Barefoot Doctor's Guide to the Tao: A Spiritual Handbook for the Urban Warrior

by Stephen Russell

Barefoot Doctor's Healing Prescription

Barefoot Doctor's Guide to the Tao is a modern approach to an ancient art that will give you the tools you need to survive and thrive amid the growing pressures of modern life.

Here is the Tao with hipness, humor, and a complete lack of inscrutability. The Tao, which translates roughly as "The Way," is a basic philosophy for focusing the mind, channeling energy, and strengthening the spirit. Genuinely erudite but also highly practical, this book will help you learn the skills of meditation, psychic shielding, mindfulness, and magic to enhance your experience of reality. You'll also pick up instant advice on hundreds of challenges facing today's busy urban
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For anyone striving for inner harmony on our messy old planet, let Barefoot Doctor walk the Tao for you.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Self Help, Philosophy

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 1998

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since we first started seeing images of Earth taken from space, we have been learning literally to get our minds round the entire planet.

Waiting patiently for something good to occur is not a passive activity. Waiting patiently is an active state. With the full knowledge and faith that what’s for you won't pass you by, and by breathing, relaxing and going with the spontaneous impulses that arise from within, you actively engage with the world, relishing every moment as it occurs, until in the fullness of time, the good thing you've been patiently waiting for will present itself in full manifest form before your very eyes.

I remember the exact place and moment I found this book, at a salon in Tempe, Arizona waiting for a haircut. I can’t remember the cut, but I remember this book made so much sense to me, like I knew it and I had never heard a word of it. It was revolutionary and opened my mind so widely, it wasn’t even my mind anymore. I was free. Byron Katie, a practitioner of what she calls inquiry that helps people question their thoughts, woke up from a deep depression with similar ideas and thoughts from Buddhism and Taoism, which she has never studied but her later husband, a translator of ancient texts, helped her write books about. I have a lovely illustrated copy of the Tao Te Ching with silvery photos and text on black backgrounds. These connections are so beautiful to me.

This was a reread, I was thinking of sending either this or Byron Katie’s method to my friend’s nephew who is struggling with addiction. She asked 36 people to send a card or something inspirational to him for his 36th birthday. I also started Sam Quinones’ The Least of Us, which is a connection that hits home also. I actually didn’t do either; sending a book of my photos instead since he has an artist’s soul. So I found some new passages that resonated. It has aged fairly well, some dated references, but it combines humor and his own non-academic interpretation of the Tao, and it is such an important, alternative way of thinking.

If you're here reading this book, anywhere in the global urbanized sprawl, dealing with your reality with some degree of consciousness, you're an urban warrior. "Warrior" may bring to mind all manner of images to you, from the muscle-bound gladiator to the diminutive tai chi master, but these are just archetypes. "Warrior" has the same root as "war," so when you say you're a warrior it implies that you're at war. This war is an internal one that is taking place in the spiritual realm between the forces of light and the forces of dark throughout the universe and specifically within you. From the beginning of time the generative, life-affirming current has been at war with the degenerative, entropic, life-negating current, and this drama is enacted millennium after millennium by us unwitting puppets.

War is happening in microcosm within each of us and in varying degrees macrocosmically in our global society, and the result to date is the world you see around you. This is neither a negative nor a positive statement but merely a description of a condition.

As a warrior, your challenge is successfully to negotiate this condition in order that you thrive, not just survive, in a state of relaxation and unshakable, impenetrable wholeness in the very midst of events.

You do this by channeling the forces of light and dark within you into a perpetual dance of equality as opposed to an eternal series of inner street brawls. For this you need all your energy channels open so you can be centered, clearheaded, aware, alert, positive and loving in any conditions in order to appreciate fully and enjoy the miracle of your existence at all times.

When the two opposing forces are in harmony within you the world around you will reflect this, and you will manifest harmony wherever you go.

Underlying and running in the cracks and spaces between reality, the Tao is the primary generative force of existence and, for that matter, nonexistence.

As I said, "Tao," pronounced "dow" and not "tayo," means "way," as in the Japanese version "do," used for example in "aikido" - the way of life force; "judo" - the gentle way; and "dodo" - the way of stupidity. Every creature inert and "ert" has its own individual Tao, or path. Every situation has its Tao, or way of unfolding. Even every dog has its Tao.

