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What do the Jedi of Star Wars have in common with ancient Taoist practitioners? The connection may be deeper than you think. In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-33), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the surprising similarities between Jedi training, traditional Taoist swordsmanship, and the cultivation of human potential. The Jedi lightsaber represents more than a weapon. It reflects discipline, internal harmony, and the intimate relationship between mind and action. These same principles have long been important in traditional Taoist martial arts. But Steenrod challenges a familiar martial arts idea: The sword should not become an extension of you. You should become an extension of the sword. Why? Because the sword directly expresses the condition of the mind. Every hesitation, distraction, or disturbance becomes visible in its movement. Genuine mastery demands more than technical proficiency. It requires a degree of internal harmony in which thought and action become inseparable. The conversation also explores why traditional weapons demand a different kind of personal development than modern technology, whether human cultivation can surpass technological advantage, and why Taoist teachings emphasize developing human potential rather than surrendering it to machines. From the Jedi and the Force to ancient accounts of mechanical men, this walk connects popular culture with the deeper principles of Taoist cultivation. Can the human being develop beyond the limitations of the tools they create? Join Steenrod and Morgan for a thought-provoking exploration of the sword, the mind, and the power of genuine cultivation. Explore More: Prefer the video version? https://youtu.be/Ldz5h-HSkY4 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA, and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com

For generations, a Chinese town sacrificed young women to a river god. Then a new magistrate arrived—and challenged those claiming to speak for him. Was the ancient river god He Bo truly demanding these sacrifices, or were the priests exploiting the people's fear? In this special Halloween-season episode of Living the Tao, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the disturbing legend of He Bo and the mysterious world of local gods, territorial spirits, and ancient Taoist spiritual practices. Discover why traveling Taoists traditionally made offerings to local gods, how spiritual development could attract unwanted attention, and why respect and discernment were essential for navigating the unseen world. Drawing upon ancient traditions and teachings from his own training, Master Steenrod reveals an often-overlooked dimension of traditional Taoism. Listen to the trailer, then discover the complete episode: Living the Tao — Episode 1-202: Local Gods and the Tale of He Bo Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

Can the present tell you what is going to happen next? In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-32), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore observation, situational awareness, and the Taoist idea that much of what seems mysterious may already be unfolding in plain sight. Steenrod shares stories from his own training, including moments when his teacher appeared to predict exactly what strangers were about to do. What first seemed almost supernatural eventually pointed toward something more fundamental: the human mind is constantly gathering information, recognizing patterns, and anticipating what comes next. The problem is that fear, hope, expectation, media, and story can obscure what we are already perceiving. This episode also looks at why observation is a trained skill, why modern habits may weaken it, and why Taoist practice often begins not with becoming something extraordinary, but with recovering capacities that are already part of being human. Sometimes the future is not hidden. Sometimes we simply fail to look. Prefer to watch the video version? https://youtu.be/EYHsOoZLHUA 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA, and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com

What if the problem isn’t you—but the map you’ve been given? In this episode of Living the Tao, Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Taoist distinction between reality itself and the social mind’s representation of it. Humans do not simply create maps of the outside world; those same maps also define what we are supposed to feel, value, experience, and become. The discussion moves from the idea that “reality repeats” into the ways artificial repetition can create an artificial reality. Steenrod examines why direct experience matters more than intellectual understanding, how the Tao may provide just enough experience to disrupt the social mind, and why real transformation requires more than thought alone. Along the way, the conversation connects reality to the Red Dust, the complete human, intellect, emotion, intuition—and, unexpectedly, cannibals. Because sometimes the deepest question behind “What is reality?” is really: What are we beneath the map? Prefer to watch rather than listen? https://youtu.be/4lPCAAnS1u0 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com The supercast version of this episode has extensive commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com

