Interview with Grandmaster Mantak Chia

By Máire Ní G of Universal Healing Tao Ireland
 

Master Chia, tell us about your early years and how you found the Tao?

I was born in Thailand to Chinese parents. Here in Thailand there is a big community of Chinese people. They know the simple theory of Yin and Yang, how to eat according to the Tao and how to heal yourself when you get sick. I saw many people doing Qi Gong and Tai Chi in the park and I saw Thai monks sitting in meditation too. When I was small I was interested in all of these things. 

Later when I was studying in Hong Kong I met my Master. One day I was sitting with my friends and we were having a conversation about kung fu and energy. We had read a lot of kung fu novels and we were saying that chi is not real. A man overheard us. He came over and said “My master can show you the energy”. The next day we made an appointment to meet him at 10am. The next day I was the only one of my friends who showed up. He took me to meet my Master, who taught me the whole Tao practice. My Master came from mainland China and I was very lucky to learn from him the Inner Alchemy Immortal practices.
 

What was the first thing your Master taught you? He sat me down and pointed to my navel and said to focus on it. “When you feel something - come back and tell me”. So I went home and I focussed on the navel and I found that the energy moved in my Tan Tien. I took one whole night and I couldn’t sleep because there was so much energy moving. And the next day I went to see him and he said, “You have very good karma with this type of practice, you pick it up very quick”.
 

How did you end up teaching Westerners? In the beginning I had to sign an oath with my Master that I wouldn't teach anyone until he said I was ready. When I finished my studies with him and was returning to Thailand, he told me that I had learned enough and I had become a Master. He said that I could decide what to do next but that if I teach foreigners, I should teach Chinese people first. So when I went to New York, I only taught Chinese people for the first 5 years. Later on, when I had fulfilled my promise I opened it up to Westerners and I taught in New York and then later on in Europe.
 

How do you think Universal Healing Tao practices can help Westerners? The way of the Tao is very much for modern people. Taoism is scientific - it's a combination of Chinese medicine, astrology, understanding the physical, the body, nature, physiology. Now Westerners are discovering so many new things, and this goes hand in hand with the Tao practice. The original Tao is not involved with religion, but with energy transformation and energy-moving meditation. We call it a spiritual technology - it's not based on a belief system, but on facts. You don’t have to believe in God in order to do something with your own soul and spirit. But you need to take care of it and this is what the Tao practice is all about.
 

Taoists have an interesting view on sex, can you tell us about that?

The Tao discovered that sexual energy is our best energy. The best of the best! It has the power to create another human being. When conception happens, the sperm and egg unite with love, arousal, orgasmic energy. This has the power to draw in primordial force.

The Tao found that arousal, orgasm, love and compassion energy can heal. Often times people don’t know that love and sex has to combine together. When you combine them together it multiplies and becomes a love vibration which you can bring into your organs and your brain. We call this Healing Love or Loving Energy that Heals.
 

What’s the best Taoist secret your Master shared with you?

There are many of them! The first secret is that you need to learn to get back to your body wisdom. Nowadays we have mobile phones, TV, movies, Facebook - we have so many things to draw our minds out of our bodies. When you learn to turn inwardly with the Inner Smile meditation, then you understand how much you have been draining your organs. You can change this with the Inner Smile and the positive emotion creation cycle - how the 5 elements support each other. The first step people have to learn is how to go inwardly and create energy - then you can heal yourself.
 

What message do you have for people who want to practice the Tao?

The Tao is very simple. When you understand the Tao - you have a better, healthier life - a happier life. And you enjoy life! If people are smart enough to invest time and energy in their health, they are never broke. Learn how to invest in your health, take care of yourself, learn how to do Taoist practice to get more energy, to make yourself healthier - that is the major key.
 

Mantak Chia was born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1944. Recognized very early as having great potential for spiritual development, he was initiated into meditation practices by Buddhist monks at the age of 6. While studying in Hong Kong, he learned Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido and Kundalini Yoga from a variety of teachers. His pursuit of Taoist teachings lead him to meet the White Cloud Hermit, a Taoist Master originally from Central China, living at that time in the mountains not far from Hong Kong. Master Yi Eng was to become Master Mantak Chia's principle teacher. Over a period of five years, Master Yi transmitted to Master Mantak Chia the most sacred and closely held Taoist practices, formulas and methods of internal alchemy, culminating in the Reunion of Heaven and Man.

Realizing that as transmitted to him, these immortal practices could not easily be absorbed by western students, Master Mantak Chia undertook to integrate them with his studies in western physical anatomy. Through this process, he created a unique view of the internal aspects of these practices. With the Universal Healing Tao system, he has created for the first time, a way for any individual to quickly get to the essence of subtle practices whose real purpose has been shrouded in secrecy for millenia. The author of dozens of books, booklets, videos and CDs describing the theory and methods of these practices, Master Mantak Chia has taught hundreds of thousands of eager students the principles of Taoist internal practice over the past 40 years. He has certified hundreds of instructors and practitioners to help in the transmission of these teachings.