When was the last time you spent four days somewhere truly different? Four days can shift more than you'd think. Long enough to feel the shape of a different rhythm, without a phone to hide behind or a schedule of your own to run. At The Essence, just on the edge of the jungle outside Tulum, it's lived daily: morning practice, teaching, shared meals, rest, evening practice, Satsang. For four days, you live it too.
You arrive, and the rhythm is already moving — you're stepping into a day that was happening before you got here and will keep happening after you leave. That's deliberate.
Mornings open the same way they do for everyone here: stillness meditation at dawn, a teaching from Chi, movement to wake the body, breakfast together. From there, the day opens up — open community time, a shared juice and lunch, siesta, evening Qigong, satsang to close the day.
Most programs teach you something. This one works differently. It removes what's in the way. He won't go easy on you — he's direct, he challenges what you're most certain of, and he brings you to edges you'd never reach alone, while walking every step of it beside you. You'll have a dedicated 30-minute one-on-one session with him during your stay, and day-to-day access whenever a question, challenge, or doubt comes up.
This stay takes place within a living community. Life here is real: there are two young children, there are animals, there are the natural sounds of a town on the edge of the jungle — roosters, dogs, the rhythm of ordinary life continuing around you. This is not a bug. It is part of the design.
We do ask you to be in the practices and the daily structure — that's what you came for. Beyond that, nothing is required of you. Lend a hand in the kitchen or the garden if you feel moved to, and leave the running of the place to us. People who stay on grow into contributing whatever they're able to. In four days, you're here to see whether this is aligned with you.
If you need a polished, curated experience, this isn't it. If you want four days to find out what a real community actually feels like before deciding anything further, this is it.
Four days won't change you. That's not what this is for. This is your chance to see, firsthand, whether this way of living — the structure, the practice, Chi's teachings and presence, the people — is somewhere you actually want to go deeper.
The same shape, day after day. You move through the day at the community's pace, not your own — and join what draws you: a conversation, a task, a silence.
Arrive Thursday morning, around 11am. Settle in, meet the community, join the evening rhythm — Qigong and satsang — without needing to understand it all yet.
The complete daily rhythm, start to finish. Sit in on the morning teaching. Move through the day at the community's pace, not your own. Join what draws you — a conversation, a task, a silence.
A final morning practice and breakfast together, then the program closes at 10:00 AM. If something in you wants to stay, this is also the moment to talk about what staying on for the month would look like.
A private cabaña with A/C, or a spot in the shared cabaña with fans. Both have an en-suite bathroom and their own entrance. One price covers the whole stay — the bed, the food, the teaching, all of it.
| 1 person | $450 |
| 2 people | $600 |
| Per bed | $300 |
Prices cover the whole stay, not per night.
Four days, Thursday to Sunday. Pick a window and we'll confirm it together.
Plenty of time for rest and reflection
Still unsure about something? That's normal — it's why we start with a conversation rather than a checkout.
Ask us anything →No. We do ask you to be in the practices and the daily structure — that's what you came for. Beyond that, nothing is asked of you. You're welcome to lend a hand in the kitchen or the garden if something calls you to, and you're not expected anywhere near the running of the place. People who stay on for longer naturally grow into contributing whatever they're able to.
Three people, three very different reasons for coming. In their own words.
I'm realizing now — maybe I don't need to find myself. It's okay to just be myself. Nowhere to get. Nothing to do.
Sam came from Arizona after fifteen years of searching — hypnotherapy, energy work, plant medicine, EMDR, one approach after another, always chasing the question of who she was. She arrived for a two-week retreat and never left. Eight months on, she became part of the community, often found cooking for the house. The searching has quieted into something simpler: permission to just be herself.
Read Sam's full guestbook entry →
It is exactly the right place for people who are tired of bending over backwards for a sick society.
Fabian came from Germany carrying more than a decade of chronic pain that began with a tumor diagnosis at seventeen. He had worked through countless therapies, doctors, clinics, and retreats, and read deeply in Western psychology and spirituality, before meeting Chi in 2024. Within four months his life changed radically — through standing meditation, breathwork, and Qi Gong his body began to heal and the pain receded, while the long conversations with Chi helped pull him out of a severe depression. A year and a half on, he is part of the community, drawn to understanding the patterns of the ego and to helping others turn their pain into growth.
Read Fabian's full guestbook entry →
At times, it feels like a lot, but being surrounded by like-minded people provides immense support
Kelly first came from Spain for a retreat, then again the next year, and again this one — a month or two at a time. What keeps her coming back is Chi's guidance, which she holds as priceless, and a community that works as a real container for growth: somewhere she can challenge herself and actually practice. She cooks for the house, and for all her shyness she turns into a quiet powerhouse whenever she's around.
Read Kelly's full guestbook entry →Send us your details below and we'll follow up to confirm your dates.
or just email us at connect@the-essence.org — whatever's easier
