CHI GATHERING 2022

'The annual visit to the Labbnäs Semesterhem is in the third week of August this year. Being at Labbnäs we can get close to Nature - there's the lake, the wind in the trees, the breeze in the reed beds, the sunshine and the rain. The presence of nature is the companion of our own natural presence and is our helper as we strip out the conditioning we've inherited from the past. Everyone has love for the natural world, regardless of their busy lives. But can we live and love in our own presence, despite what's going on? Our purpose is to purify that presence. Then into our lives may come mercy, gratitude and grace. In the chigung work we will focus on the three essential dynamics of movement found in all forms of taichi - because they draw us towards our pure presence. Then it has to be made conscious through recognising what life is, in all its forms and in the formless. So there will be movement, talks and dialogues, and spells of sitting still in silence.'

Read about previous Gatherings below and see the video page for 'The Labbnäs Experience'

CHI GATHERING 2021

'I hadn't been back to Labbnäs since 2018. My work had evolved in that time. I still use chigung to help bring new energy into you and I still speak about living a more conscious life, relatively free of psychological stress. But as the world changes around us we face increasing uncertainty and pressure from events. In many ways change is overdue. We must change. But we need the strength and the will to withstand the pressure. So at this Chi Gathering I spoke about uncertainty and change; what can be known and what cannot be known; the pressure on us to account for ourselves, and to protest and complain; and how to manage the tension of living alongside people at home or at work who are stressed and anxious. We did not use any complicated sets of chigung exercise. I have been 'deconstructing' chigung to identify the basic elements or 'building blocks' that form most movements in taichi - to arrive at simple energy-raising exercises that anyone can do, once they have learned the alphabet of the practice. I was in the early stages of this experiment. So for the people it was like starting all over again. We also just sat doing nothing. In a time of change and pressure there is a tremendous strength in having nothing going on, no momentum, no pressure - allowing ourselves to just be with what's happening at any moment. That brings the strength to live with uncertainty.'

CHI GATHERING 2018

'At the 'Chi Gathering' each year I pull together various strands of the work done in previous months. The work on developing the perception of chi continues, using chi gung and nei gung exercises, talks, dialogues and meditations. My purpose is to use the perception of chi to accelerate the consciousness of the individual. I set that in a bigger picture by speaking about the cosmic power of our evolving consciousness. This year the Gathering is held in the week of the Finnish Midsummer Festival, when sunlight and earth energy together weave a magical atmosphere.'

Booking form and full details here.

CHI GATHERING 2017

Registration: Friday 11.30. Course closes Monday 16.30.
Optional extra stopover to Tuesday 4 July.

Exercises to develop a finer perception of chi and talks on living more consciously.

'At Labbnäs this year we will work on gaining 'more from less' - more chi with less effort, more awareness with less self-reference. In this way we add to our physicality a more purely psychic perception of what life is. Then what we do is done for the love of it. Action and intention, principle and passion, come together.'

Stopover Sessions
You can add on an extra overnight stay on Monday night, spend Tuesday at Labbnäs and possibly take a local excursion that afternoon. The additional cost includes an evening meal, bed, breakfast and lunch, a special session on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, as well as extra chi gung practice. Clive has often been asked to speak about love, sex and relationships and this will be the opportunity for you to ask your questions.

Book early!
Friday to Monday
Meals and shared room: €255pp. Single room €315
Fee: €180 payable by 30 May. Or for late booking: €210
Friday to Tuesday
Meals and shared room: €335pp. Single room €410
Fee: €215 payable by 30 May. Or for late booking: €255
Accommodation costs payable to Labbnas on arrival.
The fee is required in advance and is non-refundable.
Booking: iina.pennanen@gmail.com

You may wish stay longer in the area. The Baltic Jazz Festival takes place nearby, beginning on Friday. Local accommodation is therefore in demand so book early. There are ferry tours of the archipelago leaving from Kasnäs, a few kilometres from Labbnäs.

Useful links:
Archipelago
Festival
Kimito

CHI GATHERING 2016

This annual event is an opportunity to spend five days practising chi gung by the lakeside, learning how to live more consciously and discovering more purpose for your life.

