Enlightenment

Some in our spiritual community are called "enlightened" and automatically a hierarchy is created between them and the ordinary folks. Perhaps it is not really them; perhaps their publishers add this title to boost their marketability; perhaps their disciples lift them to that stage as it makes their own quest more meaningful. Either way, titles like that belittle the magnificence of the holy Now that is available to you and me at this blessed moment. If you asked me, "Are you enlightened?", I could respond "yes", but if I did, I would immediately add, "It is because of you; it is the holy Union that both of us enjoy here and now."

I remember seeing an author presenting who is in fact quite good at what he does. I suddenly noticed a woman sitting in the front row who was literally hanging on to every word he said. She looked mesmerized and I thought to myself, "this isn't right!". Don't get me wrong, I am not judging our spiritual leaders. They do their job just like you and I do ours. But I would like to alert you to the fact that the desire to be spiritual is also a way to be special. The ego is ingenious that way. We are all the same. As they say, "every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

Namaste my friend. May the divine spark in you enlighten both of us!

The Day a Tornado Hits You

Make no mistake about it - enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.

(Adyashanti)

At work, a tornado seems to sweep through my office ... a lot is changing in front of my astonished eyes. I know that the foundation is being set for yet another personal seven year growth spurt. In the past I always fought these changes; today I let them happen with a smile on my face. I go home, though, exhausted; I listen to some music to ease the pain, go to bed and try twice as hard to make everything work the next morning. 

I don't change a bit in this transformation, if anything my core shines through even stronger as these changes take place. Yet, just as the quote alluded to, I feel that something is being taken away. The ego screams murder while the True Self smiles knowingly. It would be a lie to say that I am happy as this transformation takes place, yet I know that the Source only has the best for me in mind. My lesson learned, stop looking for happiness, stop craving security and material success. The Way is about taking a step into the abyss with the perfect knowledge that somehow things will work out just fine.

Knowing What to Do When

In hindsight, the Victorian Age was pretty dumb. The idea that "enlightened" man could will himself to culture and morality, yet, deviating further and further away from what is in the process. Children were raised with discipline and treated like adults who just had to shut up whenever the grown adults were around. Manners were good to look at over tea and coffee in the afternoon, but the demons came out at night. 

Spirituality is something every child knows something about. It is intuitive, it is straightforward, it is love and it is alive. There are times when effort is involved, and the trick is to know when it is time to push and when to just let go. All spiritual norms are yardsticks at best. Along the Way, mind merges with the heart while perception captures what the spiritual eye sees. We sometimes overcome resistance to embrace what is, and sometimes work hard hard to cut out interferences.

One lesson along the Way is that you don't have to try so hard. Do you ever see children exert a lot of effort? Be proud of all the strong effort of the past, but now it's a good time to let go. Put the sword down soldier and let the armor glide down. The Way stands ready to dance with you. Standing next to Her you will always know when to do what. Enjoy!

Solving it Backwards

Assume for a moment "enlightenment", the personal conversation with God that in the end every spiritual traveler longs for, happens one blessed day for you personally. Since it likely requires a special star constellation to accomplish such a "once in a 1000 lifetimes" feat, wouldn't you start from this blessed day first and solve everything else that happens in your life backwards? All the little crises that you had to experience, all the nuggets of wisdom that you needed to know; wouldn't you have already lined them up so that one that blessed days you are perfectly ready to experience your blissful moment? 

Have some faith that everything that happens to you right now prepares you perfectly for the moment when times stands still. In the best of all world the "system" starts from your destination and solves backwards. Relax, you can't really make a mistake. The "system" knew about your holy mission long before you were born.

From Having to Being

The Tao is like a well: 

used but never used up. 

It is like the eternal void: 

filled with infinite possibilities.

(Lao Tzu; Tao Te Ting)

Walking the Tao is a journey of finding ourselves. Before our journey started we thought happiness was about "having" instead - having a prestigious job, a hot partner, stuff, money, a big house. But then we didn't find peace even though we objectively had what others would lust after. So we started looking for something more meaningful. A journey of finding the truth started.

It was not hard to find our peace and joy in religion or in spiritual communities. We finally understood what happiness and serenity is all about  and wanted to be in that state every day. However, even then our struggles and restlessness return. Spirituality is not a panacea. We can even lose our freedom when we join a network and we find that interpersonal conflict can be as rampant in a spiritual community as in the worldly world. We were looking for peace but we did experience struggles and conflicts here as well. So we ended up realizing that we have always have been looking for peace, love and joy in the external world in vain.  Finally we realized that we have to look within. It is the light that we are after - a bush that burns without ever being consumed. 

