Interview with San Qing

Get ready. This post will BLOW YOUR MIND. I do not use that term lightly.

Taoist Master San Qing agreed to answer many deep questions right here in this blog post. He has also shared a Rhapsody, transcribed from Lao Tzu. Clear your schedule for this one. And enjoy the ride!

San, what inspired you to publish your e-book Tao Te Ching Magical Register?

Inspiration is more like exhilaration, an understanding that everything along my life path has always been a divine spark of energy. It arrives the moment I pause, take a breath, and open myself fully. The Tao, the teaching, the magical register is a direct communication between myself and my teacher Lao Tzu: an unconditional stream flowing from an ethereal space. I like to call it slipstreaming. It creates, propels, and prepares you for what most people would consider a surge of motivation; a feel-good, inspiring moment. It grants me creative license to generate something powerful.

Yet, to be honest, my roots run so deep, they are anchored far beyond this lifetime, extending through many incarnations. Bringing me back to what feels so profoundly familiar is the natural selection, the natural order of the Tao. And the Tao, the teaching, the magical register, is spoken word from my immortal ancient teacher to me, through me as I serve as catalyst and conduit. I transcribe every word, creating what I consider, and what everyone who walks the path of Taoism comes to know, as a living scripture.

How did you prepare for a writing session while working on this project?

For this literal masterpiece arises far more from my ancient roots, my natural passion, and my deep desire. My divinity exploding through me as this instrument and tool to create and bring forth this lifelong teaching. The preparation itself was easy. Yet the sacrifice and surrender that was necessary was not preparation. They were not anticipation, they were natural, they were effortless, and the creative spark shone through me as I transcribed every word.

What helped propel you forward to finish it?

To be blatantly honest, there is no need for creative license. Nothing motivates me more than to wake and meet the dawn of a new day, and nothing fills me with greater excitement than to lay my head down as dusk rings in. This force, this intimate relationship with what we call the Primordial Mother, the Wuji, the holy stream, can only arise from complete surrender and unconditional blind faith.

I watch the next moment unfold without any anticipation or expectation. I was born to breathe in, emanate, and walk this path. And it is precisely the solitude that comes from humility where my attention lies; my desires are secondary. My surrender is absolute. My service is forever.

Which is your all-time favourite superhero character? Why?

My number one favorite superhero, without question, is the Incredible Hulk. The elusive, irrational shock of reality from the unknown that emerges from the shadows. The Hulk can be timid and soft, human-like, representing the man who might seem more science-based. The character’s human form is portrayed by Eric Banner, yet what grows from Bruce Banner is the alter ego. It is in this alter ego where you find the desire born from a complete loss of control and accountability: boundless rage and a superpower that can surge from 0 to 1000 in a fraction of a second, strength, protection, ownership, control, and pure unpredictability.

If you want him on your side, you need him on your side. He awakens your curiosity; you don’t fully understand how you arrived there or how you forged a relationship with this force, equivalent to a wild boar or a Tasmanian devil; a true freak of nature. This is the power that lies within the Hulk. And through the rainbow, technicolor view, the Hulk can find that fleeting moment where compassion arises, a moment when he remembers that he has not entirely left humanity behind. And then, of course, in an instant, he can separate the Earth with his bare hands and crack open the planet as if it were his oyster.

The question remains: who is the chicken and who is the egg? Just like any other normal human being, the rage, the emotion—so impermanent and temporary—always reminds us that everything will pass with time. And this is where time and space gently remind you of how childlike you are, how small you are within this most magnificent cosmos, this universe that we reside in, which is so much greater. Thus, the character of the Incredible Hulk is my favorite superhero, and the superpower is to find empathy through the rage, to find sanity through the delusion. To find yourself, you must surrender.

What are some of your all-time favourite books? Tell us about one book that helped catapult your life in a new direction.

