The Treasures

I came to the Eight Treasures Qi Gong more than twenty years ago while studying Chinese Medicine at Yo San University, though “came to” is only part of the story. The practice felt immediately familiar, as if I had known these movements all my life. What I experienced was less an arrival than a return.

Since then, the Treasures have become part of the rhythm of my life—a place I turn to daily for clarity, companionship, and refuge. Again and again, they gently and relentlessly guide me out of the noise of my mind and back into the heart of Nature, where self and world no longer appear as separate objects, but as living expressions of the same movement.

Years ago, while guiding the practice in an Alzheimer’s pavilion at an elder care home, I invited the residents to “move the stars.” One man, who until then had seemed distant and disconnected, suddenly looked up with shining eyes and said: “I remember that.”

Perhaps this is what the Treasures offer us: not something new to learn, but the gift of remembering what is already here…

Inner Seasons

Inner Seasons is an initiatory journey through eight phases of practice. Each phase is a threshold—an invitation to inhabit a different landscape through movement, reflection, and the rhythms of the Eight Treasures. Rather than beginning with its traditional Daoist name, each Treasure is introduced through an archetypal image. As your experience deepens, the original name reveals itself—not as a concept to learn, but as the recognition of something you have already lived.

Between phases, we intentionally pause for two to four weeks of solo practice. These quiet intervals are not breaks from the journey, but an essential part of it. As external instruction recedes, another kind of listening begins to emerge—one guided by the body, by rhythm, and by the subtle conversation between Heaven, Earth, and everyday life. In Daoist cultivation, this kind of listening cannot be taught. It arises when there is enough space for receptivity to something other than human instruction.

Program Calendar

Phase 1 — The Axis
8 sessions
August 8 – September 26, 2026

Phase 2 — The Sword of Letting Go
8 sessions
October 31 – December 19, 2026

Phase 3 — The Garden of Nourishment
4 sessions
January 23 – February 13, 2027

Phase 4 — The Flute of Clear Perception
4 sessions
March 6 – March 27, 2027

Phase 5 — The Backward Rider
4 sessions
April 17 – May 8, 2027

Phase 6 — The Well
4 sessions
May 29 – June 19, 2027

Phase 7— The Way Through
6 sessions
July 10 – August 14, 2027

Phase 8— The Easy Wanderer
11 sessions
September 4 – November 13, 2027

Inner Seasons Integration
December 11, 2027

All sessions take place on Saturdays from 9–11am PT, with recordings available for future viewing.