Welcome! In this brand-new module, we bring together the basic concepts, principles and techniques of Taotraining in a new and enriched way. It's an epic in which we've incorporated all the experience we've gained in recent years with the original Module 1, Towards Wisdom. The material is complemented by new and detailed tutorial videos, more audio recordings of the different meditations and extensive texts.
Lessons 1 to 3 provide a comprehensive introduction to some of the most fundamental concepts and concepts of Tao Training: the Inner Landscape, Jing, Chi and Shen (Lesson 1), the Five Forms of Consciousness, White Column, Black Column and Lärm (Lesson 2) and Voluntary Limitation (Lesson 3).
Lessons 4 to 11 are the practical heart of the training, which introduces you to a number of techniques and disciplines that run as a common thread throughout the Tao training.
In Lesson 4, you will literally learn how to enter the Inner Landscape by activating the I-Force. In Lesson 5, you'll travel and experience for the first time, through a whole series of Inner Smile meditations.
The next step is learning to guide the Inner Landscape. By sending, you can influence, change things. Of the countless possibilities that it offers, Taotraining focuses first and foremost on your own health and vitality. This requires the training of your Jing, or your life force, centered in the First Fire. In Lessons 6 to 11, this Jing training is central. Hence the subtitle of this module: The First Fire.
In Lesson 6, three techniques will teach you how to distribute the Jing optimally throughout your system.
In Lessons 7 and Lesson 8, the focus is on cleaning the Jing: with a first set of Chi Kung exercises and the basic position of Iron Shirt and Embrace the Tree, you get a number of powerful tools to get energetic blockages out of your system.
Lessons 9 and Lesson 10 focus is on preserving the Jing, i.e. how to lose your life force less quickly. One of the biggest steps you can take in that process is to repay sleep debt (Lesson 9). The Dream Training (Lesson 10) is about much more than that, but is very supportive.
To become more vital requires replenishment of the Jing. Key to this is sexual kung fu. We take a first step in this training in Lesson 11, when you learn to convert sexual energy into Jing through a meditation called The Way of the Nun/Monk. This is also the first time you've made something new (or better: late) in the Inner Landscape.
Finally, in Lesson 12, we look back, zoom out a bit and go into the question of what that actually means, training Taoist. You've been given a lot of exercises and meditations - and what now? How do you develop a practice, what does such a practice look like, and what role does willpower and desire play in doing so?
The 12 lessons can be found in the overview on the right (desktop) or bottom (tablet/mobile). Each lesson (for example, Lesson 1: the Inner Landscape) consists of different subjects (e.g. 1.1 From Potency to Manifestation, 1.2 The Five Senses Beyond, etc.). These topics will be visible in the menu as soon as you click on the corresponding lesson. Each lesson starts with an essential, a video of about 10 to 15 minutes that Reinoud takes on the essence of that lesson. Your progress in the module is visually displayed with checkmarks in the menu, so you can always easily see where you left off.
At the bottom of each essential, at the beginning of a lesson, there is a “Next Lesson” button in the bottom right corner. Honestly, this is not such a handy button, because if you click on it you will go to the next lesson, whilst of course you want to go through all the topics in this lesson first! In order to navigate from the essential to the first topic of the current lesson, do not click the Next Lesson button, but you need to click on that topic from the menu. Example: If you have viewed the essential of Lesson 1, don't click the “Next Lesson” button (because you'll go straight to Lesson 2), but in the menu on '1.1 From Potency to Manifestation'. Note If you've read 1.1, you can click the Next Topic button in the bottom right corner. This automatically goes to 1.2, etc.
At the bottom of the menu, below 12 lessons, you'll find two buttons: 'Overview all audio' and 'Overview all videos. These buttons allow you to easily navigate through the instructional materials later, if you're looking for a specific meditation or instructional video, without having to search the lessons themselves.