Darkness to Light: You Are Not Alone

I find it always true to say that being a part of an Enlightenment Intensive Retreat is a blessing whose rewards are an experience of spiritual renewal. And of course it is also, at times, a very challenging experience. I often ask participants at the very start of the Enlightenment Intensive, "Who amongst you had thoughts of not wanting to be here, that is of wanting to leave even before you got here?" Most often about a third of the people admit that they had those kinds of thoughts. And often there's usually one or more participants who confess that after their last Enlightenment Intensive they said to themselves, "I'll never do another one again!" But alas, they show up again and again.

What is it in the human spirit that keeps one showing up to an Enlightenment Intensive even though it can be quite a difficult and rigorous challenge? Is it the experience that their suffering has been diminished by the process? Is it the experience that their mental and emotional obstacles begin to dissolve away? Is it their increased ability, capacity and expanded awareness to live life better in their own estimation?

As difficult as an Enlightenment Intensive can be, there is also the inevitable and incredible lightness of being that many people experience during and after the retreat.

But no Enlightenment Master will claim that an Enlightenment Intensive is without challenge. In fact the Enlightenment Intensive Technique is designed to bring about challenge and crisis. Sometimes the crisis is mental. Sometimes it is emotional. And sometimes it is physical. Sometimes it is a combination of all three. But the Enlightenment Technique is also designed to bring one through a crisis to the 'yonder shore of enlightenment.' As it says in a traditional yoga prayer, "from ignorance to wisdom and from darkness to light and from death to immortality."

Charles Berner, the originator of the Enlightenment Intensive, says that the enlightenment technique is designed to bring about a healing crisis in respect to directly knowing yourself. He wrote that "if getting enlightened were an easy thing any person who had very much interest at all would easily become enlightened and we wouldn't need to bother with an Enlightenment Intensive. But it's not an easy task."

He's right. Throughout history people have spent their entire lives striving for enlightenment. And they've done all sorts of things to achieve it including fasting and starvation, various forms of emotional and physical austerities like social isolation, sexual celibacy and all sorts of bodily mutilation. There is no end to the creative and sometimes misguided ways people throughout history on our planet, (and it seems mostly men) have used to find their true self. "But," notes Berner, "Only a small percentage of them ever got enlightened."  

The Enlightenment Intensive offers a way that in as little as 3 days you can experience enlightenment. It's the same kind of enlightenment that Buddha experienced. Your enlightenment experience may not be as 'deep,' as the Buddha's, but its the same kind. The same kind of enlightenment that Jesus came to know. The same enlightenment that has been experienced and written about for millennium. But it comes at a cost. The cost is a crisis of letting go of control. The cost is letting go of your suffering. The cost is giving up your pre-conceived ideas of who you are and what enlightenment is. The cost is your willingness to let go of everything you think you are and your willingness to be open and empty as you face your self. This is not necessarily easy because you find that you have investments in being the way you are. You have a reputation to protect. You want to be seen by others and yourself in a certain way. You may not want to let go of your suffering because you have invested a lifetime becoming comfortable with the pain. As painful as your suffering may be, to let go of using your suffering as a way to relate with others is frightening. And, at least you know your suffering. If you let go of being the way you have been... What then? The unknown can be very scary and uncomfortable. This is your crisis. The crisis of letting go of what you know as your self. And this is the cost of your enlightenment.

 

Fear is one of the many obstacles to enlightenment. Commonly, people have a fear of the unknown. They also fear that life will fundamentally change if they know themselves directly. They fear they won't be able to tolerate their job or their spouse or their family and friends. They are afraid that if they go any further down that path to knowing themselves, life will be different. They might go crazy or die. And possibly, even worse, they fear being wrong. They fear that all the suffering they held on to in their life was in vain. They fear that all their judgements about themselves and others have been wrong. It's not easy to admit to yourself that your life has been lived as a mistake or that your way of being in life has been unacceptable, shameful or disappointing to you or others. This is a crisis of identity and it often comes as you get closer to enlightenment and knowing yourself as you truly are.  

 

These are not the only crisis and obstacles that you may face on a journey of enlightenment. There are many. Obstacles can be mental, physical, emotional or a combination of all three. It's important to recognise that you cannot avoid the obstacles and that you can get through them. In the scripture, folklore, literature and the myths of the world, heros and heroines find their way through the obstacles to the Promised Land. Historically, Buddha did and so did Jesus. The Greek gods Apollo and Herecles did; the Tibetan Buddhist, known as the mad princess, Laksminkara did; the Taoist Goddess of Mercy, GuanYin did. And in modern times, Neo, the hero of the Matrix did; Dr. David Hawkins did; Eckhart Tolle did; and so have thousands of participants of the Enlightenment Intensive process. 

Sometimes it helps to know that others have walked on this seemingly lonely and treacherous journey. If you look, you can see their their foot steps and the path they created before you. And if you listen intently you can hear their voices echoing, "Keep going straight ahead. Ignore the distractions. Ignore the bliss and the pleasure. Ignore the fear and the loathing. The mind is the Great Seducer. Keep dancing until it rains. You are not alone."