Embodied Awakening Through Pure Consciousness · A live two-day immersion with Master Mingtong Gu
What If the Peace You Touch in Practice Stayed With You?
Experience the awareness beneath the thinking mind — and learn to bring it into your body, your heart, and your daily life.
One day to meet it. One day to live it.
Two days, live with Master Mingtong Gu, from inside the thirty-day Sacred Rebirth Retreat at SouthWest Sanctuary. Through Wisdom Healing Qigong, guided meditation and direct transmission, you will quiet the thinking mind, meet Pure Consciousness directly, and practise carrying it back into the life you live.
Saturday and Sunday, October 24–25, 2026 · 9:00am–5:30pm Mountain · Live online worldwide
General $297 · VIP $397 · Payment plans available · Attend the first day with a full-refund guarantee
“Coming back to the body enabled me to come back to everything else: my wife, my kids, my grandkids, in a new light.”
— Jay
You have touched it. Then it slipped away
Maybe it happened in the middle of a practice. A stillness with no edge to it. A spaciousness that felt like home. A peace that asked nothing of you.
Then the day came back. The phone, the list, the old rhythm. By the next morning it was a memory, and the mind had filed it away as something special — beautiful, rare, hard to find again.
Many people who practice know this moment, yet it can be difficult to understand what happened, or how to return.
Calm comes and goes. Bliss comes and goes. Every state arrives, and every state passes.
This weekend is about what remains.
— Does it last?
“There was a lightness in my heart and a feeling of harmony and peace that stayed with me, even as I went back to my daily life.”
— Kathy C
From Understanding to Experience
Many of the people who come to this work have read the books, sat the retreats, learned the practices. They carry a great deal of understanding.
What they are ready for now is simpler, and deeper: to live from what they understand.
Master Mingtong says it plainly in his teaching:
“Ultimately all the information is available on Google… The point is, you still have to do it.”
— Master Mingtong Gu
These two days are an invitation to move from understanding into direct experience.
What is Pure Consciousness?
Try to describe fresh air. You could name the molecules. You could explain that we need it to live. You could draw a diagram, or write a book. And the person listening would still know air only one way — by breathing it.
Consciousness is like that.
Pure Consciousness is the awareness beneath the thinking mind. It is present before calm arrives and still present after calm leaves. It is what has been aware of every experience you have ever had—and it can be recognized directly through embodied practice.
In Wisdom Healing Qigong, Yi Yuan Ti is the home of consciousness, and Shen Ji Palace is its gateway. In the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition, this recognition is pointed out: the teacher points, the student looks, and something is seen that has always been here.
Master Mingtong brings both to this weekend—the embodied practices of Wisdom Healing Qigong, together with pointing-out instruction and transmission that support direct recognition.
— Can I actually experience this?
“And that beautiful unexplainable experience of pure consciousness… And suddenly, I’ve recognized myself and it was no longer my higher self and me.”
— Helena, 47, lawyer, Portugal
“This was impactful on so many levels: powerful, deep, and timeless. I experienced Pure Consciousness in a way completely free of mind activity.”
— Jack G
The most subtle form of energy is our consciousness.
— Master Mingtong Gu
How the two days unfold
Four movements, entered through practice. Body first. Then the quiet mind. Then recognition. Then home into your life.
Arrive in the body
Through movement, sound, breath and qi, awareness comes back into the body. You stop thinking about the body from a distance and begin to live in it from within.
Let the thinking mind settle
As the body opens, mental activity slows. The stories, identities and habits of thought that usually fill the room grow quiet, and space appears.
Recognise the awareness beneath
Through Shen Ji Palace, pointing-out instruction and Master Mingtong’s transmission, you are guided into the direct experience of Pure Consciousness.
Bring it home
What was recognised moves back through the mind, heart and body — and into your relationships, your work, your healing, and the ordinary hours of your day.
Each day includes teaching and transmission from Master Mingtong, Wisdom Healing Qigong movement and sound practice, guided Pure Consciousness meditation, and open questions and answers.
