This article is about Enlightenment and how to accelerate the enlightenment process.  It is a companion text to the video entitled, Enlightenment.   Part One clarifies what enlightenment is.  It defines the meaning of the word enlightenment and reveals what different people and traditions have said about the experience.  Part One appears below in this issue of the Journal of Enlightenment. 
Part Two will be published in the next volume of the Journal of Enlightenment.  It talks about the Enlightenment Intensive Retreat and describes the principles behind the acceleration of the enlightenment process. 

In recent years the word enlightenment has increasingly been used to generally describe expanded or altered states of consciousness.  But what is it specifically describing?  And how do you know if you've experienced it. 

I've talked to many people about  what enlightenment is and found that it is not commonly understood.    Many  people have a mistaken or preconceived idea with regards to what it actually is.   But I've also discovered that there are  a growing number of individuals who know exactly what it is because of their own direct personal experiences. 

On a warm summer Saturday morning I visited an outdoor  cafe and spoke to several people sitting in the sunshine  enjoying breakfast.   I asked them what they thought enlightenment is. 

A young blonde women in her twenties giggled, shrugged her shoulders, shook her head back and forth and said smiling, ìI never heard of that word.î 

A young man in his twenties, dressed in black, wearing a beret, thought a moment and confidently said, ìI think its just awareness of self and the transitory nature of the universe.î 

A man in his early seventies, dressed in a tweed sports jacket and speaking with a British accent said, ìEnlightenment is to shed light upon.... to lighten up one's mind.  It also refers to the time in European history around the 17th Century known as the Age of European Enlightenment.î 

Some people  simply looked up at me shaking their head and with a bewildered smile said,  ìI don't know.î 

The Age of European Enlightenment brought about a renaissance of liberated thinking  that valued rational thought, social democracy, science, medicine and technological development.   It  brought Western Civilization out of the dark ages of  superstition, church dogma, authoritarian rule,  and sexual repression.   It gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Materialism that continues to influence our world today. 

Rene Decarte, the French philosopher, author and scientist, born in 1596,  influenced   this renaissance of thinking through his essays and books.   He wrote what has become a well known phrase that embodies the sentiment of the European Enlightenment, ìI think therefore I am,î 

Descarteís ideas significantly influenced science, mathematics  and philosophy.   He is considered to be the father of  modern materialism.  This philosophy of materialism holds  that knowledge of oneself and one's world can come only through the use of reason, intellect and logic.    Materialists believe matter is the basis of all that exists and all that exists is matter.  In the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries this world views came to be called enlightened thinking. 

For the last several hundred years this materialistic world view became more influential and prevailed upon western civilization.  In the 20th Century  it has permeated throughout  the remaining  cultures of the world and has had a profound effect on every aspect of  daily life including politics, education, religion, agriculture, science, medicine, health and sex. 

This world view has produced wondrous discoveries, revealed many secrets of nature  and ushered  in a  renaissance of new ideas and rational thinking that has profoundly changed the face of the earth.  It's not only given birth  to material wealth and abundance, but to a growing number of disaffected individuals  troubled by the dramatic changes taken place in the way people relate to their environment and live their daily lives. 

Over the last century, social scientists, philosophers,  psychologists and  social commentators have observed and written extensively about  the dramatic changes born from the Age of Materialism and the Industrial Revolution. 

Prior to the Industrial Revolution  most people lived a rural agrarian life style in small towns and villages.  They were born, lived their lives and died in the same towns and villages.  They followed the same patterns of life as their parents and their grandparents.  They grew up in a social environment that was generally predicable and engendered  a sense of certainty in the way things  were and would be.  Life didn't change quickly and it usually moved along at the pace of a horse, an ox or person walking. 

But as the forces of materialism and the power of the Industrial Revolution grew more powerful, life began to rapidly change.  It began to change at such a dizzying pace that inspite of the great  material wealth  that the industrial revolution produced,   growing  numbers of  people began to feel as if they were living in a vast, mechanized impersonal world that they had no individual control over.   A  world that became increasingly obsessed  with chasing material power, controlling the destiny of others  and domination over nature. 

