TNZ – 127 – Maui Neutral Zone : Jason Schwartz with T J FRANK : Bhaktiatsu.com – TJ Frank : , master teacher and practitioner. Master of the healing arts, Q-Gong, Shiatsu, and Acupuncture combined in his unique way.
Summary And Full Timestamped Transcript Below…
The video begins with a warm welcome from the host, set in beautiful Maui, Hawaii. The guest, TJ Frank, is introduced as a dynamic and well-known figure within the local healing community. TJ’s presence is described as strong, positive, and deeply engaging. When asked to describe himself, TJ shares that he finds it challenging to succinctly define his professional identity because it is a conglomerate of his life experiences.
TJ’s formal education includes a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine and a professional license in acupuncture. His background also spans 14 years in Western medicine, including emergency medicine, laboratory medicine, and neurodiagnostics in hospitals across California and Oregon. After completing his Master’s, he moved to China for postgraduate studies and then spent three years traveling Asia to study with various spiritual teachers and shamans before settling in Maui 13 years ago. Since then, TJ has focused on acupuncture, teaching Chinese medicine at massage schools, and instructing qigong classes.
- [02:11 → 05:05] Holistic Healing Approach and Personal Energy
TJ is described as a masterful, holistic practitioner who integrates many healing modalities into his work. The host notes TJ’s strong masculine yet positive and open energy, which was evident during a men’s group event and other healing sessions.
TJ recounts his personal journey, including a recent automobile accident and how his treatment approach stands out from others. His method is highly integrated, combining his Western medical knowledge with Eastern healing traditions. He emphasizes that his work is rooted in “bhakti,” a form of devotional yoga focused on igniting the heart and opening through love and connection to universal consciousness. This devotional approach, which TJ calls “bakdiyatsu,” is the foundation of his healing practice.
- [05:05 → 10:45] Spiritual Influence and Relationship with Ram Dass
TJ shares a profound spiritual connection with Ram Dass (Baba Ramdas), a revered spiritual teacher. After moving to Maui from India, TJ sought private counsel with Ram Dass in 2008, who guided him on integrating his spiritual and healing practices. TJ volunteered on Ram Dass’s property for nearly 12 years, gaining deep insight and direct experience with Ram Dass’s teachings and community.
This relationship significantly shaped TJ’s approach to healing, emphasizing devotion, heart opening, and universal consciousness as the core elements behind his work. The host and TJ reflect on Ram Dass’s influence on their generation and Maui’s spiritual community.
- [10:45 → 15:05] Detailed Healing Method: Bhakti Shiatsu and Energy Work
TJ explains his healing technique in detail, starting with how he “plugs in” to universal energy through devotion (bhakti), then channels this energy through qigong movements and shiatsu (Japanese finger-pressure therapy). He describes creating a polarity loop with his hands to direct energy along the meridian system in a client’s body, alternating compression and stretching to release blockages.
If physical manipulation is insufficient, TJ uses acupuncture needles to release energy “goo” or blockages, sometimes augmenting this with electrical stimulation. He also employs other methods like cupping and moxibustion (heat therapy) to encourage release without causing pain. TJ emphasizes a gradual approach, bringing clients to their threshold of release rather than forcing it, reflecting his evolution from a more aggressive early practice to a mindful, compassionate one.
- [15:05 → 20:56] Theoretical Foundations: Body as Memory, Meridian Vibrations, and Trauma
TJ articulates his belief, grounded in both Western neuroscience and Chinese medicine, that memories and emotions are held not just in the brain but in the body itself—the “flesh.” He analogizes the body’s meridian system to guitar strings, each vibrating at a particular frequency that corresponds to specific emotions or thought-feelings.
Trauma causes constriction or “holds” in these meridians, locking a person into repetitive emotional patterns such as fear, frustration, or worry. TJ’s job is to identify which “strings” are too tight or loose and to release these energetic blocks, which simultaneously alleviates physical symptoms. He also discusses how physical injuries lodge energy in pre-existing tight meridian pathways, creating pain that reflects emotional holding.
He further explains the spiritual dimension of this process: these blocks pull people away from their soul and spiritual connection. The ultimate goal is to release these holds progressively, culminating in full openness and spiritual unity. TJ views this as a lifetime’s work, ideally culminating in spiritual freedom at the moment of death.
