For over 20 years, I’ve been a yoga teacher and healer in the tradition of Korean Mountain Taoist Yoga. My mission is help people across the world gain inner peace through the transformative power of yoga, healing, and taoist philosophy. In 2024 I decided to share my synthesis of the Taoist Yoga tradition for the modern world and train hundreds of teachers to share it as well.

My Mission

Get Taoist Yoga & Meditation classes in every yoga studio in America.

What I believe

I believe that human society is going through a massive and rapid transformation because of the accelerated changes in robotics, ai, energy storage, and political unrest. These changes are intensified through the perverse incentives of the “attention economy” and the epidemic of screen addiction which disconnects people from natural rhythms, making them forget or become oblivious to the fact that it is possible to feel true peace in their hearts. In this massive transformational time it is very easy to be caught up in the chaos and experience intense anxiety, disconnection, and fear. This anxiety, disconnection, and fear is then used to push you to “take a side,” align your narrative with a particular groups, and begin to demonize all who is disagree with your narrative. This is a pattern that has happened thousands of times throughout human history.

It is my, perhaps controversial belief, that the “taking of sides” and the constant battle to be “right” about everything, is the very thing that is perpetuating the downward spiral into chaos. People are living in their head, abandoning their heart, and never knowing the sacred fire that resides in their belly.

The purpose of Taoist Yoga & Meditation is to restore your body’s natural vitality, free youh heart from it’s greatest fears, and give you clarity and purpose to follow your Tao. It does this through what I call the 3 phases of cultivation.

The 3 Phases of Taoist Yoga Cultivation

Phase 1: Return to Nature, Accumulate Essence

In the beginning you learn the movements, breathing techniques, and habit changes that will awaken your connection with your “danjeon,” the energy center located in your lower abdomen. Because modern people are so often living in their heads, most people’s lower abdomens are constantly tensed up causing many physical problems that begin with weakened digestion, shortening of breath, diarrhea, severe menstrual cramps, intestinal pain, and end with your internal organs accumulating constant stress leading to a lowered vitality. However, when your danjeon region becomes relaxed and warm through Taoist Yoga and Meditation people are always amazed at how quickly they can improve their physical health, digestion, vitality, sexual vigor, and creativity. Over time, practitioners learn what it means to gather energy in their bellies and regular practitioners will feel their joints becoming more supple, an improvement in their mood, and a sense of confidence and groundedness that they can take on new challenges. At this point the practitioner is ready to begin energy circulation.

Phase 2: More Than Body, Energy Cultivation

If phase 1 is about healing your belly then phase 2 is about healing your heart. In phase 2 a practitioner of Taoist Yoga & Meditation learns to become more sensitive to energy with their hands and heart meridians. They are also given practices that combine visualization with interoception to circulate energy throughout their body. During this phase of working with energy practitioners may begin to push up against old emotional patterns and karmas inherited from their childhood and ancestry. The practicing of circulating energy through the heart and hands helps this process of purifying old emotional baggage and experiencing psychological breakthroughs. In this phase students are often taught healing hands work to purify karma but can also work with sword training to “cut-away” karmas. I(Andrew) have personally enjoyed working both with healing hands and sword training and will offer training in both practices to Taoist Yoga Instructors. As one’s heart becomes more purified a natural inner peace forms and they are ready for phase 3.

Phase 3: Meditation & Insight to the Tao

In phase 3 practitioners can begin to focus more on meditation practices and even their exercise practices become more meditative. The first two phases of practice improve their ability to meditate on subtle sense perceptions of the body, aka Qi, and so in phase 3 practitioners may begin feeling Qi even when they aren’t “on the mat.” During this phase one realizes they are always practicing. Additionally during this time the study of spiritual texts will be fruitful because the wisdom of those texts can usually only be understood by someone whose mind is resting in the same truth. One mistake so many people make is that they want to study Taoist philosophy from their head and not from their belly, but a cultivator of the Tao will be able to integrate spiritual insights into their whole being bringing about enlightened states of consciousness. The ultimate goal of Taoist Yoga and Meditation is to have an insight into the true nature of reality that is so pure that you become free and experience what Chung Tzu calls “the fulfillment of human nature.”

“What is bestowed upon us at birth is called human nature. The fulfillment of human nature is called the Tao. The Cultivation of the Tao is the deepest form of learning. The Tao is the way things are, which you cannot depart from even for one instant. If you could depart from it, it wouldn’t be the Tao. Therefore the Master looks into her own heart and respects what is unseen and unheard. Nothign is more manifest than the hidden; nothing is more obvious then the unseen. Therefore the Master pays attention to what is happening within her innermost self.” Chuang Tzu verse 1.

If you’d like to begin this journey of Taoist Yoga & Meditation I highly recommend my introductory course which includes a virtual private session and access to my full library of teaching. Click below to explore