Find your balance through regular practice of creative art – with Master Sha
Dr and Master Sha is a leading author and teacher in spirituality, holistic health, and helping you achieving soulfulness to improve your life. As an original pioneer in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine, Master Sha has emerged as a best-selling author and expert on improving physical health, emotional wellness, and his Soul Mind Body Medicine approach to health and wellness. Significantly, he is the founder of the Tao Calligraphy Field, which embodies spiritual Chinese principles with painting and meditation.
In this article, Tao Master Sha discusses the wellbeing benefits and meditative qualities of regulating creating art as routine to implement and improve your life and wellbeing.
Master Sha on art and transformation
My teachings and experience clearly demonstrate that the world needs healing perhaps more than ever before.
We are, as a species, increasingly disconnected from ourselves and each other. Existential and external threats to peace of mind, combine with the pressures of making our way in the modern world, to block our emotional and spiritual development.
There is an urgent need to revolutionise the way we look at ourselves and, crucially, find new ways to heal ourselves and achieve some inner peace, passion, and release
I believe that through one of the keyways to actively improve your own wellbeing and consciousness is via creating art or painting as a means to find focus, to meditate, and experience the numerous emotional and physical benefits experience with regularly creating personal art.
I advocate that you explore taking up the meditative painting form of Tao Calligraphy, which I will explain in more detail, alongside the ancient revered teachings of Tao Te Ching by Laozi.
Spirituality and wellbeing – can you have one without the other?
Scientific studies definitively link spirituality and healthy behaviours with wellness and psychological wellbeing. However, ‘wellness’ is a subjective state, and it’s clear also that the kind of spirituality that leads to greater wellness is that of acquired education in this area.
By that I mean, to get to a state where our spirituality and inner world lead directly to a stronger sense of self and psychological wellbeing, we need to actively learn.
Choosing to flow – what the Tao Te Ching teaches us
We all live in a time where it’s all too easy to feel stressed, anxious, off balance and unsure. Trying to find a way to balance our work and life, paying the bills, reconciling the changes thrust upon us by geopolitical and domestic events beyond our control… it’s not surprising that so many are suffering.
The latest federal figures show that a full 50% of young adults report symptoms of anxiety and depression. And while the overall figure is closer to a third for all adults, this is a tremendously significant problem.
However, the tenets of ancient teachings show us that human beings have always struggled to find a balance. More than 2,000 years ago, the Tao Te Ching shared wisdom that can help us attain wisdom today.
The whole essence of the Tao Te Ching is often seen as paradoxical, given the sheer breadth of its subject matter. But it can also be used to find a way to live more simply in order to achieve wisdom and wellbeing.
How the arts can reflect the Tao Te Ching
Using ancient wisdom such as the Tao, we can create new meditative arts. Painting particularly can be practised in a meditative way to clear the mind, become at one with your spirituality and achieving a mental equilibrium.
This is why I created Tao Calligraphy – a unique form of Oneness writing and painting style that creates a high frequency energy field. This energy – the Qi – can be tapped into by those participating in the practice.
I learned the ancient art of Yi Bi Zi (one-stroke calligraphy) through Master Li Qui Yun. I knew the strength of this practice to help people achieve wellness and create Tao Calligraphy so that others can tap into the flow.
Tao Calligraphy and harnessing the flow of Qi
This special form of Oneness writing, which is created through calligraphy paining, brings the energy and vibration of Tao to each piece of art.
The very act of creating the calligraphy creates a powerful positive field of energy – the Tao Source. Tao is the fundamental principle of yin and yang that underlies everything in the universe. It’s the code of the natural order and permeates through every living being.
The Tao Te Ching developed this for us so many years ago into Taoism. And while the philosophy is as old as time, it’s so very relevant in the 21st century. Art allows us to reach the meditative state necessary to access the energy field of the Tao and allow it flow through us.
Transforming negativity into positive through calligraphy
To create the form, the calligrapher draws just one stroke that contains the Qi flow. This single stroke cultivates the positive energy that leads to a sense of oneness and wellbeing.
Tao Calligraphy – and other art forms, of course – can be practiced through the direct art of creation, by tracing the art or meditating in the energy field surrounding the creative force.
People simply need to be near to the calligraphy to invoke the Qi, allowing for the absorption of positivity.
Regular meditative practice leads to positivity
Whether it’s Tao Calligraphy, watercolour, sketching, drawing or any other form of art, to achieve a meditative state for wellbeing, it’s necessary to practice regularly.
With mindful practice on a regular basis, it’s possible to access the positive collective energy flow that soothes the mind, body and soul. This can totally transform the negativity in the human system that blocks us from moving forward in our personal healing path and personal journey.
I’ve found, through this practice and by sharing it with others, that regular Tao Calligraphy practice can positively change every aspect of our lives. It’s not just about our internal state, but it flows through into every interaction we have with others and in our general outlook.
Combating negative Shen Qi Jing
Taoism tells us that all challenge aspect so life stem ultimately from negative Shen Qi Jing.
Shen refers to the heart, Qi to energy and Jing to physical matter. Ancient wisdom teaches us that negative blockers of the soul need to be worked through and overcome.
Tao Calligraphy is the culmination of my life’s work, which is built on the wisdom I have gained through learning Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Calligraphy and ancient Asian healing arts.
By creating a vessel through which Tao Oneness can flow – a vessel that others can also create or tap into through meditation or chanting – Tao Calligraphy, as a universal spiritual practice, is an example of art that can make a true difference to transforming people’s wellbeing and mental state.
It’s within all of our power to find the vessel that works for us – this could be straight meditation or other forms of regular creative practice.
About Master Sha
Dr and Master Sha (also commonly known as Master Zhi Gang Sha) is a best-selling author in wellness and spirituality, and the founder of the Tao Calligraphy Healing Field and the Complete Soul Healing System. Zhi Gang Sha is a Medical Doctor and a Tao Grandmaster, and his mission is to enable individuals and humanity as a whole, to achieve better wellbeing and inner piece. Via his Tao Calligraphy Academies, Master Zhi Gang Sha works with his network of trained teachers to teach Tao Teachings and wellbeing techniques through classes and workshops. Dr and Master Sha is a bestselling author who’s New York Times bestsellers include Soul Healing Miracles, Tao Quantum Healing, Tao Healing Techniques, The Power of The Soul, Tao Healing Technologies, and Divine Healing Hands.
Master Sha is also the founder of the charitable Love Peace Harmony Foundation, which raises funds across North America and Africa to help humanity via projects such as clean water facilities in under-served regions. Master Zhi Gang Sha is fervent in promoting world peace, which saw him receive the Martin Luther King Jr Award and he is a named QiGong Master.