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Report from 1st Retreats at Heavenly Mtn (new Photos) SENT to ELIST

Home › Forum Online Discussion › General › Report from 1st Retreats at Heavenly Mtn (new Photos) SENT to ELIST

  • This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 18 years, 3 months ago by Michael Winn.
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  • July 22, 2007 at 8:23 am #23088

    Michael Winn

    Posting this a bit late, for those not on my email list.

    Inside Chi Flows Naturally:

    1. Reports from our first summer retreats at Heavenly
    Mountain. We’re more than half way through the eight weeks,
    and its not too late to sign up for the last three weeks.
    Short letter on the challenges of integrating Tao into a TM
    meditation field. Testimonials from those who journeyed into
    the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. A
    brief summary of retreats still beckoning.

    36 new (live action!) photos from our first retreats at
    Heavenly Mtn at: http://www.healingdao.com/heavenly_mtn_2007.html

    To sign up for a retreat, call 888-750-1773, email
    retreats&heaingdao.com, or just signup on
    http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com. All the travel details are on
    the site.

    2. China Dream Trip 2007 was, as usual, a life-changing
    experience. Each trip is novel and wonderful in its own
    unique way. For me, it included being bitten by an excitable
    monkey on Mt. Emei. Yep, he drew blood. All because I
    wouldn’t give him a package of Chinese herbs in my pocket.
    Will his monkey bite antidote my Monkey Mind??

    Reflections on China and the nature of the Monkey Mind that
    bit me coming in the next Chi Flows Naturally. Along with
    new photos from China 2007 that I haven’t had time to post
    yet.

    Dear Lovers of Summertime Tao,

    I hope you are enjoying summer as much as I am. The biggest
    change for me was shifting our summer retreats from the
    Catskill mountains of New York to the Blue Ridge mountains
    of North Carolina. Heavenly Mountain has turned out to
    be….heavenly. The consensus (see reports below) from both
    newcomers and old timers is that the change is much for the
    better. The Tao is so kind, giving us a new direction to
    flow in at the last moment.

    Of course, we’ve had a few challenges along the way. We
    moved Taoist body-centered energy practices into a
    Transcendental Meditation space where the focus for ten
    years was decidedly more out of body. We are on what used to
    be the “divine mothers” campus, where several hundred women
    were meditating around the clock using mantras, focused n
    growing world peace and love. The vibe was nice, but a
    different field from what we cultivate using qigong and
    inner alchemy and various transformational body-centered
    healing therapies.

    So there was a brief moment of confusion when the elementals
    in the main meditation hall were asking, “what are we
    supposed to do?”. For ten years they had been programmed to
    hang out somewhere above the head, out of the body. Mantak
    Chia, who taught the first week here, noted that he
    initially had trouble downloading energy into the space. It
    was like there was an invisible plane of energy focused
    slightly above the head that was behaving like a separate
    fixed field, not really connected to the earth. This may
    have caused a few people the first week to have strange and
    disturbing dreams.

    After a few days these elementals (the essences of the Life
    Force that hold the shape of all matter) woke up and began
    playing with our new patterns. Taoists focus on the
    continuous flow between Heaven and Earth, without favoring
    either as a permanent or absolute destination. Tao is about
    process, and about humans as mediators of change between
    form and formless. If you are in a fixed state, whether in
    Heaven or on Earth (a.k.a. “Later Heaven”), then you’re
    probably stuck.

    For humans Tao means the Way of creative unfolding of the
    self and one’s natural virtue. When I taught the second
    week, I re-arranged the feng shui in the spacious meditation
    hall. I moved the mediation seats so no one was sitting
    beneath the four story tower in the center of the room,
    which dispersed chi upward. I approached the problem of lack
    of grounding using a different tactic than Mantak Chia. His
    group work on DNA and Immune System Qigong certainly made a
    huge shift in the space, but it still didn’t feel complete
    to me.

