Enlightenment means many things to many people. To me it is the state of awareness in which we merge with the Great Unknown and our identification with the self fall away.
The process of awakening takes many paths but here is the general roadmap.
First, you must be aware of the need for something greater than your personal consciousness. You ask questions such as: "Who am I? Where did I come from, where am I going? What is the meaning of life?" When these questions persist, it indicates that you are ready to go on the path that culminates in the answer to these questions. In other words, these questions show that you are thirsty for the water of life. Enlightenment quenches that thirst.
This thirst is insatiable. It can be filled only with the Ocean of Divine Love. Nothing else does it. Not fame. Not wealth. Not power. Not sex. Only union with the divine beloved.
A major step in this process occurs with a triggering event.
The event may be a crisis, illness or an encounter. The event may be external to you or within you or both. For example, an external event will be meeting someone who has experienced the awakening. You will not become awake immediately. But you could. Nothing is impossible. However, in general, it takes a lot of adjusting to peel off the traps of the ego, the false programming in which we identify with the body, our emotions, our thoughts rather than the pure consciousness that we truly are.
The external trigger forces you to go within to discover who you truly are. That is the role of pain and suffering in the world. Once you return to the source within, you learn to connect with the Inner Teacher.
The Inner Teacher guides you and shortens the journey by bringing you the necessary events and circumstances that will assist you in the unfolding. For example, instead of making "ten mistakes" before you understand a spiritual truth, with the Inner Guide, you will not have to make those "mistakes." Well, there are really no mistakes. There are only experiences.
Remember the movie Groundhog Day? The Inner Guide helps us to not go through the same pattern over and over and over again.
Working and trusting this Inner Guide is one of the most important landmarks in our evolutionary consciousness. The Inner Guide can lead you to new people, new resources, and offer insight into puzzles in your life.
Once you develop this internal tracking system, the next step is a gradual letting go of the patterns that cover the Sun of consciousness like dark clouds. When the clouds are gone we become "Enlightened," we become awake.
This awakening is a continuum. In other words, just as there are various levels of sleep and wakefulness, there are different levels of spiritual awakening.
The reason for this is that we peel off in gradual stages the structures of the wrong programming of the self like onion layers until we reach the center. Many religious doctrines, dogma and concepts are not true. When we believe them, they limit our spiritual growth because they conflict with the direct experience the Inner Guide is teaching us. The conflict between dogma and the Inner Knowing can cause confusion until we learn to trust the truthfulness of the Knowing from within.
The Inner Knowing must be tested. In other words, you must develop a process where the Inner Knowing is put to the test so that you are not misled by tricks of the ego. Some authorities call this testing process discernment. If there is any warning to be heeded on the path, this is it. Put your Inner Guides to test before you trust them.
In summary, the awakening or enlightenment begins with an insatiable desire to understand the mysteries of life. This desire is intensified at times by pain, suffering or an encounter with a divine soul. The divine soul or Spiritual Master, through entrainment –
a process which resembles harmonic resonance – can activate the seed of spiritual unfoldment or the enlightenment can happen immediately. Or you can develop a deeper relationship with your Inner Guide. You learn to work with your Inner Guide through discernment, cutting short the sleep-walking stage most people are in at the moment.
Enlightenment is the consciousness of the Sun shinning at noon on a cloudless summer's day. Waking up to the Sun consciousness is what life on earth is all about
Friday, August 17, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Beyond belief
Do not believe any word you are about to read. Life offers more than what the eyes see, more than what the ears hear, more than what the body antennae perceive.
Do not believe their stories. Those who say they have merged with the All, who have observed the space within the atom without electron microscopes, who have described the rings of Jupiter before the probes, those who have crossed the void and have survived and now can read your mind like a movie, the future like a documentary, the past like a museum, the Enlightened Ones are here with us.
If you live here long enough you will see, hear, and touch one of them. Maybe you have already. Maybe not because after the enlightenment everything remains the same: The beaten old car, the mansion, the work in the mines, the kids, the boss and the chores. Everything remains the same. Except now only the observer perceives. And you ask, now what? Don’t bother to know.
If you desire it enough, you too can live their stories. And it is your tales that others will tell.
But do not believe me. Maybe you should find out for yourself.
Do not believe their stories. Those who say they have merged with the All, who have observed the space within the atom without electron microscopes, who have described the rings of Jupiter before the probes, those who have crossed the void and have survived and now can read your mind like a movie, the future like a documentary, the past like a museum, the Enlightened Ones are here with us.
If you live here long enough you will see, hear, and touch one of them. Maybe you have already. Maybe not because after the enlightenment everything remains the same: The beaten old car, the mansion, the work in the mines, the kids, the boss and the chores. Everything remains the same. Except now only the observer perceives. And you ask, now what? Don’t bother to know.
If you desire it enough, you too can live their stories. And it is your tales that others will tell.
But do not believe me. Maybe you should find out for yourself.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
On being there
Over the past weeks, I’ve noticed I’m coming to an understanding of a way of relating to others. I call it "being there."
Being there is a state of mind. An emptying of the self so that the other may be filled. A decreasing of the little self so that the greater Self may increase. Being there is being lived. I used to be the marker that wrote on the board. Now I’m becoming the board on which the markings are etched and cleaned because I’m learning to be there.