In the face of this social and technological hyper-change, more and more people began feeling lost and disconnected from their traditional ways of life and the natural world in which they were born.  Social unrest and mental illness began spreading with symptoms  characterized by excessive aggression, acts of violence,  obsessive rationality, compulsive obedience to authority, chronic anxiety and confusion as to the purpose of one's life and uncertainty as to who one is. 

The  fundamental existential questions, ëWho am I?í and ëWhat is life?í  have always been a part of every culture and country throughout history.  Such questioning and questing is often a normal short term healing process brought about by a personal life crisis  such as personal illness, the death of a loved one, war and the life transitions such as  puberty or middle age. 

The few men and women who have taken up the quest for self knowledge as a more full time preoccupation were a very small minority who became the philosophers, healers and mentors of one's community. 

But as  these accelerating changes in the patterns of social life continued to disrupt the fabric of agrarian society,  the 20th Century saw greater  and greater numbers of people drawn  to reflecting on the meaning and purpose of  their life as a way to heal the spiritual emptiness and enigmas of modern life.  This  increasing preoccupation with self reflection opened the way to a new renaissance  of self discovery and enlightened thinking in the 20th Century. 

Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of Humanistic  Psychology, had a passion for wanting to improve  the human condition after having been influenced by his observations that  marriage, friendship, parenthood and spiritual experiences were being replaced with increasing violence, alcoholism and spiritual emptiness after World War II.   Seeing that healthy and wholesome human experiences  were being devalued by modern society he became an articulate voice echoing the feelings of  millions of people with a spiritual yearning to  fulfill themselves. 

By the early 1970ís Transpersonal Psychology  was born.    It  emphasized a  personal experiential  exploration into the nature of consciousness  and  assumed that everyone had the capacity for self healing.  It views the ego or separate self as an illusion to be transcended.   In the popular culture it became known as  the ënew age movementí  and embraced techniques from both the East and West in seeking answers to the problems of daily life. 

In the late 1800ís interest in the mysteries schools and philosophies of the East had begun to spread westward when India  became a colonial part of the British Commonwealth Empire.   English soldiers, diplomats and scholars such as Sir John Woodroofe  and W.Y. Evans Wentz  became interested in the country and began to expose the Eastern  teachings to the west in the many books that were written. 

As Westerners looked East toward India, China and Japan, they discovered the practices of yoga,  meditation and the  non materialistic philosophies  of Asia.   And with typical western enthusiasm they curiously visited  Eastern spiritual teachers and  invited them to teach and settle in the West. 

As the 19th Century came to a close, several Indian yogis and teachers of meditation were  invited to visit and teach  in the west.   In 1893, the World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago.    An Indian teacher, Swami  Vivekananda, gave his first western lecture on yoga philosophy to a full auditorium.  He was sent to the conference by one of Indiaís greatest modern day holy men and mystics, Ramakrishna, whose many other Indian students subsequently made several visits to  America and Europe, establishing centers for teaching yoga philosophy in the west . 

The author of Autobiography of a Yogi,  Paramahansa Yogananda  first visited the West in 1920 after being sent to teach yoga by his guru.    He was very well received in  America and  subsequently founded the successful  Self Realization Fellowship with teaching centers in Southern California and throughout the United States. 

A continual stream of teachers from Asia were flowing into the west by the 1960ís.  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became well known after teaching a simple and effective meditation technique to John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles fame.   In the 1960ís, another Indian guru, Swami Prabhupada,  brought shaved heads, orange robes and chanting of Krishna to the streets of the New York and London.    And Tibetís leader in exile, the Dali Lama, along with scores  of other exiled teachers from Tibet brought the teachings of Tibetan  Buddhism  to the English speaking world. 

Westerners were open, enthusiastic and hungry for spiritual awakening.  Inspired to look within, they found  personal mysticism and revelation in addition to their already developed capacity for rationalism and reason. 

Westerners  purchased and read books on self development and spiritual growth.  They also wrote books themselves as their experiences unfolded.   Madame H.P. Blavatsky founder of the The Theosophical Society in 1875,  published many books.   Rudolf Steiner, a German educator and mystic wrote over 60 books stressing the wholeness of humanity.  He inspired the creation of over 100 Waldorf Schools world wide.   W.Y. Evans Wentz was the first westerner to bring the hidden secrets of Tibetan Yoga to the west in the 1940ís  when he translated and wrote what is now a classic, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. 

