This is your invitation

March 9, 10 and 11, 2012

• Participants have time and space to engage in continuous contemplation with the intent to directly experience Truth.
• Participants contemplate one of the following questions: Who Am I? What Am I? What Is Life? What Is Love? What Is Another?
• Enlightenment Intensives employ an easy-to-learn technique that supports deep contemplation.
• Quality vegetarian meals are prepared on site and all other basic needs are provided in a safe environment supported by an experienced staff.
• Every Enlightenment Intensive is led by a trained facilitator dedicated to experiencing absolute Truth and to supporting others who wish to do the same.
• This three day Enlightenment Intensive has the power to alter your basic approach to life by placing you in a deeper level of truthful contact with others.

Q. What is meant by "Enlightenment?"

A. This term refers to conscious contact with, or direct experience of, Truth (in the absolute sense). There is some way that things actually are, apart from what is thought, said, or learned about them. The objective is to experience the actuality of oneself, of life or of another. When this actuality is experienced directly, wisdom arises spontaneously. This direct experience is referred to as an enlightenment experience, this wisdom as enlightenment.

Q. What is an Enlightenment Intensive?

A. An Enlightenment Intensive is a three day residential retreat. It is a time set aside in which participants can contemplate one of the following questions: Who Am I? What Am I? What Is Life? What Is Love? What Is Another? The goal of participants in an Enlightenment Intensive is not to answer these questions but to experience directly self, or life, love, or another.

A. Enlightenment is not a religion nor does it interfere with any. It fills a different need in that it provides the opportunity to experience truth or the foundation underlying one’s own religion. With direct experience, the scriptures are illuminated.

A. No. Although some Enlightenment facilitators may practice UU techniques in their private lives, they are not part of the Enlightenment Intensive. Religious doctrine is not taught. Only a technique of contemplation - one that has been shown to be effective in bringing many people to direct experience. Participants who directly experience Truth, find profound satisfaction.

A. Truth is not ideas contained in books, because Truth cannot be contained in anything. The beauty of reading scriptures is that they enable the reader to be open to Truth. The actual experience of Truth is not the result of reading, but of revelation. A person my read volumes about water, but reading will not quench one’s thirst. Only the actual experience of drinking the water will quench thirst.

Q. Where and When and How much is it?

A. Joe Wheeler State Park at the Elk River Lodge. It has room to sleep 20 people with a large cafeteria - central meeting room - isolated from the interruptions of the city - and surrounded by nature's beauty. Check-in time is 8 p.m. Thursday March 8 although some people may wish to show up that morning and spend the day adjusting to a slower pace in preparation for the Intensive. To register turn this page over and fill out the form. Call Bill or Joanne at (256) 505-4443 and pay $250 by January 25 (Wednesday) or pay $300 after January 25, 2012. (Some scholarships are available)

The Enlightenment Intensive

We are much more that what is usually believed. Who we are in name, in gender, in race, in form and thoughts is a very small part of who we really are.

We believe what we have been told about the nature of reality, who we are and what we need to do in the world. This information is not always true. And some have locked themselves in a prison of names and ideas. In doing so we give up Truth, freedom and joy. Most live an endless search for lost love.