Fall is Taoism’s great season of transformation. In this trailer for Living the Tao Episode 1-199, Master Mikel Steenrod introduces the deeper meaning of seasonal change: transformation is inevitable, but it does not always mean progress. The full Supercast episode explores upward, sideways, and downward transformation, Hungry Ghost traditions, spiritual journeying and retreat, the White Tiger, Lin Jun, and the old warrior whose white hair becomes the tiger. Living the Tao, Episode 1-199: Fall’s Power of Transformation Available now for Supercast subscribers. Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What are you without the voice talking inside your head? In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-31), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore one of the most basic—and surprisingly difficult—questions we can ask: What is the self? Is the self the internal narrator commenting on your life? Your memories? Your experiences? And if that familiar voice falls silent, have you actually lost anything at all? From there, the conversation moves into mortality, Daoist immortality, and the human desire for permanence. Why do we assume that something must last forever in order to have value? Why would creatures who have never experienced permanence make permanence the measure of importance? Along the way, there are ancient immortals, geological spans of time, and even the realization that after a few hundred years of serious spiritual cultivation, immortals apparently spend quite a bit of time going to parties. But beneath the humor is a distinctly Daoist question: perhaps the truth of who you are is not an idea called the “self,” but the experience of actually living. And perhaps the long spiritual journey ends somewhere unexpected—with becoming what you already are. Prefer the video version?  https://youtu.be/UYbdcemMAFM 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA, and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if the reason you cannot make yourself do something is not a lack of discipline—but a divided self? In this trailer for Living the Tao Episode 1-198, The Fractured Self, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores the gap between what we say we want and what deeper parts of us may actually be doing. The episode begins with three simple possibilities: unwilling, unable, or uneducated. From there, it moves into a deeper Taoist problem—how the socially conditioned self becomes fragmented, how that fragmentation interferes with choice and capability, and why spiritual development requires more than outward compliance. The goal is not simply greater control. It is greater internal coherence. Listen to the full episode on Supercast. Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if the future is already visible in the present? In this trailer for Living the Tao Episode 1-197, Master Mikel Steenrod introduces one of the simplest—and most demanding—skills in Taoist training: observation. He explains why his teacher could often predict what was about to happen simply by watching carefully, how judgment interferes with perception, and why learning to see what is actually there can become a form of Taoist practice. The episode then moves into advanced Qigong training and the practice of blessing, where thousands of repetitions can expose an uncomfortable question: is what you believe about yourself actually true? Watching, Blessing, Living explores observation, wu-wei, symbolic truth, qi, and the difference between reality and the stories we tell ourselves. This full episode is available to Living the Tao subscribers on Supercast.  Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if karma isn’t a cosmic system of reward and punishment? In this Living the Tao Short (2-30), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan unpack the idea of the karmic nursery—a condition in which actions may have social consequences without accumulating the kind of karmic weight that produces lasting power. That protection comes with a tradeoff: no consequence also means no power. Steenrod explains why karma, in this framework, is not the universe handing out justice. Instead, karmic accumulation depends on consistency. A person may act positively, negatively, or neutrally—but without consistency, little accumulates. Leave the nursery, and actions begin to add up. They can build power, diminish it, move you toward what you seek, or move you away. The conversation also explores why someone might choose to return to the nursery, why doing so can mean living a “much smaller life,” and why the karmic nursery is not simply a product of the social mind. A short discussion about consequence, responsibility, ling, and what it means for your actions to truly matter.   hat if the future already exists—and your choices still matter? In this Living the Tao Short, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Taoist concept of nonlinear time: a model in which past, present, and future are not simply points moving along a single line. The conversation moves from memory and our ordinary experience of time into much stranger territory. If every moment remains part of existence, does that mean everything is predetermined? Steenrod argues that it does not. Change, in the Taoist model he describes, does not necessarily depend upon linear time. Along the way, they examine why our sense of the past may be tied to fading memory, why every action may remain part of existence, why Taoism resists placing the individual at the center of creation, and why nonlinear time was traditionally a subject reserved for more advanced practice. The future has already happened. And somehow, you may still be writing it.   Prefer the video format?  That's here: https://youtu.be/gI1MFRJGASs 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), AMA, and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