- [20:56 → 27:32] Integration of Western Science and Eastern Mysticism
The host notes how TJ’s background uniquely blends Western medical science with Eastern spirituality and healing. TJ confirms that his undergraduate study in cognitive neuroscience, focused on brain perception, didn’t answer all his questions, leading him to explore Asian mysticism and Chinese medicine.
He reiterates his view that the brain acts as a circuit breaker, while the body holds the memory and emotional information. His approach integrates these perspectives to offer holistic healing that addresses both the physical and subtle energetic systems.
TJ emphasizes the importance of breath, particularly the Hawaiian concept of “Aloha” as “the breath of life,” and how conscious breathing can bring peace and healing even amidst adversity. He links this to yoga concepts such as drishti (focus) and pranayama (breath control), suggesting breath and focused awareness as the foundation for well-being.
- [27:32 → 32:00] Teaching Practice, Online and In-Person
TJ teaches both online and in-person, including qigong classes on Fridays at 8 a.m. Hawaii time, which are freely available on the internet. He has developed recorded courses on bodywork methods like shiatsu and his unique “bhaktiyatsu” technique.
Though TJ enjoys traveling for teaching, he currently prefers to remain in Maui due to family commitments and his connection to the island. He expresses his preference for in-person teaching because of the energetic exchange and community connection that virtual classes lack.
- [32:00 → 34:57] Living in Maui as a Spiritual Crucible
TJ describes Maui as a “spiritual crucible” where the intense light and energy make it difficult for people to hold onto emotional or spiritual blockages. The environment supports rapid spiritual growth or forces people into complacency if they resist change.
He notes that the island’s energy pushes people to confront and release their traumas or attachments. Maui’s energy is nurturing, but also demanding, not allowing “a single stone to sit unturned.” This makes it an ideal place for those with strong spiritual commitment but challenging for those unprepared for the intensity.
- [34:57 → 39:31] Challenges of Living on Maui and Personal Reflections
TJ reflects on the difficulties of living on Maui, including physical distance from family and friends, which can be painful for those with strong attachments. Despite this, he chose Maui because of the alignment with his family’s paths and the fertile environment for his healing work.
The host and TJ discuss the energetic centers of the body, including the three dantians (energy centers in Chinese medicine) and their overlap with the seven chakras. TJ explains how balanced energy centers contribute to overall health and spiritual connection, and how breath and moment-to-moment awareness maintain this balance.
- [39:31 → 44:23] Story, Actor, Drama Concept in Healing
TJ introduces a concept he teaches called “story, actor, and drama,” which categorizes the narratives and emotional dramas clients bring into sessions. He uses the four diagnostic methods of Chinese medicine—looking, listening, asking, and feeling—to decode these patterns.
He emphasizes that trauma and emotional “goo” require energy to hold, and people often unconsciously recruit others to play roles that validate their internal stories and dramas. Being aware of these dynamics allows individuals to choose healthier narratives and cultivate positive emotional states, such as bhakti-centered or heart-based awareness.
The host expresses deep appreciation for TJ’s presence and teachings, acknowledging his significant positive impact. TJ mentions the constant demand for his healing services due to widespread suffering but remains committed to helping as many as possible.
The video concludes with heartfelt thanks from both host and guest, with the hope of future collaborations and sharing of TJ’s wisdom with a broader audience.
Key Insights
- TJ Frank embodies a rare integration of Western medicine, Eastern healing arts, and deep spiritual practice.
- His healing approach centers on devotional connection (bhakti) and the movement of energy through bodywork, acupuncture, and qigong.
- Trauma and emotional holding are understood as energetic blockages in the body’s meridian system, which can be released through targeted energetic and physical interventions.
- Breath and focused awareness are foundational tools for healing, spiritual growth, and well-being.
- Maui’s unique energetic environment profoundly influences both the healer and the healing journey.
- The “story, actor, drama” framework offers a powerful lens for understanding personal narratives and emotional patterns.
- TJ’s teaching and healing work extend globally via in-person and online formats, making his holistic methods accessible worldwide.
Contact and Resources
- Website: bhaktiatsu.com
- YouTube: Search “TJ Frank Chi-Bomb” for free qigong and bodywork videos
- Local Qigong Classes: Fridays at 8 a.m. Hawaii time (online)
- Courses: 20-hour introductory and 50-hour full bodywork courses available online
This detailed summary captures the essence and depth of the conversation, respecting the original structure and timestamps, and provides a comprehensive understanding of TJ Frank’s multifaceted healing practice and philosophy.
