What Happens on a Qigong & Meditation Retreat Week?

 

 When I arrived on Holy Isle in September 1999 Lama Yeshe Rinpoche gave me instructions for my year of retreat. To my surprise Lama provided only two guidelines one of which was to not do anything unless I could rejoice. Not what I had expected to hear. The subtly of this has been filtering through ever since: can I also rejoice when things fall apart as well as on a sunny day when all's well?

Lama's instruction is a precious gift that I share freely with others through Qigong and T'ai-Chi, which I have been practising and teaching for many years. When in the summer of 2003 The Centre of World Peace and Health opened I immediately offered to lead Qigong & Meditation Retreat weeks. I knew from my year on Holy Isle that this place would make a superb holiday destination offering beauty, wellbeing and adventure. 

At the beginning of each course I guide everyone through a deep relaxation that allows his or her retreat to begin after the convoluted journey to the island. Over a week or weekend course participants, always a mix of ages, backgrounds, beliefs and abilities, learn the gentle, releasing and healing movements of Wild Goose Medical Qigong. We practice this flowing form alongside simple peaceful mind and loving kindness meditations. People who have arrived as strangers rapidly form friendships as the work and the island weave their magic. Many are at a watershed in their lives. The company, the practise sessions and the non-denominational spiritual sanctuary of Holy Isle provide a space for insight and inspirational choices to bubble through. 

 

As well as the Qigong and meditation the island itself is restorative. In the afternoons, which are kept free for all to enjoy its beauty, participants might climb the mountain even though their greatest fear is of heights - and return filled with glowing confidence. Another day they may help in the garden, take walks along the shores and some plunge into the cold waters of the Firth of Clyde. All reasons to rejoice! The volunteers who so generously look after Holy Isle ask visitors to help in the kitchen. These could be labelled Laughter Sessions, for this is what is heard during the cleaning and washing up.

Relaxed and revitalized participants take back home with them skills to sustain their own ability to rejoice. Katherine's feedback speaks for many:

'What a wonderful, magical and transformational week. I arrived tired and depleted and now have fully restored, and with so much more than I ever imagined.'

And the other instruction that Lama Yeshe gave me at the beginning of my retreat year? I'll share this with you when next we meet on Holy Isle, the perfect place to study the art of rejoicing!