This fountain of energy has to be discovered within. Nothing external - no guru, no fancy house or job title -can help us with it. We have everything we ever needed and then some at our disposal. We have all the strength and skills we need to dance with life. The never-ceasing well that Lao Tzu discovered many thousands of years ago is still with us. Life is about being, not having. "I Am That I Am" - Yahweh - is the burning bush that is never consumed by the fire. When you have found the Source, share the light freely by just being yourself. Joy, peace, love, wisdom, strength, spring all over you and you are Home, finally.

By Christian and Su Zhen

In Love's Presence, I Am

I remember a colleague commenting how happy she was when finally her protege got promoted. She said when she received this honor many years earlier it was much less meaningful to her. I remember thinking then that I didn't really believe her. I knew how goal-oriented and driven she was, so this statement seemed completely out of line with everything she seemed to be about. Today, however, I have a hunch how this sentiment in her came about.  When you engage in something that you believe in, you at times have to take so many hurdles that by the time when it finally is at your finger-tips you just feel numb. So my colleague appreciated her own promotion only in hindsight but enjoyed it all the way when her protege made it.

You may be surprised to hear this but the state of "enlightenment" can be compared to this feeling. You realized that you are "enlightened" when you stop looking for the light, when you become part of a Force without consciously looking. That must be a frustrating response for anyone who wants to look for God, but unfortunately it is as it is. Yet, if you want to do something to be near God, there actually is a pointer all the religions have been giving us for millennia: look for love, find love and be love. Seek love in all places not just the niches you have come to appreciate. The more unexpected the encounter, the bigger the impact. When you find love know that I Am is part of it.  Behold the light that fills this room when two strangers have finally discovered that they are one.

Try, Try, Try

Where there is desire
There is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame
Someone's bound to get burned
But just because it burns
Doesn't mean you're gonna die
You've gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try
(Pink, Try)

I read in Quantum Change by William Miller the spiritual transformation of dozens of people who described their personal "wake-up call". It was striking how miserable most of them were before the transformative event happened. Alcoholism, childhood abuse, broken marriages, you name it.  It was clear that many opened up to their inner voice in a way few others ever would. And their voice spoke loud and clear, which was the beginning of a remarkable turn-around in their lives.

I know that we tend to warn people about self-improvement courses and such because we argue that the desire to be "there" is also an ego motive. Yet, if you feel that something is missing you have to try, try, try, don't you? You are not supposed to be miserable. There is an answer out there for you, so please keep on looking and knocking on doors. One will open for you.

Perhaps instead of thinking of self-improvement, we can instead try to be better aware of our inner conflicts. These conflicts always existed, but since you are stirring something else up inside with your attempts to find answers, they suddenly come to the fore in a way they never had before. Perhaps you always brushed them over in the past.The fear of being inadequate is plastered over by workaholism and money, the inability to get in touch with your emotions is compensated with aggression and alcohol, the fear of not being loved is drowned by questionable love relationships. Stop these band-aides and accept the inner conflicts the way they are. Yes it will hurt, but if you become still and wait for Her voice, without fail She will deliver. Please don't take it from me, find this out for yourself. You just have to try, try, try.

Better Than I Used to Be

I ain't no angel
I still got a few more dances with the devil
I’m cleaning up my act little by little
I’m getting there
I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see
I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get
But I’m better than I used to be

(Tim McGraw)

The problem that we spiritual travelers have is that we want to improve, very much as Tim McGraw envisions his journey in his song "Better than I used to be". We want to be "enlightened" but feel that we are not, so that means that we need to improve, right?
But hold on a second, if you want to disassociate yourself from the scoundrel called "ego", by setting up this self-improvement goal you are still very much under the ego's spell. That's what the ego does day in, day out; thinking and scheming how one could possibly advance. So it is the same struggle only wrapped in holy clothes this time around.

There is only one way to deal with this problem. Let go of the steering wheel. Let the Tao do the driving and you will find that everything is suddenly "better than it used to be". You encounter fewer problems, you experience Grace no matter where you look and where you go and you discover that you already have everything someone possibly could ask for. Actually, Tim McGraw can even aim higher in his already pretty uplifting song using this insight. Once you stumble upon the divine Now you realize that you already are as good as you gonna get - ever.