[Music] aloha everyone good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever you may be in this world we’re here in maui hawaii and we have a beautiful morning i have a wonderful guest here at the neutral zone you know it’s anything but neutral today i have a gentleman that his name is tj frank and if you were on maui and you were anywhere around the healing community you might say i’ve heard that name you’re like a name and but and then i met this guy i was very surprised when i met
him because i met him at a men’s group out in k and i he was um there and there was something about him that was just very dynamic and as i got to meet him and i was like wow this guy and then someone referred him to me for uh acupuncture and i said wow because i had seen him in this thing you know he was a dynamic guy doing massages for anyone who might want it when we had breaks in our action and uh well i’m talking about you i should talk to tj how are you this morning good morning i’m very well thank you
i i don’t know what that buildup was but it’s just i found you and still find you to be a really interesting and dynamic guy well welcome to the show thank you you know um how would you describe you i mean i just described you as someone who i just felt your presence and i found out you did acupuncture and you didn’t how would you describe you it’s funny you should ask that because i still have a difficulty in describing myself professionally um i’m a conglomerate of all that i’ve experienced
in this lifetime technically legally i have a masters of chinese medicine and a license of acupuncture um in a professional setting historically my background was born and raised in the bay area went to uc davis for pre-med worked in emergency medicine laboratory medicine and neurodiagnostics for 14 years in hospitals in california and oregon well until i made my master’s degree in chinese medicine and then from there i moved to china and did postgraduate studies in nanjing china after that i spent three years
traveling asia studying with different gurus shamans and teachers and ashrams and informal settings before settling in maui 13 years ago and i’ve had my shop set up here since um since being here i’ve worked primarily as a acupuncturist i also teach chinese medicine at the massage schools i teach qigong classes i’m very busy so basically here at the neutral zone we’ve stepped into a pool of gold a master i want to call you a master it’s masterful to be involved in so many things and put
them together that’s how i look at it you know you’re very holistic and you have lots of pieces that come to who you are now when i saw you and met you my first reaction was wow this guy’s got strong strong energy very very positive very male but very positive and open and i just uh you know attracted and then it was really an interesting thing as the weekend went on by the way we’re talking about uh the new warrior training convention for mankind project separate thing great thing we probably
could talk about but there you were and you just some had a sense of confidence i never thought that i had an automobile accident in april and it was just an odd thing and i know this is out of your normal scope of where you’re focusing on but thank you for taking me you have been the most dynamic of the healers you know my western medicine doctor chiropractor uh physical therapist but your treatments have been i guess you can tell me from all that you’ve done before your your treatment is integrated
by itself the secret as well to my work entirely is my boxism which is a form of yoga bhakti is devotion and igniting the heart with falling in love with something outside of oneself to ignite the ability to fall in love and open one’s heart and then once one is able to do that using an outside stimulus then using it that awareness that experience to do it within one’s own self independent of outside stimulus and then eventually being able to do it with all outside sources so boxyism is something i learned from baba
ramdas and that’s one of the the biggest gifts and the biggest secrets of what i do is i’m just the puppet at the end of the streams i plug into universal consciousness through the spirit of love through all the teachings that i received from from ramdas i um i lived in india and i moved to maui from india and i was having a hard time integrating so i asked to have private council with ram das in 2008 asking him how to integrate and we had a wonderful time and he he instructed me on how to do it
and i told him hey look i see you’ve got a big property here do you need any help i knew he was into seva and he said what will you do i don’t care so go to my my health and they said go weed so i i waited man i weeded and they said well you come back and i said i’ll come back every week so i came back every week for almost 12 years so i got um a lot of uh direct experience with not only him but his entire friend family and through that i was gifted tremendous awareness and experiences with those that have
walked the path much longer and further than i had well wow you know you say it so well uh i knew ron dawson in a different way a couple of dif and had all kinds of friends around him and interesting that um you know it’s amazing how he comes up in so many different aspects in my life and different people in different ways you know uh amazing yeah he was a great great guy so are you right you have i i don’t want to cut you off because we’re good no i prefer you to leave i just am uh
uh rondas has come up you know people that know him when he was richard alpert way back when and and a continuum i don’t know if you know dr ed elkin here on maui uh jarrell he was a mankind project uh person for you he’s up at kula hospital and we have a couple of different friends that know him from way back when the circle of expansion was you know leary ed elkin richard alpert you know and yet to see the transformations in him and his growth and what he’s done for my generation and i don’t know how old i’m 70 so i