    Rather than trying to get the slightly “floating, spacy
    field” to move down, I did a primordial qigong ceremony and
    invited the earth elementals to move up and ground the field
    by occupying the entire space. It worked great – I felt an
    immediate and powerful response. The energy in my legs and
    torso became solid like a mountain, and I felt a kind of
    sigh of relief from the TM meditative field as it rushed to
    join with the earth force. Others who walked into the space
    afterwards noted that it felt completely different. I felt
    it became much easier to enter into my body’s spiritual
    inner space.

    The difference in attitude toward the human body was brought
    home by a former TM meditator who attended my Qigong
    Fundametnals. He had been living and meditating at Heavenly
    Mountain before it was “decommissioned” by agreement between
    Maharishi and the twin brothers who built it, Earl and David
    Kaplan.

    This student had been forced to quit TM meditation because
    of health problems he had developed. He told me there was
    not much sympathy in the TM organization for those with
    health problems. It was considered “your personal karmic
    problem” and you should solve it on your own. If you were
    sick, you would be kicked out of meditation courses as unfit
    to enter the higher causal realms.

    This of course led to many in TM suppressing medical
    symptoms, until they became serious and more difficult to
    heal. I find this thinking typical of Fire paths, with a
    focus on otherworldly spiritual ideals rather than embodied
    process. It is why I switched from kundalini yoga to
    “water-and-fire” alchemy path of the Tao. My body was
    getting weaker from the yogic practice, my adrenals were
    burnt out from too much “breath of fire”. I decided I
    valued my body as an integral part of my spiritual path. I
    discovered through Taoist internal alchemy and qigong
    practical ways to marry my worldly destiny (ming) with my
    spiritual destiny (xing).

    If you want to cultivate your body and spirit together,
    please consider coming up to Heavenly Mountain during the
    last three weeks of our schedule, Friday evening July 13
    thru Wednesday, August 8. We accept last minute signups –
    our new space is big enough to accommodate everyone (see
    great new photos at:
    http://www.healingdao.com/heavenly_mtn_2007.html).

    Tina Zhang has two weeks of teaching the classical Northern
    Wu Tai Chi form (that I also practice), followed by a
    Woman’s Earth Qigong retreet. She is a fabulous teacher, and
    is co-author of a hot new tai chi book on the Fighting Art
    of the Manchurian Palace Guard (available on Amazon,
    co-authored with Frank Allen).
    To read more about her woemn’s qigong retreat, see:
    http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?rpage=DM07-8A

    Frank Allen has a three part Bagua Zhang series, that covers
    a spectrum of what is considered the pinnacle of Chinese
    martial arts. He has nearly 35 years of teaching
    experience, and in my opinion is at the top of his field in
    his ability to combine the energetics of meditation with the
    precision of application. He is great in teaching
    non-marital artists (including women who may have fears
    about fighting) and runs multiple tracks in any course to
    accommodate different skill levels. He offers certification
    in Bagua as well. A great opportunity to learn from a master
    in an optimal environment. Read more about his top flight
    training program at:
    http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?rpage=DM07-6B

    Karin Sorvik, a Healing Tao Senior Instructor, is teaching a
    Chi Nei Tsang Deep Organ Massage course followed by Tao
    Basics and Healing Love in week 7. She has a magical gift of
    healing and knows how to get people into the practice they
    most need to ground themselves. Her Tao Basics course can
    also be used for certification:
    http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?rpage=DM07-7A

    Madame Wang Yan is flying over from Europe to teach her
    famous Weight Loss Breathing Qigong method along with
    various useful forms of medical qigong. She is the youngest
    70 year old grandmaster you’ll find, and an international
    tai chi champion as well as medical doctor. Please go online
    to read the restimonials about her course – this is her only
    appearance in the USA, and not to be missed!
    http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?rpage=DM07-8D

