Awakening Through the Body
with Corey Hess
August 12 - 16, 2026
We invite you to come get into your body and deepen your presence in this powerful retreat with Corey Hess. This is not a traditional meditation retreat, but instead a space of exploration where people can deeply investigate what is at the heart of their lived experience through stillness and movement. Together, we’ll explore how to connect with our internal process in diverse ways throughout the retreat, including seated meditation, Zhan Zhuang, Non-Directed Body Movement, walking, and optional touch therapy.
Corey is a trusted and beloved teacher of the Dharma Gates community. His background includes training for many years at Sogenji, a renowned Rinzai Zen monastery in Japan, under the guidance of Shodo Harada Roshi. Corey now runs an international energy collective born from his deep experiences in Zen Training. The somatic and energetic methods he teaches are highly supportive to any meditation practice, and the warmth and approachability he brings to his teaching style contribute to his retreats being not only transformative, but fun. We’re thrilled to be hosting him for this unique retreat.
Corey holds multiple online classes weekly. If you’re interested in attending this retreat, we highly recommend joining some of his classes before the retreat. This will help give you a sense of the practices we’ll be doing together, as well as lay the foundation for you to experience a deeper practice throughout the multi-day retreat. If you have any questions about Corey’s online classes or need financial assistance to attend, please reach out to us at offerings@dharma-gates.org!
Tentative Daily Schedule
Noble Silence: Please note that we will be practicing noble silence until after dinner each day.
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7am – 8am Coffee/Tea Free Practice
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8am 30-Minute Wuji / Zazen
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8:30am Warm Up and Zhan Zhuang (ZZ)
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9am Eight Folded Brocade and/or Movement, Qigong, Non-Directed Body Movement (NDBM), Creative Movement
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10am Breakfast
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10:30 Morning Walk/Free Practice/Creative Time.
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11:15 Touch Exploration (Optional).
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A really simple touch exploration. Take what you have felt in the ZZ and NDBM and explore that while touching someone else. Try not to think of doing it right or wrong. Examples of touch would be placing your hands on another person’s feet or head or sacrum, fully clothed, for fifteen minutes.
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12pm Lunch
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1pm Tea and Chat/Practice Discussion
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2pm Sitting/Wuji
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2:30pm Zhan Zhuang
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3pm Free Playing with KI/NDBM
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4pm Break
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5 or 5:30pm Dinner
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6:30-7:30pm Open Question Hour
After, we will have various optional activities going on. At any point, participants can elect to go sit or stand on their own. Sound bath? Music? Fire? More touch aspect? Dance? Free movement? Optional touch aspect or sitting again.
Let’s use the time creatively. Let’s use the whole retreat as a physical creative exploration. So walking around, cooking, sleeping, sitting around the fire in the evening, playing music, making tea, etc all as a physical integration exploration.
These practices are powerful. Don’t be a hero. Find the pace where you can meet the energy and work with it. This is a whole practice in itself.
This will be a very warm and inclusive atmosphere. A time to explore with the safety of a supportive container.
What does this retreat cost?
The retreat is run on a donation basis in the spirit of dana. There is no required attendance fee. We ask that participants give a deposit of $50 in order to claim your place at the retreat. This deposit is returned back to you at the end of the retreat unless you choose to donate it. We keep your deposit in the case that you don’t show up, or you cancel within 3-weeks of the start of the retreat. For this retreat, that’s end of day, 5pm, EST July 22nd.
We ask you to donate the amount that feels appropriate and generous for you, given your situation and desire for Dharma Gates to continue to exist in the future.
Will we be in Silence?
Noble silence will be practiced until after dinner each night, when we’ll gather for an evening activity.
What kind of food will be served?
About the Teacher
Corey Hess
Corey Ichigen Hess spent his twenties training under the great Zen master and energy master, Shodo Harada Roshi. He was ordained in 2005. Corey brings a physical, embodied, energetic approach to practice. His profound struggles and the necessary creativity of practice brought him unique insights about the cellular process of opening up to reality. After coming […]
Learn more about Corey Hess