Exploring the Subtle Body: Essence, Energy, Manifestation (Residential)
Description
Join visiting teacher Paul Weiss for a residential retreat that invites you to explore the subtle ways body, energy, and awareness reveal our rainbow-like nature: vivid, present, and beyond anything we can fully grasp. Through subtle body meditation, interoceptive awareness, and gentle qigong, this retreat offers a direct path for relaxing projection and reconnecting with the freedom already available within experience.
Drawing on Taoist and Buddhist traditions, we will practice subtle body meditations alongside gentle standing and moving qigong to become more at home in the manifest, energetic, and essential nature of body and mind. By learning to feel into experience rather than project onto it, we can cultivate a more intimate, spacious, and joyful relationship with awareness, emotions, and perception itself.
Please join us to:
- Explore subtle body meditations from Taoist and Buddhist traditions
- Practice gentle qigong to awaken energetic sensitivity
- Learn the difference between emotions and emotional states, and how to work with their energetic nature
- Develop interoceptive awareness as a gateway to deep listening
Tilopa reminds us that “the completely open nature of all dimensions and events is a rainbow always occurring yet never grasped.” In this retreat, we will work with the understanding that all experience is the ungraspable energetic arising of the ineffable nature of being. As the mind relaxes its habits of projecting, fixating, and storytelling, we may begin to perceive the open, empty, and creative nature of all arising energy and appearance.
Our weekend practice will center on meditations that help us grow more familiar with the manifest, energetic, and essence nature of body and mind. We will also explore ways to relax the projective tendencies of perception while expanding awareness at the same time. Practices from both Buddhist and Taoist traditions will support the harmonizing of neural and somatic functioning while opening the gates of energy and consciousness.
The foundation of this subtle body and energy exploration will be the sustained integration of Chinese qigong practice. Paul’s gentle standing and moving meditations are especially well suited to awakening sensitivity to the energetic and essence nature of the body, releasing mental and energetic fixations, and cultivating transparent awareness.
Seeing, listening, and feeling into the body offers a powerful entry point into the manifest, energetic, empty, and awake nature of awareness. Through interoception, we begin to shift from projection into deep listening and integration. In time, we may experience the body at the subtle level of energy, and energy at the subtle level of spontaneous being.
This is especially relevant in relation to emotional experience, which shapes so many of the stories of our lives. Together, we will examine emotions and emotional states, learning to meet their somatic and energetic qualities as a pathway to awareness and freedom.
This retreat is not a deep dive into esoteric yoga. Instead, we will gently wade into the waters where appearance, energy, emptiness, and joy meet as one. In doing so, we may discover that the most esoteric teaching is simply the natural expression of what we already are.
All are welcome, regardless of experience or physical ability.
Typical Retreat Schedule
(All times are Eastern time zone)
First Day — Orientation at 6:45 pm. Opening session begins around 7:00 pm.
Last Day — The closing session ends around 11:00 am.
These times are for reference only. A more detailed schedule will be shared in pre-retreat information emailed during the week before the event.
Important Health Information
COVID-19 testing is no longer required. Masks are optional and encouraged for those at higher risk. Please stay home if you are symptomatic in order to protect others.
Scholarships
Natural Dharma Fellowship is committed to making retreats inclusive and accessible. If the full retreat cost would create an undue financial burden, you are encouraged to apply for a scholarship. Please visit the relevant page on the website to learn more about financial aid options.
Please do not apply for financial assistance until after you have registered for the retreat. If the required deposit is an obstacle, please contact the organizers.
Cancellation Policy
We understand that personal circumstances may require a cancellation. In those cases, please get in touch right away. Because cancellations affect room availability and create additional administrative work, the following fees apply:
For cancellations based on the program start date:
- More than 45 days: 100% refund minus a $75 admin fee
- 31–45 days: 50% refund of the required deposit; or 75% refund if registration was paid in full
- 21–30 days: 50% refund of total registration cost
- Less than 21 days: nonrefundable
If you must cancel due to an emergency or extenuating circumstances, please contact the organizers as soon as possible.
Accommodation Options
Suite/Benefactor
The Vajra Suite is a spacious, air-conditioned private bedroom with private deck and bath, furnished with a king bed. This accommodation also includes a separate meditation room with spectacular views of the mountains and a private kitchenette. By choosing this Benefactor room option and paying at a higher rate, you are supporting Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in our efforts to maintain and improve our historic building and the grounds and to make retreat practice more accessible for all. Thank you.
Private Room w/Queen Bed & Ensuite Bath
This private room selection provides a queen size bed and en-suite bath. There are two rooms located on the second floor and one on the third floor. These rooms can also be used by couples staying at Wonderwell. In that case, please select "2 guests," and an adjustment is automatically made in the room price for the second person. The second guest will then receive an email with a link to complete the personal registration questions and will not be considered registered until those questions are answered and received. The queen beds come with 2 pillows, a blanket, and a bedspread. In concern for energy and water conservation we ask guests to bring their own queen bed linens and bath towels. Wonderwell does rent sheets and towels when it's necessary for those flying in for retreat - $10 for bed linens and $5 for a bath towel. Please select those add-ons during the registration process if you need it. The rooms can be drafty at times; each room may vary in temperature depending on the season. Fans and heaters are in the closet. You may bring anything else that you need for your comfort. We ask that guests bring their own queen bed linens and bath towels. Fireplaces in bedrooms are not to be used and no candles please.
Shared Room w/Ensuite Bath
If you register for a shared double room, you must accept sharing the space with someone you don't know. Each shared room in this price range contains two twin beds and an ensuite bathroom.
Shared Room w/Hall Bath
If you register for a shared double room, you must accept sharing the space with someone you don't know. Each shared room in this price range has two twin beds with a hallway bathroom shared with another room.
Men's Dorm
The men's dorm has 3 twin beds and a bathroom serving only this dorm.
Women's Dorm
The women's dorm is on the second floor, has 6 twin beds and shares a hallway bathroom with a double sink, two privacy stalls and one shower.
Camping/Tent or Vehicle
Please click on "More Details" below to read about the possibilities for tent or vehicle camping.
Camping/Self-Contained Vehicle
The self-contained vehicle camping option applies to campers that BOTH meet our vehicle requirements and contain full bathroom facilities.
Vajra Suite
Located on the first floor, this suite has easy access via a small private deck. Inside there is a spacious bedroom, a private bath and kitchen, and a comfortable sitting/meditation room. The Vajra Suite looks out over the rear grounds to the forest and the mountains beyond—with the added benefit that the view is visible from the comfort of the king-size bed. The kitchen features a medium-sized fridge, hotplate (no actual stove), microwave, toaster oven, and electric kettle. There are pots and pans, dishes, utensils, knives, and cutting boards. There is very little in the way of spices, condiments or cooking oil, so it's best to bring with you what you like.
Garden Level Suite
Although technically "in the basement" of Wonderwell, this suite is bright and comfortable and fully above ground all along the west side of the building. It features two bedrooms with single beds (both for your use, perhaps one as a meditation room, one for sleeping), a private bathroom, and a private kitchen/sitting/dining area with a bank of west-facing windows to take in the views. The private entrance is accessed by a set of outdoor stairs, and this door opens directly onto the beauty of the rear grounds and gardens. This kitchen features a full-size fridge (with freezer), electric stove w/oven, microwave, toaster, and electric kettle. There are pots and pans, dishes, utensils, knives, and cutting boards. There is very little in the way of spices, condiments or cooking oil, so it's best to bring with you what you like.
Teachers
Organization
Paul Weiss
Place
Place map
Categories
Contact Information
Thu, May 14