Workshops

Below are listed the workshops which will be held at the Conference.  They are listed alphabetically by author’s last name.

Barlow, Aurora. Traditional Daoist Qigong for Changing Tendons and Cleaning Bone Marrow
One traditional qigong practice is “changing the tendons and cleaning the bone marrow.” Both tendons and marrow need to be strengthened and made pliable for the three treasures to flow freely in the body. We will be covering just one practice that has been handed down over the ages known as “The 12 Devas.” Chinese lore attribute the 12 Devas to a traveling yogi from India who offered them to the students who were spending hours sitting in meditation. Many of the postures are very close to some yogic postures yet they have been given Daoist names and practitioners have added their own Chinese style. These basic exercises have been written about and handed down by many teachers.  In my research I have found several different styles. In this workshop I will teach one style that I have found simple and effective.
BIO:
Aurora is certified in both Kripalu and Kundalini Yoga. She has been teaching yoga since 1996. Aurora has a Master’s degree in acting, and has certifications in Qi Gong, Hypnosis, Feng Shui, massage and other healing arts. She is the author of the forthcoming book “The Skillful Art of Vibrant Living.”

Cohen, Ken. Hunyuan Qigong: The Healing Legacy of Daoist Hu Yaozhen
Hunyuan Qigong is a powerful system of health and longevity exercises and meditations from China. It is the legacy of Hu Yaozhen, the Daoist priest and healer who coined the term “medical qigong” and was one of the first to apply qigong in hospitals. Primordial Qigong is Cleansing because it cleanses the body of impure and stagnant qi; Rejuvenating because it recharges the body with fresh healing energy, and circulates energy through the body’s major meridians; and Harmonizing because it creates a feeling of harmonious unity with the Dao. You will learn how to practice core exercises from this system and enjoy a discussion of the health and spiritual benefits. Beginners and all levels are welcome.
BIO: Ken 高漢 Cohen, M.A., M.S.Th. 
Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Energy Medicine, is an internationally renowned Qigong and Taijiquan Master and former principle apprentice to Daoist Abbot Huang Gengshi. He has more than forty years experience and is director of the Qigong Research & Practice Center (www.qigonghealing.com) in Colorado. Ken is the author of The Way of Qigong (Ballantine Books), Taoism: Essential Teachings (Sounds True), and more than 200 journal articles on spirituality and health.

Diel, Caryn Boyd. Summer Qigong
This Workshop will guide students in a “Summer Qigong” form to tone and calm the heart qi. We begin with Qigong warm-ups which will include a series of daoyin stretches to open specific meridians and relax the pelvic floor. I will the lead participants in the Six Healing Sounds a silent meditation.
BIO:
Caryn Boyd Diel is the founder of White Cloud Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Caryn enjoys teaching others how the human energy field contributes to health and the evolution of consciousness. She combines cutting edge quantum physics with ancient Daoist teachings into her ever expanding curriculum. She teaches Energy Medicine, Chi Nei Tsang, Qigong and Meditation, Daoist Studies, Healing Love for Men and Women, and other classes around the world.
With a Master’s degree in Education; Guidance and Counseling from UC Davis, a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and a Universal Healing Tao instructor, Caryn is able to create potent learning experiences for students of all ages. Caryn also has an Asian Body Therapy and Energy Medicine practice in Santa Fe, NM which incorporates more than 35 years of study in the areas of counseling, bodywork and healing.

Favorito, Marie. Qigong for the Courageous
Before you leave the conference, I invite you to join me in a rejuvenating qigong workshop taught with humor and joy. This session is all about the artistry and practice of qigong that brings you into what is known as the “Qigong State.” I welcome you to be brave and participate, experience my unique blend of standing and moving qigong from the basic to the more advanced.
My primary influential qigong teachers are Grandmaster Mantak Chia, Master Wei Lun Huang and Master Li Jun Feng. I will be sharing with you a blend of movements from various forms; i.e., Golden Light, Taiji, Iron Shirt, Ba Qua, and Healing Sounds. To complete our session, we will sit in meditation to harness the collected life force.
BIO:
Marie Favorito, owner and director of the Boston Healing Tao school of Daoist practices. She is a Senior Instructor in the Universal Healing Tao, serves on the UHT Council, is past president of the Healing Tao Instructors Association and Chair of Certification. She has been a part of establishing the UHT standards for teacher certification worldwide. Marie also has a private qigong healing practice which includes medical qigong and Chi Nei Tsang Abdominal Massage.
For over 28 years, she has been a leading instructor for Daoist practices as taught by Grandmaster Mantak Chia. She is one of the few UHT Senior Instructors in North America authorized to certify new instructors. She holds 14 advanced certifications in taiji, qigong, and many levels of meditation.

