Dissolving Blockages Inside Yourself and Others

with Master Bruce Frantzis

Daoist meditation can take many forms, but a unique and central part of the Daoist Water Tradition is resolving physical and energetic blockages in the body through the process of dissolving. And this meditation is not simply done sitting, but also standing, with movement, and while interacting with another person. And in more advanced practices you not only work with the energies inside your body to eventually release them but also do the same in others. We all have subtle energies, so learning to both identify and then interact with them lets you understand them at a deeper level. Blockages can affect you mentally, physically, emotionally, and beyond, and are a necessary path to freedom and comfort in oneself and in the universe.

In this retreat, Bruce will teach how to bring up and dissolve tensions and blockages inside the deepest part of your being. Each week will go further into the body and the mind, allowing increasingly greater release. For In-Person participants, special emphasis will be placed on using Push Hands to identify and eliminate contraction. This event will be the first time that Bruce is teaching a Tai Chi meditation practice in the context of interacting with another person. As many of you seasoned practitioners know, Bruce has often stated the different methods Daoists used in practicing meditation: sitting, standing, lying down, moving, and interacting with another person. In this retreat you will learn the final and most complex piece.

What You Will Learn

The topic of this course is meditation from various angle, but each week we’ll be going deeper and deeper

Week 1

• Learn how to feel and recognize what you’re experiencing in body, mind, and your deeper energy channels, as this is critical to meditation.
• Learn various Push Hands techniques and styles so they correlate to your inner awareness, feeling, and resolve what’s happening inside your body and mind (examples: traumas, false confidence, and anxiety among other blockages produce different results in terms of what’s happening deep inside you).
• Get how to make Push Hands relatively smooth within the confines of the guidelines and form of Push Hands. This will allow your movements, mind, and energetic flow to become smooth also, aiding meditation.

Week 2

• Learn how to recognize what is blocked inside you and the differences between these blockages (examples: how do you recognize when you feel attacked? when you feel fearful?)
• Recognize and dissolve the deeper blocked things in your body and mind that Push Hands bring up.

Week 3

• Learn how to extend and project power within your body, mind, and the deeper energy channels without contracting emotionally or mentally within the confines of Push Hands.

Lessons will be communicated in the traditional way, by teaching what is determined to be of greatest value to the students in the room. Course content is not conveyed in a rigid, checklist fashion, but rather flows spontaneously with what is emerging in the teaching and from those receiving it. What is listed above is a guideline and may change depending on those in the room.

Learning from a Master

Bruce’s Teaching Style

Great for Beginners and Advanced Practitioners: 

This is a unique opportunity for beginners to attend a comprehensive course focusing on several modes of meditation (e.g. sitting, standing, moving, and partner practices). In this three week immersive retreat, you will learn the basics of the Dissolving Method of Daoist Meditation. He will also provide instruction on Tai Chi Push Hands. If you do not know Tai Chi or Qigong you will be taught a simple exercise to use.

For more advanced practitioners, you will learn deeper levels of the dissolving technique and how to apply it to your ongoing Tai Chi, Qigong, and Push Hands practice. Bruce will also dive into partner exercises in more depth than he does done before.

Perfect Solo or with a Partner:

Since this is a practice based on interacting with another person; couples, partners, families, and friends may find great use and benefit from this event in attending together. However, there are also benefits to coming without a dedicated practice partner. As is often stated, the best way to fundamentally grasp the process of any internal art is to practice with many different partners of all types, shapes, and sizes, so you feel and understand the differences between one person and another and how your energy changes in relation to different people. All of us are truly unique and individual, and one of the best ways to actualize and embody this understanding is by engaging in internal art practices with others. 

In-Person Attendees Receive Additional Support

Intellectual Understanding vs. Embodied Understanding

There can be an ocean of difference between understanding something conceptually and absorbing it as a felt reality in body, energy, and mind. Truly grasping this difference can transform your practice and multiply its benefit to your life.

This event will be focused on not only giving you a greater understanding of meditation within Tai Chi, Qigong, and Push Hands and the context of how to apply it, but more importantly leading you into feeling the quality of mind necessary for these practices to take root within you.

Bruce and his instructors will be doing everything possible to give you the best opportunity to leave the course with the felt sensation of what you’re trying to accomplish in your own practice. Bruce’s teachings are transmission-based and offered in a consecrated space, so in-person attendance is always recommended.

You will also receive:

• Personal support from Certified Energy Arts Instructors who will be available each day.
• Optional group practices to solidify what you learn and take advantage of the group energy in our sealed space.
• Recordings of instruction for all WEEKEND CLASSES in your online Kajabi account. (As the weekday classes are an exclusive, in-person-only option, recordings will not be made available.)

Course Schedule

This event is a complete 3 week package. When the online option becomes available, it will only include the weekend teachings, Saturdays and Sundays.

Bruce tailors his teachings to the students who attend in-person, so in-person attendance is always recommended.  Since the focus of the practices taught during this 3 week course will involve interacting with another person to help each other find and dissolve blockages, we’ve designed the course to follow a weekend and weekday structure.

• Weekends will be more focused on Tai Chi, Qigong, and seated meditation practices that can be done solo and are more accessible to online viewers or people unable to attend in-person. Weekends will be Saturdays and Sundays.
• Weekdays will focus more on using these practices in the context of Push Hands while interacting with another person. Weekdays will loosely be Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays with Thursdays and Fridays off to rest, though Bruce may change this structure at his discretion based on the energy level and practice of the people in the room.

Schedule for In-Person Attendees at the Energy Arts Training Center:

Saturday, June 10th, 2023
9:00-9:45 am Registration/Check-in
10:00 am-12:00 pm and 2:00-4:00 pm First Classes

Saturday-Wednesday*, June 10-28th, 2022
10:00 am-12:00 pm Morning Session
2:00-4:00 pm Afternoon Session

*Thursdays and Fridays will be off to rest, though Bruce may change this structure at his discretion based on the energy level and practice of the people in the room. We will still aim to have the course’s end date be Wednesday, June 28th to accommodate travel plans.

Course Fees

$2,497 or 3 Monthly Payments of $837