Instant Enlightenment: Fast, Deep, and Sexy

by David Deida

Does enlightenment have a dark side? It does, explains David Deida, "but instead of closing to what seems unloving, we can learn to open as what we would rather avoid." In Instant Enlightenment, this maverick author and teacher offers a "rude awakening" through a collection of daring exercises and practices intended to provoke, challenge, and immediately reveal the ever-present "love that lives all things." Each pithy chapter encourages readers to blast the light of consciousness on the taboos we hide in shadow, from our ideas about sex and money to emotions and spirituality. Instant Enlightenment will surprise and possibly offend you—but it will lead you "fast and suddenly" to the realization of the sacred entirety of your experience.

Dive straight into this book. Open to any page and read for two minutes, and you ll see that you are instant enlightenment. —Ken Wilber, author of A Brief History of Everything

Genres: Spirituality, Personal Development, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help, Womens, Relationships

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

David Deida is an American author who writes about the sexual and spiritual relationship between men and women.[1] His ten books have been published in 25 languages. He conducts spiritual growth and intimacy workshops and is one of the many founding associates at the Integral Institute. He has conducted research and taught classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Lexington Institute in Boston, San Jose State University and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. He is the author of numerous essays, articles, and books on human spirituality including The Way of the Superior Man, Finding God Through Sex and Blue Truth and the autobiographical novel Wild Nights.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read filled with snippets and exercises that become increasingly bizarre.

Deida seeks to push you through taboos and issues that may be holding you back from 'enlightenment' that is essentially a state of loving and appreciating everything around. To be in love with yourself and the world around you.

Here are some of the takeaways I had from the book:

Love everyone and everything - slowly and intensely. Appreciate.

Don't let daily drama expand into your life, move on and enjoy the positives - no matter how small they are.

Humor is essential.

Appreciate each moment, pain helps you appreciate pleasure.

"Sex and money: the source of most of our desire and disappointment, our hope and fear."

Just as masturbation can be important to fill your life with sexual pleasure so to should you be responsible for achieving your own happiness - don't rely on others for it.

Love because of and in spite of everything around you - love the good and the bad, the possibilities, realities and the inevitable.

[Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

The question that immediately came to mind while skimming through this little book was , " Did the author drop some acid just prior to writing it ? "
Enough said.

[Barascu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for open minded freaks. I think people who can relate to efukt and Fight Club will find it as being one of the most incredible books ever. If you are judgemental with lack of compassion/superficial or simply a delicate snowflake avoid it. (

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teaches you how to be in love, after this book I was in one of my lifes best mood, it teaches you how to fall in love with the door to your room just as you love your lover or parent

[Ankhbayar Tserenvandan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book, Instant Enlightenment, was heavily criticized and negatively looked upon over its over-the-top sexualized exercises as its primary examples to say loving everything and everyone with one's openness is enlightenment, it's not entirely right to say this book was "awful". On the contrary, it did an outstanding job explaining the impermanence of everything through easily digestible, outrageous examples.

I highly recommend this book for those who are seeking a light read on the concept of enlightenment.

Here's a brief part from the chapter "Age":

"Infants don't dream of having sex with the waitress. Most eighty-year-olds don't obsess about being tied down and tongue tortured above the knees. Although there are exceptions, sexual desire, as a bodily experience, belongs mostly to the middle years of life. They make a big deal about it, those mid-year bipeds, jazzed to seduce and impress. They act to play up the sex or to play it down for similar reasons. They use the mirror in their bathroom as a sexual reflection. Their shopping for clothes is riddled with sexual motivation. They walk and stand and glance for this purpose. They dab themselves with scents of arousal. For your middle years, sex is a powerful bodily force. So influential, that even your present hairstyle was probably chosen, in part, for sexual reasons. Yet, how good have sex really been for you? Considering its almost-constant determining influence in your mid-years, how many total hours or minutes have truly been worth the time, money, pain, and effort you have put into sexing it up? The play is pleasurable, of course, whether you get laid or not. But obviously, the payoff isn't in the sex itself, which for most people is too quick, shallow, and eventually humdrum if you stay with the same partner long enough. The true payoff, if you play for real, is this: bodily sex prepares you to make love as each moment's passion, relaxing open as want-free oneness, playing as desire-driven multiplicity."

[Bravebook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Najnowsza w Polsce książka Davida Deidy to zbiór krótkich rozdziałów na przeróżne tematy, które na pierwszy rzut oka wydają się błahe i przyziemne, ale autor pokazuje, że można w nie wpleść znacznie więcej podniosłości niż się wydaje.

Są to myśli, ćwiczenia, teksty skłaniające do refleksji, które mają na celu wzbudzić w czytelniku chęć pracy nad sobą, chęć poprawy jakości swojego życia oraz sprawić, by kierować się w nim wyższą miłością.

