Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery in nature. And it is because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we try to solve.* It is often said that enlightenment is beyond the intellect's grasp. This chapter will investigate that claim, which raises much suspicion in the mind. Nebulous references, such as All is One; This is it; and Beyond space and time do not hack it. The intellect insists on facts and is sure that if someone would just explain enlightenment properly, it would definitely get it. The following story illustrates that hearing the right answer is not always as helpful as we might expect. In his book, 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' Douglas Adams tells us of an earthling, Arthur Dent, who escapes our planet just moments before it is demolished to make room for an intergalactic highway. The Hitchhikers Guide becomes his indispensable travel companion and the guide's motto "don't panic" sees him through many adventures. While traveling between the stars, Arthur Dent hears the story of a super computer named "Deep Thought," built by an alien race to answer the ultimate question of "Life, The Universe, and Everything." After seven-and-a-half million years of calculating, Deep Thought comes back with the result. Dignitaries, priests, and scientists gather to learn the answer. And the answer is (drum roll, please)………42! Well, 42 might be the correct answer, but without a firsthand understanding as to how Deep Thought arrived at it, this answer is useless. The same is true for the answer to the question "What is enlightenment?" Those who "know" insist that it is beyond the intellectual mind and, at the same time, that it is simplicity itself. One may tell you that there is no enlightenment and no one to become enlightened, while another will say that enlightenment is already fully present. Although they seem to contradict each other, they are both pointing back to the same indefinable center from which the pointing is done. They might tell you that if this is not clear, no answer will satisfy you, and any answer you might be given will only be understood as an invitation to ask the next question. The intellect, however, is convinced that to each question there is a comprehensible and "right" answer. It says: "Just be clear with me and don't tell me that this understanding is beyond me. Did I not build the pyramids, bring forth the theory of relativity, put a man on the moon, and map the human genome?" Yes indeed, the intellect apparently did all these things and much, much more; but please note the use of the word apparently here. It's important because, when there is clarity as to what enlightenment is or what it is not, one's perspective on the activating energy in all thinking and doing shifts from the personal to the impersonal. * Max Planck (Karl Ernst Ludwig) (1858-1947) Theoretical physicist.