The opposite of Taoism is fascism. Taoism essentially means to follow the path of least resistance while always maintaining respect and consideration for the welfare and freedom of all other beings. Fascism means to control the behavior of others and manipulate them to comply with your particular model of reality, by force if necessary. As an antidote to fascism, visualize the idea of individual freedom arising from your heart and pouring out of you like a fine vapor that proceeds to envelop everyone on the planet, with double doses for those you consider to exhibit the greatest fascistic tendencies. Obviously what they do with it is up to them. If you were even to visualize them responding in a way you think proper it would amount to metaphysical fascism on your part.

Life force, energy or chi is crucial to the existence of all that lives. Chi is mysterious. You can go your whole life dependent on it without even being aware of its existence. It is ubiquitous. It animates, integrates and pervades everything that exists, including spiders. It suffuses the very waters of life. It's probably chi that takes your single socks from the bowels of your washing machine. It provides the intrinsic force necessary in your blood to keep you alive. It is the force of nature that makes the grass grow, the planet turn and the sun burn. It possesses innate intelligence combined with a will to push through. It does not discriminate between "good" and "bad" and will animate a deadly virus as readily as it will the next messiah.

Both the passing by at one million mph of a magnetic cloud 30 million miles wide and the merry prancing of the tiniest quark are impelled by chi. The energy required for you to read and absorb these words is brought to you courtesy of chi. Chi is produced in your body on a daily basis by your internal organs through the assimilation of air, food and drink, and through the impact upon your personal energy field of gravity, light, wind, heat, cold, dampness, minerals, chemicals, gases, large objects such as trees and mountains, other people and life-forms, i.e., your environment. You also inherit a finite portion of "ancestral" chi from your parents at the time of conception, which is stored in your kidneys and serves as a catalyst for the environmental chi.

Chi flows through your body via a complex network of channels called meridians. When its flow is unobstructed you enjoy good health, physically, emotionally and mentally. When its flow is impeded you get sick, and when it stops altogether, you die.

The Tao gives and the Tao takes away. When it gives, you're full; when it takes away, you're empty again, ready to be filed with something new. knowing this won't change your life. The cycle of alternation between yin and yang is inexhaustible. But it may soften the blow of the ebb and the flow.

Yin is empty, yang is full. Yin is soft, yang is hard. Yin comes down, yang goes up. Yin comes in, yang goes out. Yin gets cold, yang heats up. Yin gets damp, yang dries up. Yin is quiet, yang is loud. Yin retreats, yang advances.

Obviously these classifications are merely relative. You cannot have cold without hot, soft without hard, etc. Yin and yang are only meaningful when you compare one phenomenon or phase of activity with another. If, for example, you compare a candle flame to an atomic explosion, both possessing the qualities of light and heat and therefore both presumably yang, the candle would however be considered yin compared to the yang of the explosion.

Yin and yang, like night and day, turn into their opposite number on reaching maximum potential. Thus, as the night reaches its darkest moment, the sun is already sending its first tentative rays over the horizon, and those damn birds start their tweeting. As the day reaches its brightest point, the night is already lurking, ready to cover the sky once again. When the passing police siren reaches its loudest moment, the silence is already following in its wake. It's the same with the energy in your body. If you go to the extremes of physical activity (yang), you exhaust yourself, and have to rest (yin). If you stop for long enough, you grow restless and go back out again for more (yang). Obviously if either yin or yang goes beyond that point, thereby losing its connection with the other, you die. Unchecked yin makes you congeal. Unchecked yang makes you evaporate.

Possibly the most pertinent use distinguishing full (yang) from empty (yin) in your relationship with the world. When your energy to go out into the world is strong, i.e., yang, and the world appears to receive you, you are considered to be full and the world empty; that is, you go and fill the world. When the world is knocking on your door and screaming at you from all directions, the world is then full and you'd better be empty!

