Healthy Wealthy Wise Qigong

About Tyra (Mead) Ferlatte

I am a Daoist at heart, a “jun zi,” one who “orders his/her life in accordance with the Dao rather than willful intention, and uses divination in this spirit.”*

When I was in my mid-40s, I finally came to understand my summer backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada as annual pilgrimages that rejuvenate my Daoist soul. I love the practical, ironic metaphor (since Daoism is all about “the way”) of spending a week or two with a singular concentration on following the path that runs out ahead of me, through meadows and forests, across rivers and streams, over rocky, windy, high mountain passes. A summit is reached, and then -- more trail ahead.

I began studying Emei Qigong, which draws on both Daoist and Buddhist thought, in 2000, and have been practicing its methods for self-healing and helping others heal ever since. I received a disciple empowerment from Grandmaster Fu in 2001. I’ve had a daily practice for nearly as long as I’ve been studying Emei.

As each sequential level of training has become available, I’ve been in the first group of students to attend. This gave me the opportunity to take the first month-long Level 4 teacher-training seminar, which was held at Emei Mountain in China’s Sichuan province. Before class started, I was able to make a three-day solo pilgrimage on the sacred mountain where the Emei practice was born. Those three days had many funny moments -- what with the monkeys, the jet lag, and me not speaking any Chinese -- and many, many more magical, transformative ones.

I was one of the first of Grandmaster Fu’s senior students to be certified to teach the Emei Qigong Level 1 seminar and am now also authorized to teach Levels 2 and 3. In 2009, I was honored to be granted recognition as an Emei Qigong master by Grandmaster Fu.

My interest in Eastern thought dates back to my early teenage years: I was introduced to Lao Tzu and yoga when I was 13. I practiced Transcendental Meditation in my late teens and 20s, and later, starting in my mid-30s, had a regular Vispassana practice. I have consulted the Yi Jing (I Ching) daily for more than eight years as part of my practice of cleansing the heart.  

I am also a professional editor and writer, and am the current editor of the English-language Emei books (and ghostwrote the Level 3 textbook). My 24-year newspaper career included working at the San Francisco Chronicle, the International Herald Tribune in Paris, and the Los Angeles Times. I currently am a communications manager for a large health-care organization.

* “The Original I Ching Oracle: The pure and complete texts with concordance,” by Rudolf Ritsema and Shantena Augusto Sabbadini.