About the Cheng Hsin Center

The Cheng Hsin center is located in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio near a small town called Pipe Creek.

It sits on 14 acres and provides an excellent environment for some of best consciousness and martial arts workshops in the world.

What People Are Saying

Peter,
My impression is that it was necessary for time to pass for you to step fully into the world as a Master of the martial arts. I realize that the title “master” is common in the eastern arts, but truly applies in your case.
It seems to me, from observing you, that you are far more than someone who has gained skill in aiki arts and taiji, boxing, etc — but rather that you are inside the knowledge of movement, gravity, forces, relaxation, slow motion, inertia and momentum, “chi and architecture,” and more — and that you can certainly demonstrate what you talk about.
A rare combination for someone so skilled to also be an effective teacher.
Wishing you good journeys,
Dan Millman

Hello Peter,
I just wanted to email you and tell you how refreshing The Principles of Effortless Power and Cheng Hsin are in a world where it is so difficult to find authentic teachings and their masters. I find the similarities between Cheng Hsin and Zen striking. But what I would find troubling with mainstream Zen is nonexistent in Cheng Hsin. Cheng Hsin seems like Zen unhinged and unified.
Jason Clements

Peter,
I just played with Alex Olmeda a former Wimbledon Champion and he was amazed by my forehand. I used your 5 principles.
R. Richard Saxby CEO

Peter,
I think it one of the most incredible privileges of my entire life to have [had] the opportunity to have the access, and to be in such close association with you, as a student. In your ‘professional field’ (so to speak), it’s probably akin to being able to hang around Buddha or Jesus or Einstein or Newton in their times. This is not flattery, and, I am not ascribing more than normal human divinity to you. However, it pains me to think that such world-class mastery of an art is not recognized and rewarded at a commensurate level.
Ben Ovshinski

Master,
I just was looking for your address to send you some info and dug out the latest newsletter. This time I actually read some! I don’t know if I was more impressed by the intelligent and exhaustive questioning of your community, the simplicity of your answers, or the fact that I could have answered many of them myself! Yes, by means of your dogged persistence you’ve educated even a schluck like me in a discipline of timeless wisdom. In case no one has told you lately, you have filled in the tiny margin for improvement that you had all those years ago!
Love,
Doug Chambers

Hi Peter, It was great to finally meet you and work with you. I learned a lot, and hope to work with you more in the future. I was amazed at your skill and power, amused by your jokes, impressed with your teaching ability, tantalized by the depths I could only guess at. When I try to describe you to my students, I tell them to imagine a combination of a tiger, a Taoist sage, and a clown (like Robin Williams).
Tell me, Peter, what do you want from your students, truly? Do you enjoy being admired, appreciated, blowing people away with your abilities? Or is all that boring and irrelevant to you?
Admiration and appreciation regardless,
Peter Payne

Peter,
I just wanted you to know that I think, and speak, of you often. My work with you changed my life in a manner that is well beyond my ability to meaningfully communicate this change. Before my work with you I had never finished anything in my life. I had absolutely no possibility of participating completely in anything or with anyone.
With my excellent interpersonal skills and charm I could fake it very well and get things to “work out.” But I had absolutely no balls, no idea of accountability, and certainly no idea of the ability or importance of creating intention.
I have now not missed a day of work for 25 years!! Before my work with you I missed 30% in body and 80% in intention with any work that I did. Your demand for commitment to the Mind Course was the first time that I had 100% attendance at anything in my entire life. People around me now consider and use me as a measure of accountability and intention (I know that I still fall far short in my level on intention, but the difference is dramatic.)
I am now one of the 5 best known Acupuncturists in the Bay area. I have a tremendously successful practice, I teach practice management, with great demand, to others. I have become a local radio personality. I have a list of people that want to be mentored in my practice.
My practice has a long waiting list because I have become a brilliant diagnostician and listener. I have this skill directly because of my work with you. My ability at inquiry is less than at my peak while working with you, but is still profound enough to make me one of the best in my field.
I cannot thank you enough for your commitment, your intention, your brilliant teaching, and your love. (This is even more significant because I don’t lose sight of how much you’ve pissed me off, your arrogance, and any other shortcomings that I may attribute you; rightly or wrongly). But any of that absolutely pales in light of your brilliance, your support of my growth, your support of the truth, and your commitment to your work. So, if I can ever be of support to you, please call upon me.
Thank you!!
Be Happy!
John Nieters, L.Ac.