Mantak Chia - The Eight Immortal Healers: Taoist Wisdom for Radiant Health

Acknowledgments

The authors and Universal Healing Tao Publications staff involved in the preparation and production of The Eight Immortal Healers extend our gratitude to the many generations of Taoist masters who have passed on their special lineage in the form of an unbroken oral transmission over thousands of years. We thank Taoist master Yi Eng (One Cloud Hermit) for his openness in transmitting the formulas of Taoist Inner Alchemy.

We offer eternal gratitude to our parents and teachers for their many gifts to us. Remembering them brings joy and satisfaction to our continued efforts in presenting the Universal Healing Tao system. For their gifts, we offer our eternal gratitude and love. As always, their contribution has been crucial in presenting the concepts and techniques of the Universal Healing Tao.

We wish to thank the thousands of unknown men and women of the Chinese healing arts who developed many of the methods and ideas presented in this book. We offer gratitude to Bob Zuraw for sharing his kindness, healing techniques, and Taoist understandings.

We thank the many contributors essential to this books final form: the editorial and production staff at Inner Traditions/Destiny Books for their efforts to clarify the text and produce a handsome new edition of the book, and Margaret Jones for her line edit of the new edition.

We wish to thank the following people for their assistance in producing the earlier edition of this book: Colin Drown for his editorial work and writing contributions, as well as his ideas for the cover.

And special thanks goes to our Thai production team: Hirunyathorn Punsan, Sopitnapa Promnon, Udon Jandee, and Suthisa Chaisarn.

Johnathon Dao would love to offer his personal gratitude to Diana and Peter Smith, Dr. Tony Holt, Jessa OMy Heart, Theme Rains, Maree Thomas, Liz and Jill Henry, Emma and Alex Grant, Neal Hoptman, Jacqueline and Marco Vasquez. Also big thanks to Francisco, Audrey and Luke Oliveira, Etta Win, Jenni Stott, Jenni Saukonen, Patrick Riddall, Arthur Lane, Gillian Miller, Dr G Sofi, Eric Freymond, Glen Pelham-Mather, Owen Formosa, Dr. Brad Jones, Carey OSullivan, Jennifer Kelly, Ian and Jenny Curnow at Tweed Coast Chiropractic, and all dear friends who guide and help me so much. And he wishes to thank Eden Health Retreat, Australias most successful health retreat, and Olivers Real Food Restaurants, the first all-organic restaurant chain.

Thanks also to senseis Masakazu Ikeda, Edward Obaidey, and Alan Jansson, who have taught me traditional Japanese acupuncture and Chinese medicine. To Lama Gyurme for Buddhist teachings and to Master Mantak Chia for teaching me the wisdom of the Tao.

Master Chia and Johnathon Dao are both so grateful to share the Eight Immortals with the world to assist in their radiant health transformation.

Putting the Taoist Immortal Principles into Practice

The information presented in this book is based on the authors personal experience and knowledge of the Eight Immortals, the legendary Taoist healers of Chinese mythology. Some of the practices described in this book have been used successfully for thousands of years by Taoists trained through personal instruction from a lineage of masters. Readers should not undertake these Taoist practices without receiving personal transmission and training from a certified instructor of the Universal Healing Tao, since some of these practices, if done improperly, may cause injury or result in health problems. This book is intended to supplement individual training by the Universal Healing Tao and to serve as a reference guide for these practices. As well, many other practices described herein stem from various traditions and sources, including modern naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, ayurveda, and modern Western medicine practices. Anyone who undertakes these practices on the basis of this book alone does so entirely at his or her own risk.

The meditations, practices and techniques described in this book are not intended to be used as an alternative or substitute for professional medical treatment and care. If any readers are suffering from illnesses based on physical, mental, or emotional disorders, an appropriate professional health care practitioner or therapist should be consulted. Such problems should be corrected before you start Universal Healing Tao training.

Neither the Universal Healing Tao nor its staff and instructors are responsible for the consequences of any practice or misuse of the information contained in this book. If the reader undertakes any exercise without strictly following the instructions, notes, and warnings, the responsibility lies solely with the reader.

This book does not attempt to give any medical diagnosis, treatment, prescription, or remedial recommendation in relation to any human disease, ailment, suffering, or physical condition whatsoever.

Introduction

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

ATTRIBUTED TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

MARK TWAIN

In his 1996 book The Electric Universe, David Elliott says, Never before has there been so much talk about health. Never before have people been so unhealthy. Today, the sicker we are as a society, the more money the medical industry makes, including the doctors, hospitals, and drug companies that compose this system. To put it plainly, our health care system gains wealth and power from sickness rather than from health. This has caused the health care system to spin out of control, allowing the systems authorities to keep us in the dark on the real causes of disease and how to prevent them or effectively cure them.

We now live in a world of human-made diseases. During the early part of the past century the four main causes of death were all infectious diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. Due to technological advancements in diagnosing and as a result of more advanced scientific understanding of how disease microorganisms spread, there has been a decrease in the number of people perishing from infectious disease. So today, although we are living longer, we are also getting sick and dying of degenerative lifestyle diseases and various environmental factors, and this includes children as well as adults. The American Cancer Society reports that in the United States in 2007, approximately 10,400 children under the age of fifteen were diagnosed with cancer, and about 1,545 children will die from this disease, making cancer the leading cause of disease-caused death among U.S. children between the ages of one and fourteen.

While modern medicine takes credit for its amazing discoveries of viruses and bacteria and its invention of antibiotics and vaccines (more about those later in this book), it seems to be doing little to protect and teach the general population about the true causes of chronic degenerative diseases and how to effectively prevent them. Most people living in developed countries today do not die at the hands of a virus, but rather by their own hands, and they havent even a clue as to how this happens. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are the major killers in the developed world today. These diseases didnt even rank in the top ten causes of death a hundred years ago. So what happened? What about the mountains of scientific studies on prevention through diet, nutrition, exercise, meditation, and other lifestyle factors? After all, the true causes of these human-made degenerative diseases are well known and can actually be prevented provided there is correct education. So why are we not doing this effectively in our schools or in the media?