Often a period of intense outer activity, the pressures of work and the social swirl (fullness-yang), will be followed by a period of dullness and nothing happening (emptiness-yin). To fight these fluctuations, or in any way resist or pervert the flow of a particular phase, results in distortions in your energy field, which lead to disease and eventually death. When the tide comes in, be there to greet it, but don't chase after it when it goes back out.

So when it's dull, let it be dull. Dull will transform into glittering soon enough by itself, as it follows the natural alternation of full and empty. Then when it does glitter again, enjoy it, but don't cling to it any more than you would the dullness. That wheel, it keeps a-turning.

Inner landscape visualization:

In your lower abdomen is the dark, fathomless, nighttime ocean, moonlight reflecting on its waves. The underswell is flowing from front to back inside you. This endless current represents your strength and stamina. Spend some quiet moments synchronizing your breathing with the ebb and flow of the waves, then redirect your attention up the face of the cliffs that rise steeply from the sea, along the front of your spinal column into the middle of your chest.

Here you find the crimson palace, perched in all its splendor at the cliff top, doors and windows open wide to emit a strong crimson light for all within a thousand mils to see. This light represents your inexhaustible love and passion for life. Spend a while synchronizing your breathing with the outpouring of those crimson rays, then stat your ascent up the mountainside, passing the jade pagoda (your cervical spine) vertebrae/neck), until you finally reach the cave of the original spirit, nestled in the rarefied air of the highest mountain peaks that pierce the sky just below the crown of your head. Here you sit, uplit in crimson, sidelit in other worldly, whitish original spirit light, the sound of crashing waves far below you, looking out into infinite inter space. This endless space represents the infinite intelligence which is yours when you send in three inner-landscape-visualization box tops, and answer this simple question.

"Who are you, really?"

THE NOBODY CONTEMPLATION

Look around you or simply think of all you own, are paying off, or renting; in other words, all your "possessions." Make a list if you like and say to yourself, "I am not these possessions," as in "I am not this house, I am not this telephone, I am not this rubber biscuit," etc. Now think of everything you desire and aspire to and say, "I am not my desires and aspirations," as in "I am not that different house, I am not that personal cell phone, I am not that chocolate cookie " etc. And on to all those who people your friendly world, and especially the ones you care for most: think of them all though you should do this in a fairly abstract way to avoid spending too long and losing the plot), and say, "I am not these people," as in If am not Phi Phi the perfect woman, I am not Joio Ktoojaw the perfect man, I am not my mother, I am not my son, I'm not really anyone," etc.

Now think of all your habits and addictions: your weekly visit to the acupuncturist, the way you throw your towel on the bathroom floor, and say, "I am not my habits or addictions," etc. Think of your aversions, allergies and phobias, and say, "I am not these aversions, allergies or phobias," as in "I am not this phobia about getting caught in a locked laundromat with a three-toed sloth," etc. Finally, think of your body, with all its bits and pieces: energy, nerves, blood, assorted fluids, aches, pains, bones, organs, flesh, outer appearance, and say, "I am not my body."

Feel it. You're not your possessions, your desires, your people, your habits, your fears; you're not even your body. You're simply nobody. Revel in the freedom of it, then move out onto the street, a busy, grimy street preferably, and be nobody, absolutely no one at all. Being no one at all, you've nothing to lose, you're just atoms moving in the everything, child of the Tao, and everything is yours.

This is an exercise in making the ultimate investment: investment in loss of all to gain all. Practicing it at those times when the story of your life is getting too ponderous to transport easily will yield feelings of great relief and free spiritedness.

TRUST YOURSELF

Don't trust this book, don't trust me, trust yourself.

You get taught as a child that you can't trust anyone. And that's partially true.

You can't trust anyone to behave in a specific way to suit you. That's not trust anyway, but expectation.

You can trust everyone to be human, with all the quirks and inconsistencies we humans display, including disloyalty, dishonesty and downright treachery.

We are all capable of the entire range of human behavior, given the circumstances, from absolute saintliness to abject depravity. Trusting someone to limit their sphere of action to one narrow band on the spectrum is idealistic and will inevitably lead to disappointment.