i look at you and i think wow you you’re you come with a very young energy i’m guessing that you’re somewhere in your 50s am i somewhere close i’m 46. there you go so then it even more clearly you’re you’re wise you’re he’s affected my generation a lot you know that be here now thing was so dynamic and then to see and grow and meet him when he was coming to the island we did an interview as he was at the maui prince hotel before he moved here and that was a really different experience
and peace in his life and then to see what’s growing afterwards and having lived here since 1988 and seeing this community warm up and integrate with him like you said the community that rahm das attracted what a beautiful incredible group of people and thank you so i got such a gift to have you treating me i am just amazed i have never experienced something that uh felt so complete as it was happening like the last treatment that i had with you um i felt incred as it was happening it it created an energetic thing that
was very dynamic and you know had me involved with breathing to to deal with the way the energy was flowing but then when i left how it like immediately flipped into the effect of the treatment and i haven’t had that many treatments that created that kind of dynamism in me and how i felt so it was a real great experience he said my my first game is within myself doing the alignment that i was taught you know through devotional work plugging myself in in a devotional spirit to allow the energy to move then
the next step is to use that energy in a way of qigong and she means energy gong means work so we call it energy workers in our culture in china they say it’s a chibong practitioner so i i first plug myself in through devotion and then into the energy of the heaven and earth and conduct it through my center and then i’m directing it through my movements qigong can be satisfied in three ways people can move the energy through physical movement intentional movement and breath movement so i first plug myself in plug in energy
and earth direct tremendous amount energy through me and then i plug into people with polarity of my hands projecting receiving creating a polarity loop through my body dropping that onto a meridian system and then doing the cheevo with somebody in front of me the same stuff you’d see somebody out in the park playing with the energy and beaming the energy in and working with the chief but i’m gathering the chi and moving it outside of myself while i’m doing that i’m doing it through the vehicle or the method of
shiatsu so shiatsu is from japan xiao means finger and sue means pressure so shiatsu is the art of finger pressure therapy so my the polarity of my hands aren’t random they’re both on the same meridian one’s listening once projecting as i work with compressions moving the energy down the meridian path and i alternate between compression stretch compression stretch compression stretch and then the places a person’s bound and they won’t open up if i can do that with breath eventually it opens and sometimes
it’ll it’ll crack and it’ll come out if i go through all that work and it doesn’t come out i can double in and strengthen in but and sometimes i will sometimes that’s appropriate other times i’m armed with needles i’m an acupuncturist so i can squeeze on the body look for the goo get them to release it and if they don’t then i could pop it with a needle and i’ll put a series of needles so that when i pop it then energy is directed intentionally and i could take it out the hands and
the feet or through certain vortices of energy in the human body front moves back shoes this chinese medicine concept of opening portals on the front and back of organs or i could direct the energy up and out through the brain to induce consciousness so a person can connect in mentally to the feeling in their body that they’re being whole their hold so that gives a little overview of how i work um as far as plugging myself in conducting the energy directing the energy into a person moving the energy intentionally in such
a way that it opens up their blockages and then if they’re unwilling to do so are still resistant or holding then i could release it with needles if that still doesn’t work i could put on electricity to the needles and da da da da da da and blow it up um which is really quite effective for those that are really strongly resistant or to parts of the body that are resistant to opening if that’s inappropriate because a person’s sensitivity or what have you then i also have more subtle methods of
cupping and moxa you know if i push on something and it just hurts too much i’m not going to push harder i can use suction to release it and then there’s a lot of conditions as well where heat is the trick to melt it so you might hear at this point that i’m pretty desperate to open people up and i just rotate through my repertoire until i find something that opens them and i like to joke earlier in my career i would just rip them open just to re because i was extremely ultra touristic i really
wanted to help them and also i was trying to build a reputation in a career now i don’t push as hard i try to bring people to their threshold and just a little bit beyond i don’t have to rip them through so that’s a little bit about my work professionally around the table um rip them through energetically talk about yeah yeah i mean taking them from where they are now to some place more advanced than where they are that they’re longing to get to pass their blockages to rip them through
