Using the
question "Who am I?" is an ancient technique reintroduced in the
last century by the Indian Sage Ramana
Maharshi. It relentlessly and effectively undercuts the ego and leads
to the direct experience of one's true nature. If the power of this question
is not immediately obvious, consider: Who is it that is reading this now?
Whose body is sitting? Who is thinking? Feeling? Living this life? Is it clear
to you?
Or, are you confused about it? Do you accept not knowing? Do you dismiss the issue as unimportant? Is there an inner doubt that you distract yourself from?
"As long as you don't know, the question is always there. It's there because you don't know the answer. You can pretend to know in order to silence the question for a while. But it's going to stay there. It will stay with you until it's answered. It has a force of it's own. That's a fact. It's one of the natural laws. The questioning is always there until finally there is no question." A.H. Almaas
The value of directly experiencing and communicating the truth is that it enables you to live more consciously, and in closer contact with others. Discovering who you are dissolves a huge segment of life's uncertainty and pain and awakens you to the living reality of truth. You know exactly what the poets and mystics were talking about because you have made yourself one with them; you see with the same eyes they saw with; hear with the same ears. Suddenly, it's a wonderful life, and you are so grateful it was given to you! Come join us! |
On an Enlightenment Intensive you work on the question "Who am I" but instead of working on yourself by yourself (which is very difficult) participants work with one another. So the power and energy that is available between individuals is harnessed and concentrated on the question. This makes possible the quantum shift in consciousness which resolves the questioning.
For three days you work in dyads with other participants. You contemplate the truth of who you are and communicate the results of your contemplation to a partner; then you listen while your partner contemplates and communicates to you. (Partners do not comment on one another's communications.) Over the course of the Intensive there are thirty-one, 45 minute Dyads. Dyads are balanced with meals, walks, rest, instruction and silent contemplation in a sequence designed to hold you facing your self with maximum concentration, hour after hour, day after day.
The work is subtle and at times seems very difficult. But as the Intensive progresses you spontaneously experience increasingly high levels of personal contact and understanding with your partners. And this atmosphere of openness and mutual acceptance is what gives Intensives their power. The compassion and openness which are generated profoundly deepen contemplation; they melt away unconscious pretense and protective barriers until you come forth as you are. You enter the land of truth. What will you find there? That is up to you. No one will interfere with your discovery process by telling you what the truth is. The staff will simply support you to keep contemplating and presenting yourself as you are, no matter what you find yourself to be; from moment to moment, from beginning to end.
Contemplation practice aims at the direct experience of the truth of who you are. Direct experiences have many levels, but each one precipitates an unexpected and fundamental shift in consciousness. This is hard to understand because it involves a different order of experience from what we know in life; it has nothing to do with thinking, feeling, believing, or being in an attitude or state. Direct experience resolves your question in a way you can never anticipate or imagine. Subject and object disappear; or rather they collapse into a union. Truth is suddenly luminous and self-evident. There is a sense of bottomless fulfillment and utter satisfaction. This is not the end of the road however. The door is open to explore this new truth and to deepen your consciousness of it by coming out and presenting your true self to your partner. Doing this will increase your ability to live from the truth you have realized when the Intensive is over.