New words, ideas and techniques came  into the English  language that described a variety of meditative practices and states of consciousness as a result of  the influences  from reading spiritual books, attending courses on Eastern theories  of consciousness and traveling to  Asia. 

  The Word Enlightenment Begins To Change in The West

In the 21st Century,  the word enlightenment   continues to mean 'going beyond ignorance,'   however now,  it  also includes  going beyond the limitations of reason and logic by using the powers of meditation to reveal what  Zen Buddhists call  direct  knowing or direct experiencing of reality. 

Philip Kapleau, an American Buddhist,  began to use the word enlightenment to mean ëdirect experiencing of reality.í  He popularized this new  use of the word  in his   books  about   Zen  Buddhist meditation.    Kapleau translated the Japanese   word ësatori  into the English word enlightenment. 

In his 1970ís book, Zen, Dawn in the West, Kapleau wrote that the Japanese word, ësatori  means  enlightenment.  He said that  enlightenment was ìawakening to the truth lying beyond all dualism and discrimination.  Far more than ecstasy, psychological or philosophical insight, satori is spiritual awakening that brings a fundamental transformation of personality........ and a wholly fresh vision of the world.î   Kapleau wrote that satori or enlightenment was the elevated state of self realization that  all zen meditators  seek.   Satori or enlightenment is also the state of consciousness that  practitioners of the Enlightenment Intensive retreat  set out to experience. 

People around the world point to the  enlightenment  experience and call it by many different names and in many different languages:  Satori or Kensho in Japanese, Samadhi or Moksha in Sanskrit, Enlightenment or Self Realization in English.   The enlightenment experience that a Japanese person has is the same enlightenment experience as a French, English,  or Indian person. 

The Englishman and theologian, Alan Watts was one of the first writers to popularize the subject of enlightenment and meditation in the west.  He wrote that  ìto know what enlightenment is and especially what itís not,  you have to directly experience it.  Reading, thinking or day dreaming about it is not enough.î 

Seng Tsen is credited with having written the first Chinese Zen poem on enlightenment.  He lived a simple life of meditation and spiritual discipline in  6th Century China.  In his poem,  Affirming Faith in Mind, he points his finger toward the enlightenment experience calling it ëthe Great Wayí: 

The Buddha also described the enlightened state of consciousness when he said: 

D.T. Suzuki, a 20th Century meditation scholar and author helped bring the term ëenlightenmentí and ësatorií into mainstream public awareness  through his many books on Zen Buddhism in the 1950ís.  When asked how it felt to have attained  enlightenment he replied that it was, "just like ordinary everyday experience, except about two inches off the ground.î 

In the 11th Century, Han Shan, a meditation master wrote down what the enlightenment experience was like for him: 
"I took a walk.  Suddenly I stood still, filled with the realization that I had no body or mind.  All I could see was one great illuminating Whole, omnipresent, perfect, lucid and serene.  It was like an all embracing mirror from which the mountains and rivers of the earth were projected....I felt as clear and transparent as though my body and mind did not exist at all.î 

Zen Buddhist meditation masters  have poetically described satori or enlightenment as Opening the Minds Eye or  Awakening to our True Nature.   They say it is a direct pointing to the heart of oneís being,  to a state of awakening unmediated by words or ideas.  Enlightenment  is directly seeing into the nature of things  instead understanding through analysis and logic. 

The creator of  the Enlightenment Intensive retreat, Charles Berner,  echoes the words and sentiments of  past and present  experiencers of enlightenment:  ìEnlightenment  is impossible to define and it canít be done.  But we can take some words that point in the right direction and that have some value.  Enlightenment is the direct experience of the truth.    In the case of self-enlightenment, it is the direct  experience of the truth of you.  By  direct experience is meant,  by  no way or no via.    Not by seeing, thinking, believing, deciding, reasoning, feeling...... or not by any other way of.   Direct experience of the truth is enlightenment.   The experience takes place but there is no experiencing.  In the state of enlightenment there is no difference between that which one is enlightened on and the one who is enlightened.  It and them is the same.  There is no separation.î 

Yet in spite of the great and wide differences of culture, time or language, the  descriptions of the enlightenment experience has many common elements. 

