Breathing and Embracing the Dao

By Helen Liang

The Autumn breeze is clear and crisp, calming and peaceful. The breeze gently touches the green, yellow, orange, and red leaves, causing them to gracefully sway in the air. Practicing Tai Chi and Qigong in a park near my home, I feel this carpet of vibrant reds and golds caressing my feet. The breeze is running through the channels and vessels of my body, and each breath of the fresh air fills me with deep calm and joy. This moment is pure perfection.

While the meaning of life changes with the different stages of our life, the one thing that has been a constant contemplation for many years in my life is: breathe and embrace this very moment. Embrace good and evil, sad and joyous, life and death, Yin and Yang, the duality of everything. Life is the meaningful coexistence of all opposites. The apparent opposites are part of a unity that undergo a constant flow of change and transformation. This Chinese concept of the underlying unity is called the Dao, or the Way, the Way of the Universe. The Dao embraces the duality of everything, and is in endless motion and change. It is the source of creation, and of all cyclic happenings.

I was diagnosed with terminal stage lymphoma in my mid-twenties, a time of boundless optimism and big dreams. My oncologist had exhausted all possible treatments, and I was told that I had a maximum of three weeks left to live. I was devastated and went into complete denial for months, until one day I was struck with a profound realization during my Qigong meditation.

I was born into a family of Chinese Martial Arts (Wushu/Kungfu) and Qigong practitioners. My father, Grandmaster Shou-Yu Liang, is one of the recipients of the Coach of Excellence title, an honor awarded by the People’s Republic of China only to the most outstanding Chinese Martial Arts instructors. My father’s martial arts ancestry goes back five generations. He started his traditional Emei Kungfu and Qigong training with his grandfather in 1948. After his initial training, he then sought out other renowned masters skilled in other Shaolin and Wudang styles. In the early sixties, he began his study and research in the major styles of Tai Chi such as Yang, Chen, Sun, and Wu style, Daoist Qigong, and Buddhist Esoteric Qigong.

I entered this unfathomable world of Wushu, Tai Chi, and Qigong under the tutelage of my father at age four. Not only I was physically trained by my father on a daily basis in all the fundamental skills, routines, and various short and long forms, I was also introduced to the written texts of many of the Wushu, Tai Chi, and Qigong Classics as well as many of the great Daoist and Buddhist sutras. I frequently found myself citing and chanting passages out loud from these classics, mesmerized, but not really understanding any of the concepts. My father would tell me, “It’s okay if you don’t understand, just continue to cite, chant, and feel. One day it will come to serve you.”

Mysteriously, gradually, the deeper meanings and messages of these ancient wisdoms simply came to me, without needing any verbal explanations, as I continued to practice my Wushu and Tai Chi forms or Qigong meditations. Each time I practiced, I felt I was embraced by the Dao. And hadn’t my father been ever so correct in telling me that these wisdom teachings would come to serve me one day?

After receiving my shattering diagnosis, I went into a Qigong meditation in utter devastation, but then came out of it realizing one thing: everything that happens comes and goes. I am called to embrace everything that is happening to me in this very moment, be it good or bad.

I had such a noisy mind for months and months after I was diagnosed with lymphoma. I was feeling very negative but kept trying to force myself to feel positive, even though my body and mind wouldn’t want to cooperate at all. I realized at that moment that I didn’t have to look at any situation in a positive or negative way. Both a positive mind and a negative mind is a noisy mind. I needed a silent, an accepting, an embracing mind. All things show cyclic patterns of coming and going, of expansion and contraction, and this is the ultimate constant of nature. This is the Dao. Isn’t that what my practice (Qigong, Tai Chi, Wushu) has been teaching me all those years? Isn’t that what I have been feeling all along when I am practicing either my Tai Chi or one of my favorite Internal Styles of Wushu, such as the Water Style and Wuji? Isn’t that what my father meant by “they will come to serve you one day?”

This is not just about the physical forms I practice, but also about the ancient wisdom that comes with these arts. This world of ours is a result of the interaction between the two opposite yet complementary forces, the Yin and Yang in constant flux. Yin and Yang are not absolutes, and are constantly transforming into each other. Fortune can be hidden in the misfortune and vice versa. We can learn to allow the events in life to unfold naturally with non-resistance, or, in another word, with acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean being weak or powerless when things get tough. It’s actually quite the contrary. When people experience pain, an easy way out is to avoid it or escape it. It takes great inner strength to accept things as they are and deal with them in the calmest way possible. That!s where all my practices came to the rescue, all those teachings of change, balance, relaxation, focus, self-awareness, mindfulness, strength, yielding, allowing things to happen naturally, and responding to them with calm and grace.

Whatever you are experiencing in the moment cannot be any better or worse, it is just the way it IS. You have no access to the past or future to make a difference of the present. So why not surrender to what is? Let go of what-ifs, let go of judgements and over-interpretations, let go of who you think you are supposed to be, how you think everything should work out — for all these things merely constrict the flow of Dao. Embrace who you are and whatever the situation is at this moment.

To stay in the moment requires that you cultivate a silent and still mind. Only with a silent and still mind are you able to listen to that inner voice bringing you the deepest messages that the Dao intends for you. Pay attention to all the details around you and watch for guidance. No matter how chaotic the world is around you, you are able to take the reins of control and act with spontaneity and feel an unshakable inner silence and deep peace.

The autumn breeze is so clear, I am breathing into this moment, I am breathing into the eternal perfection of the Dao.

Master Helen Liang is a world-renowned Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chinese Martial Art master with more than three decades of teaching experience. She is the president of the SYL Wushu Taiji Qigong Institute in Vancouver, Canada. Helen is the author of numerous videos on TaiChi, Qigong, Liu He Ba Fa (Water Style), and other internal styles of Chinese Martial Art. Her 24 Form Taichi, Beginner Taichi for Health, Taichi for Women, and Qigong for Cancer are all bestsellers on Amazon. Helen was featured twice on the cover of Kungfu Taichi Qigong Magazine in the United States. She was also featured in the books Chinese Martial Arts Elites, Contemporary Famous Chinese Martial Artists, Kungfu Elements, and Extraordinary Chinese Martial Artists of the World.

In 2005, Helen and her father, Grandmaster Shouyu Liang, together with Channel M, Canada, created a one-of-a-kind instructional Tai Chi television series comprising 130 episodes for Canada’s multicultural community. The show, planned and written entirely by Helen and Grandmaster Liang, and hosted by Helen, has been picked up by stations across Canada and the United States. It was nominated for several Leo Awards, namely Best Lifestyle Series, Best Direction, and Best Host, and won the Best Lifestyle Series Award.

In 2017, Helen hosted another Tai Chi video for Canada’s national telecommunications company, Telus Corporation, to promote wellness to Canada’s diverse multicultural community. She has also been featured by many media companies, including Chinese Central Television (CCTV), Shanghai and Sichuan Provincial television in China, national pay-per-view features in the U.S., CBC, Fairchild Television, and Channel M in Canada, as well as newspapers and magazines in U.S., Canada, and China.

She was invited to demonstrate in the Opening Ceremony of the 10th World Wushu Championships in Toronto in 2009. In 2013 and 2014 she obtained level 8th degree from both International Wushu Sanshou Dao Association (IWSD) and The World Organization of Wushu Kung Fu Masters. She was also awarded Outstanding Martial Arts Achievements by IWSD.