In the mid 1970's, the veil of secrecy that had surrounded most Taoist teachings for millenia was suddenly lifted. Chinese Masters such as Ni, Hua Ching, Mantak Chia, Steven Chang and others started teaching and publishing their knowledge, at first to Chinese students in the West and then inevitably directly to Westerners. For the first time the internal aspects of many martial arts and Tai Chi practices were revealed. Often to the dismay of more traditional teachers, the most valued teachings, closely held for only the select inner circle were suddenly available to anyone with the knowledge of where to look and time to master the methods. Once the door was open there was no closing it. In the 80's and 90's there has been a flood of publications, from China, Taiwan, Korea and many places in the West. Often prompted by their aging masters, fearing the Red Guard or worse, Taoists have gone mainstream.

When I first registered The-Tao.com on Christmas Eve, 1999 I had already been studying Taoism for 15 years. By any measure I had no idea where either the Internet or my interest in Taoism might lead. Mass adoption of portable computing was years away and not many Taoists I knew took much interest. If they did it was often for the 'alternative' platform, the Mac. My personal background with computers was in commercial applications hence the PC was my natural choice. For years (literally decades!) I did almost nothing with the domain as my interest focused on the I Ching and my Energy Master application. I would occassionally post some upsell for a friend or client's workshop or seminar. The domain name itself guaranteed a certain amount of traffic even with the pitiful lack of content. I published a (intermittant) blog for a few years (2004 - 2011) answering a few questions and describing my early experiences with Master Wang Li Ping. That was abandoned for my more current blog at JadeEmperor.com that I have devoted to describing Master Wang's teaching.

A huge moment came in my life at the Winter Solstice of 2017. I was attending Master Wang's annual retreat for foreign students at Anbo Town, northeast of Dalian in Liaoning Province, China. Following a breakthrough transmission and realization from the previous year's retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii (I was in Northern Thailand at the time) I had realized it was time for me to start to teach what I had received from Master Wang. To do this I needed Master Wang's permission. I had already informed Richard Liao, the retreat organizer, of my desire for a personal meeting with Master Wang during the retreat. Richard knew my intention and it was obvious this would not be easy for him. My "Western" attitude toward the Master (What? Ask permission to teach!) clearly did not sit comfortably with his Chinese sensibilities. At one point he asked if I would be disappointed if such a meeting did not occur. To this I could certainly respond "Yes, I would be disappointed, but I would understand if the Master felt I was not ready". Finally with 1 day left, Master Wang relented and I had my half hour.

There were two topics I wanted to discuss. I started with the easier one, or so I thought. After the Jin Hua Retreat in 2012, described in some detail here and here I had developed a relationship with a Norwegian woman at Tao Garden. In the intervening 5 years I had experienced with her a spontaneous opening into an alchemical world beyond anything I had previously even imagined could exist. This sounds extreme and it was.