The Gateless Gate

The Gateless Gate is a Zen metaphor for a simple discovery: that clarity, peace, and meaning are not things we acquire, but qualities that emerge when we learn to pause and listen more deeply.

We've spent much of our lives learning how to achieve, build, solve, and move forward. Yet there are moments when a different kind of knowing begins to call—not another goal to pursue, but a deeper understanding of how we wish to live.

When we step away from the noise, urgency, and routines of everyday life, we often discover that what we have been seeking is closer than we imagined.

Through meditation, music, movement, nature, conversation, and silence, this retreat creates space for that knowing to emerge. A chance to pause, listen deeply, and return to life with greater clarity, openness, and aliveness—and with practices to help sustain that way of being long after the retreat ends.

This retreat may be for you
if one of these rings true

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You've achieved much of what you once wanted. Before moving on to the next goal, you wonder if there is something deeper and more lasting.

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You've spent much of your life learning, solving, and accomplishing. Perhaps there is also value in pausing long enough to refresh life's internal GPS.

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You sense there may be a way of living with less effort, more open-heartedness, and greater aliveness.

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You find yourself at a crossroads—in your work, your relationships, or within yourself.

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You've become skilled at arranging the outer world, yet you're beginning to wonder whether learning to look inward is equally worth exploring in a trusted environment.

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Or perhaps you simply value setting aside a week for yourself—to learn, reflect, spend time in nature, and enjoy good company.

Voices From The Retreat

Reflections from those who journeyed with us in Ladakh.

It’s not about where you go.
It’s about what you come home as.

Naren Dubey

Trained as a scientist and now an entrepreneur, Naren has spent over two decades exploring Zen, Vedanta, and other mystical traditions in a deep inquiry into awareness and what it means to live from the heart. Along the way, he has discovered that bringing harmony to both inner being and outer achievement can profoundly reshape the way we live.

He has trained in self-inquiry with Ananta Garg, as a teacher of Presence with Eckhart Tolle, and in Sound Journeys with Svetlana Kaivalya at Shantika Sanctuary.

His sessions weave together contemplative practices, music, art, movement and honest human conversation to cultivate a more centered way of living—grounded in awareness, yet creative, dynamic, and fully engaged with life.

Bhutan became a second home fifteen years ago, and he now brings seekers and dreamers to this extraordinary land that has profoundly shaped his own journey.

Nirali Manchanda

Nirali is a Master Practitioner of Holotropic Breathwork. Via her immersive breath work sessions she creates a space that helps people to slow down, soften, and reconnect with themselves in a grounded and natural way. Her sessions are known to unlock creative blocks.

With a background spanning yoga, meditation, systemic healing, and embodied somatic practices, her work is rooted in nervous system awareness, emotional safety and conscious presence. She has run multiple retreats across India and Sri Lanka and has also hosted women-only retreats.

Before devoting herself fully to inner work, she spent over a decade in the corporate world as an HR consultant — giving her a deep understanding of the pressures people quietly carry.

Her presence brings steadiness, warmth, and care to the retreat experience.

Suraj Sreenath

A seasoned entrepreneur and leadership and mental conditioning coach, SS explores how ancient wisdom helps us navigate uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. Through conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and seekers navigating transition, he learns what it means to find peace within chaos and discomfort. SS facilitates retreats grounded in a philosophy of no attachment, no identity, no fixed way of life, and an experimental mode of learning. He has facilitated retreats across several countries on themes of conscious living and resilience, all emerging from deep gratitude for the wisdom of those he walks alongside.

Suraj's sessions bring a sense of directness and applicability to modern life.

Advaita Dubey

Advaita's voice, often described as a voice from the soul, has the ability to soften a room and bring people into a more open and heartfelt space. She gathers songs from different wisdom traditions and offers them in intimate retreat settings between California and Bhutan.

She is a meditation teacher trained by David Nichtern of Dharma Moon and teaches young adults and kids in San Francisco. Alongside her contemplative practice, Advaita holds a background in Neurobiology from UC San Diego. She is currently a researcher at UCSF collaborating with renowned mindfulness teacher Marc Coleman on the benefits of mindfulness practice in nature. She is soon moving to pursue graduate studies at Columbia University in New York.

She brings heart opening sacred music, warmth and aliveness to the retreat journey.

The Gateless Gate