their blockages not to rip the flesh by any means but psychologically emotionally um i’m of the belief in my understanding from chinese medicine oh yeah do you have something to say i had my hand up and i said where’s my hand i have this green screen behind me and i’m looking at the image and saying hey i was trying to make some kind and i picked that one up sorry so so energetically you know like you say the way you work on the table you work on the table i want to say an above the table you
expand um the i mean as a i guess as a patient i feel tremendous change and really very dynamic work i’m really you know the more i get to know you the more i recognize all the other things but the work that you do is really worth noting hope people will uh easily find you you have a website and ways that are easy for people to get in touch yeah so to that um my website and my method i’ve coined as bakdiyatsu as a bhakti practitioner that does shiatsu right so bhakti-yatsu is my webpage
b-h-a-k-t-i-a-t-s-u bhakti atsu um is a way that people can find me i [Music] so i teach um bodywork methods shiatsu and baktiyatsu and that’s all available online um through bhaktiatsu.com i’ve been teaching a 20 hour introductory course and a 50 hour full course for 14 15 years now so that’s been recorded and is available commercially and then i also teach qigong friday mornings 8 a.m in hawaii and that’s for free on the internet and there’s all sorts of different qigong methods that i’ve
put out there for free same website yeah and you could just look up youtube tj frank chi-bomb and you’ll find all sorts of stuff okay i was blessed not only to have the grace and presence of rondas’s you know friendship but i’ve also come across many other masters in my path and two of those are master qigong lineage holders and i’ve studied with them now almost 20 years and they’ve to both of them have sanctioned me uh to teach their chibo methods one of which is madame lee
and others master roger lore and um they’re the ones that have certified me to teach all these qigong methods that are on online wow that’s fantastic i i feel very blessed to you know i just got lucky and because i got lucky part of my kuleana or responsibility is to pass it on well you know your background with western medicine and conventional i use some kind of reference of a work environment where you’re coordinating all kinds of things that are way beyond you know that’s why i have a hard time defending
my or defining myself professionally yeah because it is the conglomerate of all that i’ve studied my undergraduate even though it was pre-med in specific was cognitive neuroscience so that’s what my degree at uc davis was was what’s the neurological substrate of the brain and how does that give rise to our perception of reality and um through that study i was amazing and informative but it didn’t answer the questions that i had so i extended my learning to asia and mysticism and religions
and then that culminated in my studies in chinese medicine in specific through that i discovered it’s not the brain that’s holding the memory information as much as in the body itself i like to summarize that the brain is the circuit breaker but the body is the system this is the motherboard but this is the computer another way to say it is the memories are in the flesh when we have an experience or we hold an emotion it’s in the form it’s the brain’s the circuit breaker the bridge the
conglomerate but the memory body emotions the thought feelings are held in the flesh they’re not just held in the flesh randomly there’s 12 belts or 12 meridians like 12 guitar strings of different thicknesses that vibrate with different frequencies just like a guitar these frequencies are our thought feelings it’s not a thought it’s not a feeling it’s a thought feeling creates a vibration and each vibration hits a different chord and we’re supposed to have fluidity through all those unless we have a
traumatic experience and one locks up and then we’ll have a predominance of vibration in that particular chord that reflects in a predominance in a cognition or a thought a person will think those thoughts more often if somebody has a fear trauma they’ll think of fear more often if they have a frustration drama they’ll think frustration more often if they have a worry trauma they’ll have worry thoughts more often and that corresponding meridian will constrict or hold correlating to that so my job is to
crawl on people and figure out which strings are too tight which ones are too loose and where is that hold along that string and how to release that so that the string can vibrate more harmonically and the side effect of that is the symptom associated with that string also releases i i have an interesting twist in that where the physical and uh i don’t want to say emotional soul where where that bridge is because if someone has an accident that meridian doesn’t go away maybe they have different physical
things so when you’re working with someone physically you’re moving energy physically in the body and tapping into like i don’t know what it is the soul right isn’t that a like a window so as a yes absolutely if somebody has a predominance of anger and frustration and they get into an accident that energy as it transfers through the body is going to lodge into that pathway that’s tight because it’s opaque it it’s already rigid it’s not fluid so the resultant of that injury is
they’ll have pain along the inside of the leg along the bone inside the hip it’ll reflect to the hip and the knee on the inside now that’s that was there because they were already tight there and when the injury came it physically occurred there is a physical thing but because of that constriction because of that pain the person’s awareness will be held there and if it releases then they would be more able to be attenuated or aware of their soul these holds pull us away from our soul