By Christian and Su Zhen

Honor Your Mission

There is a lot of respect in our community for the so-called enlightened folks. The difference between you and them is that you still need the world you live in to advance spiritually. If you found a gini in a bottle and could get everything you aspired to have, you would end up being miserable indeed. So honor your mission, respect the constraints that you perceive in your life and know that it is these challenges that propel you on your path.

Our "enlightened" folks have everything they ever needed. So they don't need aspirations, challenges and missions like you do. Yet in front of God there is perfect equality. In the holy Now you are as "enlightened" as they are. But to reach that stage you have to face life with everything you got. So honor all your challenges as much as you enjoy your pleasures. Along the Tao you are as much "there" as anyone.

A Christian Power of Now

It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose.

Your way will be different, not in purpose but in means. A holy relationship is a means of saving time. One instant spent together with your brother restores the universe for both of you. You are prepared. Now you need but to remember you need to do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to consider what you should do. When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against giving in to sin; when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone it always comes with just one happy realization; "I need do nothing."
(A Course in Miracles)

The Christian Power of Now is different from the simple mandate to love your neighbor as yourself. It is the realization that by getting lost in the moment you are indeed free, and that this miracle can be achieved with the help of your brother. If you see an "enemy", the holy Now gives you the power to discover your own projection in him. At all other times you simply frolic with your friends in the divine Now. The Christian Power of Now is Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now with a human touch.

Life is Just a Stage

The instant you waken you realize that everything that seemed to happen in the dream didn't happen at all.
(A Course in Miracles)

Imagine one moment you wake up to a new reality and you realize that everyone is just carried around by an invisible force that makes them live their lives without being truly conscious of what is going on. Some, when they reach that stage, just walk out of the plot and the movie theater altogether. Others return to their plot but they do it with a with a newly found peace and perspective. Sure, happy moments are more fun to experience than sad ones, but you always know that life is just a stage so you feel more peaceful and you have a lot more fun just playing your part rather than living it.

The Surrender of Self-Will

To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.
(Tao Te Ching)

I think most of us understand what it means to be enlightened. It means the absence of a personal filter. It means living in the Now. You can get there if you are so absorbed by the moment that the " I" disintegrates and merges with your environment instead. " I Am" implies that the " I" has become part of the Now. Life invites you moment by moment to let this happen. If you perceive every voice that comes your way as a hint from God and every development that you encounter as spiritually meaningful, you cannot help but being captured by the magic of the moment.

On Squaring the Circle

There is only one answer to the paradox, "How do you get there without going there?" and that is, you already are "there". If you need to go "there" then the ego is talking which will happily lead you on a path of self-improvement without ever getting you anywhere. This is as logical as being on a circle, always on the look-out for the other side and keep on walking until you get "there".

The circle contains both, heaven and earth, Durga and Kali, light and darkness. Just stand there and let the circle of life come to you. In the circle of life the ego vanishes, as does all contemplation of how heaven might look like since you happen to experience heaven in the here and now. Transcend the ego in the holy now, do that for as long as you live and understand that you already are "there".

Honor Your Problems

The Hindus have a proverb that states that if you say that you are enlightened you are not. You are enlightened in the now. There is excitement in the now and serene tension. You always know what to do, but you also know that you can choose differently. When you say " she is enlightened", you in fact presume that this tension is gone.

There is a scene in the James Bond Movie Skyfall when James Bond had disappeared from the world because he is presumed dead and all he does is to spend his time drinking and letting scorpions crawl over his skin in a weird macho competition. It is clear that he is adrift, mentally dead and only becomes alive when the next villain comes on stage to be conquered.

You are enlightened in that holy moment when duality strikes you and you have to make up your mind whether to choose left or right. You may not be enlightened like the few mystics who might be, but you are enlightened in the holy Now and that is pretty darn often if you so choose. Honor your life and honor your problems, they make you all you can be.

Letting Go of Your Agenda

We have as much an ego as everybody else, but we have discovered a Force, the Tao that takes the steering wheel away from us. We temporarily disconnect from our agenda when we connect with Her. Once you walk the Tao you no longer can root for anything, and in the same way, you can no longer worry about anything either. You worry if you don't know what to do, right? But why would you worry if everything is connected along Her path just as 1 2 3 4 is? At every stage of the way you say yourself, I am just Her instrument; if a misstep happens I know I must have overlooked something, and She will let me know what it was so that I can do it better next time around. If everything works out beautifully, as it normally happens to be the case, how could we take any credit, it was all Her doing!

