In-Depth Session: Saturday, July 16, 2022 | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM (PT)
The Life~Breathing~Life sessions are about breathing, qigong, meditation, and health. It is about developing your capacity to breathe and actualizing all the benefits that can come from the skillful development of breathing. The intention is to establish and deepen the unique skills of cultivating the breath and then letting go of that cultivation.
This Daylong is part of a four-part series with each Daylong building off the previous offering. The first daylong of this series is being offered on July 16th with participants offered an opportunity to join all four Daylongs. For those who cannot attend all four sessions in real-time, there will be an opportunity to signup for a recorded version of the other days so you can experience the full instructions.
Breathing is essential to life, and breathing is life. There is nothing more central to life than the breath. It has been said that ‘Breath is Spirit.’ In ancient cultures, the word for breath is also a word for Spirit. Breath is connected to every domain of life – from physical through to Spiritual. Yet, most humans take breathing for granted and never develop the great potential that breath-cultivation can bring.
The Life~Breathing~Life
Meditation and mindfulness of the breath go hand in hand. However, practicing mindfulness of the breath is a passageway and not the destination. By going through and beyond mindfulness of the breath, new and extraordinary pathways to insight and vibrant health open up. Meditation and Qigong in QigongDharma use the wisdom and skills of the ancient arts and modern scientific understanding of breath to build a holistic practice. The practice engages standing and seated forms in stillness and movement to bring the best results for deepening meditation and qigong.
Physical and mental health benefits connected with skillful breathing practice are numerous. States of concentration and calmness happen naturally from the refinement of these practices. In addition, skillful breath practice can contribute to insight into the characteristics of the Universe and genuine realization of the ‘True Self’ by any name.
In cultivating the breath, qigong practitioners learn to enhance the benefits of natural breathing and feel the breath throughout the entire body. You can also learn to direct healing and restorative qi throughout your body and extend that positive energy to others or nature.
Practice becomes finer and subtler while becoming more precise and transparent to the practitioner. Any exploration of the breath and breathing practices will not be exhaustive. Breath cultivation and refinement are life-long skills. The breath is automatic most of the time, as it rightly should be. In this practicum on breathing, we connect to the wisdom and insight of ancient pulmonauts, together with current scientific knowledge. This is always connected to your own direct first-person experience to positively and dramatically improve our health in every way. Your qigong and meditation will flourish in ways you never expected.
This study/practice course will be in four In-Depth Daylong sessions. Each unique session will build upon the previous one. Using the daylong format and extending the sessions over months allows for the integration of your practice. We are connecting with essential principles and a spectrum of exercises and meditations.
The unfolding process gives us time to establish and experience the changes we will experience. The time between daylongs is an opportunity to experience and practice the skills and personally embody mindfulness. What is essential is your direct experience and the chance to establish life-affirming and consciousness-transforming patterns for your entire lifetime. You are not trying to match your experience to a predetermined goal or ideal.
The syllabus includes the specifics of each course, including practices and meditations we will practice and study. Other teachings may be added to these sessions as needed. You are encouraged to continue with the course elements to benefit your health and well-being.
You may be familiar with some of the qigong forms we will use. However, this practice time allows you to temper your knowledge with fresh perspective, experience, and appreciation. As always, the sessions are recorded and reviewable for everyone registered. Additional written and audio/video material may be provided to support your ongoing practice during and after the program is complete.
To embody the spirit of generosity in modern times, we have created a sliding scale for our offerings to honor individual situations. If the low end of the sliding scale is still not affordable, we invite you to request a scholarship and contribute the amount appropriate for you. All requests need to be made at least 72 hours before the session begins. All communication is confidential.
Scholarship Request Code: 071622Daylong (Copy this code for use on the request form)