21/07/2026
Does one need a teacher if you want to study Neidan or East Asian Medicine?
Recently on one of my previous posts I received a question whether one needs a teacher if one wants to learn Inner Alchemy or East Asian Medicine. And whether one can gain results by pursuing these paths. Of course these are very general and broad questions but here is some attempt to reply honestly.
This was actually a question which was raised by sharing a post of a book translated by my teacher , the late Charles Chace , a translation and commentary on Li Shizhen’s Qi Jing Ba Mai Kao, Exposition on the Extra Ordinary Vessels. A very deep work interlinking acupuncture, herbal medicine with Internal Alchemy. If I only had read the book, never would have had the experience of someone actually explaining to me and bring it also in a dimension with palpable references, I would never had come to be able to use it clinically useful.
For example there are ways we can feel the Ba Mai, via palpation techniques, from pulse to hara diagnosis, to even more advanced ways of feeling them via their morphology embedded in the fluids. These things you can only learn to feel if you are exposed to these techniques, this is certainly not something one can get just out of a book, even though we have a book published on these skills. I have trained intensively with Chip (Charles Chace) and Dan Bensky , and many of the things I do now I only can do since I have been exposed to it, and repeatedly being exposed.
Many people think nowadays, if they take one class , and have a certificate, they know it, but acquiring skill in whatever we do comes only with persistent effort. And of course when the skill is acquired it will be effortless action (wu wei)
This is just one example that you need to be pointed out, or how to use a needle (and the many ways to use needles) , and all the many other subtleties which make East Asian Medicine so individual and effective. Especially techniques of palpation and observations need to be taught.
If you want to practice Neidan, or any other serious Internal Cultivation system like Vajrayana, Chan or whatever, you need a qualified teacher. These practices have risks , and you need to be able to have an individual training, since the processes are very individual. I am not into Gurus, but one needs a qualified teacher.
Same for East Asian Medicine, you need to be trained by qualified teachers. It’s not something you can just learn from a book, however important it is to do literature study as well.
Medicine and Internal Cultivation can be effective, but you need at least someone, at the best different teachers. At some point you can transcend those maybe, but I practice for over 40 years and still visit my teachers.
When it comes to qualified teachers in the the field of Neidan in the West, without wanting to be judgemental, I have to say there are only very few. Either you end up with Qi Gong folks, and nothing wrong with Qi Gong, or Neigong but that’s not Neidan .
There are some serious people in the field of religious Daoism, if you look for that you can think about Josh Paynter and Jack Schaefer, they are serious and well trained people, but they teach Neidan in a Daoist religious framework.
Robert C***s , who is my teacher and his teacher Hai Yang are from a more secular approach, rooted in the tradition of the great Neidan reformer Chen Yingning. So that’s my own background. If you live in the Western Hemisphere, it’s worth to check Robert out. He runs online courses, and I regularly share his posts on his teachings.
I myself teach Neidan in a serious way, but only till a certain level, and I don’t claim to be a master or whatever. I just practice it seriously and have studied its literature and had the luck to be able to study with some serious teachers.
If you are interested in Vajrayana Buddhism there is a lot out there, but I would chose a Tibetan teacher who is established. My own main teacher is HH Sakya Trizin , head of the Sakyapa order, but I have studied Tibetan Buddhism with teachers from all schools, next to Chan/Zen. I was happy to have studied with the old guard.
In the field of medicine too, I have been lucky to be exposed to a wide array of Western, Chinese and Japanese teachers . I had and have the luck to have been able to study with some good teachers, who themselves have delved deeply in East Asian Medicine.
But be careful with folks who claim to be in a certain lineage and claim they only understand East Asian Medicine, or their way of medicine is the best.
I have seen many things, and I would advise you to be careful to choose a teacher.
I would recommend to study at a serious school, if you happen to live in the USA, I would recommend Seattle Institute for Oriental Medicine , founded by Dan Bensky and having an array of very sound teachers.
Here in Europe there are also good schools like ABZ in Germany, or Qing Bai or TCMA in Holland. At least these schools are a good starting point and my advice would be to continue deeper study afterwards. We offer here in Europe and USA a post graduate program which is called Engaging Vitality, which focuses strongly on palpation. But there are enough other post graduate tracks offered by others as well, think about Jason Roberson and Wang Juyi’s approach to acupuncture or Japanese acupuncture programs or Volker Scheid’s Meta Practice programs.
And of course if you have access to Asian languages like Chinese and or Japanese , you can learn still a lot in Japan , Taiwan or China if you know the way. Official TCM education at Chinese universities is maybe limited, but if you find the right teachers and can spend a lot of time in Asia, you can still learn a lot over there too.
Also it is good to expose yourself to different approaches to East Asian Medicine. I studied TCM, Japanese Acupuncture and other approaches rooted in the historical medical traditions of East Asia, it helped me to gain different perspectives and not becoming dogmatic. You have to become multilingual in medicine (a concept promoted by Volker Scheid), being able to bridge and use different approaches to East Asian Medicine, if you have room you can integrate that with your biomedical understanding and experience and insights from other medical traditions.
Learning medicine or Internal cultivation never stops, it’s a life long journey, even though I practice over 40 years , I still consider myself a student.
When it comes to Neidan, you really need a teacher who is able to explain the Neidan texts (same for other Inner cultivation traditions like Vajrayana or Chan) . The Neidan texts for example are all written in code language , even though by now we have some good translations, you still need people who have meditative experience and insight in Neidan literature , know the history, to be able to point stuff out. Also things will change during your progress and these are individual paths, so you need someone who is able to understand where you are and be able to give you a tailored advice.
Just to give a simple example, even when you set out on practicing Neidan, you need to take in account your personal situation, your background, previous experiences etc. Depending age, constitution etc, you might start out differently, more or less focus on specific areas in the body, maybe more intention or in other case much better to have a soft attention instead of intention (yi) . So you really need guidance from someone who is experienced in this field.
When it comes to results, in terms of medicine , if you are well trained you can have great clinical results, I treat many different diseases, I won’t claim it always works , but often still better than the allopathic care.
In meditation, I can only speak for myself, I am not enlightened after more than 40 years of practice, at the most a more calm and peaceful mind, vitality and health. But it helped me a lot in many aspects of my life.
I don’t buy claims of immortality, or all the wonder stories, but Neidan or Vajrayana or Chan or any serious system can help you develop yourself spiritually, at least we can grow to be more human.
So for both the paths, either Medicine or Internal Alchemy, one needs perseverance, the right motivation (we should not do this just for personal gain, or think we get better , the goal ultimately is to become a more matured and helpful human being), we need genuine teachers, who teach out of compassion and not just for financial gain or ego games.
We should understand it’s embarking on a long life journey. And as the great Neidan practitioner of the Middle School , Huang Yuanji said, even if you don’t reach the top of the mountain but remain still on the Path you are in the Dao.
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