On the other hand, you can decide to trust that everyone is doing their best according to their particular stage of development, and to give everyone their appropriate berth. For this to work you have to trust yourself to make and have made the right choices that will lead you on the path to your healthy growth. You have to trust yourself to come through every experience safely and enriched. But don't trust what I'm saying. Listen and then decide for yourself. Does this information sit easily in your belly? If so, then maybe I've given you enough indicators for you to trust yourself around me. It's not a matter of whether you trust me or not.

Trusting yourself requires that you exercise your power of discrimination, which arises from deep within your belly. You know when you trust yourself around someone because your belly feels settled and your heart feels warm. When you're with someone or in a situation where your chest feels tight and you have a nagging sense of unease in your gut, and you've gone through the relaxing, sinking and centering procedure, established it's not a stomach bug, and still you've got that negative feeling, then get away from there, and don't waste any time on it.

Currently where you are is on a huge globe with a relatively thin crust of stone, containing fire in its bowels, rotating on its own slightly tilted axis at 1,000 miles per hour in an easterly direction while simultaneously traveling in orbit around an enormous ball of burning hydrogen, 93,000,000 miles away, at 66,000 miles per hour. That’s nineteen miles per second , which is much faster than you’ve maybe every imagined, and means you will be travelling nearly 60,000,000 miles this coming year.

Beauty is, you don't have to imagine it, you can feel it instead. And if you want to know what it's like simply stop. Be still, and in that stillness, whatever you're feeling in your belly: that's it. Easy as that. This is what it feels like to go 66,000 miles per hour while spinning at one thousand. Seems like it should make you feel dizzy, but thanks to the spin, you're probably managing to maintain your equilibrium most of the time. However, at those times when you feel out of sorts and disoriented, like you’re adrift all alone, without reference pints, one totally effective way to pop yourself back into the center of the frame is to pass a few moments actively contemplating the absurd speed at which you're actually hurtling, at this precise moment, through this vast vaulted arch of celestial expanse we so casually refer to as "space."

At those times when this contemplation suits your mood, a mere seven minutes' worth will suffice to clear your perspective and bring your mind back to the wonder of what's actually going on around here, beneath the distractions of daily human doings. It will also hopefully inspire awe and mavbe dread, which is useful in reminding you to appreciate the great benefits of having somewhere relatively solid to rest your sitting-bones.

When you find yourself in one of those mystical/ devotional frames of mind or in an emergency and you feel you want to pray, then pray. Don't ever be ashamed to pray or feel prevented by thinking yourself unworthy in any way. Fact is, whatever terrible thing you might have done, praying will always tum your energy around for the better.

Pray to whomever, whatever and whenever you choose. Pray to the mountain, pray to the ancestors, pray to the Earth, pray to the Tao (but it won't listen), pray to the Great Mother, pray to Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Lakshmi, Siva, pray to the Great Spirit, it makes no difference. You're free to deity-surf at your leisure. They will not penalize you on judgment day for being a spiritual grazer. Praying is not for the benefit of the deity to whom you're praying, it's for you. Praying is like creating an envelope in which to send your heart's true desires to the main universal sorting office, which itself resides in your heart also.

Vulnerability is the only authentic state. Being vulnerable means being open, for wounding, but also for pleasure. Being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and beauty. Don’t mask or deny your vulnerability: it is your greatest asset. Be vulnerable: quake and shake in your boots with it. the new goodness that is coming to you, in the form of people, situations, and things can only come to you when you are vulnerable, i.e. open.

[Renate Eveline · Rating 2 out of 5]

The barefoot doctor starts promissing. Lightfooted, with some tongue-in-cheek humor about holding your breath for exactly 73 seconds. About ways to reduce modern day stress with ancient techniques. Great, the useful stuff without the pretensions, or so I hoped

But the same jokes returning every few pages (meditating for 23 minutes, right!) and the author got hung up about tantiens and a diffuse blue lasso of light (why not bright green?) and cosmic eggs.

Why do I still remain attracted to reading these kind of books?

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing.
This book clearly divides my life into "before and after".
I've re-read it countless times since, sometimes I just pick it up and open a page at random, just to see what I get from it...
I read it in April of 1999, by the end of that summer I had changed careers, was in a new relationship and had a new apartment. So it was quite the ass-kicker.

