Enlightenment is not just knowledge

Enlightenment is not just knowledge and acquiring wisdom,

but 'naturally and unconditionally' loving too

..... in the here and now, I think?

More at:

http://www.in-love-with-wisdom.com/

Enlightenment is 'sharing Peace'

I have talked a lot about sharing knowledge, and, of course, we all talk about sharing love......

but what about the Dalhai Lama’s words of 'trying to share your peace'.

Cool?

More at:
http://www.in-love-with-wisdom.com/

Enlightenment is having certain knowledge about the future?

It seems my logical brain gets so fearful about wanting to have some control and security for the future, yet all the major events in my life just happened without my control. So I guess I must learn more to ‘trust and go with the flow’ I have no real idea what the world/universe will bring.

But I can take the Buddhist view and continually sow virtuous thoughts and deeds, in the present moment, in the certain knowledge that this will create a future based on what we think and do today.

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Enlightenment is feeling a 'loving wisdom'

I like the feeling of a ‘loving wisdom’ present everywhere in everyone. It suggests that the best knowledge of what to do, combined with a love for ‘the best interests of the person’ is developing and looking after us all. It’s a sort of ‘whatever I do, this has to be absolutely right’. Its relaxing and it transcends just wisdom and just love

It reflects the protection and beauty of Oneness through the Allness.

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is feeling the whole Universe

Our brains are simply not capable of understanding the whole of the Universe. They are not designed to 'think'and be that way. Given the experience and the knowledge, they can certainly think 'globally'.

But our Minds can 'feel' the whole of the Universe through Love. Love is present here and now, and everywhere. Love is the uniting force
of the Universe - holding everything together!

Think globally - feel Universally.
Smile :-)

Enlightenment is waking up earlier!

The Ancient Sages tell us to wake up to 'reality as it truly is'.

For some, it may be spontaneous, for others gradual.

But once you are awake, you are no longer sleeping.

Imagine that when you are awake, from normal sleeping that is, that
this is really still only a higher level of sleeping, and that you still need to awaken from that!

Brightness, clarity, and an overriding and unconditional love and wisdom come to mind!

I am told, 'keep making the effort until it is effortless'.

Maybe I need to set the alarm clock even earlier?

Enlightenment is becoming

I have learned that every person 'naturally' wants to become all that they are capable of becoming - the 'desire to realise innate possibilities' is inherent in human nature'.

I am inspired by this and the desire for a richer, fuller and more abundant life!

I was also told that the very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the
most of yourself - to then be able to help others even better.

To my mind, Enlightenment is realising the innate possibilities that we all have, to become
all that we really are.

This is really making the most of your self for Self - for One and All - I think?

Enlightenment is what it is for you

I have been told that Enlightenment is not a gradual process but 'Enlightenment simply is' all the time. We just need to wake up to it.

I resonate with this.

Yet the Buddha said 'don't take my word for it, or anybody else's, but experience for yourself'.

In my case, I gradually feel more enlightened on a daily basis. This is my experience. What's yours?

I have no idea if I am close to an instant experience, or barely on the path. All I know is that I don't want to stop.

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is perfect

Today I took the advice of the Ancient Sages and accepted that we are all enlightened - it's just that we 'think' we are not.

To my great delight, everyone and everything seemed so perfect!

There was beauty in everything I saw. I felt so humble to the great order that seems to underly everything in perfect humility and compassion.

I felt like an observer without being an 'I'. I spontaneously feel moved to say 'it's a conscious reflection of something we will never understand, only enjoy'. Does that make any sense?

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment and thoughtlessness

There is a Tibetan saying that 'thoughts and concepts are delusions, awareness is wisdom'.

Wise thoughtlessness and totally experiencing the now?

Inherent Wisdom beyong learning?

I like the story of the father who noticed that his young son loved to sit in the garden and watch the birds. One day, his father decided to teach his young son everything about the birds that visited the garden. Their names, where they came from, what they would eat, when - the whole who, how, what, why, when of knowledge.

When the birds visited, the little boy no longer seemed to experience loving them in the same way, as he was too preoccupied with thinking and knowing.

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is knowing there is rebirth but no one is born

The Ancient Sages talked about rebirth in every moment. In every moment we choose again to create, to remain the same, or to destroy. In other words, we continually have positive, neutral or negative thoughts, which become positive, neutral or negative realities.