they they give us they show us where it’s our work it’s what we’re working on and as we release them and we let go then we drop into a deeper part within ourselves and if we keep doing it all the way through them all the way through the heart then we are at the one with full openness and reverence so it’s a constant um challenge fight or work in our lifetime to deal with the tugs of the human form and the physical to hold them into the center to plug into the one and i personally made the belief this
whole game is designed so we can do it at the moment of our own death because if we’re able to hold on to the one as we go through our own death and we can merge into the one and if we’re still gouda blocked up in the moment of our own death then we’re gonna have to play that out again whatever that looks like yeah so yeah there is a window from this physical body method to the emotional psychological vibratory to the soul well it’s interesting to me you know i our audience is all kinds of people and
all kinds of things i always find interesting because the fact that you have traditional western and east what uh it’s funny i have my both hands up oh there they are it’s very funny there i am the fact that you have these different modalities blended and you’re you’re coming to people if i was a viewer or a listener i’d be hearing a western frame describing things that are outside western frame and i would be so excited i i have been excited like like i say of all the practitioners that i have
that are in my uh world you’ve been the most dynamic and i also can see that acupuncture is you know for a specific incident but it also is something it’s almost like coming back for regular uh treatments that it can become a real help to open up all kinds of paths and it’s really um you know i have an ex-wife who was uh studying to be a doctor of acupuncture and so i’ve you know i’ve been skirting around it but someone like yourself who’s has integrated so many different things with
it very very exciting um if i were to say you know we only have so much time what are the most important things that you would like to share both about you and your practice but things that with our global audience right audience with our global audience we want to be able to share you because uh you’re a very special you’re a very special being you you you spark in me on awareness that we all you know can be what we choose to your your background and what you are you know i feel like we’re being given a
gift here with you this is a very special time what’s the most important stuff you’d like to be sharing the single most important thing that i’ve learned thus far and the culmination of all of it quite literally is the breath of hope if everything had resolved if everything had worked out if we were at peace with everything that’s ever happened during our in our lives we would spontaneously just say aha oh so here in hawaii we got this thing we call aloha an aloha is a collective spiritual agreement that
we all try to be aware of the breadth of ha within ourselves and others the breath of of life is what the hawaiians call it so that’s the culmination of it all is the breath of ha lots to be said from that um as baba ramdas taught us be in the moment and i’m of the belief the more moments stack up to create our lifetime and the more of those moments that we can hold in heart the better our life’s going to be and the beauty of the breath of has we can do it in the face of tremendous adversity
in contrast is the breath of oh any of these other breaths that people hold and we could culminate an entire life cultivating such a breath bringing people to play out scenarios to validate it telling ourselves past stories to validate it whatever we have um in contrast is the breath of heart so in yoga we got this concept of dristi and pranayam pranayama being the ha the way of the breath injustice is the focus of the mind so i mean the first is the focus of the breath ha the second is focus of mind
think about something you like and hold the breath aha and you’re free regardless of what’s going on in your external environment you’ll have a better outcome you’ll perceive less pain you’ll heal faster you’ll recruit better events into your life all of it so that’s the culmination of everything i’ve discovered thus far is that simple wow wow you know that’s what i learned living on maui now can we do it in the face of all people all places and all events through all of the past all the present
and all the potential future and if we could hold the on the juristi on the gate of light in the face of all that we’re done i just want to get 51 i asked you know if i’ll ever get all the way no but if we could do it more than 51 i think we’ll move in the right direction 51 of the mind moments yeah do you um this may sound funny do you do you have uh students here that meet physically or before before some of the periods where we couldn’t get together or do you do it online what’s you do
both i’d imagine yeah yeah i mean yeah i teach in massage schools and have direct students there i teach my qigong class i have so many previous students that i’ve taught that have since moved off to other parts of the world that call me and then i’ve traveled the world and taught all over the world europe and asia so i teach in all sorts of ways i mean since the pandemic most of my teaching has been done uh zoom which is kind of a drag for me honestly because i like the human connection i
like to feel see not just the seal but to see what the fields see you know to be able to read and so much transmission comes beyond just his presence like you’re saying you’re hung out there like what is this guy transmitting you know there’s presence i prefer and then also i’m a really social creature i like teaching with a group i like to sit and do question and answer so i teach qigong now and i may have a couple hundred people doing qigong with me but i don’t know who they are i
