Chapter 01 — The approach

SHAOLIN

Seven days in a mountain monastery. Standing, moving, breathing, sitting.

Chapter 02 — The courtyard

You arrive before
the first bell.

Wet stone, low mist, and one person already practising.

Chapter 03 — The form

Then it begins,
and keeps beginning.

The same sequence every morning for seven days. It never gets easier; you get quieter.

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01

You will not be taught anything new. You will be shown what you already avoid.

02

The form is old. Your version of it will be clumsy for a long time. That is the whole practice.

03

Most people arrive wanting to be stronger. Most leave quieter instead.

The practice

Four disciplines, one day.

Zhan Zhuang

Standing

Forty minutes before dawn, unmoving. The first week it is uncomfortable; the second it is the part you look forward to.

Taolu

The form

A single sequence, repeated daily. Corrections are small, physical and rarely explained twice.

Qigong

Breath

Worked in the hall while the incense burns down. Measured against the smoke, not a clock.

Zuochan

Sitting

The last hour of the evening. No instruction is given and none is needed.

7
Days
12
Places per retreat
04:40
First bell
1,100m
Elevation
The day

Unchanged since you arrived.

04:40
First bell. Cold water, no speaking until after standing.
05:00
Zhan Zhuang in the courtyard, forty minutes.
06:30
Rice, greens, tea. Eaten in silence.
07:30
The form. Corrections from the front of the hall.
12:00
Rest, or the mountain path if you can still walk it.
16:00
Qigong, then the second form session.
19:30
Sitting, one stick of incense.
21:00
Lamps out.
Enquire

Twelve places, four times a year.

Tell us what you practise now, if anything, and which season you're asking about. Every enquiry is answered personally.

Contact details, address and a working form endpoint go in before go-live — none have been invented here.