Unconditional Healing with Jeff Rubin
Can a person embrace immense adversity in their life to not only cope, but to thrive and discover their most authentic self?
As a teacher of Buddhist meditation and psychology for four decades, and someone "blessed" with a chronic illness for two of those decades, Jeff Rubin has been obsessed with answering this question. This obsession led him to develop a program called Unconditional Healing, a new model of health that has helped countless people transform their relationship to pain, adversity, and illness, and unlock their own storehouse of confidence and resilience.
In this podcast, Jeff explores the principles of Unconditional Healing with talks, healing practices, and interviews with those who have discovered how to thrive in the face of adversity. He also features guests who are experts or thought leaders in a particular aspect of health and well-being. If you are dealing with an acute or chronic illness, the loss of a loved one or your livelihood, the dissolution of a relationship, or any other adverse circumstance that has you feeling anxious and confused, then this podcast is definitely for you. Especially if you’re looking for a more nuanced, more spiritual way to work with life's inevitable difficulties.
Please note the podcast is currently on hiatus, but all episodes remain available on all the major podcast platforms.
Unconditional Healing with Jeff Rubin
Interview with Chungliang Al Huang: Tai Ji Master Extraordinaire
Chungliang Al Huang is a human dynamo and just listening to him raises one’s spirits about what is possible. He is one of the most skilled masters of Tai Ji in the world but has also made his influence known in many other disciplines throughout his life.
He was born and grew up in Shanghai in the 1930s and his family moved to Taiwan early on and he was trained in many of the classic disciplines. Longing to move to the West, he came here in the roaring ’60s ostensibly to study Architecture and Choreography. But soon after, he befriended Alan Watts and became a part of the Human Potential Movement, then sweeping the country’s young spiritual seekers, as a teacher of Tai Ji.
Chungliang was at the right place at the right time and collaborated with many of that era’s luminaries, including Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, Gregory Bateson, and John Blofeld, who was an early mentor. But he is also a gifted dancer and performing artist, much of which is based on his Tai Ji philosophy and practice. He auspiciously danced with Sammy Davis Jr. on tour, performed with martial artist Bruce Lee, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow, the renowned performance space in the Massachusetts Berkshire Mountains.
Chungliang has also written and collaborated on over a dozen books including his treatise on Tai Ji, Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain: The Essence of Taiji that has been translated into 14 languages. Much of Master Huang’s teachings, creations, and collaborations can be found at Livingtao.org, the organization he founded to support his work and philosophy.
Much of our conversation is a free-flowing movement from topic to topic, beginning with his early life and how he rediscovered himself again and again. His energy, humility, and positivity is self-evident throughout, and it was my pleasure to speak with him about his life.
During our conversation, at about the 38:13 mark in the podcast, Master Huang held up to the camera and discussed 3 Chinese characters which represent particular Tai Ji principles. If you’d like to view the video of that portion of the conversation, you can find a link for it here, which links to my Unconditional Healing YouTube channel.