Dear Friends of Enlightenment and the Enlightenment Intensive,

For those who love and appreciate the Enlightenment Intensive and the Enlightenment Dyad Technique there’s much insight and joy to gain from listening and reflecting on this excerpt of a talk Charles Berner gave in 1993 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Enlightenment Intensives.

Enlightenment and the Enlightenment Intensive (Volume 1), 
by Charles Berner; edited and compiled by Yoah Wexler, PhD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1492267546

Enlightenment and the Enlightenment Intensive (Volume 2) 
by Charles Berner; edited and compiled by Yoah Wexler, PhD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1492263281

Relating and Spiritual Consciousness: Communication, Love and Relating Dyads 
by Charles Berner; edited and compiled by Yoah Wexler, PhD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1518696287
​
You, God, Love, Life:Self Transformation Principles
by Charles Berner;
edited and compiled by Yoah Wexler, PhD
​https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533652783

Knowing Your Self: 100 Self Awareness Exercises 
by Yoah Wexler, PhD
​http://www.amazon.com/dp/1490339434

​There are many mis-understood and pre-conceived ideas
about enlightenment.  And yes, it’s true that even an accurate idea of enlightenment is not enlightenment….it’s only an idea. 
But having a correct idea of enlightenment is better than having a false notion. 

It’s also true that there are now and have been in our ancestral past, many individuals, who have directly and consciously experienced and known the state of awakening that’s called enlightenment.

I’ve spent my entire adult life interested in the state of enlightenment. 
I’ve contemplated upon it, read about it, spoke and wrote and made films about it.
I’ve sat at the feet of masters who gave discourses on scripture about it. 
I’ve heard enlightened beings talk about their spiritual experiences
and listened to them talk about enlightenment.  
And none of that is the direct experience of enlightenment….
no matter how truthful and accurate their discourse is. 
Listening, reading, thinking and wondering about enlightenment or desiring, searching and wanting enlightenment are all indirect experiences. 
It is not enlightenment. ​ 

There’s been times when I’ve shouted with excitement and exclaimed:  I’m GOD.   Other times with tears flowing from my eyes  and a child’s heart of innocence I come to know the truth of who I am ….Love.  Pure simple joyful love.

Enlightenment is what the Yoga master Patanjali, who lived and practiced yoga a couple of thousand years ago called Samadhi.  Samadhi, he wrote, was the penultimate goal of yoga practice. 
  
Enlightenment or samadhi is the Union of Self and Other.  Of the Lover and the Beloved.  Of Shiva and Shakti.   Of the masculine and the feminine energies.  

Metaphysically speaking the experience of Enlightenment is in the realm of what’s known in the Sanskrit language as Jnana Yoga.   In English it's the yoga of Divine Intellect or Wisdom.

​Sanskrit is the sacred language of the science of yoga.  For thousands of years yogis and yoginis have written about their spiritual experiences in Sanskrit.   It’s the ancient language of spiritual science like English is the language of modern science.

​In the language of Sanskrit the state of enlightenment or samadhi occurs when the Kundalini Shakti raises up and enters the Shushumna and moves up through the Ajna Chakra at the eye brow and beyond into the Sahaswara Chakra at the crown of your skull. ​​

Let me translate that into English for you.

Energetically speaking the state of enlightenment is awakened when the subtle energy, your life force is strong enough to penetrate the base chakra situated in the region of your perineum and it enters into the central energy channel.  That central energy channel in the physical body is often referenced as the spinal column.  It’s been called the Axis Mundi, the Holy Pillar, the Tree of Life.  The connecting rod or link between earth and heaven.    When that subtle energy, your life force moves into and up through the central energy channel and into the region of the your skull at the eye brow it’s known as awakening the Third Eye. Then, as it moves into the Crown Chakra, also called the Thousand Petaled Lotus Flower,  the Light of Divine Consciousness is awakened or turned on, here it is called or enlightenment or the direct knowing of the truth of you.  It is described as beyond the experience of the sensual world becasuse your senses are all below the eyebrows.  Here it is a direct experience.  ​

I’ve described it principally in the tradition of Yoga but other traditions and individuals describe it in their own unique way.

When you have directly experienced the enlightened state for your self, not as an idea or concept but directly and you’ve become familiar and friends with it you can understand what others are describing even if they are using descriptive phrases from  traditions that’s different from your own.

You understand what’s being communicated.  You understand what is being pointed at.
You know there isn’t a Christian Enlightenment, or a Buddhist Enlightenment, or a Japanese enlightenment or a  Yoga Enlightenment.  You know there is only Enlightenment and the different ways of describing that which can’t really be described.  ​​

There are varying degrees or depths of one's Enlightenment…in other words of how bright that Light of consciousness is turned up when your life force moves into the crown chakra.  But whether the depth is deep like Buddha and Christ or shallow, it never the less is of the SAME.  Light is light….and light dispels the darkness. ​​ 

No words can actually describe it.  The words can only point to IT.  The Enlightenment "Experience" takes place in a timeless moment that is beyond time, it’s YOU and the Truth of what actually is.  

Does this Sound confusing.   
Don't try and figure it out. 
You'll never get IT that way.  Even if you correctly and logically understand it, which is helpful.  It’s helpful to have a correct idea.  But never the less you won't be satisfied, you won't be fulfilled.  That would be like taking your hunger into a restaurant & eating a picture of food printed on the menu.  That’s not the meal. 

For nearly forty years I’ve been leading retreats or you could say travel tours into the land of enlightenment.  The retreat is called the Enlightenment Intensive.  It’s a 3-10 day residential workshop that combines a focused and steady meditative contemplation on a key question such as "Who am I?" or “what am I.”  The environment is structured, non-distractive and balanced with healthy vegetarian meals, silent meditative walks, physical exercise, rest, inspirational talks and honest communication to others.   There is no religion to belief system you have to follow.

Enlightenment is not a far-away, esoteric experience attainable only by a few individual willing to give up home, family and possessions.  It’s not psychic phenomena, spiritual powers or a belief system.  It is Union with Truth.  It is Absolute, Timeless and Unchangeable.  There is no way to make IT happen, yet you can put yourself in an environment where it’s most likely to happen. 
The Enlightenment Intensive provides you with such an environment.