Primal Tao is a daily quest for quality. QUALITY of experience. QUALITY of life. In practical terms it is paying attention to the quality of foods we consume and the reasons why we consume them. Primal Tao is also paying attention to the quality of our “inner life”. The quality of our thoughts and our reactions to what is happening around us, as well as the stability and quality of our inner peace and our perception of life in general. Another aspect of Primal Tao practice is our individual physical condition and its dependence on intensity and variety of physical activities and frequent exposure to natural elements. In all of these pursuits we look for naturalness and simplicity. Thoughtful nutrition Purposeful regeneration Conscious movement Deliberate life ...
Primal Tao – system without the system.
Dieting or exercising is unnatural. It is only because most of us live the way we do that we need to create systems that prompt us to move, eat etc. in a “special, better” way. For most of the human history, our daily activities were shaped by the natural environment. Since we’ve greatly altered our environment we no longer understand the genetic predispositions of our body and mind that ensure optimal functioning. Before the development of agriculture, civilization and industrialization, we used to experience intermittent periods of feasting (especially prized were all animal foods including fat, organs and bones), intervals of food scarcity – resulting in fasting, brief intense physical exertion and exposure to natural elements like water, air, sun and earth. Primal Tao practices reintroduce these natural patterns into our lifestyle within the context of today’s modern life. Pre-industrial foods – what would you eat to survive in the area where you live if there were no grocery stores? SLOW foods. Nutrient dense foods. Modern “foods” to avoid. S easonal L ocal O rganic W holesome Mental training – the importance of meditation and mind cultivation in the world of over-abundance of dis-information, confusion, depression and the lack of meaning. Regenerative training – occasional practice of forgoing food.. Physical training – daily physical activity (walking, gardening, stretching, Tai Chi, Yoga etc.) vs High Intensity Training, sprints, cold and heat body conditioning The importance of sleep, rest, contact with Nature etc. Primal Tao is the way of nature. Primal Tao is not a system. There can be as many expressions of Primal Tao as there are people expressing it. Primal Tao aspires to imitate Nature. Align with Nature. Be part of Nature. To simplify rather then complicate. To minimize rather then maximize. To subtract rather then to add. “To pursue learning is to increase daily. To practice the Way is to decrease daily . . .” Tao Te Ching ...
Yin & Yang in my everyday life
Only when I’m hungry can I fully enjoy food. Only when I’m satiated can I fully enjoy fasting. Only when I’m cold can I fully enjoy warmth. Only when I’m hot can I fully enjoy coolness. Only when I’m tired can I fully enjoy resting. Only when I’m rested can I fully enjoy hard work. Only when I’m motionless can I fully enjoy movement. Only when I’m active can I fully enjoy stillness. ...
The Way of Nature
When you’re lost, look for answers in Nature. When you’re stressed out, go to Nature. When you don’t know what to do, imitate Nature. You are a part of Nature. Nature is a part of you. It has always been so. Nature didn’t disconnect from you. We disconnected from Nature. We forgot where we had come from. When you have doubts ask yourself: How is my decision or my action going to affect Nature? Become a Nature worshiper. Treat it as sacred. Become Nature’s child again. ...
The value of discomfort.
We seem to try to avoid any discomfort no matter what. While some discomforts are worth avoiding, some natural challenges are worth having. It is too easy to forget how wonderful a full stomach can feel. It is easy to forget to appreciate a set of warm clothes suited to the weather. It is easy to forget the convenience of a toilet. It is easy to take for granted fresh, running water. It is easy not to realize the miracle of movement, the joy of using our bodies. For overall balance and to remind ourselves how good our lives can be, let’s allow ourselves to feel truly hungry or thirsty occasionally. Let’s think of how we are using our household water. Let’s use our bodies in various ways, keeping them active, healthy, and strong. Let’s feel the rays of sunshine or drops of cold water on our skin. Let us not avoid little discomfort! It will only keep us healthy and happy. ...
Wuwei of nourishment and fasting.
