The Enlightenment Technique
A comprehensive guide to the contemplation and communication practice that accelerates direct self-knowledge
*For those seeking deeper understanding of the method
The Power of Communication in Contemplation
The Enlightenment Technique combines the ancient practice of self-inquiry with a revolutionary discovery: communication dissolves the mind's contents far more rapidly than contemplation alone.
The Mind as a "Pending Box"
Did you ever have a desk with a "Pending" box on it? Well, that's exactly what the mind is. You think, "Someday I'm going to work on that stuff." You handle a few items on top, but ten more come in. You glance at something and think, "I don't understand that; I'll work on that later."
You also have an "Outgoing" basket full of messages for other people, but the messenger never comes to deliver them. These undelivered communications and unprocessed experiences are what the mind is made up of.
When these mental contents are communicated to another person who truly receives and understands them, they dissolve and vanish from the mind. This creates the clear space necessary for enlightenment experiences to occur.
The Complete Eight-Step Process
Position
Two individuals sit facing each other at a mutually comfortable distance, not involved in trying to resolve relationship issues.
Instruction
One partner gives the instruction directly: "Tell me who you are" or "Tell me what you are". The giver must genuinely want to know—not just go through the motions. This adds the power and consciousness of another being to the contemplation.
Reception
Accept this as a genuine order from your partner. When both people join forces this way, the life from both conscious entities is added together against the receiver's mind. This is what gives the technique its remarkable power—you're not fighting your mind alone.
Contemplation
Intend to consciously, directly know who/what you are. Not thinking about yourself, but setting the intention for direct knowledge while remaining open to whatever arises.
Communication
Communicate only what occurs as a direct result of contemplating. Try to help your partner understand what you're sharing.
Listening
Listen with pure conscious attention to understand. No speaking, nodding, gestures, facial expressions, or evaluation of any kind.
Acknowledgment
The listener says "Thank you" (or equivalent) without value judgment to acknowledge their partner's communication.
Role Reversal
Roles switch and the process repeats. Balance contemplation and communication roughly 50/50 throughout your turn.
Understanding "Intent" vs. "Trying"
What Intent Means
Intent is not hoping, wishing, or expecting. When you say "We intend to move to St. Helena," you're committed—you're going to do it. Intent involves commitment.
To intend to consciously, directly know yourself means you are committed to that knowing, not to thinking about yourself or analyzing concepts.
Academic-Land vs. Reality-Land
Most people start in "academic-land"—running around in their minds dealing with ideas about themselves rather than dealing with themselves. They're thinking over abstract concepts of selfness instead of having their attention on the actual self.
Academic-Land:
- • Reading about volcanoes
- • Psychological studies on people
- • Thinking about who you are
- • Dealing with concepts
Reality-Land:
- • Going and kicking a volcano
- • Experiencing yourself directly
- • Intending to know the actual self
- • Dealing with what's real to you
The Breakthrough
After being in "thought-land" for a day or two, a person finally says, "Well, I don't know. I just... you know... I'm lost." Finally they've given up on definitions and are totally lost. This is actually progress. Now you can ask: "Tell me what you are to yourself right now." They might say: "I'm a frustrated person." Now that's real to them—and you can work with reality.
The Changing Object of Contemplation
There is only one true object of enlightenment: you as you really are. But since you're not a thing, the object of contemplation constantly changes.
The object of enlightenment is whatever you're experiencing yourself to be at this moment, plus the Truth. If you experience yourself as a body, intend to directly know that body. If you experience yourself as frustrated, intend to directly know that frustrated one.
As you truly contemplate what you're identified with, those identifications tend to break and dissolve, bringing you closer to your actual nature.
Physical Identifications
- • "I am this body"
- • "I am these sensations"
- • "I am this age/gender"
- • "I am sick/healthy"
Mental Identifications
- • "I am my thoughts"
- • "I am intelligent/stupid"
- • "I am my memories"
- • "I am this personality"
Emotional Identifications
- • "I am angry/sad/happy"
- • "I am a victim/hero"
- • "I am loving/hateful"
- • "I am this feeling"
The Most Serious Threat: "Trip Laying"
⚠️ Critical Warning
"Trip laying" is one of the most serious things that can creep into the technique. It's serious because it happens often and easily, and it instantly destroys the safe environment necessary for the technique to work.
Example: Person A shares something vulnerable from their contemplation. When roles switch, Person B begins with: "That's really interesting what you said about feeling disconnected. I think you're on the right track there..." This subtle commentary instantly destroys the safety—Person A realizes their sharing is being evaluated and discussed, not simply received.
Forms of Trip Laying
- • Any evaluation or judgment (verbal or non-verbal)
- • Facial expressions showing disapproval/surprise
- • Gestures that convey judgment
- • Most subtle: Commenting on your partner's sharing when roles switch
- • Ridicule (the worst form)
The Result
When someone experiences trip laying, they immediately think: "Okay, that's it. I'm saying nothing about anything that's close to my heart" and completely close down. This destroys the entire process.