Being there is a state of mind. An emptying of the self so that the other may be filled. A decreasing of the little self so that the greater Self may increase. Being there is being lived. I used to be the marker that wrote on the board. Now I’m becoming the board on which the markings are etched and cleaned because I’m learning to be there.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Ratatouille and the Inner Guide
On Sunday August 12, 2007, we watched Ratatouille at the Loews Alderwood Mall theatre. Brad Bird directed this multi-layered Pixar Animation Studio movie.
On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.
On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”
In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"
In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”
In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.
Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.
Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.
The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.
Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.
Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend
On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.
On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”
In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"
In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”
In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.
Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.
Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.
The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.
Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.
Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend
Monday, August 13, 2007
On Grace
As we tour this sacred site called Earth, we work hard to visit many spaces, to make the best of our pilgrimage. I remember going on a vacation one summer with a friend a couple of years ago to Victoria, British Columbia. We walked to many of the tourist sites, we visited the museum in the building that looked like the British Parliament, listened to music on the waterfront and explored the Butchart Gardens. The experience remained unforgettable but tiring. I thought vacation was meant for rest.
Between too much walking and sleeping throughout this pilgrimage called life, emerges a middle way. As we reflect on what the spiritual life entails: overcoming our human weaknesses, taming our animal tendencies, living mindfully and uniting with the divine in the process, serving ourselves in others, and the list goes on and on, this thing called spiritual practice can assume the dimensions of tedious work served us by a cruel taskmaster.
If we forget one great secret, that is. Spirituality is all about grace. If we meditate for hundreds of hours without the touch of the Master, in vain we practice. In vain we punish the body through fasting and vigils, through torture of any kind, in vain the struggle to overcome our faults if we fail to invite the Unknowable One to sanctify it all, if we refuse to allow the All-knowing to do the work in us.
Around February 2007, I noticed a particularly devastating planetary configuration in my partner's natal and progressed charts involving the planet Saturn. The aspects would be in force for about four months. I didn't know what to do.
I told her: "Please, please, please, do me a favor in the next months. Pray, meditate, connect with your high self." I have come to understand that when people have challenging aspects, the solution is for them to raise their spiritual vibrations.
Sure enough, in early spring Saturn knocked at our door asking for Dawn bringing her fear at work, rejections, depression, and more. I was tempted to do the work for her.
I remember one morning just when the four-month ordeal started. I had finished assisting her with a particularly powerful meditation. When she left I had this insight from within me that said: "Let go and let her work through this herself. Just be there for her. Don't do anything on her behalf."
I listened. Every day, for weeks, I heard one work trouble to the other. All I did was listen. It was so difficult.
Let me cut a long story short. She came back home one day almost four months after it all began, I think it happened the week after her birthday. She came home and said she had an amazing insight that brought her relief. All her troubles seemed to have melted away. Someone who made Dawn’s work particularly difficult resigned that same week.
Dawn's story reveals the power of surrender. The power of grace in our spiritual paths. The power of trust in the Great Mystery we call God. She helped me understand this spiritual secret: it's all grace, the path is God's work.
As we allow ourselves to be the living temples of the divine, God will walk with us through the darkness and through the abyss. God is on our side as we climb to the spiritual mountaintop. The spiritual path is an effortless journey of surrender to the power of God's grace.
To read Dawn's account of her experience, please visit: http://www.thelongarc.blogspot.com/
Between too much walking and sleeping throughout this pilgrimage called life, emerges a middle way. As we reflect on what the spiritual life entails: overcoming our human weaknesses, taming our animal tendencies, living mindfully and uniting with the divine in the process, serving ourselves in others, and the list goes on and on, this thing called spiritual practice can assume the dimensions of tedious work served us by a cruel taskmaster.
If we forget one great secret, that is. Spirituality is all about grace. If we meditate for hundreds of hours without the touch of the Master, in vain we practice. In vain we punish the body through fasting and vigils, through torture of any kind, in vain the struggle to overcome our faults if we fail to invite the Unknowable One to sanctify it all, if we refuse to allow the All-knowing to do the work in us.
Around February 2007, I noticed a particularly devastating planetary configuration in my partner's natal and progressed charts involving the planet Saturn. The aspects would be in force for about four months. I didn't know what to do.
I told her: "Please, please, please, do me a favor in the next months. Pray, meditate, connect with your high self." I have come to understand that when people have challenging aspects, the solution is for them to raise their spiritual vibrations.
Sure enough, in early spring Saturn knocked at our door asking for Dawn bringing her fear at work, rejections, depression, and more. I was tempted to do the work for her.
I remember one morning just when the four-month ordeal started. I had finished assisting her with a particularly powerful meditation. When she left I had this insight from within me that said: "Let go and let her work through this herself. Just be there for her. Don't do anything on her behalf."
I listened. Every day, for weeks, I heard one work trouble to the other. All I did was listen. It was so difficult.
Let me cut a long story short. She came back home one day almost four months after it all began, I think it happened the week after her birthday. She came home and said she had an amazing insight that brought her relief. All her troubles seemed to have melted away. Someone who made Dawn’s work particularly difficult resigned that same week.
Dawn's story reveals the power of surrender. The power of grace in our spiritual paths. The power of trust in the Great Mystery we call God. She helped me understand this spiritual secret: it's all grace, the path is God's work.
As we allow ourselves to be the living temples of the divine, God will walk with us through the darkness and through the abyss. God is on our side as we climb to the spiritual mountaintop. The spiritual path is an effortless journey of surrender to the power of God's grace.
To read Dawn's account of her experience, please visit: http://www.thelongarc.blogspot.com/
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