There is a beautiful concept in Tao practices called Wuwei. It means an effortless action that we try to manifest in everything we do. It means allowing things to happen rather than making them happen. It means aligning yourself with the natural world. It means going with the flow. This is the state of being achieved when we follow Nature. When we talk about food or fasting,(http://regenerativetraditions.com/tao-of-nature/) it is important to keep the concept of Wuwei in our minds. Fasting is not a panacea for all of our ailments. For example, it has been discovered that the application of fasting works better against bacterial infection than infections caused by the virus (https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)30972-2). Also, there are people who should not be fasting. Individuals, who are underweight or suffering from malnutrition, pregnant or lactating women, small children, etc. There is time for everything but to maintain balance, we have to understand the Yin and Yang side of things. It is very common, and we’ve done this ourselves, that people try to utilize fasting because of its amazing healing capacity but without paying attention to their unique circumstances. In the world of highly processed, industrialized food that is frequently devoid of any nutritional value, many, if not all of us, suffer from the depletion of micro or macronutrients. Introducing fasting in that state can and frequently does make things worse than before. Wuwei of fasting in our daily practice means that we achieve periods of rest from digestion in a natural and effortless way. Without the use of self-discipline. Without struggle and force. Just allowing it to happen. The first necessary step to achieve this is minimizing all the junk foods that not only fail to provide nutrition but also actively create deficiencies from which many of us suffer, sometimes being overweight at the same time. This needs to be corrected before making effortless fasting possible. When we stop eating things that have no place in Nature like sugar and artificial sweeteners, refined flours and oils and start consuming foods that are high in bioavailable macro- and micronutrients, high in energy and ability to produce the feelings of satiety, the miracle happens. We stop overeating because the body gets what it needs. As a matter of fact, we spontaneously end up eating less and it gives us more energy that lasts longer. This makes it possible to eat once or twice daily and be completely satiated and energetic. The next step is understanding the importance of nutrient density (concentration of nutrients in our food). What are the nutritionally dense foods? Ask our ancestors. What did we eat a thousand years ago? How about 10-15 thousand years ago? Animal products are the most nutrient-dense foods available to humans. It is not a very popular idea nowadays but only 50-60 years ago hardly anyone would question this statement. The further back in time we go the more obvious it becomes. For hundreds of thousands of years, especially glacial periods, animals were the only available source of nutrients for homo sapiens. So, what happened? Agriculture. Civilization. Industrialization. Marketing. One Big Disconnect. We are at the heights of our disconnect from Nature. Most of us have no idea where our food comes from. Most of us have no idea what it takes to obtain it. Most of us have no idea what real food is. We are told, and so we believe that animal fat makes us fat. We believe that high cholesterol is bad. We hope that we can out-exercise unnatural food choices to remain healthy and slim. All of this because we’ve never been forced to survive in the wild, to obtain food that will keep us alive, healthy and strong and most of us never had to grow or raise it ourselves. We’ve been domesticated, urbanized and industrialized. In modern times it is rare not to have some nutritional deficiencies. It could be because of the diminishing quality of our soil. It could be because we’re living in a world where foods have been severely commercialized and we no longer have a sense of what real food is. As a result, we end up consuming things that have nothing to do with nutrients and that do not provide the body with the basic ingredients it needs. What provides these ingredients? Everything we would find in the area where we live at the time before we had huge cities and supermarkets! Some veggies, maybe some fruits and nuts but first and foremost – animal products! Through research, our own experiences, experiences of many other people and experiences of countless generations of humans living in pre-civilized, pre-agriculture times, we realized the importance of animal-based foods for optimal health and wellbeing While for decades this approach has been the last on our mind (we were long term vegetarians!), the reality of the life of our ancestors and, most importantly, the results we’ve experienced could no longer be denied. We realized that we, being a product of civilization ourselves, could not understand the simplest and most obvious needs of our organism due to our disconnect from Nature and its ways. In a world of fake news and conflicting ideologies, it is easy to forget what it takes to produce food, how we have always been dependent on many other living beings, and how much our ideas are driven by the economy, politics, special interests or wishful thinking. To make a long story short, because we eat mostly highly nutritive foods, we don’t need to worry about counting calories, watching our weight or exercising to lose weight. A small amount of nutrient-dense food fills us up quickly, allowing us not to fill the stomach to more than ¾ of its capacity (which is what many old traditions recommend), feel satisfied, energetic and not hungry for a long time. Two, sometimes one meal a day is all we require, creating an effortless period of fasting between the meals (intermittent fasting). It is simple and quite agreeable once your body adjusts to not relying on a continuous supply of carbohydrates (it becomes fat-adapted). Remember, when we talk about nourishment and fasting it has nothing to do with self-discipline and asceticism. Quite the opposite. It is a normal consequence of proper, natural nutrition that creates the feeling of satiety which results in your body’s ability to function very well without constant eating. When we eat nutritionally dense foods, our body doesn’t crave nourishment for quite a long time allowing us to take a break from digestive processes and use the energy for recycling and a little cleanup. Simple, natural life and simple solutions are what interests us. When applied properly it becomes Wuwei. It becomes effortless action. ...