Each moment is unique. The secret is to stay totally aware in the moment. To maintain and develop existing and new positive thoughts, and to eliminate and destroy existing and new negative harmful thoughts.

It is easy to explain to a 5 year old, but can an 80 year old practice?

Enlightenment is knowing you forget

No matter how many times I realise a Truth and/or gain a deep spiritual insight, I find that after a relatively short while that I have forgotten this.

It seems that I have to have this realization/insight several times before it starts to become a part of me.

Not so long ago, I put down in writing into my PC a series of short inspirations that I have had. They were very powerful at the time of writing. Shortly afterwards, I transferred this onto my PDA/mobile phone also. Occassionaly, I read from my PC or PDA the inspirations.

The other day I sat in front of my PC and had my PDA beside it. It occured to me that both the PC and the PDA have perfect recall of these inspirations, yet I have to read again what I originally wrote - to remember!

Weird??? At least I can get inspired, with the help of technology to remember - I don't think the PC opr PDA can get inspired yet?

More at www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is far from the end

The Ancient wisdom tells us that:

Enlightenment may be seen as an end in itself. All else may be seen to be secondary.

In Truth, Enlightenment must be seen as the start of a better way to be of better service to others.

Enlightenment for self is courageous, yet limiting. Enlightenment of self for the good of others, as part of Self, is a humble and limitless act.

This is what the world needs!

Enlightenment, Truth, Wisdom and the Mind

The Ancient Wisdom tells us that the 'Truth is the Truth, whatever we may call it'.

It reminds us that we all have the Truth within us wherever we are and, although we may not 'know it all, consciously and logically' we intuitively know when someone is telling us a timeless truth (wisdom). We all naturally resonate with the Truth. The Truth is universal for humanity.

Yet the Mind, which is based on our personal learnings, experiences, beliefs and values, has another perspective. This may be the Truth, partially aligned to the Truth, or even totally untrue. The Mind filters and projects. Its often called the gatekeeper of thoughts.

We must train the Mind to hear the timeless wisdom. We must train the Mind to be quiet and calm and then be more able to hear the higher thoughts, the inner Truth, more often. Together with natural intuition, this will guide us better.

That's why I believe that meditation is one of the best spiritual foods, and that it will certainly and naturally lead to greater wisdom. In turn, greater wisdom will certainly and naturally lead to greater unconditional loving and compassion. The virtuous circle becomes complete. The Truth manifests in the dance of Love and Wisdom. The ultimate act of Oneness.

How many of us are spiritually undernourished? How many of us are spiritually poor?

Perhaps a better purpose would be to eradicate ignorance and spiritual poverty in an increasingly wealthy materialistic world.

How many spiritual billionaires could there be? Potentially, around 6.5 billion billionaires?
What could be greater?

Enlightenment is being what you don't know you are

Why suffer from being who we think we are? Why suffer from being who we know we are? Thinking and knowing are, and always will be, incomplete. They can only provide us with a useful but partial perspective of the absolute truth of reality. A tiny touch.

We develop a sense of individual self, as we think and know it. Yet the truth of reality is beyond the possibilities of personal thinking and knowing. The truth is simply too much for the limitations of human learning and knowledge.

Wisdom is here, there, everywhere. Wisdom is experienced and fully active in the now. Learn to unlearn. Know that you don't know. Be what you really are ... and forget the rest?

Enlightenment is living to love

It occured to me that many of us, especially in the western world, often say we must 'fight another day'. I certainly did, and often, and that's because many of us are too conditioned to strive to succeed.

I woke up today not to fight but to 'love another day'.

Just one different word and a whole different world, and an entirely different attitude.

So, every day now, I continue to love to live so that I can live to love.

It works for me.

Enlightenment is our guiding nature

I am so fortunate to live next to a small medieval village, surrounded by vineyards, and next to the Pyrenees, in the south of france.

This week, although it's still late march/early april, the sun and the blue skies have been glorious and so hot.

After a long walk, and following my meditation, I was reminded again just how much nature teaches us about who we really are. In walking, we can feel nature so easily. In driving a car, we are more likely to just see nature. Yet I have learned that nature has a tangible force that permeates the entire universe.

In that force, we can commune. In that force, we can feel our total connectedness to all of life. In that force we clearly see the continuous cycles of growth and transformation and feel the underlying infinity of it all. It's so natural. It helps us realise that we are a part of a higher force that guides us. It helps us realise the power and the wisdom of nature's laws. In nature we can see, hear, feel, smell, touch and taste our reality and truth. I find my walks, in beautiful and natural surroundings anywhere in the world, fill me with spirit, gratitude and awe.

