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This week-long retreat is dedicated to an initiation and exploration of the practices of zazen (Zen meditation) and Thai Massage.

Zazen is the practice of just sitting and developing open awareness as to whatever arises and falls in the present moment.

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Thai Massage is the practice of extending that open awareness to another within the context of a thriving healing environment.

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We could consider zazen as the art and practice of taking the backward step to look within. In meditation the body, as we sit upright and maintain stillness, becomes a mirror of sorts where the mind can see itself and its many reflections appear and disappear, and at the same time we manifest this greater awareness that it is not limited to these activities.  

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Zazen is just sitting and the emphasis here is on the word just. Just being wholeheartedly, in full awareness of body, mind and breath, present to the unfolding of this simple practice of moment to moment of just sitting, encountering the resistances and discomfort that inevitably arise as we sit in the openness of just this moment, just this sitting, just being

Thai Massage belongs to one of the five branches of Traditional Thai Medicine. As a natural medicine it uses the Five Element theory to understand individuality and diagnose imbalances.

As a spiritual practice it incorporates the Buddhist principles of Vipassana (deep seeing/insight) and the Four Brahamaviharas (Sublime states of Mind)- Metta, Karuna, Mudita, Uppekha (loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity). 

Powerful stretches and deep acupressure are applied carefully along as a fluid, meditative dance creating a relaxed supported body work that allows a profound sense of space and relaxation and bringing opposites (yin/yang, solar/lunar , masculine/feminine) into union.  A powerful, profound practice where giving is receiving.

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