    Rob Renahan, the summer retreats registrar, is offering a
    new approach to Taoist cultivation that integrates his
    extensive training as a zen monk in Korea. He calls it Zen
    Qigong; the Art of Meditation as Non-Doing. It involves
    finding the effortless way (Tao) to stilling the mind while
    doing any form of yoga, qigong, or sitting in meditation. We
    are delighted to share his new skills with our audience. If
    your Monkey Mind is bothering you, be sure to attend his
    course! He’s writeen an article on his integration of zen
    and tao, you can read it at:
    http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/prod_list.pl?rpage=DM07-8C

    Now, for the reports from students attending the first weeks
    at Heavenly Mountain. It is always better to hear it from
    the horses mouth…..:)

    Subject: Wonderful Experience at Heavenly Mountain NC

    I just returned from your Heavenly Mountain retreat (week
    one) and I have to say it was one of the most wonderful
    experiences of my whole life. The location is incredible,
    the views of the mountains breathtaking, the accommodations
    extremely comfortable, the teachings inspirational and I met
    many new friends whom I will never forget….

    I can’t wait to come back again. I have been dealing with
    health issues for several years (myleodyspastic syndrome,
    fibromaylagia, severe allergies and asthma)and cannot
    remember the last time I felt so alive and healthy. Thank
    you so much for creating the enviroment and opportunity for
    me to be able to attend such a life changing program. This
    is the first retreat I have ever been on, and was a little
    apprehensive about what it would be like.

    Heavenly Mountain is an apt description, and I feel blessed
    to have been able to spend a week of my life REMEMBERING
    just how wonderful it is to be alive. I can’t believe I
    just spent a week tramping up and down a hill and several
    flights of stairs without having to use an inhaler… I
    slept like a baby when I wasn’t outside staring at the
    stars.

    Again, I THANK YOU greatly for the opportunity to have
    shared in a wonderful week up there in the NC mountains, and
    the Summer Solstice Celebration (I was standing in the
    “West” 🙂 It was great fun and I will carry the positive
    energy to as many others as I can !
    Sincerely, Kelly Francies

    Michael,

    Taking the Fundamentals 1-4 at heavenly Mountian (week 2)
    was a great experience. I’m very impressed with the energy
    that was there, and what was generated by all our practice.
    I wish I had known about Qigong 20 years ago. The food was
    great, and the people there were quite interesting. It was
    better than any vacation I’ve ever had.

    It is had to pinpoint exactly what I liked the most, because
    the experience got progressively better with each passing
    day. I was so filled with Qi that I didn’t sleep long at
    night, perhaps only 3-4 hours, yet I never felt better! The
    Microcosmic Orbit started occuring spontaneously on its own
    which was very interesting.

    Some of my experiences include the opening of the Dan Tien
    (with pulsations back and forth all over the place), the
    hormonal and energy rush from the Bone Breathing, the
    feeling of having a 6 inch bubble of Qi rush up my spine
    after doing the Feldenkrais and back-neck stretching, doing
    the most energetic 5 Animals (as a group) that I’ve ever
    experienced, and the vast internal openness after doing the
    Ocean Sky and Great Heart Breathing was awesome.

    With all that said, I now think after looking back the the
    Inner Smile Meditations were the high points. I have in the
    past seriously underestimated the power of that meditation
    form. When we did the Inner smile it was the most profound
    Ive’ ever felt.

    My Dan Tien opened up and I saw what looked like a worm hole
    coming out of it, with a gold ball circulating around the
    opening. As it continued to expand I saw the virtues coming
    out from the opening, love, kindness, strength, integrity,
    trust, etc.

    The opening grew so large as to fill my field of vision, and
    then two gold balls circulated about the opening. I could
    see a field of stars in the portal, and then a deep black
    emptyness. A very gentle and kind voice said, that I wasn’t
    quite ready for the next level yet, but that after a few
    months of experience, just a few, that I would be ready to
    move on.