Books are so inspirational. If I were to truly put my attention on one specific book that changed the trajectory of my life and furthermore granted me a deeper understanding of how things truly work within this thing we call reality, I find myself refreshing the memory of such a seemingly simple book. Yet it gave me profound insight into the different phases of mental states and how one can forge a very conscious change in one’s own mental acuity by learning to perceive things differently. That book is called Catch-22. The most pinnacle, potent, and impactful element throughout the entire book was “free association” how it truly holds so much relevance. Until you become familiar with it, or have been given the opportunity to even digest the context, life seems so predictable. In truth, it is very far from that.

That book was pivotal. It changed my view, my worldview, and ultimately helped me carve out a very distinct, unique, and independent path, a path of remembrance. Sometimes it is important to remember how simple things truly are.

San, what advice do you have for creatives (i.e. writers) working with an idea that doesn’t fit with the mainstream zeitgeist?

My advice for all inspired creators, artists, anyone who gets a taste of their own potency through that spark is this: I suggest you let it all go. Whatever you are fixated on is distracting you. Reset, breathe in, and breathe out. Appreciate what you don’t know, for it prepares you for all the truth, the whole truth, and the forever unfolding of obtaining.

Something compels you, and it stands adverse to the regular mainstream ghost. This is where you embrace it. You reach out your arms, hold it close, and then run with it. This is right where you need to be, even when it puts a pit in your stomach. You are afraid but very excited. It is a miserable partner and in parcel, the effect of your true self, yet very powerful. When you feel the need to step away, it is precisely the moment to ride into the fire.

Define “hope-ium” for us. What advice do you have for new creatives who may be feeling isolated or intimidated?

Hopium is a turning point for any seeker. We have phases of awareness. It starts with the spark of desire. Divinity is present. It moves into inquiry, then bears contemplation. Contemplation feeds curiosity. Curiosity leads you into yet another phase; a petal from the flower of life. It is a moment where the mind meets inspiration, and the effects of that, from a humanistic perspective, step over the status quo and show the seeker there is something greater. This is where everything grows.

From that flower of life grows the infinite, the sacred infinite garden that then blossoms into seeking for more. You move from the belief system to knowledge, and knowledge, ultimately to wisdom. So on that road, as you play Sherlock to Watson, through the maze and labyrinth of the finite mind, you shift gears from the human condition and exit that labyrinth as a human being. This hope is one of those carrots that you pick up on the path, defining yourself. And it is always exciting to return home.

What is imagination?

Imagination is truly the pivotal point of general awareness for any seeker. Quite frankly, it aligns itself with this polarizing, symbiotic dance that we have between imagination and perception. This is where the foundational basis of the Tao’s alchemy and further, the larger picture of the Tao’s magic, derives from. See, that spark of desire, of course, to control and manipulate through the imagination tends to fall short, as it is generally fueled by the subjective, introspective analysis of the finite mind, as opposed to the very clear effect of perception.

Perception is an experiential-based creation that you bring forth through embodiment. It then merges you into this beautiful dance, which dissolves into a holy stream where your access becomes unlimited.

This really requires further exploration for the general seeker, but in essence, it is the ultimate yin and yang dance between these two elementary, elemental moments of awareness.

Creatives today often stretch themselves to make ends meet by working on their craft around an unrelated form of employment.

Inspiration is really the facsimile, the carbon copy, of your truth. When you recognize that true servitude has a very clear path of ownership that really doesn’t require anything from your finite mind, the question arises: how do we trick ourselves into finding the truth? The absolute truth? That is not influenced by or intercepted by subjectivity?

Most people lean into serving community, serving humanity, serving someone other than themselves. Unfortunately, what happens is that this is not translated as it should be, because they are still struggling with mental and emotional processes that make it already a diminished return in their own experience. Furthermore, they buy into the financial burden, which then makes them look to other places to finance their existence, even though their true passion, their true desire, is to serve unconditionally.

Unfortunately, they haven’t yet recognized that they are still playing this game; this cat-and-mouse game that is all to do with nothing. Once you release that, of course, the opportunities that they desire from their heart translate from the ethereal and then realize themselves in the material. And this is where things can be reorganized and accelerated so that you meet mind, body, and spirit; brain, heart, gut, it all aligns, it all becomes coherent. And of course, financial freedom is one of those things that becomes the biggest liberation, and you are no longer bound by the prison of the finite mind.