Yet we sometimes think we know more. How many of us are so busy with our own thoughts and busy lives that we don't recognise or forget the guiding truth that nature offers?

Enlightenment is flowing naturally and effortlessly

If we could simply 'be in the zone' then everything would seem to flow more naturally and effortlessly.

But because we have associated success with effort we have made ourselves feel guilty whenever we take a naturally relaxed approach to life. I think we have missed the point.

What we need to do is become 'totally aware' or mindful, which is another way of saying that we need to be fully in the here and now. We can only do this if we are in a 'naturally relaxed state'. Beyond thinking and even beyond feeling. The paradox is that it takes effort to become effortless.

More at www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is being really really awake

I realised today that it can be very painful to realise and fully accept some of your beliefs and behaviours about yourself. I have always understood that masks were a psychological device for presenting to others the image you prefer to give to them, but I realised that I have been presenting a mask to myself for a long time. Today, I took it off.

Ancient Sages tell us that, in an enlightened state, we are blissful and happy, with a deep inner peace. Today I felt much more awake to the reality of who I am. By taking the mask off I felt really really awake. But the feelings I experienced were the opposite of bliss, happiness and inner peace! There was a kind of inner peace, but quite different to the peaceful moments I have often experienced.

Hopefully, I am travelling somewhere?

Enlightenment is just the beginning

Much of life is about finding ways to lift the limiting beliefs that we have chosen to accept earlier on in life, in our culture, education and experience, and which prevent us from achieving our full potential, or at worst, may even destroy us.

Young children, without such beliefs formed, are happily enlightened without knowing it. That's why we can learn so much from the wisdom of children.

Whatever path we take, whatever spiritual disciplines we practice, the key is to remove negative and limiting beliefs and replace them with positive and creative beliefs. It is these positive and creative beliefs that are our natural innate state.

Eventually, we become more positive and creative than negative and limiting and, eventually, these better beliefs will be understood to be more than beliefs, but will be understood to be the reality of who and what we are. Enlightenment.

But the most important and enlightened realisation is that we are all naturally connected, at a higher level, as one, and one enlightened part of the whole is really enlightenment of the whole.

I like the notion that if there are a sufficient and a critical mass of people on the planet who are living in a more enlighted state most of the time, that this will trigger a more enlightened state naturally for others. So we work to help others and ourselves as one humanity.

Enlightenment is becoming the ocean

I like the idea that the universe is a great ocean of life.
A great ocean is continuously producing new waves that then grow, live for a while, and then merge back into the ocean again. Its a non-stop process.

An ocean of life is continuously producing new 'beings' that then grow, live for a while and then merge back into the ocean again.

The problem is that many of us believe that we are the finite waves, with a seperate birth, life and death, instead of knowing that we are all the vast infinite ocean itself that is continually creating and manifesting beings in so many different ways.

One big wave, perceiving itself to be seperate and rushing towards the see shore said to another big wave, 'we are going to crash and die'. The other wave said, 'just relax, flow and be, and you will see how we will all gently subside, pull back from the shore for a while, as part of our natural cycle, and then recreate again, as new waves, later'.

Enlightenment is a joke

In moments of laughter we go way beyond the rational mind.

For an instant, we seem to lose control. We freewheel. Fear and judgement simply disappear. We glow. We become our natural selves.

It's great to laugh, but too much laughing seems to then cause pain.

Yet the only thing to do in pain and suffering is to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

What's extraordinary is that life seems to be a dance between opposites, until we laugh. And then we remember, momentarily?

Enlightenment transcends duality

The dualistic notions of:

- inside and outside of 'us'
- spiritual and material
- past and future
- heaven and hell
- life and death etc

are, according to the ancient sages and an increasing number of modern philosophers, all wrong notions, that may well help us at some lower level of partial understanding of our reality, but need to be recognised for their limitations, and ultimate unreality.

Reality, expressed as the oneness of everything, suggests we are beyond this duality, at a higher level. So, perhaps we need to expand our perceived individual consciousness to an ultimate universal consciousness, so 'we' disappear and there is no individual self. Therefore, no

- inside and outside us but simply 'all-ness'
- spiritual and material but simply 'everything in nothingness'
- past and future but simply 'everything that ever was, is, and will be'
- heaven and hell but simply ' whatever is'
- life and death but simply 'one eternal consciousness'

I can cope with personal oneness and even community and global oneness, but I find difficulty contemplating the experience of universal oneness? Perhaps that is the privilege of the astronauts?

