MogaDao

 

MogaDao is an original tradition of graceful, medicinal, and ensouling qigong, spiritualized asana, and somatic meditation, created by Zhen 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 trauma, imagination and vitality, essence and transformation, ritual and cosmology, and sexuality. These techne are supported by the broad-ranging and novel philosophy of Post-Daoism, originated by Zhen Dao.

The five ethea

​

The Five Ethea represent an existential framework for a comprehensive approach to consciousness—physical, intellectual, and spiritual. The Five Ethea are: Anxiety and Trauma; Imagination and Vitality; Post-Daoism: Essence and Transformation; Ritual and Cosmology; and Depth Sexuality and the Erotic Basis of Being. The Five Ethea are the foundational structure of the MogaDao practice tradition, and the MogaDao techne (practices) are the enfleshment and ensouling of these fundamental themes, or ethea. ("Ethea" is the plural form of "ethos," and "ethos" refers to the spirit that motivates the ideas, customs, and practices of a people.)

 

The MogaDao practice tradition proper began in 2010, with forms and practices and ideologies that Zhen 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 Zhen 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 Zhen Dao, in particular with regard to the practices of Primordial Yoga and Erotogenic Yoga, yoga practices which, in the case of Primordial Yoga, are designed to support SACRA Theater's acrobatic necessities, dance, and the martial arts, and in the case of Erotogenic Yoga, all aspects of sexual vitality. The three novel somatic MogaDao Meditations, though naturally deriving from the historical diaspora of sitting practices, are also original to Zhen Dao and the MogaDao practice tradition.

​

The MogaDao practice tradition is experientially rooted in the three somatic technes of MogaDao Qigong, MogaDao Yoga, and MogaDao Meditation. These technes, however, are indivisible from the revolutionary philosophy of Post-Daoism, which is the ontological foundation of the tradition. The Five Ethea represent, in a sense, 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 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 and sociopolitical activism.

 

 

MogaDao's Ethos Program Immersions
 

Ethos Program Immersions are taught each year by Zhen Dao, the founder of MogaDao, usually at the MogaDao Institute in Santa Fe, NM, but occasionally at other venues around the country. These are two-week immersions focusing on the themes described below. In many cases, only one Ethos Program Immersion is taught per year, though in any given year more than one Ethos Program Immersion per theme might be offered. Announcements of Ethos Program Immersions for the remainder of 2020 are forthcoming on this website (in the banner at the top of the homepage, and on the Workshop and Events page).
 

 

Ethos Program I:
Anxiety and Trauma

The ANXIETY and TRAUMA ETHOS PROGRAM focuses on the modern epidemic of anxiety and trauma, with particular interest in the intersection between the Post-Daoist concept of "info-colonization syndrome," or the way the infosphere has colonized modes of self-sovereignty and human freedom, and "biographical" trauma, or the shattering of the continuity between potential and fruition in the individual.

 

MogaDao Tripartite Practice

The Forms and Practices:

MogaDao Qigong: 3 Pillars Qigong for Anxiety and Trauma; The Harmony Form; The Eros Bridge Form

MogaDao Yoga: The Trauma Series

MogaDao Meditation: Floating Heart Meditation

Ethos Program II:
Imagination and Vitality
 

The ARCHETYPE and VITALITY ETHOS PROGRAM addresses the deep influence of studies in the imagination on the somatic practices of the MogaDao tradition (the technes). In MogaDao's practices, "Western" ideas of soul and the primacy of the imagination are understood Post-Daoistically, not as ideas alone but as somatic experiences in movement and in meditation. This program focuses on the imagination as the foundation of healing, if healing is considered in the broadest sense to describe a soul's embrace of its own experience through forms of fruition and consummation, challenge and change.

