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An Enlightenment Intensive is a group retreat designed to enable an enlightenment experience or an experience of nondualism within a relatively short time. Devised by Americans Charles Berner and his wife, Ava Berner, the format combines the self-enquiry meditation method popularised by Ramana Maharshi with interpersonal communication processes [1] in a structure that resembles both a traditional Zen sesshin (meditation retreat) and group psychotherapy. Religious teachings and philosophical concepts are generally avoided.
Charles Berner (1927 – 2007), who was later known as Yogeshwar Muni, created the Enlightenment Intensive. In the 1960s, he formed the Institute of Ability where he and his wife Ava promoted "holistic health techniques such as fasting and massage, communication exercises like those used in encounter groups, emotional release therapies, past life regression, and a host of other modalities popular among the 1960s counterculture." [2]
In spring 1968, it "just suddenly occurred" to Charles Berner - "what source it came from I know not but it wasn't a process of sitting down and figuring it out" [3] - to combine meditation methods with the structure of an interpersonal workshop.
Enlightenment Intensives and Rinzai Zen share the goal of sudden enlightenment, known as kenshō or satori in Zen. [4]
This defined as a spontaneous direct experience of Truth, or an awakening to the ultimate true nature of oneself or life. According to Berner: "Conscious, direct knowledge happens when oneself is directly known by one- self because the knower is the same one as the known." [5]
In addition, both use a question (koan) as a way to specify which aspect of Truth one was intending to directly experience. On Enlightenment Intensives, participants usually begin with the self-enquiry question, "Who am I?". Other questions that are most often used are: "What am I?", "What is life?", and "What is another?"
There are several key differences between Enlightenment Intensives and traditioonal Zen methods:
1. Dyads: The technique used adds partnered communuication to inner contemplation. During a 40-minute dyad period, two participants will face each other and take turns to contemplate their question and communicate their experiences as a result of contemplating. [6]
2. Communication. The communication element allows a participant to "discharge" or "discard" whatever material comes into awareness as they seek ultimate Truth, be it thoughts, sensations, emotions or memories. The idea is that by communicating the results of contemplation, any distracting mental contents are gradually shifted away from the forefront of attention. For example, by communicating any ideas about "who I am" that happen to arise while contemplating, the participant is able to de-identify from false ideas and focus more clearly on the reality of who they are. Eventually, the mind stops trying to generate "answers" to the questionm allowing for a more spacious consciousness that is primed to directly experience its own true nature. [7]
2. Guidance: Participants on Enlightenment Intensives are encouraged to speak to senior staff in order to, for example, check their technique, seek advice if they seem "stuck", or simply to receive some contact and encouragement to keep going. This contrasts with classical Zen rereats in which, typically, a student or monk might have one meeting with the master per day.
