Chinese Wisdom Traditions

"I am delighted to introduce the Healing Tao community to Zhongxian Wu. I met Wu quite by chance in China in 1998, although now it seems quite fated. A Taoist monk at the Eight Immortals Temple in Xian had agreed to take me climbing up Mt. Huashan, but he got called away to a temple ceremony on a different mountain. He asked Wu at the last moment to act as guide for me instead. At first I was disappointed. I soon found out it was my lucky day!  Wu and I not only had a blast swinging like monkeys from the most precarious perches on Mt. Hua's sheer cliffs, but I found in him a true kindred spirit. Wu is an ancient Taoist sage in a young Chinese body. He spent every free moment and all his money traveling all over China seeking out the old masters' alchemical secrets before they died. He headed a Qigong organization in Xian and studied all the major traditions. He is both humble and playful, yet deeply focused on his journey in Tao.  On that first trip, I found that Wu was also a talented musician and had studied with one of China's greatest living Guqin (dulcimer-like classical musical instrument) masters. Of course Wu would never tell me that; it came up by chance when another of his friends, the Vice Abbott at Huashan, turned out to be another apprentice of the same master. It is deeply meditative and sonorous stringed music for the soul.  I mention all this by way of getting to the main point. Although we met again in China several times, Wu completely hid from me his talent as a master calligrapher. It wasn't until he moved to the USA that I found out that he had combined his 'Qi' (chi) skills and his artistic abilities into spiritually very high-level calligraphy. Westerners need to understand that in China, good calligraphers are revered and a single character by a famous artist can be worth tens of thousands of dollars (= hundreds of thousands of dollars in their economy).  I love Chinese calligraphy because I can feel the Qi in it ­if the painter has enough 'kung' (or 'gong') to infuse his or her personal Qi into the calligraphy. So as I am very sensitive to Qi, I am also very picky. It took me a long time to decide which of Wu's paintings I would hang in my meditation room. It was a difficult choice. They all have a powerful shamanic feel of primal simplicity, but also a lyrical elegance and sometimes a bit of whimsy. I eventually chose a symbol which combines good luck and happiness symbols Fu and Shou. It is playful and its lovely rounded spirals remind me of Wu's playfulness. The calligraphy and I have playful meditations together, needless to say.  I hope you find the artistic symbol that speaks to you. If not, at least take a moment and meditate with each one and see what gets absorbed and felt at a deep soul level. Then leave them, and see if one is still calling to you the next day. As handmade works of fine art, they are far more expensive than other mass duplicated products on this site, or mass duplicated calligraphy which lacks deep feeling of the artist's personal Qi. I feel these symbols are still a bargain, and in the future will cost far more as Wu becomes more widely known. Each one is personally sealed with Wu's chop and thus can also be considered an investment in a talented artist's work."