We will continue with our Book Notes series with a few ideas from Chapter 2 of How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain, by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman. (see here for the first post)
What is Enlightenment
Our authors start the chapter with a series of words people have used to try and describe the term Enlightenment.
Knowledge – Gnosis – Wisdom – Science – Reason – Oneness – Unity – Ecstasy – Awakening – Bliss – Purity – Liberation – Insight – Truth – Transcendence – Transformation – Self-Realization – Illumination – Clarity – Inner Peace – Holiness – Revelation – God – Emptiness – Selflessness – Pure Consciousness
p.27
This list is quite telling. The authors suggest that the plurality of definitions is due to the difficulty in trying to pinpoint and narrow down experience of either the Big “E” or small “e” enlightenments that the book is exploring. If we just explore this list, we see terms that fall into religion, spirituality, secularism, and all states in between. And so, throughout history, we have looked to many ways to describe these states, starting from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to our book’s brain science exploration.
Back to our trying to define enlightenment, the authors’ propose that for the little “e” type, the definition is:
to shed light on our ignorance and bring ourselves out from the dark.
p. 29
All of those moments in our lives when we “shed light” on a subject might very well fall into this category. Of course, these little moments are there to build towards the potentially Big “E” moment, yet we must not lose sight of the value of each of the little “e” enlightenments most of us will experience.
The authors distinguish between the two types of enlightenment by suggesting that the Big “E” Enlightenment is a state of being “typically associated with a permanent shift of perception, awareness and knowledge (29-30).” Yet, this definition is not simple as it is difficult to assess the objectivity of the reported experience, since these are by nature, individualized, subjective stories from individual experience.
Chapter two is continues by surveying in brief eastern and western mystical enlightenment, western rational enlightenment, American spiritual enlightenment and psychological enlightenment. As with most surveys, there are various subcategories that get lost, nuances between different faiths and eras. Nevertheless, for the goal of this book, it is important to have this baseline to explore the contemporary neuroscientific approaches.
Towards the end of chapter two, one particular passage stood out, which I think makes for an interesting counter to experiments of defining enlightenment. It states:
There’s a wonderful story about a young man who goes to a Buddhist monastery eager to become enlightened as quickly as possible. The man asks the Buddhist master, “How long will it take me to become enlightened?” The master answers, “About ten years.” The young man says, “Ten years! Why ten years?” The master replies, “Ah, I see that you are right! In your case, twenty years!”
“Why do you now say twenty years?” the frustrated man retorts, but the master then says “Oh, I’m sorry. I was mistaken. For you, thirty years.”
In other words, the more you try to become enlightened, the more it may elude you, which is exactly what happened to me.
p, 43
As we continue to explore the ideas from this book, I wonder how much of the elusive nature of enlightenment will be a theme to return to, for no matter how much we can study the brain function of someone experiencing these alternate states of being, I would believe that the mystery that is the experience itself will remain.
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