Tell us about diminished return. What is a warning sign that could get overlooked?

Time and attention, time and space, these are all mutated subjective versions of the truth. So, being able to sustain and maintain all the things that I output with the material world, may it be books, teachings, social media, social sphere, inter web interaction; there’s a boundless, effortless experience that only comes from me, turning myself to my true resonance and within The Tao, we refer to that as a primordial mother.

The primordial mother makes everything and in an ascended and descended state, transcendence comes from a metaphysical experience that has fundamental building blocks. So in metaphysics of Tao, we refer to this as highest point of examination. It is an absolute holy Stream, which is the primordial mother animates consciousness, consciousness, animates spirit, spirit animates energy, energy, animates the material world and the physical body.

Of course to ascend, you connect with all these nodes, to continually consume and console, resolve and return that energy back to its signature of perfection. This is an ongoing practice and cultivation through a Taoist Rites that is not a requirement. It’s a right passage and that’s why Taoist alchemy is so powerful.

You also offer one on one time. Tell us about becoming a student with you.

Meeting yourself requires, selfishness that leads to selflessness. This requirement is your sacrifice. So I am, in general consensus, the ambassador and concierge to your goodwill. If someone reaches out or requires further inquiry to the point of mentorship or a student relationship, there is a common goal and interest that never leaves the Taoist path of self-realization. The student is the teacher. The teacher is the student. Forever evolving and expanding your own power. That is really absent of ego participation.

Studentship comes with a price that you have to pay: breaking the fundamental past iteration of self and returning it back to the wood chipper, finding through experience that you were never broken to begin with. These alchemical processes, deeply rooted in ancient energetic practices, are conjured and cultivated through our respiration and specific rites of passage that turn on all the working mechanisms, that make you whole. This is so concentrated that as you continue to switch on these activations through the alchemical process, your potency must be met with your biology. So the fundamental stress, adaptation, and expansion is a cycle, and it will continue as you continue to explore yourself.

That is, in a nutshell, a mentorship, a studentship in my path and teaching. It is remembering of who you are, and the potency of that is a constant upgrade. As you are able to hold that node of resonance, you continue to expand. That is the alchemical process that I teach, one that has been used by millions of people before us and will continue to be used by millions of people after us. It is a profound alchemical process, even with its roots dating back to 6,000 BC. Furthermore, the foundation of Chinese medicine is quite frankly a very soft offering compared to the potency of this alchemy.

San, you have many offerings! You’ve written books, and you also mentor, run the Taoist Rites Retreat Center, and maintain a podcast and YouTube channel. You are highly active on social media. How much time and resources do you devote to producing these?

Our current offerings are a collaboration with many profound spiritual teachers, extending through 2026 and beyond. There are numerous retreats planned as collaborative efforts with over seven or eight different spiritual teachers. Together, we will help ignite that spark for all who attend facilitating incredible spiritual awakenings that bring them even closer to who they truly are.

Tell us about your upcoming offerings. Are you working on a new book? What will we see from you next?

I have completed transcribing eight new books, with many more that Lao Tzu has personally guided me to embark upon. Among them is The Taoist Cannon, a nine-volume intimate exploration and documentation of Taoist Magic. I have finished the first three volumes so far, each averaging about 1,000 to 1,200 pages.

Furthermore, I have a book on the most ancient art form of Taoist Magic, which will also be edited and published very soon. There is a deeper exploration of the events that evoked my awakening in this lifetime to the true nature of who I am as an immortal Taoist teacher, along with further exceptions to the rule.

Lao Tzu, who finally gave us Volume Two of The Tao Te Ching, has delivered something mind-blowing that exceeds anything currently translated. My transcription of his Volume One in 2024 was for the modern Taoist alchemist—now Volume Two will blow your mind beyond belief. These are the current things unfolding within the stratosphere of the Taoist Path and San Qing’s offerings. I will leave you with this.

Anything else you’d like to share in this interview?

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