Livia Kohn

Livia Kohn is professor emerita of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University. She has written and edited twenty-odd books on different aspects of Daoism and has taught it for over 20 years. She is also a practitioner of Taiji quan, Qigong, Yoga, hypnosis, and meditation. She will present the historical context of women in Daoism, sharing knowledge of the transformational practices women have used to cultivate themselves for thousands of years.

One of our regular contributors, Amara Charles, will present the Daoist feminine methods of healing and restoring your spiritual sexual energy.

Amara explains, “Each day we will share meditation, qigong, exercise and teachings in honor of the Mysterious Female. Plus, we will share in the preparation and consumption of Daoist-inspired meals and tea, take walks and enjoying each others’ company. Both Livia and I are big fans of living what you teach. We want you to return home inspired to make these teachings come alive as an integral part of your daily life from this point on.”

Click for a pdf flyer with registration details.

Amara Charles

Director of Nourishing Arts, a Phoenix, AZ learning center, Amara publishes a journal of her thoughts and observations and describes how she first met Olivia Kohn, in the lead in to her story on the Transformational Teachings for Women, a 7-Day Retreat.

“Here is the moment I knew I liked her a lot,” says Amara in her description of Professor Livia Kohn. “She had tenure at Boston University and gave it up – walked away! I asked her why, and she said she couldn’t go on teaching what she already had been teaching – she wanted to broaden her understanding and teach a variety of subjects rather than the same course again and again. A woman after my own heart…”

Watch for an upcoming revue of Livia Kohn’s latest book and more from Amara…

SAN DIEGO, CA – On December 4, San Diego women will have a unique opportunity to learn a whole new way to gather and nourish their feminine body, mind and spirit. Amara Charles, a renowned spiritual sexuality instructor, author and poet will provide an introduction to the Taoist practices and exercises that women have used for hundreds of years to restore their spiritual, energetic and sexual chi.

“There are many paths one can take to evolve spiritually and I realized that using sexual energy with understanding and discipline can open one’s heart into a more compassionate way of living,” explains Amara. “Jade Maiden reflects my passion for the teachings of female Taoists who have inspired methods for achieving health, tranquility, and longevity by their example. Jade Moon is feminine alchemy, focused on timeless theories and practices of internal restoration and spiritual refinement for women.”

Amara Charles will be accompanied by Shyena Venice in presenting a one-evening, introductory workshop on the Jade Maiden teachings from 6:30 – 9 pm at a private residence in the Carlsbad area of San Diego.

“Jade Maiden has gifted me my juicy femininity. The teachings unlocked fears that have held me back from living my life as a woman, a mother, and a lover,” says Helen Heatly, a New Zealand participant. “Jade Maiden gave me the tools I need to maintain my youth, beauty and vibrancy and they are shared in the most moving way.”

The cost for the December 4 Jade Maiden Introductory Workshop in San Diego is $20 before December 1 and $35 per person thereafter.

Space is limited, so interested individuals are encouraged to ask questions or arrange an alternative means of registering by phone at 760-729-1102 or by e-mailing amara@NourishingArts.com.

Nourishing Arts, has scheduled its first Los Angeles event, a two-day Jade Maiden Workshop, scheduled for December 6 – 7, 2008, designed to restore and cultivate sexual vitality. It will be a nourishing weekend of learning, sharing and adventure in a luxurious place full of laughter, warmth and great women.

Amara and Shyena

INSTRUCTORS:
Amara Charles
Delivering workshops and presentations throughout the United States, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Amara provocatively inspires men and women to cultivate passionate, authentic lives. She is a co-founder of Nourishing Arts, a learning center in Phoenix Arizona providing training that enables people to experience the beauty of spiritual sexuality. Amara is trained in both the Taoist White Tigress and Quodoushka traditions and has been practicing and teaching since 1987. Amara has been featured as a special guest on HBO Real Sex, BBC and ABC Radio shows. She is the author of Sexual Agreements: A Guide for Reawakening Sexual Passion, Aching to Open and Erotic Touch for Two. She currently lives in Phoenix, AZ.

Shyena Venice
Trained in the Taoist White Tigress tradition and co-founder of Nourishing Arts, Shyena specializes in devotional music and has performed worldwide for over 15 years. Teaching people how to connect with their inner rhythms, she teaches throughout the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Shyena is a master masseuse with over 25 years experience and is an international entrepreneur for natural women’s products. She is also a studio and performing artist as well as a healer. Shyena playfully offers her inspirational gifts in devotion to spirit.

This article focuses on the female aspects of Taoist Spiritual Sexuality. There are equally profound teachings for men as well, which I will be presenting future articles.