The ego is there but you disassociate from it. It is like you finally learn that you never run after the shiny objects any more that have gold written right next to them, because you have figured out that whenever gold is advertised in advance, the shiny material is of no value. Instead we have been asked to look for gold elsewhere: in the screaming brother standing next to us, or the smiling colleague who opens our door for us. The Tao is a new way of perceiving, and when we follow Her path, we are way too busy to think about our own agenda. Yes, we cannot help being selfless along the Tao, and everyone has the opportunity to connect with Her here and now just as we do. You just need to look out in the opposite direction of where the perceived gold lies. Of course it takes a certain spiritual maturity to be willing to run this experiment. Most people wouldn't do it because they are way too busy running after the perceived gold instead.

You know yourself that you are not really you, right? When you are young and attractive, you know that one day, the sexy guys will stop looking at you. You might be plain looking instead and so time may be on your side instead. With every decade that goes by, people might be more able to see your inner beauty, which is a nicer experience to have. You might be the successful businessman, or the well respected doctor, or the influential politician. No matter how hard you work, no matter how lucky you may be, or no matter how ruthlessly you try protecting what you have accumulated, there will be a day when you are perceived to be over the hill. And this day will hurt your ego. It has to happen, because it is your doing. It is you sending yourself a memo, 'Hey, this persona isn't you after all.' All of these images are adopted, and time will destroy what you have, or heal the pain you experienced in the past; change will come to teach you a lesson. This is your movie. So why do you identify with who you think you are? Why can't you just accept that you are an actor who will soon be in another movie? Along the Tao this big wake-up call isn't necessary because you get one every day instead!

The Tao gives you that chance to step outside of your agenda all the time. You don't need to wait for the so-called peak experience 'enlightenment' because you are way too busy forgetting yourself here and now. All you need to be willing is to submerge with life and be willing to be digested by it. 'The Power of Now 'that Eckart Tolle talks about can be experienced, and the Tao stands ready to connect you with it. As a first step, why don't you look into the opposite direction of what you have been doing thus far and you will not be able to miss Her.

The Tao as a Signpost

The Zone is not so much a thing to attain as it is a signpost on the journey back to the Source.
(Larry Miller with James Redfield in 'Exploring the Zone')

When you come across the Tao you will have reached the beginning of the end of an ancient journey. Sure, you still have ego to burn and you still will have your down days, but most of the time you will see a blazing sun that follows you wherever you go. Many writers tell you about the Law of Oneness and the existence of karmic laws that ensure that every good deed comes back to you very much as you will have to pay for all of your sins, yet, all that talk is academic. Along the Tao you can see the Law of Oneness in action. Time shrinks and you can literally put the pieces together. I ask you, if you can see how a certain action drags you down and another lifts you up instead, how hard will it be to choose the latter? You also start seeing how others run after worthless metal that glitters in the background, just as they run past precious stones lying right in front of them. To finish the ancient journey once you have reached that stage is easy as 1 2 3 - nothing can keep you from this birthright once the Tao has got a hold of you.

I am pretty sure that many have discovered the Tao in recent years just as I have. Larry Miller and James Redfield call it the Zone, Neale Walsch's calls it 'Conversations with God', Gary Zukov calls it 'The Seat of the Soul', Eckhart Tolle calls it the Now and the Christians call it Holy Spirit; it doesn't matter what name you give this Force; fact of the matter is that once you start interacting with it, it ceases to be a religion and becomes a life philosophy instead. At this point you are literally enlightened despite the 'I' that still needs to synchronize a little with the Force. The Tao shines the way always. Stop worrying about enlightenment would be my advice - enjoy the magnificent journey instead.

What is a Spiritual Coach

You cannot transcend your ego until you synchronize with a higher order. This is the 'I Am' experience. At this holy moment you leave your ego behind like an old skin. However, for those who came back on earth to tell others about this experience, they had to put some personality blanket back on again.

A spiritual coach is someone who helps you merge with the Infinite, while a life coach is someone who helps you getting you what you want to get out of life. It is as simple as that. We are all different, we all have different mission statements. So please do not make the mistake that you think that only because you are going after enlightenment, that you are something better. In fact, the institution that contemplates that thought - your ego - is exactly the force that will make sure that you never get 'there'. But if for whatever reason you think or feel that getting 'there' is your mission statement, trust that a spiritual coach will be there, granting you a helping hand.

It is impossible to get 'there'. You either are 'there', or you are not. Life - the Tao - is always there to tell you how to proceed. Not how to get 'there', but how to let go of your personality blanket in order to appreciate that you are already home. We are all on a subconscious journey to return home to our Source. Everybody who strengthens the ego does so to live out a desire. Only when you live out a desire can you transcend it. The greedy businessman, the alcoholic, the depressed unemployed may all be as close to a spiritual break-through as the devoted monk. There is no telling when, why or where a spiritual calling might come.