Tao of the Four Empties – the Empty Kitchen
The concept of the “Empty Kitchen” is connected to the quality of fuel we supply our bodies with. Many, if not most of the foods we buy today at the supermarket did not exist one hundred years ago. The value of the food we consume nowadays seems to come more from convenience and flavor than its nutritional vitality. In order to recover or maintain optimal health, we need to empty our kitchens of things that never spoil, are heavily processed or belong to a group of so-called “modern foods” like white flour, sugar, and industrial oils. Grains and dairy products in general, as being relatively new on the menu (only about 10 – 12 thousand years), can cause a lot of trouble for some people who are not very compatible with them. The practice of “Emptying the Kitchen” is the practice of keeping at home, preparing and consuming mainly fresh foods that haven’t been heavily processed. When they come prepackaged, with ingredients including flour, sugar, oils, fillers, preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, flavor enhancers, and many other unknown, chemical components – these are not natural foods. What are real foods? Ask yourself: what would humans eat in the area where you live, before the development of agriculture, civilization, and industrialization? The answer is simple: for most of us, it would be: meats, eggs, some vegetables, some nuts, and fruits. It was not until we domesticated animals and plants, that we would start consuming other animals’ milk and a lot more plants, especially grains. With many new, genetically modified seeds, we see a widespread intolerance to gluten and other common plant components. Ancient Taoist insisted on the principle of Bigu – not eating grains, understanding the difficulties our bodies can have deriving nutrients from this particular source of sustenance. Many of you might think that nowadays, preparing your meals from scratch would be too time-consuming. You couldn’t be further from the truth. While the process of cooking or baking might require more time, it is also time that can be dedicated to many other pursuits, and the food preparation itself rarely takes us more than 5-10 minutes. Eating natural foods has an amazing impact on the quality of our health and wellbeing. When our body manages to rid itself of all the unnecessary substances that we insist on consuming but that have no place in Nature, new levels of energy, vitality, resistance to viruses and bacteria become our everyday experience. ...
Tao of the Four Empties – the Empty Stomach.