Enlightenment and the Wizard of Oz

I was intrigued and amused to read in the book 'The Buddha, Geoff and Me' by Edward Canfor-Dumas, the comparison between the three Buddhist virtues of Compassion, Courage and Wisdom and, from the Wizard of Oz, the tin man who needed a heart (Compassion); the scarecrow who needed a brain (Wisdom); and the cowardly lion who needed (Courage).

Of course, the Wizard taught them that they had all these qualities inside of themselves. Buddhism teaches that they can be cultivated through meditation and other spiritual practices.

I like it when ancient eastern and modern western thoughts say the same thing with profundity.

The truth is the truth - whatever label we care to put on it?

Enlightenment is Blissful Wisdom

We are told that there are at least three key phases to a successful and fulfilled spiritual life:

1. Blissful Ignorance - 2. Painful Knowledge - 3. Blissful Wisdom

1. Blissful Ignorance - a new born baby seems to be the nearest to this first phase of perfection, and connection with One and All.

2. Painful Knowledge - when a child learns, for the first time, about life and death and develops an incorrect belief in a 'seperate' self. Then, as a result, we develop our egos and our sense of fear, scarcity and need for competitiveness.

3. Blissful Wisdom - when we realise who we truly are. When we realise that we are part of a highly interconnected One and All. We are not seperated at this higher level. We are not ego's. This Oneness of life, the essence of which is eternal, continues beyond the mere birth and death of the physical body. There is no death only continual life and transformation! This Oneness of life is abundant and full. There is no need to compete - only to openly communicate, collaborate, learn, share, serve, create, and, most importantly, enjoy! .

Enlightenment is discarding the raft

The Ancient Sages talk of many different paths, but that they all ultimately lead to the same one Truth. It's impossible to do otherwise. The Truth is the Truth.

Each path can be likened to a raft to help us cross a river to the other side.

Once we have crossed, we are then supposed to leave the raft and continue on our way. It has done its job.

The trouble is, we can become too attached to our raft and want to keep carrying it on our back, as a burden. Even worst is when we never start our crossing at all but build a beautiful dwelling on our raft to stay. Some even measure the raft and know exactly all its dimensions and like to spend all their time painting it pretty colours and going nowhere.

I like the other analogy of 'pointing a finger to the moon'. Here the problem is getting too distracted and fixed on the finger, and not even seeing the moon.

But it is not that easy, as it can be very comforting to have a good raft sometimes, and letting go can sometimes be scary?

Enlightenment is instant creativity

I have always been interested in the notion that our dominating thoughts create our reality.
It works for me - think a loving world - see a loving world - think an evil world - see an evil world. So we need a collective world dominated by positive thinkers, not the other way round.

I really like the idea that we can truly 'create' our own reality from the unlimited, invisible, formless abundance and so there is no need to 'compete' for what is already formed. Instead, create something new and add this to the world.

I have learned that humans create most new things from the already formed, which is good, but I am told that we should spend far more creative thinking time to bring about new forms from the formless. I agree.

But the world wide web is now enabling much more of formless creativity around the world, much faster than before. I think thoughts, create a blog, share it, and hope for feedback, to help me better shape my thoughts, to then create more :-)

Amazing!

Enlightenment is seeking not to seek?

The mystic seeks the experience of unity with a Higher Self.

The sage seeks understanding of the Higher Self

The saint seeks to work through the Higher Self for the good of others

The non-seeker probably seeks something else.

The Highers Self seeks mystics, sages, saints and non-seekers?

Why seek?

Enlightenment is instant but can take a long time to realise

The Ancient Hindu sages in their 'forest academies' in India would claim that a student who is ready would take 12 years to achieve the enlightened state of Samadhi.

The Zen Buddhists teach that we can shake off the errors of wrong learning and realise the 'Buddha within', our natural state of enlightenment, instantly.

The first method is concerned with 'one to one' teaching and demonstration from a guru with plenty of time for the student to reflect, contemplate, meditate, assimilate and realise the Truth.

The second method is concerned with shaking us out of our incorrect beliefs into the natural state of Truth.

