Available nowThe Way of the Living Energy
A practical path to wholeness, power and awakening.
A complete guide to living in harmony with the forces of nature, the body, and the greater universe. It brings together shamanic wisdom, inner alchemy and timeless practices to awaken the golden spirit within — through breath, energy, emotion and awareness, learning to heal, integrate and journey the three worlds with a strong and steady heart.
- ◎Cultivate the body and build vital energy
- ◎Master the breath, the elements and the sexual force
- ◎Transform emotions and heal the inner child
- ◎Retrieve soul fragments and strengthen your essence
- ◎Journey the lower, middle and upper worlds
- ◎For seekers, healers, dreamers and warriors
About the book, introduction & first verses+
The Way of the Living Energy is a collection of more than 220 contemplations, meditations, and practical exercises exploring the relationship between body, mind, spirit, and the living energy that flows through all existence. Rather than presenting a fixed philosophy or belief system, each passage invites the reader into direct observation and personal experience.
The book draws upon a lifetime of study and practice in Tai Chi, Qi Gong, internal martial arts, meditation, and shamanic traditions. Each teaching is intentionally concise, allowing it to be reflected upon in a few minutes or contemplated over many years. Some chapters offer simple exercises for developing awareness and sensitivity, others present meditations for inner stillness, while many are quiet reflections on consciousness, nature, healing, energy, and the deeper patterns that shape our lives.
Unlike books designed to be read once from beginning to end, The Way of the Living Energy is intended to become a lifelong companion. You may read it sequentially, open it at random for daily inspiration, or return to individual passages whenever life presents new questions. As your own experience deepens, so too will the meaning found within its pages.
This is not a book of dogma or instruction. It is an invitation to explore. Through simple observation, careful practice, and direct experience, the reader is encouraged to rediscover a quieter relationship with themselves, with nature, and with the living energy that unites them both.
Whether you are taking your first steps into meditation and internal cultivation or have spent decades exploring consciousness and spiritual practice, The Way of the Living Energy offers a gentle path back to the one teacher that has always been present—the living experience of life itself.
Introduction
This book has been many years in the making.
Not because it took many years to write, but because it took many years to live.
The ideas contained within these pages were not born from libraries, academic research, or the accumulation of second-hand knowledge. They emerged gradually through direct experience, observation, practice, contemplation, and an enduring fascination with the nature of existence itself. They arose from long hours spent exploring the body, the breath, the emotions, consciousness, movement, nature, and the mysterious relationship between them all.
Although I hold a degree in Physics and have always maintained a deep respect for science and rational inquiry, much of what appears in this book emerged from a different form of investigation. Alongside my scientific studies I spent many years exploring yoga, Tai Chi, Taoist internal practices, Buddhist and Shaolin traditions, meditation, healing arts, and shamanic systems from various cultures. Over time I discovered that beneath their different languages and symbols, many seemed to be describing the same living process.
This book is my attempt to describe that process.
The vision presented here is not intended as doctrine, belief, religion, or scientific theory. It is a map—a symbolic and experiential map of a living universe.
In this universe, reality is not a collection of separate objects but a continual movement of relationships. Life is not something that happens within the universe; life is the universe. Matter, energy, emotion, thought, spirit, and consciousness are not separate domains but different expressions of one continuous flow.
Throughout these pages I refer to this flow as Living Energy.
Living Energy is not merely physical energy, nor is it a mystical substance. It is the dynamic process that connects all things. It is the movement between opposites. It is the current that flows between body and mind, spirit and matter, self and world, life and death. It is the living conversation of existence itself.
The practices contained within this book are offered in the spirit of exploration. Some are meditative, some symbolic, some energetic, some psychological, and some deeply practical. They are not presented as truths to be accepted, but as experiences to be tested. The value of any practice lies not in believing it, but in experiencing what it reveals.
The Shaman described in these pages is not a special person, nor a title to be earned. The Shaman is a way of relating to life. It is the capacity to move between worlds: between action and stillness, body and spirit, thought and feeling, individuality and unity. It is the ability to remain centred while exploring the vastness of existence.
At its heart, this book is about integration.
It is about bringing together what has become fragmented.
It is about remembering the connection between the worlds within us and the worlds around us.
It is about returning to the centre.
Perhaps most importantly, it is about learning to participate consciously in the Living Universe rather than merely observing it.
If these pages inspire you to become more aware of your body, more attentive to your feelings, more connected to nature, more compassionate towards yourself and others, and more curious about the mystery of existence, then they have fulfilled their purpose.
The journey begins and ends in the same place.
At the centre.
Within your own heart.
The book was completed by chance on 8-08-2008 at 8:08pm. A small numerical coincidence perhaps, yet one that seems fitting for a book concerned with patterns, cycles, balance, and the hidden harmonies woven throughout the Living Universe.
The first three verses
Three of more than 220 contemplations in the book.
The one mind is like a crystal that has fractured and become many crystals, each one a miniature copy of the one. Each copy refracts the light in the same way as the one. To see the copy is to see the one. To be the copy is to be the one.
Close your eyes and see the bones. The bones are crystal. Let the light hit the crystal and shine through the bones. Notice where the light is restricted and shine there further. Until the bones are one and the light is clear. There are only two things: crystal and light. This is the way of the Living Energy.
Life is simply the movement of the Living Energy, the light and shadow formed from many layers. Open your eyes and inhale the light – be warm. Close your eyes and sleep in the shadow – be cool. This is the way of the Living Energy.