​

MogaDao Tripartite Practice

The Forms and Practices:

MogaDao Qigong: The Hieratic Stance Series; Morning Medical Qigong

MogaDao Yoga: The Archetypal Series

MogaDao Meditation: Jing Retrieval

 

Ethos Program III:
Post-Daoism: essence and transformation

​

“Post-Daoism” is a new branch of Daoist philosophy, created by Zhen Dao, representing radical revaluations of “inherited” or classical Daoism. Post-Daoism introduces a comprehensive revisioning of nearly all aspects of classical Daoism, including new understandings of Yin-Yang Theory and the introduction of a new Post-Daoist essence: Yun; Post-Daoist 5-Realms Theory (as distinct from inherited 5-Element Theory); sexuality and queerness based on new understandings of the Jing, rather than standard Daoist binaries of “Yin” and “Yang”; paradigm-shifting reconceptualizations of the three essences of TCM and inherited Daoism: Jing, Qi, and Shen; the teachings of the Erotic Basis of Being and the concept of the Heartmind as a spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic, and sociopolitical human responsibility.

MogaDao Tripartite Practice

The Forms and Practices:

MogaDao Qigong: Essential Yin Form; Essential Yang Form; Essential Yun Form;

MogaDao Yoga: The Sunrise Series; The Sunset Series; Primordial Yoga

MogaDao Meditation: Empty Sky Meditation
 

​

Ethos Program IV:
Ritual and Cosmology

The RITUAL and COSMOLOGY ETHOS PROGRAM focuses on the ways that the human being can embody the numinous or spiritual dimension of being through forms of sacred somatics. The program combines sacred qigong forms with Post-Daoist yoga and meditation, as well as sacred theater and sacred performance.

 

MogaDao Tripartite Practice

The Forms and Practices:

MogaDao Qigong: The Four Yijing Transitional Forms (The Cosmic Soma);

MogaDao Yoga: Classic 5 Realms Yoga, 5 Realms Vinyasa (optional)

MogaDao Meditation: Empty Sky Meditation
 

 

Ethos Program V:
Depth Sexuality and the Erotic Basis of Being

The DEPTH SEXUALITY and EROTIC BASIS OF BEING ETHOS PROGRAM is an in-depth exploration of the broad concept of eros, covering a widest range of considerations such as: queer studies, ageing and sexuality, sociopolitical sexual politics, gender and sexual expression, sexual depth psychology, and sensual self-sovereignty and sexual energy cultivation as a form of self-empowerment and social activism.

​

MogaDao Tripartite Practice

The Forms and Practices
MogaDao Qigong: The Eros Bridge Form; The Epicene Form;

MogaDao Yoga: Erotogenic Yoga

MogaDao Meditation: Jing Retrieval

 

The MogaDao Institute, Santa Fe, NM

​

The MogaDao Institute, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the main location for training in the MogaDao practices, and for immersive study in the Ethos Programs.. Additionally, certified MogaDao teachers conduct classes and workshops in various locations around the United States, and online. Please see the Teachers page on this website for more information.

​

Taking Classes at the MogaDao Institute

​

Classes at the MogaDao Institute cover many of the techne, or practices of MogaDao, and are taught by senior MogaDao teachers. (MogaDao Ethos Program Immersions are taught by Zhen Dao)j. Beginners are always welcome at the MogaDao Institute. Every class has a felicitous mixture of new and seasoned students. The MI's classes are for those who are seeking personal and cultural healing, the expansion of consciousness through somatic awareness, and fitness training and camaraderie in an inclusive, sacred practice community. The atmosphere of all classes is welcoming and magnanimous.

​

​

Certification to Become a MogaDao Teacher

​

As of latter 2020, participation in the Ethos Program Immersions of one's interest, and the MogaDao Mentorship Program, with Zhen Dao or other MogaDao Mentors, is the path to certification to be a teacher of MogaDao. More details will be forthcoming as the Ethos Program Immersion schedule is established for latter 2020 and 2021. Current aspiring teachers are studying at the GUAN, or the three-month intensive comprehensive of the entire MogaDao tradition. The GUAN is currently in its second semester, and naturally closed to any new enrollment.

 

MogaDao’s teacher certification program is decidedly non-consumerist: no student can “buy” a MogaDao teacher certification simply by enrolling in the GUAN or, in the future, simply participating in an Ethos Program Immersion and training in the MogaDao Mentorship Program. One must additionally unequivocally demonstrate the knowledge of their program of study and the qualities of a teacher that will enable them to impart the work of MogaDao in their unique way. Indeed, the experience of testing in the MogaDao tradition is the most educational event of a student's training, and is seen as the beginning rather than an end of one's conscious development and practice.