If we are all each others students and teachers, in all that we do, maybe we can, both, shake each other into glimpses of Truth moments, when we can, and, also gradually help each other realise the underlying Truth at the same time?

Enlightenment from the East and the West

The Ancient Sages from the East ask us to simplify our lives and not become attached to material wealth and, also, to become detached from the results of our work, good or bad.

The Modern Guru's from the West ask us to better manage our complex lives, focus on goals and their results, and create wealth, so that we may then be in a better position to help ourselves and others.

Diametrically opposed views from opposite hemispheres of the planet, ancient and modern!

Rather like the brain, two hemispheres. One hemisphere concerned with detailed logical 'bottom line results in time' and the other hemisphere concerned with a holistic view, feelings 'beyond the bottom line' in the here and now.

The Ancient Greeks taught 'as above so below'. Maybe the two hemispheres of Planet Earth are a reflection of the two hemispheres of our brain?

Enlightenment from within

When we are most strongly influenced by what we see, hear, feel touch and taste from external sources - we shape our inner thoughts and feelings in the same way. We may then develop more fearful inner beliefs based on the lack and scarcity that we so often see.

When we are most strongly directed by inner certain knowings of wholeness, abundance, unconditional love, peace and wisdom - regardless of what we see externally, undisturbed, - we have become masters of our mind . We know that the inner Truth will manifest externally in time.

It's when we gain the certain knowledge that the stronger flow can be developed to come from within us that we start to awaken to becoming even more enlightened creators?

Enlightenment is realising everything is everywhere

A Sage taught me that everything is everywhere, if we choose to see.

If we choose to see nothing, we will see nothing.
If we choose to see everything, we will see everything.

In Reality, the Universe is full of everything but in our own reality our mind is full of whatever we want to think about. Then we see, hear, feel, touch and taste our own thoughts in manifestation?

If we relax our bodies and minds, and quieten our thoughts and feelings, we realise, in a sort of peaceful nothingness, a sort of peaceful everythingness.

But in peace, I do not choose anything. Yet in peace we are everything?

Why choose?

Enlightenment is simply being what you really are

We try too hard to become someone or something else.
If we set a goal, it is normally because we are not happy
with the present state and we want to be in a better state.

Sometimes that is very good. But not all the time!

Why not set a goal to have no goals for a while and imagine instant success instead?

Imagine being totally happy and content with who you are and what you are!
Imagine simply being, in the flow, and becoming whatever you always were!
Imagine unconditional love and compassion, peace and wisdom as simply being!

Kofi Annan says "We will have time to reach the Millenium Development Goals (which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015) - worldwide and in the most, or even all, individual countries - but only if we break with business as usual."

Is 'breaking with business as usual', simply thinking differently. Is it thinking and deciding to be and to do something here and now instead of setting a goal for the future?

I wonder if simply being what we all really are, right here, right now, would eradicate world poverty any sooner?

I wonder if simply being what we all really are, right here, right now, would eradicate our perceived lack for our selves too?

Imagine! Let it be! Where have I heard those words of wisdom before :-)

Enlightenment comes with Inner Peace

The Ancient Sages wisely taught us that you cannot see the true and clear reflection of the moon at night in a lake which has ripples caused by the wind.

You cannot see reality as it is unless there is perfect stillness and clarity.

So it is with the Mind. A clear (ripple free ) Mind that is not troubled by negative thoughts and delusions (winds) will become more enlightened and, ultimately, it will awaken to a picture and an experience of reality as it really is. No delusions, just as it truly is.

But the difference between the lake and the Mind is that we can train the Mind! We can discipline it, increasingly, to quieten and give rise to deeper peaceful states of stillness. With practice and diligence, our meditations will guarantee deeper and longer states of peaceful inner bliss. And this still inner bliss is within us all, all the time, awaiting our own personal discovery, awaiting our own personal experience of reality!

It's totally within. It's totally within our control. It's our choice.
And once we experience this peaceful bliss internally, we start to see and feel it in everything externally. Effortlessly. How wonderful.

Enlightenment is going far beyond knowledge

We create conventional knowledge though learnings and experiences, and that certainly helps us to manage our way through life. Yet why is it that the most carefully constructed plans, based on the best knowledge are never the case, in reality?

Our mistake is to believe that what we know is greater than what we do not know!

