entire human history, not just right now. Yeah, I see this problem is amplified by the technology. Yeah, the disconnection, the gap becomes so big, yeah. And even when we're looking for connection with each other, which is important with looking for connection with the Mother Earth is so important. But without the connection, the internal connection, or mind body, you cannot truly experience connection fully with others, with Mother Earth, with life just impossible, right? Good. I don't speak of things black and white, but for that matter, that's the truth. I'm staying with her.

Alex Ferrari 1:07:40
It's kind of like you get into a car and you start to drive, and you perceive that as I'm in a prison, right? A prison, I'm in a prison, driving in this metal cell, right, and driving around. Now, mind you, I used to live in Los Angeles, so it did feel like a prison when I was driving, especially in traffic, but generally speaking, it's that kind of insanity, because you can transcend the car. You can walk out of the car, but you, it's different. You. It is the car. It's the vehicle that gets you from point A to point B. It helps you experience the environment that you and without this body, you can't there's

Master Mingtong Gu 1:08:24
Anything,

Alex Ferrari 1:08:28
Nothing at all can be experienced. The reason we're down here is to be in this we are in the spirit world. You know, I'm assuming that you know, when we're in the spirit world, and I'm going to just frame it up as a human would in the spirit world, we're walking down the spirit street, and I walk, I meet you, Ming Tang, and I go, Hey, Ming Tang, how you doing? But oh, great. I just got back from Earth. I'm like, Oh man, you look great. Where were you in? I'm like, oh man. It was a hell of a story. I went through this, this, this, this, and this. I'm like, I can't I make I would love to experience that. He goes, Well, be careful what you wish for, because it ain't easy down there. But I tell you, it is something we cannot experience. I say up here, but we can't experience here. It's a hell of a it's a hell of a thing, man. It's kind of like, Oh, should I get into a Ferrari? Because once you're in a Ferrari, you you feel it, and you drive, sorry, my name is that, but, all right, let's say a Mercedes. You get into a Mercedes, and you're Bentley, and you're like, oh, oh, oh, this is nice. Oh, this is very it's a different experience of feeling that journey. And when you choose a body down, come to come down here, you could choose a 1987 Pinto, or you could choose a Bentley, and each one will give you a different experience. One will be rockier. One will have more, more shock issues. Some will have engine issues. Other ones will be a smooth ride. No matter what comes your way, you know. So it's really up to you and what you want to experience as a soul when you come down here, I wanted to ask you, and this is something that in the New Age movement is talked about a lot. It's been talked about since the 60s in the west the hippie movement, Hey, man, you got to raise your vibration. Man, you got to raise your frequency, dude, kind of thing. And that term of like, I mean, you have to raise your frequency. You have to raise your vibration. From an ancient wisdom perspective, how do they? How does ancient wisdom define real energetic evolution, not just not this the t shirt version

