Immerse yourself in the two most fundamental dimensions of what it means to be human.

It is our great pleasure and honor to invite you to attend the two-part EnlightenNext Being and Becoming retreat in Tuscany, Italy, July 25 to August 16, 2009. You can choose to participate in either of both of the ten-day retreat segments.

With the EnlightenNext Being and Becoming retreat, you have an unprecedented opportunity, in two ten-day segments, to delve deeply into the two most fundamental areas of life:

If you can’t make the entire Being and Becoming retreat, you can choose to participate in just one of the two segments.

You will spend the first part of the retreat largely in meditative silence, punctuated by periodic discussions with EnlightenNext spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen. In the safety offered by an atmosphere of spiritual depth and support, you will sink into the profound awareness of pure consciousness known at EnlightenNext as the Ground of Being.

As you will discover, the Ground of Being is the deepest part of who you are. It is beyond anything we can know. It is a vast and boundless experience of awareness that is utterly free from any sense of limitation or constraint. When you become awake to this part of yourself, you will have a direct experience of unlimited awareness and instantly feel the exhilarating joy and freedom of your own true and infinite nature.

During this part of the retreat, you recognize in yourself absolute wholeness, completeness, and perfection. You will experience total freedom from fear and doubt—and, as a result, you will have access to an incredibly profound perspective on life.

As you share your own insights with Andrew Cohen and other retreat participants, you will discover that this free and open consciousness is available to each and every one of us. This collective experience of “being” will generate a profound atmosphere of intimacy, connection, and oneness that reveals a possibility for unity and cooperation that can barely be imagined until you experience it.

In the videos “How to meditate” and “Desire vs. Will” you can see previous retreat participants discuss their experience of meditation with Andrew Cohen on retreat.

“How to meditate”	“Desire vs. Will”

During the second part of the retreat, you will have the opportunity to engage with Andrew Cohen and other retreat participants to identify, investigate, and have a living, real experience of the creative impulse—which, at EnlightenNext, we refer to as the Authentic Self.

The Authentic Self, as we define it, is the same creative force that initiated the process of evolution at the moment of creation. It is the surging “YES” that we feel in our own experience when we realize our potential to become, to grow, to change, to be better and more whole than we are now. When this inspired energy is awakened between people, it unleashes an urgent and ecstatic desire to create a better future together.

As you continue your exploration, you will experience a dramatic and supercharged engagement with others that generates a higher shared consciousness, in which trust, profound openness, and mutual interest in what’s possible become the very basis for your relationships. This collective process, as you will see, is what forms the foundation for a new culture to emerge.

In the videos “Unselfconscious Trust” and “The Authentic Self in Action” you can see previous retreat participants discuss their experience of dynamic engagement with others during a retreat with Andrew Cohen.

“Authentic Self in Action”	“Unselfconscious Trust”

The Being and Becoming retreat is the concretization of EnlightenNext’s living example of the next stage of human development. It is part of an initiative called the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle, which includes this international retreat exploring the “inner,” or consciousness, and an international conference exploring the “outer,” or culture, each to be held annually.

By becoming part of this exciting evolutionary initiative, you will engage in the creation of new possibilities for humanity—building a seamless connection between the evolution of consciousness and the creation of a new culture.

The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle is the most advanced vehicle for transformation developed by EnlightenNext, as well as the most recent expression of a teaching that has been continuously evolving for more than two decades. You will benefit from the years of hard work in this field, and you will immediately start to build and shape the evolution of consciousness and culture through a highly engaged cocreative process.

In the video “The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle” you can see Andrew Cohen speak about the EnlightenNext cycle of annual retreats and conferences that the Being and Becoming retreat is initiating.

“The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle”

Why the Being and Becoming Retreat is Such a Rare and Important Opportunity

What if you could spend twenty days cultivating the kind of awareness, intention, and spiritual momentum that would not only transform your own life, but enable you to help create a dramatically better future for humanity?

Indeed, when you consider that several hundred people will all be transforming and developing in real time—together—you can start to see the explosive possibility that lies before us in the Being and Becoming retreat.  If you are ready to not only transform your own life but engage with hundreds of other people from around the world in the noble effort to evolve consciousness and culture, then join us!

If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone before deciding, please send an email to Jeff Carreira (jcarreira@enlightennext.org)or call 413.637.6079.

What some past attendees have said about retreats with Andrew Cohen: