Was ist Äufklarung?

Webesters online dictionary defines enlightenment as such:

Main Entry: en·light·en·ment
Pronunciation: \in-ˈlī-tən-mənt, en-\
Function: noun
Date: 1654
1 : the act or means of enlightening : the state of being enlightened

2 capitalized : a philosophic movement of the 18th century marked by a rejection of traditional social, religious, and political ideas and an emphasis on rationalism —used with the

3 Buddhism : a final blessed state marked by the absence of desire or suffering

The word Enlightenment is associated with the philosophical, artistic and scientific movement that took place during the 1700s. The enlightenment philosophers and thinkers worked to resist and reconstruct traditional ideas of society and religion. Although enlightenment worked to combat religious ideals with rationalism, many of the concepts of this period are mirrored in the ancient religion of Buddhism. Immanuel Kant in his essay Was ist Äufklarung? Written in 1784, attempts to explain the workings of Enlightenment. Kant states that “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another.” The path to enlightenment starts with a release. Those who seek to be enlightened must shed their desires to be led. According to the Dhammapada (a collection of Buddhist texts that is traditionally thought to be the words of Buddha) Enlightenment is “Better than power over all earth, better than going to heaven and better than dominion over the worlds is the joy of a man who enters the river of life that leads to NIRVANA" (Dhammapada 13, 178). When a person frees them self from their “tutelage” and begins to think freely, they enter into a life that is free and filled with joy. But there are road-blocks on the journey to enlightenment. We our are own worst enemies. Our own “laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction…remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for other to set themselves up as their guardians” (Kant). Laziness keeps our minds stagnate. Our ability to be free thinkers is curbed by our ability to be ruled. Society nurtures our laziness by stunting our growth. “If a man when young and strong does not arise and strive when he should…and thus sinks into laziness and lack of determination, he will never find the path of wisdom.” (Dhammapada 20, 280). During our youth it is important to build the work ethic needed to grow mentally as adults. If we do not possess the drive to think freely it only becomes harder with age. Kant says “if I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscious for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay- others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.” Even during the 18th century, man was provided by the world around him. In our day and age everything is a button-click away. Problems can be solved by taking a pill or consulting a life-coach. These conveniences can be great, but when they become our only source of action then our ability to become enlightened has vanished. The distractions of life leave us pacified. There are no big questions we need to answer because scientists, priests, teachers, doctors, ect. will take care of everything for us. We as a society rely on the Ethos (authority) of others instead of doing our own soul searching, our own research and “it is from not awakening to this truth…from not penetrating it, that this generation has become tangled like a ball of thread, covered as with a blight, twisted like a rope of grass, and cannot win release from sorrow” (Campbell 276). We must untangle ourselves from society's restraints and free our minds as much as we possibly can from the conditioning of our surroundings and “have courage to use your own reason! – (for) that is the motto of enlightenment” (Kant).

Voodoo

Wade Davis: a Harvard scientist, witnesses first-hand a Haitian voodoo ritual:

The person leading the ritual is known as a mambo. There is a long ritual of drawing symbols on the ground and offering libations to the gods. Once the ceremony begins, drums are played and the libations are consumed by women referred to as “initiates.”

“The mambo next poured a container of water to the cardinal points, and then poured libations to the center post of the peristyle, the axis along with the spirits were to enter.” (Davis 47)
The drums and dancing are used to summon the voodoo gods into the ritual. The dancing lasts about forty minutes, according to Davis, until “the woman’s violence ceased; slowly she lifted her face to the sky. She had been mounted by the divine horseman; she has become the spirit. The Loa, the spirit that the ceremony had been invoking, had arrived.” (Davis 49)
The young woman was now possessed by the Loa. Davis was awe struck by what he witnessed next. The girls expressed their new god-like abilities by engaging in inhuman acts.

“The initiate, a diminutive woman, tor about the peristyle, lifting large men off the ground to swing them about like children. She grabbed a glass and tore into it with her teeth, swallowing small bits and spitting the rest onto the ground. At one point the mambo brought her a live dove; this the hounsis sacrificed by breaking its wings, then tearing the neck apart with her teeth.” (Davis 49)

The room was sheer chaos; the women were deep in a trance tearing apart the room.
“Then as suddenly as the spirits had arrived, they left…as the others carried their exhausted bodies back into the temple I glanced…back across the table of guests. Some began nervously to applaud, others looked confused and uncertain.” (Davis 49) The experience was like nothing Wade Davis had ever witnessed in all of his travels in South America. The Haitian culture and view of religion is much different then our own. Haitian practices are a strange mixture of Christian rituals infused with African spirituality and magic. “As the Haitians say, ‘the Catholic goes to church to speak about god, the voudounist dances in the hounfour to become God.” (Davis 73)

Davis, Wade. The Serpent And The Rainbow. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Print.