From Good To Excellence

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immatureness. Immatureness is the inability to utilize one's own comprehending without the guidance of some other. This immatureness is self-incurred if its cause isn't lack of comprehending, but lack of resolution and bravery to utilize it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is consequently: Have courage to use your own comprehending! If asked whether we now live in an enlightened age, the answer is: No, but we do live in a time of enlightenment. As matters are now, we still have a long way to go prior to men as a whole being in a place (or ever being put into a place) of using their own comprehending with confidence and well in spiritual matters, without external guidance. But we do have clear-cut indications that the way is at present being cleared for them to work freely in that direction, and that the obstructions to universal enlightenment, to man's emersion from his self-incurred immatureness, are gradually getting fewer. So here we will have a look at:

Buddha suggested that his new monks sit at the base of a tree till they were able to calm their minds and attain jhana levels (meditation experiences of great joy and bliss). When their minds were sedate, which means that they were capable of focusing without the encroachment of distracting thinkings and emotions, they we taught further.