can’t see them i can’t laugh with them i can’t feel them i can’t circulate any energy with them it’s great to broadcast it out in the world but i do miss um person-to-person group teaching formats as far as traveling in the world to teach i did that for years until i found maui and now it’s harder and harder to get me off this rock i prefer to sit here and have people come to me i will and i do plan i have a young family and young children so they’re now seven and nine so eventually
i’ll have the freedom to once again gallivant but for the time being i’m quite content sitting here on maui beyond content i understand i haven’t been off maui i think since 2008 so it’s also been a while for me wow nice run brother that’s solid you know people say what you haven’t no i get reverse island fever the longer i’m here the more freaked out i am at the thought of leaving yeah i’m loving it and yet you know we have more and more visitors what a crazy balance we’ve been here i’m
i enjoy it i enjoy the visitors well and my thing is i want to be able to share who and what we’ve got here in a virtual way so that people around the world can see what can happen if we integrate resources and do things in a cooperative way you know our mama arts and music and showcasing things in environment and music and people i say healers i use that word in a very loving way i uh i am i have so appreciated maui as a base to be from it’s what can i say i don’t feel like it why would i go anywhere in the world
i feel perfectly balanced here um you know living in this amount of light is quite extreme and i offered a model of the human body with holdings in it and i’m of the belief with that much energy coming in those holdings are harder to hold and they come to the surface full full on faster and faster as we let go so i i describe this place as a spiritual crucible in some ways it burns the stuff out of us and sometimes it’s intense and some people retreat into what some spiritual complacency
places is places on where we’re not forced into so much work so much remember the belief that spirit wants to connect with us as much as we want to connect with it and as beings we have the propensity to hold on to traumas or attachments and rejections and each of those those holes separate us from spirit and it’s part of our work in this lifetime to let go of those holes and living here amongst this much light enforces that i like to say that mother maui the mother of maui loves us so much that she won’t allow a
single stone to sit unturned even if i’m too shy afraid ignorant complacent to flip those rocks she does them for me so for those with strong spiritual fervor this is a wonderful place to live um even with that for fervor it’s challenging and for those that don’t know about it or are disinclined to do that work living here is horrific or can be so i do understand why people leave and why people want to live on the in the spiritual sense there’s also the physical um distancing from our families
and our friends in the mainland that’s extremely painful for me at times because my love is very strong um there’s other things to chase people off island but i’ll keep the list at that well that one that one rings true for me i’ve felt uh tremendously separated from my family and that’s been it’s a big cost big cost yeah what they do they’re still here then they still have maui to visit so that’s not a bad there’s one reason i chose maui over several other locations
on the planet that i was looking to settle because of the nature of my work and the dynamics of my work and the the effectiveness of my work i was presented with the opportunity to place myself anywhere there’s so much work no matter where i go there’s we’re all there’s so much so i chose maui to be in the pre-existing path of my family they all came here i’m from california so we visit here a lot so yeah i position myself here to be in their current speaking of position you’ll find this interesting
when you look later the way the visual is right now right here at your third eye is lit from the light above you’re perfectly balanced and touched right behind your third eye very interesting experience that’s the position how you’re on exactly what’s your gun practitioner i could attenuate that um yeah my qigong master came you asked me before the interview if i had any props i should have grabbed this one my my qigong master roger came and visited and when he left him like please
leave me a card put a signature on it i want you i want your fragrance leave me a card you know so he pulled out his card and on the back he drew a dot a triangle up a heart a smile and a line below so the dot was heaven the line below was earth yin and yang and then the triangle was the third eye the heart was the heart and the smile was the belly and he was trying to show me what you’re saying stay connected and be balanced in chinese medicine we have this concept of the three don tien the three energetic centers and those
three don tien they uh they overlap to create the seven chakras it’s a level below the chakras so we we try to keep them balanced and by doing so the chakras stay bound so give you a quick they’re not entirely equal this show there you go there you go so you see how the three don tien each dan tien has an upper middle lower upper middle lower but they overlapped to create the one two three four five six seven the dantianza level of harmonic below the the seven chakras and then that whole thing creates the
