Enlightenment Intensive

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Enlightenment Intensive , also Tell me who you are , is a contemplative form of self-awareness and the search for "truth" that was developed in 1968 by Charles Berner .

Tell me who you are

The participants ask themselves the question “Tell me who you are”.

During this search for their inner truth, they deal with four fundamental questions:

Who am I?
What am I?
What is life
What is another?

The aim is to have an immediate experience of being, beyond the intellectual comprehension. So, so to speak, to find out what is behind the pictures that people make of themselves or that third parties convey to them. This is to be achieved by two people going into direct contact with each other, and in direct, honest communication, in that they question themselves again and again, granting each other and themselves an insight into who they really are.

The method is based on the theory that the true self is hidden behind learned ideologies , roles and images , and that these must first be resolved before the true self can be accessed and recognized. Because only then is a direct encounter from one true self to another true self possible.

method

The core of the method is the dyadic encounter. The term dyad is derived from the Greek and means "duality". In the method of contemplative communication developed by Charles Berner, a dyad contains certain rules that are observed in communication. Above all, this includes listening attentively, without judging and without interrupting. Two participants each sit opposite each other, usually in larger groups in a long row. One asks his partner: "Tell me who you are". The partner replies with sentences that always begin with the same words: "I am someone who ..." and ends this sentence with a statement about himself. He repeats continuously new sentences with ever new statements and insights about the, what he thinks he is. The questioner listens attentively, but without saying anything himself. Only when the respondent takes a longer break, sinks thoughtfully into himself, so to speak, and does not speak any further, does he get him out of this oblivion by repeating the question: "Tell me who you are".

After five minutes a bell rings and the listener thanks the speaker: “Thank you”. Then the roles are changed. The bell rings every five minutes, a total of eight chimes in a speaking sequence, everyone speaks four times. A whole speaking sequence lasts 45 minutes. Then the partner is changed.

From 6:00 a.m. to midnight, the day is structured strictly and without a break. It usually begins with a brief introduction from the teacher. The speaking sequences are only interrupted by short toilet breaks (five minutes), which are spent in silence, and by six short, simple meals. The sessions are complemented by walking meditation , sitting meditation and breathing exercises. An Enlightenment Intensive takes a total of 10 to 14 days.

This ritualized form and strict rules (punctuality, no speaking, alcohol, smoking, touching and no sex) serve to avoid all distractions so that the participants can concentrate fully on the basic question and the answers that arise in a consciously contemplative attitude perceive and develop. With each speaking sequence, the participants dive deeper into their self-perception.

The Enlightenment Intensive does not contain or convey any religious or spiritual teaching. It gives the participant complete freedom to experience himself. There are also shortened forms. Berner recommends three days as a minimum. The speaking sequences are also sometimes shortened. Based on the method, different questions are sometimes used in self-awareness courses (what is important to you in life, what is your most valuable experience, your most beautiful encounter, etc.), but this then leads to different results.

Effects

Participants report that they experience the following stages and go through them internally:

  1. Dissolution of identification with external roles ("I am father, mother, neighbor, etc.")
  2. Dissolution of limiting intellectual and philosophical ideas
  3. physical and / or psychological experiences
  4. Empty
  5. Emotions (anger, fear, pain, sadness, joy)

Some report of subsequent spiritual experiences, of bursts of energy, flow and enthusiasm, of a feeling of experiencing something like "truth" or satori , of being in direct contact with oneself and the other.

History / Charles Berner

Enlightenment Intensive was developed by Charles Berner in the 1960s. Berner (* 1929, † 2007) was a Californian communication scientist. In 1974 he met the Indian yogi Swami Kripalu († 1984), became his disciple and was given the spiritual name Yogeshwar Muni . He combined his teachings with Western knowledge. Holistic Yoga arose from this encounter . In 1968, Berner conducted the first seminar with Enlightenment Intensive. In the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (today Osho ) in Poona, Enlightenment Intensive was one of the important therapy offers. Many teachers were later trained in this method. In the 1980s, such seminars were especially widespread in the USA and Europe. In 1994, a 14-day Enlightenment Intensive was held at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Today, long seminars are rarely offered. Berner died in Merimbula , New South Wales , Australia in 2007 .

See also

literature

  • Charles Berner: Consciousness of Trought, A Manual for the Enlightenment Intensive , 1977/2006
  • Karl Scherer: Breath as a Gate , 1992, ISBN 3-924195-14-5
  • Werner Plate: Intensiver Leben , 1995, ISBN 3466343402
  • Swami Kripalu: From the Heart of the Lotus , 2008, ISBN 097668439X

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Block event with Karl Scherer as part of "Social Ecology as Studium Generale", winter semester 93/94 from 6. – 19. December 1993 at Stargard Castle