“If you cannot face directly into your sexuality, You will never discover your true spirituality.” – White Tigress Manual

While western scientists and drug companies seek to unlock the mysteries of female desire, the sexual teachings of the White Tigress are quietly revolutionizing women’s views on sexuality around the world. Propagated in secrecy through small clusters of female Taoists, a rare lineage from ancient China has preserved the secrets of female desire for thousands of years. Known as White Tigresses, these women long ago knew that a woman’s sexual passion is directly connected to her health and spiritual well-being.

After practicing these teachings for many years, I have come to discover a few things about sex… it’s one of the three best things in life, and I can’t remember the other two. I have come to understand we need sex at least as much as food and that if we don’t enjoy enough intimate sexual touch we age rapidly. Tigresses understood that if a woman gives up on expressing her sexual passion, it’s a sure ticket for rapid aging. Interestingly, medical science is confirming the many health benefits of sex (for both men and women). The Hebrew University performed studies on semen and found it contained high levels of micro-nutrients and proteins that are par excellence for the skin. Studies also showed increased frequency of performing oral sex creates a greater production of saliva, and the micro-nutrients in saliva have been proven to break down fat cells. Yes, this means you can lose weight performing oral sex, but more on this later.

The Basis of White Tigress Philosophy

While this article focuses on their sexual practices, in truth these were only part of White Tigresses did. Were they wanton women who practiced indiscriminate random sexual acts?
Hardly! They were highly disciplined and selective in their sexuality and extremely conscious of their safety and health. Unlike many spiritual traditions, Tigresses viewed the expression of passion as central to a woman’s well being. Taoist in nature, their goals were simple: to live a long, happy and healthy life, which for them meant “being youthful in old age”

As rare and powerful as white tigers in the wild, White Tigresses are renown for their compassion and feminine gracefulness. Their origins can be traced to the long lineages of courtesans, Tantrikas, and Geishsa of Eastern cultures that flourished for centuries in part by honoring the cultivation of feminine intelligence, beauty and power. The unique aspect of the White Tigress is their claim that women have their own process for acquiring the physical and spiritual goals of Taoism, namely restoring youthfulness and ultimately achieving immortality. Tigresses viewed their sexuality and spirituality as one and the same, and they discovered how to use it to stay remarkably healthy and young.

Replenishing her yin forces with yang

The theory they maintain is that since males are yang by nature – outward and active – and females are yin by nature – passive and inward – both can achieve optimum health by replenishing themselves with their opposite energy. Although not an exact translation, in our current language it would sound something like this: Women have both “yin” hormones called estrogen and “yang” hormones called testosterone. When testosterone levels drop in women we lose our libido, we age and the theory goes that if we add more testosterone (yang) we can restore our sexual desire. A Tigress sought to replenish and balance these hormones naturally by connecting with male energy.

According to Tigresses, the secret for men to stay young is to cultivate tranquility (yin) and avoid dissipating too much semen, whereas women should cultivate more focused (yang) activity. Tigresses maintain that women become youthful by expressing their sexual passion intensely and frequently. Who ever thought the secret to staying young was to enjoy passionate sex? (Actually, many women are finding this out for themselves!)

Harnessing the Power of the Jade Maiden

Tigresses consider the time when a young girl’s body is ripening into its first potent flair of
sexual energy, a most valuable period of a young girl’s life. During this phase, she is called the Jade Maiden, for her initial curiosities and sexual feelings are just emerging through the changes in her body and spirit. The infusion of new hormones causes her hair to shine, her eyes to shimmer and her skin to be fresh and rosy. Everything about a young maiden radiantly glows and her internal organs are robust and healthy. And of course, she starts to look at the opposite sex in a new way. The initial curiosity, enthusiasm and excitement for male energy is what she seeks to recreate in herself. It is this youthful period of optimum physical and spiritual health, the condition of the Jade Maiden, which female Taoists, and in particular White Tigresses, knew how to reclaim in women of any age.

Of course not everything about puberty was that great and few would want to relive the confusion and anxiety we felt growing up as teenage girls. For most of us it was like cracking through an eggshell we wouldn’t want to be trapped inside of again. No one explained the changes in our bodies or emotions, and most of us had to figure out what to do with these intense surges on our own. Unfortunately, this pre-pubescent push–pull confusion between feeling sexual, wanting sex, and not wanting it sets the stage for our adult sex lives.

Yet, some things were great about being a girl, and Tigresses sought to help women reclaim the power of those initial curiosities. Think about how exciting our first thoughts of dating were – how we looked forward to seeing some boy, how thrilling it was to have our (often clandestine) first kiss.

