Damo Mitchell - A Comprehensive Guide to Daoist Nei Gong

Foreword

Paul Mitchell

I, with a large degree of fatherly pride, was extremely pleased to be asked by my talented oldest son to write the foreword for his latest book.

It has been several decades since I, with high hopes for his future, began to train him in the Martial Arts of Asi. I did not, at this time, realise how this would begin a lifelong quest of discovery for him and consequently lead to a deep and profound understanding of a vast array of topics ranging from both external and internal martial arts through to Nei Gong, meditation and Chinese medicine.

It has been several years since Damos first book on the Nei Gong process, and although it was certainly a ground-breaking piece of writing, his studies and understanding of this method of human development have greatly magnified and evolved. His new book most certainly reflects this evolution within him. In my opinion, my eldest sons greatest ability is his grounded approach to life, and this I feel sets him apart from others that profess to know and subsequently write upon and teach the Daoist arts. In some ways, I feel that maybe his generous nature causes him to make, what is all said and done, generally considered to be inner door information readily available to the general public. However, I am myself no stranger to the teaching of these arts, having become a student of my son upon the realisation that his knowledge likely rivalled all but the most elite within the Daoist world. This has taught me that, for those that have not completed the correct groundwork, this inner door information is of little use. The groundwork or indeed the building of a good foundation for a persons internal process is both essential for their future development as well as being a test of their character. For this reason, my concerns regarding the making public of the many revelations contained within this book have been dispelled. It is certainly true that in this modern time of instant gratification and love of shallow pursuits there is a very real danger that the health benefits, skills and personal development made possible through the processes intricately described within this book will all but disappear; this would be a crying shame. The watering down of classical systems, in order to fit in with peoples lives, is a common occurrence in this time, and I know that my son feels a heavy burden of responsibility regarding the correct transmission of these arts in order to preserve them for future generations.

The material covered in this piece of work is certainly extensive. It takes the reader through relatively simple Qi Gong principles through standing practices and Daoist philosophy into energetic realms that are beyond the reach of all but the very resilient of us. Although I myself have studied these ways for many years, I discovered within this book many a facet previously untouched by my mind. As I stated earlier, I could not have known the journey that our humble beginnings within the martial arts would set in motion, but with hindsight there has been, in my opinion, nothing random about it. This piece of written work is in my opinion a simple extension of all that has gone before and is the culmination and encapsulation of my sons teaching up to this point. It is often true that what I would refer to as a journey person (and, to my mind, my son is certainly one of those) will find it necessary to almost crystallise their accumulated knowledge at a given point in time and, beyond some personal practices that are between his teachers and himself, this book is just that. It is in my experience a rare thing for a teacher to put in black and white in an open and honest manner just what it is they are attempting to transmit through their teaching, and even rarer for them to write down for all to see how they do it. This again, in my opinion, speaks volumes about Damos personal attainment within the arts, and therefore his openness and willingness to share his knowledge with all those fine souls that are willing to listen and make the necessary effort.

My sons previous books outlined the processes necessary in order to move a person through Dao Yin training in order to purge themselves of internal pathogens into Qi Gong exercises in order to regulate and rebalance themselves, and then into the deeper aspects of using these movements as tools in order to go far deeper into the realms of Nei Gong. This work has gone deeper still into this process and also includes many previously unmentioned aspects, including maybe one of the first written, certainly in English, explanations of the connective tissues or the Huang. This is surely an important read for all who study body work, from gymnasts through to exponents of Taijiquan, back through to all those who profess to practise Nei Gong. I know it has long been a concern of my son that some people embark upon a Nei Gong practice without the background knowledge or work and without the guidance of an authentic teacher, and this can often cause them to harm themselves. For this reason, he has also included a section of possible dangers and methods for avoiding them.

I personally cannot state strongly enough that before one embarks upon a deep study of any internal system they must first find a good teacher. I know that, as the authors father, it is likely or even inevitable that I carry some degree of positive bias when it comes to this written piece, but I like to think that my many years working upon myself have given me the ability to separate my emotions from my ability to be objective.