Enlightenment and the Enlightenment Intensive: Volume 1 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781492267546)

Charles Berner (1927 - 2007), who was later known as, Yogeshwar Muni, created and developed the Enlightenment Intensive retreat. The first Enlightenment Intensive was held in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles in July of 1968. Charles, who grew up in Southern California, was a curious and intelligent young boy raised in a family tradition of science rather than religion and religious dogma. His education and early employment was in the field of science and technology but as a teenager he discovered he also had an interest in philosophy, metaphysics and religious traditions. In this quest to understand himself he talked to many spiritual teachers, visited a variety of Southern California churches and experimented with several spiritual growth traditions. In the late 1950's he began to attend and study with a newly developing church called The Church of Scientology. By the early 1960's he was a leader, a respected teacher and even became the president of the Church of Scientology in California. But by 1965 he resigned his affiliation with the organization. In the 1960's he formed the Institute of Ability where he continued to teach and develop new communication methods and self reflective techniques for improving one's life. In 1968 he created and developed the Enlightenment Intensive which is a three to ten day retreat that combines a self reflective 'who am I' meditation technique with interpersonal communication. The Enlightenment Intensive has become a popular meditation retreat held in scores of countries around the world with perhaps several hundred thousand people having taken an Enlightenment Intensive or one of the derivative workshops based upon Berner's original Enlightenment Intensive retreat. In 1973, while traveling on a spiritual tour of India with two dozen of his students he met Swami Kripalvananda. The Swami initiated Berner into the yogic practice of Sahaja or Natural Yoga. Berner, was given the name of Yogeshwar Muni by Swami Kripalu. When he returned to the United States he began to teach Sahaja Yoga calling it Surrender Yoga or Natural Meditation. He continued his personal daily surrender meditation practice for up to 8 hours a day for the rest of his life. In 1982, he moved to Australia to begin a life of solitude and simplicity where he continued to meditate, write, reflect and teach a small group of students who were dedicated to a path of surrender yoga.