The days are long and light, the air is clear, the lake and the sauna soften the senses. Good food, exercise and the company of people who find their freedom in this lovely place.

CHI GATHERING 2015

‘At the Annual Chi Gathering I aim to review the advances my students in England and Finland have made over the previous year and update various current themes. The emphasis has been moving from simple chi gung exercises like shibashi to inner nei gung practices as we go closer to the core of the body or the heart of the work.
 
Shibashi is still the basis of group work and it is a requirement for attendance that everyone knows the 18 moves of the first shibashi set and can practice them to a basic standard. If you have not worked with me on them before they can be learned from a DVD and materials provided by Sifu Wing Cheung (www.taichi18.com) or I can nominate instructors in Helsinki, Tampere and Ivalo.

This year at Labbnäs I will be introducing Taichi 15. This is a more advanced and little-known set that I have been doing for many years.  It is not commonly taught and is probably unknown in Finland. The 15 exercises are good for drawing chi to the dantien and supporting its circulation.

In my talks over the last couple of years I have been describing the psychological life and have outlined how to escape from it in order to live more consciously. More recently I introduced what I call Mr Gogus, an energy of intelligence, which when made sufficiently conscious accelerates personal evolution. This leads on to an investigation of what living consciously means in practice; to questions about reality, existence, justice and love.’

This is the second year the Gathering has been held at the residential centre, Labbnäs, by the lake on the island of Kimito in a Swedish-speaking part of Finland. It’s a comfortable and homely place to be; the food is good, the air clean and the light over the lake lovely. Practice sessions are outdoors and in a barn. There are two saunas right by the lake.

Fee: €200 (€235 for late bookings)
Accommodation and meals:  €328 
Single Room Supplement: €76

Booking: A non-refundable deposit of €100 is required to guarantee your place. This counts as half the course fee. The remaining €100 of the fee is payable before June 1st.  If you book after that add €35 as a late booking charge. Your other costs are payable to Labbnäs on registration.

Book with Iina Pennanen who will supply details of how to pay and provide joining instructions before the event.

Contact iina.pennanen@gmail.com

Venue details
(in Finnish, Swedish and English)

Labbnäs on Facebook (photos)

Details of last year’s course follow and may be of interest.

CHI GATHERING 2014

Five light-filled days of chi gung and conscious living. There will be grounding exercises and shibashi taichi practice in the mornings and talks in the afternoons.  I will offer various propositions about how to live more consciously. Then there will be questions, answers, dialogues and personal consultations. It is a requirement that participants already know and practice shibashi taichi to a basic standard.

We will make the most of the long hours of daylight and the natural beauty of lake and forest to integrate the energies of earth and sun in our bodies. Then we will use the accumulating chi to power an acceleration of consciousness. New energy is needed to escape from the psychological life, which currently enslaves us. If we are to enter a more conscious life we must personally overcome whatever separates us from becoming a true individual. It is quite possible to rediscover a purpose in living and to stop identifying with the human condition. If we are to make a contribution to the evolution of consciousness we must turn our human experience into real knowledge and release the intelligence and love within us. It is increasingly possible nowadays for men and women to make a quantum leap into a new way of being.  So, are you willing?

Labbnäs is a residential centre catering for up to 35 people in a lakeside setting on the Baltic island of Kimito (pronounced 'Chi-me-too'). The island is the largest in the archipelago around the south-west corner of Finland and is a Swedish-speaking area. The Centre is composed of several buildings with a range of single and twin bedrooms, dining rooms, sauna and a barn where we will work unless the weather is so good that we want to be in the fields along the lakeshore. The property is more a summer camp than an hotel. The accommodation is simple and clean. There are shared bathrooms. The food is said to be very good, using a lot of local produce.

Cost:  5 nights bed and board, shared room, and course fees:  €605  (plus €50 if booked after April 30)

Optional extras:  Additional night (1st July); single room supplement; bus transfers from/to Helsinki airport.

For more details and bookings contact iina.pennanen@gmail.com

See: Labbnäs and Map

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