Awareness Intensive
Who is In? / Who am I?
A 3½-Day self-inquiry process beyond the story of “me”
February 18 to 21, 2027 · Tulúm, Mexico
What if you stopped trying to be someone… even for a few days?
An invitation to return to what’s real — awake, alive, and deeply here.
The mind cannot answer this question.
Only silence and honest looking can.
The Awareness Intensive is a container for that looking.
The Process
A profound inner journey from identification to presence
Two people sit facing each other. One gives the instruction: Tell me who is in? The other turns inward, notices what arises, and communicates from direct experience. The listener does not respond, advise, comfort, or interpret. They offer steady presence.
After a timed round, the roles switch. The bell marks the rhythm. Partners rotate throughout the retreat, so awareness meets itself through many mirrors. Outside the dyads, silence holds the field. Through meals, through rest, through the long hours when the question keeps working underneath.
It is a deceptively simple structure. And in its simplicity, something rare becomes possible: to be received without being managed.
⊙ The Essence of the Process
The dyad, two people with one question, repeated, sits at the center.
Each round invites the speaker to look freshly at what is actually present, rather than what they think about themselves.
With repetition, the familiar answers begin to thin. What remains is closer to direct experience.
☾ Mirror for the Soul
Each exchange becomes a mirror.
The steady cadence of the gong moves the group through cycles of speaking and listening.
Within this held container, distractions naturally fade.
What has been unacknowledged begins to surface, not to be analyzed or fixed, but to be met, felt, and allowed to move.
✦ A Lived, Not Conceptual Practice
The inquiry is not solved by the mind. It is entered.
The point is not to find a better idea of who you are, but to look directly, past explanation, past performance, and notice what is here before the mind names it. Sensation. Emotion. Silence. Awareness. The bare fact of being present.
In the dyads, one person inquires inwardly and communicates what is arising. The other listens without judgment or response. Through this simple form, words become more honest, attention becomes more embodied, and the line between speaker and listener begins to soften. It is a practice of being real, moment by moment, meeting each experience before the mind explains it.
◯ Rooted in Zen, Alive in Modern Form
The retreat is held in the spirit of Zen koan practice: a question that cannot be solved by ordinary thinking, only entered. As in a Sesshin, the days have a clean rhythm. Sitting, walking, resting, listening.
Active meditations are woven in, supporting the body and helping energy move so that stillness can deepen on its own. Movement is not separate entertainment. It serves the inquiry.
∆ Transformation Beyond Seeking
Through this continuous looking, layers of identity loosen. Thoughts, emotions, and roles are seen for what they are: temporary movements within awareness. The quiet falling away of what we are not.
It is not therapy, and it is not a workshop. It is a field of honest attention. Some participants experience deep release. Others find quiet clarity. Others meet resistance, or boredom, or simplicity. All of it is welcome.
Nothing is promised. The work is not aimed at change. And yet, when sincere attention meets sincere structure, something does shift. How you listen. How you relate. How you meet the next moment.
❈ The Invitation
This is an invitation to meet yourself, not as an idea, but as direct experience.
If you are longing for truth, not as a concept, but as something you can feel, this is a path.
If you are ready to stop seeking and simply be here, this is a space. If you are tired of avoiding life and ready to taste it again, this is your invitation.
If you are longing for truth — not as an idea, but as direct experience — this is the path.
If you are ready to stop seeking and simply be, this is the space.
If you are tired of avoiding life and ready to taste its raw sweetness again — this is your invitation.
A Pathless Quest
The Awareness Intensive is not a linear path. It is more like a return, a movement inward, and then back outward, unburdened.
What unfolds cannot be taught, but it follows a recognizable rhythm: a call, a descent, a meeting, and a quiet reemergence. These are not stages to reach. They are the shape of any sincere turning toward truth.
The Scent of Something True
Something calls.
A quiet knowing that there is more, though we don’t yet know what or where.
A first step inward.