Tigresses viewed these early states of mind as a source of powerful energy that any woman can bring back into her sex life. One of the ways they restored the energy of the Jade Maiden included light exhibitionism. They helped women appreciate men’s attention, and taught them ways to be more playful and light-hearted around men. They knew the more youthful our minds became, the more youthful our bodies would remain. By deliberately recreating the playful and positive aspects of puberty (with greater wisdom and safety than we had as girls!), Tigresses sought to fully embrace their femininity rather than discard it.

Restoration and Sexual Practices

Tigresses were also probably as “health conscious” as many of us are today – they ate few grains and carbohydrates, with small amounts of fish and meat, took specific Chinese herbal formulas to increase libido and regulate their menstrual flow, practiced Healing Tigress, Tai Chi and Qigong exercises. They also maintained certain sexual disciplines.

White Tigresses engage in two primary oral practices to revitalize their yin and yang energies. In the first, Congealing the Dragon’s Jade, she makes use of male semen to restore her skin and hair. In the second practice, she focuses on enjoying male sexual energy, referred to as Absorbing the Dragon’s Breath. Absorption is the ability to induce and receive the energy of the male orgasm into herself, whereby she strengthens her own, as well as her partner’s energies. Tigresses viewed oral sex as far more than mere foreplay and it was considered the most important part of her early training. Not only did it help preserve her physical beauty, it could lead to transcendent states of spiritual illumination.

These, and other transformational sexual practices that were meant to be healing for both men and women, have long been held secret and were highly controversial in nearly every society. In China, where the preservation of the male lineage has dominated religious and political laws for centuries, little importance was given to women maintaining their youth or health. Along with many spiritual teachers, White Tigresses were imprisoned and even murdered in China for their views. Those that survived went underground, continuing to practice in secret, hoping the ancient lineage of feminine spiritual practices would be carried into the future. These teachings are also foreign to Western sensibilities where generations of religious philosophy regarded anything of the flesh as sinful. Yet as many are beginning to explore, there is more to sex than getting our needs met. A growing number are seeking ways to express their sexual passion with greater spiritual intention.

Even today, White Tigresses are quite rare and while their traditions are being adapted to suit our culture, their practices have survived due to the courage of a long lineage of dedicated women and men that still exist in secluded places. For the most part the methods of restoring youthfulness and creating the conditions for immortality have been handed down from teacher to student, often from sister to sister. Though many female Taoists and Tigresses remain reclusive, as it is their nature to disappear like mist in the mountains, their teachings and their beauty quietly echo through the valleys.

Amara Hsien Ku
Tigress of the Jade Moon

Amara is presenting The Jade Maiden Workshop, Dec 6 -7, 2008 in Los Angeles with Shyena Hsien Shen and Fay McGrew. It is a 2-Day Woman’s Retreat celebrating Feminine Vitality, and clearing up confusions around men. Presenting workshops, private sessions and trainings throughout the world since 1989, Amara is the founder of Nourishing Arts, a spiritual sexuality center dedicated to the preservation and continuance of the Taoist Sexual Arts. She is the first White Tigress initiated on Western soil.

More at: www.nourishingarts.com

There is a secret to gathering Yin Essence.

What is Yin Essence? While it’s invisible, illusive and impossible to contrive, everyone has felt it. It lives in the smile of a young child, it breathes when you lie back to absorb the blue sky. It happens when you laugh, it appears when you weep, you see it flash in people’s eyes.

Without the mysterious activity, of yin essence, life is inexplicably dreary. You could say it’s an unknown force that can pull you out of bed no matter how bad it seems.

Is it Real? Does it really exist?

What matters is that it seems to exist. It is far better to imagine there is some sort of nourishing essence (let’s call it Yin Nectar for a moment) sustaining you. Why? Watch what you attract when you forget to smile, drink a little yin nectar, make love, laugh, hug someone or purely give. Every time you do one of these things, you get an infusion; a whiff of yin essence to lift your spirit, even if you’ve never heard of it. Notice how deflated your spirit becomes chasing thoughts of doom. Here’s a great description from ‘Anna’s Book,’ one of my favorite collections of stories told by a young girl who was rescued from the London slums by her friend Fynn.

Fin say if you live in a house and you let the window get sploshed and dirty and if you look out of the window it look like the world is dirty bit it is not. If you look inside it look dirty too but it is not dirty because the window is dirty.

Fin say all of the people have two windows. First people have got eye window and then a hart window. The eye window is to look out and the hart window is to see inside to see you. Fin say wen you cry it is for to wash the window so you can see better.

One day I ask Fin for som sweet and Fin say no and I was sad and I cry some ters and I cry som ters to wash my eye window because my eye window was all dirty, dirty greedy for sweets. And Fin did not say nothing and Fin piket me up and put me to a luking glas to see my face reflechun and it was al funy like rain on a hous window. And I could not see proper and then I stop the cry and see Fin face reflechun and it was al smilig. And so I smile too and then I see my eye sparkling because I can see good. And then I see that Fin say no, becas he have got no mony, because he give it all to Missis Barkr to buy som penuts to sell to get som mony to buy som food and I did not see good because I have got dirty eye window and it was all sploshy with greedy dirty.”

Seeing Through Sploshy Windows

Annal saw it well. You see, the reason our innocent yin energy slips away is because we have sploshy windows and we can’t see the truth. We get greedy dirty eye windows, one looking inside us, the other looking out, and as Anna says, we can’t see right. The good news is, it is not the truth, it’s only a dirty window.

We forget this a thousand times a day. Perhaps it’s the reason why in Buddhist, Taoist and other religious traditions, prayers, mantras or scriptures are spoken daily, sometimes several times a day. It is incredibly easy to forget how to feel innocent, relaxed and open. We need constant reminders to see the truth of our beauty.

Catching The Robber

Our bodies are neither beautiful or ugly, sex is not dirty or clean, difficult or easy to get; yet how often do we let these kinds of thoughts and judgments interfere with beautiful moments we could share with someone? How often are we putting our selves and others down, pouting for what we want, while really looking through dirty windows? In other words, how much are we making up?

We are especially prone to these kinds of false thoughts, especially about our bodies. I recently lost twenty pounds. I have to say, sex was good when I had the extra twenty, but it was just as good after they were gone, no two ways about it. Actually, in terms of how fabulous I felt, there was no difference at all. Somehow though, we get to thinking that if we could just change something about our body, we would feel more beautiful. I assure you, however, the beauty of Yin essence is not measured in pounds.

Turning Weakness Into Strength

This being said, if you would like to change something changeable in your body, it is your Yin essence that is going to give you the will to do it. It is true that many women feel better and sexier when they are lighter. There’s no question, gliding across a room, catching a few guys sneaking a peek, is a lot more fun than lumbering around, covering up what we can. It’s just that, if you lose your yummy yin on the way, what’s the point? The truth is, you are going to need the unlimited power of your yummy yin to make whatever changes you want. And in the end, you are going to see that it’s your Yin Essence that does all the attracting anyway.

Remember, Yin is the persevering, resilient, persistent part of our nature – not the nagging, complaining part that can’t stand the way we look.

While we often let the inner nag reign free by endlessly comparing, and cutting ourselves down, it is actually our open and relaxed yummy yin essence that can become much stronger… if only you will allow it.

While it’s true I generally feel lighter now, after losing a lot of weight, I realized most other people were not thinking about me the way I saw myself, and if they did, what on earth were the thoughts I think they were thinking doing in my head? The truth is, we think people are thinking about us a lot more than they actually are. The reality is, they are likely thinking about themselves, just like you are.

Things like losing weight, or any of the achievements we’d like to accomplish, are only important, or lasting, if some other changes go with them. Namely, watch out for the false thoughts, the dirty windows looking in and all the things you make up that people think about you.

We cry about things like Anna, waste tons of energy thinking about what we think we can’t have, what we no longer look like, or what we think we will lose. Eventually, we find that the things we convince ourselves into believing, are not even real and have nothing to do with the genuine story.

Amara Charles is the founder of Nourishing Arts, a healing center providing training courses in the spiritual sexual arts. Author of Sexual Agreements, Aching to Open and Erotic Touch for Two, Amara has been teaching spiritual sexuality workshops throughout the US, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand since 1987. Her programs include Taoist White Tigress, Shamanic Quodoushka Sexuality and the Yin Yang of Sexual Restoration. She also hosts Men’s Sex Forums promoting better, healthier sex. She has been a special guest on BBC and ABC Radio shows and a guest lecturer at Arizona State University. She writes articles on sexuality for a variety of publications.

Offering Retreats and Private Sexuality Training for Women, Men and Couples

Amara is presenting The Jade Maiden Workshop, Dec 6 -7, 2008 in Los Angeles with Shyena Hsien Shen and Fay McGrew. It is a 2-Day Woman’s Retreat celebrating Feminine Vitality, and clearing up confusions around men. Presenting workshops, private sessions and trainings throughout the world since 1989, Amara is the founder of Nourishing Arts, a spiritual sexuality center dedicated to the preservation and continuance of the Taoist Sexual Arts. She is the first White Tigress initiated on Western soil.

Contact:

Nourishing Arts

3741 East Shangri La Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85028
amara@nourishingarts.com
602.765.9551