We need to constantly remind ourselves that our knowledge of the Universe we live in, and our knowledge of the Universe within each of us is so infinitesimal. Then we can remember to experience the naturalness of spontaneity and creativity. Then we can forget the ego for a while. Then, even miracles naturally occur.

Miracles are a part of every moment. We just don't see them enough?

Enlightenment is a moment of smiling!

Imagine you are smiling. Note how it looks and feels.

Spontaneous and natural.
A higher sense of certainty.
A connection with the Truth.
Love in action. Peace as purpose. Wisdom confirmed.

Humanity re-created in every smile!

We can all touch smiles and join the oneness of laughter .... I think?

Enlightenment is being anywhere, anytime

Enlightenment is of the Mind.

In its natural state the Mind can be anywhere, anytime.

It always was and always will be.

In an instant, the Mind can travel to the Moon.

In an instant the Mind can create. The Mind has created all that we think we are.

In an instant the Mind can make us happy or sad. It depends on what we choose.

We can choose our limiting beliefs or we can accept unlimited reality?

Enlightenment requires personal effort

The intellectual debates will always be there.

One view is that knowledge and wisdom can only be acquired through learning, experiencing and time. This is based on our senses absorbing what we see, hear, feel, touch, taste and think about the external world.

Another view is that knowledge and wisdom are within us all, or can be revealed directly, or is accessible to us all, perhaps in some universal knowledge base.

Another view is that it is not 'either/or' views at all but 'both' this and that.

My view is that we should not take other views at face value, as beliefs that we may or may not agree with, but we should make the personal effort to experience for ourselves.

Only through personal effort and personal experience can we get the 'aha' factor.

Only through personal effort and experience can we 'know' what is right, as opposed to having learned something which could be right or wrong.

You might call these 'aha's' instants of enlightenment?

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Enlightenment is reality

I share the view that all beings are enlightened.

The problem is that we do not know it.

The problem is that we are taught that we are not enlightened.

Many of us even feel guilty to even suggest that we might be enlightened.

The key is not to gradually become more enlightened as we journey through life, but to gradually, or even instantly, realise and remember who we always were and who we will always be, here and now!

Zen Masters know this well.

It's about discovering who we 'really are' and not about who we 'believe we are'.

At least I think and feel this is so?

Ron Young

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment and higher consciousness

The Ancient Sages and Yogis have taught for many years that there are several degrees, or states, of awareness leading towards a fully realised awakened and enlightened state.

They would spend years in 'forest academies' (and still do) to learn to apply spiritual disciplines that lead to these higher states of consciousness.

What a colossal gamble to take! What great trust they must have placed in their teachers!

They propose that we are all familiar with the three states of 'dreamless sleep', dreaming and being awake. They propose that we are not really fully awake but in a lower state of awareness, and that we are still in a sort of dream state. They propose that we can all discipline and train ourselves to lift our states to a fourth and higher state of mindfulness and total awareness of the true reality of the 'here and now'. They propose that we can, through meditation, reach higher states of consciousness and even receive insights and/or higher intuitions. They propose that we will enjoy more peaceful and happy states and become more loving and compassionate towards our fellow beings.

What is nice is that they ask us not to take their word for it at all. In fact, they welcome constructive doubt and challenge. Rather, they ask us to simply try and see if it 'works for you'.

Many years ago, I thought I would try. And it works for me! How about you?

Enlightenment is simple purity

The Ancient Sages formulated the tradition of simplicity and purity, ultimately giving rise to a state of Enlightenment.

Simplify and purify thoughts, feelings, words and actions.

Simplify and purify the body, mind and heart.

Maybe the very acts of purification brings us nearer to a state of simplification.

Maybe the very acts of simplification bring us nearer to a state of purification.

To simply purify sounds right as an act, and to purely simplify sounds right as a thought?

Enlightenment is neutral?

I understand the concept of transcending positive and negative, happiness and sadness etc. They are two opposite faces of one whole and we need to broaden our perspective towards the truth.

Consider the picture of the earth and the moon. Stand back and see something bigger.

Ultimately, we are told, we transcend duality to unity and then transcend unity to nothingness?

I can comprehend a contrast of One and All but nothingness and allness?

Enlightenment is realising that 'letting go' is the natural state

This morning I woke up to a day of deep snow, no electricity or telephone or heating. Quite rare for the south of france!

I realised that I could not do anything at all about this. All my plans for completing urgent work tasks on my computer immediately evaporated. I had no choice but to surrender to the greater force and just go for a drive to a cafe.