Guen, Michael. Advanced Nei Gong (Internal Power) 内功 Training Methods: A Comparison of Classical Styles
“Fan Tan Jing” (Repelling Energy) 反弹劲 is one of the highest mind-body-spirit attainments in Chinese internal martial arts. Couched deeply in Daoist alchemy and principles of Chinese medicine, the secrets of cultivation do not easily reveal themselves. In this light-spirited workshop, Michael compares the Repelling Energy development methods of the Yang family Taijiquan 杨家太极拳, Yin Fu Baguaquan (Eight Trigrams Boxing) 尹福八卦拳 and Dao Gong (Daoist Meditation) 道功 lineages that he was trained heavily in. In addition to sampling some rare advanced training techniques, participants will find it utterly fascinating how over China’s 5000 year history such radically different training approaches were developed from a single Daoist root.
BIO:
Michael Guen received his PhD in psychology from Boston University in 1988. From an early age he studied the Internal arts and Chinese medicine in Boston and Asia. During the course of his study he had the fortune of getting close to the fourth generation patriarchs of Yang family Taijiquan (Yang Shouzhong 杨守中 – eldest son of Yang Chengfu 杨澄甫) and Yin Fu Baguaquan (Imperial bodyguard Gong Baotian’s 宫宝田 village relative and cloak and bowl disciple, Gong Baozhai 宫宝斋). Separately, Michael also had predestined close interactions with masters of several Daoist Meditation branches, among them the Liumendao (Liu Branch of Daoist Meditation) 刘门道 in Chengdu, Kunlunxian (Himalayan Immortals) 昆仑仙 of Liu Peizhong 刘培中 in Taiwan and the Zhengyi 正一道 Sect of Daoism of Kwan Saihung (Wandering Daoist)关世宏. A tournament martial art fighter in his twenties and forty-year practitioner of Chinese medicine, Michael enjoys sharing his plethora of integrative experience and insights about the mysteries of the Far East 东方的神秘. You can reach Michael at info@michaelguen.com.

Johnson, Mark. My Training in Daoist Exorcism
This workshop with a slide presentation will cover in great detail my 49 day intensive training to become a Daoist exorcist. I then go into exorcisms I have been invited to attend with their results. The Dragon School maintains that communication is paramount and it starts with analyzing the vein configurations in the upper eye to determine what kind of spirit is possessing the body. Once that is established, communication can continue. If that is impossible, then different measures are taken to expel the spirit. This workshop will be relaying personal experiences and not just book learning.
BIO:
Mark started his Daoist studies at the Taoist Sanctuary in 1971 with Khigh Dhiegh and Chao Li Chi. After 3 years of study in Tai Chi, the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching, he traveled to Taiwan to study acupuncture. It was there he met his Daoist Master and apprenticed with him for over 21 years. After inviting his teacher to come to the states, Mark was trained in many schools of Tai Chi, Qigong, Feng Shui, acupuncture and Exorcism. Mark has been teaching and practicing these Daoist disciplines for 40 years. He has sold over 700,000 Tai Chi DVDs, officiated in over 50 Tai Chi tournaments and has taught many famous people including Frances Ford Coppola, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Ralph Macchio, Mickey Rourke and many others.

Neville, Robert. Taiji quan: An Introduction to Its Practice
The Taiji workshop  will discuss but mainly demonstrate and practice elements of the Wu (Long) Style of Taijiquan.  We will learn, practice, and analyze the first of the six series that make up to 108 forms of the basic movement.  Participants should wear comfortable shoes and clothing that does not restrict movement.  The exercise will be practiced at an easy level, though it will seem strenuous by the end.  Taiji is good for a great many things and activates a deep spiritual tradition, some of which we will discuss,  but only if it is done for no reason other than its own perfection.
BIO:
Robert Cummings Neville is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University.  He is the author of two dozen books, including Boston Confucianism and is a Confucian Scholar-Official, having held a number of administrative positions at Boston University and elsewhere.  He studied Taijiquan for twelve years with Sophia Delza, editing two of her books on the subject.  She was a student in Shanghai of Grandmaster Ma Yueh-Liang who was a student of a student of Wu Chuan Yu who created the Wu Style as a variation of the early Yang Style in the late 19^th century.  Neville was born in Missouri and has played Taijiquan in every continent on Earth, as far north as St. Petersburg and as south as Rio, as low as the Indian Ocean beach at Durban and as high as the mountains near Urumqi.

