Interview with Adam Gokmen

Adam Gokmen is a Universal Tao Healing Instructor,  Healing Tao Australia manager and national coordinator for diverse healing events.  He brings Professor William U.Wei, Grand Master Mantak Chia in for extended workshops.  He invites instructors of healing arts and other serious students to develop or update their skills and spiritual practices in different areas.

I connect with Adam after reading books by Mantak Chia and William U. Wei, and discover colleagues have attended some of their training events. Its exciting to offer glimpses of ways to explore subtle energies, see universal philosophies are gaining momentum and taking root.

Thanks Adam for taking time-out to share some insights.

Which life events prompted you to develop an interest in Tao healing practices? 

Coming from kung fu martial arts background, i could relate to the eastern practices. My kung fu style had a number of internal practices.  As i was advancing in them, i got onto master chia's books to fine tune my practices and help me correct and guide my chi energy more efficiently.

Notable is how frequently martial arts students shift and recognize connections between streams. Aikido and Qigong introduced me to unifying with life energy and were also the stepping stones to explore other eastern traditions and practices.

What prompted you to switch from kung fu and become a Tao Healing Instructor? 

After 6 years of reading all master chia's books and self-teaching myself, i knew it was time to go over to train and get certified by the grand master as my vision was to do so and then bring the Universal Healing Tao system to Australia were we can have access to the wealth and power of the ancient taoist practices made simply to follow and practice by master chia.

Good on you for actualizing that vision to deepen self-understanding and also to serve and empower others.  How has this process affected or changed you?

Qigong, inner alchemy, tai chi and other powerful practices (Tibetan and Indian) are what i have practised.This has changed my life in many ways; my energy and internal strength, work & business, the  different ways one views life and balances me emotionally and spiritually.

Just as the 2Cellos I Will Wait , it is like we are each inviting the experience heaven within (and on Earth) at our own pace, though whatever we are intuitively drawn to create.

This said, its common for martial arts teachers to have muliple income streams, or, to teach healing arts part-time and generate income from other activities.  Do you notice a trend to balance more than one holistic job or healing practice?

  As The Tao is limitless, never closed- or single-minded, same goes with different practices.  We believe you can get the goodness out of all the holistic arts and practices, what works for one may be opposite or different for others as we are all different internally. At the end of the day, its all the same energy and force were working with.

Many people relate to Bruce Lee who viewed himself as an ambassador of chinese martial arts. He offered lectures about the wisdom of masters.  In  A Warrior's Journey, Lee explains "water is the softest substance in the world yet it can penetrate the hardest...water also is insubstantial, you cannot grasp water, cannot punch or hurt it every martial artist is aiming to be like that, soft like water an adapt himself to his opponent."  A warriors journey explains the states martial artists goes through in evolution from ignorance to enlightenment. Bruce Lee echoes, The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering. What is the taoist view?

Taoists believe there is an intelligent, guiding force, Tao, permeating the universe. Taoism is a natural philosophy more than a religion, and one that cultivates a keen awareness of the cycles and forces of nature, as well as its myriad and nuanced interrelationships. In Taoism, the forces of the world and those within us are an expression of the binary opposites called yin and yang. Cultivating a clear and empty mind and a body that moves like water are the goals of practice. Indeed, in a very real sense, Taoists worship water as the ultimate example of precisely the spontaneous, relaxed quality they want to see in themselves.

As the world is expanding consciousness, the West is seeing an influx of Eastern healing teachings and related wisdom.  Some say it is part of a process of integration. What stands out to you about Healing Tao Australia? 

The universal healing tao system is a practical system of self-development that enables people to complete the harmonious evolution of there physical, mental and spiritual bodies through a series of ancient Chinese meditative and internal energy excises. Not many ‘systems’ can offer this, as were working with real energies ( internal and external we know its real , we know there’s a force there and we can FEEL it.

Why not get involved in another martial art or healing practice?

Intuition. Our vision is to give the concept of the Tao creating the desire to manifest and practice the Tao in those students who are sincere, humble and deserving to practice the Tao. The humble can only perceive the truth and the truth will set you free. These four practices below will open up your Emotional, Physical, Mental, Energetic- Spiritual bodies if you are wisdom enough to practice them.

Tell us about different styles of tai chi.  
 
There are hundreds of tai chi forms. Master chia put many forms into just a handful to cover most yin and yang elements. His books illustrate tai chi literally means Yin & Yang energy (Duality).

Why are people drawn to this practice? 

The energetic purpose of tai chi is cultivate the qi or life energy within so it flows smoothly and powerfully through the body.  People are drawn to what they are ready for.  Sometimes people are sick and wish to get well.  Other times people are well and wish to sustain or build on this. Different forms of exercise maintain strength, flexibility, and balance.  Different tai chi forms are all versions of meditation in motion. Meditation is a process of re-balancing that goes on.

Right! It is like a conscious re-calibration or shift in vibration when one feels things energetically.

So, while walking through parks, its increasingly common to see older people practicing Qigong alone or in groups. People also gather outside in cities.  Where is it most natural to practice? 

