Review Anual Tai Chi Retreat With Peng You Lian
The Annual Retreat Tai Chi and Qi Gong for Health and Longevity was held from October 7th to October 9th 2011, with the impressive participation of the Grand Master Peng You Lian, who came from Ontario, Canada, exclusively for this event organized by Shaolin Temple Mexico at the Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. This place is very special for the organizers because it’s peaceful and harmonious and it’s also the perfect setting for Master Peng could, share his knowledge with more than 100 participants from all over Mexico.
Prelude to the event, an exhibition was held on Thursday 6th night at Mexico Shaolin Temple, where the Tai Chi and Kung Fu students and teachers danced and performed different Martial Arts routine. The audience was very happy and the guest of honor was very pleased with the participation of everyone. Everyone’s excitement could felt when they saw Master Peng smiled at us and nodded to us indicating he wore the shirt of the Mexican National Team offered by our Master Daniel Corona, all the audience gave them a standing ovation.
At the retreat, teachers, students, a nice group of elders, some beginners, and the invaluable staff members of the Shaolin Temple gathered to get ready for the event. After being lodged and enjoyed a healthy and delicious food, the first session of the retreat took place
To describe each session with Master Peng is necessary to combine the balance of spirit, mind, softness, strength and beauty of all his movements, overjoyed by happiness and good humor. He also had special interest to instructors who were in charge of groups of elders. So the expectation was great, who had not had the opportunity to know his way of working had a profound impact on his simple and direct instructions; conducting, requiring the group firmly in a series of exercises that require attention not only physical but mental; both young and older adults trained very hard, trying not to forget what we have learned about heat, without feeling three hours spent. To be honest, this writer had not practiced a lot consecutively. But these shared practices offered us peace, courage and willingness to train a little bit more.
We made an arrangement to meet the next day at 8 am. In our specific case of three unknown persons sharing a room (we got a long with each other very well), took turns to take a shower in the morning (honestly the monastery is in a closed order, no phone, no television, no music), we did not expect the luxuries household, so making a big effort we face the cold and surprise! We could take a shower with warm water, we enjoyed a quick shower hoping everybody could do the same, and it happened like that. The weather invited us to take a little walk by these quiet gardens (point going on about it, in our beautiful, chaotic and crowded Mexico City we are not used to enjoy them, we always walk in haste); we oxygenate our lungs with light in the morning (we usually walk down the streets at this time trying to get to work) so when we arrived to the dining room to enjoy our delicious and well-earned breakfast, we could breath oxygen and peace… it was amazing but despite the hard training of the previous day, at least I slept like a baby, with the bonus of not feeling any pain in the body.
After breakfast sumptuously (despite being simple, the menu was substantial, hearty and delicious) we had an hour off to prepare for the second session with Master Peng.
This time the seminar was divided into three sections: health exercises Qi Gong, a technique that can be applied to elders, people with disabilities who cannot stand, even those who use wheelchairs, the official Tai Chi 8 form and fan routine.
