The ministry of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment is focused on the essential truth and harmony found in the world's religions, the necessity for a global ethical and spiritual awakening to bring about world peace, and the importance of individual participation toward this goal. Our vision is individual and planetary awakening to the One Truth known by many names.

The Center is an oasis of peace in the community, the world, and in the hearts of individuals. It is through that peace that one may live an awakened life.  The awakened life is our opportunity to live authentically and in harmony with divine plan and purpose. Through awakening, we experience true fulfillment and the soul's natural joy.

The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment is located at 1146 University Avenue, San Jose, CA, 95126.

The Teachings

There is a "golden thread", a harmony of all major religions and spiritual philosophies found at the core. We refer to this mystical core as the Ageless Wisdom, the Perennial Philosophy, or the Eternal Way. The spiritual principles of the Eternal Way are the cornerstone of our teachings at the Center.

Self-realization is awakening to the truth of our spiritual nature. The practices of spiritual awakening taught at the Center have their origins in ancient Vedic philosophy and the disciplines of Kriya Yoga.

Paramahansa Yogananda introduced the teachings of Kriya Yoga to spiritual seekers in the United States in 1920. CSE's Founding Teacher and Senior Minister Ellen Grace O'Brian was initiated into Kriya Yoga and ordained to teach in 1982 by Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Yogananda, who has been teaching these methods worldwide for over 50 years.