Can Qi stop a bullet? That question opens a much larger discussion about the Four Spheres and a common human mistake: trying to solve a problem with the wrong kind of tool. In this episode (1-196), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod explores why physical force, social influence, intelligence, Qi practice, and other approaches each belong to different kinds of problems. The issue is not simply whether one sphere is “stronger” than another, but whether the method being used actually fits the situation. Along the way, Steenrod and Morgan look at Taoist martial skill, surgeons and swordsmen, negotiation, asymmetric warfare, intelligence networks, revolution, and why force often becomes most useful only after better options have already disappeared. And then there is Camelot: Arthur, the Round Table, Merlin, the dream of the perfect kingdom—and Steenrod's observation that he owns shirts that have apparently lasted longer. A practical discussion about timing, strategy, Qi, and why lasting change usually begins before the crisis does. Prefer to watch rather than listen? https://youtu.be/-6_6SYmIn8Q 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com The supercast version of this episode has extensive commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com

What happens when your questions become part of the show? The Living the Tao AMA gives Supercast subscribers a place to ask about Taoist practice, the I Ching, spiritual development, unusual experiences, and the questions that do not always fit neatly into a regular episode. In the August AMA, Taoist Master Michael Steenrod takes up questions about changing interpretations of the I Ching, choosing among too many possible paths, becoming the complete human, and how we decide whether something is real. Some questions get a brief answer. Others open a much larger door—and can become the basis for future episodes. This AMA episode is available exclusively to Living the Tao subscribers on Supercast. Bring your questions. Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if the future already exists—and your choices still matter? In this Living the Tao Short, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Taoist concept of nonlinear time: a model in which past, present, and future are not simply points moving along a single line. The conversation moves from memory and our ordinary experience of time into much stranger territory. If every moment remains part of existence, does that mean everything is predetermined? Steenrod argues that it does not. Change, in the Taoist model he describes, does not necessarily depend upon linear time. Along the way, they examine why our sense of the past may be tied to fading memory, why every action may remain part of existence, why Taoism resists placing the individual at the center of creation, and why nonlinear time was traditionally a subject reserved for more advanced practice. The future has already happened. And somehow, you may still be writing it.   Prefer the video format?  That's here: https://youtu.be/4KQ6FH6UNZc 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if happiness is not found in pushing life to its limits? In Living the Tao, Episode 1-194 — The Method of Happy Living, Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod introduces the ancient idea that a good life is built through balance, adaptability, and the preservation of your ability to act upon the future. Drawing from the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic and the Taoist Art of Living, the episode explores why health, relationships, resources, and moderation are not merely practical concerns—they form the foundation from which deeper spiritual development becomes possible. Life will have extremes. The question is whether you can return from them. “Extremes are a nice place to visit, but you don’t want to live there.” Full episode with commentary is now avaialble on supercast. Subscribe now at  https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What happens when an ancient text survives, but the people and traditions that once explained it are pushed aside? In this trailer for Living the Tao, Episode 1-193: “The Headless Text,” Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod introduces the problem of the orphaned—or headless—text: words that remain while their original interpretive context disappears. From misunderstood text messages to Christianity, the rapture, and the Western reception of the Tao Te Ching, the episode explores how old texts can acquire radically new meanings when earlier authorities are removed or discredited. The larger question is simple: How do you interpret an ancient text honestly when the original speaker can no longer tell you, “That’s not what I meant”? Listen to the full episode of Living the Tao.  Now avaialble on Supercast. Subscribe now at  https://living-the-tao.supercast.com

What if your karma could keep growing even when you weren’t actively doing anything? In this episode of Living the Tao Shorts (2-28), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Taoist idea of neutrality—not as indifference or social disengagement, but as an internal position that can steadily build karma and strengthen one’s ling. Using the metaphor of compound interest, Master Steenrod explains why the neutral path may produce small but continuous returns throughout everyday life. How you treat yourself, how you respond to your senses, and how quickly you form opinions can all affect that process. The episode also explores the relationship between neutrality, wu wei, karma, and ling, and why Taoist practice often favors establishing the right internal conditions rather than relying only on dramatic acts of effort. Sometimes the biggest gains come from simply being in the right place internally—and not interfering with the process. Prefer the video format?  That's here: https://youtu.be/AaJkSIMwL3A 🌐 Explore more Taoist teachings: https://www.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com -From Beginner to Expert, examine our collection of free videos and articles on qi gong: https://www.watermountainvirtual.com/qi-gong-collection/ Premium Episodes, Full Catalog (4x the content), and episode commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com     Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com