microcosmic orbit which is the loop around the whole thing and when the whole thing’s switched on then it ignites the the cord in the center the sushama naughty or the so the chinese i was saying from the all none comes the one from the one comes the two from the two comes the three and then from the three comes the ten thousand things so it is really quite an art and a sophisticated subtle phenomenal like extend oh oh to to work on keeping all of these center all these centers centered and
integrated and aligned it’s a breath by breath mind moment gain and that’s what i mean the breath aha sounds so simple stupid and subtle but by holding that it forces the alignment well you know some of this is review to my awareness and some of it is new but i tell you it is exciting to speak to someone like you and i’m guessing i can see uh wanting to have you on and maybe if you want you know being able to somehow showcase some of what you’re teaching is so just such a great general thing for people to
i don’t know i want to say plug into you know it’s like it’s the hospital it’s in the moment so what you share and the way you share it uh very clear and to me very clear and uh resonates really well you’ve been in the short time i know you you’ve been a very big presence in my life thank you you’re welcome thanks for this opportunity to share expose the world part of what i’ve gathered and experienced in my practice and studies and any things that take a quick inventory and think of
anything else you might want to share or how people might be in touch with you again i’d like to be able to repeat that in a clear way the question once again is how can people get hold of me or what do i have to share well you know again you know i said okay what do you wanted to teach and you you taught the most important thing but you have so many facets i just while i have an audience here with us i’m thinking what are the things that would be interesting that you’d like to be sharing
anything about uh just some health you seem to be um which level of the game so i mean one of the things i do like to teach and offer is story actor and drama one of the the courses i teach is the four diagnostic methods of chinese medicine looking listed listening asking and feeling and within the listening quadrant of the four diagnostic methods is to listen between the lines the tone of a person’s voice the nature of their story within the nature of the story’s story actor and drama most of the information a person or
client feeds me falls into one of those chaos it’s either the story of what’s going on the drama that’s being acted out or the players in the drama so it’s a way of categorizing the information coming in these goo balls that we hold based on trauma require entropy they require energy to hold together and it takes a tremendous amount of energy to hold these blockages in the body and it’s beautiful for me to see the fatigue that people hold when they finally let go i mean hold a rock up for a minute it’s
no big deal hold it up for a week that bug is going to get heavy and it’s the same thing with the things we hold in our lives so because it’s heavy and it takes energy sometimes we even forget why we have it and we play these cycles out over and over to revalidate why we’ve got to hold on to this thing that’s a trauma or hurt these traumas could have happened in our lifetime but it could have happened through our family don’t forget what grandma said or it could have happened in our culture don’t
forget what they’ve done um these holes in the body we forget why we do it and occasionally we have to recruit people into our lives to play out events to validate the holds we bring in actors to play out dramas to validate our stories and almost all the events and people in our lives fall into one of these categories it’s astounding so that being the case if our story traumas are on anger frustration then we’re going to continuously coin environments and situations in our lives the validate that
we’ll pull in people to validate that and we’ll have experiences that’ll validate it so that we can hold it for whatever person whatever purpose we’re holding so choose a story choose the drama choose the actor wisely keep an eye out on your own story actor drama complex to make sure you’re validating the parts of yourself that you want to cultivate if it’s a bhakti centered awareness or heart devotional center awareness then continuous repetition of things that invoke love in your being
will help lead you on that path it’ll bring you to ah just keep saying be around things that bring you into ah and they’re around people that bring you into awe and then eventually you’ll cultivate yourself into awe because i’m not there yet not much of the time even though i’ve been shown it and been given a rope so the story actor drama complex is something i wish that we were taught in school and um yeah it’s that’s that one’s oh it’s a oh to look at that with an oh
it’s it’s something well i i must tell you if as an audience and i it’s interesting i’m sitting here kind of guiding this but i feel like an audience i feel like i’m sitting in front of the teacher you’ve been really gifting us with a lot of as i perceive a lot of truth a real beautiful you’re a beautiful guy and i appreciate that you took the time to be here with me and your audience you know i had to i had to push away a sciatica patient a neuropathy patient an insomnia patient
you had to create space but i really wanted to do this so i’ll get to see them there’s no end to the conveyor belt of work the amount of suffering on this earth that needs to be mitigated and healed and helped unfortunately unfortunately wow tj franklin has been a real blessing yeah we are all going through it we’re all going through it and if we can help each other out in any subtle ways please yeah well thank you for joining us here and all of you out there in listening land and viewing land tj frank wonderful guy
we’ll hopefully have him again if he’ll gift us but i’d love to be great thank you hello everyone