In 1973 a discovery was made in China which was as important to Eastern culture as the Dead Sea Scrolls were to the West. A furnished tomb of a Han-Dynasty aristocrat was uncovered. This tomb, the Mawangdui, contained many riches, among which were ancient silk scrolls of Taoist texts. These texts were original manuscripts of the three schools of Taoism which thrived at the beginning of the Han Dynasty in 2nd Century BC. These philosophies were known as the Lao-Tzu, the Chuang-Tzu, and the Huang-Lao. Many texts of Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu survived this period and are well known today. The Huang Lao teachings, however, had been lost for more than 2,000 years. This Huang Lao philosophy was extremely popular and influential in the courts of the Chinese rulers during the end of the warring states period and the beginning of the Han dynasty.
The rulers of this time believed that it was necessary for them to know how to align themselves with the forces of nature in order to be successful and ensure the survival of  their people. The warring states period in China was one of great chaos and bloodshed, and the individual spiritual development of the ruler was considered essential.
Eventually, with the rise of King Wen as ruler in the Han Dynasty, the Taoist teachings at court were replaced by Confucianism with its emphasis on social conduct as the form of government for China. The Taoist manuscripts of the court fell into disuse among the rulers and filtered down to the elite—such as the Mawangdui aristocrat whose tomb was recently discovered. This allowed the teachings to become more accessible to the people and, although the manuscripts stayed mostly with the elite, the teachings eventually made their way down to the common people. They became more religious in nature and were used as a means of spiritual cultivation.
It’s a long way from China in 2nd century BC to the United States in the 1980s. Most of the teachings of Huang Lao Taoism were handed down through word of mouth from generation to generation from province to province. The people created temples in which to practice their religion and deified Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, and Huang Lao. Whether they were real persons or not is better left to scholarly debate, but the influence of Taoist teachings is widespread and takes many forms. These teachings of Huang Lao Taoism are as they came to me in the modern world of the United States.
    

The teachings of Huang Lao Taoism came to me through the channeling of this entity known as Wong Loh Sin See (Cantonese pronunciation). The temples of Wong Loh Sin See spread from southern China into Thailand and Malaysia along with the migration of the Chinese into these areas. The old ways of passing on the teachings through channeling is still practiced today, and in Asia is a very common and accepted form of teaching. The leader of each Temple has the trained ability to put himself into a trance, allowing the spirit of Wong Loh Sin See to take over his body in order to teach people of today. He serves the same purpose as our ministers or priests in the West. This channeling is viewed with fascination and skepticism in the West, but no matter, it’s the teaching that counts, which is why those of us here in the States who follow this tradition simply call Wong Loh Sin See the Teacher. Sometimes we have to put our Western skepticism aside and judge for ourselves whether the message resonates as truth within us. Then we know that no matter the messenger, the message is helpful to us.
    

The message of Wong Loh Sin See is quite simple and yet, at the same time, encompasses a vast body of knowledge. We are not taught to choose a spiritual life over a material life. We are not encouraged to renounce this world in favor of some future unknown possibility. We are taught to look at ourselves; to delve deep within our hearts and discover our own divine nature. This discovery is a journey. It doesn’t happen all at once. Along the way we notice how we are operating in the world; the habits we’ve developed which cause pain to ourselves as well as hurt those we love. We come to realize that what we see with our eyes can be superficial, but that what we perceive with our hearts is real. We want to know what is real, therefore we develop the qualities of an open heart. We learn to meditate in order to feel who we really are and to become sensitive to our own energy. As we develop this subtle awareness of our energy we come into contact with our inner Self, that spirit, or soul, which resides within. We learn to just be, not controlling or forcing anything to happen. We are learning to really open ourselves up spiritually by diving deep into meditation, surrendering to our own energy and accepting what is there. We acknowledge its great, vast power for good. We come to surrender our ego to this higher inner Self and begin to trust it to guide us.
So this path is twofold. We learn to meditate and awaken our inner Self, and then to go back into life and endeavor to be a good person. We are given lots of encouragement and understanding of what it is to be a good person, of how important it is to our spiritual cultivation. The goal is to become able to integrate our spiritual life with the everyday mundane world in which we live. Everything in life is a lesson. Joy and sorrow can both be challenging. It takes courage to commit to a life of spiritual cultivation and growth, but isn’t it, after all, why we are here?
Today, in America, Wong Loh Sin See is affectionately called Teacher. He is often asked about his origins and usually replies that it is not him we should be curious about, but ourselves. This is the purpose of all spiritual cultivation—to know and understand ourselves, to know that we have an inner Self which is here for a reason, to know that we are spirit, that we are here to grow that spirit and to become the best human being we can be.
The lofty principles which were studied by the ancient rulers of China remain the same for us: practice spiritual cultivation, learn to align the energies of the Self with the energies of Tao and flow with nature. This will allow for simplicity and naturalness in our actions. We will become able to open our heart, be unafraid, full of faith and trust, living simply and helping our fellow beings to do the same. The practice develops intuition and healing abilities because, through learning to surrender our ego to the divine energy of the universe and functioning from an open heart, we have access to our spiritual nature which is part of everything. Our feet must be anchored in the earth to be grounded and have a centered mind. Our heart must be anchored in heaven to know the spirit in things. When we do the work of humanity with a grounded, centered mind and an open spiritual heart, we are in the right place and life will be a blessing.

I sit next to my husband on the floor of my new friend’s living room. All furniture has been removed and I look around at 20 people sitting quietly on cushions facing the fireplace. We are looking at a small table with a teacup and a string of beads on it, next to a simple folded blanket. We wait for this Teacher we had heard so much about. Eventually a rather handsome Chinese man walks in and quietly sits down. He is introduced as Leong Tan and he channels the ancient sage Wong Loh Sin See. He says a few words of greeting, turns around and in a moment we feel a ripple of energy enter the room like the electricity in the air before a storm. He looks around the room, says a few words here and there. Then he looks at me and asks, “Why are you so sad?” I was married with 2 small children and the happiest I had ever been in my life. So why, when he said those words, did I feel all the sadness locked away in my heart come flooding up into my awareness? I had embarked on my journey of self discover with my Teacher.
The years brought many changes and challenges. My husband died of cancer a year after this first meeting with the Teacher—a pain from which I thought I would never recover. I did though eventually, and also eventually, I had the opportunity to travel with Leong and the Teacher across the country to workshops and retreats. I was very fortunate to have had 10 years of close personal training with Wong Loh Sin See. I will always be extremely grateful for this blessing. This book is not about me though. It is about the gems of wisdom spoken by Wong Loh Sin See. I am not a copious note taker. I prefer to allow what I need to learn just seep in as it will. I do, however, have a fondness for one-liners. Patience has never been my strong suit. My impatience needs to get to the point.
Whenever I heard the point in a succinct line or two, I jotted it down in a book I carried with me.
I would like to share the teachings of Wong Loh Sin See with you through these quotes—these “compressed files.” The commentaries that follow are my attempts to decompress these files, to open my heart and see what wisdom has seeped in which I can share.