Phillips, Scott P. Conditioning Emptiness: Where Martial Arts Meet Spontaneous Luminosity
The presumption of this workshop is that freedom can not be learned but the habits of freedom can be conditioned through play.  Daoyin in martial arts, theater, and hermit yogas, all posit that emptiness can be discovered and verified in the “pull” between wildness and stillness. In this workshop we will deploy daoyin as twelve animals each with five elements in continuous expression and transition. This form of Operatic Daoyin comes from the animal stage roles of southern China, it is interactive and involves lots of rolling around and movement on all fours. This workshop is open to all levels of experience, loose clothing and a sense of humor will be helpful.
BIO:
Scott P. Phillips  began training in 1977, under Bing Gong – a senior student of Kuo Lien-Ying, one of the first Chinese ‘internal’ martial artists to begin teaching in the United States.  From Bing he studied Northern Shaolin, as well as Yiquan and Guan Ping Yang Taijiiquan.  Scott is also a long time student of George Xu (Xu Guoming), with whom he studied Chen-Style Taijiquan, Liuhe Xinyiquan, Lanshouquan and Baguazhang. Scott has been teaching children and adults for the last 20 years, including 5 years at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and 10 years with Performing Arts Workshop.  He has studied and performed in several dance traditions, including in the Congolese dance traditions taught by Malonga Casquelourd and in the Kathak (Indian Classical) tradition of Chitresh Das.   Scott was member of Orthodox Daoism in America where he studied religious Daoism for 9 years with Liu Ming.

Rinaldini, Michael. Circle Walking: Moving Daoist Cultivation
In this workshop, we will walk in a circle with awareness and alertness of full body-mind harmony between ourselves and the universe. Our practice originates from ancient Daoist longevity exercises and internal alchemy practices, and influenced by the martial art Ba Gua Zhang. The key elements of this way of cultivating one’s qi is the practice of walking in a circle while holding various postures in order to open and harmonize the meridians of the body thus producing a strong and healthy body while also calming the mind and refining the spirit. The final goal is to realize internal stillness in the midst of movement and change. The workshop will start with a complete qigong warm-up and finish with a brief Daoist meditation.
BIO:
Michael Rinaldini (Li Changdao) is the Director of Qigong & Daoist Training Center, and a 22nd generation Longmen (Dragon Gate) Daoist priest. Shifu Michael founded the American Dragon Gate Lineage with the support of Master Wan Su Jian from Beijing, China. The Lineage is a non-monastic community of members devoted to the spreading of Daoism and the cultivation of the Dao. Shifu Michael is a Certified Qigong Teacher at the highest level (Level IV) by the National Qigong Association, and a certified senior Bagua Xundao Gong Qigong Teacher by Master Wan Su Jian (Beijing, China). He offers Qigong Certification Programs for Advanced Trainings, and trains/ordains students as Daoist priests of the ADGL. Shifu Michael lives in Sebastopol, CA. www.qigongdragon.com

Sat Hon. The Secret of the Golden Flower: Forms of Daoist Alchemical Meditation
The Secret of the Golden Flower (Jinhua zongzhi 金華宗旨) is a practical guide and manual for the inner alchemical cultivation, it is attributed to the Daoist immortal Lu,  through the use of visualization and mind control of the flow and circulation of the Qi, breath, the alchemist achieves the state of immortality.  This teachings was in particular was transmitted in the 1800 to a small group of alchemist, the foremost well known German missionary, Richard Wilhem received a handwritten copy of the text and translated into German which later translated into English with a forward by the eminent psychologist, Carl Jung, The founder of the Jungian analysis.  Here, I will use both the original classical Chinese text as well as the English translation as reference to inform on the matter of inner circulation of the energy and seminal sexual recycling and regeneration.
BIO:
Sat Chuen Hon was born in China and received certificates from Guangzhou University in TCM (China), the CCAOM (USA), BS in Psychology from Princeton, and MFA in Dance Therapy from Connecticut College. He is the author of Taoist Qigong for Health and Vitality. He established and serves as president of ATPS, Inc., a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the preserving and teaching of ancient Taoist practices (www.qigongtherapy.com).

Stewart, Jampa Mackenzie. Cultivating the Elixir Field: The Dantian Revisited
Activating and working with the da tian or elixir field, an area considered to be the paramount energy center in the body, is one of the most essential practices in Daoist meditation and Qigong. Dantian cultivation is also central to Buddhist meditation, Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan), and most Chinese and Japanese martial arts, such as karate and judo, as well as to many other Asian arts, such as flower arranging, painting, calligraphy and dance. Despite its vital importance, there exists a great deal of myth, confusion and discrepancy regarding the location, and functions and meaning of this most powerful energy center. You will learn the etymology of the term, explore the different views on its location and functions presented within the various arts, and also receive a simple yet powerful meditation for awakening and cultivating your dantian. All are welcome.
BIO:
Serving as director of Healing Tao Institute (www.healingtaoinstitute.com) in Colorado and Texas. Jampa is the author of Foundations of Taoist Practice (HTI Publications), The Life of Gampopa and The Life of Longchenpa (Shambhala/Snow Lion). Past president of the National Qigong Association,  he has produced over ten videos on Qigong and meditation, and has written over fifty published articles on Daoism, Buddhism, Qigong, Chinese medicine and Taijiquan.