Taoist Tai Chi Society | Australia and New Zealand International Retreats

In November, members from around Australia and New Zealand gathered in Perth and Tauranga for two five-day international retreats.

The feeling of coming together in person, and with an international instructor for the first time in five years, was palpable.

It was an incredible opportunity to build on the already strong foundations developed over the last five years through the Zoom discussions and reflections on the teachings of Master Moy.

The following reflection from a member offers insight into the transformative experience of the retreats.

Our deep gratitude to the Fung Loy Kok Board for assigning an international instructor and supporting us in hosting these retreats.

When I found it – it felt euphoric

I recently attended the 5-day international retreat at the National Centre in Bayswater, WA. For me, the retreat felt like an opportunity to recommit myself and to reinvigorate my personal practice after years of Covid, raising small children and generally being too busy.

Prior to the first set of the retreat, we were told to remember what that set felt like as we were going to draw a line between the tai chi that we brought with us and what we explored and shared in the retreat and took back out into the world.

We were particular in what we practised. Our feet pushed the pedals that started our ground-force engine. We sought expansion, contraction, turning around the spine and coiling in everything.

When the retreat leader spoke of expansion while demonstrating White Stork Spreads Wings I saw and felt this almost spellbinding sense of expansion that seemed to continue on and on in all directions. I looked for that expansion in everything I did for the next few days at the retreat. When I found it – it felt euphoric.

Contraction didn’t make the same sense to me as expansion did, but I didn’t really mind. I continued to focus on all the good things I was getting from the retreat and I just tried to get a bit better each day.

Around the fourth day of the retreat the expansion started to lead naturally to a sense of contraction. A sense of elasticity would lead to a sense of opening and dropping and being more grounded. This then led to further expansion and turning and coiling as each move proceeded at its own pace.

By the fifth day of the retreat I realised that the back injury that I experienced when I was 20 years old had shifted. For the first time in 32 years my body wasn’t trying to hold itself together through constant muscle tension. I was just standing there with my hips and lower back open. I felt relaxed, happy and unshackled.

What was being shared was too simple to understand in some ways. I agree in that we were just doing tai chi with a particular focus. But what I experienced was transformative. At the retreat I got to stand on the top of a mountain and enjoy a peak experience.

Since I have returned home, I haven’t forgotten that experience. I continue to recall and practice what we learned and shared at the retreat with the aim of getting a bit better each day.

– Dan, Sydney