Master Mingtong Gu 1:10:44
Yes, these concept can be misleading as even including high vibration, just totally focus on consciousness and soul only as they're separate From the body. And even I want to be careful that when you speak of the knowledge of driving the vehicle, you know is has its point. Learn from that. But really you know that now analogy can lead into the wall of misunderstanding too as well. So just want to clarify that this body is much, much, much more than a vehicle. Yes, so deeply is is the expression the physical body is expression over the soul is a physical expression of a soul and the cell is carried the divine blueprint of who we are. So the physical the spiritual is inseparable. So the ultimate discovery in this spiritual, mystical journey, our awakening journey, is literally discovered that wakening to that truth, the physical and spiritual is inseparable, and the personal, the collective, inseparable. And me as human being, the planet Earth, our whole existence of the universe is inseparable. That's the ultimate discovery. So anything leading to more connection, then we're moving to a spiritual capacity, growth, so to speak, anything. Continue reinforcing the separation, disconnection, the struggle of whatever quality conflict. Then we continuously moving backwards, so to speak. So this is whether we call the source evolution or spiritual awakening. For me, simply, is a degree of connection. Is a degree of inseparableness, degree of experience of oneness. We cannot expect ourselves, you know, functioning that way every day, 24/7, but we can increasing the frequency, the capacity, the deeper knowing of that deeper nature of oneness of life. So when you work with energy, you start to allow yourself, at least in the beginning, perceiving life in that way. The cosmology of Qigong is a very simple three words, yeah. One is wholeness, wholeness, wholeness of life, including the wholeness of your body, including every aspect yourself, is is opposite of exclusiveness, the opposite of fragmentation is opposite, you know, disconnection is the opposite of judgment, separation and also externally, in how we can embracing each other in this perception of wholeness, we're all part of life, yeah, not only human being, animals, all sentient beings, the tree, the mountain, the forest. You know, every existence is part of life, and not just, oh, human cannot survive, exist without this nature, which is true, but that is like based on the survival perception. But go beyond that. No, energetically, we coexist in each other just cannot be other way. It's not just for survival need. It's the nature of existence. It's not like, oh, I have to survive this. For I need a tree. I have to survive this. I need to protect the Mother Earth. That's like the survival need. Such a limited human perception? No, you are part of nature. Nature is part of you, and this energy body is extension of the energy of the Mother Earth, vice versa. And the energy of the earth is extension of your own energy body. So when you experience that, then you can live in from different way, complete, different perception, different experience. But that's perception only possible beyond just the mind, thinking beyond just concept. You have to feel your body. Feel your body beyond the physical limitation, discover the truth of your body beyond the assumption object you know. You know vehicle, you know temporary prison. You know bypassing all the sensation, feeling you cannot experiencing the true reality by bypassing, by transcending, what is true. So what is true is true is by embracing everything is true, then you get into the essence beyond the relative truths. Yeah, that is the oneness, the oneness, the oneness is beyond just relationship, no interaction, connection. You know, the science our our dualistic thinking, is study, you know, whatever A and B, they're connected because they can interact. That's this relationship, depend, interdependent, kind of you know relationship, which is the important part of life. But beyond that, without interacting energetically, they're connected already in the whole picture of oneness of existence. So when you experiencing that, then you don't see them like a separate you don't seem Oh, this is better. This is worse. This is wrong. This is sure, shouldn't then you experiencing the one you see another level, which she bring you. True Peace. Peace to peace. True peace is by embracing whole existence of life as oneness, not just relationship. Yeah, and the true peace has to come from your inner peace by embracing your own existence totally, 100% now that's hard to do, because let's use the practice and talk about discipline. You know, it's beyond just perception, beyond just belief, beyond just choice, beyond just intention. You have to do the work that means when you come into this body, you have to embrace the discomfort, embracing the history, embracing the pain, embracing the trauma of the body carries from the past more you embracing that, more you discover beneath all that is power, is energy, is Love is the inner medicine waiting for you to discover. Yeah, and that's the most powerful process, yeah. So the whole process I'm discovering sharing today is coming home to embodied awakening, and that is my upcoming book is about and finally, I decided to write a book for public. After all these years, you know, students are asking me, you know, you should write book. Write book. I have quite a few books for my community, for their practice. Finally, say, you know, even there are tons of book out there, you know, you don't need another book on the bookshelf. Read more information, but realizing this book is essential. It's important is is not only inspiration. Really want to inviting people looking at life in different ways in this time of crisis, particularly discover, really, discover your own body, your own power, your own purpose in this age of AI

Alex Ferrari 1:19:28
Mingtong, thank you so much for that that was beautiful. You have a little surprise for us, a little treat for us, if you will. You have a song that you would like to share with us, and we haven't done that on the show before, but I thought it would be really beautiful to to hear this song.

Master Mingtong Gu 1:19:43
I'm so, so happy for that, grateful for that you're open to that, and I'm all about, you know, radical approach, and I know you're in the same page as well. So let me play the song while we meditate.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:06
Everybody is looking for something. Everybody is looking for someone. Everybody he's looking for something. Oh, everybody he's looking for someone. Everybody is looking for some. Everybody, everybody is looking for themselves. Everybody, is looking for their own body, looking for themselves. Welcome home, welcome to your own body.

Alex Ferrari 1:21:48
That was beautiful. That was beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Mingtong, where can people find out more about you and the amazing work you doing in the world?

Master Mingtong Gu 1:21:58
Yeah, we have so much to share to offer. So the best way is going to my website. mingtonggu.com. mingtonggu.com, and if you're interested, find out more about the book launch happening shortly in March and forward slash book and so mingtonggu.com/book, so simple link, and I'm looking forward to connect in the field, especially in this amazing times. I'm so, so grateful this opportunity have this deep conversation with you, Alex, and appreciate so much of the work and your journey, and together, we can make something happen.

Alex Ferrari 1:22:50
I hope so, my friend, I hope so. We're trying. We're trying. And my last question is, if you could offer one timeless message to humanity during this moment of transition. What would it be?

Master Mingtong Gu 1:23:07
The most important essential message only here, if you want to make a difference for yourself, for your family, for your life, for the world, is only two things you can do, cultivating two gardens. First, most importantly, is the internal garden of your own body. Yeah, not just take care of your body and, you know, improving the function of your body, accessing your body, dressing up your body, or make up your body, but deeply loving your body, discovering who you are, slow this temple and secondly, creating garden outside of you, no matter how small, how big plant, some tree, some plants, flowers, if you can do the two things besides everything you're doing, you can make big change for yourself, for your life, for the world. And that's the simplest message I want to share. I think the most direct, profound message for me, I choose to do.

Alex Ferrari 1:24:22
Mingtong, thank you again, so much for being here, and I appreciate not only the work that you're doing, but everything you're doing to help awaken this planet. So I appreciate you, my friend. Thank you again.

Master Mingtong Gu 1:24:33
Thank you. Thank you so much. Much love for everyone.