Meeting What Is
In silence, layers begin to fall away.
There’s no longer a need to flee.
We turn toward what is here, unmasked, unguarded.
The Inner Fire
Presence deepens.
What was hidden begins to surface, transform, and release.
The heart learns to stay open through intensity.
Returning with Empty Hands
We return… changed.
Lighter. Wider.
It’s not an ending, but the quiet beginning of a truer life.
What’s Included
Everything you need to fully immerse in the process
༄ The Retreat
Includes the complete Awareness Intensive process and guided facilitation. You’ll be held in a nourishing environment designed for depth, silence, and presence.
❦ Meals.
Simple, healthy, and vegetarian — prepared with care to support inner work and integration. (Included with the accommodation)
✣ Accommodation
Comfortable yet humble, inviting rest and stillness between sessions. Shared or private accommodation available. Payment is made directly to the retreat center..
❊ Travel
Flights and transportation to the retreat center are not included. Full travel details and directions will be provided upon registration.
Echoes from the Retreat
A Life of Inquiry
A path of inquiry, transformation, and presence
A path of inquiry, presence, and slow unlearning
My name is Naran. My path has been a steady undoing of ideas about who I am, and how this work should look.
Over the years I have moved through many gateways: meditation, self inquiry, somatic and relational practice, breathwork, and guided experiences with sacred plant medicines. Each revealed a different face of the same thing. That awareness itself is the ground.
Rather than following a single lineage, my approach has come through direct experience, where contemplative tradition and modern modalities meet. What began as a search for freedom became a steady practice of unlearning, of letting life reveal itself as it is.
Today I facilitate Awareness Intensives and other spaces for sincere inner work. These are not teachings. They are containers, where we meet what is real, together, in honesty and presence.
I do not stand as a teacher, but as a fellow traveler. One who continues to look.
Retreat Packages
Choose the accommodation that suits your journey
Reservation
for the Awareness Intensive Process
(price varies depending on room type)
Full 3½-Day Awareness Intensive process
Guidance and facilitation throughout the retreat
All meals included with the accommodation
Shared accomodation
Our Venue
A Natural Sanctuary for the Soul
A jungle sanctuary in Tulum to reconnect with yourself and nature. Geodesic domes, transformative experiences, and a community that heals and celebrates life.
Frequently Asked Questions
What you may want to know before joining
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The Awareness Intensive unfolds in a clear yet fluid rhythm of dyads (partner inquiries), active meditations, silent sitting, and mindful breaks.
Participants alternate between speaking and listening, following a precise form that supports depth and presence.
The active meditations help release energy, open the body, and prepare the ground for silence.
While the structure provides rhythm and safety, each moment is guided from presence rather than routine.
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No prior experience in meditation or self-inquiry is required.
What matters most is a sincere willingness to meet yourself directly and to stay present with whatever arises.
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Yes — the retreat is mostly held in silence, except during the dyad exercises.
This shared silence helps create a powerful field of presence and introspection.
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Neither.
This work does not aim to fix or teach anything — it invites you to discover truth through your own direct experience.
While it can be profoundly healing, it is not therapy in the conventional sense. -
Comfortable clothing, a water bottle, and any personal items you may need for your stay. All meditation and inquiry materials are provided on site. To support a deeper immersion in silence and presence, all electronic devices (including cell phones) will be safely collected at the beginning of the retreat and returned at the end. Please bring a simple alarm clock that is not your phone.
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Yes. However, during the process, everyone works with different partners.
This helps keep the field open and free from personal dynamics.
Join the Team - Deepening Through Service
Learning from within through presence, humility, and service.
If you have been through the Awareness Intensive and feel called to go deeper, you are welcome to inquire about assisting future retreats. Monitors hold a quiet, essential role. Protecting the container, supporting participants, and embodying the practice from within the structure of the process.
As this work continues to unfold, a small number of people will be invited to train and assist in upcoming retreats, learning through direct experience and guidance.
If this calls to you, reach out.