— What does it feel like in the body?
“I’ve developed a deeper connection to my body and its natural intelligence than I ever thought possible.”
— Sam C
One day to meet it. One day to live it
The pointing itself may happen in a moment. What takes time is everything after: returning to it, resting in it, letting the body learn that this place is available — again and again, with eyes closed and with eyes open.
On Saturday, you begin by meeting this deeper awareness. Saturday night, you rest with the experience. On Sunday morning, you return to it with greater familiarity, allowing it to deepen and become more accessible.
Through Sunday afternoon, we bring that awareness into the heart, into movement, and into how you meet your life on Monday.
Two full days of practice, held together, so that what you touch has time to settle and integrate.
“Every session felt like a simple awakening, but one that was transformative in ways I didn’t expect.”
— Anna G
How you will know
Almost everyone comes out of deep practice with the same questions. Was that it? Was I simply relaxed? What remains when I open my eyes?
You will be given a simple map of five places, so you can recognise where you have been and find your way back on your own.
1.
Mental Consciousness
Thought, story and identity fill most of your attention.
2.
Witnessing Consciousness
You can watch thoughts, sensations and emotions as they happen.
3.
Open Consciousness
Awareness widens. Edges soften. There is spaciousness.
4.
Pure Consciousness
Awareness rests with no reference point, nothing to hold and nothing needed. Awareness recognises itself.
5.
Embodied Pure Consciousness
The formless alive inside form — present in the body, the qi and the heart, and in the ordinary hours of your life.
Saturday is for recognising the fourth. Sunday is for living the fifth.
— Will I be able to find my way back?
“I felt a spaciousness that has always been there, waiting. It opened me up to realize that things I once thought were important really aren’t. I began reevaluating and letting go without the struggle to create new meaning.”
— Lilith R
Deepen the practices you already hold
If you already work with breath, somatics, meditation, trauma resolution, energy medicine or a therapeutic practice of your own, everything you carry comes with you.
Pure Consciousness can offer a deeper ground for the techniques and practices you already know. As your relationship with awareness changes, the practices you already know gain presence, clarity and depth.
For therapists, coaches, clinicians, teachers and facilitators, the presence you cultivate within yourself can also shape how you meet and support others.
— Will this deepen the work I already do?
“Master Mingtong Gu has brought a level of transmission of mind-body practice that is unparalleled in my experience.”
— Brian Bouch, MD, Director, Hill Park Medical Center
“The jing and PC practice is so interesting, I notice the jing energy more during my daily activities and the clarity it brings to my brain in my work. I feel more joy and confidence and deep love.”
— Lucy Messervy, Living Tao
“I finally felt the spaciousness of my being beyond my emotions, something I’ve been struggling to access for years.”
— Fiona L
Who this weekend is for
Everyone enters the spiral from a different place. This weekend is for you if:
- Your body has begun to open through Qigong, meditation, somatic work or another embodied practice, and you sense there is more.
- You have known moments when thought fell quiet and awareness felt wide and spacious.
- You have touched a deeper dimension of yourself and want to know how to return to it.
- You support others as a therapist, coach, clinician, teacher or facilitator and want to deepen the presence you work from.
- You are drawn to an awakening that includes the body and the heart.
- You are ready to move from understanding consciousness as an idea to experiencing it directly.
Start where you are. The map of the five places meets you there, and the practice takes you as far as you are ready. All that is asked is a willingness to practise, stay curious, and meet what is already here.
— What becomes possible?
“Pure Consciousness has helped me access a level of joy and peace that I once thought was completely out of reach.”
— Jonathan P
The retreat you are entering
On October 3, practitioners arrived at SouthWest Sanctuary for the Sacred Rebirth Retreat.
By the time you join them on October 24, they will have practiced before dawn for three weeks. They will have eaten together, walked the high desert, and sat in the Kiva as the light changed from gold to blue. They will have shared one another’s silence, one another’s breakthroughs, one another’s ordinary days.
