Level II Workshop Description

I will be offering a 3-day Level II workshop in three weeks at the Ocean Park Retreat Center. Being close to the ocean will deepen our healing, connecting us to the natural rhythm of our breath, the strength of our breath and the expansiveness of our energetic boundaries. This workshop will bring integration within our being, and connectedness to the outer world.

Level 2: Integrating and relaxing the energy body, quieting the mind
The first aim of Level 2 practice is to integrate and relax the energy body. This involves continued work with physical blockages but at a more detailed level than in Level 1. Increasingly, the energy body works as a unified pattern rather than a set of more or less separate flows. As this integration develops, the energy sensations become smoother. The energy body, just as the physical body, feels more spacious and refined. There is also the realization that many of the sensations we interpret in Level 1 as energy are actually resistances to energy.
The second aim is to quiet the mind. This is a natural result of relaxing the energy body. In Level 1 we experience the physical body calming down and no longer responding to the mind's agitation. In Level 2, the relaxation of the energy body influences the mind: the mind slows down until it simply stops; its construction of space and time stops. This is the calm state, also known as the qigong state.

Level II Practice Benefits:
Integrate within and without physically, energetically and spiritually
Increase personal power, strengthen and clarify boundaries
Improve self authority
Increase contentment, joy
Expand a sense of generosity
Gain openness, non-judgment, leading to compassion for self and others, unconditional love
Work with the thymus gland
Release the web of conflicting desires and emotions which characterizes the ego
Restore our natural, relaxed breathing patterns. Increase our oxygen intake in our body and brain.
Effectively heal illnesses such as cancer through oxygenation.
Develop the qualities of wind (in the five elements) - airiness, mobility, gentleness, and lightness, communications.
Express our creativity, manifesting in the physical world.
Bring emotional healing through self-expression, voicing thoughts and feelings.
Relax the busy mind. Release pensiveness, obsessive and circular thinking. Decrease cravings for refined sugars and carbohydrates.

Time: Friday September 21st 10am to Sunday 23rd 4pm

Taught by: Claire GuYu Johnson

Price: $330 workshop fee, plus $93 for three nights lodging and $75 for food (Thai Vegetarian). Total $498 due by Sept. 17th. (It is $25 extra for beddings and towel, or you may bring your own.)

Place: Ocean Park Retreat Center and Camp, www.opretreat.org in Long Beach, WA (about 4 hours southwest of Seattle)Nestled on 80 beautiful secluded acres on the north end of the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington State, the Ocean Park Retreat Center and Camp is located among evergreen forest, grassy sand dunes and green fields with 1800 feet of Pacific Ocean beach frontage. Families are welcome to accompany.

Register soon! Spaces are limited to 18.


Both Level 2-A and 2-B will be taught.

Level 2A: Integrating the energy bodyAt this level, we continue Level 1 training to increase our energy but with a new emphasis on improving the integrity of the energy body. We add Level 2 preparatory exercises, Level 2 Big Tree, and other practices to open the hips and the back of the pelvis, activate and build the middle dantian, and open and build the central channel.

Level 2B: Relaxing the energy bodyWith the central channel open and the energy field beginning to work as a coherent whole, we now practice how to open and close, expand and contract the boundaries of our energy body and modulate its pulsing intensity. This pulsing is also called body breathing, and we learn to use it in different ways for specific purposes. Its primary application is to relax the energy body and quiet the mind in preparation for pause state in Level 3. Training also continues for gathering energy and increasing the capacity of our central channel and other pathways.

This will be a special workshop. I look forward to rejuvenating by the ocean and big trees with you!