    I think I’ll keep practicing the Fundamentals…….and I’ll
    be back to heavenly Mountain next summer. Please share with
    your staff that the retreat facilities, food, and energy was
    great there. I couldn’t possibly give a higher
    recommendation to someone, when I say that they should
    definitely go to a Heavenly Mountain Retreat as soon as they
    can.
    Bob (Florida)

    Date: July 2, 2007 11:36:03 AM EDT
    Subject: heavenly mountain fundamentals

    Hello Michael, I hope all is well with you and I am just
    writing to thank you for an amazing experience. I just came
    back a few days ago from the fundamentals 1-4 and I don’t
    know if I should thank you because I really had a hard time
    leaving.

    I have studied taoist practices on and off for over 10 years
    mostly reading of Daniel Reid and a few workshops in New
    York but nothing compares to the total immersion of going to
    a retreat in the beautiful mountains. What a great way to
    spend a day, wake up at 6:30 do chi gung from 7:30-9 than a
    healthy lunch 3 more hours of theory and work and great
    lunch and break and than 3 more hours, it was like being in
    spiritual training camp!!!!

    The only bad part was that the food was so good I couldn’t
    stop eating it.
    The facility was amazing, it was gigantic, clean, and full
    of energy. My room could’ve slept 4 people very comfortably
    and the water up there was really clean.

    I really appreciate your teaching style it is very direct
    and yet very subtle. I am a massage therapist and a pretty
    stressed out one, your technique is great because we don’t
    know what’s coming next, I was so worried that I wasn’t
    going to get to ‘feel’ anything that I was driving myself
    crazy I was really afraid about not feeling the orbit or my
    dan tien. The great thing about how you taught was that I
    never knew what was coming so I couldn’t get tense about it.

    The most incredible moments for me was the during the
    Fundamentals 3 & 4 breathing exercises. When you focused on
    the pauses, I thought it was a relaxation exercise to chill
    out and take it easy. But at one point the pause came and I
    didn’t feel the need to breath again! It was crazy and I
    felt my dan tien open up and I saw colors and it expanded
    more and more. I could have gone on for hours, when you
    stopped us.

    The week really opened up many things, I felt like my
    eyesight improved, my kidneys felt renewed and especially my
    lungs. My wife also noticed upon giving me a hug that the
    bump on my C7 of my neck had straightened out!!!

    Thank you so much and I plan on going to more retreats.
    Chad Pilieri

    Subject: Energy Body became Real for me

    Michael,

    My inner self told me that coming to Heavenly Mountain would
    change my life. It has. When you talked about grounding and
    opening a place inside that would be a spiritual center, I
    understood intellectually what you meant but it had no real
    meaning.

    The energy body was an intellectual concept that I was
    familiar with but I had no real experience of. I was so
    blown away by what happened last week. It seemed like each
    day the energy increased exponentially and got much more
    solid. I feel so much more real and this feeling is
    something that has changed me because I am not willing to
    ever let that go.

    I am doing a 45min to 1 hour workout (including the animals)
    every morning before anything else. I break out
    spontaneously with a smile when I talk to my organ spirits,
    hug them, and tell then how much I love them. I want you to
    know that saying I love you to myself is something I have
    never done and writing this I almost break out in tears. I
    can’t imagine starting the day any other way and I think
    that that feeling will enable me to keep at it. I have never
    experienced anything like when we did the seated orbit. I
    was almost literally knocked out of my chair by the
    experience.

    I am so grateful for what you taught me and for the tools
    you gave me. I can’t thank you enough !!!!!!!! Paul Zistl

    Hello New Friends from Healing Tao,

    The heavenly Mtn. reteat was an amazing experience for me.
    A week of deepening awareness of my energy body and how real
    it really is. The people were so great as well as the food !
    It was just plain fun!
    Warmly, Damon M. (Los Angeles)

    Inviting you to come join the Tao Summer Fun,
    Michael Winn

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