Todays instalment is part two of the back story in to how it all came about. In our last instalment we touched on how Charles & Ava Berner were using the dyad communication cycles in their work to resolve personal problems & realise hidden potential at their healing & growth centre in 1960’s California and how Charles had read about & became inspired by the Zen sesshin retreat.
Through Kapleau and his book The Three Pillars of Zen, Berner appreciated the no nonsense approach to both what enlightenment is and isn’t and the many accounts of ordinary people who, having thrown themselves headfirst into Zen sesshin retreats, had found for themselves what many of the old books were speaking of. Western people were able to become enlightened to who or what they are by using Eastern methods, even though it involved going to a foreign land and culture to do so.
Berner continued to be fascinated by & practice Eastern methods of meditation, which were almost exclusively solo practices done in silence, seemingly at odds with the therapeutic approaches of openly relating with others, found in the West. As someone that lived in the West he was very interested in what could be done for the majority of people who lived an active lifestyle and didn’t have the time, means or inclination to travel across the globe to seek ‘enlightenment’, yet he clearly saw the benefits that having a direct experience of oneself, brings.
In his work, he saw that no matter what the type of therapy or method of spirituality employed, those that had a clear sense of who they were, were the ones that benefited quickly. Conversely those that remained identified with personality traits and behaving inauthentically took a more difficult and circuitous route. (Although I think it’s also fair to say that Berner didn’t only value awakening solely as a therapeutic aid.)
One day whilst in the Santa Cruz mountains, he had the idea of bringing the ancient question of ‘Who am I?’ and the dyad together. They began first by using ‘Who am I?’ within dyad sessions on Wednesday evenings before scheduling the first ‘Enlightenment Intensive’ on July 4th weekend, 1968. 26 people went out into the Mojave desert and over the course of 5 days within a makeshift lean to and with limited provisions set about using a schedule similar to that of the Zen sesshin, with the innovative use of the dyad communication cycle.
To begin with people came up with answers such as ‘I’m an architect’ in response to the instruction ‘Tell me who you are’ whilst others employed education and logic. Many had lots of memories come up and began to feel discomfort as they became aware of a deeper sense of their embodied reality. As time went on people began to experience inner restraints and fears as well as insights and new realisations about their own life, often with deep releases of emotion. Some continued as if on an internal search looking for themselves in a location.
Eventually a great many experienced a state of no-thought and in a temporary state of nothingness were instructed to directly experience the one who is conscious of nothing. As time progressed some experienced phenomena such as visual distortions and heat, later still, great swings of emotion, both laughter & crying. Many experienced deep serenity and just wanted to stay there forever, wondering if this was enlightenment? Into the 3rd day and many experienced a kind of crisis and a conflict between what the ego wants and how reality is. There was a whole spectrum of human states, good, bad, some up, some down and everything in-between.
But what surprised Charles Berner the most, is that people began becoming enlightened to who they were. ’Son of a gun, if people didn’t start to have direct experiences. I had expected it would take several Enlightenment Intensives for some enlightenments to start showing up. But to my amazement people were having these experiences and it blew me out as much as it did them’.
Luke & Mat