1.  There is often a sense of  union or oneness. 
2.  The experience is always instantaneous and  sudden. 
3.  Obvious.  In fact so obvious that  you didn't  know that you already knew. 
4.  Ordinary. 
5.  Funny, very funny,  a cosmic joke with you as the punch line. 
6.  Timeless 
7.  Indescribable 
8.  Imbued with  a sense universal love. 

Jeff Love learned about the  enlightenment dyad process from Charles Berner and was a participant  at  one of the first Enlightenment Intensive retreats.  He began facilitating Enlightenment Intensive retreats in the early 1970's.   When I spoke with Jeff he said,   ìEnlightenment is  direct and immediate.  The way it is classically described is that there is an at oneness.  There is no difference between the observer and the observed.  It is the same in that moment of experience.  It is self evident truth.  We can find it only by clearing the mind, the emotions, pre conceived ideas, beliefs and suddenly what is real here and now, comes into focus always in the present.  It is always surprising.î 

I spoke with Lawrence Noyes, an enlightenment master who learned the process from Charles Berner, the creator of the Enlightenment Intensive.  Lawrence told me about an enlightenment experience he had on his first Enlightenment Intensive.   He described it  as very surprising, unexpected and most obvious. 

ìI was in a dyad and I directly experienced who I am.  It was like I stumbled onto it.  It was completely unexpected......... The whole thing took me by surprise.  And I had one of these experience that people often have....which is, I know what I've just experienced.   I just didn't know that I knew.  Its like the who that I experienced was the who that I've been my whole life.   I didn't experience a different who.  The who am I that I experienced is me.  The same me who I was as a kid.  It was me when I was as a teenager.   I am the me that I always thought I was.  I knew that Iíd experienced IT....... I didn't really have an idea of what a direct experience was before that.  But when I hit  this I knew ëthat's IT.î 

Vina Hotich  participated in Enlightenment Intensive both in Germany and Australia.  She said,  ìThere is this absolute knowledge.  It isn't good or bad......or this way or that way.  There is no interpretation of it.  It is just so. Words can't describe it.  Enlightenment experiences are just so IT.  I had this firmness about it.  I know this.  It can't be described.î 

Kate Feeley expressed her enlightenment experiences by saying that ìwe are all little parts of this big conscious being.....that is beyond us.  For maybe a second, because that's all that my puny little body could handle, I got that who I am is God.  I am God, you are God....everybody is God.î 

David Granger, another participant of the enlightenment process described his enlightenment experience this way.  ìThen BANG! it hit me. I became totally and wholly connected to the source.  I realized in an instant that it was ME giving myself all this love ..... I AM the source.  An unending source of unlimited love and energy.  Suddenly I burst into laughter.  I laid there with a big grin on  my face, realizing my true self . 

Enlightenment experiences have happened to different people, in different centuries and from different cultural and religious settings.   Yet they are all pointing at  the same  enlightenment experience.  Here is an enlightenment experience from St. Angela of Foligno who as an Italian nun that lived in the 12th Century.  She's was a Franciscan  mystic  who kept a diary of her spiritual experiences. 

One  time when I was at prayer and my spirit  was exalted.   God spoke to me with many gracious words full of love.  And when I looked,   I saw God.  The one who spoke with  me.   But if you want to know what I saw,  I couldn't tell you anything,  but that I beheld a fullness and a clearness,  and felt them within me so abundantly  that I can in no way describe it, or give any likeness of it.   For what I beheld was not corporal,  but as if in heaven.î 

Enlightenment, though it cannot  be described, can be pointed at.  And many have done so.  It is completeness.  It is satisfaction. 

You don't have to believe in anything or be a follower  of anyone to enter into the fullness of enlightenment.   It is the fullness of your very own self.  That fullness is the heart of your existence and you are its  source.  It is you.  If you have not tasted sweetness you don't know what sweetness really is.  To know the sweetness of Self, you have to taste it yourself.