375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States
September 15 - 20, 2026
About this Retreat
Qigong Master | Wisdom Teacher | Founder, The Chi Center
Master Mingtong Gu brings together two profound wisdom traditions: Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practice and classical Chinese Qigong.
Trained in the Dzogchen tradition with His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, Gyatrul Rinpoche, Buluk Tulku, and Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche, he also studied extensively at China's Medicine-less Qigong Hospital under Grandmaster Pang Ming, MD, where he mastered Wisdom Healing Qigong.
His own healing journey - from decades of chronic asthma and scoliosis following childhood trauma during China's Cultural Revolution - revealed the transformative power of embodied practice. At age 60, after a dramatic fall that should have been catastrophic, he discovered what he had been teaching: the body as conscious intelligence, not obstacle.
For over 30 years, Master Mingtong has guided tens of thousands through embodied awakening. Named Qigong Master of the Year by the World Congress for Qigong, he has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen, and Kripalu, and leads The Chi Center's global movement.
His work integrates Tibetan wisdom view with Taoist energy cultivation, creating pathways for sustainable healing and authentic leadership.
Details of this retreat
A Living Exploration of the Four Noble Truths Through the Body
When wisdom lives in the mind and leaves the body, even the most dedicated healers begin to feel tired.
You may recognize this quietly.
You serve. You hold space. You offer clarity, care, and guidance.
And somewhere beneath your skill, training, and devotion, the body has been asked to endure rather than lead.
This retreat is an invitation to come home—not to a belief, a role, or a new framework, but into original, embodied intelligence.
At Menla, on land dedicated to healing and contemplative practice, we explore the Four Noble Truths as a lived, bodily experience - through movement, sound, and meditation.
This is not philosophy. This is remembrance.
THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS - LIVED, NOT STUDIED
In classical teaching, the Four Noble Truths describe suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path.
In this retreat, they are experienced through the body.
The Truth of Suffering lives as the quiet cost of separation - from body, breath, and felt presence. Many healers and leaders know this intimately: chronic tension, diminished vitality, clarity without nourishment.
The Truth of Cause reveals itself when intelligence leaves the body. When service is carried by effort rather than coherence. When leadership lives in responsibility rather than presence.
The Truth of Cessation emerges when the body is re-inhabited. Energy returns. Listening deepens. Healing unfolds naturally - without force.
The Truth of the Path is not multiple techniques or self-improvement. It is one unified practice: movement that restores inhabitation, sound that returns the body to wholeness, meditation that stabilizes essence and clarity.
This is the path of embodied return.
WHO THIS RETREAT SERVES
This retreat is for you if you are:
A healer, teacher, clinician, or caregiver
A spiritual practitioner with years of experience
A leader whose clarity is strong and whose body feels tired
Someone who holds others and is ready to be held by life again
This retreat serves those who already know a great deal - and are ready to live their wisdom without depletion.
THE PRACTICE FIELD
Throughout the retreat, you will be guided through:
Gentle, embodied movement to soften chronic contraction and re-enter the body
Sound practices to restore resonance, circulation, and wholeness
Meditation to anchor clarity, essence, and inner stability
Each practice supports the others. Nothing is added. What is already whole is remembered.
A SHARED OFFERING
This retreat is co-created and co-promoted by The Chi Center and Menla.
Two lineages meet in mutual respect: Tibetan contemplative wisdom and Taoist embodied awakening.
They meet where all true healing occurs—in the human body.
WHAT YOU MAY LEAVE WITH
Participants often describe:
A renewed sense of vitality without effort
A quieter, steadier authority
Greater trust in the body's intelligence
A felt integration of healing and leadership
Practices that support sustainable service in daily life
Not as outcomes to chase. As natural expressions of return.
AN INVITATION
If you feel the call to lead and serve from wholeness rather than endurance,
If your body is asking to be included in your wisdom,
If you are ready to let presence carry what effort once held—
You are welcome here.
Schedule:
Tuesday, September 15
3 - 6 pm Arrival and Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 8:30 pm Opening Session
Wednesday, September 16 - Saturday, September 19
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9 am - 12:30 pm Session
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5:30 pm Session
6 - 7 pm Dinner
Sunday, September 20
7 - 11 am Check-out
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9 am - 12:30 pm Closing Session
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch and Departure
*Please note this schedule is subject to change.
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