The Cheng Hsin Fall Retreat
Register in Person
Register on Zoom
**Zoom Possibility for participating in the Fall Retreat. For details see below or CLICK HERE.
The Cheng Hsin Fall Series takes place each year in October and consists of four consecutive workshops exploring the Cheng Hsin Consciousness work.
We start with a three day Communication and Relationship workshop, created by Peter Ralston but facilitated by Brendan Lea. Following this warm up we move on to the most central and indispensable consciousness workshop of Cheng Hsin, Experiencing the Nature of Being (ENB). It is the foundational, must-do workshop that can be repeated several times. It is the week that most closely relates to the material expressed in The Book of Not Knowing. Following the ENB is a brand new workshop called Transcending Self (TSW), and then the Contemplation Intensive (CI).
Though each of these workshops can be done alone, they are designed for consecutive study. We recommend that you participate in the entire three and a half weeks. Taken together, the Fall Series is a powerful and transformative investigation of consciousness. Use the links nearby to get more details about the workshops in the series, to download brochures, and to register.
Experiencing the Nature of Being
(First Week)
This workshop was designed by Peter as a concentrated experiential inquiry into the nature of Being. This is the central and most essential consciousness workshop we do.
If you look in the dictionary, you’ll read that ontology is the study of being, of existence. It is a deep and complex field, with various aspects frequently under debate by philosophers, scientists, and theologians. This is a central aspect of our consciousness work. Move beyond the habits of perception that limit us in our abilities, our relationships, and our lives.
Consciousness work is not about acquiring knowledge. Instead, within the framework of this unique, hands-on experiential workshop increased consciousness starts to become real, not just heard about.
This workshop is a unique opportunity to confront beliefs and concepts, and transform the very mechanisms that determine your experience, your actions, your relationships, and your abilities.
As a participant you will:
- Learn to make a distinction between conceptualization and actual experience.
- Discover that you can remove concepts and beliefs from anything—from yourself, another person, an object, or a situation—resulting in a much more genuine and authentic experience of what’s there.
- Be guided in opening up to experience your most authentic self—beyond your history, self-image, ego, intellect, emotion, or any other aberrating factor.
- Realize how changing from a dynamic of reactivity to one of free responsiveness can create alternatives to manipulating or being manipulated by others.
- Investigate the very foundations of mind, being, and reality.
- You will experience with increasing depth and clarity the real make-up of your existence, and move toward an understanding that surpasses the limits of thought. Here, you will discover a possibility of freedom and creativity that was, literally, inconceivable before now.
To enroll yourself in this workshop is to take action that speaks louder than words about your personal commitment to awakening.
Cheng Hsin Consciousness work is INTENSE and DEMANDS your attention, energy, and commitment. The only other requirement is to be there. If you’re up for a mind-blowing adventure, consider yourself invited to this powerful event.
We question not for an answer, but to experience the truth.
Ending Suffering Workshop
(Week Two)
Ralston has created a brand-new workshop. It is called, The Ending Suffering Workshop (or ESW), and delivers powerful understandings that will change one’s life, eliminating all unnecessary suffering and allowing you to experience being a complete and whole person without defect or needing something you don’t have.
Within this workshop, we create the experience of living life as a real and powerful activity, and not as a plethora of rather unbalanced and crazy, or at least unneeded, mental and emotional activities that in the end cause the vast majority of your suffering, as well as a sense that your person and life are somehow incomplete and not as they should be.
It is a very powerful new workshop that really everyone should do. It will change the rest of your life in regards to all those things you do, often unconsciously, that create suffering in so many ways—feeling incomplete, dissatisfied, depressed, fretting, despair, disappointment, upset, unsettled, helpless, unloved, isolated, and on and on. If this sounds like something you’d like to take on, sign up for the Ending Suffering Workshop.
Transcending Self Workshop
(Week Three)
This new workshop goes deeply into the existential origins of the elements necessary to produce what you experience as the world in which you live—your experience of you, others, and life as you live it. In this workshop you will stretch far beyond anything humans have confronted or collectively understood heretofore.
Contemplation Intensive
(Week Four)
A highly structured week of contemplating from dawn to late at night. This deep and focused questioning is an essential tool for increasing consciousness. Our main exercise is a diad where partners contemplate and then communicate to a non-judgmental, silent listening partner.
The Retreat Space
This retreat will be held on a private 14 acre property. Breaks should be refreshing and relaxing. The schedule leaves some room for swimming and introspection as you reflect on the work and soak in the experiences of the day.
What’s Included:
The cost of the martial sections includes instruction, room and board, a huge space with good mats. For those with the courage to participate in the consciousness work, the cost includes room and board plus a guided tour of your own consciousness by one of the most riveting and focused teachers you will ever encounter.
The Center
Our center includes a 40×80 foot hall with kitchen, showers, sinks, and toilets. Participants will be housed in the building, or in large tent-cabins, and provided with a huge cot, foam, sleeping bag, pillow and lights. There is also a large swimming pool and hot tub.
Signing Up:
To secure the most inexpensive fee available, a non-refundable deposit is due far in advance. For exact dates and amounts go to registration, and for dates see the Schedule of Events.
Fall Retreat On Zoom
For the first time we have been working to create a way for people to participate in the workshops online. So far it seems it can work. If you want to participate in these workshops online you will need a computer and the newest Zoom application. If you have never used Zoom it would be good to try it out and get to know how it works beforehand.
The times for the workshops will generally start at 8am and end around 9 or 10pm, Central Standard Time in the USA. So depending on where you live you will have to adjust your sleeping schedule and perhaps be up much of the night and sleep during the day. Best to start that shift a few days before the workshop.
Making this alteration to your sleep schedule and having to sit in front of a computer for about 8 hours a day (with many breaks) is the down side. The upside is you don’t have to travel and during the pandemic can remain at home. If you are willing to make these adjustments then join us in the Fall Retreat.
More details will be sent if you sign up and click the Zoom option.
*ZOOM Fall Retreat Registration
*Zoom is not available for the CI
