MogaDao

Zhenevere Sophia Dao, originator of the philosophy of Post-Daoism and founder of the MogaDao practice tradition.

​

Please scroll down to access the standard homepage of MogaDao, which page has been displaced by the necessity of this STATEMENT.

MOGADAO'S STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIVES MATTER

                            AND THE PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY AND SYSTEMIC RACISM

The recent murders, in quick secession, of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, by the police force, the ostensible protective strong arm of justice and safety for us all, has ripped the veneer of “health” and “evolution” and “equality” from our collective fantasy, and chaos is the response. And without condoning some of the affects of chaos, chaos is understandable. I would even go so far as to say it is justified as a movement in the soul, as the instinctive response of the collective unconscious to an oppression so unrelenting as to seem to close off all hope. For the discrepancy between the calm, the rational lie of the status quo of American society—that racial relations are essentially “good” in 2020, that the country has been “on the mend” since the tumultuous sixties—and the reality of the unrelenting genocide of black people, is untenable and enraging. For this is a genocide never-ending, one that began with the mass perishing of sardine-packed African bodies in the festering bowels of the slave ships, then the lynchings, documented and undocumented, then the mass incarcerations today which are deaths of the soul if not the body (though usually both), and the deaths at the hands of our police, right now reaching their apogee in visibility, but always having been there—never not having been there, and far, far more numerous than we have been brave enough to want to see.

So I write, as the founder and therefore the spokesperson of MogaDao, to say categorically that we as a practice tradition are utterly, absolutely in alignment with the Black Lives Matter movement and the spirit of protest erupting all around the country. Every aspect of our practice tradition supports the outcry of pain ripping through the country at this harrowing hour. To respond to that slogan, “Black lives matter,” even in the private recesses of one’s soul, with the easy, flattening retort, “All lives matter,” is, at this point in history, to commit an atrocity of denial. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. We in this tradition will cry that phrase out, along with all of the anti-racists that are rising up and crying out all around the world, of all colors and nationalities. We are among these; we are as close to the pain as we can get without appropriating it as our own, unless it is our own.

A few years ago, as part of what is now called the Heartmind Warriorship Ethos Program, at the MogaDao Institute we had a class called RACE AND EXISTENCE. In that class we read some exceedingly important material treating of the topic of racism in America, some of which, and more, I’d like to recommend to you now. For becoming anti-racist is a spiritual and intellectual labor; a responsibility; a fundamental task of being a human being; it is not a given just because one is good-hearted—and it is a never-ending process. I would recommend beginning the education of anti-racism with these books:

STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING, by Ibram X. Kendi. This is the most unflinching treatment of the history of anti-black racism in America that has ever been written. Kendi offers no concessions to what might be called late democratic liberalism; there is no place for liberal self-congratulation in this book. It is the education that one did not receive in high-school or college, and it should be required reading of every citizen of this country.

Mr. Kendi also has an ANTI-RACIST READING LIST,  which can be found here: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/list/share/204842963/1357692923

​

• THE NEW JIM CROW, by Michelle Alexander

• WOMEN, RACE, AND CLASS, by Angela Davis

• WHITE FRAGILITY: WHY ITS SO HARD FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT RACISM, by Robin DiAngelo

• WHITE LIKE ME: REFLECTIONS ON RACE FROM A PRIVILEGED SON, by Tim Wise

Thank you for your time in reading this statement of solidarity. And thank you for standing together, as a tradition, in strong and unflinching solidarity with all of the black citizens of this deeply flawed, manifestly un-great, but yet hopeful nation.

Zhenevere Sophia Dao

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MogaDao is an original tradition of graceful, medicinal, and ensouling qigong, spiritualized asana, and somatic meditation, created by Zhenevere Sophia Dao, based on a radical faith in the mythopoetic and archetypal power of somatic experience. The MogaDao "techne," or practices, represent dynamic sacred architectures of human potential, nourishing and informing the fields of anxiety and trauma, imagination and vitality, essence and transformation, ritual and cosmology, sexuality, and sociopolitical responsibility. These techne are supported by the novel philosophy of Post-Daoism, originated by Zhen Dao, which combines the history of Western thought with Eastern philosophical foundations, finding them both lacking in what Zhenevere Sophia Dao calls "justified ontology," or what it is to be an emotional, intelligent, complex, caring, sensual, and sexual human being within a larger frame of potential cosmological harmony.

The Seven Ethea

of MogaDao

​

The 7 Ethea are the foundational structure of the MogaDao practice tradition, and the MogaDao disciplines (called "techne" in the tradition)—MogaDao Qigong, MogaDao Yoga, and MogaDao Tripartite Meditation—are the enfleshment and ensouling, in practice, of these themes or ethea. The 7 Ethea of MogaDao represent an existential framework for a comprehensive approach to being—physical, intellectual, sociopolitical, and spiritual. The Ethea represent every techne of MogaDao and every aspect of Post-Daoism divided into thematic groupings for the purposes of immersive study. The MogaDao Ethea are:

​

​

1. Human Fragility: Anxiety, Trauma, and Grief

2. Mythopoetics: Emotion, Archetype, and the Imagination

3. Essence and Transformation: Post-Daoist Essence & Gender Theory: Yin, Yang, and Yun.

4. Numina: The Body Spiritual

5. Depth Sexuality: The Erotic Basis of Being

6. Eros and Civilization: The Heartmind Warrior and the Sociopolitical Dimension

7. The Human Totem: Yoga and the Breadth of Being

​

​

​

The MogaDao Practice tradition

​

The MogaDao practice tradition proper began in 2010, with forms and practices and ideologies that Zhenevere Sophia Dao began creating at that time, a creative process which continues to the present. With the exception of the Morning Medical Qigong form, which predates the tradition's creativity and most current canon, and which has progenitorial movements derived from various sources, such as American acupuncturists and taiji masters, as well as clinical Chinese qigong, all of the MogaDao Qigong forms are original mythopoetic creations of Zhenevere Sophia Dao, with no derivation other than autodidactic research and practice. MogaDao Yoga employs classical Indian asana in terms of Post-Daoism's 5 Realms Theory, but many of MogaDao Yoga's asanas are original to Zhenevere Sophia Dao, in particular with regard to the recently innovated practices (2019-2020) of Primordial Yoga and Erotogenic Yoga, yoga practices which, in the case of Primordial Yoga, are designed to support SACRA Theater's acrobatic necessities, contemporary dance, and the martial arts, and in the case of Erotogenic Yoga, all aspects of sexual vitality. The three novel somatic MogaDao Meditations (MogaDao Tripartite Meditation), though naturally deriving from the historical diaspora of sitting practices, are also original to Zhen Dao and the MogaDao practice tradition.

​

​

post-daoism

The MogaDao practice tradition is experientially rooted in the three somatic technes of MogaDao Qigong, MogaDao Yoga, and MogaDao Tripartite Meditation. These technes, however, are indivisible from the revolutionary philosophy of Post-Daoism, which is the ontological foundation of the MogaDao tradition. The Seven Ethea represent the codified relevance of Post-Daoism to psychospiritual-physical practice. Within the MogaDao practice tradition, it is the combination of the ontological perspectives of Post-Daoism with the most refined training in the sacred practice arts of MogaDao Qigong, MogaDao Yoga, and MogaDao Meditation that effectively revisions studies in trauma and recovery, the role of emotion, archetype, and the imagination, the theory of essences and change, ritual and the spiritual dimension of human being, and sexuality and eros, conceived not as "drives" but as pathways to human sovereignty, sociopolitical activism, and "justified ontology."

​

​

​

The MogaDao Institute, Santa Fe, NM

​

The MogaDao Institute, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the main location for training in the MogaDao techne, with a variety of certified MogaDao teachers, and for immersive study in the Ethos Immersions (both EXPERIENTIA and PEDAGOGIA) with Zhenevere Sophia Dao. Additionally, certified MogaDao teachers conduct classes and workshops in various locations around the United States and the world; many also conduct online classes. And as soon as social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19 are lifted, a curriculum of MogaDao classes, covering much of the Ethea, will be offered by certified MogaDao teachers, at the MogaDao Institute. Please see the Teachers page on this website for more information about current classes with MogaDao teachers.

​

Taking Classes at the MogaDao Institute

​

​

We are currently not holding live classes at the MogaDao Institute. For 2021 we have a very rich schedule of Ethos Immersions planned, live and in- person at the MogaDao Institute, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. So long as you have signed up to receive mailings, you'll receive the most recent updates about classes at the MI, as we, like all of the citizens of our world, navigate the pandemic with care and prudence.

​

Certification to Become a MogaDao Teacher

​

The MogaDao teacher certification program consists of an extremely rigorous and in-depth trajectory of concentrated study in MogaDao techne, pedagogia, and the ontological philosophy of Post-Daoism, for a limited number of highly motivated and multi-dimensional individuals.
 

​

MogaDao 2021

Bullet List for the Planning of Personal Study and Teacher Certification in 2021

​

 

I want to receive an initial introduction to the work of MogaDao without traveling to study in person…
 

• Register for Online Foundation Trainings with Zhenevere Sophia Dao.

• See Calendar of Online Classes with Certified Mogadao Teachers

I want to study deeply in person in the techne of MogaDao without certifying to become a teacher…
 

• Familiarize yourself with the Ethea of MogaDao, the seven thematic frameworks of study within the tradition.

• Register for the Experientia Immersions of your choosing, as those registrations become available. (No application needed). Enrollment availability is on a first-come, first-serve basis.)

• See Calendar of In-Person Classes with Certified Mogadao Teachers

I want to begin the process of becoming a certified MogaDao teacher for the first time…
 

• On the MogaDao website, familiarize yourself with the Ethea as well as the MogaDao teacher certification process.

• Decide which Ethos (or Ethea, if more than one) you wish to seek certification in and complete the corresponding Application(s). See Applications page.

  • Complete Essay of Motivation (1500-2000) words

    • This essay will address the student's general motivation for wishing to teach within the MogaDao practice tradition. Please email your essay, in PDF format, to the Director of Admissions:

  • Arrange for 3 Letters of Recommendation 

    • A letter from a former or current teacher in an academic context (highschool teacher; college professor; intellectual tutor or mentor, etc.) that attests to one’s capacity to focus on challenging material.

    • A letter from a friend or companion that focuses on intimate knowledge of one’s character and disposition toward life generally.

    • A letter from a teacher, or mentor, or personally revered colleague in a field of some relevance to body-mind practice culture and to the MogaDao Ethos Program to which the applicant is applying. 

      • Please have the authors email letters in PDF format, directly and confidentially, to the Director of Admissions:

• For those who reach the second stage of the application process, have an interview with Zhenevere Sophia Dao

I am already a certified MogaDao teacher and wish to continue with further certifications…
 

• Decide which Ethos (or Ethea, if more than one) you wish to seek certification in and complete the corresponding Application(s). See Application page.

• For those who reach the second stage of the application process, have an interview with Zhenevere Sophia Dao

​