When you open the livestream on Saturday morning, you join that field of practice. A room of people who have been practising together, every day, for twenty-two days — and who will welcome you into it.
This is also the last thirty-day retreat Master Mingtong will offer for several years. These days, this year, are open to you online.
— What becomes possible?
“To me embodied awakening means coming alive to the connection between my body and my Pure Consciousness self.”
— Barbara, age 78, 30-day retreat
The Spiral of Embodied Awakening
Why does this work? Because awakening in this lineage moves in a spiral through three dimensions of our being.
The nature of the body.
Qi, form, and the living intelligence already at work in you. Vitality returns here, and the body’s own capacity for healing awakens.
The nature of the heart.
Feeling, connection, the field between people. What has been guarded begins to open, and love becomes something lived.
The nature of the mind.
The mind returns to its original nature, and discovers a freedom lived through the body and the heart.
The spiral moves through all three and returns. Each turn goes deeper through the same three gates.
This weekend is the turn through the nature of mind. And because it is entered through the body and brought back through the heart, what you recognise lands in your life.
Master Mingtong teaches that healing and awakening are the two legs we walk on. As the body softens and releases, we become available to our deeper nature. As we recognise the awareness beneath our patterns, the body responds with openness and vitality. One movement, seen from two places.
— What about healing?
“As the alignment of what felt like all 3 Tantiens emerged together, an aha moment of pure acceptance, from my heart and pure consciousness, from my knowing, accepted this young child within… and the pain was totally gone.”
— Janice W
“Getting in touch with my inner purpose, awakening to pure consciousness has been a fundamental shift in my consciousness. And it’s helped me make the therapeutic decisions that I’ve needed to make… it’s really helped me to become the source of my healing.”
— John, RN and licensed acupuncturist, living with prostate cancer
It will take you as far as you are ready, and integrate as deep as the field has ripened.
— Master Mingtong Gu
Your teacher
Master Mingtong Gu brings together two profound streams of practice—and this weekend is where they meet.
Mingtong returned to China to study with Grandmaster Dr. Pang Ming, founder of Zhineng Qigong and the renowned medicineless Qigong center. There, consciousness, collective practice, and qi were brought together in support of healing. Mingtong went on to become a lineage master teacher of Wisdom Healing Qigong, a contemporary system rooted in thousands of years of Chinese wisdom.
He also trained in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition, known as the Great Perfection, receiving direct transmission from Dzogchen masters.
Mingtong founded The Chi Center in 2003 and opened SouthWest Sanctuary on 150 acres near Santa Fe in 2016. He has taught more than 100,000 people across 47 countries and has presented at Spirit Rock, Esalen, Omega, and Kripalu, as well as on PBS. He was named Master of the Year by the 13th World Congress on Qigong.
Before devoting his life to teaching Qigong, Mingtong earned degrees in mathematics from Hangzhou University and the University of California, San Diego, as well as an MFA from The Ohio State University.
In this two-day immersion, these dimensions of his life’s work come together: the embodied healing practices of Wisdom Healing Qigong and the direct recognition of consciousness explored within Dzogchen.
“Mingtong is full of vitality, wisdom, and skill. He is a real healer, and the practices he teaches can change your life.”
— Jack Kornfield, PhD, cofounder, Spirit Rock Meditation Center
“I came away from a retreat with Master Mingtong filled with a wonderful sense of aliveness, wakefulness, and openheartedness.”
— Tara Brach, PhD, clinical psychologist and meditation teacher
Choose how you join
One day to meet it. One day to live it
Saturday and Sunday, October 24–25 · 9:00am–5:30pm Mountain, with breaks · Live online worldwide
General —
$297
Live access
Both full days
Teaching and practice
All teaching, transmission, meditation and Qigong practice
Live questions
Open questions and answers with Master Mingtong
Healing session
—
Recordings
30 days
Payment plan
Two payments of $157
VIP —
$397
Live access
Both full days
Teaching and practice
All teaching, transmission, meditation and Qigong practice
Live questions
Open questions and answers with Master Mingtong
Healing session
Saturday evening healing session with Master Mingtong, 7:30–8:30pm Mountain
Recordings
Lifetime
Payment plan
Two payments of $207
Come & experience it for yourself
Pure Consciousness is meant to be experienced. Attend the first day and feel how the practice meets you. If you decide the weekend is right for someone else, email us before 9:00am Mountain on Sunday, October 25, and we will refund you in full. No explanation needed.
Practical
Dates and times
Saturday and Sunday, October 24–25, 2026. 9:00am–5:30pm Mountain each day (8:00am Pacific, 11:00am Eastern), with breaks.
Joining
One link for both days, sent in your confirmation and again early on Saturday morning.
Another time zone
Both days are streamed live and recorded. General registration includes 30 days of replay; VIP includes the recordings for life.
VIP healing session
Saturday, 7:30–8:30pm Mountain (6:30pm Pacific, 9:30pm Eastern), with its own link.
Refund
Attend the first day. If you decide the weekend is right for someone else, email us before 9:00am Mountain on Sunday, October 25, for a full refund.
Continuing after the weekend
Weekend participants will be invited to continue into the retreat’s final week online, Tuesday October 27 to Sunday November 1, with the weekend credited in full.
Past retreat graduates and Path Mastery 200+ students
A small number of places on the land are available by invitation. Write to Linda@chicenter.com.
Questions
support@chicenter.com
One day to meet it. One day to live it
Join Master Mingtong live from SouthWest Sanctuary on October 24 and 25. Experience the awareness beneath the thinking mind — and learn to bring it into your body and your daily life.
General $297 · VIP $397 · Payment plans available · Attend the first day with a full-refund guarantee
This Is Embodied Awakening
Embodied Awakening begins when wisdom moves beyond something you understand and becomes something you can feel, experience and live.
Through the practices of Wisdom Healing Qigong—movement, sound, meditation, visualization, and conscious connection with energy—you begin to experience wisdom through the body, not only understand it through the mind.
Your mind softens.
Your body opens.
Your energy begins to move.
You may experience greater vitality, joy and peace.
You may feel a deeper connection with yourself.
You may discover clarity about something in your life that thinking alone has been unable to resolve.
Healing and awakening begin to reveal themselves as parts of the same movement toward wholeness.
You are not coming simply to collect another technique.
You are coming to experience yourself differently.
Why Can One Day Go Deeper?
TIME
The body needs uninterrupted space to open. A moment can offer a glimpse. Several hours give that opening time to deepen.
PRACTICE
Repetition turns an idea into lived experience. What begins as learning a movement can gradually become something the body recognizes and remembers.
TEACHING & TRANSMISSION
Direct guidance from a master teacher can help you recognize dimensions of practice that are difficult to discover through technique alone—the quality of relaxation, the use of the mind, energetic intention and the subtle feeling within the movement.
COMMUNITY & THE CHI FIELD
Individual practice builds capacity. Collective practice amplifies connection. The field supports each person while each person contributes to the field.
One day brings all four together.
Retreat allows them to continue.
Why Continuing The Practice Matters
One day can create a meaningful opening.
Consistent practice gives that opening time to settle and become part of everyday life.
As your relationship with your body and energy deepens, practice can become less something you do and more a way of meeting your life.
October 4 gives you a direct experience of that possibility—one full day to practice, feel, and discover what you may want to continue.
More Participant Experiences
“I leave with a deeper understanding that healing is not just about my physical body, but the spiritual, the emotional, the relational—all of it.”
— Mary
“I feel it on an emotional, spiritual and mental level. The whole beingness is being affected in a very positive way. And it affects how I interact with everyday life.”
— Caroline
These stories describe individual experiences. Your own experience will be unique.
FTC Disclosure
Wisdom Healing Qigong is not intended to diagnose, cure, or substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider before beginning any wellness program. Qigong movements are adaptable for accessibility and can be done in any comfortable position — sitting, standing, or lying down. Health outcomes shared by participants reflect their personal experience and are not guaranteed. Results will vary.
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