Autor znany jest ze swojego nietypowego i często kontrowersyjnego podejścia do różnych spraw, a jednocześnie zadziwiająco łatwo trafia do serc i umysłów czytelników. Jedno jest pewne - na kartach jego książek można znaleźć zaskakujące stwierdzenia!😃

Jego nauki i przemyślenia nie zawsze docierają do mnie z tą samą siłą, ale w tej książce trafiło się sporo kwestii, które zwróciły moją uwagę i z których postaram się w życiu korzystać 😃

Rozwój jest moim zdaniem naszym obowiązkiem i tego typu książki mogą nas pchnąć ku lepszemu, a myślę, że ta jest w stanie zmienić myślenie wielu osób. Zwłaszcza tych, dla których codzienność jest chaotycznym czasem.

David Deida proponuje krótkie ćwiczenia, do których nie potrzeba być oświeconym 😉 łatwo je wpleść nawet w zabiegane życie. I w wielu sprawach naprawdę warto z nich skorzystać 😃

Przedstawione tu treści nie mają wysokiego progi wejścia, może po nie sięgnąć dosłownie każdy o choć trochę otwartym umyśle i z chęcią rozwoju czy poprawy jakości swojego życia. Właśnie tym osobom poleciłabym tę książkę. Sama planuję wracać co jakiś czas do pewnych rozdziałów, by sobie coś odświeżyć lub się zainspirować 😃

Warto poszerzać swoje horyzonty, przełamywać schematy, angażować szare komóreczki do pracy i przemyśleń - książki takie jak tai są w tym pomocne, zwłaszcza gdy ktoś dopiero poszukuje swojej ścieżki 😃

[Cees Onderwater · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deida’s ‘The way of the superior man’ wordt al beschouwd als radicaal, ‘In een oogwenk verlicht’ (de Nederlandse titel) is dat in de overtreffende trap. Het boek bestaat uit 34 betrekkelijk korte hoofdstukjes met oefeningen om zonder voorbehoud ALLES lief te hebben. En dan bedoelt hij ook ECHT ALLES: bomen, de deur van je kamer, je sokken likken, als een kever onder een stronthoop leven, … Op die manier nodigt hij je uit om volledig open te staan. Omdat we dat zijn: oneindige openheid, openheid voor liefde die we zijn en ons omringt. En precies dat is de instant beschikbare verlichting, waarover we al beschikken maar die we vergeten zijn.

Aanvankelijk sprak deze ‘geest openende’ aanpak me wel aan en verruimde daadwerkelijk mijn manier van kijken. Maar al snel resoneerde het niet meer; het gaat maar door en door, zonder nieuwe inzichten, niets toevoegend. Wat wel toenam was de graad van bizarheid van de oefeningen, als dat tenminste een woord is.

Wellicht is ‘radicaliteit' zijn handelsmerk. Bij mij werkt dat niet, niet meer.

[Vansh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly here are the chapters I liked:
33, 31, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 20, 18, 17, 16, 15, 13, 11, 8, 6, 5, 3, 1.
The book contains a lot of good ideas- some I feel really helped me overcome my self-limiting beliefs and others were more mystic- as if I had half the pieces of the puzzle so I'll be checking them out later (tbf when I look at it later, I'll probably feel as if the ones I actually did think I understood, I didn't at all lol)
Regardless, it's a wonderful book and gave me some perspectives I hadn't considered before. Thanks David!

[Evelina Toma · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Smell your shit. Taste it. How does that make you feel? Now offer your love in spite of the feelings that smelling and tasting your shit gave you."

This is pretty much the way that this book can be summarized. The author probably thinks he wrote a valuable book which breaks taboos, but the result is a stinky nonsense. Very few valuable ideas there, all buried under the crappy ones. I don't even consider reading any more of his books, after having read this one.

[Joel Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short chapters on how to bring enlightenment to many different areas of your life. Very helpful and obviously written from a very enlightened place, perhaps what seems the most of all the writers on consciousness I've read. Lots of depth that I still am not able to understand yet.

If you've never done consciousness work before then this book will seem almost silly, outlandish and like Deida is taking nonsense. But a very insightful and practical guide if read from a higher place.

[Suzanne Singman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was worried when i read the reviews that i might hate this book. I am not always a fan of men, especially men who think they know lots about women. But this was a book about enlightenment. and i thought his approach was fun and witty and very western.

[Jasper M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very odd and at times cringing book, but it's so extreme that it provokes thought and that's what books are for.

Takeaway of the book: Love everything in the now. The book gives you different models to think through to get better at doing so.

[Dustin Titus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Save your money.

[Daniel Kruis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure spirituality: To be enlightened is to be fully present and open.

[Gordon Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I got the book, a year or more ago - some of the exercises seemed do-able. Now a lot more of it seems beyond me. If nothing else, the book turns out to be a great barometer of how much flex I have in my attitude about life at any given time.

[Paul Finch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent self-experiential little book for a taste of enlightenment

[Tatiana (DraCat) · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could I'll mark as -1

[Puro Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it.

[Yadira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really like it. Quite bizarre

[Hasan Seraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a real masterpiece..don’t be fooled by all these bad reviews..

If you enjoy this book you’d probably enjoy osho’s book (the everyday meditator)