A spiritual coach is someone who helps you removing your personality blanket. Just as they say, when the student is ready the teacher will come. A life coach can help you getting to you to your desired destination, a spiritual coach can help you understand that you are already home.

Refining the Spiritual Path

Conjecture: Every spiritual insight has to have a scientific explanation, just as every scientific fact has to have a spiritual meaning.

As many of you know, I am a spiritual traveler, yet, my background is that of a scientist. I can't claim that I always have a rational explanation of everything that is happening along my path, but I can tell you that my aim in life is to make sense of what I see. We have entered the New Age and probably many millions are on a similar spiritual journey right now. As you broaden out the base of people who travel the path, you probably also create a multitude of new avenues towards wholeness. This image below might be a good illustration of our mission. No matter how deep we dig, no matter how liberal our approach, there will always be a new aspect that needs to be discovered and de-mystified. Take Eckhart Tolle and his 'The Power of Now' and you probably agree with me that almost everything that he describes sounds pretty rational and sane. Yet, he was a bit vague on his awakening process, saying that he fell into a deep depression and was then sucked into a mysterious vortex and when he woke up he saw the world with new eyes. In my case, I seem to experience this waking up process in slow motion - the psychological 'I' is being dismantled right in front of my eyes and the process seems to take years rather than a good night's sleep. In terms of the cartoon below, I am apparently zooming right into the 'and then a miracle happens' to make this process a little less mysterious to you. But then, something will probably remain mysterious in my process and it might well be your job to enlighten us on this next step. The movie will always be the same. No matter how far we advance, there will always be a dimension of consciousness greater than you ready to get discovered by the great generation that comes after us.

From Self-Acceptance to Self-Transcendence

Read the Bhagavad Gita and you get a glimpse of how the 'I Am' state looks like:

Self-posed, resolute, you act without any thought of results, open to success and failure.

All desires abandoned, acting without craving, free from all thoughts of 'I' and 'mine'; that woman finds utter peace.

The woman who sees me in everything and everything within me will not be lost to me, nor will I ever be lost to her.

She who neither disturbs the world, nor is disturbed by it, who is free of fear and envy, that woman is the one I love best.

How do you get there? How to do let go of passion, desire, cravings, fear and jealousy. You can't. All you can do is to accept who you are (self-acceptance) and with it have a shot at growing into the person you were born to be. Self-Improvement means that you cut all inconsistencies out of you and face the world with all the energy at your disposal. Light and shadow merge in you, allowing you to become whole. When a whole person faces the world with all her being, she is offered the priceless chance to transcend the self at that holy moment. The 'I' literally melts in the holy Now and suddenly you are free.

The Number Symbols of the Lord

One is a symbol of the Daughter of God. Two is a symbol of love, for two soul siblings are standing side by side in unity. Three is an expression of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Three is holy, but it is still incomplete, because you are missing, the Daughter of God! Four is not only holy, it is whole as well. God is complete when you realize that you are home. Sometimes you see the number sequence 1:1:1:1 - the entire universe can be summed up in this holy sequence.

I write often about the Tao - Five is the number of the Tao. You haven't awakened completely, so life wraps yourself around you to bring you home. Five is the sum of three - the Holy Trinity - and 2, which symbolically means 'you experiencing life'. If you practice Bhakti yoga - the discipline of experiencing love everywhere - then it doesn't matter whether you are enlightened or not. You love the union, the self wrapped up in everyone else.You love period and in that holy feeling you have transcended the I.

Wisdom yoga is the path of separation - the discipline of separating the devine I from the illusion. It can be done, though I would caution everybody from running after enlightenment. Fact of the matter is that there is always a level on which the Daughter of God has already shown up, but similarly, no matter how advanced you might be spiritually, there is always a dimension where further spiritual evolution is possible. One step at a time my friend and, as long as it happens in the right direction, your path will as be easy to figure out as 1-2-3.

Six is a symbol of the Christ and it is a derivative of 2, the symbol of love. You can write 6 as 2+2+2, which is my love and your love united in the presences of the Lord's love. As Jesus said, 'Whenever two or more meet in my name, there I will be.' You can equally write 6 as 3+3. In that holy encounter of two soul siblings, the I melts on either side and all that is left is the encounter of the respective Holy Trinity, 3+3.