A QUERY: I became very confused when I read the magazine What is Enlightenment: Does Anybody know what they’re Talking about? Some of the sages who were interviewed suggest that enlightenment is a mystical experience while others state that enlightenment is achieved through a study and deep understanding of the scriptures. A few prominent advocates of the latter school of thought went so far as to deny the enlightened status of Ramana Maharishi, one of the most famous saints of India, suggesting that he was just a fuzzy mystic! What’s going on? Is all of this a ruse to get people more motivated to listen to Andrew Cohen?

REPLY: I do not presume to know Andrew Cohen’s motives. For the sake of consistency do you mind if I answer your questions in the form of aphorisms? (Assent is given).

APHORISM #1: There are two different approaches to the subject of truth or enlightenment:

1. A female oriented approach.
2. A male oriented approach.

The first is more positive and the second, more a process of negation. The first emphasizes the positive attributes of the Divine and the second, the inexpressibility of the Divine. The first emphasizes Divine Immanence and the second, Divine Transcendence.

APHORISM #2: Although gender has an influence over which approach is favored, it is not necessarily the determining factor.

APHORISM #3: We use the word experience for perceptions (including actions in response to perceptions) and for feelings. We use the word understanding for the culmination of thought processes through the mind and intellect.

APHORISM #4: Because a human being engages in willing, feeling and thinking, he thereby functions through both experience and understanding. However, one will predominate over the other depending on the predominant strength of personality that guides the spiritual evolution of that person.

APHORISM #5: Of the eight archetypal paths to God, most rely primarily on experience (willing, or perception and action, and feeling). Only Gyana Yoga relies exclusively on understanding. However, many male oriented individuals, regardless of gender, may use the principle of understanding in important ways on other paths as well.

COMMENTARY: For example, many Hatha Yogins can be quite cerebral if they are male oriented in their approach. They often become logicians. Male oriented Bhakti Yogis like Joseph Campbell, the great writer on mythology, can also rely heavily on the process of understanding, especially in how he expresses knowledge. The same principle holds true for any of the other spiritual paths as well.

The Yogas that relate to feeling, namely, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga, have a more positive orientation. The Yoga related most directly to thinking and understanding, Gyana Yoga, emphasizes negation. Surya Yoga is a mixture of both approaches, as is Tantra. Hatha and Laya Yoga practitioners may emphasize positive approaches when dealing with the senses and action and negation when applying cognitive processes.

In summary, in order to know whether a person will favor experience or understanding in the pursuit and expression of higher knowledge, one must be aware of:

1. The nature of the Yoga being used.
2. The gender of the person.
3. The predominant male or female orientation of the person.

APHORISM #6: Ultimate knowledge is achieved through Insight. Insight is a transcendent synthesis of both experience and understanding. It is a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Even these expressions are not totally apt. Insight stands at a higher level than either experience or understanding. It is the Ultimate Realization that includes thinking, feeling and willing, and understanding and experience, but is not limited to any of these categories of knowledge.

APHORISM #7: Nevertheless, each individual favors one of these two basic approaches (understanding or experience) both as a seeker of enlightenment and an Enlightened seeking to convey the truth of his experience or understanding to others.

APHORISM #8: The goal may be One, but paths to the goal and expressions of the goal are never One.

APHORISM #9: The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living ® is a new form of spiritual science that honors not only all the various paths to God, but also recognizes that there must necessarily be more than one way of describing, or pointing to, Ultimate Reality.

APHORISM #10: More importantly, The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living ® provides a technology whereby any individual can know his own predominant strength of personality, how it translates into a spiritual path, and how he can best express his own Realization or Insight, to the extent that it has been enlivened in him, to others.