Creating Absolute Safety
Why Safety is Critical
People often skip over sharing the things that feel most important or vulnerable—things they usually don't say about themselves, especially around sexuality, secret desires, or deep fears.
"I know who I really am. I'm a fraud. I pretend to be good, but deep down I'm selfish and only care about myself." They're afraid to say things like this, but these hidden identifications are exactly what need to be communicated to dissolve.
Creating Safety Through Non-Consequence
Safety is created by ensuring that no consequence is put on people when they share. When participants see that time has gone by and no matter what they've said, no consequence has been put on it, they'll risk sharing the deeper material.
The listening partner can laugh if something is genuinely funny and the speaker is laughing first, but nothing else.
The Power of Ignoring Irrelevant Content
Ignoring is a very powerful technique. When you do not add your energy or life to something, it tends to wither, or at least wander away.
What to Ignore
- • Mental content not connected to your contemplation
- • Random thoughts that arise
- • Memories unrelated to who/what you are
- • Distracting emotions or sensations
- • Anything you don't see a connection to your intent
The Reality of Limited Time
To deal with everything in the mind would be a 10-12 year project, working 8-10 hours a day. Working 18 hours a day for 3 days won't compensate for that.
Therefore, focus only on what's precisely relevant to your intent to consciously, directly know who/what you are.
Common Challenges and How to Navigate Them
Challenge: "I'm just thinking about myself"
Most people start by thinking about themselves rather than intending to directly know themselves. They're in "academic-land" dealing with concepts, not reality.
This is normal and necessary in the beginning. The mind gets in the way with ideas, but gradually these will be communicated out.
Navigation Strategy
- • Accept where you are without self-judgment
- • Keep returning to the intention for direct knowing
- • Communicate the thinking and it will dissolve
- • Eventually you'll exhaust concepts and touch reality
Challenge: Fear of failure or looking foolish
The ego resists making the commitment to intend because it's afraid of failing. "Maybe something will happen, maybe it won't."
This hedge protects against failure but prevents the willful effort needed for the technique to work.
Navigation Strategy
- • Recognize that "failure" is part of the process
- • Make the commitment despite fear
- • Remember: The technique is willful until the moment of enlightenment
- • Trust in the self-correcting nature of the method
Challenge: Getting lost in emotions or phenomena
Sometimes people sink deeply into emotional states, past traumas, or fascinating phenomena like lights or visions, losing orientation toward enlightenment.
The 5-minute changeovers prevent getting too deeply lost, but awareness helps.
Navigation Strategy
- • Notice when you're getting "swept away"
- • Return to your intention to directly know yourself
- • Communicate the experience and let it dissolve
- • Trust the timing structure to reset your focus
When the Mind Empties
Why 5-Minute Turns Are Optimal
Through extensive testing with participants, the 5-minute alternating structure was discovered to provide the ideal balance for the technique to work effectively.
If Too Short (under 4 minutes)
- • Not enough time for deep contemplation
- • Can't fully communicate what arises
- • Feels rushed and superficial
- • Prevents the technique from gaining power
If Too Long (over 6-7 minutes)
- • Get lost in emotional states
- • Lose orientation toward enlightenment
- • Become swept away by phenomena
- • Turn into therapy rather than enlightenment work
Five minutes allows sufficient depth while maintaining the essential focus on direct self-knowledge.
The Optimal State
After communicating out the contents related to who/what you are, you reach a state where your mind is empty on that subject. This isn't enlightenment, but it's the optimal condition for enlightenment to occur.
All that's left is the self. You're now in the best possible state for having conscious, direct knowledge of who you are.
The Final Trap: Trying to "See" Yourself
When people are almost at enlightenment, they're almost always still trying to see who or what they are. They think, "Where am I?" But they are actually identified with the perceiver—the one who perceives things—and so they are trying to see.
When they give up trying to perceive themselves and discover they are the seer, they de-identify from the seer and may panic: "Wait, now I can't even see? What have I got left?" This is when enlightenment becomes imminent.
At This Point
- Stop trying to see or perceive yourself
- Give up all mechanisms and processes
- Simply remain in the intention to know
- Enlightenment happens spontaneously or not at all
"In the end, enlightenment is not a willful thing. It is a spontaneous event. You cannot make it happen."
Preparing for Deep Practice
Mental Preparation
Commit to absolute honesty, especially about things you usually hide
Release attachment to looking good or maintaining an image
Set aside relationship dynamics with your partner for the session
Prepare for the possibility of uncomfortable discoveries
Practical Preparation
Ensure you won't be interrupted for the full session
Sit comfortably but alertly, maintaining eye contact
Have water available but minimize other distractions
Choose a partner you don't have unresolved issues with
The Self-Correcting Path
The Enlightenment Technique is remarkably self-correcting. As you practice it, even imperfectly, your experience will gradually guide you toward doing it more accurately. The technique reinforces itself when done according to these principles.
If you were to set two sincere, intelligent people down with the intention to get enlightened, within three or four months they would naturally develop this same technique.
"What we are going for here is something beyond words. It is you and only yours to know."
Join us every Friday to experience this powerful technique in community, or practice with a trusted partner following these guidelines.