What is a direct experience?

Words can not describe a direct experience because it is beyond words, symbols or conceptualization. It is beyond all the indirect methods we commonly depend on for knowing; sensing, thinking, believing, deciding, reasoning, or feeling. And yet, when a direct experience happens, it is self evident beyond certainty and doubt.

Again, enlightenment is a direct experience of the absolute Truth and the Truth is that which exists apart from our perception or conception of it.

In the case of self-enlightenment gained from using the question, “Who am I?” it means that you are in direct contact with the truth of your “I.” The previous sentence seems to suggest that there are two of you: you and your “I.” This is a result of the duality in our language and not the case in actuality. In the case of self-enlightenment you are at one with your “I” in the sense of being your true “I” consciously.

In the state of direct experience (enlightenment), there is no mental dichotomy, no subject-object duality but an at-one-ness with your self. People who have achieved a direct experience of self speak from their deepest or highest source. They no longer identify themselves as only being their body, emotions, thoughts, mind or the roles they may play in life. Such people speak from themselves without having to refer to their past thoughts or the thoughts of others. A person who has had a direct experience of self increasingly sees each moment in life as a new and unique experience and does not tend to be stuck in a limited way of seeing things.