The principle of the “empty stomach” has to do with the frequency, volume and timing of our food consumption. If we take a closer look at Nature, just like the ancient practitioners of Tao did, we will notice that it is quite common that animals will go through periods of hunger. It can be caused by the seasonality of certain foods, animal migratory patterns or simply the natural cycles of day and night, times of rest and gathering or hunting. In our “civilized” world, humans, if they can, try to practically eliminate these periods. What’s more important, we increase the frequency of our meals, sometimes up to 6-8 times a day! This is not a very natural pattern for Homo Sapiens. We evolved to rest from digestion on a regular basis. “This makes sense from a survival standpoint. If we do not eat, our bodies use our stored energy as fuel so that we can find more food. Humans have not evolved to require three meals a day, every day.” Excerpt From: Fung, Jason. “Complete Guide to Fasting.” Occasional fasting turns on a very important mechanism of autophagy – the regeneration and recycling of the cells that improves the efficiency and working of the entire system. It is a very “handy” tool for the body’s natural processes of detox and renewal. “fasting is the most time-honored and widespread healing tradition in the world. It has been practiced by virtually every culture and every religion on earth. Fasting is an ancient, time-tested tradition.” Excerpt From: Fung, Jason. “Complete Guide to Fasting.” Fasting is and has always been a part of natural cycles. There are many approaches to fasting but one of the simplest and at the same time the most efficient ways is what is known as intermittent fasting. It is done by simply limiting your “eating window” during the day to anywhere from two to ten hours of time when we consume food and leaving the rest of the day and night to fasting. For example, you eat between10 am and 6 pm and you fast between 6 pm and 10 am the following day. This gives your body 16 hours of rest and regeneration. Once our body and mind adapt, this rhythm is very easy to maintain indefinitely. Other forms of periodic fasting can include but are not limited to water or dry fasting once a week for 24-36 hours, longer 2-3 day fasts every few months, etc. Fasting can be utilized on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis depending on the individual needs and goals. The amount of food is another aspect of the “empty stomach” principle. There is an old Taoist and Yogic saying: “Eat only when you are hungry but stop before you’re full.” Overrating is often a result of food addiction, inappropriate food choice, boredom or habit. Once we start consuming natural, species-appropriate foods (check the “empty kitchen” article) our unnatural food cravings largely diminish and we start eating according to our body’s true needs. We cultivate an “empty stomach” to support recovery, healing, and overall vitality. ...
Qigong – Tai Chi – Yoga (and many other modalities) – why is it worth practicing?
When somebody asked me some twenty years ago: “What is Qigong or Tai Chi? – without any doubt, in just a few minutes I could precisely explain the goals and characteristics of these practices. Since I had “already” been a devoted practitioner for a couple of years, I was convinced that I knew everything there was to be known about the subject. A few years later I was asked the question again. This time I think I managed to make my unsuspecting victim bored to death by describing different styles, forms, and approaches in Tai Chi and Qigong. I think I could talk about it indefinitely. Fast forward another 10 years or so… and my answers have become shorter and more and more enigmatic. The more I practice the more I realize that I know very little and that our individual goals, perspectives, and interpretations can be vastly unique. At the same time, we have a lot in common when we ask ourselves the same questions and struggle with similar challenges that our daily life can generously provide. We can find many benefits of practices such as Qigong or Yoga. With time, both our understanding and our goals of practice can evolve and change. For me personally, my practice helps me find and cultivate the qualities that are difficult to manifest in a vortex of the everyday pace of life, work, and responsibilities. It is important for me however, to focus at least a little bit of energy on creating some peace of mind, health, and joy in my daily life. How to find my place in this world, in Nature? How to be comfortable in my own body and mind? What is my life’s work? How to accept and like my own self, others, and the rest of the world? These are some of the many questions that my training is helping me to find the answers for. For me, to practice Qigong/TaiChi/Yoga/Meditation means to continuously cultivate the qualities I seek. It means to engage in a process of self-discovery and self-observation. It means to create a quality of being. We don’t need to practice, let’s say: an hour a day. We can practice all the time. Your practice can be your being here and now. Constant awareness and conscious choice of the way you think, talk and act. Noting your posture, your breath, and your tension level. Paying attention to others, paying attention to your own reactions and to your surroundings. Continuous effort to establish an inner and outer balance. It is a practice of transforming the ordinary into the unusual, boring into interesting. It is a way to discover the magic of everyday life! ...
Life as a continuous act of cultivation.
Every day I cultivate my life experience. I like to think of the word “cultivate” as “do”. What I do is what I develop and strengthen. How I live every day influences the way I will live in the future. How I live every day determines how I feel about the past. What I do every day but more importantly how I do it, is a choice easy to forget that I have. Am I kind or rude? Talking or listening? Paying attention or absent-minded? Compassionate or indifferent? Tolerant or idealistic? Focused or scattered? Relaxed or tense? Calm or anxious? Happy or sad? Active or inert? By concentrating on certain aspects and attributes of our life and our being we can create habitual reactions that we would like to have. By making an effort to smile, to listen to others, to pay attention and notice the good side of things, it becomes infinitely easier to do it in a more natural, effortless way. Almost automatically. What is your choice? What do you cultivate? Life goes by very quickly. Be an artist and a co-creator of your daily experiences. ...
