Why attend M. Ou’s annual Advanced Retreat? What have I experienced that causes me to make it a priority to attend year after year?

It’s my impression that whether 10 students, 100 students, or 1000 students show up, Master Ou’s goal is to use these 2 days, about 6 hours of lectures, to help his students overcome obstacles they are facing – whether the obstacles are energetic, a lack of mental understanding, or emotional fatigue (an inability to implement or sustain that which they desire and know is best).

Master Ou designs each annual Advanced Retreat around a theme, a concept that he wishes to share with his students. The concepts year after year build upon themselves, each providing a unique perspective into the overarching goal of cultivating one’s heart and soul. This allows attendees to gain a broader and deeper understanding of the concepts, gradually increasing the ability to link them together, allowing us to heighten our awareness and eventually gain additional abilities.

The first Advanced Retreat was in 2009. A small sampling of my experiences through the years is below:

One year he shared information about his visions and their meaning in significantly greater detail and far beyond what any of his books or articles have discussed.

In two of the past 13 years, he has taught students in attendance three additional qigong forms that he developed and has been practicing for many years. While he doesn’t normally teach them, he wanted to share these forms with those in attendance to help them with their heart and soul cultivation. During this retreat he stressed that all anyone needs to do is practice the Moving Form, it would be helpful to practice it with high quality, but if one simply practices the Moving Form – a student will accomplish much. But, for his dedicated students who chose to make it a priority to attend those Advanced Retreats from around the world, he wanted to share additional tools to help us on our journey.

One year he focused on the importance of the quality of one’s practice – he took each posture of the Pangu Shengong Moving Form and demonstrating it in detail, so that individuals would reap the rewards of increased accuracy and qi cultivation with their daily practice. This reminded me of the time that an acupuncture professor, teaching first year students how to insert a needle said, “I’ve shown you how to needle, now go practice 2000 times and come back, only then will I be able to help you to refine your skill of needling”.

Another year Master Ou focused on the five virtues. At this retreat he talked about each virtue for an hour (5+ hours in total). He stressed the importance of understanding each virtue and then incorporating the goal of improving each virtue in our daily activities. He discussed the connections between the virtues, where best to start, and targets to aspire to reaching for each virtue. One’s comprehension was awakened to the deep meaning of each of these concepts and one gained a much clearer understanding of the levels of achievement to work towards as one embarked on the journey of mastering each of the virtues.

The first year he offered the Advanced Retreat in 2009, he allocated time for his long-term international students to interact and share stories with the Americans. These firsthand stories of experiences and successes from students who had been practicing 15, 20, 25+ years were truly valuable and inspiring. We had the opportunity to meet some of his earliest students. Motivational to say the least, some of these students were 20+ years older than me, but how young and energetic they were! They shared with us how their hard work through the years had paid many dividends.

During another very valuable annual retreat, Master Ou’s lectures incorporated his background of owning and managing an Engineering Construction Company that built large infrastructure including a factory and an electrical power substation. I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear project management topics being taught at one of the annual engineering leadership workshops I attend, but I was hearing this material taught in a Pangu Shengong workshop. It was fascinating to listen to and participate in discussions related to project management applied to personal development of heart and soul cultivation – have a clear vision, be committed to achieving your vision, develop a plan for your unique circumstances, be dedicated to implementing your plan every day, be humble and reassess your plan’s ability to help you achieve your goal, and then redesign your plan as needed. During this same retreat, Master Ou coached and assisted students in learning how to develop confidence. He taught and demonstrated techniques and then had students deliver ad hoc speeches. Indeed, a very interesting and fun experience!

My synopsis falls short in describing the details of the diverse information shared and discussed and the subsequent knowledge and awareness gained through all of these workshops, but I hope it gives you an idea of the richness of the material taught.

And then there are the stories and lectures he has shared at various Advanced Retreats where he asks for the recording devices to be turned off…

Master Ou sends Qi throughout all his lectures and many times 2-3+ days before a class begins—for this reason alone many sign up to retake his classes over and over again, to benefit from this healing qi. However, for the Advanced Retreats my personal experience is that he begins sending Qi to the students who have signed up for the retreat at least one full WEEK prior to the beginning of the Advanced Retreat to help prepare us for the lessons we will encounter during the weekend retreat.

Through the years, I’ve discussed this with fellow students and asked them about their experiences. They too have confirmed feeling an intense amount of Qi for 15-30+ minutes each day leading up to the Advanced Retreats, adding that it feels like they are receiving love and blessings from M. Ou. Some have shared their experiences of sensing related to emotions and physical sensations, while others have commented that they feel the energy received during the Advanced Retreat lasts for a couple of months.

Having helped organize several workshops through the years, it always surprises me that individuals wait until the last minute to sign up. They are missing out on some of the truly wonderful gifts that M. Ou gives to his students.

Many of these intense qi sessions, for me, have been stronger than his 1:1 sessions. On some occasions my legs shook intensely from the strength and volume of Qi coming through the kidney meridian point #1, located on the soles of the feet. Another year I saw eczema on my fingers significantly clear up in literally one hour. My eyesight has improved, and I’ve experienced pressure from within my tooth that felt like my molar would explode but didn’t—instead a tooth cavity was healed. These are just a small sampling of qi experiences, and these are just some of my own personal experiences. I strongly encourage anyone considering attending, to reach out and talk with long term students about their experiences and lessons learned from M. Ou’s Annual Advanced Retreats.
I hope to see you on Dec 10 and 11.

Much Peace and Happiness,
John Paul