Outdoors in nature is more energetic, but as your energy gets more refined and strong, it doesn’t matter where you practice.  You will feel the energy inside of you spinning and flowing through your meridians and channels.  Inside is your temple, your cave, your universe, so that’s when you can feel one with the great force. I started outside for the first year of my practices.  Now. I can do it anywhere, any time and for as long or short as I wish.
 
Tai chi and Qigong offer many mental and physical benefits.  Tell us about those and share some examples you have witnessed as an instructor.
 
Seeing students more balanced, more healthy and with more chi is most rewarding, turning tired depleted eyes into bright strong balanced energy windows and unbalanced organs clogged up in emotions into energy centres that produce and store energy is the way.  Some examples include; better mood, with lower levels of depression, stress, and anxiety. greater aerobic capacity and muscle strength. more energy and stamina. enhanced flexibility, balance, and agility.

In a similar light, Harvard Medical School Women's Health Watch offers a thorough article on tai chi benefits. 

 What kind of connection do you see between Tao healing practices and promoting immortality? (reintegrating this idea from possibility to reality into our conscious awareness)

The Immortal Tao is the Highest Inner Alchemy Practice in the Universal Healing Tao System. This is the process of transforming the Physical Body into the Spirit Body. It is a steam process of transformation from the physical form into the spirit form. Once this is completed you can materialize and dematerialize at will, having the ability to travel beyond time and space moving beyond the North Star (Center of our Galaxy) and breaking the Karmic Wheel so you never have to come back into time and space.  The Immortal UHT practices are broken down into Two Levels. The First Level is the Kan & Li Meditations: the Kan & Li (Water & Fire) meditations of Lesser Kan & Li Enlightenment (Cauldron at the Navel), Greater Kan & Li Enlightenment (Cauldron at the Solar Plexus), and Greatest Kan & Li Enlightenment (Cauldron at the Heart). The Second Level is the Sealing of the Five Senses (Cauldron at the Crystal Room), Congress of Heaven and Earth, and the Reunion of Heaven and Man.

What are some changes you notice in yourself (energy, perception, behaviour) as the result of practicing Tao healing arts? How long have you been practicing?  

The benefits there’s to many to list. more internal energy and stronger organs and kidney energy, also slowing down the aging process are all benefits I have personally experienced with balancing my emotional state and opening channels to the higher plane and receiving and sharing energies. I have been doing Qigong for 17 years and the secret is to do just a little bit every day, give yourself 10 -15 mins a day.

Do you see a link between the length of time you practice consistently and the nature of awakening or expanding perception?

As were going deep and changing our DNA through inner alchemy practices we are constantly changing and shifting, perception, behaviour and realisation are shifting to higher planes while securing your love and respect and connection with mother earth.

If you had a piece of advice, something to offer, what would it be?
 
At the start of my practices I was full of questions always constantly asking for external help and support (which is good when your starting off) but I learnt through the years if you just look within and close the monkey mind off (ego) and connect with you true self (consciousness).  All the answers are here and they become available to you to use and learn from. Once you connect with the universe and earth energies you download wisdom, intuition, and power to strengthen your soul and sprit bodies. Trust in yourself, trust in the great force (tao) and feel and watch your life transform. To do this you need to practice , it doesn’t just come from wishful thinking you have to do the hard work and push through the barriers and obstacles like that saying ‘see the light at the end of the tunnel’ well with the tao we can see and feel that light anytime you just have to make that conscious decision when you want to activate it and feel it in this life time. Only through training in meditation can we still our minds to make conscious choices which is not only beneficial to yourself but also others because we are the whole and what affects us affects others. We are the most helpless creatures on the planet when we are born and have to be taught and learn to do everything. By training in the UHT practices, you start to rediscovery what you already know but are not conscious of it. Taoist practices give you time to become conscious. Freedom is the right to became without infringing or hindering anyone else’ right to become. Everyone has a right to be; that is our free will, which is our Divinity. With Freedom we take on great responsibilities for ourselves and our actions. The greatest freedom is discipline. In order to accomplish everything in life you need to focus and discipline yourself to achieve it and without discipline it will never happen. The Tao with its practices teaches you spiritual independence, which is not to be depend on anyone else, or thing for your existence and evolution. It takes great courage to be free and to experience consciously your freedom being divine. You let go of all your conditioning, institutionalization and physical limitation to be free and self-sufficient. All the bodies are just levels of consciousness.

Know that in the tao we are our own healers, own gurus, own doctors, own psychologist and own masters!

Its significant to notice Master Chia is widely respected for his sharing and teaching healing Tao work. As you say, all who are drawn to masters are seeing reflections of what is dormant in themselves.  We each invite ourselves to accept and actualize all we are. All roads lead to Rome. Thank you for offering some insight into what draws you to awaken and share reflections.

Please share any event updates.

We have an upcoming Chi Nei Tsang Workshop in Brisbane, and events with William U.Wei and Master Chia on the horizon.  For more infomation on future events & seminars in Australia please see www.healingtaoaustralia.com/events