Daoism is a practice of self-cultivation and spiritual evolution that asks us to explore the way we function and our relationship with ourselves and the world around us. There are many different types of Daoism, and while the Da Xuan tradition shares similar origins to other Chinese traditions of religious or temple Daoism, the Da Xuan tradition is specifically non-cultural and non-religious. We are concerned with the development of human qualities, and as such our practices are open to anyone of any culture or belief.

In Da Xuan we are primarily interested in engaging in a personal daily practice that will progressively reveal more details about how we function, while simultaneously building an excess of personal resources and energy that will keep us full of vitality while we undergo our search. While there are various philosophies that frame what we do, students are not asked to take on particular beliefs, but rather to continue practicing so as to discover what the framing ideas are pointing to – through direct, personal experience. Practice leads to more information, more information leads to better decisions, and more energy helps us to confront the challenges of life with vitality.

We approach our practice in a balanced and centered way, and so we must consider the spectrum of opposites (Yin and Yang) in the human being – the physical body (Yin), the breath/circulation (Yin + Yang), and the mind (Yang). To achieve balance in ourselves, we treat each aspect as being of equal importance and as such give them the same amount of attention in our practice. We develop universal qualities and capacities related to each of these aspects, rather than choreographed performances, which allows us to discover the possibility of fully expressing our own individuality without becoming a mere copy of the teacher.

A simple overview gives us an idea of what this looks like:

PRACTICES OF THE MIND & SPIRIT (SHEN)
Train our mind to focus, help it to relax, understand how it functions and the various tricks it uses.

PRACTICES OF THE BREATH & CIRCULATION (QI)
Increase our breathing capacity for more vitality, improve the circulation, clear stagnations, develop the exchange with the environment.

PRACTICES OF THE PHYSICAL BODY (JING)
Build strength by training the weak points of the structure, improve alignment and coordination, help unwanted tension relax, learn how to use our structure and relaxation to hold our position and become grounded.

Da Xuan is a tradition that is specifically in-life. Unlike many other spiritual or self-cultivation traditions, we do not expect practitioners to become secluded from society. Quite the contrary, the purpose of the tradition and the practices is to allow us to engage more fully with life. A golden prison of training is not what we want, and spending all our time hiding away from the world in our practice is not desirable.

if you do it, it works