[Helmut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Held für einen Tag (und nichtmal das)

Ach, dieses Buch zu bewerten ist schwer. Einerseits hätte ich es nach 10 Seiten fast weggeworfen, so frustrierend ist der Schreibstil. Der pseudokomische Stil nutzt sich bereits nach 5 Seiten so stark ab, dass große Teile des Buchs praktisch unleserlich sind - als Klolektüre geht das gerade noch, aber als Lebensratgeber? Andererseits bietet der Barfußdoktor im Mittelteil so einiges an Einsichten, die leider unter dem unerträglichen Geschwafel unterzugehen drohen. Man muss also, trotz des dümmlichen Stils, sehr aufmerksam lesen - was einem allzuoft zu schwer fällt, auch wenn sich der hyperaktive Autor nach ca. 150 Seiten etwas beruhigt (vielleicht wirkt dann das Ritalin). Die ständigen Hin- und Herreferenzen ("siehe auch Seite 175" etc.) lassen das Buch wie eine Zusammenfassung wirken - eine Beleidigung für das Yi Jing, das für diesen Stil Pate gestanden haben soll.

Die Form des Daoismus des Barfußdoktors, die dem Leser (dem "Helden") Ruhm und Reichtum bringen soll, beruht letztlich auf simpelsten und banalen Prinzipien - setz Dir ein Ziel und verfolge es mit aller Konzentration. Dazu brauche ich aber nun wirklich keinen Daoismus, besonders, wenn der nur dazu dienen soll, dem ganzen Easy Livin' ohne Verpflichtungen, wie der Barfußdoktor es propagiert, einen halbspirituellen Anstrich zu verpassen.

Ich gehöre offensichtlich nicht zur Zielgruppe des Buchs, denn irgendwie erwarte ich von einem solchen Buch etwas mehr als ein paar generelle Verhaltensregeln, eine Einführung in Tai Chi und ziemlich rudimentär beschriebene Meditations- und "Heilungs"techniken. Gerade diese späteren Kapitel wirken wie ein Fremdkörper, denn sie passen weder vom Stil noch vom Inhalt zum Rest des Buchs. Trotzdem sind auch sie, wie das Buch insgesamt, oberflächlich und banal.

Alle nützlichen Hinweise, die dieses Buch enthält, findet man in besserer Form auch in anderen Büchern - und das dann sogar ohne den ganzen Geschwätzballast.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a "guy's book", but I loved it anyway. Written in a hip, funny and down-to-earth manner, the book covers it all, really. It's a how-to guide on improving your life, and by extension the lives of others and the world and universe in general. The author is really big on Chi, the Law of Attraction and the perfection of the present moment and your place in it, and he provides incredible little insights into the nature of things that gave more than one Ah-ha! moment to this reader. He mentions just about every little trick-of-the-trade you can employ to improve your situation, focus your attention, be in the present and train yourself to be a happier, healthier and more harmonious person who will have a positive impact on the world you inhabit. I've read most of these concepts before, but never in as accessible a format as this. The book made me laugh too, which is an added bonus. I think I'm going to read it again later on to remind myself what it's all about and how to get it.

[dori]

i've owned this for ages and just pulled it back off the shelf for some random flipping-through. While a bit corny here and there (the names of some of the techniques do crack me up - "Scoop the Loop" anyone?) but some definite "oh yeah i resonate with that" moments.

[Erik Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out decent with a couple interesting ideas. Such as "rhythm of breath directly influences rhythm of thoughts". Then it started going on about psychic powers and what not which completely lost me. 2 stars is generous...

[Lin Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. The author presents some good advice. For how my brain is wired and in my opinion, the author is 'too funny' (forced) and too loud. I am glad I found this as a very inexpensive used book as my local library does not carry this title.

[Alicia Mooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This is a re-read for me.) I love this book!

[Rukshana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and irreverent discussion of spirituality. Good bedtime, light-hearted, enlightening reading.

[David Orman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barefoot is the best. Powerful information in an entertaining format.

[Josephine Myles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting meditations on how to handle the pressures of success in a dignified manner, and how to stay happy while you do so. Inspiring stuff.

[Phil Tall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's not to like?! Read it loads of times and will continue to read it over and over! Something new jumps out each time I read it!