The 6 Day Tai Chi Retreat will be held the first Monday of every month. The focus of the retreat will be awareness and development of the underlying essence of the internal martial arts: the dynamic universal energy ‘Chi’.

In the morning session, Rick Attix will teach fundamental postures and breathing techniques to open the internal energy channels essential for correct Tai Chi practice. Rick will then introduce soft body core and mind stillness exercises. These exercises will then be introduced into the Yang Style Chen Man’ching 37 posture Tai Chi Ch’uan Form. The origins of these practices go beyond written history. The earliest compilation of ancient Chinese wisdom was attributed to the great Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, who reigned circa 3000 B.C. His classic “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine” with its insights into external changes – geographic, climatic, and seasonal, as well as internal changes such as emotions and response to them, are as stunningly relevant today as they were over five thousand years ago.

In the afternoon session, Laszlo Demmel will teach the four levels of Chi Gung exercises, the Eight Sections of Brocade, as studied at the Shaolin Temple, China. Our tradition is that the Buddhist teacher, Bodhidharma (448-527 CE), the famous founder and Grand Master of Chan (Zen), introduced a set of 18 exercises to the Buddhist monks at the Shaolin Temple.  These are known as the "Eighteen Hands of the Lohan."  This Shaolin Lohan Qigong (the art of the breath of the enlightened ones) is an internal set of exercises for cultivating the "three treasures" of qi (vital energy), jing (essence), and shen (spirit). The first eight Lohan Hands are the same as the eight exercises in a famous set of chi kung exercises called the Eight Pieces of Brocade.

He will then introduce Healing Energy and Meditation Techniques, synchronized with music, light and aromatherapy within the sacred-geometry designed pyramid, to further open and balance the energy channels. The presented Method is based on the synergic combination of the ancient oriental Taoist and Buddhist practices and methods and the most developed experiences of western live sciences. Utilizing the original sources of the thousand-year old but living experiences of the ancient East and putting them together with a well sorted set of the modern Western sciences, the Method may give a useful toolkit into the hands of the humans of our age. It may be used in order to relief the shocks and the stress, and it may bring some ideas about balancing the spirit and soul, as well.