Strangely, the immediate stress and lack of control turned into a sort of bliss. I felt this state of having no choice but to let go to be quite comforting and even natural.

Maybe we become most enlightened and most positive when we just let go of trying to control everything we do and, as a result, just flow more naturally instead?

Enlightenment is realising the invisible connections are real

Enlightenment is realising the invisible connections are real

If we are all One in reality, at a higher level, perhaps in absolute terms, then we should start to realise that we are all inter-connected to such a degree that the connections are real!

It seems so difficult to me, sometimes, to try to feel the connections in everyday experience, yet in other times of love and intimacy it feels so simple, obvious and natural!

Perhaps we will only ever experience universal connectedness, as One, when we have universal love and compassion?

Enlightenment is still chopping wood and carrying water

'Before Enlightenment - chopping wood, carrying water
After Enlightenment - chopping wood, carrying water


When I first heard this saying from Zen Masters, I suddenly realised the full meaning of being 'awake'.

In a 'sleepy' deluded, ego wrapped way of thinking, we go about daily tasks, we do things, and quite often we are not even aware of them or their real significance. We are not fully aware of the reality that exists.

When we become more awake, even fully awake, to things around us in the moment of here and now, we see the same things and do the same things, but with a totally new and fresh and complete perspective. An Enlightened attitude?

'Hill outside - snow has come
Birds eating from the table
Pretty - always was? '

Enlightenment is being in a hopeless state, full of hope

I guess that if you find yourself in a totally hopeless and even desperate state, and yet in that state you have this overriding stronger sense of peace and comfort, goodwill to all, and a positive feeling that everything is working out for the best, that you may have transcended suffering?

Have you won the spiritual battle between love and fear?

Enlightenment is seeing your face before your parents were born

Zen masters describe the innate inner radiance within us as original nature or 'your face before your parents were born'.

This leads me to a sense of timelessness, a sense of infinity, and a sense of always being.

Are we One 'always being' that manifests in billions of ways, or billions of 'always being' that manifest as One or both?

Enlightenment is going beyond labels

Enlightenment is going beyond labels, good and bad!





It was Jorgen Kirkegaard, the Danish philosopher who said 'If you label me you destroy me'.

Its impossible to describe who you really are in words, and once you put a label to something, you seperate it and it loses its authentic place in the whole.

But, we need to communicate with one another somehow, and scientists need to examine the part to try to better understand the whole.

One of my labels is 'Ronald Young'. I searched for it on the web. There are several other Ron Young's in the world and that label produced, at least:

1. one of seven US troops captured by the Iraqi forces
2. a photographer
3. a dentist
4. a fugitive on the run
5. a university professor
6. a neurosurgeon
7. a real estate agent
8. director of a school board
9. a special olympics swimmer
10.a knowledge management consultant (me)

So maybe - Enlightenment is searching on the web for your own name and then quickly transcending the label?

Enlightenment is easier to understand through a 'Google' search

Enlightenment is knowing that thoughts are living things that we broadcast into the Universe -like thoughts attract like thoughts - and coincidences and synchronicity then occur.

It's easy to imagine that all your thoughts are entered into a 'Google' search and you instantly get back all like connections. I tried two searches, 'The world is a loving, compassionate and positive place' and 'The world is a fearful, cruel and negative place'.

Instant attraction from the growing global brain!

It has been said that our broadcast thoughts can also be likened to a giant universal photocopier.
Great! But I prefer the internet and search engine analogy.

I like the idea of websites and blogging to attract like minded people who find you through their similar thoughts channeled through search engines.

But I must still do something (click) to turn these thought responses into reality?

Enlightenment is freedom and abundance

Enlightenment is knowing that 'humanity as a whole' is totally abundant and it is feeling creative and free and wanting to share and enjoy this truth with all, as a result. It is knowing that creative intelligence is infinite and that we can all create more abundance for the good of the whole.

Our problem is that most of us believe in individual abundance and scarcity, and believe that we have to compete with one another for the limited, finite, scarce resources we see in the world.

Enlightenment is knowing that we are masters and co-creators of what we bring into the world and have no desire to compete for whats already there. Unconditional love is the state.

Without this knowing we are likely to believe and we feel that we are servants and even victims of a 'dog eats dog' world'. Fear is the state.

The Enlightened mind accepts - the fearful mind rejects?